Minnesota drivers license renumbering - new Identy protection features?

Thanks go out to Marit, who forwarded on this info. I knew that MN was redesigning the drivers license, but I didn't know they were renumbering them.

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Two bits of info: Minnesota is changing the driver's license number format and cautions people NOT to have their license number printed on their checks.

Is anybody out there on the verge of reordering checks? (Checks. You know, those rectangular paper things you sometimes use instead of a credit card?)

The spouse got a new Minnesota State driver's license a couple of weeks ago. It came in the mail, he glanced at it, noted a new color combination and put it in his wallet. Flash forward to the other evening: he wrote a check at a restaurant and was asked for a photo ID. The clerk informed him they wouldn't accept his check because the driver's license number printed on the check didn't match the number on the license.

(dramatic pause) "Huh?!"

Sure enough, the number is totally different than it used to be.

I went to the Driver and Vehicle Services website http://www.dps.state.mn.us/dvs/index.html and did some research.

Minnesota is now using a random sequence numbering system to help prevent identity theft. Your name is no longer coded into your driver's license number. Read all about it here.

This new feature was rolled out last December, but I don't remember hearing a darn thing about it. I was still feeling a tad huffy at the thought of the spouse having to pay to have new checks printed and having to explain the situation to every slack-jawed clerk until the new checks arrived, so I called Kristine Chapin, a woman with the bad luck to have her office phone number listed at the top of the DVS press release. She should be lauded as a state employee who actually answers her phone; we had a lovely chat about why no one (retail clerks, banks, the public) seems to be aware of the change and what she might be able to do, being in the communications department, to remedy this.

When we got on the subject of license numbers on checks she could not stress enough:
DO NOT HAVE YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE NUMBER PRINTED ON YOUR CHECKS.
(Many of you don't, but if you do...) Your name is coded into that (old) number and, with the right software, crooks can have a field day with this information. You are welcome to go down to the DMV and get one of the new, more secure licenses whenever you'd like- even if you aren't due for a renewal. (It will cost you $8, but if the idea of identity theft keeps you up nights, it might be worth it.)

She is considering another press release to make the public more aware of the changes and the security reasons behind them (if she can get the media interested in bothering with the story)...I told her I was going to send a mass email to get the word out and she appreciated my grass roots approach, so pass it on.

-Marit
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Desperate Times call for Desperate Housewives

For some reason, The Walt Disney Company decided to have their annual shareholders meeting in town this year. In February. This is Minnesota, folks - they ended up with a relatively balmy day, but it was still chilly.

The meeting had tight security, only slightly moderated by the presence of the disney princesses - Snow White, Jasmine, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty; and the presence of Mickey and Minnie greeting the shareholders as we filed into the auditorium.

One of the more ironic things was the connection of the introductory speech from the Chairman of the board, Senator George Mitchell, who (among other things) commented on the changes the company, the country, and the world have faced since 9/11. The CFO talked about the growing Disney presence in India and China, and the opportunities presented to companies like Disney in countries where there's a growing middle class with growing disposable income to spend on entertainment.

Eisner played a video highlighting some of the current successes of the ABC network as part of the entertainment empire, including the shows Deperate Housewives and Lost. I found it a wonderful touch of irony that the video's theme music was the song Vertigo from U2, which includes the lyric "It's everything I wish I didn't know."

I'm a Disney shareholder, but I rarely watch TV, because shows like Desperate Housewives indeed epitomize everything I wish I didn't know.

Disney is also doing a movie adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia, which is a wonderful thing coming of the popular success of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings - wonderful both from a financial sense if the movies do well, as there are 7 books, and wonderful in that the books deal with relatively deep issues. To balance that, there's also a new version of Herbie the Love Bug, starring (deep breath) Lindsey Lohan. At least it isn't Ashlee Simpson or Paris Hilton.

(Cue Bono, singing the words "It's everything I wish I didn't know" again...)

Minnesota Malaria

Malaria: not the disease, but the literal meaning of "bad air".

For the past few days, the twin cities have been under a nasty temperature inversion with no wind, with the result that we've had gawd-awful air quality (by Minnesota standards, at least - this is probably a normal day in Houston). It's finally getting better, but we peaked out at an AQI of 154 or so - unhealthy for all concerned. Outdoors activities are to be limited, especially by the young and old. Right now, it's more like 95, which isn't great, but it's tolerable and improving.

The girls were coughing on monday and tuesday, my eyes hurt, and Molly and I both had headaches on wednesday.

Makes you appreciate living someplace that has good air quality, at least most of the time.