Free Republic

At the same time YouTube has helped law enforcement from all over the world nab criminals, the video-sharing site has also helped authorities weed out cops who use excessive force. Perhaps one of the better-known cases involves Patrick Pogan, a former New York City police officer who was seen in a much-watched YouTube video body-slamming a bicyclist in 2008. Pogan is accused of assault and filing a false police report and his trial got underway on Monday, according to a story in The New York Times. The 24-year-old Pogan, who has resigned from NYPD, faces up to four years in...

On a windy Monday night, Pete’s Candy Store—a bar in Williamsburg with a railcar-shaped performance space in the back—is crammed to capacity with the thin and the bearded. Almost no one is drinking. The mood is pregame, expectant and nervous. We’re at one of the oddest New York City powwows in recent memory: a panel designed to quell a metastasizing dispute between bicyclists and Hasidic Jews. Except no Hasids are present. For a moment, it looks like the bicyclists will have to debate themselves. At immediate issue is the Bedford Avenue bike lane. It’s the longest in Brooklyn and runs...

Summer 1937. What could be more fitting in the cool afternoon of an English country lane than a group of cycling tourists steadily pedalling their way from one historic site to another, stopping to camp overnight in fields along the way.The only problem was, that summer, some of those groups of teenage boys were Hitler Youth. > MI5 had been told that Hitler Youth groups visiting abroad were asked to complete a detailed questionnaire, including questions on terrain, population, and political views of the population. > They had stayed at a Hitler Youth camp and even taken part in a...

ROTURUA, New Zealand (Reuters Life!) - It's economical, ecological and good exercise: a new human-powered monorail is attracting the crowds in New Zealand, and may become a new mode of transport within cities. Geoffery Barnett combined a laid-back, recumbent bicycle with monorail technology to create the "Schweeb," whose name is derived from the German word "schweben" which means "to float" or "suspend." Barnett said the marriage of the old and the new makes sense: he said recumbent cycling is faster than traditional, upright cycling, while a monorail is the safest, and possibly the only, way to get around congested cities...

The ongoing jockeying among cars, bicycles and pedestrians in Philadelphia took a tragic twist in recent weeks with the deaths of two pedestrians who were struck by bicycles. Now, city council may look at requiring the registration of bikes so cyclists who cause accidents can be tracked down. City councilman Frank DiCicco says countless pedestrians are struck by bicyclists and rarely does the cyclist stop: "When someone's struck by a bicycle, all you know is its someone on a bike, and the bicyclist takes off." His colleague Jim Kenney says the deaths of the two pedestrians highlight the need to...

An 84-year-old man is in stable condition today at a hospital after being knocked to the ground by a bicyclist on Massachusetts Avenue around 5 p.m. Friday, Boston police said. Witnesses said the man had stepped off the sidewalk near the Berklee School of Music to cross the street while cars were stuck in gridlocked traffic when the bicyclist hit him, said Officer Joe Zanoli, a police spokesman. The man fell to the ground and cut his head. The bicyclist, a 22-year-old man from Randolph, stayed at the scene to help, Zanoli said. He told officers he didn't have time...

A 16-year-old boy who tried to rob another youth with a pellet gun was in critical condition late Thursday when his intended victim pulled out a real gun and shot him in the head, police said.

Illegal immigrant held in death of Tulsa cyclist By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer Published: 9/2/2009  2:24 AM Last Modified: 9/2/2009  5:05 AM State troopers arrested an illegal immigrant Tuesday in the hit-and-run death of a longtime bicyclist and clinical psychologist, authorities said. Roberto Salvador Alvelais-Torres, 28, is accused of striking Beverly Jean Duffield, 74, of Tulsa with a sport utility vehicle and then driving away, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. George Brown said. Duffield was killed Tuesday morning while riding her bicycle near U.S. 75 and the 1700 block of Southwest Boulevard — an area where she was known to ride frequently....

BOCA RATON — A 69-year-old Delray Beach man discovered the perils of not doing enough for bicyclists to think he was sharing the road with them. A group of angry cyclists confronted him last week, accusing him of passing them too closely on State Road A1A in Boca Raton. According to Boca Raton police, one cyclist reached into the car, grabbed Miles Barish and threatened to beat him while other cyclists punched and kicked his 2008 Lexus convertible. The cyclist, Thomas McDonald, 50, of Lighthouse Point, was arrested and charged with simple assault and battery on a person older than...

PHOENIX — Prosecutors have charged 23-year-old Phoenix resident Timothy M. Kissida with using the Cash for Clunkers program to ditch his BMW after a fatal hit-and-run crash. Phoenix police say Kissida was driving his light blue BWM 325i shortly after midnight on Aug. 8 when he hit bicyclist Charles Waldrop. The 52-year-old was riding home from work and his bike had lights and reflectors.

OGDEN -- Was it a friendly group bicycle ride through downtown Ogden or a confrontational melee that included obstructing traffic, assault, obscenities and alcohol? Depends on who you talk to. Numbers vary from 35 to 70, but a large group of cyclists, referred to as Critical Mass, was taking a monthly ride to celebrate cycling and assert their rights to the road on Friday when Ogden police say things got out of hand. Four individuals were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, failure to disperse and public intoxication. Matt Hasenyager, owner of Skyline Cycle and one of the bicyclists, said...

SEATTLE -- An Everett mother says she's outraged over a weekend protest full of naked cyclists. The group was riding along the Seattle waterfront Friday night wearing nothing but smiles to expose some of the dangers they face. But not everyone was smiling. "I looked and there were naked men with their genitals hanging out," said Marcy Hayes, who was there with her 6-year-old daughter Ashland. "I'm yelling at my daughter to look away." Hayes says she and her daughter walked out of the Seattle Aquarium and right into the path of a pack of cyclists and all their nakedness....

Lance Armstrong jumped from 10th to third place at the Tour de France on Monday, positioning himself for a shot at the yellow jersey after evading trouble on a windy ride along the Mediterranean. Britain's Mark Cavendish won his second straight stage. He and Armstrong and overall leader Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland kept up with a breakaway group that bolted from the pack with 18 miles left in the 122-mile third stage. Armstrong, a seven-time champion coming out of retirement, is 40 seconds behind. He was able to make his big jump because riders in front of him at the...

Starke to St. Augustine, Fl.: The end of the tour, a lift across a bridge, a TV interview Monday June 15, 2009, 60 miles (97 km) - Total so far: 3,301 miles (5,313 km) I did it, folks. Citrus Heights, Ca., to St. Augustine, Fl., clear across the cotton-picking United States of America by bicycle at age 82, more than 3,000 miles in less than three months. I was on the road at 7:15am., wanting to beat the heat and get this job done. The ride itself was routine, considering the miles I've ridden. But at mid-morning things changed. A...

FORT WORTH — A 23-year-old bicyclist rode right into trouble this week after making an apparent smart-aleck remark. According to a report, a police officer had detained five people on a curb after a traffic stop in the 3900 block of White Settlement Road when the cyclist rode by them about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday. "Did y’all read them their rights first?" the cyclist said loudly as he pedaled past. The remark drew the attention of the officer, who called for the cyclist to stop. "You don’t have a headlight on that bike," the officer said, according to the report. Riding...

TAMPA - The University of South Florida associate vice president who resigned Tuesday over his role in taking a student's bicycle will receive a $50,000 settlement from the university.- - - Snip - - -In the six-page settlement agreement, signed Tuesday by Rao and College of Medicine Dean Stephen Klasko, Rao agrees to give up his contract and not sue the university. The university agrees not to pursue any disciplinary actions that could result from its investigation of the events involving the bicycle.

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

HOLLISTON - If you're young and ride a bicycle through town without a helmet, you may end up walking back home. Police here are looking for scofflaws and will snatch the pedals from your feet if you've been warned numerous times but still forgo headgear.Holliston police, frustrated in trying to drive home the point that riding without a helmet is dangerous and illegal, are hoping the tactic will finally get the attention of young riders."We're not looking to take bikes away from the kids who forget their helmets," School Resource Officer David Gatchell said yesterday. "This isn't something where we're...

The final chance (most likely) for the riders to shake up the GC. A 32 mile Individual Time Trial. Nice and flat:

Bwaaa Haaa Haaa Haaa Haaa!!!I love this stage!At least it's not steep.