Month: September 2010

Posted on

Elon woman charged in hit-and-run

Accompanying Photos


image

Photo Caption:
Robin Stanfield Ragsdale

ELON — An Elon woman on probation after she was convicted of killing four people in a wreck in 2007 was arrested today and charged in a hit-and-run that injured an Elon University student on Wednesday.

Robin Stanfield Ragsdale, 35, of 500 James Toney Drive is charged with felony hit and run, according to a news release from police.

A tip led police Ragsdale’s home. After an interview, she confessed to striking the victim and said she fled the scene because she panicked, according to the release.

Toorialey Fazly is a 26-year-old exchange student at Elon. He was riding a bike east on West Lebanon Avenue near the Elon campus when he was hit near North Lee Avenue.

Witnesses said the car that hit Fazly was a white sedan driven by a woman.

Fazly was taken by helicopter to Duke University Hospital in Durham where he is in stable condition.

Ragsdale was convicted in 2008 of four misdemeanor counts of death by vehicle. She received suspended sentences of 45 days in jail on each count and five years probation, officials said.

According to police reports, Stanfield was driving west on University Drive in an Isuzu sport utility vehicle when it ran off the road and struck four people on July 14, 2007. The four were trying to load a broken-down Mercury Cougar onto a trailer.

Michael Todd King, 43, of Swepsonville, and Mildred Jones Isley, 57, Freddie Charles Coulter, 55, and Sandra Goins Coulter, 51, all of Graham, were killed.

Continue reading “Elon woman charged in hit-and-run”

Posted on

Theft – 200 E. 33rd St. Baltimore – near Johns Hopkins University

JHU Security has reported today, 09/17/10, the following incident. Please forward on to interested persons.

Theft – 200 E. 33rd St., Union Memorial Professional Building – On Sept. 16th between 9:50 AM and 10:25 AM, the front tire was taken from an undergraduate’s bicycle. The bicycle was secured to the front entrance railing by a lock on its rear tire. Investigation continuing.

Crime Prevention Tip Of the Day

Bicycle Security — Secure the bicycle frame to the rack or other fixed object, preferably with a U-Bolt lock. Remember to remove quick release accessories or secure them with an auxiliary lock.

Regards,
Salem

Salem Reiner
Director
Office of Community Affairs
The Johns Hopkins University
Continue reading “Theft – 200 E. 33rd St. Baltimore – near Johns Hopkins University”

Posted on

BIKE BOOKS: Around The World On A Bicycle

from Jim Langley’s Bicycle Beat

I heard a while ago that Google was scanning books and making them available online, but I never expected to be able to read Around The World On A Bicycle by Thomas Stevens on a computer. Stevens was the first cyclist to bike around the world, leaving the west coast in 1884 and returning to America 13,000 miles and two years later.

He did the entire trip on a highwheel bicycle, also known as an ordinary or penny farthing. It was quite an accomplishment when you consider that approximately 1,000 people died from falls off these bicycles in the 10 years they ruled the roads. It’s cool also to think that highwheels were the first tall bicycles and among the first fixies too, so Stevens was way ahead of his time.

Stevens financed his adventure by filing reports from the road that were published by Harper’s and Outing magazines. Perhaps this explains how his story became a 2-volume, roughly 1,000-page epic. The actual books are highly collectible and can fetch as much as $500 per volume. You can also find them in some libraries, though they typically won’t let you bring them home to read.

It’s nice that we can all now read it and enjoy the great illustrations whenever and however we want. To get you started I’ve embedded Volume 1 – From San Francisco to Teheran. Here’s the link to the book on Google in case the embed doesn’t offer full functionality. Incidentally, the furthest I’ve ridden in a day on my 1886 Victor Light Roadster highwheel is 100 miles in Scotland in 1990.

Continue reading “BIKE BOOKS: Around The World On A Bicycle”

Posted on

Your Health: Air pollution affects brain, heart, blood vessels

By Kim Painter, USA TODAY
If you pay attention to air quality reports, you may have noticed this: Even on the extra-hot days frying much of the country this summer, "code red" and "code orange" warnings — indicating high levels of ozone pollution — are becoming less common in many cities. Other measures of air quality also have improved greatly, experts say, 40 years after passage of the federal Clean Air Act.
That’s the good news. Here’s the bad: Scientists now believe air pollution is harder on health than once suspected, and that it’s not just lungs that suffer. Hearts, blood vessels and brains do, too.
"We’ve also learned that what we used to think of as fairly low or moderate levels of exposure still has a health impact," says C. Arden Pope, a researcher at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Bottom line: Better air has saved lives, but air pollution remains a major health problem. That’s one reason the Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed new curbs on power-plant emissions in Eastern states.
Pope was among authors of a new statement on air pollution issued in May by the American Heart Association. It said evidence linking air pollution to heart disease and deaths has "substantially strengthened" since the group’s last review in 2004. The group found:
•Strong links with heart attacks.
•Growing evidence for links to heart failure, stroke, irregular heart beats, cardiac arrest and vascular diseases.
•A "small yet consistent" link between short-term exposure to high pollution levels and death.
"The evidence is quite compelling," Pope says.
While risks to individuals are small and are dwarfed by risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and obesity, the overall effect on the public is big, says Robert Brook, a cardiologist at the University of Michigan and lead author of the report.
Much of the worrisome data concerns "fine particulate matter" — tiny bits of soot that come from burning coal, oil, diesel fuel or wood, mostly in factories, vehicles and power plants.
"These fine particles get deep into the lungs," says Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association. Scientists are not sure what happens next. But the leading theory is that inflammation in the lungs spreads to blood vessels, damages them and makes them more likely to narrow and clog.
It’s also possible that some fine particles seep into blood vessels and the blood itself, causing direct damage. Dirty air also may trigger irregular nervous system activity that affects the heart and blood vessels.
"It’s probably not just one mechanism," Pope says. In any case, he says, science provides a handy example of a similar link: "The most important risk factor for cardiovascular disease is smoking."
Of course, smoking also is very bad for lungs. So is smog and soot. Scientists are learning new details about those links, too. Bad air has long been known to trigger asthma symptoms. Now, studies strongly suggest air pollution may actually cause asthma in some susceptible children, says Stephanie London, a senior investigator at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Studies also suggest that lungs may not grow and function as well in children who live, play and attend school in highly polluted areas, she says. That, she says, could affect their lifelong health.
Continue reading “Your Health: Air pollution affects brain, heart, blood vessels”

Posted on

Text-messaging trucker killed man’s daughter — now dad fights to ban driver distractions

from Stop the Maryland Unsafe Driver by Driver
•20 percent of all accidents were the result of motorists paying attention to something other than driving.
•6,000 people were killed in crashes caused by distracted motorists.
•Drivers who text, eat or groom while driving are four times more likely to crash than those who concentrate on the road.
Continue reading “Text-messaging trucker killed man’s daughter — now dad fights to ban driver distractions”

Posted on

Cyclist’s helmet cam footage helps convict driver

This is in the UK but still worth a note …
"In what is thought to be the first time that footage from a cyclist’s helmet camera has helped secure a conviction, a van driver has reportedly been cautioned for assault and charged with driving without due consideration, resulting in him being fined and receiving five points on his driving licence, according to the website iPayRoadTax.com."
Continue reading “Cyclist’s helmet cam footage helps convict driver”

Posted on

Car Free Day in Frederick

Frederick, MD — On Wednesday, September 22, TransIT Services of Frederick County celebrates Car Free Day by providing FREE rides on the Connector and Shuttle routes. International Car Free Day is organized in 1,500 cities in 40 countries throughout the world to encourage people to use more environmentally friendly transportation modes such as transit, ridesharing, bicycling, walking, or teleworking. Thousands of area residents pledged last year to get to and from their various destinations without a car on Car Free Day.
Our friends at MORE are doing a fund raiser camping trip to Douthat State Park, a place that commonly described as “Disneyland for Mountain Bikes”. It’s a great location and there will be lots of fun people around. Space is limited, but a few slots are left, so sign up here. The trip is next weekend, Sept 24th – 26th.
October 10th is the Frederick Bicycle Coaltion picnic and rides. We’ll be riding in the morning and cooking out at Cunningham Falls State Park in the afternoon.
The IMBA Trail Care Crew is coming to Frederick, MD in October for mountain bike riding, education and trail building. Stay tuned for a full schedule of activites soon. Mark the dates of Oct 21st – 24th on your calendar and stay tuned for a full slate of activities.
Continue reading “Car Free Day in Frederick”

Posted on

Healthy City Days

image

Healthy City Days, which will take place during the week of September 27th-October 1st, is an interactive initiative that will engage Baltimore City residents and workers to focus on healthy lifestyle choices and preventative care.

In partnership with other non-profits, hospitals, community and government agencies, local businesses and corporate sponsors, Baltimore LiveHealthy will host nutrition and fitness demos, screening events, lectures, health fairs, lunch and learns, and other interactive activities that will increase people’s awareness and knowledge of important preventative practices.

Think You’re Too Old to Start Exercising? Think again.

TURNING 65 NO LONGER MEANS YOU’RE OLD. Nor does it mean it’s time to just sit back and watch your twilight years unfold. Today, 65 is sexy, smart, strong and adventurous. So watch out boomers, seniors aren’t slowing down.

Seniors have become the fastest growing segment of the health club population, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA). It’s part of a healthy trend where older folks believe they can make a positive impact on their health and longevity. And they’re right. Studies show it’s never too late to start exercising to reap real-world benefits.

“A lot of the problems we used to think of as being related to aging, we now know aren’t related to aging at all. They’re related to disuse of the body,” says Colin Milner, CEO of the International Council on Active Aging. “The number one reason why older adults need assisted living is lack of leg strength. They can’t get out of a chair, walk up stairs or function on their own.”

Speaking of walking, it’s the top choice for exercise among seniors—and, of course, it helps.  But only 11 percent of older people do strength training, which is a significant form of exercise for lifestyle improvements like carrying your own groceries or playing with your grandkids.

“No matter what area you look to, be it heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, or osteoporosis, research shows that being physically fit into your senior years will keep you healthier and active longer,” says Cedric Bryant, PhD, chief exercise physiologist at the American Council on Exercise. A recent study in the journal Neurology also found that exercise can slow cognitive decline, meaning our minds can stay sharper longer.

Still need a reason to move? Most say age is their primary motivation.

“You turn 50, get your invitation to join AARP, and think, ‘Hmmmm. I should probably start exercising again,’” says Carey Epstein, now 70, who also loves playing Wii Fit and catching up with friends and family on Facebook.

Indeed, a cultural shift is taking place, with more Americans focusing on wellness in later years. But we still have some growing up to do.

“Of the $29 billion dollars spent annually on anti-aging, most is still spent on external things, like Botox and breast implants,” says Milner. “None of this impacts inner health. The challenge is to help people realize that they should focus on prevention rather than perfection.”

Continue reading “Healthy City Days”