State issues first newly designed license plates

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri is issuing its newly designed license plates, complete with grammatical error and a state bird that flies south for the winter.

Motorists on Monday were issued the first of the newly designed plates that show a bluebird perched on a branch along the bottom center of the plate. The bluebird migrates south when Missouri weather turns cold.

The state said it would not correct a grammatical error on the plate -- the missing hyphen in the state's nickname, "Show-Me State."

The snafu came to light in April when The Joplin Globe quoted a Missouri Southern State University English professor as saying the rules of grammar require the hyphen.

The Missouri Department of Revenue said that the mistake wouldn't be fixed because that's how the plate looked when it won an online contest last year.

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On the Net: See the new design at http://www.dor.mo.gov