News
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A Rare 1953 Beetle’s Glovebox Held Film Negatives That Led to an Essex Street. Who’s in Them?
In 1975, Dave Pragnell found what he called “crumpled negatives of colour film” in the glovebox of a yellow 1953 Beetle. A few frames of somebody else’s afternoon, left to crumple in the dark. Fifty-one years later, the car and the photos have reached Julian Robinson, and he wants to find the people in them.…
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A Single Weekend of ‘Bay to LA’ Takeovers Netted 22 LASD Arrests, More Than the 20 in All of Q1 2026
Twenty-two arrests in one weekend. The Sheriff’s Department logged 20 in all of Q1. Before you read much into that, note that we haven’t seen how each count was kept. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies made them at street takeover events in Carson, Compton, Lynwood, Commerce, Lakewood and unincorporated parts of the county, MyNewsLA reported…
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Stocks Plunge on an AI Selloff and Tesla Falls More Than 8%. What It Means for Car Buyers and Automakers
Stocks sold off sharply Thursday as AI and chip stocks led Wall Street lower and erased the post-election rally. Intraday, the Nasdaq fell about 5%, the S&P 500 roughly 3% to 4% and the Dow more than 1,100 points, according to Yahoo Finance and Bloomberg. Tesla opened down more than 8%. The auto industry was…
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Scout’s Dealer Fight Takes 2 Hits: Tennessee Denies Its Direct-Sales License, and a California Judge Won’t End VW’s Case
Scout Motors’ central legal position is that it is an independent startup that happens to have a German parent. That argument lost twice in one week. Tennessee says no Scout applied for a dealer license in Tennessee in March. The application went through Scout Motor Sales, LLC, the in-house retail arm it would use to…
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Ford’s Tailgate Outlets Run From 400 to 7,200 Watts, and a 535-Watt Traeger Grill Already Outdraws the Low End
The best tailgating trucks start with watts: a 535-watt Traeger grill outdraws a 400-watt truck outlet. How the F-150, Ridgeline, Tundra and Tahoe compare.
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A Korean Consumer Group Wants Tesla Probed Over 9-Million-Won FSD Sold to Shanghai-Built Cars That Legally Can’t Use It
Paying 9,043,000 won for software is one thing. Paying it for software your car is legally barred from running is worse. In South Korea, nearly every new Tesla buyer from last year falls into that second group, and Tesla’s own numbers say so. Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty, a Seoul advocacy group that has gone…
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Four Starbucks Sizes, One Cupholder: A 55-Year Engineering Problem
Patents from 1971 to 1996 show engineers fighting the same dirt and spill problems while Starbucks sells drinks from 12 to 30 ounces.
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Gas Is Up 35% From a Year Ago, and Driving Home for Thanksgiving Still Beats Flying for a Family of Four
At $4.12 gas, a 1,200-mile Thanksgiving drive costs a family of four a fraction of four average domestic airline tickets. Solo travelers are another story.
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Ottawa Police Say a 26-Year-Old Hit 132 km/h in a 70 Zone on Bank Street, Then His Mother’s Car Got Impounded for 14 Days
Ottawa police say a 26-year-old drove 132 km/h in a 70 zone. Under Ontario’s stunt driving rules, his mother’s car was impounded for 14 days.
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Two Federal Judges Ruled on Flock 3 Weeks Apart. One Says Eight Photos Aren’t a Search, but a Month of Tracking Is
Is a police search of a license plate reader database a Fourth Amendment “search”? Two federal district judges answered that question differently within three weeks of each other, and an appeals court has yet to weigh in. Neither ruling is binding precedent. California, Sept. 10: eight photos, not a search In United States v. Riley,…
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NHTSA Floats Cyan Lights for Self-Driving Cars and Drops Manual-Control Rules for Robotaxis With No Steering Wheel
FMVSS 108 is the federal standard that dictates every lamp, reflector and blinker on a new car. It was written for vehicles with a human holding the wheel. NHTSA now wants to revise it for cars where no human is driving at all. The agency has published a notice of proposed rulemaking, scheduled for the…
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A Minnesota City Canceled Flock, Got No Reply and Had Its Police Chief Unplug the Cameras. Dayton Says Flock Put Two Back Up Anyway
Canceling a Flock Safety contract and getting the cameras taken down turn out to be two different things. Three cities, in Minnesota and Tennessee, have described the gap in recent weeks, according to local reporting and city statements. Plymouth, Minnesota: the chief pulled the plugs Plymouth’s City Council voted at its Sept. 22 meeting to…
