Seeking reader letters regarding Myrtle Beach's decision to end bike week...
1) 2008 Motorcyclist Road Conditions Survey
2) Myrtle Beach taxpayers pick up tab for ending biker events
3) Bush to ask Congress to clear way for offshore oil drilling
4) Reader Letters: Knotts vs Shealy
5) Vitter To Introduce Concealed Carry Reciprocity
6) EVENT: Shawfest in Hartsville, Saturday June 21, 2008
************************************************************************
1) 2008 Motorcyclist Road Conditions Survey
************************************************************************
FF Note: Please take part in this important survey.
2008 Motorcyclist Road Conditions Survey
The members of the Motorcyclist Advisory Council to the Federal Highway Administration recently created the 2008 Motorcyclist Road Conditions Survey. The purpose of the survey is to help state and federal highway administrators better understand and plan for the needs of motorcycle riders. All riders are encouraged to take the 10-minute survey before August 1, 2008.
Take the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/MACMembersHighwaySurvey
************************************************************************
2) Myrtle Beach taxpayers pick up tab for ending biker events
************************************************************************
http://www.thestate.com/136/story/437287.html
Taxpayers pick up tab for ending biker events
MYRTLE BEACH — Myrtle Beach City Council hit the gas on eradicating motorcycle rallies by passing a three-mill property-tax increase dedicated to an anti-bike-rally campaign and beginning to enact ordinances that will end motorcycle-related vending inside the city.
All seven council members at Tuesday's meeting voted in favor of the tax increase, which will raise about $1 million a year. One mill equals an additional $4 in property taxes for every $100,000 of assessed value for all owner-occupied homes, and $6 for every $100,000 assessed value of commercial property and second homes.
City staff members are tasked with coming up with a list of strategies for ending the rallies, and city leaders will choose which ones they want to try and which ones the city can afford.
It's news that will please the hundreds of anti-rally residents who showed up at last week's council meeting; but for others, it's not glad tidings.
"What I do in May and October is 40 percent of my business," said Ben Brown, owner of B&M Custom Cycles in downtown Myrtle Beach. "Without bike rallies, I don't have a business. What about all these other businesses - the drug stores, the movie theaters, the restaurants — that make money from the rallies? The money filters through the local economy."
City leaders say they want to actively market May as a family vacation month, replacing bike rally attendees.
But Brown said many of the people who come for the Harley-Davidson-related rallies in May and October also come down for family vacations at other times of the year, and they will not come back if they are not welcome in the spring and fall.
"When times get tough, you cannot go back and say 'we welcome your business,'" said Mike Shank, a partner in Festival Promotions, one of the Grand Strand's largest promoters of bike rally events.
The millage increase is a part of final passage of the 2008-09 budget that equals, with the capital improvement plan that pays for the boardwalk and other downtown improvements, about $151 million.
At Tuesday's meeting, council members also voted to change the city's OZ-50 zoning so vending permits cannot be issued in May. OZ-50 covers the Myrtle Beach Convention Center and Broadway at the Beach, two spots that in years past have drawn motorcycle-related vending.
That proposed ordinance must go before the city's Planning Commission for review before it gets its second and final reading.
Council members voted to cancel all motorcycle-related facilities permits for the month of May, as well. That ordinance also needs a second reading before it is considered official.
And they passed a resolution to send Mayor John Rhodes to Horry County Council to ask for the county's help in ending the bike rallies.
Rhodes takes part in the Coastal Alliance, a group of Grand Strand governments that meets monthly to work together on regional issues, and he said that group supported the city's efforts.
Council members who had previously been hesitant to enact a millage increase to dedicate a mill's worth of money to fund public transportation through The Coast Regional Transit Authority and additional police and recreation staff said residents clearly want an anti-rally campaign.
At last week's meeting, people said they were willing to pay for it.
But as part of the budget's passage, council members also agreed to fund two additional workers to assist at the city's three recreation centers, at a cost of $86,000. That money will come from the general fund.
The new budget is balanced with $252,000 going to The Coast RTA — not as much as some council members wanted, because a mill is worth about $335,000 a year. But Councilwoman Susan Grissom Means said she would push for that increase next year.
She said the anti-rally campaign takes precedence this year.
Shank said he thinks it's interesting that the city wouldn't pass an increase to fund transit or services "that actually benefit the residents, but they will pass an increase that they don't even know how they're going to spend yet."
— The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News
************************************************************************
3) Bush to ask Congress to clear way for offshore oil drilling
************************************************************************
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/18/bush.offshore/index.html
Bush to ask Congress to clear way for offshore oil drilling
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush will ask Congress Wednesday to lift the ban on new offshore drilling, White House press secretary Dana Perino said Tuesday.
The request will come a day after presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain issued the same call.
"For years, the president has pushed Congress to expand our domestic oil supply, but Democrats in Congress have consistently blocked such action," Perino told CNN.
Opponents of offshore drilling say it would harm aquatic ecosystems by eroding wetlands, contaminating the water with chemicals, polluting the air, killing fish and dumping waste.
Bush has long called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration, but Perino said he now wants to go further.
"With gasoline now over $4 a gallon, tomorrow he will explicitly call on Congress to also pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling," Perino said.
She added, "As with several existing Republican congressional proposals, he wants to work with states to determine where offshore drilling should occur, and also for the federal government to share revenues with the states. The president believes Congress shouldn't waste any more time."
At a campaign event in Houston, Texas, McCain made similar comments.
"We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States," he said. "But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. And I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use." VideoWatch McCain state his new position on drilling »
He said lifting the ban could be done "in ways that are consistent with sensible standards of environmental protection."
McCain's plan would let individual states decide whether to explore drilling possibilities.
According to his campaign, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama wants to invest $150 billion over the next 10 years to establish a green energy sector, create a national low-carbon fuel standard to ensure that the fuel is more efficient, and invest in clean energies like solar, wind and biodiesel.
New drilling already could be in the works 50 miles off the Florida coast -- by Cubans, not Americans, with help from China and other allies. A rich undersea oil field stretches into Cuban waters near the Florida Keys.
"The people I represent can't understand how we can possibly let China end up with rights to our oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico because we say we're not going to do it and they say, 'OK, we'll do it and we'll work with Cuba, if we have to, to do it,'" said U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tennessee. "That's really asinine."
CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry contributed to this report.
************************************************************************
4) Reader Letters: Knotts vs Shealy
************************************************************************
Reader Letters: Knotts vs. Shealy
---
In regards to our friend, Jake Knotts,
I can only tell you from my perspective what a tremendpous job he has done for the people of Lexington county. Though Jake has a tendency to jump quickly to a decision, he is willing to listen to all sides of any situation and can easily change his mind when it comes to what is best for Lexington and the state.
Jake has proven to be a senator that you can rely on and doesn't bow down to others when he feels he is serving his constituents. Jake is a big believer in freedom of choice and has proven that when he rides his motorcycle with no helment. He was strongly against the seatbelt law. Jake has proven himself in the biker community on several occasions. He rewrote his gang bill to eleminate motorcycles, just like we requested. He helped get the red light bill thru even though he felt it would never pass. Right before adjournment of the Senate he was told that the bill passed the house and requested a majority consent vote in the Senate that same day. Jake will not always be on your side but you will have no doubt about how he feels. And you can be assured that his vote can not be bought. Jake is a hard working Senator that puts the middle class above all.
I ask all that can to help keep him in the Senate so that Big Daddy Government doesn't stick another nail in the coffin.
Thanks,
Dean Collins Midlands Assistant Coordinator
Lexington, SC
---
Knotts Favors Developers Over Constituents
I do indeed dislike Jakie Knotts very much. He is a liar and a crook. We moved way out here in the country ten years ago (you've been to our place) to get away from the traffic, the people and the light pollution. Then they built a high school, a Wal-Mart, and Hardee's, a Sonic ... and they started to widen the road and tried to annex our community, Boiling Springs (Lexington not Spartanburg), into Red Bank and incorporate it so they could get more tax money. We fought that ... Tim and Ed Lown were key players in defeating that plan. Jake Knotts, while shaking my husband's hand, looked him in the eye and swore they wouldn't widen the road any further than the new high school. Then they built a middle school ... and an elementary school Lexington didn't need. And they're widening the road. They've cleared land for more housing developments, but haven't built anything because the bottom fell out of the housing market.
Jake accepted thousands and played a heavy hand to help clear the way (and the land) for those developments. Now there stands just empty land ... no trees, no grass, no shrubs or vegetation of any kind. Just dirt. Nothing will be built because some of the owners of the property are in foreclosure. He needs to be out of office. He doesn't represent the people, as he claims. He represents Jake Knotts and the good 'ole boys. I encourage people who did not vote and are eligible to do so in the republican primary to do so and vote for Katrina Shealy. She talks the talk ... we'll see if she can walk the walk, but anything is better than Jakie Knotts.
Elizabeth Moultrie
Lexington, SC
---
Jake Rides Lidless
Photo of Senator jake Knotts riding his motorcycle following the 2006 Helmet law Rally in Columbia:
http://www.fastfreds.com/trips/helmetlawrally/pages/DSC06387_JPG.htm
Clearly Jake is the biker choice in this election. Not only does he support SC's current helmet law he also rides lidless. Jake is a current member of ABATE.
FastFred
North Charleston, SC
---
Here is Katrina's response to my question of her support for bikers.
"I strongly support the rights of bikers. I have supported all the bills they have recently submitted. I spoke to a group of them at the ABATE meeting back before the primary. I have ridden before. My first husband had a Harley Davidson Sportster and we use to ride with a group of about 40 of our closest friends but haven't ridden in a while....not because I wouldn't just because I don't have access!"
PLUS, Katrina would support the right of bikers to be able to carry in over 30+ states. whereas Jakie would severely limit where bikers could carry nationwide.
So, it appears that Jakie has nothing to offer bikers that Katrina won't, and Katrina will give bikers the right to carry in many more states than Jakie will.
I trust her alot more than I trust Jakie
Bill
Walterboro, SC
---
Don't forget to vote in this important run off Tuesday, June 24, 2008.
************************************************************************
5) Vitter To Introduce Concealed Carry Reciprocity
************************************************************************
Vitter To Introduce Concealed Carry Reciprocity
Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org/
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Senator David Vitter (R-LA) is planning to introduce a concealed carry reciprocity bill next week.
Senator Vitter had been working closely with Gun Owners of America to draft and file a reciprocity amendment a few weeks ago, but that amendment, unfortunately, never saw the light of day -- thanks to powerful opponents inside the Senate.
However, Sen. Vitter has continued undaunted and last week sent a Dear Colleague letter to his fellow senators, asking them to cosponsor his forthcoming bill, the "Respecting States Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act."
The Vitter bill treats concealed carry permits much the same as drivers' licenses, where one state's license is recognized in all other states.
In addressing the matter of reciprocity, the first concern of GOA and Sen. Vitter is that it be done constitutionally and that it respects states' rights.
Unlike another senate reciprocity measure, S. 388, Vitter's bill does not establish "national standards" for concealed carry. It simply says that states that allow concealed carry must recognize the CCW permits of other states.
Vitter's bill also respects the rights of states that allow concealed carry without a permit. Citizens of Vermont and non-license holders in Alaska are allowed to carry concealed without a permit. Under the Vitter bill, these states would be recognized in the same manner as states that do issue permits.
States that do not allow concealed carry at all are not forced, under the Vitter bill, to recognize out-of-state permits. There are currently two such states, Illinois and Wisconsin. While it is deplorable that these states refuse to trust their citizens with firearms, this is an issue that has to be dealt with at the state level.
Citizens should not be forced to sacrifice their right to self-defense at the state line. The Vitter bill will allow more Americans to defend themselves away from their home state.
Action: Please urge your two Senators to become original cosponsors of the Vitter "Respecting States Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act." You can visit the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at
http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm
************************************************************************
6) EVENT: Shawfest in Hartsville, Saturday June 21, 2008
************************************************************************
EVENT: Shawfest in Hartsville, Saturday June 21, 2008
1:00 PM Until
Live music, food, beverages, burnouts, event t-shirts, 50/50, and door prizes...
Located at the Hog Trough, 2452 Kelleytown Rd., Hartsville, SC.
Donations at the door to make this event possible.
For more information contact Van Shaw 843-861-1594
10th Annual Event!
************************************************************************
)
