President's auto task force owns foreign cars??

FOI at Work!
The Detroit News used public records to find out whether members of the Presidential Task Force on the Audio Industry and the policy aides who will assist them own American cars. The results are pretty scary for the Detroit auto industry.

The vehicles owned by the Obama administration's auto team could reflect one reason why Detroit's Big Three automakers are in trouble: The list includes few new American cars.

Among the eight members named Friday to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and the 10 senior policy aides who will assist them in their work, two own American models. Add the Treasury Department's special adviser to the task force and the total jumps to three.

The Detroit News reviewed public records to discover what many of the task force and staff members drove, but information was not available on all of the officials, and records for some states were not complete.

More here.

Complete details on salvaged cars coming in early 2009

Determining if the vehicle you're about to purchase has been in an accident or flood isn't easy. There is no consistent nationwide reporting system, which has led to numerous cases of fraud.

According to the LA Times, the implementation of the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System will require state motor vehicle administrators, insurers and junkyards to report title information to a central database.

Sixteen years ago, Congress passed a law requiring the creation of a national database of vehicle title information that would allow consumers to determine whether a vehicle had been in a serious accident. It seemed like a great idea, but it was never implemented.

Thanks to a federal court ruling today, however, that should soon be changing.

A U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of California handed down a decision that requires the federal government to create a database of stolen cars and state, insurance and junkyard title information. Government-supplied data are to be made public by the end of January, with private industry data coming out by the end of March.

The ruling comes after years of pressure from consumer groups, which pointed out that without access to such information, motorists cannot really know whether a vehicle has been severely damaged or "totaled." That's a serious safety risk, because badly wrecked cars can be unsafe to drive even if they're repaired.

More here.

Missouri Judge Takes Dim View of Charges

According to an AP story:

A judge says he's inclined to rule that fees for getting driver's license records must follow Missouri's Sunshine Law.

Companies that buy driver's license and motor vehicle records in bulk sued to challenge a Revenue Department fee increase, alleging it violates the Sunshine Law. The department had charged a fraction of cent for bulk records but increased that to $7 starting May 1 to pay for a new computer system.

Cole County Judge Richard Callahan has already temporarily blocked the fee increase, citing the Sunshine Law's limit on how much the state can charge for copies of records.

Callahan held a hearing Friday on a permanent injunction. He said the Sunshine law seems to apply to the Revenue Department records, but he did not issue an immediate ruling.