MIKE MOORE

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Nothing escapes the eye of the Clunker Cam.

There's no bored security guard continuously watching your 1987 Cutlass Supreme on his monitor, but the feds have built in precautions to prevent fraud, said Karen Aldana, a spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Dealers have to submit all kinds of paperwork to the government before they get reimbursed, she said. Even scrap yards send in forms under the rules of the program, which gives drivers a rebate of up to $4,500 when they trade in old clunkers for new rides with better mileage.

Inspectors also do spot checks to make sure everybody's complying, Aldana said. Each instance of fraud could bring a $15,000 fine and other penalties.

Businesses are allowed to sell many of the clunker parts, just not the drive train. Maybe most effectively, the Vehicle Identification Number is retired permanently.

"Those cars can't be retitled or put back on the road," Aldana said.

If anyone spots fraud in the program, they can call the U.S. Department of Transportation's hotline at (800) 424-9071 or e-mail hotline@oig.dot.gov.

I bought tickets for the Aug. 29 race at the Milwaukee Mile that was supposed to feature Matt Kenseth. How can I get a refund?

For now, fans should just hang onto their tickets, said Jim Tretow, a spokesman for Historic Mile LLC. That company is the State Fair Park board's pick to put the wheels back on the broken-down racing operation, and the staff is still getting up to speed.

Kenseth, a NASCAR driver who's popular in Wisconsin because he's a cheesehead himself, had agreed to race at the Wisconsin All-Star 100 in Milwaukee. After the Mile's promotional firm crashed, Kenseth took a left turn and signed on to race in Madison that day.

The new promoters could decide to apply those ticket values toward another race, but Tretow said only minor events are scheduled at the track the rest of this year.

Cherry picking update

After it appeared a reader had struck out until next summer in his search for a local sour-cherry-picking operation, Tracy Dunn called in with a surprise.

She's got a cherry tree by her south-side Racine home and is willing to let a few people come and pick some while they're ripe. She did some weeding around it and said it's beginning to rebound from the sad state she found it in.

Dunn asked people to call her at (262) 632-3843.

Mike Moore compiles the Glad You Asked column. Call us at (262) 631-1758 or e-mail:

ask@journaltimes.com