RMV
Finns have a better shot at a Massachusetts driver's license than Somalis
By adamg - 9/19/11 - 6:49 amThe Globe reports the RMV is moving to suspend the licenses of immigrants who flew to Arizona to get driver's licenses because that state lets applicants take an interpreter with them into the written test, while we don't.
Yeah, get that outrage out now about the lowlifes from overseas endangering all us excellent native drivers. What the Globe doesn't mention until the 13th paragraph, however, is that Massachusetts offers its written test in 26 languages - but many of those are languages of immigrants in, oh, the 1940s:
Advocates say that while the state does offer the driving test in many languages, the options are out of date - featuring Finnish and Hungarian, but not the languages of Somali Bantus or other recent refugees. The list needs to be expanded, they say.
Feds charge teen with butt crack sold drugs out of RMV men's room
By adamg - 7/25/11 - 4:41 pmCrime Boston has details of an 18-year-old indicted in federal court on charges he sold crack cocaine and heroin - which he allegedly stored in bags clenched in his buttocks - in the men's room at the Chinatown Registry of Motor Vehicles.
Court rules you can't be pulled over for putting tape over the motto on your license plates
By adamg - 3/2/11 - 11:10 amThe Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today some evidence against a man charged with driving down I-93 while drunk and with a cracked windshield can't be used against him because he was initially pulled over for having black tape over "Spirit of America" on his license plate.
RMV apparently slips one past us unsuspecting car owners
By roadman - 7/24/10 - 11:59 amGot my car inspected earlier today. As it is model year 1999, I was only expecting the safety check. Therefore, in reading the inspection report, I was suprised to learn they had also done an emissions check as well (BTW, the car passed both safety and emissions fine)
Just checked out the MassRMV "Vehicle Check" inspections page and come to find out that, sure enough, the old "safety every year, emissions every other year" inspection system has been eliminated. So both safety and emissions checks are now required at every inspection cycle.
Now, did I somehow miss prior announcements about this change, or is this indeeed something the RMV had slipped under the radar when nobody was watching?
Registry of Motor Vehicles doesn't really get this online transaction thing
By adamg - 6/26/10 - 10:56 amDan Kennedy reports:
... I paid up online. I got an e-mail confirming that I paid. Yet now I have to call the Registry just to make really, really sure. ...
Patrick to RMV: Tear down that fee
By adamg - 3/2/10 - 10:51 amWord comes from Patrick aide-de-camp Doug Rubin that Gov. Patrick has told the RMV to rescind that $5 fee for talking to a live person, and find other ways to get people to interact with the registry online rather than in person.
Maybe for $5, the RMV clerks will pretend to be human
By adamg - 3/1/10 - 3:55 pmMike Mennonno flunked the written part of his driver's test today, but that's not what got him grumpy at the Chinatown RMV.
Ya know, those IT guys come in handy sometimes
By adamg - 12/11/09 - 12:52 pmDvsjr was at a Registry office today when he sprang into action. He tweets:
Battery backup at the registry starts screeching. I'm in line, go up to the counter, "its ok maam Im an IT guy" reset the fuse. Clapping.
Violating the Spirit of America at the RMV, specifically, the Spirit of the First Amendment
By adamg - 10/17/09 - 6:33 pmSomebody's Daughter and Somebody's Teacher reports her car almost failed inspection today - not because her lights or brakes or horn don't work, but because her license-plate cover obscured part of the vitally important "Spirit of America" slogan at the bottom. Sure enough, the Registry informs us of the vital importance of not covering up this vitally important part of the license plate:
Registry resumes notifying drivers of expiring licenses, but you have to sign up for it
By adamg - 10/9/09 - 8:41 amAnd it's only electronic - no more paper notifications.
