by 10 Tampa Bay from https://www.wtsp.com The city says it plans on having a totally-electric fleet by 2030. Largo police officers are easing up on the gas as the department revealed a pair of all-electric motorcycles. The two stylish bikes were unveiled Tuesday and will join the city’s growing alternative-fuel fleet, according to City of Largo officials. They say the motorcycles will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality. Largo officials says the bikes are part of the city’s commitment to have 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. The city also plans on having an all-electric fleet by 2030.

by Erica Dynes from https://www.wiscnews.com

A Wisconsin Dells man became the 18th veteran to receive a motorcycle from a Wisconsin organization that gifts motorcycles to veterans to help them cope with mental and physical wounds from their time in active duty.

Marine Sgt. Rick Erickson was gifted a Harley-Davidson motorcycle from Hogs for Heroes at The Keg and Patio in Wisconsin Dells May 23. The presentation included a color guard ceremony by Wisconsin Dells American Legion Post 187. Eleven of the veterans who had receive motorcycles from the non-profit organization were there to hand keys to Erickson to start his new motorcycle.

Erickson hand-picked his motorcycle after going to three different dealerships with the co-founders of Hogs for Heroes before finding his perfect one at an Oconomowoc dealership.

To Erickson, the presentation was much more than receiving a motorcycle. It was sharing the emotional moment with the family he had become a part of, forming bonds with others who understand the pain and struggle of coming home from war. He struggled to fight back tears as he told the crowd what it meant to him.

“As awesome as the bike is, it’s about getting back in touch with people who understand you, living life again, people who know me and who have shared experiences that I had and welcoming me into the family,” Erickson said.

Erickson planned to follow in the footsteps of his father, who served in Vietnam as a Marine. He decided to enlist in the Marines after high school but was diagnosed with cancer, according to his biography on the Hogs for Heroes website. After being cancer free for five years, he enlisted in the Marines in 2003.

One year later he did a six-month tour of Iraq and served as an artillery scout and gunfire controller. Erickson was also in the center of Operation Phantom Fury, the highest point of conflict during the Iraq War against the Iraqi insurgents as the Marines invaded Fallujah. He was awarded a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Valor and a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Valor. He served in the Marines until 2007.

Upon returning home, Erickson fought a different battle as he struggled to cope with the transition to civilian life and post-traumatic stress disorder. He underwent surgery to treat several injuries from his time in the Marines and also struggled in his personal life. He later sought help for his PTSD and obtained two associate degrees. He currently works what he calls his “dream job” as assistant county veterans service officer for Sauk County. According to his biography on Sauk County’s website, he’s held the position since 2018.

Erickson tried to cope with his struggles riding his motorcycle, which he purchased when he returned from service 14 years ago. However, he sold it two years ago to save money for a necessary remodel to his house.

During Sunday’s ceremony, Kevin Thompson, one of the co-founders of Hogs for Heroes, told Erickson not to hold back his feelings. Thompson said he deserves to have some time to release energy as “wind therapy,” along with the support of the Hogs for Heroes family. Thompson also hopes the moment changes Erickson and makes him realize he isn’t struggling alone.

“My hope (is) to take Rick’s words; he said his experience in the military and Iraq changed him,” Thompson said. “My goal is Rick looks back at today as the moment this experience changed him.”

Hogs for Heroes started in 2015 by Kevin and Audra Thompson and Craig and Michelle Thompson. Audra Thompson said the non-profit will give away six bikes by the end of this year, a record for the organization that started with a goal of giving away one bike annually to an injured veteran. All proceeds raised goes directly to fund a motorcycle for veterans who apply to receive a motorcycle. For more information on Hogs for Heroes, go to hogsforheroeswi.org.

Magnificent Mugello awaits Lowes and Fernandez.

Round six of the 2021 Moto2 World Championship takes Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Sam Lowes and Augusto Fernandez to the technically challenging Mugello track in Italy’s picturesque Tuscany region.

Lowes and Fernandez may not have come away with the results their pace deserved in Le Mans, but both arrive in Mugello eager to showcase their full potential in Sunday’s 21-lap Italian Grand Prix.

The pair completed a very constructive one-day test at the Circuit Barcelona-de Catalunya last week and are confident of a successful start to a busy run of four races taking part over the next five weeks leading into the long summer break.

37 – Augusto Fernandez
Fernandez is determined to convert his recent strong practice and qualifying form into a top result when he makes just his third Mugello appearance this weekend.

Mugello was the venue for the Spaniard’s World Championship debut in 2017 and on his most recent appearance in 2019 he enjoyed a fantastic race and finished less than two seconds off the podium in fifth.

“It’s an amazing but tricky track”

“I’m really looking forward to going to Mugello. I had a very good race there in 2019 but I am still lacking experience of this track. It’s an amazing but tricky track and I’ll need to play video games again because I haven’t done many laps there! It was a big shame to finish the race in Le Mans so early when it was clear we had a chance of a strong result. But we performed very well and understood many things about the bike during the test in Barcelona last week. I’m feeling confident with the bike, but it is important to finish this weekend after crashes in the last two races. I’m sure we can be competitive but to finish is key to regain some confidence and recover some points in the World Championship.”

22 – Sam Lowes
Mugello’s fast and flowing 5.4km track is the ideal place for Lowes to fire momentum back into his World Championship challenge after a fall out of podium contention in France.

The 30-year-old took his first front row in Mugello in 2014 and since then he’s scored two pole positions and five years ago, he was only one second away from a famous win in third position behind Johann Zarco and Lorenzo Baldassarri.

“We usually get close and exciting races in Mugello”

“Mugello is a track I really love, and it was very unfortunate we couldn’t race there in 2020. It’s like a second home race for me with so many of my family living in Italy. It is fast and flowing and one that I enjoy and usually we get some very close and exciting races. I’m really looking forward to it and after the disappointment of Le Mans it’s vital that we come away from Mugello with some decent points on the board. I’ve been fast at every track so far this year and there’s no reason for me not to be confident going into Mugello. I bring some good feelings into this weekend after the test in Barcelona went very well and I can’t wait to get started.”

By Jim Cramer and the AAP Team

Ford’s Capital Markets Day kicks off this morning at 9:30 a.m, and the company made several big announcements ahead of the event in the press release here.

Most notably, Ford (F) announced plans to accelerate its investment in electric vehicles and battery development to more than $30 billion by 2025. This is a solid step up from the $22 billion Ford previously earmarked to investment in electrification, and we think investors will appreciate this increased focus given how fast the industry is transitioning away from internal combustion engines.

Additionally, Ford finally put a target around how much of their global fleet will be fully electric by the end of this decade. Ford now anticipates 40% of its global vehicle volume to be fully electric by 2030. Ford’s EV fleet includes the Mustang Mach-E, which has brought in so many new customers to Ford, the newly introduced F-150 Lightning, which now has 70,000 customer reservations, and the upcoming E-Transit, which Ford said will be on the road later this year. We continue to believe Ford’s highly recognizable car brands positions them to be a leader in EVs.

The company is also establishing a new global vehicle service and distribution within Ford that is dedicated to commercial and government customers. It’s called Ford Pro, and the company plans to increase the commercial market for hardware and adjacent and new services that are addressable by Ford by providing customers with greater value and higher productivity. Ford sees this business achieving company revenue of $45 billion by 2025, up from $27 billion in 2019.

Connected Services is also a big focus. Ford said it will have about one million vehicles that are capable of receiving over-the-air system updates on the road by the end of this year. Ford said it will exceed Tesla’s (TSLA) volume by July 2022, scaling to 33 million OTA-enabled Ford and Lincoln vehicles by 2028. By deploying distinctive connected functions like Ford’s BlueCruise driver-assist technologies, new features and upgraded software content, and EV charging to improve the user experience, Ford believes it will capitalize on the $20 billion projected market by 2030.

Last but certainly not least, Ford said it expects to achieve an 8% adjusted EBIT margin in 2023. We’ll look for management to trace out a credible path to this goal during their presentation.

Shares of Ford are rising back above $13 in early trading Wednesday. We’ll be tuning in to the presentation to find out more about management’s EV and connected services plans.

from https://www.meadvilletribune.com

The state Senate has unanimously approved legislation introduced by Sen. Michele Brooks to enact a “lemon law” for motorcycles, to better protect consumers who purchase or lease motorcycles with manufacturing defects that cannot be remedied after several attempts.

Currently, the Automobile Lemon Law protects those who purchase vehicles by requiring manufacturers to repair any defect that significantly affects the use, value or safety of the vehicle, as long as the defect emerges soon after it is acquired.

However, no similar protections are offered to those who purchase motorcycles, leaving the owner to either pay for repairs or fix the problem themselves. S.B. 82 remedies this inequity.

“Whether a vehicle has two wheels or four, consumers who make major vehicle purchases should be protected from manufacturing defects,” said Brooks, whose 50th District includes Crawford County.

Under the bill, a defective motorcycle would be replaced, or its cost would be refunded, if it could not be repaired after three attempts within one year of the delivery of the cycle to the purchaser, or during the term of warranty, whichever occurs first.

S.B. 82 heads to the House of Representatives for that chamber’s consideration.

Lemon laws are United States state laws that provide a remedy for purchasers of cars and other consumer goods in order to compensate for products that repeatedly fail to meet standards of quality and performance. Although many types of products can be defective, the term “lemon” is mostly used to describe defective motor vehicles.

Tomorrow, Wednesday May 26th, David Chipman is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee whose meeting starts at 10:00 a.m. EST. David Chipman has been nominated by President Biden to serve as the new ATF Director, and we are opposed to him serving in this role due to his long history as a gun control advocate. You can read more about his background here. We are asking that you please contact your Senators and urge them to opposeDavid Chipman as ATF Director by clicking the red button below.

The first of several Executive Actions that President Biden announced back in April now requires your input. President Biden directed the Justice Department to “propose a rule to help stop the proliferation of ghost guns” — and they have done just that. On Friday, May 21st, the proposed rule was posted in the federal register and the 90-day comment period officially opened. You can read the proposed rule here. We ask that you take some time to formulate your thoughts and submit a personalized comment by clicking the blue button below.

All comments are due by August 19th. Given that we have a couple of months before comments are due and any action can be expected by ATF, we are taking some time to go through the proposed rule and will be updating everyone on what the most egregious parts of this new rule are. In general, this proposed rule seeks to prohibit private individuals from possessing certain unregulated components commonly used by hobbyists to make their own firearms.

Yours in Freedom,

Ken Lan
NRA-ILA Grassroots Programs & Campaign Field Operations
http://www.nrailafrontlines.com/

by Stefan Boscia from https://www.cityam.com

The UK will review its tariffs on US products like whiskey, tobacco and motorcycles in a bid to get Joe Biden to drop Trump-era tariffs on British steel.

International trade secretary Liz Truss announced today that she would launch a six-week consultation with British businesses to consider “re-balancing measures” that could see some of the tariffs scrapped.

Truss said she wanted to “de-escalate trade tensions” so that the “US and UK can move forward to the next phase of their trading relationship”.

The UK’s tariffs on US goods were in retaliation for Donald Trump’s Section 232 tariffs on British steel and aluminium.

Trump’s White House said the trade barriers were required for national security reasons, however the policy was widely thought to be a part of the ex-president’s attempt to boost US manufacturing.

“We now have the power to shape these tariffs so they reflect UK interests, and are tailored to our economy,” Truss said.

“The UK will do whatever is necessary to protect our steel industry against illegal tariffs that could undermine British industry and damage our businesses.

“Ultimately, however, we want to deescalate these disputes so we can move forward and work closely with the US on issues like WTO reform and tackling unfair trade practices by non-market economies.”

Truss successfully got the US to agree to suspend US tariffs on Scotch whisky and other products earlier this year in a large step toward de-escalating trade tensions.

City A.M. exclusively reported in March that Truss and her allies believed this milestone could provide a path to the US scrapping other Trump tariffs.

Read more: Exclusive: UK to begin backdoor push to get Joe Biden to dump Trump’s steel tariffs

Resolving the trade dispute with the US over steel tariffs could mark another step toward the UK and US agreeing to a free trade deal.

It is believed that at least half of the deal has been drawn up, however there are a number of sticking points around US agricultural exports and the UK’s current digital services tax.

From Bags to Riches – a book by Suzanne ‘Bag Lady Sue’ Austin.

You can find out more about her and order the book from her website www.bagladysue.com

Click Here to read Rogue’s comments on the book at Bikernet.

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The mall near where I live, and which has a bowling alley emporium has declared that at least until further notice customers may actually eat food in the “food court.” Which is where you get-and-eat food to eat in the food court, but which has been forbidden-behavior for nearly a year and a half in the interests of safety.

– J J Solari

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 I know it is going to be good reading because she wrote it and she does have a story to tell. Though I have learned a lot about her over the years I am sure I will even learn more by reading the book.

If you have ever seen her perform as Bag Lady Sue or have heard about her I am sure you will find her story interesting.

You can find out more about her and order the book from her website www.bagladysue.com

If you have an event, club, bar, veteran’s organization etc. and want to liven it up she is also doing shows.