Edition 6-04-04
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RED EARTH NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL
POLISH FESTIVAL WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Democrats are treating Stephanie Herseth's election victory in South Dakota as a big bounce in the party's quest to win back the U.S. House. Republicans say nothing could be further from the truth. Either way, her narrow victory over Republican Larry Diedrich in Tuesday's special election to fill Bill Janklow's vacant seat gave Democrats control of all three House and Senate seats in a state that skews Republican. The win also gives Democrats two straight victories this year in special elections for GOP-held seats, bolstering Democratic claims that the national tide is turning their way. But Herseth, who is expected to be sworn in at the Capitol today, acknowledged that she faces a potentially tough rematch in November. She is filling out the remaining term of former Rep. Janklow, who resigned before going to jail in connection with a fatal car accident. "We're not going to take anything for granted," she said in Sioux Falls on Wednesday before leaving for Washington. Herseth's victory, which Diedrich conceded early Wednesday morning, came by a margin of 51 to 49 percent. 1. The garden of Eden was in Iraq. (it sure doesn't look much like Paradise on earth today thanks to Saddam) |
To facilitate our entry into the China market,
we have been discussing potential cooperative efforts with a Chinese
motorcycle group," Harley-Davidson spokesman Bob Klein told
Reuters news agency. He declined to name the Chinese manufacturer
but said the company hopes to announce details of the arrangement
soon.
Harley-Davidson currently has one dealer in Hong Kong but none in mainland China. High import duties and government bans on motorcycles in some large cities have constricted sales there. There are no plans to make Harley-Davidson motorcycles in China or jointly manufacture motorcycles with a Chinese partner. "What's driving this whole process is our objective to export American-made motorcycles to China," Klein said. Reuters reports that union leaders at the company are strongly against local production in China. "We know that if they take this bike over there ... it's only a matter of time before they start bringing them back here," he said. EL CAJON – A motorcycle gang member with a long history of violence pulled a .45-caliber pistol from his waistband outside a bar and fatally shot an unarmed man who had ties to a rival gang, prosecutors said yesterday. Ray Nolan Waldron, 29, is being tried in El Cajon Superior Court in the Sept. 27 shooting death of David "L.J." Florentine, 56, shortly after midnight outside an East Bradley Avenue bar just outside El Cajon. Waldron, a member of the Mongols motorcycle gang, "shot repeatedly at L.J. Florentine in the parking lot of Kelly's Pub" after a brief verbal confrontation, prosecutor Gordon Paul Davis said in his opening statement. Waldron is charged with murder and attempted murder in furtherance of the criminal activities of a motorcycle gang. He also is charged with assault with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Because of previous convictions, Waldron could face more than 100 years in prison if convicted, his lawyer said. In court documents, the prosecutor has portrayed the shooting outside Kelly's Pub as part of a feud between the Mongols and the Hells Angels that began in the 1970s. Davis said Florentine and some friends were leaving the bar to go home when Waldron arrived with a group of men wearing Mongols clothing. The bar's doorman warned Florentine and the others that the Mongols had arrived, Davis said. He said the doorman told Waldron and his group that they couldn't enter the bar wearing gang clothing "and that's when it started." Waldron and a friend confronted Florentine, Davis said. He said the argument escalated and Waldron pulled a gun and began firing, hitting Florentine. The second victim saw Waldron continue shooting Florentine after Florentine had fallen to the ground, Davis said. According to a prison gang expert who testified in a January preliminary hearing, Waldron also is a documented affiliated member of the Nazi Low Riders, a white supremacist prison gang that works under the guidance of the Aryan Brotherhood. Indianapolis police will ask federal prosecutors for any evidence that links an Outlaws motorcycle club member with the disappearance of a local woman in 1997. A federal jury acquitted David Mays, 38, of racketeering charges that including killing Shannon Turner. But local police hope evidence gathered by the feds can help them build a murder case against Mays in Marion County. He was one of 14 Outlaws -- many from Indiana -- whose trial on drug- and violence-related racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges ended Tuesday in Toledo, Ohio. Mays was convicted of some other charges. Indianapolis Police Department Detective Chester Price said he will request evidence regarding Turner and Mays and seek to talk to any witnesses who can help him solve Turner's disappearance. "Mays is definitely a suspect until we find something that can eliminate him," said Price, of IPD's missing persons/runaway unit. "We had to wait until the federal trial was over to see what they have." Though acquitted in federal court of causing Turner's death, Mays still can be charged with murder under state law. Humor of Rodney Dangerfield, thanks Geri |