DMV

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California DMV Taking Some Heat Over a License Plate

'LOLOCT7' is seen as perceived mockery of Hamas attack; owner's family says it's unrelated

(Newser) - The California Department of Motor Vehicles has apologized for an "unacceptable and disturbing" personalized truck license plate that the agency said displayed hate speech related to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. But as the AP reports, a relative of the vehicle's owner said the whole controversy was...

ACLU Sues South Dakota Over Vanity Plate Restrictions

Civil rights group has beef with state's initial rejection of man's application for 'REZWEED' plate

(Newser) - The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota announced Monday that it's suing South Dakota over a state law that restricts content on vanity plates. The ACLU said in a press release that it filed the lawsuit on behalf of Lyndon Hart, whose application for a plate that said...

California Suspends Cruise's Driverless Taxis

Robotaxis have become increasingly controversial in the state

(Newser) - After a series of incidents involving Cruise robotaxis, California has decided to halt their operation in the state effective immediately. Cruise is one of two companies (the other is Waymo, owned by Google's parent company) with driverless taxi fleets in California; the suspension order issued by the state's...

Lawsuit Over 'FCANCER' Vanity Plate to Go Forward
DMV Revoked Her Vanity
Plate. She's Fighting Back
in case you missed it
Aug 7, 2022 4:25 PM CDT

DMV Revoked Her Vanity Plate. She's Fighting Back

Federal judge rules that Kari Lynn Overington's suit on 'FCANCER' plate may proceed

(Newser) - Kari Lynn Overington was in a celebratory mood when she hit the milestone of being cancer-free for two years, so she treated herself to a new car and a vanity plate that said "FCANCER," a defiant message to the breast cancer she'd beat. The DMV issued the...

North Carolina Says No More Confederate License Plates

DMV says decision adheres to ruling in 1998 case involving Sons of Confederate Veterans

(Newser) - The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles is no longer issuing specialty license plates featuring the Confederate battle flag, according to a statement. The agency said the removal of the license plate, issued to members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization, took effect Jan. 1, the StarNews of Wilmington ...

Alaska DMV Investigating Case of '3REICH' License Plate

'FUHRER' was also recently spotted in Anchorage

(Newser) - You're stopped at a traffic light and see a vanity plate that catches your eye. That's what happened to Matt Tunseth in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday, though it may have seemed more like he was in 1940s Berlin. The plate in front of him read "3REICH,"...

Guy Wins Fight to Get 'Come On You Whites' License Plate

Department of Motor Vehicles admits soccer team slogan isn't racist in settlement

(Newser) - A California soccer fan has won in his attempt to honor his favorite soccer team with the vanity plate "COYW"—an acronym for the slogan "Come On You Whites." The state DMV initially said the tagline has offensive connotations, but on Tuesday said it would give...

Truck Driver in Biker Crash Could Get Deported

Mass. license for Volodymyr Zhukovskyy ought to have been suspended after drunk driving arrest

(Newser) - The 23-year-old truck driver charged with killing seven bikers in a horrific crash in New Hampshire shouldn't have been on the road. Ukrainian national and permanent resident Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, who police say plowed into the bikers with his Dodge 2500 pickup towing a flatbed trailer, was arrested for drunken...

DMV Worker Literally Slept on the Job for Nearly 4 Years

Auditor's report found she napped for more than 2.2K hours

(Newser) - An employee responsible for logging changes in address and vehicle ownership at the California DMV slept at least three hours a day at her desk for nearly four years—and still has a job. The woman's 2,200 hours spent napping between February 2014 and December 2017 meant she...

Man Butts Heads With DMV, Gets the Last Laugh

Nick Stafford dropped off 1,548 pounds of pennies on Wednesday

(Newser) - "If they were going to inconvenience me then I was going to inconvenience them," says Nick Stafford of employees at his local DMV, which received 298,745 unrolled pennies weighing 1,548 pounds on Wednesday. Stafford's payment came after months of butting heads with DMV workers. The...

Move Over, Pastafarians: Guy Wears Goat Horns to DMV

Pagan Phelan Moonsong wins argument with Maine that they're 'religious attire'

(Newser) - Phelan Moonsong has worn a pair of goat horns since 2009, and he's not about to take them off for you or for the Maine DMV—a religious attire argument he's recently won, reports the Washington Post . "As a practicing Pagan minister and a priest of Pan,...

Uber's Self-Driving Cars Hit SF, One Promptly Runs Red Light

But it says a driver was operating it at the time

(Newser) - Uber rolled out self-driving car service in San Francisco Wednesday and it did not go smoothly. Within hours, the California Department of Motor Vehicles ordered the company to halt the service, saying it was breaking the law because it didn't have the necessary testing permit to "operate its...

ACLU: Ala. Christian Forced to Remove Scarf for DMV Pic

Yvonne Allen says she was told only Muslims can wear head scarves

(Newser) - The ACLU filed a lawsuit this week alleging that an Alabama county clerk and her supervisor violated a Christian woman's religious freedom rights under both federal and state constitutions when they required that the woman remove her head scarf for her driver's license photo in spite of repeated...

Pastafarian Scores a Win Vs. Mass.

Yes, Lindsay Miller, you can wear a colander in your driver's license photo

(Newser) - Score another victory for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts—normally not one to allow head coverings in driver's license photos—has made an exception for one Lindsay Miller and the colander she likes to wear as a hat. As the AP notes, Miller...

Details Emerge on Apple's Secret Car Project

But will it be driver-less?

(Newser) - Talk about a product leak: Apple is building its own electric car that's set to ship in 2019, unnamed sources tell the Wall Street Journal . Details are slim, but the project, dubbed Project Titan, will expand its team of 600 people by another 1,200 to get it out...

Pastafarian Wears Colander as Hat in DMV Photo

Oklahoma atheist says it symbolizes religious freedom

(Newser) - America is the land of the free, the kind of country where you can wear a colander on your head and call it religious headgear. That's not a joke—there has been a Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster since 2005, and Oklahoma's Shawna Hammond is a practitioner...

Teen Sues to Retake DMV Photo With Makeup

Chase Culpepper wears makeup and women's clothing

(Newser) - A 16-year-old in South Carolina wants a driver's license photo redo—but not to look better. Chase Culpepper, who describes himself as "gender nonconforming," says he wears makeup and women's clothing and jewelry every day, and that when he was forced to take off the makeup...

17 Stories