Early this Monday morning,  driving my daughter to school, at a distance ahead, I caught sight of a large white van double-parked with its emergency flashers on.

We slowed down as we approached to see a husky figure in a bright colored safety vest pulling himself up and into a white van after placing some papers on the windshield.

It was a Dept. of Revenue van and the gentleman had just left a Happy Monday present for some poor soul.

A big metal yellow Denver boot!

What could make a cold, overcast grey Monday morning in dreary February any more awesome than a boot on your car?

Maybe a big snowstorm coming our way will cheer the driver up?

Then again, maybe not.

Perhaps one's only consulation is, it's always better to be driving behind a DOR boot van than parked in front of it.

Many I-Pass transponders are passing to the great beyond according to Daily Herald reporter Marni Pyke.

In Pyke's recent In Transit column, she reports that an estimated 200,000 I-Pass units went dead in 2009 and more expected to kick the bucket in the near future. The Toll Authority thinks over 1.2 million units will go bye-bye in 2013.

It seems I-Pass units have only an 8 and half year life expectancy before the battery goes dead. The Illinois Toll Authority is going to start sending letters to drivers who first got their I-Pass in the late '90s to warn them of the issue and give them a chance to exchange it for a new unit at either Jewel or a Tollway Oasis customer service center or at an Tollway Authority office.

If they don't hear back from you, your unit may be deactivated.

The good news is, even though your unit may be dead, if your account is still active, the Toll Authority uses photos of your plate when it goes through tolls to debit your account. So it's not like you're getting fined because your unit is pushing up daisies.

Pyke suggests the next time you go through a toll, check the blue and yellow status lights. If they don't light up, your unit may be DOA.

Here's Pyke's full column, "Tollway transponders in your vehicles don't last forever."

Thanks to Barnet for the tip.

Some say it's Parking Purgatory.

Others just call it Hell.

Either name seems a fitting description after experiencing any of Chicago's four auto pounds first hand.

Any time a vehicle gets towed by the city, the auto pound is where it will eventually end up. And this is where you will show up with $160 or more in cash or credit card to get your beloved vehicle returned.

Between the long lines, the often rude people who impossibly are given the title of  "customer service representative," and the irate and frustrated vehicle owners on the verge of nervous breakdown or violent outburst, it is hard to think of a more dark and evil place in all of Chicago.

But despite the terrible alleged "customer service," and a slew of controversy which has surrounded the auto pounds for the past 20 years, United Road Towing has just been awarded this $31.5 million dollar management contract again according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Only one other company bid for the business. But, according to the Department of Procurement Services, it didn't have the same number of tow trucks available (United has 97) or the personnel in place to handle the contract.

The Sun-Times article says the contract calls for:

"...the company to manage and secure four Streets and Sanitation auto pounds, release Denver boots, tow abandoned vehicles within 24 hours of written notification and tow illegally parked vehicles within 90 minutes of city requests."

Read Fran Spielman's full story, "City awards clout-heavy firm towing contract, again"

In the meantime, if your car ever gets towed by the city, here's a reference listing of all of Chicago's auto

UPDATE: As usual, Ms. Zekman comes through with some good reporting.

Here piece essentially explains that the city is on the hook financially to Chicago Parking Meters, LLC whenever metered street spaces get closed down for any reason for a day or longer. This could mean construction, street festivals, repaving, sewer work, whatever.

This fact is not really news to people familiar with the deal, critics of the lease or some city council members. 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack routinely beat the drums on this particular problem with the agreement.

But Zekman has come up with documents totally over $105,000 of givebacks for closed streets with meters. But expect this number to grow.

Read Zekman's piece "Lease Firm Gets Paid When Spaces Aren't Available," or see the video here.

CBS 2 investigator extraordinaire Pam Zekman is on the case with the parking meter lease deal tonight at 10 PM.

CBS 2 says, "2 Investigator Pam Zekman is digging deeper into the contract with the city's parking meter company, and guess what - the company gets paid by the city even if people can't park. How is that possible? Find out at 10."

Tantalizing. Guess what the pathetically obsessed Parking Ticket Geek will be doing at 10 PM?

Of course, watching CBS 2 News.

The Parking Ticket Geek offers up a potpourri of ticket and parking related news to keep you up informed and up to date.

Hinsdale up in arms over MLK Day parking tickets.

Some drivers who parked at downtown Hinsdale parking meters on Martin Luther King's birthday got an unpleasant surprise. 19 drivers  erroneously assumed it was a meter holiday and didn't feed their meter, according to the Bolingbrook Reporter Newspaper.

Oops!

But some residents hit with the hefty $5 ticket (that's not a typo, seriously just $5) were irate.

This includes John Eber who wrote an angry e-mail to the village.

"Shame on the village for not recognizing MLK day..." said Eber. "Even more shame for the deceptive meter practices. It would seem the village is more interested in tricking its visitors into a $5 ticket (when we could easily have paid $0.25) than encouraging them to come spend some time and money in our shops. No wonder we are struggling downtown."

Evanston moving toward cell phone driving ban

Taking a tip from Chicago's ban on driving and talking on your cell phone (without a hands free device), suburban Evanston is moving toward the same sort of ban according to the Evanston Review.

The ordinance was approved unanimously in committee and will most likely be voted on early this month by the full city council.

iPhone developer debuts NYC broken meter locator app

One crafty iPhone developer has developed an app that tells New York City drivers the locations of broken meters so they can park for free.

The NYC Broken Meter app currently provides the locations of over 1000 broken NYC parking meters. Because NYC city municipal code allows drivers to park free for up to an hour at any broken meter, this app seems to be a must for any NYC driver looking to park on the cheap.

The funny thing is the city, under freedom of information laws, had to provide this broken meter data for this application according to Gothamist.

The developer, Raviv Turner, says future versions of the software will allow drivers who locate broken meters not in the database to contribute their broken meter finds, let you "photo-tag" a meter where you received a ticket and let you report a broken meter to NYC 311.

Springfield getting more aggressive with booting

Our state capital is not going easy anymore. Springfield, IL is getting tough with the Denver boot on parking ticket scofflaws who don't pay their unpaid tickets according to the Springfield Journal-Register.

When booting was introduced in 2007, you had to have $500 in unpaid tickets. Currently it's $250, but it may drop to $100 in unpaid tickets. At this level, 1000 additional drivers become boot eligible and may bring in $170,000 in outstanding ticket revenue.

But check this out, since 2007 Springfield has only booted only 22 vehicles. That's right, just 22.

Maybe they only have a single boot for the entire city?

Wow.

Around the nation

Of course, Chicago is not the only place parking ticket enforcement is a hot button issue.

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, who started his career with the city in parking enforcement, while against extending evening hours of meter enforcement, is pushing for extending meter hours to Sundays according to SFist. The city estimates raising an additional $2-$3 million in annual revenue.

Pittsburgh booting program seeing more people surrendering their vehicles

With the recession still going full bore, some booted motorists in Pittsburgh are opting to surrender their vehicles to the city because they can't afford to pay their outstanding tickets according to the Pittsburgh Tribune. Unlike Chicago, proceeds from the auction of surrendered vehicles go toward the motorists ticket debt.

LA always has lots of stuff going on

Los Angeles, with has Chicago-sized budget deficits, is looking into all sorts of money generating ideas that are painful to the wallets of motorists.

Of course, the city seems to be moving forward with their effort to privatize their meter system ala Chicago.

But the LA is also moving toward privatizing their parking garages as well according to the LA Times.

The copy cats in LA are also moving toward a lower boot/tow threshold like Chicago. Currently in Los Angeles, five unpaid tickets or more will get you booted or towed. The city may lower that threshold to just three unpaid tickets to scare up some fast cash according to LAist.

In today's RedEye, reporter Kyra Kyles spent a day talking to drivers in the South Loop, Bronzeville, and Roseland to see how they're reacting to the new meter rates.

Kyles' article seems to come to the conclusion that many people are avoiding parking and paying the new meter rates. In one case, one man drives with his buddy into shopping neighborhoods, gets dropped off and has his friend circle the block for a few minutes while he runs into a store or two.

Other drivers are refusing to pay 25 cents to run in for a few minutes to get their half caf, double-expresso soy latte with a shot of raspberry. Others park in non-metered spots or risk tickets by parking illegally.

Despite some minor factual errors, the story, "Some Chicagoans not feeling the need to feed meters" is worth reading.

With tomorrow being election day in Illinois, it seemed prudent to post some interesting facts via the Chicago Reader about some of the parties and politicians involved in Chicago's parking meter lease deal and the controversies which ensued.

We make no apologies for the respect or the drooling praise we have for the work Mick Dumke and Ben Jorvasky do over at the Reader covering local politics.

The two writers, as part of some broader election coverage, pointed out a few interesting tidbits about the quiet effects of Chicago's parking meter lease deal on local politics.

The Reader reports employees at William Blair, the consulting company that came up with the idea for the meter lease deal, sold it to Mayor Daley and saw the deal to fruition, gave donations to a bunch of candidates locally including Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Funny thing is, AG Madigan has an open investigation into the legality of the meter lease deal. Hmmm.

The paper also reports Morgan Stanley, the main monetary muscle behind Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, has employees making donations to candidates. So does Katten Muchin Rosenman, the law firm negotiated the lease deal for the city.

The Reader also mentions Avis LaVelle, spokesperson for Chicago Parking Meters, LLC has made a bunch of contributions as well, including to, interesting enough, Ald. Leslie Hairston--one of the few City Council members voting against the lease deal.

Of course former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman has been running to secure the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate to replace Roland Burris, who temporarily filled President Obama's former Senate seat.

Hoffman is using his stint at the IGO and that office's smackdown of the meter lease deal as at least one of many reasons he feels he deserves your vote.

32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack, another opponent of the parking meter lease deal is actively supporting Hoffman. Waguespack feels Hoffman is, "working in the best interests of the people of this city as one of the few IGs to seriously take on the clout and patronage administration. The parking meter report was helpful in confirming our report and others that believed it was a serious mistake."

The alderman is also endorsing his City Council colleague Toni Preckwinkle in her bid for Cook County Board President as a Democrat. Preckwinkle joined with Waguespack as one of the only five votes against the lease deal.

Finally, another player in the lease deal controversy is making a play for statewide office. Attorney Clint Krislov, who's on the ballot as a Democrat for state comptroller according to a blog post by Dumke on Friday. Krislov is the lead attorney on the IVI-IPO lawsuit challenging the state constitutionality of the  parking meter lease deal.

Whatever your point of view on this, or any other issue, please get out and vote tomorrow.

It's your Constitutional right. Don't be a dumbass! Make sure you exercise your right to vote.

Former Indianapolis Mayor Steven Goldsmith weighs in with his thoughts on Chicago's parking meter lease deal in a piece for the ultra-wonky Governing Magazine.

Goldsmith basically feels the deal should have been a no-brainer. In his opinion the money was good, and he supports the concept of privatization. But, because of mistakes of implementation, there's been a political backlash and, according to Goldsmith, was a "cause célèbre for opponents of privatization nationwide."

His opinion piece basically rehashes the deal and the main implementation problems over the past year, but he fails to address how the Mayor jammed the deal down Chicago's throat like force feeding a duck for the purposes of producing delicious foie gras.

Read Goldsmith's full piece "Successful 'Fiasco': Chicago's Parking Meter Mishap."

Hat tip to MW, and also Lynn Stevens who writes the Peopling Places blog.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Only in Chicago.

According to a news report from NBC 5, political fliers designed to look like Chicago parking tickets and placed on the windshield of cars in the South Loop, attack Ald. Toni Preckwinkle who's running in the Democratic Primary for Cook County Board President.

On the backside of the flier Ald. Preckwinkle is called an "Aunt Jemima," and has a photo of Preckwinkle with a parking meter paybox behind her.

While the racially charged slur upset Preckwinkle, the Alderman seemed almost more bothered by being accused of something even more inflammatory--being a supporter Chicago's parking meter lease deal.

The truth is, Preckwinkle was vocally opposed to the meter lease deal, and one of only five Chicago City Council members whom voted against the $1.16 billion dollar deal.

While the news story originated on NBC 5 locally, it made its way to the NBC Nightly News on Thursday evening.