Edition 10-03-05
|
|
Tue, Oct. 04, 2005 High court to hear Janklow S.D. law license arguments BY CHET BROKAW ASSOCIATED PRESS PIERRE, S.D. - The South Dakota Supreme Court will hear arguments Oct. 14 in former Gov. and U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow's request to regain his license to practice law. The State Bar's Disciplinary Board has recommended that Janklow regain his law license Feb. 15. If the Supreme Court accepts that recommendation, it would mean Janklow would be reinstated to practice law about a year before his probation ends for second-degree manslaughter and other convictions related to an August 2003 crash that killed a motorcyclist. Janklow has asked that his law license be reinstated immediately, arguing that his resumption of work as a lawyer would not pose a threat to the public and would not damage the integrity of the legal profession. Janklow's license to practice law was automatically suspended after he was convicted of second-degree manslaughter for killing Randy Scott, 55, of Hardwick, Minn. Scott's motorcycle collided with a car Janklow was driving near Trent, north of Sioux Falls. Janklow also was convicted of speeding, running a stop sign and reckless driving. Circuit Judge Rodney Steele of Brookings gave Janklow a suspended imposition of sentence, which means the manslaughter conviction will be erased if he complies with all terms of his three-year probation. He also served100 days in jail. The Disciplinary Board noted that Janklow's conduct reflected indifference to traffic laws and a disregard for the results and risks of that behavior, but it also reported that he has a history of representing poor people and would continue to do so if allowed to resume work as a licensed lawyer. Steele told the Disciplinary Board that he believes Janklow should not be allowed to practice law until his probation ends in 2007. Janklow was attorney general for four years, governor in 1979-1986 and 1995-2002, and served one year in the U.S. House of Representatives after being elected to Congress in 2002. He resigned from the House after he was convicted. FLFLHTC: It just goes on and on. This POS has no regard for justice. His sentence, if you can call it that, was a slap in the face of justice and now he wants his license t practice law restored. Hopefully someone in the judiciary branch will at least carry out some justice in this matter. |
|
Spooks and Scoots
MUMFEST Shorten showers. Simply reducing that lingering time by a few minutes can save hundreds of gallons of hot water per month for a family of four. Showers account for 2/3 of your water heating costs. Cutting your showers in half will reduce your water heating costs by 33 percent. |
|
|
|
|
|
By Anita French (excerpt) The Morning News OK, Harley-Davidson, the company that makes the motorcycle icon, is opening its first Northwest Arkansas dealership and the largest one in the state. The 50,000-square-foot Razorback Harley-Davidson is set to open in the spring along Hudson Road in Rogers. Owners are Paul and Susan Johnson of Rogers, who are motorcycle fans themselves, Paul Johnson said. The Rogers dealership will offer new and used Harley-Davidson and Buell motorcycles, along with riding apparel, parts and accessories. It will also have a "state-of-the-art" service department and Rider's Edge motorcycle training. "It's a very large following, which you could tell from the bike event in Fayetteville," he said, referring to the Bikes Blues & BBQ rally and music festival held in Fayetteville last weekend that reportedly attracted more than 200,000 cyclists and fans. The Rogers dealership will employ between 40 and 50 people, and construction could begin in November. There are more than 1,300 dealerships in 67 countries worldwide today. Arkansas has dealerships in Fort Smith, Jonesboro, Hot Springs and Little Rock. |
|
|
MASSACHUSETTS BIKERS HARASSED OVER HELMETS A group of about two dozen Massachusetts motorcyclists riding in the Yankee Homecoming parade on Sunday, August 7th were ordered by police to don their helmets. When one of them refused to obey, citing a newly enacted law excluding motorcyclists participating in public parades from the state's helmet law, he was pulled from the parade by police. Motorcyclists are now accusing police of being ignorant of the law, and some of them are so angry about their confrontation with police that they are calling for another boycott of the city of Newburyport, similar to one three years ago when motorcyclists felt they were being unfairly targeted by police in a crackdown on loud pipes and told to stay out of town. Their participation in the parade, at the invitation of the city, was meant as an "olive branch" to show that relations between the city and the riders had improved. "There's just this negativity toward motorcyclists," said Paul Cote, legislative director for the Massachusetts Motorcycle Association. "The more things change, the more they stay the same." "I am the law," the officer said, according to Cote, the biker who was kicked out of the parade for refusing to put on his helmet. But the law was changed in February 2004, allowing an exception to the requirement that motorcyclists wear helmets for a "properly permitted public parade." Helmets are otherwise required at all times on roads in Massachusetts. Some of the riders challenged by police on Sunday were the very same ones who spent five years lobbying for that change in the helmet law, Cote said. The reasoning was that most parades travel at very slow speeds, and the whole point of being in a parade is so spectators can see them, something that is hard to do when faces are covered by helmets, Cote said. Helmets can also be very hot during a parade when the temperatures hit 90 degrees, as they did on that Sunday, he added. Police later admitted they were wrong, acknowledging that the law now allows motorcyclists to take off their helmets during parades, but have refused to issue an apology. |
|
|
MOTORCYCLIST APPOINTED TO VIRGINIA TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD Long time motorcycle rights lawyer and founder of the Virginia Coalition of Motorcyclists, Tom McGrath, has been appointed by the Governor of Virginia to serve a four year term on the Commonwealth Transportation Safety Board. He is the first motorcyclist to be appointed to the Board. Among his accomplishments, McGrath led the successful effort to allow motorcyclists access to the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lanes and convinced the General Assembly to pass legislation guaranteeing motorcyclists the right to use these lanes. He spearheaded efforts to increase funding for the Virginia Motorcycle Rider Safety Training Program and worked to enact legislation to preserve the funding. McGrath was also instrumental in having legislation passed requiring the teaching of motorcycle awareness as part driver education in high schools. McGrath is the Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (AIM) Attorney for Virginia, and was awarded the Silver Spoke Award for his legal and legislative accomplishments by the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM). |
|
| Friday, October 07, 2005 :: infoZine Staff :: page views Lawmakers Limit Car Crash Data By Eric Kelderman - Lawmakers are paying a lot of attention to some little-known technology that collects data during car crashes. Stateline.org - infoZine - Arkansas, Nevada, North Dakota and Texas this year followed California 's lead in limiting who can use information from Event Data Recorders (EDRs) -- devices that can record a car's speed and the response of seat belts, brakes and air bags in an accident. The state laws are meant to preserve a driver's privacy by requiring a court order or the car owner's permission before insurers or law enforcement can download the data. Eleven other states considered bills in 2005 limiting access to such crash data, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. EDRs have been installed on approximately 15 percent of all cars on the road and up to 90 percent of the 2004 models, said Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. About the size of a compact disc jewel case, the device is attached to a car's airbag system and records up to 30 seconds of information, which is continually overwritten. An accident triggers the device to save the information, which otherwise is not stored after the car is turned off, Shosteck said. There is no federal law governing who has access to information fromEDRs and how it can be used, according to the American Automobile Association. In one high-profile case, South Dakota state police in 2003 gleaned EDR information from the car of former governor and U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow (D) after he ran a stop sign and hit a motorcyclist, who later died from his injuries. Several organizations, including the National Transportation Safety Board, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the American College of Emergency Physicians have issued statements supporting the use of EDRs to collect research data. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is considering requiring them in all new vehicles. Lawmakers across the country are growing more concerned that EDR information will be misused by law enforcement or insurance companies. "Like 95 percent of the citizenry, I didn't know these devices were in automobiles," said Arkansas state Sen. Jim Jeffress (D), a chief sponsor of the law in his state that specifies that data from EDRs belong solely to the car owner. "What I could foresee is some poor old guy working paycheck-to-paycheck has an [automobile] accident ... and an overzealous prosecutor uses [EDR] data against him in court," he said. Under Jeffress' measure, police would need a court order to use the EDR information for an investigation, he said. Insurance companies also cannot require access to the EDR data as a condition of granting a policy or of paying a claim, Jeffress explained. But data could be downloaded from the devices for research if the identity of the owner is not disclosed. The Arkansas law also requires that car dealers tell buyers about the devices -- information that is now disclosed only in the owner's manuals that few people read thoroughly, he said. North Dakota Rep. Duane DeKrey (R), who pushed for a similar law in his state, said he was worried that insurance companies would use the EDR data to unfairly raise a customer's premiums. "It should be made clear who owns the information," he said. The new Nevada law is similar to Arkansas', but a provision requiring dealers to inform buyers was stripped from it, said Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce (D), who co-sponsored the legislation. The measures have the support of the American Automobile Association because they protect individual drivers' information, said spokesman Mantill Williams. "Our position is, when you buy the car, all the data belongs to you," he said. INFO FROM STATELINE.ORG. |
|
|
|
|
|
WORD of the DAY |
|
|
tabula rasa \tab-yuh-luh-RAH-zuh\ noun 1 : the mind in its hypothetical primary blank or empty state before receiving outside impressions *2 : something existing in its original pristine state Example sentence: Our newly built house, with its unpainted walls, is a tabula rasa awaiting our decorative touches. Did you know? Philosophers have been arguing that babies are born with minds that are essentially blank slates since the days of Aristotle. (Later, some psychologists took up the case as well.) English speakers have called that initial state of mental blankness "tabula rasa" (a term taken from a Latin phrase that translates as "smooth or erased tablet") since the 16th century, but it wasn't until British philosopher John Locke championed the concept in his "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" in 1690 that the term gained widespread popularity in our language. In later years, a figurative sense of the term emerged, referring to something that exists in its original state and that has yet to be altered by outside forces. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. |
|
|
1-01-87 |
|
