Join Playa del Run Beach Festival on July 18 and participate in a 5k or aquathlon and clean up the surrounding beach. The Heal the Bay Beach cleanup sponsored by Clif Bar will occur directly after the athletic activities (5k fun run/walk or aquathlon). You are welcome to participate in the athletic activities and/or the beach cleanup, just come out and clean up! Located in Playa del Rey the festival consists of a 5k fun run, aquathlon, one mile swim and one mile sand sprint. Participants will receive items from TYR and Clif Bar plus a signature Playa del Run T-Shirt. To register for the event or participate in the clean up visit www.playadelrun.com. Heal the Bay’s cleanups are hands-on opportunities for volunteers to directly improve the condition of Santa Monica Bay beaches while enjoying the great outdoors. Heal the Bay provides cleanup supplies (trash bags, recycle bags, data cards, pencils, and gloves) and delivers an educational presentation on stormwater pollution issues, how to run a safe cleanup, and the importance of tracking trash items on the data cards. The cleanup will run from 10:00am - 12:00pm at Dockweiller Beach and all are welcome to participate. Each participant must sign a liability waiver (available at the cleanup) and while there is no minimum age, those under the age of 18 must have their waivers signed by a parent or guardian. Participants under 18 who will not have a parent or guardian present at the event must print the liability waiver beforehand, have it signed and bring it with them to the cleanup.

Hopelifecycle (http://www.hopelifecycle.org/index_en.html) will be cycling through the Ivory Coast the last part of November 2010. The money raised will go to help children infected by HIV/AIDS and to children who have been orphaned due to their parents dying from AIDS.

Delphine Pregnon, one of the producers of the project, will be having an informational meeting at my house in Pasadena on November 29 from 2-4.  If you are interested in this amazing ride, please join us.  We are also looking for support staff to work as roadies.  There will only be 300 foreigner allowed to participate so please come to the meeting if you at all interested.

For the 29th meeting, we are going to have everyone bring their own “drink” and something to share.

Please call or email Greg to let us know you are coming, and he will give you directions.

Greg Carlsson

(626) 399-1966

gregcarlsson@sbcglobal.net

As some of you have no doubt heard, the jury has reached a verdict in the Thompson case.  The jury found the defendant guilty on all seven counts charged:

- Count 1: Reckless Driving Causing Specified Injury (victim: Ron Peterson)

- Count 2: Battery with Serious Bodily Injury (victim: Ron Peterson)

- Count 3: Battery with Serious Bodily Injury (victim: Christian Stoehr)

- Count 4: Reckless Driving (victims: Patrick Watson and Josh Crosby)

- Count 5: Assault with a Deadly Weapon (victim: Ron Peterson)

NOTE: The jury also found that the defendant had committed a Special Allegation of “Causing Great Bodily Injury”

- Count 6: Assault with a Deadly Weapon (victim: Christian Stoehr)

NOTE: The jury also found that the defendant had committed a Special Allegation of “Causing Great Bodily Injury”

- Count 7: Mayhem

The range for the defendant is anywhere from probation to 10 years in prison and the District Attorney is anticipating that the defense will submit a boatload of letters to the judge and/or the probation department on his client’s behalf.  Please, if anyone from the community who has views on the sentencing you are also allowed to write the judge and/or probation officer.

As the defense will probably argue that no one else’s opinion is relevant to this defendant, the District Attorney will indicate that we are offering letters toward the issue of general deterrence, in other words, simply because the defendant was in his car does not change the blunt nature of the unmitigated assault on the cyclists and that drivers everywhere must become aware that they have to share the road.  To that end, anyone who would like to contribute a letter or an e-mail may send it to the District Attorney’s office (below) or to the District Attorney herself, her e-mail address is also below.  She will package all the letters and e-mails for us and submit them with her motion so the judge gets them all at once instead of a slow trickle.  She plans to file the motion at the end of next week so it would be great if she had the letters/e-mails by then.  And, yes, the more, the better.

Please address your letters appropriately, like we were able to touch on in court, which is that cyclists are not some alien breed of monsters that are claiming the streets, but regular people, fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, police officers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, teachers….  So, if anyone is writing a letter, it would be nice if you could begin with an identifying fact such as what your occupation is and that you are a motorist and a cyclist.  I truly appreciate everyone’s commitment to this request and I hope you all feel the same as I do in making sure the defendant serves his appropriate time in prison for all 7 counts the jury found him guilty on and not just a slap on the wrist and probation.  Please make your voice heard as I spent a great deal of my own personal time throughout this entire process and because I’m passionate about trying to make our community a better place to ride our bikes.  Also, please forward on to your cycling community and make your voice heard throughout your area.  This has resulted in National attention and the more letters from across the country the louder our voice will be heard.

Send emails to:

Mary Stone  mstone@da.lacounty.gov

Or write to:

District Attorney’s Office

Attn. Mary Stone

11701 S. LaCienega

Los Angeles, CA 90045

Approx. 34-40 miles, MODERATE

Meet: PANERA BREAD 4720 Lincoln Blvd Marina Del Rey 310. 823-3860 *PLEASE park near US BANK (corner of Lincoln and Mindanao Way in Marina Del Rey)

Time: 8:00 am Leave: 8:30 am

Route: We’ll warm up with a flat ride through the South Bay beach area before we ride around the PV Golf Course. One short steep hill plus a few short climbs. Shorter route will turn around at Malaga Cove.