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THE AIM/NCOM MOTORCYCLE E-NEWS SERVICE is brought to you by Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (A.I.M.) and the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM), and is sponsored by the Law Offices of Richard M. Lester. For more information, call us at 1-(800) ON-A-BIKE or visit us on our website at
COAST TO COAST BIKER NEWS
ABATE OF FLORIDA ANNOUNCES FINANCIAL IMPACT OF HELMET LAW REPEAL
On February 6, 2006 James “Doc” Reichenbach II, President of ABATE of Florida and Chairman of the Board for the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, released the following economic impact report covering the five years since Florida modified their mandatory helmet law to exclude most adult riders.
278,331 new Motorcycles at an average of $10,000 each = $2,783,310,000
Sales tax on Motorcycles at 6% = $166,998,600
Registration Fees for Motorcycles = $10,047,749
Change of title = $8,280,347
Total = $2,968,636,696
“This is almost three billion dollars in five years that has been put into the economy of the State of Florida, and this is a low figure as it doesn’t include antique motorcycle or mopeds that are licensed in Florida,” said Doc. “Over one hundred eighty million dollars went directly into the state treasury for the general fund, and this does not include the tourist money that has increased because of Florida being a freedom of choice state. In the past five years over Two Billion five hundred thousand dollars has been spent at Bike Week and Biketoberfest.”
For the report, the motorcycle registrations were compiled from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The tax and fees came from the Florida license and registration bureau. From July 1, 2000 to July 1, 2005 motorcycle registrations in Florida went from 195,306 to 473,637 which represent a total of a 143% increase.
“I hope these figures will help anyone who has heard the bad publicity that has come out of our amended law,” said Doc.
VIRGINIA GOVERNOR WARNER CREATES MOTORCYCLE ADVISORY COUNCIL Virginia’s Governor Mark R. Warner has announced the creation of the Governor's Motorcycle Advisory Council. The group, comprised of state and local officials, state agency representatives, and motorcycle enthusiasts, will work to promote motorcycle safety, tourism, and business development in Virginia. The Council is the next step in Governor Warner's "Motorcycle VIRGINIA!" initiative created in 2004.
"Virginia has worked to expand its tourism markets in so many areas - and motorcycle tourism is a great opportunity for us," said Governor Warner. Additionally, as the Commonwealth grapples with the transportation challenges of the next decade, motorcyclists need to have a voice in that debate."
Council members are appointed by the Governor and include one member of the House of Delegates and the Senate of Virginia as well as a representative from various state agencies and from the Virginia's sheriffs, police chiefs, and the Board of Transportation Safety and sixteen citizen members appointed by the Governor. The Secretaries of Commerce and Trade, Public Safety, and Transportation serve as ex officio members.
Governor Warner’s first appointee to the new council was J. Thomas McGrath as a representative of the Transportation Safety Board. McGrath is the founder of the Virginia Coalition of Motorcyclists (VCOM), and is the Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (A.I.M.) Attorney for Virginia.
The Governor's Motorcycle Advisory Council will elevate the "Motorcycle Virginia" work group efforts that began in 2004. The group, comprised of state agencies involved in tourism, public safety, and transportation, has produced more than 50,000 "Watch for Motorcycles" bumpers tickers and launched a Web site featuring Virginia's motorcycle routes, safety guidelines, and motorcycle resource links. For more information go to www.motorcycleva.com.
BOBBI HARTMANN TO JOIN NCOM-LTF The National Coalition of Motorcyclists welcomes Bobbi Hartmann of ABATE of Arizona and a member of the Arizona Lobbying Team, as the newest member of the NCOM Legislative Task Force, joining other motorcyclist rights lobbyists and legislators in defending bikers' rights at the local, state and federal level.
"I am proud to announce that I was recently invited, and have since become,
a member of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists Legislative Task Force," announced Hartmann. "The LTF consists of Members who are committed to the Pursuit of Liberty and are willing, through their actions, to be leaders. LTF Members lend their expertise and experience to other MRO's and as their schedule allows, NCOM will send them to visit other states, upon request, to assist them with their needs, and/or speak at their rally's."
Members of the NCOM-LTF include several legislators; Wisconsin State Senator Dave Zien, South Dakota State Senator Jim Putnam, New Mexico State Rep. Rick Miera, Florida State Rep. Nancy Argenziano, West Virginia State Delegate Greg Butcher and former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
Two other legislators have also been named to the NCOM-LTF; Texas State Rep. Norma “Da Lady” Chavez and Idaho State Senator Skip Brandt. WELCOME!
OKLAHOMA VETERANS NEEDED FOR MOTORCYCLE PLATES Veterans can now apply for special motorcycle license tags in Oklahoma. The proposal was signed into law Nov. 1, but according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission, which manages special license plate production, a minimum of 100 pre-applications are required by May 1st or the OTC won't put them into production.
The proposal, which was part of the law signed by the Governor, states "anyone honorably discharged from any branch of the United States Military" is eligible to apply for these motorcycle tags, and the proceeds will go to help fund the 45th Infantry Division Museum, one of the finest Military Museums in the country, which has had its operating budget cut in half by the state.
“Here's some cool information,” says Tiger Mike Revere, State Coordinator of ABATE of Oklahoma and member of the NCOM Board of Directors, “The law actually mentions ABATE of Oklahoma in the verbiage!“
The OTC has contacted ABATE to design the new veteran’s license plate.
TEXAS POKER RUNS MAY MOVE TO MEXICO Texas has said no to charity poker runs, but at least one El Paso charity has an ace up their sleeve: Juárez.
Members of the Vista Hills Rotary Club, who had been trying to spice up their fund-raising with poker for years but couldn't find a legal way to do it in El Paso, came up with the idea of having a Texas Hold ’Em Poker Tournament in Juárez, to be hosted by its sister club in Juárez, the Club Rotario Juárez Norte.
In Austin, Sputnik, state chairman of the Texas Motorcycle Rights Association, which organizes charity poker runs, found the idea brilliant. "Oh, yeah, that would work," he said.
Charities around the country including churches, have been cashing in on the Texas Hold 'Em craze without much controversy. But in Texas it's a little trickier since Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion in December stating that poker runs -- the popular fund-raisers in which bikers pay to pick up playing cards along a route to win prizes at the final stop -- amounted to illegal gambling.
Sputnik, who also serves on the NCOM Board of Directors and Legislative Task Force, said he is looking for "a way around" the attorney general's opinion. He has brought up the idea of switching from poker to throwing darts, which is considered to be a game of skill.
In El Paso, Mando Parra, a member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club and the chairman of the West Texas Confederation of Clubs, is looking to take his poker ride for cancer research to New Mexico, where gambling is legal. In that case, the fund-raiser would have to benefit a New Mexico charity, he said. "The El Paso charities are the ones that are going to lose," said Parra.
HELLS ANGELS WIN MILLION DOLLAR SETTLEMENT OVER RAID Santa Clara County has agreed to pay nearly $1 million to settle a lawsuit by the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club over a 1998 police raid that resulted in three dead dogs, a torn-up sidewalk and little meaningful evidence.
The $990,000 settlement was spurred by the U.S. Supreme Court's rejection in December of the county's argument that sheriff's deputies were immune from liability. Lower court judges previously had said the actions of the deputies and San Jose police officers were unreasonable. They called unnecessary the “truckloads” of evidence the officers obtained showing that some of the homes' occupants belonged to the club, and said the officers did nothing to avoid killing the animals.
The raids by 90 officers on the club's San Jose headquarters and nine homes on Jan. 21, 1998, followed the August 1997 killing of a man at a strip club and the subsequent arrest for murder of the bouncer who was a Hells Angels member. The member argued the killing was in self-defense, and a jury acquitted him and another defendant on all counts in 1999.
In building their case, prosecutors attempted to show that the suspect was part of a “criminal street gang,” which could add three years to any sentence. To prove it, they obtained search warrants to gather any evidence that demonstrated membership in the Hells Angels, including anything that had names, slogans or symbols on it. None of the members whose homes were targeted had been charged in the case.
“In the course of seizing the evidence, they destroyed a lot of property, and they kept it for 18 months,'' said Karen Snell, attorney for the Hells Angels, in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News.
In executing the search warrants, officers collected clothing, paperwork, clocks, sculptures, motorcycles, a mailbox, a piece of sidewalk on which members' names had been written and even a refrigerator door that had a Hells Angels decal affixed to it. They needed to rent storage space to house it all.
Although they had a week to plan for the raids and knew of the existence of guard dogs, including a Rottweiler, the San Jose police officers failed to do anything to find a non-lethal way of incapacitating the animals, the courts said. They shot three of them.
The cities of Santa Clara and Gilroy, whose officers also were involved in the raids, settled their cases several years ago for a total of less than $50,000. No settlement has been reached with the San Jose Police Department, which also was sued.
NEWS OF THE WEIRD: BIKE VEST PROMOTERS FULL OF HOT AIR Promoters of supposedly “Inflatable Motorcycle Vests” have been sentenced on 30 felony counts of securities fraud and grand theft, as well as five counts of tax evasion.
John Duhamell and Toni Duhamell were formally sentenced in late October in San Bernardino County Superior Court. After they entered guilty pleas on all counts, a San Bernardino Superior Court judge sentenced John Duhamell to seven years in state prison and Toni Duhamell to four years and four months in state prison. In addition, the Duhamells were ordered to repay their more than 200 victims $5.6 million in restitution, and they were also ordered to pay $816,718 each to the Franchise Tax Board on the tax evasion charges.
The Attorney General filed a criminal complaint in September, 2005 alleging that the Duhamells stole more than $5 million from investors over the course of three years on the pretense of financing a product known as the "AirVest" - a vest worn by motorcyclists that is designed to automatically inflate when they are thrown from their bikes.
The Duhamells falsely told potential investors that Harley-Davidson, Inc. had invested heavily in the company, which led more than 200 victims to believe their investment was secure.
Instead of putting the money into the company, the Duhamells used the investors' cash to live an extravagant lifestyle that included trips to Europe as well as the purchase of luxury homes and automobiles.
QUOTABLE QUOTE: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”
George S. Patton, Jr (1885-1945), American general and tank commander known as “Old Blood and Guts”
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