​The state of Florida on Wednesday unveiled a new design for the Tampa Bay Lightning specialty license plate. The  'Lightning blue' with no name of the team is available in state tax collector and tag agency offices and online by clicking here..

A U.S. judge ruled a soccer fan can sue the California Department of Motor Vehicles and claim it violated his freedom of speech by rejecting his request for a personalized license plate. Jonathan Kotler, a devoted fan of Britain’s Fulham Football Club, sued the CADMV after it refused to issue him a license plate lettered “COYW,” short for “Come On You Whites” - Fulham fans’ regular chant for their white-jerseyed players.
The DMV told Kotler the lettering has “connotations offensive to good taste and decency.”
U.S. District Judge George Wu in Los Angeles refused to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Kotler, a University of Southern California journalism law professor.
California sought the dismissal, saying all vehicle license plates constitute speech by the government. Wu disagreed.
With thousands of differently lettered plates issued each year, “it strains believability to argue that viewers perceive the government as speaking through personalized vanity plates,” the judge said about the DMV’s contention.
DMV regulations define “offensive” plates as including those with any sexual connotation, as well as any term that is vulgar, racist, profane, insulting or degrading.
Wu noted in his ruling that British media refer to the Fulham club as “the Whites” while Chelsea, another London soccer club, is known as “the Blues,” for the color of its jerseys. New Zealand’s national rugby team is the “All Blacks.”
In court filings, state lawyers argued that the public knows the DMV approves messages on license plates and would assume that those messages came from the state.
The DMV declined to comment on Wu’s ruling.

​Representative Mike Beltran, who represents part of Hillsborough County recently stated: "We need to change the law,” and he is pledging to take action in the next legislative session to keep Florida citizens data safe after seeing a recent news report from ABC in Tampa Bay, which uncovered that an intellectually disabled woman was deluged with marketing materials after signing up for a Florida ID card.
“Other people don't need to know how you're living,” said Tonia Batson.
She recently moved to Florida from a group home in Idaho, so her sister Sonia Arvin could serve as her legal guardian. Batson has no digital footprint, since she can’t read or write. When asked who had her personal information in Florida, Arvin said, “The only one that had it was the DMV.”
The investigation allegedly uncovered that FLHSMV has agreements to sell batch driver and ID card holder data to 30 private companies, for as little as a penny a record.
The companies use Florida’s Sunshine Law to obtain the data, since driver’s licenses and ID cards are considered public records.
Federal law and state DMV policies prevent that information from being used for marketing purposes, but vendors that have agreements with the state include data brokers and direct marketing firms.
“If a marketing firm is buying the information then you obviously know they're using the information for marketing, which is not the purpose of the Sunshine Law,” said Rep. Beltran.
Since 2017, the state has revoked agreements with three companies, who they discovered misused data.
The state is now investigating whether Tonia’s information ended up in the wrong hands.
“Next session, I'm definitely gonna be passing some sort of bill on privacy,” said Beltran. “The purpose of these laws is not to allow some commercial entity to send you marketing literature.”

Thanks to accessible, low-cost spay/neuter, along with stricter animal protection laws, humane education and pet stores, the national euthanasia of animals has dropped to just over 2 million annually today from more than 20 million in 1985.
In 1985, animal shelters across the United States were being forced to euthanize well over 20 million dogs and cats per year. Over the years, low-cost sterilization services provided through animal shelters have become the norm. Thanks to accessible, low-cost spay/neuter, along with stricter animal protection laws, humane education and pet stores like PetsMart, Petco and PetSupermarket helping homeless animals rather than selling puppy mill dogs, the national euthanasia of animals has dropped to just over 2 million annually today.
The fact that dog and cat euthanasia have dropped to less than 10% of what they were 35 years ago is quite startling.
In 2006, an organization called Florida Animal Friend partnered with the state of Florida to create a spay and neuter specialty license plate. The plate features a dog and cat with the message “Spay & Neuter.” The plate was updated in 2016 to a new design of a dog and cat with a beach in the background - the proceeds for these plates go to spay and neuter programs throughout the state of Florida.
The plates also send a message to all who see them and the earnings are used as grant money for deserving shelters that apply and are awarded a piece of the proceeds.
This year, Flagler Humane Society was the recipient of their fourth Florida Animal Friend grant. Over $580,000 will be distributed between 32 organizations, the largest amount ever, thanks to those who purchased the newly designed plates.

​According to the latest-available employment data by Johns Hopkins University researchers, for the first time ever, the nonprofit world’s work force is larger than the manufacturing industry work force. Nonprofits had an estimated 12,488,563 workers on their payrolls in 2017, manufacturing companies had 12,456,203 workers. The data in the study includes all workers — full-time, part-time, and contractors.
Hotels, restaurants, and other entities that involve providing lodging or food services have a larger labor pool than nonprofits, at 13.7 million workers, and employees at retail stores number 15.9 million. According to the study, nonprofit workers now account for about 10.2% of the United States national work force, easily exceeding other industries such as construction (7.1 million) and finance and insurance (5.9 million). 
The nonprofit world has been growing faster than the for-profit work force for several years. The nonprofit world’s overtaking of manufacturing is also partly the result of a slow-growing manufacturing industry.  From 2016 to 2017, the number of nonprofit workers increased by almost 2 percent, while the number of employees in the business world increased by 1.5 percent. Another nuance of the study showed that rural areas have higher nonprofit shares of employment than do the smaller urban or metropolitan areas. In smaller metropolitan areas, nonprofit workers account for about 7% of the work force. In rural areas, they account for 8.7%.
However, in a separate study, the repercussions of low pay within the nonprofits themselves, create high turnover and difficulties in hiring employees from diverse backgrounds to carry out their missions. Some nonprofits are taking steps to offer better pay and benefits, sabbaticals, and professional development for all workers, not just senior leaders. But only thirteen people of color and 29 women head the nation’s 100 biggest nonprofits — and all the rest are led by white men, according to an exclusive analysis conducted by Michael Theis for the Chronicle of Philanthropy. 

​Missourians have options when it comes to specialty license plates. A new "Back the Blue" plate authorized by legislation earlier this month adds to the nearly 200 designs already listed in the Department of Revenue's repertoire. Missourians will get their first opportunity to see the new Back the Blue license plate at a special unveiling ceremony scheduled for Tuesday, September 10 on the State Capitol grounds. State Rep. Sara Walsh, who sponsored the Back the Blue bill (HB 898), said the unveiling ceremony is scheduled to take place at the Missouri Law Enforcement Memorial, which is located on the river side of the Capitol. Some, like those denoting military veterans, firefighters, and people with disabilities, are only available to qualifying Missourians. But dozens are available now to anyone with the money for a donation and the Department of Revenue's fee.
With a $25 annual donation and a $15 annual department fee, a Missouri State grad or fan can show their school spirit, for example. Fans of Wilson's Creek National Battlefield can get a plate denoting their support for preserving Springfield's place in Civil War history for the same price. Some of these plates are more popular than others, though.
Here are the top 10 available solely with a donation and/or fee, according to the Department of Revenue:

​1. Children's Trust Fund  (6,682), donations support the state's efforts to prevent child abuse throughout Missouri.

​2. University of Missouri-Columbia (2,406 plates), help "provide precious scholarship funds for deserving students."

​3. God Bless America (1,614) available via a donation to the World War I Memorial Trust Fund that the Department of Revenue collects.

​4. St. Louis Cardinals (1,526) Cardinal plates easily beat out the Royals' 582, the Blues' 441, and the Chiefs' 226.

​5. Conservation Heritage Foundation (Deer) (1.023) The Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation, which defines its mission as advancing "the conservation and appreciation of forest, fish and wildlife resources," boasts multiple popular plates with drawings of various wildlife, the deer plate is the fan favorite and comes in fifth. 

​Don’t Tread on Me (6th with 954), Breast Cancer Awareness (7th with 892), Bluebird (8th with 852), I’m Pet Friendly (9th with 764) and Kansas City Royals round off 10th place with 582 plates.