Richard Quigley Passes But Fight Continues
I hope you enjoy today's Biker Ezine issue as it is a bit long; read the articles and topics of interest to you. More photos from the past weekend will be posted soon.
Quig's fight with cancer has finally ended. However his fight with helmet laws continues as other BOLT member pick up the standard and continue to charge in to the fray. Carolina BOLT member FF won a dismissal of a helmet ticket just prior to Quig’s passing and another Carolina BOLT member Roger is in court today fighting a NC helmet ticket.
Closer to home we have biker down. Please keep JT our Horry ABATE Chapter Coordinator in your thoughts and prayers as he makes a speedy recovery from his recent crash. By all accounts his head must be nearly as hard as mine as he cheated death but suffered some road rash to his head.
Culled from today's newspapers are a couple of new ideas to fund motorcycle training and awareness in South Carolina. Read on...
~FF
1) Round Two of the Fight to Ride Free in NC
2) Harley-Davidson to close for one week
3) Grants seen as a two-way street <- Possible funding method?
4) Charity pork a top dish at Capitol <- Possible funding method?
5) South Carolina is one of two states in which lawmakers elect judges.
6) Ship honors Civil War hero
7) Iowa's Motorcycle Helmet Law at Risk
8) 'Uphill battle' for a Pa. helmet law
9) Black South Carolinians are Democrats, but socially conservative
10) Judicial battle likely
11) S.C. Club for Growth calls out GOP legislators
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1) Round Two of the Fight to Ride Free in NC
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Round Two of the Fight to Ride Free in NC
Article and photos by FastFred Ruddock
September 13, 2007 I appeared in court for a helmet citation in Polk County. I patiently waited as we were called in alphabetical order. When my case was finally called the Assistant District Attorney asked me if I had a helmet and asked to see it. I showed her my "safety helmet" and she told me it was “not really a helmet.” However she immediately dismissed my case. This took me by surprise. Upon parting the Assistant District Attorney asked in a somewhat worried tone if she would be seeing more of me. I am not sure of the why or why not but the state trooper had spoken with the judge and others just an hour before my ticket was tossed out.
Quigley died just two days after this ticket was dismissed. If you would like to show your respects try to get a ticket for riding without a helmet and fight it in court.
This article is written in tribute to Richard Quigley: December 25, 1943 - September 15, 2007
See photos at http://www.fastfreds.com/trips/round2/index.htm
Learn more about Quig at http://usff.com/calbolt/richard_quigley.html
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2) Harley-Davidson to close for one week
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http://www.ydr.com/newsfull/ci_6900893
Harley to close for one week
Local workers will get health care benefits, but no pay, for the week in November.
By SEAN ADKINS
Daily Record/Sunday News
Sep 15, 2007 — Harley-Davidson will cut production by closing its Springettsbury Township plant and others for one week this fall, the company said Friday.
The Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker, which continues to face low dealer sales, told its workers Friday that the company will shut down its final assembly plants in Springettsbury Township and Kansas City, Mo., for the week of Nov. 26.
In addition, Harley-Davidson will shut down its powertrain operations in Wauwatosa, Wis., and Menomonee Falls, Wis., and its Tomahawk Operations in Tomahawk, Wis., that week.
The company will not pay its employees during the shutdown, said Bob Klein, a spokesman for Harley-Davidson.
Workers laid off during the shutdowns will continue to receive health care coverage, company spokeswoman Rebecca Bortner said in an e-mail.
The manufacturer will recall all laid-off workers after the shutdown, Klein said.
“The company regrets the temporary impact the shipment reduction will have on so many of its employees as well as its dealers, suppliers and customers,” Bortner said in the e-mail. “The company believes this solution is the best option for balancing the needs of our stakeholders while doing what's right for the long-term prosperity of the company.”
On Sept. 7, the company stated that it expects to reduce its third-quarter shipments to between 86,000 and 88,000 motorcycles.
Previously, the company had planned to ship between 91,000 to 95,000 motorcycles within the third quarter.
Full-year shipments are expected to be in the range of 328,000 to 332,000 motorcycles.
Overall reduced consumer spending and low dealer sales in August are to blame for the production cuts, the company has said.
This year has proven tumultuous for Harley-Davidson and its workers.
In February, most of Harley-Davidson's unionized workers at its Springettsbury Township plant voted to strike when the company and the union could not reach an agreement on a contract.
The work stoppage lasted three weeks and ended when workers approved a three-year contract Feb. 22.
Reach Sean Adkins at 771-2047 or sadkins@ydr.com.
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3) Grants seen as a two-way street
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FF Note: Possible funding for motorcycle training and awareness?
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/sep/17/grants_seen_as_two_way_street16207/
Grants seen as a two-way street
'Political Favors Program' vs. giving back to community
By Yvonne Wenger
The Post and Courier
'Political Favors Program' vs. giving back to community
How it works
Competitive grant applications are made to a five-member committee, the duties of which are carried out administratively by the state Budget and Control Board.
The chairman of the committee, Jimmy Bailey, meets with legislative staff to help evaluate applications and ensure they are awarded equally across the state.
Some of the fundamental criteria used when the applications are reviewed include how wealthy an area is or whether the project can move forward without a grant, Bailey said.
Bailey said he is working on drafting recommendations to better define the merits of a project to aid in the competitive analysis, he said.
The committee is likely to meet again at least once before the end of the year.
Grants typically are awarded two or three times a year.
Applications can be for any amount and do not require matching funds but must have a legislative sponsor.
Searchable Database
Click here for a searchable database of grants, their sponsors and amounts.
$65,000 for a statue of a South Carolina football player.
$100,000 for a soccer club in Greenville.
$500,000 to a community health center with ties to a state lawmaker.
That's some of what you paid for with "competitive grants," a program in which charities, churches, municipalities and other groups make a dash for state tax dollars.
Leaders of these groups and their lawmaker sponsors say this relatively new grant system helps return tax dollars to communities and promote important causes.
Critics say it's a pork factory designed to help incumbent lawmakers curry favor with voters in their districts.
A Post and Courier examination of state grants and earmarks shows that lawmakers sometimes quietly pump money into charities and other causes with which they have family or professional ties.
During the past two years, the competitive grant program has become the preferred method of dishing out money to nonprofits and other pet projects.
Lawmakers created the program in 2005 after Gov. Mark Sanford campaigned against the practice of slipping earmarks for pet projects in the state budget.
Since then, charities, churches, municipalities and other organizations have submitted 3,000 grant applications to a panel of political appointees.
So far, this panel has handed out 460 grants worth more than $30 million.
By the end of the year, this committee could award another $18 million.
The newspaper analysis shows that sports fans have been big winners in this race.
More than $1.5 million went to grants for sports complexes, sod for ball fields, new parking spots and renovated restrooms and concession stands.
One $250,000 grant sponsored by Dan Cooper, a Piedmont lawmaker and chairman of the House Ways and Means
Committee, went to Anderson County to help construct the Dolly Cooper Sports Complex, named for Cooper's father.
Cooper argued that the Anderson County Council decided to name the sports complex after his father and drafted the application. He says he was asked to sign on as a sponsor because it was in his district.
"I didn't ask them to do it," he said. "I don't see that as a conflict. It's not my land. It's not my park. My kids aren't participating in any of those programs right now."
The nonprofit Carolina Elite Soccer Academy, the state's largest youth soccer club, received a $100,000 grant to help expand their massive private soccer complex near Greenville.
The group's co-executive director, Pearse Tormey, said the grant was more than justified because the club hosts regional tournaments that draw thousands of people to the area. "There's a huge economic impact."
The South Carolina Junior Golf Foundation located in Irmo received $50,000 for its program to teach "life skills and character development through the game of golf."
Tim Kreger, the group's director of development, explained that the program helps 1,000 children across the state.
Music fans also got their share.
A $50,000 grant went to the Beach Music Association International in North Myrtle Beach to expand Beach Music Day, and $98,000 went to the Auntie Karen Foundation based in Columbia to produce a 30-minute TV pilot to promote jazz music to young viewers.
Gardeners weren't ignored either. A $100,000 was awarded to Friends of Swan Lake Gardens in Sumter to buy a bronze sculpture.
Nor were fans of football and cotton. Another $65,000 went to the South Carolina Cotton Museum in Bishopville to buy a statue in the likeness of Felix "Doc" Blanchard, a notable South Carolina football player and 1945 recipient of the Heisman Trophy.
The grant master
As chairman of the competitive grants committee, former West Ashley lawmaker Jimmy Bailey, says he personally reviewed every one.
Bailey argues that the grants are used to spur economic growth and boost tourism by returning tax dollars to the public by funding dozens of local festivals, spending money on hometown ball fields and enabling nonprofits like the Lowcountry Food Bank to improve the quality of life.
Referring to the Dolly Cooper complex grant, Bailey said Anderson is growing economically and its residents are looking for quality of life opportunities.
"Quality of life in Charleston is the arts and the outdoors," Bailey said. "In Anderson, quality of life has a lot to do with recreational activities for young people."
So far, the largest one-time grant — $500,000 — was awarded to ReGenesis Community Health Center in Spartanburg, and the smallest two — worth $1,200 each — went toward the Cheraw Spring Fling and the July Fourth festivities in Lancaster County.
Rep. Harold Mitchell, D-Spartanburg, created ReGenesis to address health concerns stemming from pollution in the area. Mitchell is executive director of the health center's sister organization that deals with environmental concerns. However, he said, the ReGenesis health center and the environmental initiative are registered as two separate entities with the federal government and operate under the oversight of separate boards.
Mitchell said he does not work for the health center and is not on its payroll. He also noted that the health center's grant is administered by the University of South Carolina and that it receives federal funding.
Festivals and favors
Lawmakers say bringing state resources back home is part of their job. But the governor has been especially critical of the grants process.
Sanford says it's clandestine and there's nothing competitive about it. While the individual projects may have merit, he argues that the grants are given out based on a who-knows-who basis.
Chad Walldorf, chairman of the board for the S.C. Club for Growth and Sanford's former deputy chief of staff, said, "It should be more accurately named the 'Good Ol' Boy Political Favors Program.' "
During the past two years, $23,000 has gone to the South Carolina Poultry Festival — a few days of dances, parades, fireworks and games that draw about 100,000 people each year to Batesburg-Leesville.
"If we give $2,000 or $5,000 to a festival, I just don't see what the big deal is," Bailey said. "They might not be able to do it without it. If you ever go to one of these festivals, you will see how happy these people are. It's a quality of life issue."
Sanford has drawn the ire of Bailey and many lawmakers because of his condemnation of the process.
But Bailey said the governor's approach is "very transparent." If the grant program is so bad, Bailey said, Sanford should be able to convince the 170-member Legislature to stop it. And that hasn't happened.
Bailey also pointed out that Sanford wanted $150,000 for the National Governor's Association 2006 annual meeting in Charleston, which was granted.
"I see right through what they are trying to do," Bailey said. "They are trying to divert attention away from their own ineptness. I am beginning to think the governor of the state of South Carolina is a flake."
The governor's spokesman, Joel Sawyer, said the governor's meeting brought $4 million of economic impact to the Charleston area. However, it was the first grant awarded through the process and knowing what they now know, the governor might not have applied for it.
As far as the governor's criticism of the grant-making process, Sawyer added: "Mr. Bailey ought to recognize it's incredibly difficult to convince legislators to shut down their own slush fund. It's basically a honey pot for powerful legislators."
Reach Yvonne Wenger at 803-799-9051 or ywenger@ postandcourier.com. Reach Tony Bartelme at tbartelme@postandcourier.com or 937-5554.
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4) Charity pork a top dish at Capitol
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FF Note: Another possible funding source for motorcycle training and awareness?
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/sep/16/charity_pork_top_dish_at_capitol16132/
Charity pork a top dish at Capitol
Lawmakers quietly funnel funds to favored groups
By Tony Bartelme
The Post and Courier
Searchable Database
http://www.charleston.net/stategrants/
Click here for a searchable database of grants, their sponsors and amounts.
In early 2005, state Rep. Ken Kennedy asked the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to send $18,000 to Vital Aging of Williamsburg County, a nonprofit that serves the elderly.
The day Vital Aging got its $18,000 check, the nonprofit donated $10,000 to a high school scholarship fund controlled by Kennedy's family.
At commencement exercises three weeks later, Kennedy's niece was awarded money from the scholarship fund.
Kennedy, D-Greeleyville, is far from alone when it comes to doling out grants and other state tax dollars to charities. Lawmakers at all levels of government have been doing this for years, often to score points with voters in their districts or advance their own political agendas.
But a Post and Courier examination of state grants and earmarks shows that some elected officials quietly pump money into charities with which they have close family or professional ties.
In a few cases, lawmakers requested money for charities they direct.
In other cases, lawmakers funnel money to charities with controversial programs, prompting some to question why state government is playing rainmaker to nonprofits in the first place.
Many of these requests are buried in the budget and involve relatively small sums of money.
"That allows them to fly under the radar," said John Crangle, director of Common Cause of South Carolina, a government watchdog group. "It seems like there's a custom where you're allowed to have a certain amount of slush money you can divvy in your district."
Special delivery
Last year, Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, asked DHEC to send $8,256 to CASA Family Systems, according to a letter dated June 8, 2006.
CASA Family Systems helps victims of domestic violence, and Cobb-Hunter is the organization's executive director. She receives a $73,000 salary from the group, federal tax records show.
In an interview, Cobb-Hunter said DHEC began giving the agency small sums in the late 1980s, years before she became a member of the General Assembly.
That practice continued after she became a lawmaker. She said that after Earl Hunter became DHEC commissioner in 2001, agency officials asked her to write a letter formally requesting the money. She's not sure why, "and I didn't give it a second thought. I just wrote the letter."
Is there anything wrong with a lawmaker asking a state agency to send money to an organization where she works? "I don't have any heartburn over that as long as the money is used for a legitimate purpose," Cobb-Hunter said.
In some cases, lawmakers ask agencies to send them checks made out to the nonprofits so they can hand deliver the money. Several lawmakers said this is simply good politics.
For instance, in one letter to DHEC last year, Rep. Joe Mahaffey, R-Spartanburg, asked the agency to send him a check for $24,000 made out to the Middle Tyger Community Center, a free clinic in a rural area Upstate. Mahaffey is on the nonprofit's board.
In an interview, Mahaffey said DHEC told him to explain his request for the money, "and they send it to me so I can deliver it. Earl Hunter (the DHEC chairman) knows about it all. It's all very worthwhile."
Mahaffey and several other lawmakers said these funding efforts were vital to keep some charities running.
In an e-mail to DHEC earlier this year, state Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, asked the agency to send $20,000 to Pickens County Health Partners. The e-mail said the group needed the money, "to get them through the next year as they raise money to sustain the program into the future." The organization promotes wellness programs that discourage teen drinking, smoking and other negative lifestyle choices.
In an interview, Martin said one of the charity's grants had run out and its leaders needed money to buy time before other grant money came through. He said he knew and respected the people involved in the group. "We're talking about $20,000, and we would get a pretty good return on our investment," by keeping it afloat, he said, adding that some state agencies spend that much just to print a brochure. He said nonprofits and agencies are constantly asking for money, and it's his role as a legislator to help them get as much money as he can.
Lack of accountability
Politicians have long steered money to nonprofits and other groups that supported their political agendas, even when some of these groups have controversial programs.
That happened here recently when a Charleston County Council member proposed giving $1,000 to a group that favors drug law reforms. Less than two weeks ago, council members divvied up $203,500 to about 40 nonprofits and other groups.
On the federal level, recent scandals about congressional earmarks also have triggered cries for reform. Groups such as Citizens Against Government Waste have railed for years about earmarks — special spending measures that lawmakers slip into legislation — and nonprofits that rely on government money.
Two years ago, Gov. Mark Sanford told agencies under his umbrella to stop doling out money to charities through earmarks and other budget machinations. Now, agencies under his control are required to go through a competitive grant process. But the governor said even that system is being abused.
"In a general sense," said Joel Sawyer, the governor's spokesman, we think the way (competitive grant program is) has the appearance of a slush fund for legislators who want to fund pet projects without going through the legislative process."
While some grants are relatively small, such as the $10,000 boost to the Belton Tennis Association to resurface tennis courts, a few nonprofits have grown dramatically by dining on government pork.
In 1995, for instance, Heritage Community Services, a group that teaches abstinence in schools, worked out of a small office at the old Charleston Navy base and had a budget of about $50,000. In 1999, George W. Bush visited one of Heritage's workshops during his first presidential campaign stop in South Carolina. The group remains well-connected, with Cyndi Mosteller, sister of Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, sitting on the group's board. Over the years, Charleston-area lawmakers, such as state House Speaker Bobby Harrell and state Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, have sponsored grant applications for the group.
In all, during the past decade, Heritage received more than $8 million in state and federal money. This year, the state's budget included $1.4 million for Heritage Community Services. In its most recent tax filing, the group said its annual revenues exceeded $3 million. All but $50,806 came from government sources.
The charity nabbed these state dollars even as local and national educators questioned the group's materials and programs. A federally funded study by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. recently found that a component of Heritage's program had "no impact on sexual abstinence, sexual activity, or most other risk behaviors examined."
'Best intentions'
The Vital Aging of Williamsburg County case is an intriguing example of how state agencies and nonprofits can be used as funnels.
Vital Aging operates three centers for seniors in Kingstree, Greeleyville and Hemingway, and Kennedy has been one of its staunchest supporters. In several interviews, he said he's obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in state money for the agency over the years. One center is named after the Kennedy family.
Kennedy said he asked DHEC in early 2005 to send him a check for $18,000 made out to Vital Aging. He said a Vital Aging board member asked if their group could make a donation to him, and he told them to send it to the family scholarship fund. He said he was flattered with the agency's contribution and saw nothing unusual in a group that helps senior citizens contributing to a high school scholarship fund.
In an interview earlier this year, Tom Mahoney, Vital Aging's former financial officer, said that the same day the agency deposited the $18,000 check from DHEC, the group's executive director at the time, Judy Elder, told him to cut a $10,000 check for the Kennedy family scholarship fund.
(Last week, a grand jury indicted Elder on a charge that she embezzled more than $1,000 from a federal foster grandparent program. The indictment does not involve the DHEC money.)
"Judy Elder had informed me long before we got the check that Ken Kennedy would be getting some money because of a favor he had done for someone else, and that he wanted to deposit money in our account, but he would get half and we would get half," Mahoney told the newspaper.
Kennedy's niece received an award from the scholarship a month later at CE Murray's commencement exercises, school records show. Kennedy said his niece received between $500 and $1,000.
He said that he wasn't involved in the decision to award the scholarship, and that as soon as DHEC made its contribution to Vital Aging, he told school officials that his family would turn over control of the fund to the school. "The money my niece got was money my family had put in" before the $10,000 Vital Aging donation, he said.
School officials said they first learned about Vital Aging's $10,000 donation to the scholarship fund at least a month after Kennedy's niece received the award. The school now controls the fund, according to school records obtained under the state Freedom of Information Act.
"If you're trying to find out if a member of my family got a piece of that $10,000, that didn't happen," Kennedy said. "Everything was done with the best of intentions."
Reach Tony Bartelme at 937-5554 or tbartelme@postandcourier.com. Reach Yvonne Wenger at 803 799-9051 or ywenger@postandcourier.com.
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5) South Carolina is one of two states in which lawmakers elect judges.
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http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/sep/17/focus_on_judicial_selections16211/
Focus on judicial selections
Panel to examine election by legislators
By Yvonne Wenger
In our area
South Carolina: Judicial merit selection commission comprised mostly of legislators and legislativte, nonpartisan elections.
North Carolina: Nonpartisan public elections and the first state to adopt full public financing of judicial elections.
Georgia: Nonpartisan, public elections with mid-term vacancies filled by gubernatorial appointment. The majority gains their seats through appointment and competes in contested elections.
Interesting graphic regarding methods of other states:
http://media.charleston.net/img/photos/2007/09/17/picking.jpg
COLUMBIA — South Carolina is one of two states in which lawmakers elect judges.
Critics of the system say the practice can lead to political activism on the bench or make it possible for lawmakers to hand out judgeships to friends and supporters.
Proponents say South Carolina and Virginia have it right.
They argue that legislative elections, unlike public ones, don't require costly campaigns and leave little room for special interests or trial lawyers to win favor with judges through cash contributions. What's more, supporters argue, judicial candidates don't run on platforms, rendering public elections essentially meaningless.
Opponents argue that important judgeships in the state are contingent on relationships and behind-the-scenes deals, possibly on future constitutional rulings.
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, called for a Senate study committee to convene today to begin evaluating the process and potential alternatives, including public elections. Set to testify are trial lawyers, members of the defense bar and state Chief Justice Jean Toal.
The last round of judicial elections left many thinking it was time for reform. In May, the Legislature, among other judicial elections, voted to seat a new state Supreme Court justice and sent Circuit Judge Daniel Pieper of Hanahan to the Appeals Court.
For the first time in a decade, South Carolina legislators will take a close look at the process, as 18 judicial seats are open, including a position on the Supreme Court held by Justice James E. Moore, who is scheduled to retire.
Accusations in the last round, surfacing publicly almost exclusively from senators, point to the process as becoming corrupted, critics say, with some saying elections are won even before a screening panel nominates candidates.
Some claimed horse trading, or swapping votes, went on in the race to elect Justice Don Beatty of Spartanburg to the Supreme Court.
Malia Reddick, director of research and programs at the American Judicature Society, will testify today and offer information about judicial elections across the country. The organization is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group created in 1913 to study judicial branch issues.
The organization advocates a merit selection process for electing judges that involves a group of lawyers and others to screen and nominate applicants for judgeships. Next, a short list of qualified candidates would be sent to the state's governor to make the appointment. When the term ends, voters would be asked whether that judge should remain in office.
Although South Carolina runs its judicial applicants through a merit selection commission made up of six legislators and four residents, the society does not consider it merit selection, Reddick said, because legislators are involved in the screening and election.
However, many lawmakers view the creation of the merit selection commission in 1997 as the needed reform. According to the judicature society, in the mid-1990s all of the state's Supreme Court justices and more than half of its Circuit Court judges were former legislators themselves.
"I bet 98 percent of the citizens of South Carolina have no earthly idea of how we elect judges," said Sen. Robert Ford, a member of the study committee and perhaps the Legislature's most vocal critic of the system. He wants publicly-funded popular judicial elections.
Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, who will lead the committee, admitted that he, too, has biases. "I think the integrity of the system has been pretty strong," Martin said. "I think we've had unquestionable integrity and scholarship and independence.
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6) Ship honors Civil War hero
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http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/sep/15/ship_honors_civil_war_hero16073/
Ship honors Civil War hero
By Robert Behre (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Normally, the commissioning of a U.S. Army Reserve ship wouldn't be a big enough deal to prompt a top congressional leader to wake up at 4:30 a.m. on his day off and travel 500 miles for the event.
But U.S. Rep. James Clyburn plans to do exactly that today because he feels so strongly about the 19th-century figure for whom this ship is named. Clyburn will visit Baltimore Harbor this morning as a Logistics Support Vessel-8 is commissioned in honor of Robert Smalls, whose daring Civil War exploits made history.
In 1862, the 23-year-old slave led a revolt with his wife and other slaves. They commandeered the Confederate ship Planter and sailed it past Charleston's defenses and into the hands of the Union navy. A year later, he became the first black captain of a U.S. naval vessel, and he is the first black honored by having an Army vessel named for him.
Although Smalls is best known for his wartime deeds, Clyburn said he will focus today on another part of Smalls' legacy. Three years after the war, as South Carolina held a constitutional convention, Smalls called for establishing a free public school system. "That was not just the first time for South Carolina. That was the first time in this country," Clyburn said.
"If you look at that period of black involvement before the turn of the 20th century, I figure Robert Smalls, to say this in a sports way, pound for pound may have been the most important figure in that period of time," Clyburn added. "Who would have had a greater impact than the person who started out free public education for the masses?"
Clyburn, the second black congressman to serve as Majority Whip and the first black to represent South Carolina since Reconstruction, has been passionate about giving black South Carolinians their historical due.
He also penned a forward to a biography of Smalls. "Outside of his native Beaufort County, I know of no towns or streets named in his honor. I know of no buildings or institutions that bear his name. There are no likenesses of him gracing town squares and images on museum walls," Clyburn wrote. "Robert Smalls should rank the most honored and recognized South Carolinians, but he does not simply because of the color of his skin."
Reach Robert Behre at rbehre@postandcourier.com or 937-5771.
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7) Iowa's Motorcycle Helmet Law at Risk
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http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7065926
Iowa's Motorcycle Helmet Law at Risk
September 12, 2007--If you've got a motorcycle, you may soon be forced to wear a helmet when you drive it. Members of the National Transportation Safety Board unanimously approved safety recommendations urging states to require cyclists to wear helmets.
The push came as new statistics show motorcycle deaths increased for the ninth straight year. More than 4,800 motorcyclists were killed in accidents in 2006. That number has more than doubled in the last ten years.
Iowa is one of three states that does not have a helmet law.
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8) 'Uphill battle' for a Pa. helmet law
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http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/chester/20070913_Uphill_battle_for_a_Pa__helmet_law.html
'Uphill battle' for a Pa. helmet law
By Cheryl McEvoy
For The Inquirer
Despite a call from the National Transportation Safety Board urging states to require all motorcyclists to wear helmets, it will be "an uphill battle" to change the 2003 Pennsylvania law that allowed bareheaded riding, a helmet law advocate said yesterday.
Across the country, the number of riders killed in motorcycle crashes has more than doubled in 10 years, according to the NTSB. In 1997, 2,116 motorcycle deaths were reported; in 2006, the death toll reached 4,810.
Annual motorcycle fatalities in Pennsylvania averaged 126 a year from 1997 through 2003, but increased to 183 from 2004 through 2006, when it reached 187, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
State Rep. Dan Frankel (D., Allegheny), who has introduced legislation to reinstate helmet laws, said: "There are only a handful of us who have a high level of interest in this," but added the increasing death toll may change some minds.
Bill Patton, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis O'Brien (R., Phila.), said after years of debate many lawmakers have firm positions on the issue and may not want to revisit the debate.
"It has not been at the forefront this year," he said.
Nevertheless, he said, "the issue is still percolating."
Pennsylvania law says motorcyclists over age 21 can ride without a helmet, provided they have either two years of riding experience or complete a rider-education course.
All motorcyclists under the age of 21 must wear helmets.
The 2003 law repealed a 35-year-old helmet law requiring all motorcyclists to wear helmets, and ended a long battle waged by motorcyclists, including the Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education (ABATE), which contend the decision to wear a helmet should be a personal choice.
"We definitely support the law in its present state," ABATE lobbyist Charles Umbenhauer said.
Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Gov. Rendell, said: "While the governor believes that riders should wear helmets, he also believes that individuals should be allowed to make their own choice."
Rendell supported the 2003 law.
Helmet advocates say the long-term health effects that accidents have on motorcyclists, and the economic impact of caring for motorcycle injuries, are often overlooked in debate.
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9) Black South Carolinians are Democrats, but socially conservative
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http://www.thestate.com/news/story/175630.html
Democrat, but socially conservative
By AARON GOULD SHEININ
asheinin@thestate.com
Black South Carolinians are Democrats.
But they’re far from liberal.
African-Americans in South Carolina have nuanced, sometimes seemingly conflicting opinions that reflect, at times, the state’s conservatism, a groundbreaking Winthrop/ETV poll found.
For example, according to the poll:
• Two-thirds say they are Democrats, and four in five plan to vote in the state’s January Democratic presidential primary. But almost six in 10 describe their political beliefs as conservative or moderate.
• Despite that conservatism, more than half say government “definitely” should ensure every American has a “decent standard of living,” a liberal belief at odds with free-market capitalism.
• Almost three-quarters say gay sex is strongly or somewhat unacceptable. Yet nearly half have gay relatives or friends.
• More than half say having a child outside marriage is strongly or somewhat acceptable. Four in 10 disagree.
• Black South Carolinians say their race, faith and gender define them. But so does their nationality, and being Southern and South Carolinians.
Adolphus Belk Jr., co-director of Winthrop’s African-American Studies department and co-author of the new poll released last week, isn’t surprised by the poll’s findings.
“There has long been a strand of conservative political thought that’s run through the African-American community,” Belk said.
“Even though African-Americans in South Carolina and the nation generally are Democrat,” said Belk, they remain social conservatives — “more conservative than the general population.”
The poll is the first in recent memory focused exclusively on black South Carolinians.
Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon, who co-wrote the poll with Belk, said the poll is important because of the role blacks have played in Southern politics.
Huffmon said a staple of his class on Southern politics is V.O. Key’s 1949 text, “Southern Politics in State and Nation.” At the top of Page 5, Huffmon said, is a quote that says, “In its grand outline, the politics of the South revolves around the position of the Negro.”
While the language is outdated, the sentiment is not, Huffmon said. Until the 1980s, Southern politics was dominated by race. But that has changed some, said Huffmon, who is white.
While there still are racial tensions, “racial-driven politics in the South is falling by the wayside, compared to even 25 years ago,” Huffmon said.
That’s what makes the opinions and attitudes of contemporary black South Carolina fascinating, he said.
Belk, who is black, said the poll shows black South Carolinians share concerns with the rest of Americans.
“They’re worried about economic security,” Belk said. “They’re deeply concerned about educational opportunities for their children and their children’s life chances.”
State Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland, a pastor in Eastover, sees the poll as affirming black people’s independence.
“It suggests the reality that the African-American community is not a monolith, that the community is made up of a wide variety of views and positions on issues,” Neal said.
Still, he added, race remains important as an issue.
“Race is still a very powerful player in the minds of people,” he said. “It’s a powerful motivator.”
The poll also found that.
Asked to identify the factors that contributed a “great deal” to their identity, S.C. African-Americans cited: religion, 67 percent; their sex, 65 percent; their race, 64 percent; being an American, 60 percent; being a Southerner, 39 percent; and being a South Carolinian, 36 percent.
Bonita Shropshire, 38, of West Columbia, said the overall poll results don’t surprise her.
“I don’t necessarily see it as complicated,” said Shropshire, who is black. “It’s the same probably across races, depending on your economic status, depending on your educational background and what you’ve been exposed to.”
However, Shropshire, who works at the Federal Advocacy Center on Pendleton Street, said African-American opinions often reflect the profound impact of religion and faith.
If anything, the 67 percent of black South Carolinians who said being religious contributed a “great deal” to their identity seemed low to Shropshire.
“I thought it would be higher because young or older in the black community, your religious foundation certainly identifies you as to who you are,” she said. “Even if you were brought up in the church as a young child and strayed away and hadn’t set foot in a church in 10 or 15 years, you still tend to have that foundation.”
Shropshire sees the impact of faith in other poll results.
For example, about 68 percent of S.C. blacks said abortion should be legal in all or certain circumstances.
That’s far lower than all South Carolinians. More than 83 percent, regardless of race, think abortion should be legal in all or certain circumstances, according to a Winthrop/ETV poll in May.
That difference could reflect the church’s impact, Shropshire thinks.
But the church’s role seemingly does not affect other attitudes.
About 54 percent of S.C. blacks think having a child out of wedlock is very or somewhat acceptable, the poll found.
“Those numbers shock me a little,” Shropshire said.
Huffmon said the seemingly conflicting attitudes support the opinions of Neal and Belk — there is no consistent, monolithic black mind-set.
“It’s a very interesting and nuanced portrait, and it kind of takes away from those who like to label blacks,” Huffmon said.
Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658.
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10) Judicial battle likely
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http://www.thestate.com/news/v-print/story/175639.html
Judicial battle likely
Chief justice warns of attempts by special interest groups to influence selection of judges
By RICK BRUNDRETT
rbrundrett@thestate.com
Next year’s election of a state Supreme Court justice likely will be just as intense as the last one in May, which featured — for the first time — a televised attack ad against the candidate who was elected.
How judicial candidates and the state lawmakers who elect them should react to outside interest groups could be among the topics discussed today at a special S.C. Senate study committee meeting on judicial elections.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal,one of the scheduled speakers at the hearing, told The State last week that while outside groups have free speech rights, judicial candidates ethically should disavow any outside pressure to get them to “promise in advance” how they would rule on particular cases.
“That’s when the line is crossed,” Toal said. “That is completely contrary to what the rule of law is about.”
Greenville-based Conservatives in Action ran a television ad in the Spartanburg area in May branding Supreme Court candidate Donald Beatty as an “ultra-liberal Democrat partisan”and urging three GOP Spartanburg lawmakers to oppose him.
Beatty of Spartanburg was elected over two colleagues on the state Court of Appeals for the seat of retired Justice E.C. Burnett, becoming only the third African-American in South Carolina history to join the state’s highest court. He is scheduled to hear his first cases as a justice on Tuesday.
Taft Matney, a spokesman for Conservatives in Action, said last week his organization “definitely will be watching what happens” in the early 2008 election to fill the seat of retiring Justice James Moore of Greenwood and other lower court seats.
“Our people will be conducting research on the candidates,” he said, describing his organization’s mission as “purely educational,” adding the group “didn’t support any candidate” in the last Supreme Court election. He said the group opposed Beatty’s “ideology,” though it didn’t specifically call for a vote against him.
Toal said she would support legislation requiring some level of “public disclosure” of the membership of special interest groups that run “anonymous advertisements” that “try to bully legislators by characterizing candidates based on their perceived agenda.”
“It’s an enormous threat to judicial independence,” she said, describing the May ad about Beatty as “racist and inaccurate.” The two unsuccessful candidates for Burnett’s Supreme Court seat are white.
The ad said, in part: “As a legislator, Beatty opposed a measure to prohibit public funding of abortion. He also voted against gun rights, and opposed tax and spending cuts. And, according to a recent judicial evaluation, Judge Beatty scored much lower than the other two candidates. South Carolina doesn’t need an ultra-liberal Democrat partisan on the state Supreme Court. We need somebody who represents South Carolina values.”
Matney denied the ad was racist or inaccurate. “I don’t know what abortion funding, gun rights... have to do with the color of a person’s skin.”
He declined to reveal the membership of his organization.
“They want to be involved in the political process,” he said, “but they don’t want to be interviewed on TV.”
Matney compared his organization’s activities to political and other types of blogs that are anonymous.
“You can’t have First Amendment rights with a caveat,” he said. “In terms of full freedom of speech, we don’t police the blogosphere.”
Two candidates for Moore’s seat next year — S.C. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Kaye Hearn and Court of Appeals Judge John Kittredge — expressed concerns about the influence of special interest groups in the last election.
“What I hope we want in South Carolina are judges who follow the rule of law, not judges who pander to any special interest groups,” Hearn, who lost to Beatty in the May race, said when contacted last week.
Kittredge, who didn’t run in the May election, cited a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said Minnesota’s requirement that judges not discuss political issues was unconstitutional. But he said he would not take advantage of his free speech rights in a judicial campaign.
“It’s highly inappropriate for a judge to state his or her views on a particular case that would come before his or her court,” he said. “My position, from when I first took the oath in ’91, has been that I would uphold the rule of law.”
Longtime Columbia attorney and former state lawmaker I.S. Leevy Johnson, one of the first black men to be elected to the Legislature since Reconstruction, said judicial candidates and lawmakers should disavow ads such as the one aired in May by Conservatives in Action.
“I do not see it as an isolated situation,” he said. “I believe that type of conduct is going to pollute future elections.”
Conservatives in Action wasn’t the only outside group involved with the last Supreme Court election.
An influential state business association, the S.C. Business and Industry Political Education Committee, threw its support behind S.C. Court of Appeals Judge Bruce Williams and warned it would consider how lawmakers voted in its ratings of them.
Efforts to reach association officials and Williams, who came in second for the seat won by Beatty and who has expressed interest in running for Moore’s seat, were unsuccessful last week.
Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, chairman of the judicial elections study group, said last week that although the controversy surrounding outside interest groups isn’t specifically listed on today’s meeting agenda, “I’m hopeful it will be discussed.”
“If I were a judicial candidate, I would definitely distance myself from any group that is prone to advertising.”
Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, a member of the study group, said the May television ad likely “confused” many viewers into believing that S.C. judges are popularly elected.
In a prepared statement, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, who appointed the five-member study group, said he formed the committee because he was “concerned by recent judicial practices during the spring of 2007, which included an intense race for the Supreme Court.”
McConnell said the study committee will “consider alternatives to the current system of judicial selection, examine the advantages and disadvantages of these alternatives, and will survey selection methods used by other states.”
Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484.
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11) S.C. Club for Growth calls out GOP legislators
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FF Note: Learn more about SC Club for Growth online at http://www.scclubforgrowth.com/
http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/174780.html
S.C. Club for Growth calls out GOP legislators
By AARON GOULD SHEININ
asheinin@thestate.com
An advocacy group with close ties to Gov. Mark Sanford released a list of legislative scorecards last week that slams the majority of S.C. lawmakers for discarding “the mantle of fiscal conservatism.”
The S.C. Club for Growth, an offshoot of the national Club for Growth, used a series of votes in the S.C. House and Senate during the 2007 legislative session to compile its grades. What the group found was disappointing, club director Joshua Gross said.
“While we are disappointed at the sheer number of ‘Republicans’ that have apparently decided to discard the mantle of fiscal conservatism, we remain hopeful that, as we shed light on these voting histories, more of our elected officials will desire to do the right thing for the voters who send them to Columbia,” Gross said.
“Continuing to break faith with the taxpayers of South Carolina would have devastating long-term effects on the voters’ confidence in Republican legislative leadership.”
Critics in the House and Senate say the Club for Growth is little more than a front group for Sanford’s efforts to undermine fellow Republicans in the General Assembly.
In the Senate, only 13 of 46 senators received passing grades from the group, and only five received an “A” grade. Among those failing were Senate Finance chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, one of Sanford’s top nemeses in state government.
On the House side, 34 of 124 members received passing grades, with nine representatives receiving at least an “A-.”
House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, who has clashed with Sanford, received a “C,” and Ways and Means chairman Dan Cooper, R-Anderson, another Sanford critic, was given a failing grade.
The highest-scoring Democrat was state Rep. Herb Kirsh of York County, who was given a “B.”
The highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate was state Sen. Nikki Setzler of Lexington, who received an “F.”
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