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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

June Is Lane Courtesy Month

OFF THE WIRE
June Is Lane Courtesy Month
Two key principles of traffic safety are not understood – certainly not practiced – by much of the driving public. Some may argue that lane courtesy and proper lane merging techniques are law enforcement issues. Indeed, most states do have laws that that count the obstruction of traffic by either hanging out in the left lane or by blocking necessary merging as infractions.
The trouble is that both types of violations are difficult to enforce. And when has the issuance of more tickets truly provided a long-term solution for a traffic issue?
The NMA prefers to view lane courtesy and lane merging as educational issues. That is why for several years now, we have designated June as Lane Courtesy Month and have used the opportunity to explain the benefits of staying out of the left lane unless passing slower traffic on the right.
Here is a link to our Memorial Day press release highlighting the primary advantages of lane courtesy. Included is a link to an informative summary by the Federal Highway Administration of how best to merge with other traffic when approaching a lane closure. This NMA press release was distributed to several thousand national media outlets last week.
Our work will not be done until each and every driver understands the importance of lane courtesy and lane merging to everyday traffic flow and safety.
Please do your part by passing along the link to the NMA release to fellow motorists. Highway travelers everywhere will benefit. ♦

Had to forward this one!

Chat with Grandson

I was eating lunch with my 10 year old grandson at school when I asked him, "Did you know that President's Day is tomorrow?"
He nodded.
So I asked "Do you know what that means?"
I was waiting for something "profound", since who knows what they teach
them these days, as most civics subjects have been deemed "old fashioned",
"politically incorrect", and "non-inclusive" in most school districts.
He said,
"President's Day is when Obama steps out of the White House,
and if he sees his shadow, ........
we have 2 more years of unemployment."
I was so proud I almost snorted out my iced tea!!

In Reference to "What do Police do"

OFF THE WIRE
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/28scotus.html
 Justices Rule Police Do Not Have a Constitutional Duty to Protect Someone
 By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: June 28, 2005
WASHINGTON, June 27 - The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the police did not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm, even a woman who had obtained a court-issued protective order against a violent husband making an arrest mandatory for a violation.
Skip to next paragraph
Complete Coverage: Monday's Supreme Court Decisions
Forum: Issues Before the Supreme Court
The decision, with an opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia and dissents from Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, overturned a ruling by a federal appeals court in Colorado. The appeals court had permitted a lawsuit to proceed against a Colorado town, Castle Rock, for the failure of the police to respond to a woman's pleas for help after her estranged husband violated a protective order by kidnapping their three young daughters, whom he eventually killed.
For hours on the night of June 22, 1999, Jessica Gonzales tried to get the Castle Rock police to find and arrest her estranged husband, Simon Gonzales, who was under a court order to stay 100 yards away from the house. He had taken the children, ages 7, 9 and 10, as they played outside, and he later called his wife to tell her that he had the girls at an amusement park in Denver.
Ms. Gonzales conveyed the information to the police, but they failed to act before Mr. Gonzales arrived at the police station hours later, firing a gun, with the bodies of the girls in the back of his truck. The police killed him at the scene.
The theory of the lawsuit Ms. Gonzales filed in federal district court in Denver was that Colorado law had given her an enforceable right to protection by instructing the police, on the court order, that "you shall arrest" or issue a warrant for the arrest of a violator. She argued that the order gave her a "property interest" within the meaning of the 14th Amendment's due process guarantee, which prohibits the deprivation of property without due process.
The district court and a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit dismissed the suit, but the full appeals court reinstated it and the town appealed. The Supreme Court's precedents made the appellate ruling a challenging one for Ms. Gonzales and her lawyers to sustain.
A 1989 decision, DeShaney v. Winnebago County, held that the failure by county social service workers to protect a young boy from a beating by his father did not breach any substantive constitutional duty. By framing her case as one of process rather than substance, Ms. Gonzales and her lawyers hoped to find a way around that precedent.
But the majority on Monday saw little difference between the earlier case and this one, Castle Rock v. Gonzales, No. 04-278. Ms. Gonzales did not have a "property interest" in enforcing the restraining order, Justice Scalia said, adding that "such a right would not, of course, resemble any traditional conception of property."
Although the protective order did mandate an arrest, or an arrest warrant, in so many words, Justice Scalia said, "a well-established tradition of police discretion has long coexisted with apparently mandatory arrest statutes."
But Justices Stevens and Ginsburg, in their dissenting opinion, said "it is clear that the elimination of police discretion was integral to Colorado and its fellow states' solution to the problem of underenforcement in domestic violence cases." Colorado was one of two dozen states that, in response to increased attention to the problem of domestic violence during the 1990's, made arrest mandatory for violating protective orders.
"The court fails to come to terms with the wave of domestic violence statutes that provides the crucial context for understanding Colorado's law," the dissenting justices said.
Organizations concerned with domestic violence had watched the case closely and expressed disappointment at the outcome. Fernando LaGuarda, counsel for the National Network to End Domestic Violence, said in a statement that Congress and the states should now act to give greater protection.
In another ruling on Monday, the court rebuked the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, for having reopened a death penalty appeal, on the basis of newly discovered evidence, after the ruling had become final.
The 5-to-4 decision, Bell v. Thompson, No. 04-514, came in response to an appeal by the State of Tennessee after the Sixth Circuit removed a convicted murderer, Gregory Thompson, from the state's death row.
After his conviction and the failure of his appeals in state court, Mr. Thompson, with new lawyers, had gone to federal district court seeking a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that his initial lawyers had been constitutionally inadequate. The new lawyers obtained a consultation with a psychologist, who diagnosed Mr. Thompson as schizophrenic.
But the psychologist's report was not included in the file of the habeas corpus petition in district court, which denied the petition. It was not until the Sixth Circuit and then the Supreme Court had also denied his petition, making the case final, that the Sixth Circuit reopened the case, finding that the report was crucial evidence that should have been considered.
In overturning that ruling in an opinion by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the majority said the appeals court had abused its discretion in an "extraordinary departure from standard appellate procedures." Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Sandra Day O'Connor joined the opinion.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said the majority had relied on rules to the exclusion of justice. Judges need a "degree of discretion, thereby providing oil for the rule-based gears," he said. Justices Stevens, Ginsburg and David H. Souter joined the dissent.
More Articles in Washington

Legislation would repeal helmet law in Pennsylvania

OFF THE WIRE
A state lawmaker has reintroduced legislation restoring Pennsylvania's motorcycle helmet law.

State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, introduced legislation on May 23 that would reverse a law that went into effect in 2003. That law allows motorcycle riders 21 or older to ride without helmets if they have completed a motorcycle safety course approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation or Motorcycle Safety Foundation.

"The increase in deaths and injuries on our roads and the shattered lives of victims and their families out to be enough to admit the 2003 repeal was a mistake and we should fix it," Frankel said in a prepared statement.

Frankel cited a 2008 study by two University of Pittsburgh professors who analyzed state statistics for helmet use, head injuries and motorcycle deaths. The professors reportedly found that under the 2003 law, head injury deaths increased by 66 percent and head injury hospitalization increased 78 percent.

"Many studies have shown that motorcycle helmets save lives, helmet laws save lives and helmet law repeals lead to increased head injury and deaths. What we found in Pennsylvania was no exception," said Kristen Mertz, University of Pittsburgh professor and co-author of the 2008 study.

Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education of Pennsylvania (ABATE) spoke out against Frankel's proposal. In a statement on its website, the organization challenged Frankel and the University of Pittsburgh's assessment.

The organization notes that the state Legislature researched the matter before the helmet mandate was lifted in 2003.

"Two reports were issued, and the findings showed in both cases that the fatality rate remained the same at 5.9 per 10,000 registrations," ABATE says in its online statement. "Rep. Frankel did not like the findings of our own state's reports, so he prefers to hang his helmet on a Pitt study of Pa. motorcycle deaths which contradicts the PennDOT statistics and state analysis."

East coast - Diablos Motorcycle Accident Sends Two to Hospital


OFF THE WIRE
 Laurie Rich Salerno

Three bikes went down in traffic during motorcycle gang's annual memory ride.

East Main Street between Parker Avenue and Newton Street is closed while Meriden Police work to reconstruct a three-motorcycle accident that sent two members of the Diablos Motorcycle gang to area hospitals – one with head injuries.

The accident occured at about 11:15 a.m., according to witnesses, when three motorcycle drivers with the Diablos "dumped" their motorcycles at the intersection of East Main Street and Cottage Street. Each vehicle had two riders, and was part of a larger"memory ride" to visit gravesites of fallen club members.

A female passenger was transported to Hartford Hospital with head injuries, and a male driver, who witnesses say was driving the bike she was on, was taken to MidState Hospital in a neck brace and with a possible broken arm. Other bikers in the accident were sitting in lawns on the South side of East Main Street with ice packs, and talk of broken toes, cuts and bruises. A bloodied paper towel lay on the ground underneath police tape surrounding the accident scene at 1 p.m.

Stories as to what made the drivers crash differ.

One Diablos member who was not involved in the crash, but riding behind in a truck, said a van cut the riders off, forcing them to abandon their bikes rather than be hit.

The member declined to give his name, but told Meriden Patch that the bikes were headed East in a middle lane on East Main Street when a green Chevrolet Astrovan shot across East Main Street from a cemetary driveway onto Cottage Street in front of the riders. This he said caused them to turn quickly left and abandon their bikes in the left lane of East Main, rather than hit the van.

The driver of the Astrovan, a Meriden man named Jackson, who asked that his surname not be included in this article, said he had nothing to do with the accident. He said he was bringing his wife and two small children home from a store, and heard the crash after he made a left turn from East Main Street onto Cottage Avenue. He said he called 911 from his phone and stayed to help victims, and was surprised when he heard the riders were blaming the accident on him.

"Their speed was too much," his wife Mellanie said, attributing that to the motorcycles' fall. She said she prayed to God that the riders would be OK.

Neighbors at the intersection of East Main Street and Cottage Ave., who were picnicking on their front porch during the investigation, said they also called 911 when they heard the crash, but didn't see anything.

At 12:30, police said the accident was still under investigation.

A Diablos member said the two who were taken from the hospital were both from New Hampshire. The Diablos Motorcycle Club is a national motorcycle gxxg with a chapter in Meriden and clubhouse at 168 Grove St.

During a memory ride, Diablos members caravan to area cemetaries to visit the gravestones of fallen members, according to one Diablos member who declined to give his name.




















http://meriden.patch.com/articles/diablos-motorcycle-accident-sends-two-to-hospital

Filing a Police Complaint

OFF THE WIRE
Filing a police complaint and reporting police brutality and misconduct is a step towards ending this abuse of power by police.
 Never ... ever... walk into a police station by yourself and try to file a police complaint. Civilian testers have shown that you may be harassed or falsely arrested for doing so.
 Police complaints are allegations of misconduct and you as a member of the public can file a police complaint. When someone files a police complaint against a police officer an incident report is placed in the officer's record, so as to hopefully keep the officer from continuing to abuse his or her authority. It also makes the officers superiors aware that there might be a problem with an individual police officer that needs to be addressed.
 Examples of police misconduct:
 Rudeness
 Excessive force
 Soliciting or accepting bribes
 Drinking on duty
 Harassment
 Making a false report (good for alleging in the case of traffic tickets)
 Use of narcotics (on or off duty)
 Discrimination
 Altering information on an official document
 Careless driving (driving rapidly and/or aggressively to a minor call
 Racial or ethnic intimidation
 Malicious threats or assault
 Sexual harassment 
 Police complaints will not get a victim compensated for police abuse. Police complaints are not law suits. If you file a complaint against a police officer and the police "clear" themselves as they often do, the only recourse you may have is a civil law suit. A civil law suit you may receive compensation if you and your attorney can prove damages or civil rights violations.  Contact a competent civil rights attorney if you need more information about filing a law suit for civil rights violations.  
 To file a complaint on a police officer "one of a less serious nature," you want to send a written complaint "certified mail with return receipt requested." You can send the police complaint to Internal Affairs. Certified mail gives you some type of proof that you actually filed a complaint against a police officer.  If you don't send the complaint certified mail the letter sometimes gets lost or misplaced by someone at the police department.
 As soon as possible write down everything that happened. Don't worry about sending your complaint off right away. Wait a few days and go back over your written complaint and see what you might have forgotten the first time you wrote it. There's no need for "emotions" to be involved when you write your complaint and the most important thing is to be truthful! If the police catch you in a lie, your complaint won't be credible nor will any other complaints you send to them in the future. You could even be charged for making a false report against a police officer.
 The more information in your written complaint the better. Your compliant should include:
 Who the officer is your filing a complaint against? Name or badge number.
 What the officer said or did? Was he rude, abusive or used excessive force?
 When it happened? Date and time when the incident occurred.
 Where did it occur? Location the incident took place.
 How did the incident occur? 
 Do you have corroborating witnesses, whose story does not conflict with yours? If you have witnesses you should ask each one of them to write a separate account of the incident.
 Do you have any type of evidence, like pictures or a video recording? If you do don't send the "original" to the police, send a copy. 
 Mail the complaint "certified mail with return receipt requested," to Internal Affairs at the police or sheriffs department where the officer works. The complaint will be investigated and you should receive a letter back from the police agency on the status of your complaint. Most police complaints will be in the favor of the police officer, but the good thing is the complaint will stay on the police officers record.
 The police may try and contact you by phone or mail to do a "follow up" or ask you questions. Answer NO questions and don't go to the police station for an interview. Tell them everything they need to know is in your letter that you sent and then say good bye. Stick to what you said in your complaint letter that you sent and say nothing else!
 There is a time limit on how long you have to file a complaint on a police officer. For minor police misconduct you may have  only 60 days and up to 6 months for more serious allegations.
 If you're interested to know what complaints have been filed against police officers in your community, you may request a copy of that information be sent to you from that police agency. Send your request "certified mail with return receipt requested." Request a copy of complaints of police officers from that agency be mailed to you, under the "Freedom of Information Act" and you would like this information sent to you within 10 days as required by law. DON'T ever walk into a police station and ask for this information! Police officers either start acting real stupid on the subject or they get real pissed and start threatening you.
  Now for the bad news! Police officers don't like to have "complaints" filed on them, nor do they like for citizens to ask for copies of complaints made against other police officers. For some reason police officers think they do no wrong and if they do the public doesn't need to be aware of it.
 Never file a complaint directly with a police agency specially if the complaint is of a serious nature, see an attorney! If you do plan on hiring an attorney, get one who doesn't live in your area. Don't get a lawyer from your town, county or the surrounding counties. Local lawyers work with same police officers, district attorney and judges on a daily basis and may not want to win your case as bad as you do.
 You may also contact your State Attorney General. For serious incidents call the ACLU hot line 1-877-634-5454 or contact the Department of Justice Click here for the (DOJ) site.

News and Information at:

Las Vegas - Bill to repeal motorcycle helmet law suffers blow

OFF THE WIRE
Cy Ryan
http://www.lasvegassun.com/staff/cy-ryan/
CARSON CITY – A bill that would allow a motorcyclist to ride without a helmet might not have much of a future, its sponsor says.
“It has an execution day,” said Sen. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks. “But it still has appeal rights.”
Senate Bill 77 has been sitting in the Senate Finance Committee since April without a hearing.
“I asked for a hearing and never got a reply,” Gustavson said. Asked if the bill would get a hearing, Committee Vice Chairwoman Sheila Leslie replied, “I don’t think so.”
Gustavson said he thinks he has enough backing in the committee and the full Senate if it is ever brought to a hearing.
The bill will probably meet the same fate as two other transportation bills that didn’t survive the Legislature, which is to end June 6.
There was a bill to make not wearing a seatbelt a primary offense, meaning a law enforcement officer could pull over a motorist who wasn't buckled up. Current law permits an officer to issue a citation only if the driver is stopped for another traffic offense.
The measure, Senate Bill 235, fell in the Senate Transportation Committee on a 4-3 vote with Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, joining three Republicans voting against it.
A bill to revise the law on the installation of an ignition lock following a drunken driving conviction is also stuck in the Senate Transportation Committee.
Current law allows a judge to exempt a person from installing the device if it constitutes an economic hardship. Senate Bill 166 would stop a judge from being able to give that exemption.
Still alive are bills that would prohibit cell phone use by a motorist while driving and a measure to cement into law the ability of taxicab drivers to charge $3 for a passenger to use a credit or debit card.
The cell phone bill, Senate Bill 140, passed the Senate by a 12-9 vote, but has been temporarily placed on hold in the Assembly.
The taxicab surcharge bill will be reported out of the Senate Transportation Committee on Monday, said Committee Chairwoman Shirley Breeden, D-Henderson.

For anarchist, details of life as FBI target, One organizer of anticorporate protests is among dozens of political activists to come under scrutiny of counterterrorism operations.

OFF THE WIRE
JUST A THOUGHT
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
and SCOTT SHANE
The New York Times
A fat sheaf of F.B.I. reports meticulously details the surveillance that counterterrorism agents directed at the one-story house in East Austin. For at least three years, they traced the license plates of cars parked out front, recorded the comings and goings of residents and guests and, in one case, speculated about a suspicious flat object spread out across the driveway.
“The content could not be determined from the street,” an agent observing from his car reported one day in 2005. “It had a large number of multi-colored blocks, with figures and/or lettering,” the report said, and “may be a sign that is to be used in an upcoming protest.”
Actually, the item in question was more mundane.
“It was a quilt,” said Scott Crow, marveling over the papers at the dining table of his ramshackle home, where he lives with his wife, a housemate and a backyard menagerie that includes two goats, a dozen chickens and a turkey. “For a kids’ after-school program.”
Mr. Crow, 44, a self-described anarchist and veteran organizer of anticorporate demonstrations, is among dozens of political activists across the country known to have come under scrutiny from the F.B.I.’s increased counterterrorism operations since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Other targets of bureau surveillance, which has been criticized by civil liberties groups and mildly faulted by the Justice Department’s inspector general, have included antiwar activists in Pittsburgh, animal rights advocates in Virginia and liberal Roman Catholics in Nebraska. When such investigations produce no criminal charges, their methods rarely come to light publicly.
But Mr. Crow, a lanky Texas native who works at a recycling center, is one of several Austin activists who asked the F.B.I. for their files, citing the Freedom of Information Act. The 440 heavily-redacted pages he received, many bearing the rubric “Domestic Terrorism,” provide a revealing window on the efforts of the bureau, backed by other federal, state and local police agencies, to keep an eye on people it deems dangerous.
'Fat guy in an S.U.V.'
In the case of Mr. Crow, who has been arrested a dozen times during demonstrations but has never been convicted of anything more serious than trespassing, the bureau wielded an impressive array of tools, the documents show.
The agents watched from their cars for hours at a time — Mr. Crow recalls one regular as “a fat guy in an S.U.V. with the engine running and the air-conditioning on” — and watched gatherings at a bookstore and cafe. For round-the-clock coverage, they attached a video camera to the phone pole across from his house on New York Avenue.
They tracked Mr. Crow’s phone calls and e-mails and combed through his trash, identifying his bank and mortgage companies, which appear to have been served with subpoenas. They visited gun stores where he shopped for a rifle, noting dryly in one document that a vegan animal rights advocate like Mr. Crow made an unlikely hunter. (He says the weapon was for self-defense in a marginal neighborhood.)
They asked the Internal Revenue Service to examine his tax returns, but backed off after an I.R.S. employee suggested that Mr. Crow’s modest earnings would not impress a jury even if his returns were flawed. (He earns $32,000 a year at Ecology Action of Texas, he said.)
They infiltrated political meetings with undercover police officers and informers. Mr. Crow counts five supposed fellow activists who were reporting to the F.B.I.
Mr. Crow seems alternately astonished, angered and flattered by the government’s attention. “I’ve had times of intense paranoia,” he said, especially when he discovered that some trusted allies were actually spies.
“But first, it makes me laugh,” he said. “It’s just a big farce that the government’s created such paper tigers. Al Qaeda and real terrorists are hard to find. We’re easy to find. It’s outrageous that they would spend so much money surveilling civil activists, and anarchists in particular, and equating our actions with Al Qaeda.”
Investigation of political activists The investigation of political activists is an old story for the F.B.I., most infamously in the Cointel program, which scrutinized and sometimes harassed civil rights and antiwar advocates from the 1950s to the 1970s. Such activities were reined in after they were exposed by the Senate’s Church Committee, and F.B.I. surveillance has been governed by an evolving set of guidelines set by attorneys general since 1976.
But the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 demonstrated the lethal danger of domestic terrorism, and after the Sept. 11 attacks, the F.B.I. vowed never again to overlook terrorists hiding in plain sight. The Qaeda sleeper cells many Americans feared, though, turned out to be rare or nonexistent.
The result, said Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent now at the American Civil Liberties Union, has been a zeal to investigate political activists who pose no realistic threat of terrorism.
“You have a bunch of guys and women all over the country sent out to find terrorism. Fortunately, there isn’t a lot of terrorism in many communities,” Mr. German said. “So they end up pursuing people who are critical of the government.”
Complaints from the A.C.L.U. prompted the Justice Department’s inspector general to assess the F.B.I.’s forays into domestic surveillance. The resulting report last September absolved the bureau of investigating dissenters based purely on their expression of political views. But the inspector general also found skimpy justification for some investigations, uncertainty about whether any federal crime was even plausible in others and a mislabeling of nonviolent civil disobedience as “terrorism.”
Asked about the surveillance of Mr. Crow, an F.B.I. spokesman, Paul E. Bresson, said it would be “inappropriate” to discuss an individual case. But he said that investigations are conducted only after the bureau receives information about possible crimes.
“We do not open investigations based on individuals who exercise the rights afforded to them under the First Amendment,” Mr. Bresson said. “In fact, the Department of Justice and the bureau’s own guidelines for conducting domestic operations strictly forbid such actions.”
It is not hard to understand why Mr. Crow attracted the bureau’s attention. He has deliberately confronted skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members at their gatherings, relishing the resulting scuffles. He claims to have forced corporate executives to move with noisy nighttime protests.
He says he took particular pleasure in a 2003 demonstration for Greenpeace in which activists stormed the headquarters of ExxonMobil in Irving, Tex., to protest its environmental record. Dressed in tiger outfits, protesters carried banners to the roof of the company’s offices, while others wearing business suits arrived in chauffeured Jaguars, forcing frustrated police officers to sort real executives from faux ones.
“It was super fun,” said Mr. Crow, one of the suits, who escaped while 36 other protesters were arrested. “They had ignored us and ignored us. But that one got their attention.”
More amiable than combative
It got the attention of the F.B.I. as well, evidently, leading to the three-year investigation that focused specifically on Mr. Crow. The surveillance documents show that he also turned up in several other investigations of activism in Texas and beyond, from 2001 to at least 2008.
For an aficionado of civil disobedience, Mr. Crow comes across as more amiable than combative. He dropped out of college, toured with an electronic-rock band and ran a successful Dallas antiques business while dabbling in animal rights advocacy. In 2001, captivated by the philosophy of anarchism, he sold his share of the business and decided to become a full-time activist.
Since then, he has led a half-dozen groups and run an annual training camp for protesters. (The camps invariably attracted police infiltrators who were often not hard to spot. “We had a rule,” he said. “If you were burly, you didn’t belong.”) He also helped to found Common Ground Relief, a network of nonprofit organizations created in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Anarchism was the catchword for an international terrorist movement at the turn of the 20th century. But Mr. Crow, whose e-mail address contains the phrase “quixotic dreaming,” describes anarchism as a kind of locally oriented self-help movement, a variety of “social libertarianism.”
“I don’t like the state,” he said. “I don’t want to overthrow it, but I want to create alternatives to it.”
This kind of talk appears to have baffled some of the agents assigned to watch him, whose reports to F.B.I. bosses occasionally seem petulant. One agent calls “nonviolent direct action,” a phrase in activists’ materials, “an oxymoron.” Another agent comments, oddly, on Mr. Crow and his wife, Ann Harkness, who have been together for 24 years, writing that “outwardly they did not appear to look right for each other.” At a training session, “most attendees dressed like hippies.”
Such comments stand out amid detailed accounts of the banal: mail in the recycling bin included “a number of catalogs from retail outlets such as Neiman Marcus, Ann Taylor and Pottery Barn.”
Mr. Crow said he hoped the airing of such F.B.I. busywork might deter further efforts to keep watch over him. The last documents he has seen mentioning him date from 2008. But the Freedom of Information Act exempts from disclosure any investigations that are still open.
“I still occasionally see people sitting in cars across the street,” he said. “I don’t think they’ve given up.”
This article, "For Anarchist, Details of Life as F.B.I. Target," first appeared in The New York Times.

Yeah, they used to have "the Patriot Act" in Nazi Germany, too. I believe the German acronym for it is "Gestapo", if I remember correctly. My real problem with this, though, is the following: how come no one follows the CEOs of the banks who conspired to trash our economy around while they visit the grocery store? I guess what I'm asking here is this: how about arresting someone who IS a criminal? Just a thought....

Las Vegas, NV - A New Way for Law Enforcers to Dominate Nevada Slaves - I mean "Citizens"

OFF THE WIRE

By Tigerlily 

 New Way for Law Enforcers to Dominate Nevada Slaves - I mean "Citizens"

A New Way for Law Enforcers to Dominate Nevada Slaves - I mean "Citizens"

I just found out that the City of North Las Vegas is going around extorting money from criminals and their relatives.  Huh?  Read my letter to the NLVPD Public Information Officer - Tim Bedwell.  (He's on TV a lot - spreading lies and propaganda to try to make his peeps look good!)

Dear Sgt. Bedwell,
It has come to my attention that allegedly law officers representing the City of North Las Vegas are taking new measures to enforce the law.  I confirmed this allegation through a number of local bail bond service sources.  Allegedly, police officers are going to residences of persons with arrest warrants for failing to appear at a North Las Vegas hearing for minor traffic citations.

  1. Is this true?
  2. If so, which law enforcement agency is providing this public service?
  3. Is it also true that these law enforcers are forcing the delinquent offenders to pay-up at once (credit card option available) or go to jail?
  4. How long has this service been implemented?
  5. How much revenue has the City of North Las Vegas accumulated for this service?
  6. Has any estimate been given as to whether this practice is increasing revenue for the City of North Las Vegas - or has it cost more to house, feed, and provide healthcare to those arrested?
    I am in contact with a person who surrendered him/herself to the North Las Vegas Detention Center.  I have verified my source's information and in essence it appears:

    This person failed to appear to a hearing for a citation for one or more minor traffic infractions.

    This person told me that he/she:

    1.  Had severe financial hardships.
    2.  "The police" visited his/her elderly mother's home (suspect's address) with credit card processing equipment and police told the elder that the money needed to be paid immediately or son/daughter would be arrested.

    My source informed me that he/she surrendered to the North Las Vegas Detention Center because:
  7. He/She did not have the money to pay the $1000+ fine/fees because he/she has been unable to find work for months;
  8. He/She did not want to live with a looming arrest threat;
  9. He/She did not want the elderly parent to continue to get any more "frightening" police encounters at the mother's home.

    Please advise.

    Thank you,
Note:  The City of North Las Vegas recently laid off a number of employees.  Instead of relaxing the laws so that a cop isn't in your grill each time you go out into the public, and so that there aren't so many bullcrap citations to process, they whine about how badly we need more cops.  

What the hell do we need more cops for?  So we the tax-paying people can get more tickets to bridge it's budget deficit?  How many "real" criminals - you know - like the ones that ROB, RAPE AND KILL PEOPLE - are our brave enforcers-of-the-law catching to serve and protect us?

I'll be posting the answer based on my own experiences soon.

At 84, one man is still the 'guardian angel' of Route 66


OFF THE WIRE
By PAULINE ARRILLAGA

Angel Delgadillo
Angel Delgadillo pedals past his souvenir store and barber shop in Seligman, Ariz. Delgadillo, 84, has witnessed the rise and fall of America's most historic byway and gets credit for helping it rise again as Historic Route 66. Telling his story and the road's has become his life's work.

Just after lunchtime in a town that is a monument to yesteryear, an old man is cruising down Route 66 using an eight-speed bicycle. He is tidily dressed in khaki slacks, a navy polo and a baseball cap that protects a mostly threadbare crown, save for a few strands of silvery white.
At 84 years old, he has an ever-so-slight hunch, a crinkled forehead and hearing aids in both ears.
Angel Delgadillo does not look like a rock star. And yet ...
Two tour buses are parked along the nation's most historic byway, and dozens of adoring fans await: Leather-clad Harley riders. A Parisian wearing a Route 66 tee. Norwegians wanting to shake his hand. Japanese tourists who literally "ooh" and "ahh" as their Angel nears.
All along the sidewalk, Nikons are ready — and this unassuming gentleman is mobbed the moment he parks his bike. The fans clutch Route 66 license plates as Delgadillo flashes a toothy grin and says, over and over, "Cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheeeeeese."
In the midst of this surreal scene comes a question: Are these camera-toting, guidebook-grasping 66 buffs here for the legendary road — or for the now-legendary man who helped to save it?
"This guy here ... every time I get a chance I come in and shake his hand," says one of these many admirers, Jerry Stinson of Lake Tyee, Wash., who plans to someday retire along Route 66 and open a business — "because of you," he tells Delgadillo as they pose for a picture.
They call him many things: The Father of the Mother Road. The Guardian Angel of Route 66. Sometimes, simply, The Ambassador.
His story has been related in travel guides, even on a website for a Route 66 association in the Czech Republic. He and his town were the inspiration for the animated film "Cars," but he has inspired many others, too, with a vigor that age hasn't diminished — a passion for the road he grew up on, and old with.
Life's work Telling this tale has become his life's work, and he does it without prompting. How he was born right on Route 66 back when Seligman was a railroad town ferrying explorers West. How he followed in his father's footsteps and became a barber, opening his own shop and pool hall along Route 66. How he was a witness to history: the Dust Bowl migration, the transport of equipment during World War II.
And how he saw it all change on Sept. 22, 1978 — the day Interstate 40 replaced Route 66 as the main thoroughfare through northern Arizona.
  1. "Can you imagine how it was?" says Delgadillo, whose eyes widen as if recounting this for the very first time. "Golly Moses. At first it was so sad, and then I got so angry. Everybody just forgot about us."
  2. His own place in history was cemented nine years later when he became a driving force behind the formation of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, which lobbied the state to dedicate the road as "Historic Route 66." Highway signs were erected, the association launched an annual "Fun Run" of classic cars, tourists and media began converging — and Seligman was reborn. More historic associations followed in other Route 66 states.
    It was the beginning of the Route 66 revival, and also Delgadillo's own. He and his wife, Vilma, opened a souvenir store next to the barber shop peddling Route 66 keepsakes to the many visitors that began finding Seligman — looking not just for kitsch but for history. In Delgadillo, they found an emphatic raconteur.
    "People want to taste the road — the sights, the smells, the sounds. And he's there to hold your hand," says Lorrie Fleming of Vancouver, British Columbia, who first met Delgadillo in 1994 and has returned to Seligman every year since for the annual Fun Run. "You can't get that on Facebook, what Angel gives you. He reaches his arms out to you.
    "That concrete has to have a vein to still pump blood, and he's the life of the road."
    In 1996, Fleming founded the Canadian Route 66 Association — and she credits Delgadillo. So does Emily Priddy of Tulsa, Okla., an ex-newspaper editor who says she became involved in Route 66 preservation — even writing a guidebook for children — because of him. And Jerry Stinson, who's already bought land in Arizona and counts the days until retirement brings him permanently to Route 66. "He IS the inspiration," Stinson says.
    66-themed businesses
    Today, Seligman thrives because of the many Route 66-themed businesses. Delgadillo has long-since retired as a barber, and two of his four children run the gift shop now. They try to keep their father at home when possible, only because they know that once he sets foot in the store visitors will occupy him for hours.
    "They just don't happen upon Seligman because they got lost and got off the freeway. They're here for a reason," says daughter Mirna. "And that reason is to see my dad."
  3. But Delgadillo can't stay away. As he says: "Can you imagine getting out of bed into a recliner? You die young." Besides, his life has always been intertwined with this road. Route 66 was commissioned on Nov. 11, 1926, and Delgadillo was born in a house alongside the road just five months later.
    And so he wakes early, has breakfast with his wife and rides his bicycle over to help open the store. He goes home at noon for lunch, and then often returns to the store before taking an afternoon siesta.
    Sometimes, of course, the nap must wait, and a weekday afternoon in May is one of those times. The larger tour buses have departed, but smaller vans and several campers remain. Outside of the gift shop, a Japanese tour director whom Delgadillo knows well waits with several vacationers. For tour groups, Seligman and Delgadillo's Route 66 Gift Shop are popular stops on routes to the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon. They have become wonders unto themselves.
  4. "Konnichiwa," Delgadillo greets the group in Japanese before settling onto a bench outside of his store. Two-by-two, the tourists approach, sitting on either side of him with big smiles.
    "Cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheeeeeese," he says.
    As two finish, two more sit down.
    After a few minutes, he begins to take leave, but yet another fan approaches. Bertrand Laisney lives in Paris but is driving Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. He explains that he was compelled to stop in Seligman after reading a half-dozen guidebooks about the Mother Road that "all tell about Mr. Delgadillo."
    "You're part of the story of the United States," he tells him.
    "Merci beaucoup," Delgadillo replies before climbing back on his bicycle for the brief ride home, waving as he goes.
    "He's amazing," says the Frenchman, staring as Delgadillo pedals up the road. His road.
    But he'll be back soon enough. After all, to share stories of Route 66 is to share stories of himself. And that breathes life into them both.

MICHIGAN - Letter: Legislators should vote down proposals to lift state helmet law

OFF THE WIRE
Voice: Bruce M. LaBrecque, Frankenmuth

I want to implore legislators to vote no on HB 4008, HB 4608 and SB 0291, which would repeal Michigan’s over 35-year-old motorcycle helmet law. Not only am I opposed, but over 80 percent of Michigan voters are opposed. 
While some states did repeal motorcycle helmet laws, two states quickly reinstated theirs when they witnessed the significant increase in deaths and hospitalizations. In every case, the increased hospitalizations led to a significant increase in Medicaid costs. 
As recently as 2008, Michael L. Prince, director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, stated that a repeal of Michigan’s helmet law would likely cause 30 more fatalities and over $129 million in economic costs per year.
Do you really believe the exaggerated claims of a single-issue advocacy group over the research done by numerous key national and state governmental and private agencies who are experts in such matters? 
As a medical professional (registered nurse and physical therapist), I have treated numerous motorcycle injuries; those patients had some of the worst neurological and musculoskeletal injuries I have seen in my 30-plus years in direct patient care. I feel confident that most of them would have been DOA had they not had a helmet on. 
I’ve often heard the lament, “Let those who ride decide.” I reply: “No! Let those who sweat blood and tears trying to save the lives and rehabilitate the injured motorcycle riders decide!” 
Your initial impression may be to believe this is a “freedom of choice” issue; however, you must also look at the consequences that result — namely, you are taxing all Michigan taxpayers. The hospitalization and long-term care of an injured motorcyclist will be paid by the taxpayer with increased Medicaid costs. 
Finally, one of the governor’s dashboard measures being touted as showing the effectiveness of government will measure highway traffic deaths. It is beyond me to believe that legislators would purposefully cause this number to increase with a vote to repeal the motorcycle helmet law.

Letter: Loud motorcycles? Be thankful

OFF THE WIRE
FROM RICHARD R. FLUHR PRESIDENT, CUSTOM RIDERS, INC. 21906 HILL DRIVE, BERNARD, IOWA
Motorcycles, charity and loud pipes. What do these things have in common? It is the common thread that binds a small segment of Dubuque's population together.
Recently, it was brought to my attention that the local police department has been on an aggressive campaign to ticket local motorcycles for loud pipes and excessive noise. Although it is true that some motorcycles can seem to be a little excessive in their roar, I would like to point out that it is a small price to pay for the large amount of charity work that is done by these riders.
Remember the biker adage, "Loud Pipes Save Lives."
I would like to remind the citizens of Dubuque about the value that motorcyclists bring to the community.
In 1999, our club started the "Tour de Dubuque Ride" for Hospice of Dubuque. Since that time, we have raised more than $150,000 for this great organization. Like many riders and other clubs in this area, we are constantly conducting rides for local charities and individuals who have fallen ill or on hard times.
The next time you hear a motorcycle with loud pipes, let it remind you of all the good charity work that is being done by these individuals. Possibly, unbeknownst to you, one of your family members or loved ones may be receiving assistance from those same annoying motorcycle riders. So rather than cursing them out for their loud machines, maybe you should be thankful that they are there, supporting you and our community.

Washington - White Rock Hells Angels Implicated in U.S. Drug Ring

OFF THE WIRE
While no charges have yet been laid in Washington state against members or associates of the White Rock Hells Angels, U.S. court documents portray them as major suppliers of marijuana to American gangsters.

I went through hundreds of pages of those court documents, which point the finger at White Rock associate Trevor Jones, twin brother of Randy Jones - whose a full-patch member of the Langley-based chapter.

Three Canadians have been charged so far, along with 19 Americans. And it looks like others will be prosecuted as well. When you read through the court documents, who see just how many resources U.S. law enforcement commits to cases like this. Surveillance for months in multiple states. Many, many wiretaps. Agents setting up some of the suspects. And police intercepting marijuana and cocaine being transported in both planes and trucks.

One of the Canadians, Glen Stewart, 51, has lived in Blaine for years. Police allege he was going to be the recipient of a beating or worse by some White Rock associates that had travelled to the U.S. to look for missing cocaine. The coke had in fact been seized by authorities.

I did try to reach Trevor for this story, given that he has been implicated, but not charged. He did not respond to interview requests.

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/realscoop/archive/2011/05/28/white-rock-hells-angels-implicated-in-u-s-drug-ring.aspx

World Jump Record Attempt by TRIGGER GUMM, STURGIS 2011

OFF THE WIRE
To our friends, business relations: Illusion Cycles is building the motorcycle for this world record attempt. Please take a moment to read this email & the attachments for business opportunities and sponsorship. Email me here, or email RJ. Thank you!
Subject: Trigger Gumm World Record Attempt STURGIS 2011

Illusion Motorsports & Trigger Gumm wants to invite you to be a part of history in the making at this years Sturgis 2011.
On August 13th, 2011 World Record motocross distance jumper and industry icon Trigger Gumm will be attempting to break the world record Long Distance jumped on a Harley Davidson Sportster built by Illusion Motorsports. This will take place at the World Famous Buffalo Chip Campground in Sturgis, jumping over 200 feet.

With an estimated 900,000+ in attendance every year at the Sturgis run, this event will take place over a nine day period with jump shows running daily August 5th-12th and the record jump taking place midnight, August 15th. Also performing Toby Keith, Def Leppard, Alice Cooper and many other acts throughout the festival.

Attached is the Illusion Cycles Press Kit which goes over all details from sponsorship opportunities to this years music lineup.

Look forward to seeing you at this years Sturgis.
here's a download;

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UWOOU7FR
-

RJ Valdez
Arjay Management
Email: rj@1605.com
http://www.arjaymanagement.com/
http://www.attika7.com/
www.facebook.com/Attika7
www.reverbnation.com/Attika7

3 confirmed Teams **Speedway Sidecars**

OFF THE WIRE


TEAM 16 – Kevin Brown & Matt Dars with their GSXR 1000.

TEAM 23 - Shaun & Missy Driggers with their YAMAHA R1 1000

TEAM 25 – Gene Stone & T- rod with their ILLUSION Harley Davidson



ONE & ONLY HARLEY-DAVIDSON SIDECAR BULIT BY ILLUSION CYCLES!

 
Hard work & team efforts pay off!
T-Rod & Gene Stone present the ONLY Harley Davidson motor driven SIDECAR for Speedway Racing!
See attached pictures below --- Thank You Pete Alva Photography

Monday, May 30, 2011

Oakland Ca - Police ID one victim of East Bay Dragons Motorcycle Club triple shooting

Examiner file photo

Police ID one victim of East Bay Dragons Motorcycle Club triple shooting

 Bay City News

Police say a woman who was fatally shot Sunday night in Oakland was a 28-year-old Union City resident and a man who also died was a 29-year-old resident of San Leandro.
They were killed in a shooting near the East Bay Dragons Motorcycle Club. The woman was identified as Latoya Jameika Kenny, Officer Holly Joshi said this morning. The man’s name hasn’t been released. Officers responded to reports of gunfire at 88th Avenue and International Boulevard at about 9:20 p.m., Joshi said.The three victims were found with gunshot wounds near the East Bay Dragons’ clubhouse, Joshi said.
The man and Kenny were pronounced dead at the club and another woman, a 28-year-old San Leandro resident, was transported to Highland Hospital with life-threatening injuries, she said.
No suspects have been identified and no arrests have been made.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Police Department’s Homicide Section at (510) 238-3821.
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/bay-area/2011/05/police-id-one-victim-east-bay-dragons-motorcycle-club-triple-shooting#ixzz1Nt1sM0DP


 

 

Salute Generations of Vets on This Patriotic Day

OFF THE WIRE

May We Never Forget

By Arthur H. Wilson

Around the globe, Americans will pause at the end of the month to pay homage to those 1.2 million heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of freedom.

Communities will rightfully look toward many of you, our departments and chapters, to demonstrate the proper ways in which to show appreciation and respect toward the fallen and their family members left behind. It is fitting we lead the salute as those who perished are our brothers and sisters.

Memorial Day is not meant to honor war; it is meant to revere those warriors who fought to the death. Perhaps, no one knows that more than those of us who fought and trained alongside those to be memorialized May 30. As a disabled veteran, you too sacrificed greatly for our country.

Not all who deserve to be remembered this solemn day spilled blood on foreign soil. Some did not even rate the Purple Heart. Many thousands continued their battle decades after their service, and many have tragically succumbed to diseases caused by exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. They too deserve to be remembered and honored this Memorial Day.

You have fought for the victims of Agent Orange for years, so you know this as well as anybody, making it all the more fitting when community leaders seek your guidance in observing Memorial Day. Your diligence in working to get the VA to provide the benefits these veterans have deserved has pushed the government to finally acknowledge that a great deal of the terrible illnesses taking Vietnam veterans are due to Agent Orange.

They will not be forgotten, and their sacrifices will not go unnoticed as long as we as an organization keep them in mind when honoring those who gave all.

May is also Mental Illness Awareness Month. We have come a long way at a tremendous price to recognize the impact of post-traumatic stress. These disabled veterans need us to help those around us to accept the legitimacy of their invisible wounds and to offer our support when they are in a time of crisis.

May is a month for our members to come together, remembering those lost and welcoming newly disabled veterans and their families. As a nation, we can never reimburse a lost life, but we can show them that we appreciate and care.

Dear Philip,

 Saluting Every Generation of Fallen Heroes!
As a supporter of Disabled American Veterans, you honor our wounded heroes.

Generation after generation, brave souls continue to give their lives for freedom — from those whose lives were cut tragically short in World War II to those in who fell in Iraq and Afghanistan.

OUR MISSION:
Since its founding more than 90 years ago, Disabled American Veterans has been dedicated to a single purpose: Building Better Lives for America's Disabled Veterans and Their Families.
Today, on Memorial Day, you and I bear witness to their courage and selfless sacrifice; we “make this day sacred.”
Yet, even as fields of white markers make our hearts swell with the sadness of loss, other sights also compel our tears on this special holiday.
Our hospitals are filled with wounded heroes — young men and women who have lost eyes, legs, arms, and mental wellbeing.
They live, Philip, but their lives are changed forever.
It is for these heroes — in honor of their fallen comrades — that the DAV Memorial Day Fund was created. They are counting on you.
Take this last chance to give to the Memorial Day Fund!
Help us charge up that hill and carry out our mission for our disabled heroes as you reach out with your Memorial Day gift of $25 … $50 … or $100 now!

Arthur H. Wilson, National Adjutant
Disabled American Veterans
P.O. Box 14301 | Cincinnati, OH 45250-0301
Please thank a disabled veteran for their sacrifice and service!

Motorcycle legend, Harley-Davidson continues work with American Military

OFF THE WIRE
 Written by Asia
clutchandchrome.com
Memorial Day Weekend seems the perfect time to report the latest efforts by motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson and its ongoing history with the American military.
News this week that an American icon is continuing this long-standing relationship with the U.S. Military is both perfect as much as it is satisfying. Harley-Davidson says it is starting another chapter in its ongoing support of Bikes Over Baghdad (BOB), in which some of the biggest names in action sports perform high-adrenaline stunt shows for U.S. troops stationed overseas.
The upcoming BOB tour, the fourth for the passionate BMX stunt team, which includes riders, announcers and ramp builders, runs June 7-19 and will stop at several bases in Iraq and Kuwait.
Although the drawdown has begun, there are still thousands of U.S. troops on active duty in Iraq. The team hopes to provide as many of them as possible with some excitement, entertainment and a few hours of escape from their daily responsibilities.
"What started as a small idea has grown into the most requested show they've ever had in Iraq, so I'm beyond excited to be able to go back for a fourth time," said Christian Schauf, creator of Bikes Over Baghdad and program manager. "From the athletes going the extra mile day in and day out, to sponsors such as Harley-Davidson making the overall experience the best it can be, we're all coming together to do something special and memorable to show gratitude to our troops."
Word about Bikes Over Baghdad has spread like wildfire throughout the military bases in the Middle East, and demand for the shows is at an all-time high. Harley-Davidson helped present BOB3 in 2010, and sent one of their own, Director of Core Customer Marketing Mike McCann, along for the ride, and also jumped in to support the team in performing in Qatar earlier this year.
This time around, George Petropoulos, Police & Fleet Sales Eastern Key Accounts Representative, will represent Harley-Davidson, travelling with the team and bringing gear and gifts from the Motor Company. Petropoulos is a Major in the U.S. Army Reserve assigned to Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
"I'm proud and thankful to be able to make the trip with the Bikes over Baghdad team," said Petropoulos. "We know many of our servicemen and women are huge Harley-Davidson fans – and, of course, BMX fans – so being able to connect with my peers that are deployed and thank them for their service in this really personal way is an incredible feeling."
Also, as an extension of this summer's tour, Harley-Davidson will present Bikes Over Baghdad Stateside in August. The BOB team will perform their action-packed, high-energy stunt shows at the Craftsman Experience in Chicago August 6-7 and at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee August 20-21.
Each time the BOB team – for this tour made up of Chad Kagy, Jeremiah Smith, Mike Escamilla, Anthony Napolitan, Drew Bezanson, Zack Yankush, Mykel Larrin, Ron Kimler and Nate Wessel – travels overseas to perform stunt shows for the troops, they leave behind their daily lives and families, their professional BMX careers, and the comforts of home to show their deep sense of gratitude and appreciation for our service men and women.
"Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw, witnessed and felt during and after my first Bikes Over Baghdad shows," said team member Mike "Rooftop" Escamilla. "Seeing thousands of men and women proud to stand up and do their duty – as well as so many gracious and kind responses to us coming over to entertain them – I'm forever indebted to our troops and honored to have shared those moments with them."
In addition to the show itself, BOB includes a high level of interaction with the troops. Ramp builders invite soldiers to help them build, and the riders spend their days visiting the servicemen and women where they work and live, giving thousands of troops one-on-one time with the athletes and a connection to home.