ABATE of SC Legislative Meeting Saturday September 1, 2007 1:00 PM at Over Yonder located at 1914 Airport Blvd., West Columbia 803-926-5366. If you would like to visit GRCMMCC after the meeting please RSVP by 4PM Friday. Labor Day Weekend at GRCMMCC will feature scenic rides in the Western Carolinas, a whitewater adventure, and possibly a few fine beers. ~FF
1) Ten Year Old Starting Petition to Change Helmet Law
2) Paperless electronic traffic program lets deputies issue more violations
3) Hot tips on staying cool
4) DuPont trails, steps to receive maintenance
5) Residents want I-73 built farther west
6) In a wall of words, defiance still echoes (Strom's legacy)
7) Cameras may join city's crime fighting arsenal
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1) Ten Year Old Starting Petition to Change Helmet Law
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FF Note: Rider was cut off by careless cager and lost control of his bike before high-siding. This article additionally repeats the myth of laying down a bike. Laying down a bike is just another way of saying the biker lost control and crashed. When sliding on the road rubber stops much fast than metal and flesh.
http://www.fox12news.com/Global/story.asp?S=6996873
Ten Year Old Starting Petition to Change Helmet Law
Boise, Idaho-- A motorcycle accident took the life of a Boise man last week and now his 10-year old daughter is on a campaign to change Idaho's helmet law.
The Chapman Family says their father and husband would be enjoying his daily routine today....had he been wearing head protection.
Emily Chapman is now adamant about requiring bikers to wear helmets, so she's starting a petition drive to try and change state law.
"They had to do more operations to stop the swelling, they had to open up his head", said Julie Chapman, who lost her husband in a motorcycle accident.
Julie Chapman describes how they tried to save her 43-year-old husband Shane this past weekend.
She says Shane was riding his motorcycle last Thursday night on Fairview, East of Maple Grove.
Boise police confirm a car pulled out of the pop-eye's parking lot trying to turn left when Shane was approaching...
"When she pulled out he lost control, trying not to run into her, he flipped as he tried to lay down the bike and it catapulted him", said Chapman.
Shane was not wearing a helmet.
The Chapman's say he died from massive trauma to the brain.
Married for 15-years, Julie now has to make funeral arrangements and tell her youngest the devastating news.
"Katy is only four, she doesn't understand where her dad is, she'll never know her dad", said Chapman.
Ten year old Emily is starting a petition to change the current Idaho law, requiring bikers to wear helmets.
"I'm going to send it in to the governor and see what he does, if it doesn't work, I'll keep doing it, said 10-year-old Emily Chapman.
But some who love their hogs argue it should be a freedom of choice.
"I don't want to be bogged down by so many things when I can't turn my body left or right or my head left or right", said motorcyclist Justin Crawford.
While at the hospital, the Chapman's say their pain is becoming too common for others as well.
"I think it was six or 8 people were in the hospital from motorcycle accidents, two were wearing helmets", said 13-year-old Hunter Chapman.
The accident is still being investigated by Boise police.
The Chapman's say their medical bills are in the millions right now, so they have established the "Shane Chapman Family Benefit Account."
If you'd like to help out, donations can be dropped off at any Key Bank.
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2) Paperless electronic traffic program lets deputies issue more violations
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FF Note: North Carolina State Troopers already use a similar system.
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/156645.html
Hilton Head tries new traffic ticket system
Paperless electronic traffic program lets deputies issue more violations
By TIM DONNELLY - tdonnellyislandpacket.com
Hilton Head Island has just completed the first pilot program in South Carolina for a new computerized traffic ticketing system that allows deputies to scan licenses into laptop computers and print out tickets in their cruisers.
For drivers, it means less time sitting on the side of the road — down from an average of about 17 minutes to about seven.
The program quickly found fans with Municipal Court staff, town officials and deputies on the roads. Now the town and Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, which patrols Hilton Head, are expanding the program to outfit 10 deputies with the technology this year.
“I know the deputies who have it, and I don’t think I could actually give them another handwritten ticket book,” said Capt. Toby McSwain, who oversees the sheriff’s southern enforcement division.
Deputies can write three to four tickets in the time it usually takes to write one, McSwain said.
The technology also “puts the deputy back out into traffic and back out on the road a lot quicker,” town operations manager Tom Fultz said.
The state Department of Public Safety’s goal is to switch all tickets to the computerized system within two years, if not sooner, director Jim Schweitzer said.
As with any switch to a paperless electronic system, the savings in efficiency and cost are expected to be substantial.
But it wasn’t an easy switch at first.
The town began pursuing the idea two years ago after an audit of Municipal Court operations recommended the switch. But before it could go forward, the town had to get a portion of state law changed to allow for the electronic transmission of tickets.
Gov. Mark Sanford signed the law in March 2005, and the town began developing the computer programs for the cruisers and courts. It purchased printers and scanners at a cost of about $300 for each cruiser.
The system was ready for a test run this past spring, and about 1,800 tickets have been processed so far.
The state enters traffic violations into a database, and it used to return about 20 percent of the tickets because they were illegible or unclear, creating further delays in getting the violations processed, town officials said. Now, only a handful of tickets get returned.
Tim Donnelly is a reporter for the Island Packet of Hilton Head, a McClatchy newspaper.
HOW IT WORKS
Driver’s license scanners have been added to deputies’ laptop computers. The license is scanned and the driver’s information — name, birth date, address — pops up on a form. The deputy then enters the incident information into the computer fields — vehicle type, violation, speed and conditions.
For multiple violations, the officer only has to click to move all the information over for another ticket, instead of handwriting separate pieces of paper for each one. Two copies of the ticket are produced by a small laser printer, one for the driver and one as a back-up copy for the officer.
Then, at the end of the shift, officers upload the day’s tickets into a computer in the Sheriff’s Department.
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3) Hot tips on staying cool
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http://www.thestate.com/local/story/156650.html
Hot tips on staying cool
Stay cool during the Midlands’ long hot summer by keeping yourself hydrated.
A lack of proper hydration inhibits your body’s ability to keep itself cool by sweating. Follow these guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Drink water or other fluids regardless of what you’re doing.
• Don’t wait until you feel thirsty; if you must go outside, try to have at least two servings each hour.
Sweet tea, while yummy, might actually cause you to lose body fluid. Same with alcoholic drinks.
Also know the warning signs of heat illness:
Heat cramps may crop up suddenly during or following intense exertion. Often in the legs, heat cramps are temporarily disabling, causing affected muscles to painfully ball up.
What to do: To replenish lost sodium, drink a sports beverage such as Gatorade or water containing some added table salt (sodium chloride).
Heat exhaustion is often called heat prostration or heat collapse. The skin usually is cool and sweaty, and eye pupils dilated (widened). Body temperature may be normal and blood pressure low. Other symptoms include weakness, dizziness, nausea, headache and faintness.
What to do: Move the person to a cool place and put in a head-low position. If able, the individual should drink a sodium-containing beverage.
Heat stroke is a life-threatening emergency in which the core body temperature soars, sweating is absent and the skin hot, dry and red. Symptoms include headache, numbness, tingling and confusion, fast pulse, rapid breathing and possible delirium or loss of consciousness.
What to do: Quick cooling is required. After calling 911, spray or sponge the person's body with cool water and fan it to enhance cooling. If available, apply ice packs to the neck, armpits and groin.
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4) DuPont trails, steps to receive maintenance
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http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070818/NEWS01/70817139/1257/OUTDOORS
DuPont trails, steps to receive maintenance
By Jon Ostendorff
JOstendorff@citizen-times.com
August 18, 2007 12:15 am
CEDAR MOUNTAIN — Work this fall in DuPont State Forest will replace aging steps at a waterfall and make a trail easier to climb while stopping harmful erosion.
Cedar Mountain-based company Trail Dynamics won a $15,550 contract for three construction projects in the forest.
The work will focus on the Burnt Mountain and Ridgeline trails and the High Falls viewing area. Work will start this fall and should be done by spring, said David Brown, forest supervisor.
The Burnt Mountain Trail work includes rebuilding drainage along 10,200 feet of the path and rebuilding 6,000 feet of the trailhead.
On Ridgeline Trail, 5,500 feet will be relocated to a gentler slope to reduce erosion and make the trail safer for hikers, bikers and horseback riders. A thousand feet of an old logging road will be turned into a single-track trail as part of the Ridgeline Trail work.
At High Falls, crosstie steps between the picnic shelter and midslope viewing area will be removed and a short trail will be built to replace the steps.
The work will be paid for with a grant from the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation and the Friends of DuPont Forest group.
“Visitors will be able to enjoy the surrounding scenery without having to watch every step they take around rocks and gullies,” Brown said.
Trail Dynamics has worked in the forest before, Brown said. And it has volunteered time to improve the forest’s 80 miles of roads and trails.
Owner Woody Keen said improving the trails at DuPont is important because well-built trails are good for the environment and are more pleasant to use.
He said some trails at DuPont are simply old logging roads that weren’t designed for foot, horse or bike travel. Some are eroding, which means poor water quality. And people skip parts they don’t like.
The steps at High Falls are a good example, he said. They are not hiker friendly, so visitors make their own trail, which is bad for the forest.
“A trail has a very intimate relationship with the landscape,” he said. “It is designed to undulate and meander.”
Trail improvements are not planned for the Triple Falls area where a man fell to his death earlier this month. Brown said since the accident, forest workers have installed an additional sign directing visitors to the trail to the top of the falls. The man was not on the trail when he fell.
DuPont is between Hendersonville and Brevard. It has 10,400 acres and attracts more than 120,000 visitors a year.
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5) Residents want I-73 built farther west
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FF Note: This area currently lacks representation in ABATE. However in a decade or so the area will be much larger and even more important to bikers if they wish to have enough influence in the legislature to protect their common rights.
http://www.thestate.com/breaking/story/158283.html
Residents want I-73 built farther west
HAMLET, N.C. - Residents at a second public hearing about the northern leg of Interstate 73 in South Carolina said they want to see the highway routed more to the west.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation meeting was held Tuesday night. Four miles of the South Carolina segment of the interstate are in North Carolina, where it will end at I-74 near Hamlet.
The preferred route for the 30 miles of the new highway from Interstate 95 in South Carolina north is through western Dillon County into Marlboro County, skirting just to the east of Bennettsville, S.C., before crossing into North Carolina.
The state has already chosen a route to take the new freeway from I-95 southeast to Myrtle Beach. The entire road is expected to cost nearly $2 billion in South Carolina and take 10 years to complete once construction begins.
Five people spoke at the public meeting. They wanted the highway to go farther west to bring more economic impact to places in South Carolina like Cheraw and Bennettsville.
The western route is closer to an airport, hospital and other infrastructure, said Dottie Babb, a lifelong Marlboro County resident.
Transportation officials will consider the comments along with field studies this fall as they determine if the agency's preferred route is the best plan, said Mitchell Metts, SCDOT's Interstate 73 project manager.
DOT officials have said they did not pick the western route initially because it would have cost more and required more people to move.
Democratic state Rep. Doug Jennings, who represents Marlboro County, said I-73 will be a "lifeline to future growth" no matter where it is built.
"Along with that change in the way of life people have become accustomed to for generations will come progress in the bigger sense," Jennings said.
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6) In a wall of words, defiance still echoes
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FF Note: If you know South Carolina the you should be able to understand the relation of this article with the one directly above. ABATE like Strom must change with the times if it is to remain an effective biker rights organization.
http://www.thestate.com/news/story/158115.html
In a wall of words, defiance still echoes
By WAYNE WASHINGTON - wwashington@thestate.com
A half-century ago today, Strom Thurmond ended what remains the longest filibuster in the long-winded history of the U.S. Senate.
Thurmond — nine years removed from a campaign for president undertaken to protect segregation — spoke against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes.
His filibuster irked even his fellow segregationists in the Senate, who had succeeded in watering down the act’s most important protections for black voting rights.
But Thurmond went on his one-man stand against the bill anyway, damning it as an attack on the Constitution and in the process re-established himself as one of segregation’s biggest supporters.
The filibuster is an important part of Thurmond’s legacy. It captured his white-supremacy views of the time as it revealed his mastery in cloaking his opposition to integration in cultural and legal terms.
“I’m not against civil rights,” Thurmond said during his marathon address. “I’m not against voting. I’m for real civil rights.”
WANING DAYS
Time has obscured the context of Thurmond’s filibuster.
He had run for president as a Dixiecrat in 1948, winning four Southern states and declaring that there were not enough troops in the U.S. Army to force Southern whites to accept desegregation.
But time was not on segregation’s side.
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the concept of “separate but equal” in the school-desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education. Black political influence rose.
Republican President Dwight Eisenhower and new Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Baines Johnson, D-Texas, both had a desire to appease this emerging constituency.
Thurmond, then a Democrat, faced his own pressures.
Many white South Carolinians were dead-set against integration and wanted their representatives to fight it, no matter the future political implications.
S.C. Gov. George Timmerman, leaving office in 1959 and thought to be a potential opponent of Thurmond, said South Carolinians should “demand that their representatives stand up for what is right or step aside and let there be elected men with political courage who will.”
On the day Thurmond’s filibuster began, The State newspaper ran a front-page story describing a letter written by Robert M. Kennedy, a former state senator from Camden, urging South Carolina’s leaders to oppose the 1957 Civil Rights Act.
Kennedy described the bill as “vicious” and said: “Our only hope now is in Senate filibuster.”
A filibuster had already been rejected by Democratic leaders in the Senate.
Johnson and U.S. Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia, dean of the Southern senators, had struck a deal to weaken the bill.
Russell, who vigorously opposed the bill but knew he did not have the votes to sustain a filibuster, told Johnson that Southern senators would not try to talk the bill to death.
Unwittingly he left the door open for Thurmond when he said Southern senators could speak out against the bill as they saw fit.
THURMOND SPEAKS
Strom Thurmond took the Senate floor at 8:55 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1957.
As Thurmond stood against integration, it’s doubtful anyone in the chamber knew he had a 31-year-old daughter from a relationship with his family’s black maid.
Thurmond would filibuster the bill, but, perhaps sensitive to the deal Russell had cut, he would not call it a filibuster.
“I wouldn’t use that word,” an Associated Press story in The State quoted an unnamed Thurmond aide as saying. “The senator says he has some educating to do.”
In his book “Strom,” Jack Bass wrote that Thurmond knew he would be speaking for a long time. He had taken steam baths to dehydrate so that, when he drank liquids, he could absorb the fluids without going to the bathroom and losing his right to the floor.
His wife, Jean, fed him a large sirloin steak. News reports said Thurmond ate bits of sirloin at some points during his marathon speech, in violation of Senate rules banning food from the chamber floor.
Thurmond made several deviations from the strict rules of the Senate during his filibuster.
After answering a question from a colleague, he sat down, potentially losing his right to the floor. After an aide whispered to him, he sprang to his feet.
He left the chamber briefly to eat a sandwich, again creating an opening for another senator to claim the floor. But Vice President Richard Nixon, presiding over the Senate, did not notice — or, out of senatorial courtesy, pretended not to notice.
Just before Thurmond’s quick break ended, The Associated Press described how Nixon, examining some papers, called on him:
“The chair recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina,” Nixon said, without looking up, and Thurmond came dashing back into the chamber, his mouth full of food.
As Thurmond read the voting laws of each state and read from Supreme Court decisions, others goaded and tempted him.
Thurmond had called the bill “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Sen. William Knowland, R-Calif., snapped that Thurmond’s speech was cruel and unusual punishment.
Sen. Paul Douglas, D-Ill., placed a large pitcher of orange juice in front of Thurmond.
Thurmond liked orange juice and took a few sips. “But,” The AP reported, “an alert aide, realizing that to drink liquids could mean disaster, snatched the pitcher from the senator’s desk and put it on the floor, out of reach.”
Popping malted milk tablets, Thurmond did not yield the floor until 9:12 the next evening, breaking the previous filibuster record held by Sen. Wayne Morse, a Democratic senator from Oregon who in 1953 spoke against an oil-drilling bill for 22 hours and 26 minutes.
Thurmond wrapped up his filibuster with comedy.
“If I had time, I’d tell you all the decisions handed down by this Supreme Court,” he said, prompting laughter from his colleagues.
Two hours after Thurmond’s filibuster ended, the Senate voted 60-15 in favor of the act.
The watered-down legislation, which established a commission on civil rights and created a civil rights division in the Justice Department, is not seen today as momentous in its own right. Its importance, historians and civil rights advocates say, lies instead in its legacy as a protector of the big changes that would come later.
“It created a structure, a framework,” said the Rev. Joseph Darby, a Charleston pastor and civil rights advocate. “What it did was, when there would be progress, when something would be done, you would have a commission on civil rights. You would have a Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department.”
Thurmond’s filibuster eased whatever political pressure he might have felt.
Gov. Timmerman held a press conference and praised Thurmond’s “indomitable courage.”
Timmerman did not run against Thurmond.
Blease Graham, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina, said Thurmond may have fretted that his segregationist stands left him more vulnerable as he sought re-election.
But Thurmond, who lost his first bid for the U.S. Senate in 1950, never lost another election.
Darby said the filibuster showed that, in 1957, the South remained “an intransigent region” in the face of change.
The filibuster and Thurmond’s long tenure also showed his skill as a politician.
“When there was a need for a raving racist, he was a raving racist,” Darby said. “When he saw that times had changed, he changed.”
Reach senior writer Wayne Washington at (803) 771-8385.
3 CIVIL RIGHTS ACTS
• The 1957 Civil Rights Act had the least impact of the three acts Congress passed to strike down segregation and protect black voting rights. But historians say getting it through Congress and having President Dwight Eisenhower sign it paved the way for more sweeping laws.
The 1957 Civil Rights Act
• Established a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a Civil Rights Division in the U.S. Justice Department to protect voters’ right to cast a ballot.
• Deleted was a provision giving the U.S. attorney general special powers to protect voting rights. Other protections were watered down.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act
• The most sweeping. It outlawed segregation in public places and education.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Improved upon the 1957 act. It outlawed the practice of imposing literacy tests on would-be voters and established federal monitoring of voter registration and voting laws.
THE FILIBUSTER
• Filibuster is the term used to describe a U.S. senator’s effort to delay or kill legislation by taking the floor and discussing it at length.
• Any U.S. senator can filibuster any piece of legislation, giving each of the body’s 100 members extraordinary power. Generally, a senator must remain in the chamber speaking during a filibuster.
• A minimum of two-thirds of the Senate, typically 60 members, must vote to end a filibuster.
• In recent years, with control of the Senate held by a slim majority of Democrats or Republicans, merely the threat of a filibuster has greatly influenced the volume and shape of legislation. If the minority party does not like what is being proposed, threatening a filibuster is an effective tool in changing or blocking the legislation.
— Wayne Washington
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7) Cameras may join city's crime fighting arsenal
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FF Note: I wonder if they will watch for motorcycles entering public parking garages? The City of Charleston is trying to prevent motorcycles from using the garages but has failed to pass an ordinance or post adequate signage to make the effort legal.
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/aug/29/cameras_may_join_citys_crimefighting_ars14298/
Cameras may join city's crime fighting arsenal
By Glenn Smith
The eyes of Charleston police may soon be upon you as you stroll through the streets of the Holy City.
Police Chief Greg Mullen said Tuesday he wants to install video surveillance cameras in high-crime areas to monitor public spaces for signs of trouble. Cameras can help police spot crimes in the making and better track crooks as they try to make their getaway, he said.
Mullen wants to start off with about 10 cameras, and is seeking federal grant money to pay for the equipment.
"I think there are a lot of opportunities for us to use this technology for crime-fighting initiatives," he said. "This technology is a way to make the city safer."
Video surveillance has become more commonplace across the country, with cities such as Chicago making wide use of the technology. But all-seeing cameras still spark debates in many communities, pitting public safety against civil liberty concerns.
Mullen said he is sensitive to those concerns and wants to make sure the community is comfortable with the plan before the department proceeds. Strict policies would govern use of the cameras, and they wouldn't be used to spy on private homes or individuals. They would simply record what occurs on streets and other public spaces, he said.
"Everything would be in public venues," he said. "The only thing the camera sees is what people normally would see when they walk down the sidewalk."
City Councilman Wendell Gilliard praised the proposal. He has long advocated the use of surveillance cameras to curtail drug dealing and other crime. Gilliard pushed for signs that were posted around the city warning passers-by that they could be subject to video surveillance. The taping, for the most part, was left to residents.
"Cameras have proven to be a big crime preventative measure, and I think we ought to use them," he said. "It's been a long time coming here."
Throughout his career, Mullen has looked to emerging technologies to help combat crime. He shepherded a similar video surveillance program, to mixed reviews, while working as a police commander in Virginia Beach. Critics accused police of employing invasive Big Brother tactics.
But many residents considered the cameras an innocuous tool that helped make the beach front safer.
A $200,000 pilot program paired the resort city's cameras with facial recognition software designed to help police identify and catch criminals in tourist areas. Technical problems marred the facial recognition program, which didn't yield a single arrest in the three years it was in place.
But Mullen said the cameras themselves proved to be invaluable tools, helping police pinpoint crime and make more efficient use of manpower and resources.
Arthur Lawrence, president of the Charleston's West Side Neighborhood Association, also supports video surveillance. His neighborhood has struggled for years with crime and violence. In March, a 37-year-old woman was shot to death at Bogard and President streets. Her body was found just a few blocks from Nunan Street, where a 32-year-old man had died in a shooting one week earlier.
"If cameras were out here, police could see exactly what's going on. I think the neighborhood would welcome it," Lawrence said. "The only people who should have a concern are the people who are doing something wrong."
City Councilman Jimmy Gallant, chairman of council's public safety committee, said the cameras could be a benefit to the city as long there are assurances that they won't be used to infringe on people's rights or target particular groups.
"I would want to see them used across the board," he said. "I don't just want to see them dumped in high-crime areas of the African-American community."
Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.
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