Meeting tonight to discuss new bike license tag

GAINESVILLE, Ga. -- There's a meeting tonight for people to share their thoughts on a new fee for bike riders.

Under a new bill, if you have a bicycle and fail to register it with the state and pay a fee, you could face a misdemeanor and a $100 fine.  That isn't all that's in Georgia House Bill 689.  

It also requires license plates to be put on any bike that shares a road with other vehicles.  Groups of bicycle riders would have to stay in single file lines, no more than four cyclists per line, with four feet between each bike.  50 feet would have to separate each group of four riders.

The public hearing on the bill is tonight at 6 p.m. at the Hall County Government Center in Gainesville.

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News of the law has spread all over the state through social media sites and chain emails within cycling groups.  

"I've probably gotten about 25 emails about it in the past week," said cyclist Craig Forest on the Silver Comet Trail.  "They tried it in San Diego and had to repeal it a year later.  There would be widespread disobedience, it would be violated on an hourly basis with cyclists riding in groups."

Bikers in Gainesville, where the bill originated, said they were equally surprised by the bill.  

"When I first saw it, I honestly thought it was a joke and something that was pretty crazy," said Kevin Mooney, a manager at Bike Town USA in Gainesville.

The bill has been put forward by three lawmakers from Gainesville.  They are Carl Rogers (R-Gainesville), Lee Hawkins (R-Gainesville) and Emory Dunahoo (R-Gainesville).  They declined to comment on the bill before a public hearing Monday night starting at 6pm in the Hall County Government Center. 

The three men were reportedly influenced by local businessman Jim Syfan, of Syfan Logistics in Hall County.  Syfan told 11Alive Thursday he had been pushing a bill like this for years. 

"It's not meant to stop anyone from riding," Syfan said.  "What it's meant to do is create an identification process."

Syfan said if every other wheeled vehicle on a state road has to be registered, why not bicycles?

"[Most bikers] are nice guys, they're people, but once in awhile you'll get a guy that will ride in the middle of the road and flip you off," Syfan said.  "This is to identify the guys that are not abiding by the rules."

Syfan also said it's a safety issue.  The more riders know they'll be accountable to the rules of the road, the more cautious they'll be.  

Gainesville riders said social media sites had exploded with outrage when cyclists started hearing about HB 689.  They plan to show up in numbers at the Monday meeting and bury the bill. 

"I don't think it's something that's going to go anywhere, I think after the meeting on Monday it will fall through the cracks," Mooney said.  

Take our poll below! Do you think bikers should have to pay to register their bikes?

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Wet weather brings down trees around Atlanta

ATLANTA -- Monday's wet weather brought down trees on at least two Atlanta houses.

One person was hospitalized when a tree fell on his house on Shanter Trail SW just off Cascade Road at 2 a.m.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW | A guide to dealing with falling trees
RELATED | Weather-related road problems this morning

Atlanta Fire Battalion Chief Douglas Hatcher said the weight of the tree, which is about two feet wide, took out much of the house's roof. It also crashed through several layers of brick and caused the house to shift on its foundation.

A man inside the house was taken to the hospital as a precaution, but did not appear to be seriously hurt. Nobody else was injured.

A second tree fell at around 5:15 a.m. at a house on Enota Place SW, also in southwest Atlanta.

Dispatchers said a mother and daughter inside the house were taken to a local hospital. Their conditions were not immediately known.

And in Buckhead, a tree fell and is blocking Carlton Drive.  Power is out in the area. 

MORE WEATHER | What's it doing in your community. interactive radar for your county
SIGN UP FOR ALERTS | Severe Weather alerts for your mobile device
YOUR WEATHER PICTURES | See pictures from Atlanta weather events

Send us your weather photos - email them to photos@11alive.com

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Monday is final day to register to vote in Georgia

Fulton County voters, summer 2012

ATLANTA -- Monday is the final day to register to vote in elections coming up November 5 in Georgia.

This year is an off-year cycle, which means most elections taking place are for local offices, including city council, school board and other local slots.

Georgia's Secretary of State, Brian Kemp says people can visit the secretary of state's My Voter Page - http://mvp.sos.state.ga.us/ - to obtain information on registering, checking voter status and applying for absentee ballots.

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Dr. Joseph Lowery celebrates 92nd birthday

Dr. Joseph Lowery turns 92

ATLANTA -- The smile on Dr. Joseph Lowery's face had to be bittersweet.   

PHOTOS | Rev. Lowery's Birthday Bash

He was celebrating his 92nd birthday at the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel Sunday night.  That is the same venue he was at just four days prior, for his wife Evelyn's homegoing service.  

She died after suffering a massive stroke.  The two have been married for 67 years and were considered a powerhouse couple in the civil rights movement.

Celebrities and local dignitaries attended Dr. Lowery's birthday celebration and fundraiser for the Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights.

The night was dedicated to his late wife.

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U.S. Supreme Court will not hear Warren Hill death penalty case

ATLANTA -- The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up the case of a Georgia death row inmate whose lawyers say is mentally disabled.

The high court issued an order Monday declining to review Warren Hill's case.  Hill's lawyers had filed papers with the Supreme Court in May asking for a review after three doctors who initially said Hill was not mentally disabled changed their opinions and now say he is.

The Supreme Court did not issue any explanation for its denial.

Hill was sentenced to die for the 1990 beating death of a fellow inmate Joseph Handspike.  He was serving a life sentence at the time for the slaying of his girlfriend.

A separate appeal in Hill's case is pending before the Georgia Supreme Court.

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Boehner to Obama: No debt hike without concessions

WASHINGTON -- The United States is edging closer to the possibility of the first-ever default on the government's debt.

RELATED | Treasury: U.S. to run out of money Oct. 17

But Speaker John Boehner, appearing on "This Week," has ruled out a House vote on a straightforward bill to boost the borrowing authority without concessions from President Barack Obama.

With no resolution in sight, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is warning that Congress is "playing with fire." And he's calling on lawmakers to quickly pass legislation re-opening the government and a measure increasing the nation's $16.7 trillion debt limit.

The government shutdown precipitated by the budget brinkmanship entered its sixth day Sunday with hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed, national parks closed and an array of government services on hold.

COMPLETE COVERAGE | Government shutdown

Lew says Obama has not changed his opposition to coupling a bill to re-open the government and raise the borrowing authority with Republican demands for changes in the 3-year-old health care law and spending cuts.

Boehner, however, insists that Obama must negotiate if the president wants to end the shutdown and avert a default that could trigger a financial crisis and recession that would echo the events of 2008 or worse.

(Associated Press)

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AmberAlert.gov back online after being pulled due to shutdown

Upon accessing AmberAlert.gov on Mon., Oct. 7, this is the message displayed.

ATLANTA -- The federal Amber Alert site was back online late Monday morning after being offline due to the federal shutdown.

The federal Amber Alert website on Sunday displayed a sparse, white screen with a simple message: It's a victim of the government shutdown.

COMPLETE COVERAGE | Government shutdown

"Due to the lapse in federal funding, this Office of Justice Programs (OJP) website is unavailable," the message reads, just below a U.S. Department of Justice seal.

The website normally displays information about Amber Alerts, but it is not the vehicle by which an alert is sent. The process by which an alert is sent is determined on a state-by-state basis.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon responded to the criticism late Monday morning and said the site had been restored.

"At no point as AmberAlert system been interrupted during shutdown," Fallon said on Twitter. "To prevent confusion, informational site has been restored."

The website's status does not mean the Amber Alert system has been shut down. Check the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for recent alerts.

In Georgia, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will continue to provide updates and alerts to local media in the event of a child abduction alert during the federal shutdown. That information is also provided to other states when and where necessary.

(KNBC contributed to this report.)

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