Last year, state officials notified nearly 10,000 holders of license plates with the letter combination "WTF" that they could get a replacement at no charge after officials learned that the combination is a common acronym in text messaging for a vulgar phrase, "What the ..."

But while tracking down the errant plates, no one at the Division of Motor Vehicles checked their own Web site. "WTF-5505" is shown as a sample of a personalized plate, Dan Kane reports.

"I can't believe it," DMV Commissioner Bill Gore said Monday when alerted to the situation. "Obviously, I didn't know it was there."

Other DMV officials indicated they noticed the plate last week, several days after The News & Observer first reported on the problems with the WTF plates. The DMV is trying to remove the plate from the Web site and hopes to have it replaced in a day or so.

WTF was the first random letter combination available when DMV switched from blue- to red-lettered plates. DMV spokeswoman Marge Howell received a sample plate WTF-5506 to use as a prop for news stories about the switch.

No one made the connection.

"If you are not looking for something you usually don't see it," Howell said.

The DMV was alerted to the vulgar message last July when a 60-year-old technology teacher from Fayetteville complained about the plate. Her teenage grandchildren clued her in.

The man hired for a state emissions specialist job that prompted an SBI investigation into the Division of Motor Vehicles has put in his two-week notice.

James Burgess, a former purchasing clerk for Progress Energy, won the DMV job last year over a State Highway Patrol mechanic who has been training mechanics to do emissions inspections for roughly a decade, reports Dan Kane. Burgess is a childhood friend of the director who oversees the emissions program, John Robinson.

DMV spokeswoman Marge Howell said Burgess resigned today. She did not know why, and said if she did, she couldn't provide it because the state's personnel law prohibits the release of that information.

DMV Commissioner Bill Gore said earlier this morning that Burgess is an employee in good standing. Gore said he was unaware of any improper conduct on Burgess's part regarding his winning the emissions job.

The folks who oversee emissions specialists and auditors in state Division of Motor Vehicles district offices across the state saw their duties increase last month after questions arose about the workloads of those employees.

A new directive from Gordon Zeigler, an assistant DMV director, requires the district supervisors and assistant supervisors in the License and Theft Bureau offices to ride with an emissions inspector and specialist at least one day a month, Dan Kane reports.

The supervisors also were required to attend a day-long class about the emissions program on Oct. 24.

Emissions specialists audit inspection stations to make sure they are following state regulations. The inspectors investigate stations that may be violating the law.

The changes come after DMV officials admitted recently that the emissions specialists lacked a full workload.

More after the jump.

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