Vincent Feli Boy’s Blog

In a work bay at the Washington State Patrol’s Bellevue office Thursday morning, Chris Siler pointed out the telltale signs of trouble with the red Volkswagen he was examining. A vehicle identification number on the door frame was filed away, and bonding material was slathered over the portion of the engine compartment that should have also displayed the vehicle’s ID number, or VIN. To Siler, a VIN officer for the State Patrol, it was a sign the seller was trying to hide the vehicle’s history.

As it turned out, the vehicle that a young Mercer Island man bought through a Craigslist ad for $2,000 wasn’t the 1989 Volkswagen he thought he was getting. It was a salvaged vehicle that included the front end from an older, 1987 model welded onto it. “I see them all the time,” Siler said of these patched cars. The troopers call it curbstoning – selling salvaged vehicles as a private party to another private party without revealing the vehicle’s true history. “A lot of the stuff they’re putting out for sale isn’t safe,” State Patrol Sgt. Luke Zebley said.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The California Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriages on Thursday in a major victory for gay rights advocates that will allow homosexual couples to marry in the most populous U.S. state. The court found that California laws limiting marriage to heterosexual couples are at odds with rights guaranteed by the state’s constitution.

Opponents of gay marriage vowed to contest the ruling with a statewide ballot measure. Massachusetts is now the only U.S. state to allow gay marriage. Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont permit same-sex civil unions that grant largely the same state rights as married couples but lack the full, federal legal protections of marriage.

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What did Hillary Clinton win Tuesday? Simply the right to keep on fighting for the Democratic nomination. The senator from New York won three of four March 4 primaries, including two big wins in Ohio and Texas - must wins for her. As soon as the networks had called the Ohio race, but before the final result in Texas was known, Clinton appeared before a screaming crowd of supporters in Columbus.

She didn’t call herself the comeback kid, but the message was clear. “For everyone here in Ohio and across America who ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out, and for everyone who has stumbled, but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you,” Clinton said. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois won Tuesday’s primary in Vermont (and continues to hold a lead in the overall race for convention delegates).

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If roads are declared impassable, the tournament could be moved to Sunday if any semifinal games still need to played. Ohio State’s men’s basketball team hosts Michigan State at noon Sunday. The earliest the girls could take the court Sunday would be 6 p.m. Goldring said that if the state games need to be postponed, they likely would remain at their same starting times for Monday.

“This evening we are at the liberty of who makes the call for a snow emergency in the county government,” Goldring said.

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