Today was a historic day...
S111 our SC Red Light Bill cleared the senate sub committee meeting and is headed to the full committee. Great work to all who helped make this happen and to our dear friend Reb who drafted this bill.
Now is the time to call and ask your senator to support this important legislation. You may also wish to thank the members of the subcommittee for their support of this biker rights issue. I've sent my thanks to my good senator who chaired the subcommittee.
PS - Bad Bob says to join him tonight at the Safety Meeting in Charleston to celebrate this landmark!
FF
1) The Helmet Debate Rages On in the National Spotlight
2) Benefit Ride and Tattoo Contest for Britany Riffe
3) SC Cities can ban smoking, Supreme Court rules
4) THE BEER GUY: Highland’s highly anticipated Shining Rock Lager is still aging
5) SC could join states criminalizing hallucinogenic herb
6) Free Software Alternative to MS Office
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1) The Helmet Debate Rages On in the National Spotlight
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MRF E-MAIL NEWS Motorcycle Riders Foundation
236 Massachusetts Ave. NE
Suite 510
Washington, DC 20002-4980
202-546-0983 (voice)
202-546-0986 (fax)
http://www.mrf.org (website)
April 1, 2008
Tiffany Latimer, MRF Public Relations Assistant
E-mail: pr@mrf.org
The Helmet Debate Rages On in the National Spotlight
In recent days, the USA Today has devoted themselves to covering a major hot button issue with motorcyclists: Helmets. The helmet law debate was catapulted back into the national spotlight with an article last week that highlighted the increase of motorcycling fatalities in the past ten years. Since that original article, Vice President of Government Relations, Jeff Hennie defended why helmet laws have not proven to be the best course of action to save motorcyclist lives.
The USA Today continued on with the subject of helmet laws and motorcycle fatalities today by featuring both sides of the story. "Our View on Helmet Laws: Motorcycle Madness," written by the USA Today highlighted the increase of motorcycle fatalities since Congress repealed its helmet policy in 1995.
Like most things do, motorcycling has significantly increased in the US within that time frame used in the USA Today's view of helmet laws. MRF lobbyist, Jeff Hennie weighed in on the situation with his rebuttal "Opposing view: Helmet Laws don't work." Not only does this article discuss the proportionate increase in motorcycle deaths in the past ten years but goes on to explain why state helmet laws have not proven to be the most effective way to prevent fatalities.
For more information on this subject, you can contact Jeff Hennie, V.P. of Government Relations at jeff@mrf.org or at 202-546-0983. To read these articles for yourself, check them out on the USA Today website.
Today's articles:
"Our view on helmet laws: Motorcycle madness" by USA Today
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/04/our-view-on-hel.html
"Opposing view: Helmet Laws don't work" by Jeff Hennie
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/04/opposing-view-h.html
Last week's article:
"Motorcyclists deaths spike as helmet laws loosen" USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-26-bikehelmets_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
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2) Benefit Ride and Tattoo Contest for Britany Riffe
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The benefit run and tattoo contest for Brittany Riffe will take place April 12th. Registration for the run starts at 10:30 AM; registration for the tattoo contest is at noon, of course anyone who wants to register for the tattoo contest at 10:30 am may do so.
There are bands, food, music, games, and many more fun things to do. There is a silent auction and a 50/50. All the donations will go to brittany to get her to project walk in Boston. Brittany will be there to meet and greet her new found friends.
There will be a raffle for an extraordinary donation to be announced.
Come one, come all...
For further info you may contact Dee Walsh at 843-708-4021, Bob Shipley at the plex at 225-7540 or Donna Foxwell at 843-709-7244 or Richard Bruce at 843-200-3669.
Brittany Riffe Fund
c/o Sherry Riffe, 116 Candleberry Circle, Goose Creek, S.C. 29445. To see updates on her condition visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/brittanyriffe
FF Note: While returning from a friend’s house on the morning of August 14, 2007, Brittany and three other teenagers were in a single car accident that left her with a spinal cord injury to the T7 & T8 vertebrae and partly paralyzed.
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3) SC Cities can ban smoking, Supreme Court rules
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/361321.html
Cities can ban smoking, Supreme Court rules
Cities, towns and counties can ban smoking in public places, the state Supreme Court ruled today.
In the past two years, 11 S.C. cities and counties — including Columbia — have passed bans on indoor smoking in businesses.
Those laws are aimed at protecting workers and customers from secondhand smoke.
Columbia's ban -- which applies to smoking in restaurants, but not bars -- passed in November 2006, but it has never taken effect, pending the Supreme Court's ruling.
The high court issued its ruling on a case challenging Greenville's smoking ban.
It reversed a ruling last year by a Circuit Court Judge John Few of Greenville, who said a state law passed in 1996 expressly prevented local governments from creating their own rules on smoking. He attributed his decision to the wording of the law and said it had nothing to do with smoking.
But the Supreme Court disagreed unanimously.
“While the state has legislated restrictions on smoking in certain areas, a civil ordinance which adds areas does not in any way conflict with the state law,” associate Justice John H. Waller wrote for the court.
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4) THE BEER GUY: Highland’s highly anticipated Shining Rock Lager is still aging
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http://citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880401125
THE BEER GUY: Highland’s highly anticipated Shining Rock Lager is still aging
By Tony Kiss
Columnist
April 2, 2008 12:15 am
Some beers take just a week or two to produce. Others are in the tank for a good long while. And that’s the case with the much-anticipated Shining Rock Lager, which is still aging away at Highland Brewing Co.
The brewing for Shining Rock started back in February, but the beer still isn’t quite ready, Highland founder Oscar Wong said a couple of days ago. Look for Shining Rock to arrive by the end of this month, both on draft and in 12-ounce bottles. It will not be sold in 22-ounce bottles.
It’s the first in a new line of seasonal brews from Highland, which has mostly focused on its line of year-round products, rather than specialty beers. Shining Rock will be followed this summer by a wheat beer, then an Octoberfest tentatively to be called Clawhammer, then the wildly popular Cold Mountain Winter Ale.
While these new brews make their appearances, Highland has dropped its sturdy, higher-alcohol Tasgall Scottish ale from year-round production, but is looking to revive it as a seasonal, perhaps to follow the Cold Mountain, Wong said.
Like Cold Mountain, only a limited amount of Shining Rock Lager will be brewed, and most of it will be sold in Asheville and Western North Carolina, with the rest being offered to distributors in Tennessee, the Carolinas and Georgia.
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5) SC could join states criminalizing hallucinogenic herb
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/362424.html
SC could join states criminalizing hallucinogenic herb
By SEANNA ADCOX - Associated Press Writer
COLUMBIA, S.C. --
South Carolina could join a growing list of states outlawing a hallucinogenic herb that's touted on the Internet as a way to achieve spiritual breakthroughs.
A measure making Salvia divinorum an illegal drug, in the same category as marijuana and peyote, was quickly approved by a House committee Tuesday without debate. It now heads to the House floor.
South Carolina is among more than a dozen states where lawmakers are considering such measures, saying they fear the inexpensive and easy-to-buy drug could become the next marijuana. But the extent of its use is unclear, and online advocates for its responsible use say those who buy it expecting a cheap, marijuana-like high will be disappointed.
The mint herb, which can grow up to 3 feet high, has already been banned or restricted in at least eight states since 2005.
States passing alternatives to an outright ban include Maine, which says minors under age 18 can't use or possess salvia, and Oklahoma, which makes enhanced or concentrated extracts illegal. Louisiana and Tennessee allow people to grow salvia to beautify their gardens but ban its consumption, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The plant, native to Mexico and known by nicknames such as Diviner's Sage and Magic Mint, is usually either chewed or smoked. Its hallucinogenic effects can last about 30 minutes, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Psychic effects of the drug, long used by the Mazatec Indians in Mexico for ritual healing and prophesying, include hallucinations, seeing bright lights and overlapping realities, according to the federal agency, which lists adverse effects of lack of coordination, dizziness, and slurred speech.
The effect can be like a mild version of illicit mushrooms, but the trips don't last as long, said Matthew Gever, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislatures.
No known deaths have been attributed to salvia's use, but it was listed as a factor in one Delaware teen's suicide two years ago.
Nationwide, less than 2 percent of people ages 18 to 25 surveyed in 2006 reported using salvia in the past year, according to a study released earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Its use in South Carolina is unclear. Jeff Moore, executive director of the state Sheriffs' Association, said he knew nothing about the drug until the bill was introduced in February.
Other countries that ban the drug include Australia and Denmark.
FF Note: I suspect this herb will become more wisely available if it is outlawed as profits will climb.
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6) Free Software Alternative to MS Office
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A free alternative to buying MicroSoft Office:
OpenOffice.org
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