Nebraska helmet repeal rejected; proposal to ban texting while driving; "Make My Day" bill being looked at; drug testing for ADC recipients?; "Special privileges" for Law Enforcement and Military?; Florida racing action heating up; will it EVER warm up enough to race in Nebraska?

After hitting a snag about insurance for motorcyclists, the helmet law repeal was re-hashed again and finally defeated. It seems that, under the proposals being looked at, riders who chose to ride without a helmet would have to purchase extra insurance to cover medical bills if they have a wreck. However, it appears that kind of insurance is not available. The cost of the insurance was estimated to be from $3,000 to $4,500 a year, which would amount to $250 to $375 a MONTH!! Sounds like a lot of money to be able to ride without a helmet. There were a lot of other problems with the proposed repeal. One proposal was that not wearing a helmet would be a secondary violation, meaning that a rider could not be stopped for not wearing a helmet. The rider would have to be stopped and cited for some other violation before being written for not wearing a helmet or having the proper insurance. Another part of the bill mandated eye protection, and made helmets mandatory for riders under 21. The fallacy of this once again was the fact that if it was a secondary violation, a 16-yr old without a helmet could pull up alongside a police officer and unless the officer saw a violation, he could not stop the 16-yr old for not wearing a helmet. The proposal of a helmet law violation being a secondary offense has been brought up repeatedly the last few years. This follows the Nebraska statutes on seat belt violations, which make not wearing a seat belt a secondary violation.




As much as I’m against it, I think that sometime in the future, the Nebraska helmet law will be repealed. However, the Legislature needs to look at the laws of the states that currently have no helmet laws to see what provisions they have, then put together the best package possible for Nebraska motorcycle riders.

Other bills before the Nebraska Legislature are drawing attention. One concerns driving and the other concerns personal safety. LB945 would ban texting and driving . Nebraska currently has laws in place banning texting by young drivers but none for “older” drivers. If the bill is passed as written, violators would be assessed three points on their licenses and pay a $200 fine for the first offense, $300 for the second and $500 for violations after that.




National Highway Traffic Safety Administration research shows nearly 6,000 people died last year and more than 500,000 were injured in crashes involving distracted drivers. The Nebraska Department of Roads has tracked crashes resulting from cell phone distractions since 2002. In 2007, it reported 121 crashes with 59 injuries and no deaths. In 2008, there were 141 crashes with 68 injuries and one death. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have banned texting while driving for all drivers. I hope the Legislature moves forward on this and will pass it before the current session closes.

A controversial bill before the Legislature, LB889, the so-called “Make My Day” bill or the Castle Doctrine, would allow the use of deadly force if a person has reason to believe someone is going to commit felonies that include the use of force. The felonies are not clearly defined in the bill, but an NRA lobbyist pushing the proposal acknowledges they could include crimes such as burglary and stalking. A key element of the castle-doctrine laws is the new, legal presumption that a shooter needed to use deadly force. That makes it harder for prosecutors to prove that using deadly force was unjustified. The Nebraska bill would also shield shooters from civil lawsuits and clarify that when confronted with danger, one would not have to first retreat or surrender possessions to avoid using deadly force.




Another controversial bill (LB940), would provide for drug screening of recipients of aid for dependent children (ADC), impose testing if there is "reasonable cause" and cut off benefits for a year for those who fail the test. Many Nebraskans already are required to submit to drug testing to qualify for employment in a number of jobs.

Statistics show that 25,210 people receive ADC assistance in Nebraska, including 19,000 children. So the bill could have potential impact on about 6,200 adults. James Goddard, speaking for the Nebraska Appleseed Center, said the proposal is based on and feeds "the myth, stereotype, stigmas associated with low-income families." Goddard said there is no evidence drug use is any higher among ADC families than in the general population.
Jim Cunningham, executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Bishops Conference, described the proposal as "unjust and punitive." The end result of such legislation would be to "make the household poorer and the children more dependent," he said. Amy Miller, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the measure is "patently offensive to the Constitution."

How many privileges should an occupation give a person? I’ve always heard that a cop does not ticket or arrest another cop. I’ve had people on the street tell me that, insinuating that if an off-duty officer is caught breaking the law, all he has to do is show his badge and he is home free. Maybe in some circles this is true. I personally don’t believe in this philosophy. If I am going too fast, or doing something I should not be doing and I am contacted by law enforcement, the last thing I want is to have anybody know I’m a police officer. If I deserve a ticket, so be it. If, God forbid, I deserve being arrested, I most certainly am not going to tell the arresting officer I’m a police officer. I’ve seen a lot of discussion about this on different law enforcement message boards and it looks like about 1/3 of the officers think they deserve a break. My feeling is that this attitude gives all of law enforcement a black eye. Comments in favor of not ticketing or arresting another officer include that if you see an officer having a problem alongside the road, you may not want to stop to help that officer if he/she has ticketed or arrested you. In my opinion, that is total B.S. and if that is your attitude, you need to find another occupation.




How about people in the military? Does being in the military mean you should have a “Get Out of Jail Free” pass? Our department has had contact with several service members, both active duty and National Guard or Reserves. I’ve had at least one, who, after getting a ticket, asked me about the court date because it was set for when they would not be able to go to court. That was the first I knew they were in the military. I
explained the waiver procedure and told them if they did not want to take care of it by waiver, to contact the prosecutor’s office.

On the other hand, I recently made a traffic stop for some traffic infractions. When I contacted the driver and asked for his driver’s license, the first thing he gave me was his military ID. As things progressed, I suspected that the guy had too much to drink to be driving. He also made a point to tell me that he’d served in Iraq and expected to be deployed to Afghanistan soon. Several times during the investigation he told me that if it weren’t for him fighting in Iraq, I would not be able to do what I’m doing. When the time came to arrest the guy, things got to the verge of being nasty. For most of the rest of my contact with him, I was told that I did not respect our service members or what they are doing these days. He jumped back and forth from that to threatening my job - “You arrested a Federal employee. I hope you have another job lined up!” Once again, if I was in his situation, I would not want anybody to know that I was in the military. How does that reflect on the rest of our military? I remember a time when I was serving that a DWI conviction would result in a bar from re-enlistment. On a footnote to this incident, I found that he did not have a valid driver’s license due to two DWI convictions in 2009. I wonder if he had the same attitude with the arresting officers in those incidents?

The racing action in Florida heated up last week. On Saturday afternoon, Danica Patrick made her debut in a stock car, driving the JR Motorsports #7 to a respectable 6th place finish. She drove a good race, staying out of trouble and keeping her car in one piece. She spun near the end and restarted deep in the field. In the last few laps she got into the top 5 and at the checkers she was 6th. Her finish helped her make the decision to race in the Nationwide Series race on February 13th. In final practice on Thursday, Patrick was 5th fastest in a field of 57. Patrick will be racing against a completely different field of drivers, including her car owner, Dale Earnhardt, Jr, who was 9th fastest in final practice.




Both of the Daytona 500 qualifiers were photo finishes with Jimmie Johnson coming from last to first to win the first qualifier. Johnson crashed his primary car in practice and had to go to a backup car which he did not get any practice laps in. On the last pit stop he did not come in for tires and held off Kevin Harvick at the line. Kasey Kahne won the 2nd race driving a Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports. Tony Stewart was 2nd by inches.

With a larger restrictor plate and some of the rules on bump drafting being loosened up a bit, the Daytona 500 should be a great one. Mark Martin - my favorite to win the championship in 2010 - will start on the pole, with Earnhardt, Jr starting on the outside pole.

I remember years ago when I was helping Al Humphrey on his late model, that he was about finishing up his race car for that season about Daytona 500 time. We watched the 1976 Petty-Pearson wreck on the last lap from Al’s shop. Seeing that finish made me want to go to the Daytona 500 some time in my life. I haven’t made it there yet, but we’ve made trips to 7 Cup races at Las Vegas. This year we’re staying at home. I think that was a good decision given what the weather has been doing all across the country. Last week, it rained most of the week in Las Vegas, and several inches of snow fell a few miles up the road at Charleston.




We had some snow this week, but the temps were close to freezing and we didn’t have much accumulation. We did have temps in the 5 degree range a couple of nights. All this makes me wonder if the weather will be good enough the first weekend in March so we can race. The last couple of days there has been a little bit of melting but not enough for it to seem much like spring. Seems like the older I get, the more I dislike winter. However, when I look at the weather from Chicago east, I’m glad I’m in Nebraska.

I finished putting the engine together for the stock car and it’s now sitting in the engine compartment where it belongs. However, before I quit for the night, I noticed that it looks like the center link is awful close to the oil pan. I turned the steering wheel and found that before going very far, the center link hit’s the oil pan. That puzzled me because there was no problem with clearance when I took the engine out. After stopping for the night, I was thinking about it and realized this is not the engine that I had in the car last fall. The configuration of the oil pan on this engine is different. I’ll have to add a spacer between the block mount and the chassis mount in order to gain the needed clearance. This being my weekend to work, I won’t be able to do anything more until Monday. I also have work to do on the trailer, but I need to get it inside where it’s a bit warmer to do anything to it.

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