Legal

Remember California's "Cool Cars" regulation? Coming into force in 2012, the rule requires manufacturers to install windows that prevent 45% of the sun's energy from entering a vehicle by 2014, and 60% by 2016. It's the law that no one thinks is cool at all. In a minor victory against The Golden State's increasingly severe environmental regulations (and we live there and love it, but still...), the soft-top Jeep Wrangler has reportedly been given an exemption.

It's hard to believe, but cab drivers in New York City are prohibited by law from talking on cell phones, with or without headsets. That doesn't seem to stop them, says the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission. Citing phone-related accident statistics, the commission is now proposing more stringent rules that would raise fines and even keep cabbies from using hands-free devices to chat. "We've tried everything else; there's no other way we can make this work," says Matthew W. Daus, the taxi commissioner.

Kruse International, the four-decade-old, Indiana-based auction house that's moved cars like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, is having a rough time of it. According to the Journal Gazette, lawsuits and actions have been brought against it by states, buyers and sellers - just about every entity an auction business is involved with. It isn't the first time founder Dean Kruse and his company have been in trouble, and Kruse says it's been worse before.

As always, it ain't the crime, it's the cover-up. In what looks to be Congress protecting its turf, a planned study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on driver distraction - specifically, drivers using cell phones - was put on hold. The reason, according to The New York Times, was allegedly a fear of upsetting the Capitol body. The reason, according to an ex-head of NHTSA, was "to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who had warned the agency to stick to its mission of gathering safety data but not to lobby states."

When it came to buying Opel, Fiat's Sergio Marchionne told GM and the German government: "If you have a better offer, take it." They both took Magna, along with its Russian partners Sberbank and GAZ, because that consortium offered a better competitive arrangement and fewer job cuts in Germany. The deal wasn't slated to be finished until September, but it's encountered a few pockets of serious turbulence.

A story in the New York Times shines a light on some reasons for the Committee of Chrysler Affected Dealers to challenge the car company's bankruptcy efforts. The element common to all of the dealers profiled is that they did extraordinary things Chrysler asked them to do, such as buy too many cars and combine franchises at their own expense, only to find out they had been chosen for termination after bankruptcy.

History could eventually reveal that Chrysler declaring bankruptcy may have just been the easy part. According to CNN, affidavits taken from Chrysler engineers and executives do a pretty good job of showing that things will get really tough when it's time for the automaker to start making cars again, the theme being that downtime will prove even more costly than running time.

According to the UK Telegraph, Britain's government is no longer willing to let those who have illegal drugs in their system slip through any more checkpoints. It has let the Department of Transportation know that it is looking at creating a new law that would ensnare anyone with illegal drugs in their systems, as well as those whose driving is impaired by using legal, medicinal drugs such as sleeping pills.

A British company makes a "drugalyzer" that can detect amphetamines, cocaine, opiates, cannabis and methadone in a saliva sample. That machine is already in use in police stations, but a field unit would need to be approved by Britain's Home Office.

There was a minority group of some 20 Chrysler lenders that were fighting the repayment arrangements Chrysler was trying to make before Chrysler declared bankruptcy. Led by Oppenheimer and Stairway Capital, they were owed $2.9 billion and didn't feel they were getting all they could. After Chrysler declared bankruptcy the group continued to fight the repayment arrangements, saying they were owed more remuneration as holders of secured debt.

If you LVTOFU, the ACLU might go to bat for your right to let the world know you love tofu. A Colorado woman was recently turned down by the state's DMV when she wanted a plate reading "ILVTOFU." The Department of Revenue said the letters "FU" are a banned combination, and cited a statute that allows rejections if plates are "offensive to the general public" or "offensive to good taste and decency." If loving tofu is wrong, we don't want to be right...