Ups And Downs

UPS AND DOWNS

Dayton Daily New AL & MARGE

UP: To the Dayton Daily News, for its unusual column, Al & Marge, which includes a biker of the week, along with humorous anecdotes, cartoons and such that are submitted by readers. As Steve Sidlo, Daily News managing editor, says, “Al & Marge is a bit hard to define. It’s designed to be interactive and upbeat and to reach ordinary people, the kind of nice folks you run into at the local bowling alley." In a recent issue, Al & Marge chose Herbert King as their biker of the week. King, 77, started riding at the age of 75.

UP: To Mac Bernd, a school district superintendent in Orange County, California, for showing the kids he still knows what’s cool. Bernd, who heads the Newport-Mesa School District, donned his black leather jacket and rode his customized Harley-Davidson Softail into the gym at Corona del Mar High School, doing his part for a pep rally with an H-D theme.

DOWN: To the city of Spartanburg, South Carolina, for harassing 500 motorcyclists during an American Red Cross fundraising event. City police officers frisked and filmed event-goers, and searched riders’ saddlebags. H.D. Peters, 70, told the Spartanburg Journal, “My wife and her friend were videotaped coming out of the restroom. It was humiliating." Police Chief W.C. Bain told the Journal that the officers’ actions were justified because an informant said there would be gang trouble at the event. BMW executives were also searched. South Carolina Governor Carroll Campbell has said the police activities at the fund raiser appear to have been unwarranted and unnecessary.