Edition 3-14-05

Abate of Florida
Next State Meeting

Safe Place
Poker Run
DATE: APRIL 3,2005
TIME: 10am
LOCATION: Tony D’s (corner of Cortez and 41) First bike out at 11 am.

Sahib Motor Corps
/Hoosier Bar
Poker Run 4-10-05

Leesburg. 9th Annual Leesburg Bike Fest. April 22-24
Lake County comes alive with the roar of over 125,000 thousand bikers from throughout the South. Downtown is closed to motorcycles only! Live bands, Ms Bikefest Contest, Rat's Hole Custom Motorcycle Show, Biker Games, Festive Food, Vendors. Non-Stop Street Party! Presented by the Leesburg Partnership and the City of Leesburg. Info: 352-365-0053 or www.leesburgbikefest.com.

2nd Annual Ride To Remember
May 7, 2005,
9 a.m.
Coachman Park, Clearwater

From the just another reason why cable is better files From c/net
Verizon Communications on Friday confirmed it will raise the price of its DSL subscriptions for month-to-month users by $3 to drive customers toward cheaper one-year contracts.

Beginning March 22, the nation's largest phone company said it will increase prices for its non-binding subscribers from $34.95 a month to $37.95. Verizon said the bump is meant to persuade monthly customers to commit to its one-year plan, which costs $29.95 but penalizes subscribers for canceling prematurely.

Verizon gives the monthly customers the $29.95 rate only if they subscribe to the company's unlimited local and long-distance phone plan--$44.95 to $59.95 per month, depending on the state--or the unlimited local package, ranging from $21.95 to $32.95.

March 11, 2005

Scheduled to fight local drag queen Daisy D. in a professional wrestling match at Beach Bums on Fort Lauderdale Beach Thursday night, Tonya Harding refused to take the ring.

Harding, 34, the figure skater turned boxer, supplied color commentary of five wrestling matches from a balcony instead. She apologized to the crowd, citing state boxing commission regulations that could jeopardize her boxing career -- such as it is -- if she took part in the promotion.

Q: How is an elephant and a tomato alike?
A: Neither one can ride a bike.

Rub petroleum jelly on the hinges and door knobs before you paint a door. If you get paint on them, they will wipe off easily.

By TIMOTHY APPLEBY, KEN KILPATRICK Wednesday, March 9, 2005 -
HAMILTON, ONTARIO -- Firming up their presence in Ontario, the Hells Angels have opened a chapter in Hamilton on the site of an old biker haunt once seized by police.

The chapter is the 16th to be set up in the province since the Angels expanded into Ontario from Quebec just over four years ago. But this latest move, celebrated at an orderly clubhouse gathering on Friday night, appears to involve no new members.

All the 40-plus partygoers were familiar to watching police. Many belong to the big East Toronto chapter.

Why the Angels decided to expand their foothold, if not their numbers, was unclear.

"Sorry, I don't have any comment," said spokesman Donny Petersen, reached yesterday at his Heavy Duty Cycles Ltd. motorcycle store in Scarborough.

"There's been a bit of fragmentation," suggested Staff-Sergeant Scott Mills of the Ontario Provincial Police-led Biker Enforcement Unit.

"This is a new chapter, and I wouldn't want them in my backyard, but there's no real increase in membership. So we view this as a formal presence in a town that's had a long-standing, rather underground outlaw motorcycle presence."

About 245 full-fledged members and close associates make up the Ontario Hells Angels. That number is thought to be slightly less than half the total Canadian membership.

The newest branch plant, in a grimy industrial section of northeast Hamilton, is a refurbished clubhouse that once belonged to the Satan's Choice biker gang, many of whose members "patched over" to the Hells Angels in December, 2000.

The clubhouse, however, had been shut down and forfeited as a proceeds-of-crime asset in 1996, as part of the massive Operation Dismantle project, in which six municipal police forces, including Toronto's, took part. That operation targeted numerous Satan's Choice chapters and yielded more than $10-million worth of drugs. Charges were laid -- and many subsequently dropped -- against about 200 bikers.

From c/net
HANNOVER, Ger.--Bikers are now able to talk and ride by using a mobile phone headset for crash helmets, demonstrated by Italian hi-tech accessory company Cellular Line at the CeBIT trade show this week. The headsets, which connect to a mobile phone by a wire, allow riders to answer the phone while wearing their helmets. It includes an answer/call button and fits onto the exterior of the helmet, usually on the left-hand side. The company claims this allows riders to answer calls and hang up in "complete safety."

In the U.K., it is an offence to use a handheld mobile when driving a car. This legislation, which came into effect in 2003, did not outlaw the pressing of buttons on a mobile phone by a motorcyclist as long as they weren't actually holding the phone.

However, the Department of Transport has warned that "hands-free phones are also distracting and you still risk prosecution for failing to have proper control of a vehicle." Companies have been warned that they could face prosecution if they don't supply hands-free kits to staff that need them.

The headsets, which can be used with most helmets (full face, open face and flip-up), have audio capabilities at speeds up to 62 mph.
FLFLHTC: My retort. A; We ride to get away from the burdens of technology and society B: Ruins my slogan of hang up and drive C: Who wears a damn helmet anyway!

Cops arrest B.C. bikers

Hells face cocaine charges By CP VICTORIA -- After years of investigation, police on Vancouver Island have laid drug trafficking charges against Hells Angels from Nanaimo and Ontario. It is notoriously difficult for prosecutors in B.C. to press charges against Hells Angels. Over the last decade, more than 60% of those laid have ended in either acquittals or charges stayed by Crown.

A member of the Nanaimo Hells Angels and an associate of the Nanaimo motorcycle club were in B.C. Supreme Court Friday charged with trafficking cocaine and conspiracy to traffic cocaine. At the same time, a member of the Keswick, Ont., Hells Angels was being flown to B.C. to face cocaine trafficking charges. A Canada-wide warrant was also issued for another Ontario Hells Angels associate.

"This is the result of the seizure of 10 kilograms of cocaine in Nanaimo in 2003," said Insp. Pat Convey of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit. The unit is the agency which has led Project Halo, a two-year, multi-police force investigation into alleged criminal activity by members of Nanaimo Hells Angels.

Hells Angel Lea Sheppe, 53, of Nanaimo, a businessman and former owner of a Vancouver Island welding business and a West Coast ATV and boat charter business, was released on bail after being charged with trafficking in a controlled substance and conspiracy to traffic.

Robbie Louis Lajeunesse, 43, of Nanaimo was released on bail after being charged with trafficking in a controlled substance.

Sheppe and Lajeunesse will appear in court again April 15.