NCOM NEWS BYTES

NCOM CONVENTION "JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER!" As NCOM Chairman Doc Reichenbach was making last minute preparations for the 16th Annual NCOM Convention in Orlando, Florida, May 10-12, 2001, he told Bill Bish, NCOM Executive Director, that ''I just want everyone to say that this was the best Convention ever!''
By the time the National Coalition of Motorcyclists' Convention wound down to the Silver Spoke Awards Banquet on Saturday night, it was clear to the nearly 1,100 conventioneers that this really was the best one ever! But, as Bish pointed out during his keynote speech at the banquet, ''The funny thing is, that's what we hear every year!''
Aside from the record attendance, full agenda and thought-provoking seminars, one of the things that made this year's Convention special was that we got to help ABATE of Florida and the Confederations of Clubs of Florida, our Convention Hosts, celebrate their newly won Freedom of Choice on helmets!
''Celebrate Freedom'' was the theme for the Convention, and Florida now makes the fifth state to repeal their mandatory adult helmet law in the five years since bikers from across the country worked together to repeal the federal helmet law mandates.
But Freedom isn't just about helmets, and Convention seminars focused on other proactive, pro-motorcycle legislation, such as equal access (biker anti-discrimination), handlebar height repeals, blue dot tail light laws, multiple bike parking and other ideas that would benefit motorcycle riders.
''Freedom TO'' also means ''Freedom FROM,'' and the 2001 Convention featured discussions about legislation and regulations that we must address in order to maintain our rights to ride free, such as universal construction standards that could impact the way our motorcycles are made, and impending environmental regulations that could choke the life out of motorcycling.
At the A.I.M. Attorney Conference, convention-goers learned about legal efforts by our Aid to Injured Motorcyclists attorneys such as protecting our First Amendment right of free speech regarding wearing club colors, and fighting biker discrimination and police harassment through the courts.
From the rousing Pledge of Allegiance led by Wisconsin State Senator Dave Zien during the Opening Ceremonies, to the life-saving ''Accident Scene Management'' seminar by Slider Gilmore that concluded the conference, the 2001 NCOM Convention provided attendees with the knowledge, information and motivation to lead the motorcycle rights movement onward and upward.
Recipients of this year's Silver Spoke Awards were: GOVERNMENT - Florida State Representative Nancy Argenziano; COMMERCE - Rey Sotelo, Founder of Indian Motorcycle; MEDIA - Lee Love, founder of Motorcycle NewsWire; LEGAL - Minnesota A.I.M. Attorney Stephen O'Brien; the year 2001 RON ROLOFF LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD was presented to James ''Doc'' Reichenbach II, President and Lobbyist for ABATE of Florida, Inc., and Chairman of the Board for the National Coalition of Motorcyclists; and SPECIAL RECOGNITION - "Rotten Roger" Hendricks, ABATE of Oregon. SPECIAL AWARDS were presented to Florida State Senator Burt Saunders and Florida State Representative Dave Russell, who were instrumental in getting Florida's helmet modification bill enacted, and to the Kentucky Motorcycle Association/KBA for their successful efforts to remove motorcyclists from the state's anti-gang law.
Next year's NCOM Convention will be held at the Downtown Radisson in New Orleans, Louisiana, May 9-11, 2002. Call NCOM at (800) 525-5355 for more details.

HEALTH CARE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST MOTORCYCLISTS LEGALIZED In one of his first official acts as new Secretary of Health & Human Services under President George W. Bush, former Wisconsin State Governor Tommy Thompson, an avid motorcyclist himself, revealed that after personally reviewing the interim final rules for nondiscrimination in health care coverage, his office cannot find legal justification to modify or disallow the new regulations.
In effect, this revelation revokes the efforts of multitudes of motorcyclists who successfully lobbied Congress in 1996 to guarantee access to medical benefits for employees injured in motorcycle accidents. The new rules, which went into effect May 8, 2001, basically say that motorcycle riders and participants in other recreational activities cannot be excluded from health care coverage, but benefits can be denied if the employee is injured while participating in those activities.
The root of the problem is the McCarren-Ferguson Act, passed in the 1940's to ensure that insurance benefits shall be regulated at the state, not federal, level.
So, it's back to the drawing board for bikers rights advocates, who are already busy preparing the next legislative plan to protect riders' right to medical benefits...whether it be in Congress or State Houses across the Nation.

SUPREME COURT ALLOWS ARREST FOR TRAFFIC OFFENSE A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, April 24, 2001, that police may arrest individuals for minor traffic violations or other misdemeanor offenses normally punishable only by a fine, such as unbuckled seat belts or public littering. By a 5-4 vote, the high court declared that the Fourth Amendment, which bans unreasonable arrests and searches, does not prevent police from making such arrests without a warrant.
The case in question involved a Texas woman who was arrested for driving without her seat belt fastened. After being pulled over by an officer who noticed the violation, she told him she did not have her license and insurance information because her purse had been stolen the day before.
She was then handcuffed and taken to the local jail, where she spend about one hour being processed and having bail set. She pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor seat belt offense and paid the fine, but then sued the city alleging they had violated her constitutional rights and seeking compensatory and punitive damages. The court rejected her historical argument that the common law dating back to the founding of the country barred peace officers from making warrantless misdemeanor arrests, except in cases of ''breach of the peace'' involving violence.
Timothy Lynch, director of the Project on Criminal Justice at the Cato Institute think-tank said, ''The practical effect of the ruling is that police officers can exercise 'extremely poor judgment' and harass citizens for pointless reasons - and those citizens are without legal redress.''
Lynch added, ''The Framers of our Constitution would frankly be startled by the Supreme Court's cavalier treatment of the legal threshold by which citizens can be deprived of their liberty and thrown in jail.''

TEXAS POLITICIAN DONS LEATHERS FOR BIKERS' RIGHTS El Paso State Representative Norma Chávez wore a black leather vest with ''Legislative Warrior'' embroidered on the back when she passed legislation to enhance the rights of motorcyclists on April 20, 2001.
As she introduced the bill on the House Floor, she pulled her hair back to help give her a ''biker look,'' according to the Capitol Notebook written by Gary Scharrer in the El Paso Times.
''That is tough!'' House Higher Education Chairwoman Irma Rangel, D-Kingsville, said in assessing Chávez's motorcycle look.
Chávez's bill breezed to passage without discussion and without a single ''no'' vote. Part of it is intended to stop police harassment of motorcyclists who don't wear helmets. Only motorcyclists younger than 21 are required to wear helmets. Chávez's bill allows police to stop helmet-less motorcyclists only if they appear younger than 21, and they cannot stop a rider to check if their helmet meets DOT specifications. The bill also provides greater accountability for a motorcycle education and safety fund and attempts to reduce the waiting period for people trying to enroll in the course.
''She truly is a Legislative Warrior,'' said Sputnik of the Texas Motorcycle Rights Association and member of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists Legislative Task Force, as he explained that in order to make her point, she flaunted protocol by not wearing a suit jacket while introducing the bill.
Chávez wore her Harley-Davidson earrings, but she did not ride her Sportster to the Capitol. ''I left my Harley in El Paso,'' she said. ''With the help of other Legislative Warriors like Norma Chávez, we expect to get all of our bills through this year,'' said Sputnik at the recent NCOM Convention, ''and we're well on track to become the next state to enact Equal Access legislation.''

ARIZONA ENACTS PRO-MOTORCYCLE LEGISLATION ''As our Arizona Lobbying Team waited in the gallery for our bill to come up, it became apparent that the bills we were listening to had significant social impact and that ours was important enough to have made it this far,'' recalls Roger ''Priest'' Hurm of the day their motorcycle safety bill passed the House and was eventually signed into law by Governor Hull, allocating $1 per motorcycle registration to be spent on programs that benefit motorcycle riders.
VWhen SB1037 was called for vote and the green lights started showing up on the big board, with only 6 red lights, we knew we had a winner,''
continued Priest, who is Chairman of the MMA of Arizona and member of the board of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists. ''We were then introduced by the Speaker, who made the comment that he assumed we wouldn't be down there after todayâ?¦well, Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth.
There were a lot of bills we heard that could have used some 'Biker Logic' attached to them, so I believe our Team will be back down there a whole lot.
Heck, we were just getting to know where the johns are.''

VIETNAM DELAYS HELMET LAW Bowing to public pressure in a country where millions use motorbikes to get around, Vietnam's government has shelved a plan to fine urban riders who do not wear helmets.
With accidents on the rise in chaotic streets crowded by millions of motorbikes -- the chief means of transport in Vietnam, where one in ten people ride -- the government had planned to begin fining violators of a helmet law $1.40 starting June 1, 2001.
But according to an Associated Press article written by David Thurber, many people complained that helmets would be uncomfortable in the heat and humidity of the Southeast Asian nation and said it would be impractical for hundreds at a time to carry them into movie theaters, restaurants or wedding receptions.
Therefore, the government decided to indefinitely postpone the planned fines in most cases, the prime minister's office announced. ''It is the third time Vietnam's Communist leadership has backed down on enforcing the helmet law,'' reported the AP article.
Under a new proposal, fines would be imposed only on motorcyclists traveling without helmets on highways, while those in cities would be encouraged -- but not required -- to wear protective headgear, it said.
There are 7 million motorbikes in Vietnam, whose population in 78 million. Vietnam's Communist government has had to modify or withdraw decisions on a number of occasions because of popular opposition. Last year, the Ministry of Trade imposed a customs inspection fee but abolished it four months later after companies protested it was too high and refused to pay.

ISLE OF MAN MOTORCYCLE RACES CANCELED OVER LIVESTOCK DISEASE The Isle of Man TT motorcycle races became the latest sporting event to fall victim to Britain's foot-and-mouth epidemic, as the island's ministers have called off the world-famous races for the first time since wartime because of fears that 40,000 visiting race fans could spread the livestock infection.
The Isle of Man has so far remained free of the disease that has affected more than 1,450 farms in mainland Britain. The TT races attract huge international interest, partly because of the danger of the two week race. Since 1907, almost 200 riders have died on the island's perilous 37-mile ''Mountain Circuit.''

QUOTE OF THE DAY: ''We were free until we stopped fighting, now no one has freedom. Chief Tawonka'' Inscription on Cigar Store wooden Indian


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