MICHIGAN HELMET LAW ''LEGALLY INVALID'' A legal loophole in Michigan's mandatory helmet law has police baffled. In a legal effort spearheaded by A.I.M. (Aid to Injured Motorcyclists) and ABATE of Michigan attorney Larry ''Katman'' Katkowsky, nearly 50 district courts throughout the state have ruled that Michigan's helmet law is legally unenforceable because the State Police have not complied with its terms.
Michigan's law requires motorcyclists to wear helmets approved by the Department of State Police. It also requires the State Police to promulgate regulations pursuant to the state Administrative Procedures Act ''to implement the statute.'' In Freedom of Information documents Katkowsky discovered that this had never been done. The State Police admitted not having approved any helmets since the 70's and have been issuing ''guidelines'' in lieu of properly promulgated rules, in clear violation of the law.
?This law has been in effect for years. No one to our knowledge ever even caught this. This is something recently caught by an attorney,'' said Chief Emery Price of the Westland Police Department.
Westland police and other jurisdictions have reluctantly sent memos to their officers advising them not to pull over bikers who are not wearing helmets because, according to the court rulings, it's against the law.
Some departments including the State Police are asking motorcyclists to please wear their helmets, despite what they're calling a ''legal loophole of disastrous proportions.''
However, other peace officers take the attitude of Deputy Lynn Crittendon of the Ionia County Sheriff's Department. When Judge Raymond Voet, a former Ionia County Prosecutor, turned to Crittendon and told him that he was going to have to dismiss the helmet ticket and apologized to Crittendon because, as the Judge said, Crittendon was only doing his job, Crittendon replied: ''Judge, you don't have to apologize. I'm off duty now. As soon as I get home I'm getting on my Heritage Softtail and taking a ride without my helmet. Now I don't have to go down to Indiana to do it!''
The State Police are now taking steps to publish legal regulations pursuant to Michigan's APA. Mr. Katkowsky advises that they may still be goofing up the process. Stay tuned.
AID TO INJURED MOTORCYCLISTS (A.I.M.) / NATIONAL COALITION OF MOTORCYCLISTS (NCOM)

SPEAKING OF HELMET LAWS, congratulations to Kentucky motorcycle rights activists for recently repealing the health care insurance requirement for riders 21 and older to ride without a helmet. In 1998, Kentucky repealed their helmet law, but in order to ride free they had to accept a compromise requiring riders to carry proof of a minimum of $10,000 in medical insurance and to display a sticker purchased from the state.
But on April 5, Governor Paul Patton signed House Bill 619 to remove the health insurance requirement effective July 15, 2000.
A victorious and jubilant Jay Huber, President of the Kentucky Motorcycle Association/KBA announced, ''The KMA/KBA did exactly what we sought out to do and did it in the manner that worked best for our situation...HB 619 removes the provisions requiring health insurance for motorcyclists to ride without a helmet, basically getting rid of the no helmet sticker requirement and the exorbitant fines associated with it.''
Mucho Kudos on a job well done!

INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE OF OPPRESSION On March 30, Italy began enforcing a new traffic law making it illegal to ride a scooter through the streets with the wind in your hair like Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck did in the classic film ''Roman Holiday.'' But just like here in America, if you ask an Italian rider what they think of their new helmet law, you'll get a mouthful.
''They're ugly, uncomfortable and cumbersome. Plus, they ruin your hairdo, block your vision, prevent you from talking on your cellphone and make you look like Robocop,'' were some of the responses reported by the ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP).
Although Italy already has a helmet law for motorcycle riders, scooters and mopeds were previously exempt from the lid law.
Two-wheel transportation is prevalent in this country of 57 million people, where 9 million ride scooters and motorcycles

MOTORCYCLE AWARENESS ADDED TO VIRGINIA DRIVERS ED Student drivers in Virginia will be learning a lot more about sharing the road with motorcycles under a bill signed into law by Gov. James Gilmore, the AMERICAN MOTORCYCLIST ASSOCIATION (AMA) reports.
The bill is one of three pro-motorcycling measures approved by this year's Legislature and signed into law by Gilmore on March 10. All three proposals were backed by the Virginia Coalition of Motorcyclists and ABATE of Virginia.
The drivers education bill, HB 430, requires that drivers education programs in the public schools include motorcycle awareness as part of the training.
The governor also signed into law a bill that allows the sale of special license plates to support the Motorcycle Rider Safety Training Program. Under HB 429, special license plates with the slogan "Share the Road" will be sold. After the first 1,000 plates are sold, $15 of the $25 special plate fee will be deposited into the Motorcycle Rider Safety Training Program Fund.
The third new law (SB 247) allows motorcycles to be equipped with auxiliary brake lights.

PENNSYLVANIA PARKING PROVISIONS PROPOSED ABATE of Pennsylvania's proposed motorcycle parking legislation now has 42 co-sponsors after one week and the list grows daily. ABATE members have answered the call to contact their Representatives and it appears a bill will be introduced within the next two weeks.
The bill, if passed, will prohibit the ticketing of motorcycles when more than one utilizes a parking space. Some localities have ticketed all the units parked in a single space, even when the meter has been fed and time is remaining. It is obviously impossible to determine which motorcycle was in the space first and therefore "legally parked" under the ding dong method for enforcing parking regulations. They have used this technique as a method for generating funds and harassing bikers, knowing full well no one will lose a day of work to protest a $7 parking fine. Our bill, sponsored by the Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, will prohibit this discriminatory behavior throughout Pennsylvania. Bikes parked on an expired meter will still be subject to a fine as will any of the units found to be extending outside of a parking space's legal limits.
The benefit of this legislation, if passed, obviously benefits every motorcyclist in the state. If you live here or have been a visitor to PA and have ever been ticketed as described above, we want to hear from you. Tell us where it happened ----- just in case someone bothers to ask.
COWBOY, ABATE OF PENNSYLVANIA

OKLAHOMA BIKER NAMED AS DELEGATE TO DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION Holly Swinford, Legislative Liaison and registered Lobbyist for ABATE of Oklahoma, has been named a member of the Oklahoma delegation to the Democratic National Convention to be held in Los Angeles in August.
Swinford said ''It is quite an honor to be selected to represent Oklahoma on the national level.'' She credits her work with ABATE for preparing her to serve in this capacity. ''I've developed relationships over the years with numerous members of the legislature and other political activists thanks to my volunteer work with ABATE.''
ABATE OF OKLAHOMA

''SMART'' BIKE We've all heard of the so-called ''smart'' cars of the future that will be able to drive you hands-off and accident-free to your pre-programmed destination, but now comes word from England of a high-tech MOTORCYCLE with motion and crash sensors, vehicle security, telecommunications, pro-active tracking, pro-active routing, ''full concierge service,'' GSM phone calls and Internet access!!
In the event of an attempted theft, accident or emergency, a central monitoring station is alerted and an immediate response by emergency vehicles is dispatched to the exact location of the motorcycle.
Called the SKAMP MOTORBIKE TELEMATICS, at an expected all-in cost of $2.00 per day on a 3-year contract, the manufacturer's press release states that they anticipate U.S. sales in excess of 50,000 by the end of 2003. Look for a chopped and bobbed Skamp in the Easyriders centerfold coming real soon
(yeah, RIGHT!).

THE LAST LIBERTY TREE IS GONE Over 224 years ago, a tree in Annapolis, Maryland, served as a secret gathering spot for the Sons of Liberty, early revolutionaries who adamantly opposed the British Stamp Act levied against our original thirteen Colonies. The stately tulip poplar which shaded these 18th-century rebels was even then already over two centuries old, and she alone outlived the several other Liberty Trees strewn throughout Colonial America, surviving the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence, the War of 1812, the Civil War, two World Wars and on through the Persian Gulf War.
Sadly, the Annapolis Liberty Tree finally succumbed to the inevitable decay and diseases of old age, and she was felled, with dignity, this last December.
Be sure to let your children know that she provided solace and a forum for our early trailblazers.
BIKER MAGAZINE

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it." RALPH WALDO EMERSON