Those patriotic license plates: Are they a scam?

If you ponied up to the state for one of those post-September 11 “We Will Never Forget” license plates thinking the money would go—as advertised—to scholarships for children of California residents who perished in the attacks, forget it. An AP investigation says very little of the $15 million collected has been used for that purpose, and that governors Schwarzenegger and Brown have raided most of it for deficit reduction. Some of it has also been siphoned off for stuff such as livestock disease prevention and workplace safety.