A newly released Oakland Police Department report shows the city's Flock Safety license plate reader camera network generated 1,099,837 hotlist alerts during 2025, with more than 620,000 of those flagging stolen plates (carscoops.com). The volume was so overwhelming that the department, lacking the staffing and resources to respond, simply switched off the stolen vehicle and plate alerts entirely. Critics have noted the totals can be misleading, since a single stolen vehicle may trip multiple alerts as it passes numerous cameras over days or weeks (carscoops.com).

The outcome directly undercuts the central marketing pitch behind these systems — that they allow understaffed police agencies to do more with less — a claim promoted by departments, elected officials, and Flock Safety itself (yahoo.com). For Oakland residents, the uncomfortable bottom line is a city that blanketed its streets with surveillance infrastructure, generated over a million alerts, and still could not keep pace with its stolen car problem (yahoo.com).

On May 30, Larimer County deputies in northern Colorado clocked a blacked-out Ford sedan doing roughly 130 mph on Interstate 25 — nearly double the posted 75 mph limit — and launched a high-speed pursuit (carscoops.com). After the stop, authorities arrested driver Gregg Barclay and passenger David Bandler, discovering radar detectors and jammers, a device to obscure the license plate, and binoculars for spotting police. Barclay is a known figure in the Cannonball Run community who previously appeared on the YouTube channel VinWiki, where he openly discussed modifying a Ford Taurus SHO for cross-country speed runs (autoblog.com).

Deputies also found amphetamines inside the vehicle, and Bandler was charged for actively assisting in evading law enforcement (denverpost.com). Whether the stop interrupted an actual coast-to-coast Cannonball attempt or merely a high-speed shakedown run remains unclear, since I-25 runs north-south rather than across the country (carscoops.com).

Dodge is officially returning to Europe for the first time since 2011, bringing both the electric Charger Daytona and gasoline Charger Sixpack with first deliveries expected in September 2026 (europefocus.eu). The timing is hard to ignore: Dodge moved just 7,421 Charger Daytonas in all of 2025, and Q1 2026 brought only 1,672 gas-powered Charger sales and a mere 240 electric units (autoblog.com) (autoguide.com). Overall Dodge sales collapsed by nearly 50% in the first half of 2025 after the brand killed the beloved V8-powered Charger and Challenger (moparinsiders.com).

The European gamble rests on the theory that no one on the continent offers anything resembling the Charger's muscle-car formula, and Europe's stronger EV appetite could give the Daytona a warmer reception than it got stateside (insideevs.com). Dodge's CEO has attributed domestic weakness partly to insufficient dealer inventory rather than a demand problem, though the electric Daytona now costs $12,500 more than last year's model — hardly the recipe for a turnaround at home. Whether Europe bites or balks, this is a brand swinging for the fences with very little margin for error.

Despite the rise of powerful turbocharged gas engines and the first wave of electric trucks, diesel pickups remain the undisputed choice for serious towing. Modern three-quarter- and one-ton diesels deliver 800 to 1,000 lb-ft of torque and can haul north of 20,000 pounds while returning better fuel economy under load than their gas counterparts (todaynews.co.uk). The secret is compression ignition itself: ratios of 16:1 to 20:1 heat intake air above 1,000°F, igniting fuel without spark plugs and extracting more torque per revolution from a simpler, more durable ignition system (dieselarmy.com).

The real-world math backs it up. A diesel truck towing a heavy trailer typically manages 10–14 MPG versus 7–10 MPG for a comparable gas rig, and lower operating RPMs mean less internal friction and wear over hard miles (bullstrap.com). Turbocharged gas engines like the Ford EcoBoost have closed the gap for lighter loads, but once trailer weight climbs, diesel's thermodynamic edge remains decisive. If you're not towing regularly, the diesel premium rarely pays for itself — but for dedicated haulers, compression ignition is still king.