Laconia H-D to raffle Laconia Motorcycle Week 90th Anniversary Motorcycle - May 01, 2013
Meredith, N.H.—Laconia Harley-Davidson is commemorating the 90th anniversary of Laconia Motorcycle week by launching a campaign to raise $30,000 for the Boys & Girls Club of the Lakes Region. Laconia Harley has donated a one-of-a-kind, customized 2013 Harley-Davidson Street Glide, which will be raffled off to support the Lakes Region organization. Only 3,000 tickets will be available, and they can be purchased for $10 each at www.laconiaharley.com, the Boys & Girls Club of the Lakes Region, Laconia Harley-Davidson and also at White Mountain Harley-Davidson. Over the last four years, Laconia Harley-Davidson has raised $125,000 in support of New Hampshire nonprofits including the Loon Preservation Society, the New Hampshire Food Bank and the Winnipesaukee Playhouse.
“As a local business, we look forward to hosting hundreds of thousands of Laconia Motorcycle Week visitors each year,” said Anne Deli, owner of Laconia Harley-Davidson. “The Boys & Girls Club of the Lakes Region hosts a more important constituency each day—our children. This is an opportunity to own a piece of history while empowering a well-deserving local nonprofit that influences so many young lives.
The Boys & Girls Club of the Lakes Region (BGCLR) was formally chartered in 2007, but its roots go back to community leaders who banded together in the late ’90s to create a safe place for area teens. Today, BGCLR serves 240 members from across the region by providing a safe and comfortable atmosphere to learn and grow during out-of-school hours. Led by a caring professional staff, BGLCR’s members are provided with life-enhancing programs and character development experiences that assist in their ability to grow and develop into productive, responsible and caring adults. BGCLR relies on local businesses to support the programs that provide a safe and healthy environment for teens and kids.
“Laconia Harley-Davidson’s donation is one of the single largest gifts we have ever received,” said Cheryl Avery, executive director for the Boys & Girls Club of the Lakes Region. “This gift will enable us to do so much for the youth of our community. In particular, it will support our summer program, which exposes kids to the beauty and recreation of the Lakes Region while instilling a sense of personal and environmental responsibility. We are here for kids throughout the Lakes Region, especially for those who need us most. The simple act of buying a $10 raffle ticket can make an incredible difference.”
The 2013 Harley-Davidson Street Glide will feature customized artwork by legendary pinstripe artist and Candia, New Hampshire, resident, Russ Mowry. Mowry has been making his mark in the motorcycle world since 1958 and is renowned for the unique detailing he applies to motorcycles. He has hand-painted hundreds of motorcycles from Sturgis to Daytona, and was recently given a lifetime achievement award by Willie G. Davidson, son of former Harley-Davidson president William H. Davidson and head of Harley-Davidson’s Willie G. Davidson Product Development Center.
“This is a very special bike for a very special purpose. I am honored to be a part of the 90th anniversary of Laconia Motorcycle Week and offer my talents to support this cause,” said Mowry.
Mowry will use a 1,000-year-old technique of hand-spun gold leaf for the “Laconia Motorcycle Week 90 Years Strong” design on the front of the Street Glide. The iconic Boys & Girls Club logo will be hand-painted on one side saddle and the Laconia Harley-Davidson logo will adorn the other.
Mowry, whose inspiration drives his artwork, will also include other subtle, yet-to-be-determined details throughout the motorcycle. While the design will be distinctive, it will not dominate the bike. “My philosophy is the chrome does the shouting and the pinstriping does the whispering,” said Mowry.
Second and third place winners will receive a $500 and $100 gift card, respectively, good at Laconia Harley-Davidson or White Mountain Harley-Davidson. Tickets are on-sale now at www.laconiaharley.com, Laconia Harley-Davidson, White
Sports News
NASCAR upholds Penske penalties; team plans new appeal - May 01, 2013
NASCAR has upheld its ruling dealing severe penalties to the Penske teams of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. The Penske teams have indicated they will appeal the decision of the three-person panel to NASCAR's Chief Appellate Officer.
The Penske teams' penalties stemmed from violations of NASCAR's Sections 12-1, 12-4J and 20-12. Both teams' crew chiefs, car chiefs, engineers and competition directors were suspended for six races, including the All-Star Race in Charlotte. The crew chiefs were fined $100,000 apiece. And both teams lost 25 championship points.
The National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel had the ability to uphold, reduce or increase the penalties. The panel heard the appeal beginning at 9 a.m. ET Wednesday, and rendered its verdict at 3 p.m. The violations stemmed from concerns about the rear-end housings of both the 2 and 22 cars at Texas in mid-April.
The appeal means that the suspended crew members could be permitted to continue with track activities, provided the appellate officer, John Middlebrook, defers the suspensions.
“We need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Logano said in recent weeks. “So we will prepare for the worst. We’ll obviously bring some extra people to try to have some overlap within our team to prepare for if the appeal doesn’t go the way we expect it to. So we need to always do that. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and we’ll get through this. Penske Racing has a lot of depth in the company. They’re very strong, and we will get through this.”
US National News
Petition to remake Confederate monument splits Georgians - May 01, 2013
Depending on whom you ask, the enormous monument carved into Georgia's Stone Mountain is either a proud statement or a blight and an embarrassment.
Depicting the only president of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, riding beside Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, it's two football fields wide, making it the largest of its kind.
Carving of Jefferson Davis and Gens. Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)
The NBC station 11 Alive reports that a petition that seeks to remake this famous—and infamous—landmark is causing controversy.
"It's almost like a black eye or an embarrassing smudge on our culture," the petition's creator, McCartney Forde, told local 11.
Forde's online petition on Change.org calls for changes to be made to the mountainside carving, first conceived in 1923 by a charter member of the Daughters of the Confederacy but not completed until 1972.
He writes, “The three men embossed on the face of arguably the most famous landmark in the great state of Georgia are icons for what is widely considered the darkest period in our nation’s history. ... It is a monument that perpetuates the perception of Georgia as an icon of racism, slavery and oppression.”
So far, just 164 people have signed the petition, but the quest seems to be as controversial as the monument itself.
"We should not erase history," Calvin Johnson, Jr., a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, told the news station.
He added, "These guys [were] regarded very highly in the North and South after the War Between the States, and it's only been the last 30 or 40 years that I think what you call revisionist history began in this country."
Symbols of the Confederacy, which to many represent the pro-slavery history of the South, continue to stir up debate. A song by country singer Brad Paisley, “Accidental Racist,” recently caused an outcry because, among other things, it seemed to defend his wearing of a Confederate flag T-shirt.
"The only thing I meant to say is I'm a Skynyrd fan,” he sings.
World News
Syria’s Opposition Hopes to Win the War by Selling Oil - May 01, 2013
Given the many resolutions on Syria that have hit a brick wall at the U.N. Security Council, and the endless wrangling among Western leaders over how to end the calamitous two-year war, the April 22 decision by E.U. foreign ministers to lift the oil embargo against Syria looked almost like tangible progress. “We wish for good economic development in the areas controlled by the opposition,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters before the vote in Luxembourg. “Therefore we lift the sanctions that hinder the moderate opposition forces’ work.”
On paper, the E.U.’s idea seemed straightforward. Without an embargo, European companies can now legally begin importing barrels of oil directly from rebel groups, which have seized several oil fields in recent months, mostly around the eastern area of Deir Ezzor. That would provide the opposition with its first reliable source of income since the revolt erupted in Feb. 2011, and in theory hasten the downfall of Bashar Assad’s regime, by giving rebels the means to run skeletal local governments and consolidate their control. As part of the decision, the E.U. ministers also agreed to export technical equipment, insure the rebels’ shipments of oil and invest in the rebel oil businesses. Before the war, Syria earned about $3.6 billion a year exporting oil and gas to Europe, with its biggest customers in Germany and Italy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
For Syria’s opposition leaders, the E.U.’s decision last week was welcome news, especially since they have spent months trying to cobble together an interim government that can begin delivering some basic services to rebel areas, which has been hampered by a lack of money. From their perch at the margins of the conflict or overseas, the opposition’s leaders are struggling to create an iota of legitimacy among the fighting factions on the ground. “Oil will be one of the main resources for the government’s budget,” Yasser Tabbara, advisor to the Syrian National Coalition’s interim Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto, told TIME on Wednesday. Speaking by phone from Chicago, where he has lived for years, Tabarra said opposition leaders were thrashing out details of how to begin commercial oil production by using experts who have defected from the regime, including Syria’s deputy oil minister. Since the regime controls the oil pipelines, as well as the existing export terminals on the Mediterranean, rebel groups would have to truck barrels of oil across rebel territory into Turkey, where the nearest refineries are situated and where they could—if they can produce enough oil—export to the rest of Europe. “It is part of a larger plan to preserve the institutions and to keep as many public employees working as possible,” Tabarra says.
Still, analysts warn that the plan is deeply flawed—and in fact, that the E.U.’s decision could intensify the violence in Syria, by setting up a deadly competition for control of a resource that has languished amid two years of grinding civil war. Assad’s production has plummeted by half to about 150,000 barrels a day. It is barely enough to cover the regime’s needs at home, let alone to export the surplus. Oil analysts believe that if the rebels are properly equipped and organized, they could pump about 30,000 barrels a day—a tiny amount in the scale of the industry’s commercial production. If they succeed in getting it to Turkey, the oil would likely sell cheaply, perhaps between $60 and $70 a barrel—about 30% less than current world prices. “The best-case scenario is smuggling oil over the border, and getting about $30 million a month,” says David Butter, Syria analyst at London’s Chatham House think tank. “That is not much, when you are thinking of running a government.”
Nevertheless, the E.U. move has enraged Syria’s regime. The government’s Oil Minister Slaiman Abbas called the decision “illegal.” And indeed, oil traders might conclude the same, since buying rebel oil goes against their pre-war agreements with Syria’s government. “From the purely regulatory sta
Music News
Aerosmith, Toby Keith added to lineup for H-D’s 110th Anniversary - May 01, 2013
MILWAUKEE, WIS., April 11–Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductees Aerosmith and country superstar Toby Keith have been added as headlining performers for Harley-Davidson’s 110th Anniversary Celebration in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, over Labor Day weekend this summer.
Keith will perform on Thursday, August 29, and Aerosmith will take the stage Friday, August 30th, with Kid Rock rounding out the epic weekend of music on Saturday the 31st. All three shows will be at the Marcus Amphitheater, located on the south end of Milwaukee’s Henry Maier Festival Park (Summerfest grounds).
“The variety of entertainment we’re bringing to Milwaukee for the 110th Anniversary Celebration reflects the broad appeal of the Harley-Davidson brand,” said Mark-Hans Richter, chief marketing officer at Harley-Davidson. “With three legendary headliners and 60 bands at the Summerfest grounds, there’s something for everyone. We’re expecting a rockin’ party throughout the weekend.”
Tickets for the three headlining performances go on sale to the public at 8:00 a.m. CST on Monday, May 6th, at www.h-d.com/110tickets. A special pre-sale begins Monday, April 29, and is open to all those who purchase one of two 110th Anniversary Celebration ticket packs available online before the April 19 deadline.
Political News
Ex-lawmakers search for signs of intelligent life in Washington - May 01, 2013
All the pieces of a formal congressional hearing were in place. A row of lawmakers with furrowed brows were seated in wide, leather chairs behind an elevated table with microphones. Water pitchers and engraved nameplates were in front of them. A second, smaller table was set up below for witnesses to deliver their expert testimonies. Chairs lined the back for spectators and reporters.
The topic of Tuesday's discussion: government suppression of alien visitors from outer space.
Despite the setup, this was not an actual hearing. It was day two of a week-long event called the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure that will be part of a documentary called "Truth Embargo." Held at the National Press Club in Washington, the hearing will include testimony from some 40 panelists.
To conduct the proceedings, six former members of Congress are being paid $20,000 each to act like they're in Congress again, and ask questions about the government's alleged role in shielding the existence of alien visits to Earth. (Their pay comes to about $666 an hour. But that's a different conspiracy theory all together.)
The former lawmakers—retired Republican Reps. Roscoe G. Bartlett of Maryland and Merrill Cook of Utah; former Democratic Reps. Darlene Hooley of Oregon, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan and Lynn Woolsey of California; and former Democratic Sen. Mike Gravel—are tackling a variety of topics. They range from what "really" happened in Roswell, N.M., in 1947 and why Air Force service members aren't being treated by the Veterans Affairs hospital for injuries allegedly sustained while working with UFOs to why the U.S. government won't release more information about supposed visitors from other planets.
The purpose of the hearing, said organizer Stephen Bassett, is less to prove the existence of extraterrestrials than to pressure the federal government to end its silence about the thousands of UFOs allegedly spotted over the years.
"It's no longer about lights in the sky, it's about lies on the ground," Bassett said.
The last official congressional hearing on alien lifeforms was in 1968, but the White House denied just two years ago that there was any coverup.
"The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race," said Phil Larson, a spokesman for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye."
But these members of Congress aren't entirely convinced that the statement was truthful.
Like a bunch of nostalgic, former high-school football players tossing around the pigskin at a 20-year reunion, they peppered witnesses as though they were back in the game on Capitol Hill.
When Yahoo arrived at the "hearing" Tuesday morning—Congress is on recess this week, so why not?—retired Air Force Tech Sgts. John Burroughs and James Penniston were at the witness table where they described the night in 1980 they believe they had stumbled on a UFO in the Rendlesham Forest on their base in England. Penniston said he touched it, and that he suffers from injuries to this day that he believes stemmed from that moment.
"It's probably the worst decision I made, touching that," Penniston said.
The former congressional members listened for hours as the two described the night the alleged craft was found, how the government was covering it up, and Penniston's difficulties finding affordable medical care. He said that Veterans Affairs had declined to treat his injuries.
"I want to apologize from the United States government," Cook told him, as the others offered their own condolences when they heard his story.
After the morning session the group broke for lunch, and I met a man wearing a copper forehead headband with a crystal piece atop a silver coin. He told me in no uncertain terms that he was born more than 1,800 years ago beneath the surface of the Earth in a subterranean city where s
