Today started off bad with a phone call before work that informed me a dear friend was seriously injured. Please ride safe over the holidays and exercise good judgment.
If you have an event or toy run you would like to have plugged in the ezine please submit the details in text and please do not use ALL CAPS.
I have several new photo galleries to post soon once things get back to normal again.
FF
1) SC Freedom Fighter FU Down
2) Michael Lewis Hays
3) Sanford names interim State Law Enforcement Division chief
4) S.C. governor on money transfer criticism: 'I'm not perfect'
5) Massey wins recount in close Senate contest
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1) SC Freedom Fighter FU Down
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SC Freedom Fighter FU Down
Fred Uibel better known as FU was involved in a serious motorcycle accident last night. His odds of surviving this ordeal do not look very good at the moment the doctors are placing it between 10 and 20 percent. Please keep FU and his large family in your thoughts and prayers.
In addition to being retired USN FU is the current ABATE of SC Charleston County Chapter Coordinator and active participant in the WNC lidless rides.
Photo currently posted at http://www.abatesc.com/
FU and his wife Lynn have always been among the first to help when a local biker or ABATE member is in need. Please remember them now in their hour of need.
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2) Michael Lewis Hays
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Michael Lewis Hays
Michael L. Hays (Twanger), one of Tennessee’s most respected Freedom Fighters, died of a heart attack at his home in Nolensville on Wednesday, November 14. Born in Pulaski, TN on June 17, 1955, to the late Doris Ellen Baker and Harold Dean Hughes, he was also preceded in death by his respected step-father, Freeman C. Hays, M.D.
An avid motorcyclist, he was the State Legislative Corporate Director for CMT/ABATE, the state-wide motorcyclists rights organization. He was a member of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation, and recently lobbied on their behalf before the US Congress. Mr. Hays was sole proprietor of Midsouth Talent & Booking. Before moving to Nashville in 2002, he had been a radio announcer in Orange, VA, toured with his band, Mike Hays and the Haybailers, and had spent many years selling specialty audio equipment. He entered the US Navy in 1974, and at the time of his honorable discharge in 1978, was singer and saxophonist in the Admiral’s Band.
Mike is survived by his immediate family: one brother; Paul M. Hays (Cindy), Washington, DC and three sisters; Barbara Thomas (Cam), Underwood, WA, Pamela Johnson (Shannon), Elizabethton, TN, and Patricia Ruth Emory (Jimmy), Richmond, VA. Also surviving are his daughter, Michelle Diana Williams (Indianapolis, IN), two granddaughters Savannah & Taylor, and grandson Bishop. Mike will also be deeply missed by his life partner, Carol Simpson of Nolensville, her three children and six grandchildren, by a true army of Brother & Sister Freedom Fighters, and by his many friends in the music industry.
Visitation was Monday, Nov. 19, from 3 pm to 5:45 pm at Woodbine Hickory Chapel, 5852 Nolensville Road. Funeral services will be held at the same location began at 6 pm, followed by a remembrance, hosted by brother Paul at Mike and Carol’s home.
On Tuesday, Nov 20 a procession was led by the Patriot Guard took Mike’s remains from Hickory Chapel at 9:00 a.m. to Maplewood Cemetery in Pulaski, where he was laid to rest with military honors at 11 a.m. next to his father and paternal grandparents.
Mike Hays was a man of faith, and had been close to the Methodist Church throughout his life.
Memorials may be made to CMT/ABATE, Mike Hays Freedom Fighter Fund, P.O. Box 160223, Nashville, TN 37216-0223.
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3) Sanford names interim State Law Enforcement Division chief
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/234165.html
Sanford names interim State Law Enforcement Division chief
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Gov. Mark Sanford has named a major at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to serve as the agency's interim chief.
Major Mark Keel will lead the agency while the governor searches for a permanent replacement for longtime chief Robert Stewart.
Stewart's resignation takes effect at the end of this month. He has led the agency since 1988 and also was appointed as the state's homeland security chief in 2003.
Sanford calls Stewart a consummate professional and says he has set a high standard for his agency and all law enforcement.
Stewart has said he's leaving to start a consulting business.
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4) S.C. governor on money transfer criticism: 'I'm not perfect'
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/234322.html
S.C. governor on money transfer criticism: 'I'm not perfect'
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Gov. Mark Sanford said Monday he regrets directing surplus money from a national governors' convention to a charity pushing his agenda because it gave his critics easy fodder.
"It's completely legal, completely. But perception can be reality in politics," Sanford said. "Do I regret that? Sure, because I should have thought more about, 'Wait. This is going to be picked up, and you're going to get beaten over the head with it.'"
Sanford was criticized by a state legislator and government watchdog group last week, and ordered the surplus returned to the state's general fund.
"I'm not perfect," Sanford said.
A host committee Sanford set up for the three-day governors' conference last year in Charleston won a $150,000 taxpayer-funded grant and raised $1.2 million. Sanford ordered the $101,524 left over to be moved to Carolinians for Reform Inc., a nonprofit group whose members include donors to the Republican governor.
Sanford called it ironic that the grant he secured - one of hundreds awarded - is the only one to receive such scrutiny. The governor has long been critical of the legislative grant program that has doled out more than $30 million in state money for local projects.
"There have been statues for dead politicians, $250,000 for a golf tournament. There have been four pig-related festivals. There have been all kinds of different things," Sanford said. "The one time you end up with a surplus out of 450 grants, it's used to beat you over the head."
He credited the surplus to discounts he secured from friends and blamed the criticism on "the world of politics, rather than policy."
"There's a value in having critics because it makes you be that much more introspective about any decision you make because you know that anything you decide on can and will be put in a negative light if at all possible," he said.
Republican Sen. Jake Knotts, who made the surplus donation public, said the scrutiny has nothing to do with who secured the grant.
"You can't divert public funds for your own personal, political agenda," said Knotts. "This ain't politics for me. This is strictly right and wrong."
Knotts, a retired law enforcement official, said there was no way to justify the transfer.
"There's a right way to spend public money and a wrong way," he said. "I don't care how good his political spin master is."
Sanford, who called Knotts "one of my bigger, less-than-proponents," said he checked to make sure he could designate the money.
Governors in other states have put surpluses from the annual convention into nonprofits such as a state fair, a library and education. Knotts said Sanford could have given the surplus to groups that promote tourism and conservation and benefit all taxpayers, rather than a personal-interest group.
Sanford, re-elected last year, said he thought it made "complete sense" to put money he raised toward getting out his message.
"I have seven years of my life invested in this process. I have 36 months left," he said. "The time clock's running. I want to maximize in every instance our shot at putting resources behind educating people further on why reform is so essential."
The head of the government watchdog group Common Cause last week said the money transfer should be examined by the state attorney general. A spokesman for Attorney General Henry McMaster said no formal request had been made.
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5) Massey wins recount in close Senate contest
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/231256.html
Massey wins recount in close Senate contest
Rep. Bill Clyburn concedes race to GOP newcomer
By RODDIE A. BURRIS - rburris@thestate.com
Edgefield County Republican and political newcomer Shane Massey is the victor in the District 25 state Senate race, besting veteran Aiken Democratic state Rep. Bill Clyburn after a Thursday recount.
Unofficial results of the recount show Massey edged Clyburn by 138 votes in the Nov. 6 special election.
Massey said Clyburn called him around midday Thursday to offer congratulations for winning the hotly contested race that stood in limbo for nine days.
“I accepted his congratulations and we talked about the need to work together to be effective representatives for our area,” Massey said. “We’re gonna have to work together.”
Clyburn, a House member since 1995, represents much of the same geographic area as the Senate district covers.
The State Election Commission is expected to certify results of the recount today, according to Gary Baum, a commission spokesman.
A state law triggered the recount because the difference between the candidates’ vote totals was less than 1 percent.
Massey, a 32-year-old attorney, accumulated 7,152 votes, or 50.47 percent, to Clyburn’s 7,014 votes, or 49.49 percent. The district covers Aiken, Edgefield, McCormick and Saluda counties, and had been represented for decades by former Sen. Tommy Moore, who resigned in August to take a job in private industry.
Under state law, Clyburn has five days, until Nov. 21, to protest the election results, Baum said. But Clyburn said he would not do so if a recount showed he lost.
“Congratulations to Shane Massey for his victory in this special election,” Clyburn said in a statement released after the recount. “I look forward to working with him as we both serve the people of our area.”
Clyburn, 66, is preparing for his daughter’s wedding, and in the statement thanked his wife, Beverly, and his supporters and said “the time of election politics is over and the time for getting to work has begun.”
Massey said he, too, is anxious to get to work.
The Legislature reconvenes Jan. 8 in Columbia, but Massey won’t have to wait to assume office. Senate assistant clerk Mike Hitchcock said Massey can be sworn in by a notary public or judge at the time and location of his choosing, or he can wait until the session opens in January.
Reach Burris at (803) 771-8398.
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