Edition 5-16-05

Plant City Bike Fest
1st Sat of the Month

2nd Annual
Ride to Remember Coachman Park Clearwater
May 7, 2005 9 AM

2nd Annual
Pete Renner Cancer Poker Run
Harley Davidson Ft Myers
June 6, 2005 11:00AM

Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether

GREAT WISCONSIN CHEESE FESTIVAL
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June 3-5, 2005 Little Chute, WI http://www.littlechutewi.org/ 920-788-7390 Since 1988, the first weekend in June has been a celebration in Little Chute. The Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival is a celebration of Wisconsin's' dairy industry and more mportantly, the area cheese producers. The Cheese Festival is a three-day event that takes place at Doyle Park. The festival is a family event that features music, the Big Cheese parade, cheese tasting, a cheese carving demonstration, a cheesecake contest, a cheese curd eating contest, carnival rides, children's games and entertainment, the Golden K's Big Cheese breakfast, and food and refreshments sold by nonprofit organizations.

Regular rubbing alcohol works fantastic for a ceramic floor. Just pour straight on and rub around with mop until it drys. Make sure children are not in the area during this process and make sure the room is well ventilated.

MIDNIGHT SUN FESTIVAL
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June 21, 2005 Fairbanks, AK http://www.downtownfairbanks.com/
Events.htm 907-443-6624 June 21st is the Midnight Sun Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska, a celebration of the longest day of the year. The midnight sun.
Daylight for around 21 hours. What's it to Fairbanks? Plenty. But it all depends on whom you talk to.

For visitors, it is the fascination of having broad daylight at 2am. For the sports-fans it is the Midnight Sun Run, the Midnight Sun Golf Tournament or the famous Alaska Goldpanners midnight baseball game. But for many it is the Midnight Sun Festival on the streets of downtown Fairbanks. Come join these good folks for a celebration of the summer solstice, when Fairbanks experiences the midnight sun and more than 22 hours of direct sunlight.

Molly Holly has turned down all post-WWE media interview requests, and denied that she left due to the Diva Search competition. She has gone on record saying that only she and Vince McMahon know the real reason she decided to quit, and now she is keeping it that way.

Place damp paper towels in your microwave and turn it on high for 10 seconds. This makes your microwave easy to clean.

Grandpa was driving with his 9 year old granddaughter and beeped the horn by mistake. She turned and looked at him for an explanation.
He said, "I did that by accident."
She replied, "I know that, Grandpa."
He replied, "How did you know?"
She said, "Because you didn't say "asshole!" afterwards.

#05NR11 - Lautenberg Amendment Defeated in Senate

Lautenberg Amendment Defeated in Senate

The United States Senate yesterday soundly defeated, by a 69 to 28 vote, an amendment offered by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) that would have reinstated federal penalties on states that do not have mandatory motorcycle helmet laws. Citing the recent United States Department of Transportation's (USDOT) FARS Data, Sen. Lautenberg urged his colleagues to pass his amendment "to save lives and diminish the public burden placed on taxpayers by injured motorcyclists." Speaking in opposition to the amendment, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and floor manager of the Highway Bill (HR 3), advocated motorcycle training and safety programs have been proven to save more lives. Sen. Inhofe referred to the recent findings of the California Study as proof. He further stated his opposition to federal mandates on the states.

Most projection HDTVs sold today are rear projection TVs (RPTVs). The biggest advantage to rear projection (compared to front projection) is its simplicity. All the pieces and parts are in one chassis, just as they are in an old-fashioned CRT (tube) TV. So with an RPTV, there's no lens adjusting and focusing of the picture on the screen.
In fact, with most modern RPTVs, there's not even any need to "align" or aim the picture to avoid those awful "ghosty" images you may have seen on older RPTVs.

Compared to a front projection HDTV, an RPTV Has a large (but relatively smaller) screen. RPTVs typically range from 42 to 70 inches diagonally, while front projection screens can be 100 inches or larger.

Is generally less expensive. The most expensive RPTVs cost more than entry-level front projectors, but you can expect to pay $3,000 or less for an HDTV RPTV, while most HD-compatible front projectors start at about $5,000 or more.

Is easier to install and set up. Most RPTVs can be plugged in, turned on, and that's it. Even the easiest-to-install front projection system requires adjustment in the placement of lens and chassis to focus the picture to the right size on your screen.

The biggest picture shortcoming with most RPTVs revolves around the viewing angle of the RPTV -- this describes how far from perpendicular to the screen a viewer can be and still see the picture clearly. Some RPTVs have poor viewing angles, so they're less than best when viewers are seated far to either side of the HDTV.

The other potential shortcoming of RPTVs is their size -- not screen size, but bulkiness. RPTVs based on traditional CRT technologies can be huge, taking up more room than you're willing to allow. However, newer RPTVs, such as DLP, use microdisplay technologies and are actually quite slim.

For everything you need to know before you buy a high-definition TV, pick up a copy of HDTV For Dummies, by Danny Briere and Pat Hurley.

Hells Angels are criminalizing Indo-Canadian youth by using them in organized crime, says the prominent father of a young man charged this week in connection with an April 26 kidnapping and assault.

Harjit Singh Atwal, a former member of the International Sikh Youth Federation, said the Hells Angels should be banned in Canada, just as the ISYF and Babbar Khalsa were banned.

Both groups were barred by the federal government in June 2003 as terrorist organizations for their violent support for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland they called Khalistan.

Atwal's son, Bobby Harminder Singh Atwal, was one of six people charged with a series of offences related to the kidnapping of another young Indo-Canadian man. The father of the kidnap victim was also involved in the ISYF.

One of the others charged in the April 26 kidnapping, Jethinder Singh (Roman) Narwal, was also charged in the May 2 kidnapping of another man. Narwal's father Avtar is a former Babbar Khalsa leader.

Narwal, who remains in custody, is now facing three sets of kidnapping charges involving different alleged victims.

One is alleged to have taken place last January, the second is the April 26 incident and the third group of charges relates to the May 2 abduction of an Abbotsford man from his Coquitlam workplace.

Harjit Atwal said many young Indo-Canadian men in Surrey such as his son Bobby are being used by bigger players in organized crime who are involved in the drug trade.

"I am not denying there is some fault on their part but the bigger fault is on the Hells Angels," Atwal said in an interview.

"Organized crime is doing all these things and nobody [is] doing anything against them.

Backstage News: Did HBK Really Suffer A Concussion?
Story By: Ben Johnson Source: PWInsider.com The backstage word from RAW was that Shawn Michaels seemed completely fine after his match on Monday's show. Although the possibility of HBK suffering a legitimate concussion remains, the likelihood is that WWE.com simply posted the fabricated update to further a storyline.

WWE.com has generally been reliable in terms of injury and release updates, but the fact that HBK's concussion was built into the RAW Homepage as a link from the news section might serve as a red flag (there was no actual story relating to the concussion).

May 13, 2005 (The Monterey County Herald - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Harley-Davidson muffler maker Gabilan Manufacturing Inc. in Salinas is closing because its new owner is moving operations to Nebraska, a move that will put 190 people out of work.

Executives of Tenneco Automotive Inc. on Thursday told employees at Gabilan's Work Street plant that it plans to close the facility by mid-2006.

Everyone is expected to be laid off, in phases, beginning at the end of this year.

Tenneco bought Gabilan in February for $10 million in cash. At the time, executives said they would be considering structural changes to the company, including in Salinas, said Barb Kluth, Tenneco's executive director of human resources, who works in Illinois.

"We were very up-front when we came out after the acquisition," Kluth said.

"I don't think that employees were surprised (about Thursday's announcement),"
Kluth said. "If anything, I think they showed appreciation that we've given them as much notice as we did. We wanted to give them as much advance warning that we could."

One-hundred ninety employees of various levels -- from line worker to management
-- will be laid off, Kluth said. Of those, about 140 are represented by Local 3 of the Operating Engineers union.

Most are Monterey County residents who have worked for the company for several years, said Steve Napoli, human resources manager at the Salinas plant.

"There are people that have been working here at least 20 years," he said.

Napoli, who has lived in the county for 10 years, has worked at Gabilan for two years in Salinas, and is among those who will be laid off.

"Our plan is to help the transition as much as possible," he said.

Employees leaving the plant Thursday afternoon declined to comment and referred questions to management.

Gabilan has worked exclusively for Harley-Davidson since 1978, responsible for the motorcycle's chrome-plated mufflers and exhaust systems. It also makes aftermarket muffler kits, customized mufflers known for their loud sound, exclusively for Harley-Davidson.

It had $38 million in revenues in 2004 and makes about 15,000 mufflers per week, executives said.

Gabilan has about 240 employees, with 190 in Salinas, with the rest working at the company's other plants in Nebraska, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Tenneco is a $4.2 billion manufacturer based in Lake Forest, Ill., with about
18,800 employees worldwide. It makes ride control and exhaust systems, including shock absorbers and mufflers, under its Monroe and Walker brand names.

Tenneco already has a facility in Seward, Neb., much closer to Gabilan's facility in Lincoln, Neb., where the mufflers are chrome-plated.