Free Republic

Health Care Denied Imagine you went to work one day, and your boss handed you a memo that said your employer, to protect the benefits of “responsible” employees, would no longer cover motorcycle-related injuries under the company’s health insurance? Plus, the company wouldn’t make good on its employee life insurance policy if you were killed in a motorcycle crash. You’d still be covered if you did almost anything else: bungee jumping, skydiving, scuba diving, skiing. Just not on your motorcycle. Outrageous? We think so. But that’s exactly what happened this summer to hundreds of workers at the American Coal...

They’d have to stop for red lights and check for traffic but then could proceed. Street-level complaints sometimes inspire letters to lawmakers. But Sumter resident Billy “Reb” Richardson took his concern one step further. He was inspired to write a law. Richardson got tired of getting stuck at traffic lights riding around the state on his Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle. His solution: Let motorcyclists drive through a red light once they have stopped and checked for traffic. Traffic lights often are triggered by sensors that pick up metal and mass when a vehicle stops on them, but some modern motorcycles...

LEBANESE youths and ethnic "lions" from Melbourne are preparing to join Sydney's race riots, with busloads of troublemakers rumoured to be heading north. Expectations among the young Lebanese community in western Sydney that further trouble will develop over the weekend comes despite calls from their religious leaders, police and politicians for both sides to calm down. One 22-year-old ethnic Lebanese man yesterday told The Australian he and his friends were ready for a turf war. "The boys reckon it'll be like a scene out of Braveheart," he said. Sources within the Lebanese community said three busloads of young men from...

The recent gang riots in Toledo, Ohio has produced a renewed interest in the issue of street gangs and their criminal activities. Americans were shocked at news broadcasts showing gang members on the streets of Toledo looting, breaking into homes and torching buildings. The news media template for the rioting is that these thugs were anguished and enraged over a group of Neo-Nazis protesting on the streets considered the territory of gang members. But an honest view of news footage of the gang members rioting displayed an atmosphere of celebration and lawlessness rather than anguish. The violence broke out about...

'I have always striven to be your full-service column-writer. For example, for readers who are not as immersed in the news as we copy editors, I have written helpful summary guides covering clowns such as Cindy ("Warmonger!") Sheehan and Joe ("Spy Leak!") Wilson. Then, two weeks ago, I described how to feed yourself until next February on just $400 by producing a Big Blue Bucket of Meat. Therefore, you should not be surprised that today I'm offering even more valuable information. I want to tell you how to beat the price of gas. The answer is simple: the motor scooter....

Greenville officer arrests man who stole his motorcycle Associated Press GREENVILLE, S.C. - A Greenville police officer found his stolen motorcycle after stopping a truck that didn't have its headlights on. Cpl. Jeremiah Motz said he saw a pickup driving through his apartment complex parking lot early Saturday morning with a bike in the back. "I was shocked," said Motz, who confirmed the motorcycle was the one taken from his yard the day before by checking the license tag. When the driver spotted the officer, he sped off, according to a police report. The truck eventually pulled over in a...

(09-29) 9:24 PDT FORT ROSS -- The body of a Santa Rosa motorcyclist missing since Sept. 19 has been found along with her bike several hundred feet down a cliff off Highway 1 in Sonoma County, police said. Melinda Moore, 40, an avid biker and student at Santa Rosa Junior College, had last been seen by her fiance when she left the Santa Rosa home the couple shared. On Wednesday, a caller told police he had found a motorcycle helmet that day that matched the description of Moore's. He found the helmet on a rock alongside Highway 1 about 3...

A night before a driver pinned Igor Kruk's motorcycle to the back of a sport utility vehicle with his car, killing Kruk in what police are calling a fit of road rage, Kruk had a dream his bike was in pieces on the ground and that he was unable to put it together, his family said yesterday.

Friday, September 23, 2005 Highway accident have been avoided with a helmet? Erin Stein of Lee was not wearing a helmet Wednesday night when he lost control of the motorcycle he was driving and crashed into a tree in downtown Dover Wednesday night. He was 32 years old and now he is dead. Would a helmet have saved his life, or were his injuries of such a nature that he would have died anyway? People at the scene did everything they could to make Erin Stein comfortable. Dover firefighters did everything they were trained to do. But it was too...

A UNITED Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America. England and Wales recorded the second highest number of violent assaults while Northern Ireland recorded the fewest. The study, based on telephone interviews with victims of crime in 21 countries, found that more than 2,000 Scots were attacked every week, almost ten times the official police figures. They include non-sexual crimes of violence and serious assaults. Violent crime has doubled in Scotland over the past 20 years and levels, per head of population,...

CHEYENNE, WYO. - A man and a woman on a motorcycle were killed when they tried to turn around on Interstate 80 and were struck by a tractor-trailer rig near Pine Bluffs. David M. Rhoades, 55, and Lillian K. Rhoades, 50, both of Lewisville, Texas, stopped alongside the eastbound lanes Saturday to take pictures of the Nebraska state sign, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol. David Rhoades then drove their 1995 Harley-Davidson across the median. He pulled into the path of a Volvo tractor-trailer, which hit the motorcycle broadside. The truck driver was not hurt.

Double Standards for Hooliganism Apology Letters In response to "Poland Asked to Apologize," a news article on Aug. 2. Editor, I was saddened to read about the attacks in Warsaw on the Russian diplomat's children and their Kazakh friend. I hope the police are able to apprehend the attackers quickly and that they are punished as severely as the law allows. I was also surprised at Russia's response to the attacks. Since I live in Russia, it does seem rather strange that the Russian government should be so upset over a mere act of hooliganism, the kind that routinely takes...

Poland expresses regret over 'hooligan' attack on Russian teenagers 01.08.2005 Poland has expressed regret over an attack of the children of Russian diplomats in Warsaw. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry described it as ‘an act of bandits and hooligans’ but stressed that it was without any political or international overtones. ‘This should not be linked to any kind of political action against the Russian Federation’, he said. Three teenaged sons of Russian diplomats and a young Kazakh national were attacked and robbed in a Warsaw park by a group of young Poles. All four victims were hospitalized. Nine people...

MARYVILLE, Tenn. - A teenager was jailed for nine days after being accused of burning an American flag on the Fourth of July, and he faces trial next month. While the case could test a state statute against flag burning - an act the U.S. Supreme Court says is protected under the First Amendment - prosecutors said Andrew Elisha Staley has yet to argue that he was exercising free speech rights."Bottom line is, the kid got drunk," said Lisa Lee, his mother. "He's never been in trouble before."Staley, 18, is accused of taking the flag from a residence and setting...

Wheelchair bike is star of show Geoff Adams-Spink BBC News website disability affairs correspondent A new British-made motorcycle for wheelchair users was the star of this year's Mobility Roadshow in the UK. The Conquest is based on BMW 850 or 1150 motorbikes which have been integrated into a racing car-type aluminium body shell. Its creator, Alan Martin, came up with the idea after his son became disabled following an accident. The company will be launching the Conquest in August and hopes to sell 100 in the first year of production. The bike was on show at the Mobility Roadshow, an...

Film Review: Electra Glide in Blue (United Artists; 113 minutes; PG; widescreen; 1973). Now that Robert Blake has been exonerated in the case of the mysterious gunning-down of his estranged wife, it's time to celebrate his release back to society by savoring one of his top screen performances in this cultish cycle-cop yarn directed by James William Guercio. Blake plays John Wintergreen, an American Indian on motorcycle patrol with the police force in Arizona, and he's itching to get out of uniform and work as a plainclothes crime-solver. Wintergreen gets his chance when he discovers what initially looks like a...

Cheers erupt as 30,000 bottles worth of Spanish wine gush out of the hijacked tanker, pumping a blood-red river down the street of a village in the south of France.In front of our eyes, the region's wine "terrorists" - blamed for a string of recent bomb and incendiary attacks - have struck again.Clearly shaken, the tanker's Spanish driver looks on as about 100 angry wine-growers force his younger assistant to unscrew a silver wheel on the tanker's roof to release its pungent load."I count myself lucky," says the driver, Francico Paque, 42, who was asleep in his cabin earlier when...

UEFA to rule on Milan derby after fans force abandonment By Simon Evans MILAN, April 12 (Reuters) - The fate of the Champions League quarter-final second leg between Inter Milan and AC Milan will be decided by UEFA after the game was abandoned after 73 minutes when Milan keeper Dida was struck by a flare from the crowd. An Andriy Shevchenko goal after 30 minutes had given Milan a 1-0 (3-0 aggregate) lead over their city rivals but UEFA's Control and Disciplinary Committee will now decide whether to replay the game, the last 17 minutes or award the win to...

Police arrest 46 soccer fans in Germany 4/9/2005, 12:14 p.m. ET The Associated Press NEU-ULM, Germany (AP) — Police arrested 46 soccer fans after a regional league match in the latest blow to the country 14 months before it hosts the World Cup. The fans of SSV Ulm of Germany and visiting FC Normannia Gmuend of Switzerland clashed with police Friday after they refused to pay their bill at a shop. Police used pepper spray and batons after getting attacked when they tried to subdue one member of the group. The recent outbreak of hooliganism has embarrassed the country's politicians...

Ken and Jessica Sierszen are the kind of bikers the motorcycle industry just can't get too many of. He rides an American Iron Horse chopper. She rides a Buell motorcycle and completed a Harley-Davidson Rider's Edge program aimed at getting women and younger riders into the sport. The Sierszens, who live in Bay View, come from a middle-class background, aren't shy about spending money on their bikes, and plan to ride for decades. That's exactly what the U.S. motorcycle industry wants as the baby boomer generation pushes the middle-age envelope. "My interest will always be on two wheels," Ken, 42,...