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MOTORCYCLE RIDERS EDUCATION FUND IN UTAH–By now most of you have heard of statements made by Senator Buttars, andother things going on up at the Capital. A lot of you have heard it secondand third hand, some of this information has gotten twisted a little. I wantthe members to have the information I have, first hand, as accurate aspossible.
This is to inform you of the incidents that happened, which affect theMotorcycle Riders Education Fund, at the State Capital on Tuesday Feb. 18.We heard that the Executive Offices and Criminal Justice subcommittee wasgoing put the Motorcycle Riders Education Fund (MREF) on the 2% cut list.This means they were going to recommend the Executive AppropriationsCommittee that they take the money from that fund to pay for highway patrolexpenses.
During this meeting Senator Buttars gave the Executive Offices and CriminalJustice subcommittee report to the Executive Appropriations Committee. Hesaid “These are the recommendations for the 2% cut list: We have had to takemoney from the victims reparations fund and we have received many phonecalls from people against it, I’m very sorry but we took a small percentageof their money. We also have received about 700 phone calls from peopleagainst us taking money from the firecap; again we are only taking apercentage, 1 million dollars from a 4 million dollar fund. We have alsoreceived about 200calls from a bunch of bikers, we took their money..you will receive callsfrom them too, IGNORE THEM, it’s just a little training fund and we tookit.”
Needless to say, we were livid! I REALLY TRIED to keep mycool, walked up and shook his hand, introduced myself, then told him I washere to educate him on a few things. I started out OK, told him theMotorcycle Riders Education Fund provided more than just a little “trainingprogram” It paid for a life saving course. But I was so pissed about hisother comment, I told him[and this is where I kinda lost my cool] “…You got calls from 200 REGISTERED VOTERS! From 200 TAXPAYERS, what kind ofelected official are you to say IGNORE THEM?!!” [yes I was yelling, told yaI kinda lost my cool]
He became indignant and yelled back at me; he said,”I was told to find 9 million dollars somewhere, I was just doingmy job, what do you think I should do?”
I said “By all means, I think youshould IGNORE the voters who put you in this office! If you need to findmoney and want to take ours, I know exactly where you can find it, put anadditional $5 tax on all 4 wheeled vehicles and an additional $2.50 tax onall class A drivers licenses, then take that money, we are getting taxedextra just because we’re bikers. This little “training fund” is aself-sustaining program!”
The officers of Weber Chapter believe that the best way to get our moneyback, is to write or call the Executive Appropriations Committee and letthem know of the public safety this fund provides, and ask them toreconsider cutting our program. I’ve included the list of who to contact.
Lisa Bargar Vlahos
Weber Chapter ABATE
Public Relations
Assistant Political Liaison
Executive Appropriations Committee
Senate;
Sen. LeonardBlackham, lblackham@utahsenate.org (Chair),
Sen. BillHickman, bhickman@utahsenate.org(vice chair)
Sen. Gene Davis, , gdavis@utahsenate.org
Sen. MikeDmitrich, mdmitrich@utahsenate.org
Sen. KarenHale, khale@utahsenate.org,
Sen. PeterKnudson, pknudson@utahsenate.org
Sen. Pres. AlMansell, amansell@utahsenate.org,
Sen. JohnValentine, jvalentine@utahsenate.org
Sen. MichaelWaddoups,mwaddoups@utahsenate.org
Sen. RonAllen, rallen@ronallen.com
House;
Rep. Ron Bigelow, ronbigelow@utah.gov(chair),
Rep. RebeccaLockhart, blockhart@utah.gov(vice)
Rep. JeffAlexander, jalexander@utah.gov
Rep. Greg Curtis, gcurtis@utah.gov
Rep. PatriciaJones, patjones@utah.gov
Rep. BrentGoodfellow, brentgoodfellow@utah.gov
Rep. BradKing, bradking@utah.gov
Rep. KarenMorgan, Karenmorgan@utah.gov
Speaker MartyStephens, martystephens@utah.gov
Rep. MichaelStyler, mstyler@utah.gov
BIKERNET LAWSUIT OF THE WEEK–This year’s favorite could easily be Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr.Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee.
Not surprisingly, the R.V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for notadvising him in the owner’s manual that he couldn’t actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new motor home.
They changed their owner’s manual.
Redneck Cat Carrier–
From Kathy Ronan
PROTECT YOUR FAMILY, GO TO JAIL?–According to the New York Times, Mr. Ronald Dixon of Brooklyn, NY, “wasupstairs, in bed, when he heard a noise in thehallway. Half asleep, he opened his eyes and saw a man at the top of thestairs heading toward the bedroom of Mr. Dixon’s2-year-old son, Kyle. That was enough for the father. He grabbed a9-millimeter pistol that he kept in a closet, walked toward the man andasked what he was doing there. This man, Mr. Dixon said, ran at him,screaming. That’s when hepulled the trigger. He shot the intruder twice, wounding him seriously butnot mortally.”
Now, 27-year-old Mr. Dixon is your basic “straight arrow,” a Navy veteranwho works two jobs — 80 hours a week — as acomputer specialist to provide for his family, including two small children.The man accused of being the intruder, Ivan Thompson, 40, is a careercriminal with a long record of burglaries and other crimes. If convictedthis time, he could be locked away for a long, long time.
Case closed, right? Not quite.
Mr. Dixon had purchased his gun legally when he lived in Florida. He hadjust recently moved to Brooklyn, and was smackdab in the middle of running through all the hoops and jumping through allthe rings — and there are a LOT of them — to gethis gun registered in New York.
But the registration process wasn’t yet complete when he used his gun todefend his family. And Mr. Dixon lives in a boroughwhose district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, “considers the prosecution ofillegal-gun charges a supreme virtue. Mr. Hyneswants Mr. Dixon to do jail time… If convicted of the misdemeanor chargeagainst him, Mr. Dixon could get as much asa year. Mr. Hynes is offering a plea bargain that would involve fourweekends, tops, on Rikers Island.”
You read that right. Mr. Dixon is facing up to a year on RIKERS ISLAND if hedoesn’t accept the “plea bargain” from District Attorney Hynes and pleadGUILTY on a gun possession charge, for a gun he had purchased legally andwas in the process of making legal in New York. And if he’s found guilty,his permanent record could keep him from obtaining work in his field.
We just don’t think that’s right.
ACTION ITEM: The Brooklyn DA is elected to that position, from what weunderstand. As an elected official, he is obligated to listen to what votershave to say. So, we’ve set up a way for you to easily communicate with him.
Go to the site below to send an editable pre-written message to DA CharlesJ. Hynes, letting him know what you think ofprosecuting upstanding law-abiding citizens who try to protect theirfamilies: http://www.conservativealerts.com/030103.htm AOL GO HERE
Or give Mr. Hynes a call at 718-250-2000 (718-250-2025 after hours andweekends).If you need more info on this or any other subject just go to the Sons ofLiberty Riders Info Zonehttp://solrpa.com/wwwboard/ or http://www.solriders.net/– LaterHawkICQ 34668186AOL SoLRHawk
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