| HiWheel bicyclist puzzles police, but no tickets
Martin Krieg makes people smile when they see him riding his HiWheel bicycle, but police are often confounded. The bike Krieg rides is an antique with a 52-inch diameter front wheel. Krieg, who lives in south Palo Alto, has been stopped three times recently by police officers who wonder if his bike is legal. But he hasn't been ticketed yet. "I've been stopped three times in the last few months on my HiWheel for theoretically not being able to brake properly (I cannot reach the ground with my feet), for not stopping long enough and for not having proper lighting," he told friends in an e-mail. But, as he explains, the HiWheel is legal because it falls outside the California vehicle code definition of a bicycle that is chain, gear or belt driven.
Dublin police to ride three-wheeled scooter
DUBLIN Police will soon be patrolling the city's busiest shopping center on a three-wheeled, clean-energy scooter. The T3 scooter, which has a top speed of 25 mph, looks like a beefier version of a Segway. It runs on batteries that need recharging every 30 miles. The police department now uses patrol cars and bicycles to navigate the shopping center on Hacienda Drive and Dublin Boulevard. The scooter, which was donated by center businesses, will give officers a good option, said Dublin police Lt. Glenn Moon. Patrol cars have more visibility, a good deterrent to bad behavior, but they are harder to use in crowded areas, Moon said, while bikes can be used when officers don't necessarily want to be seen. The motorized scooter is the best of both worlds, he said. "It has the (visible) deterrent of a patrol car, but somewhat of the stealth" of a bike, Moon said.
Wheelchair bomber eludes detection, blows himself up inside Iraqi ...
A man in a wheelchair laden with explosives persuaded security guards to push him into an Iraqi operations center, where he blew himself up in an attack that killed the center's deputy commander. The infiltration, along with a U.S. report that insurgents used an adolescent to carry out a suicide attack against a mosque last week, was the latest indication that al-Qaida in Iraq is expanding its tactics to avoid detection before a bombing. The Iraqi military indefinitely banned all motorcycles, bicycles and hand-pushed and horse-drawn carts from Baghdad's streets on Sunday, two days after a bomb hidden under a horse-drawn cart killed three civilians. U.S. Embassy spokesman Philip Reeker said that while al-Qaida in Iraq has been "severely damaged," it remains a "dangerous threat." .
His daydreams inspire a bright idea
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gerardo Ramos is an unlikely inventor. His lab, if you can call it that, is the transmission shop he runs in Sacramento, Calif., tucked behind a hamburger stand.
Most days, it's just him in the shop, and the cars that need fixing.
Ramos, 52, built his first car engine when he was 11, and transmissions have been part of his life the better part of 35 years.
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Eric Margan and his Red Lions not taking ordinary approach to music
Talk with Eric Margan, the 21-year-old brainchild behind The Red Lions, and he might talk about how he's flattered when his work is characterized as a sort of contemporary chamber music — a thoughtfully arranged amalgam of sounds that happens to be fit for a rock club. He'll talk about how he writes out the sheet music for the rest of The Red Lions, but dismisses the notion that this approach is high-brow, saying it's merely the most efficient way to get the band to learn a song. And he'll talk about how his guitar belongs in a spot not typical when considering the recent history of popular music. “I never wanted the guitar to be the backbone," Margan says during an interview last week at a coffeehouse in Albany, just down the street from The College of Saint Rose, where he studied music.
Metro drivers hold keys to declining vehicle thefts
To add insult to injury, drivers whose cars are snatched may face further penalties from their insurance companies. Leaving keys in the car is the easiest way to pull off an insurance fraud, said Julie Pulliam of the American Insurance Association. So if nothing else, the filling of claims may be delayed while insurance companies investigate. And when it comes time to renew a policy, insurance companies may opt out. "Even if it's not fraud, and the claim is paid, the insurance company is going to probably think twice about renewing your coverage because of your apparent carelessness or forgetfulness," Pulliam said. As for the other half of last year's car thefts, Smith said, older cars, which are more common on the road, are popular targets of thieves because of their parts.
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