Shop

The San Jose Mercury News reports that in California, a driver who gets a traffic ticket usually works it off at traffic school. The Mercury News investigation found that requirement meant something far different in Santa Clara County than anywhere else in the state. It meanst the driver got ripped off by the holder of the county's unusual traffic school monopoly contract, the National Traffic Safety Institute. NTSI charged $33 for its daylong class, about $7 more than the going rate in surrounding counties. NTSI's profits under its Santa Clara County contract were supposedly capped, but the company hid profits by shifting income to other businesses controlled by its president. (April 23, 1995)