Tag: cycling
U.S. Blocks Settlement Between Lance Armstrong, Ex-Teammate Landis

U.S. Blocks Settlement Between Lance Armstrong, Ex-Teammate Landis

By Michael Doyle, McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — Uncle Sam has now further complicated the high-stakes grudge match between disgraced bicyclist Lance Armstrong and his former teammate, Floyd Landis.

In a twist that even a federal judge admitted “might seem unfair,” the Justice Department has succeeded in blocking a settlement totaling $600,000 that Landis reached with Armstrong’s business associates. The department did not explain its objections to settling a case it previously declined to enter.

“Fairly or not, withholding of consent requires no explanation,” U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper wrote in a decision Thursday.

Cooper’s decision is the latest, but not the final, turn of the wheel in the dispute pitting Landis against Armstrong, an Austin, Texas, resident who forfeited his seven Tour de France titles following revelations that he cheated by using banned substances.

Landis, whose own blood-doping eventually caused him to forfeit his 2006 Tour de France title, sued Armstrong and various associates in 2010. Originally filed under seal, Landis’ false-claims lawsuit became public when the Justice Department entered it, in part, in 2013.

The Justice Department joined Landis in targeting Armstrong personally, reasoning that the U.S. Postal Service had been duped when it spent more than $30 million sponsoring Armstrong’s racing team. False Claims Act lawsuits like this can potentially triple the damages owed, with Landis, as the original whistleblower, entitled to a cut.

The Justice Department, though, did not ally itself with the part of Landis’ lawsuit targeting Armstrong’s longtime agent Bill Stapleton, longtime business partner Barton Knaggs, and their Austin-based company, Capital Sports and Entertainment.

Last December, Stapleton and Knaggs agreed to a settlement that would include a $500,000 payment, as well as $100,000 in attorneys fees, to Landis. On February 20, in a brief legal filing, Justice Department attorneys declared they were “not in a position to consent to the settlement at this time.”

Cooper, appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, said he had little choice but to side with the Justice Department, despite the vexing result.

“While it might seem counterintuitive that the government can effectively veto a settlement of claims it has chosen not to join, the False Claims Act itself and the majority of circuits that have addressed the question say otherwise,” Cooper stated.

Citing a 2000 decision involving a case brought against some Lexington, Kentucky-area health clinics, Cooper added that “the power to veto a privately negotiated settlement of public claims is a critical aspect of the government’s ability to protect the public interest.”

In a legal filing last month, attorneys for Stapleton and Knaggs complained that the Justice Department’s effective veto keeps everyone in a costly “litigation limbo.” Underscoring the work involved, the attorneys noted that “up to 130 depositions” will have to be taken as parties prepare for a possible trial.

“The government impermissibly seeks to replace the (private) settlement with a settlement of its own making, negotiated from a position of absolute power,” wrote the attorneys, Marc S. Harris and John P. Pierce.

Tactically, though, the Justice Department’s move may put pressure on Armstrong to settle on terms more favorable to the government. Previous media reports, citing anonymous sources, have suggested the parties remain millions of dollars apart.

Photo: Tom Raftery via Flickr

In Bid For Millennials, Cities And States Promote Cycling

In Bid For Millennials, Cities And States Promote Cycling

By Tim Henderson, Stateline.org

WASHINGTON — If a 90-minute commute from Brooklyn to New Jersey sounds grueling in a car, just imagine it on a bicycle.

Until a recent job change, 40-year-old Peter Schneider made that daily trip, biking 22 miles from his home in Brooklyn to his marketing job in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. — and he loved it. “Commuting and exercising at the same time kills two birds with one stone,” he said.

Cycling to work wouldn’t have been possible, Schneider said, without the protected bike lanes of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, a 32-mile route that circumnavigates the island of Manhattan.

Communities across the country are weighing similar routes, believing that a cycling-friendly reputation will help them attract millennials and the creative and economic energy that comes with them.

“States and cities are competing for the most mobile generation ever and so the job creators and the innovators are really pushing for these amenities,” said Bill Nesper, who heads the “Bicycle Friendly America” program at the League of American Bicyclists. “Baby boomers want to live near millennial children and their grandchildren, so we’re really seeing Washington and most major cities seeing this as a way to attract and keep talented people.”

States with the highest commuting rates by bicycle are in the West, according to a Stateline review of Census Bureau data from the 2012 American Community Survey. In Alaska (1.1 percent), California (1.1 percent), Colorado (1.5 percent), Hawaii (1.2 percent), Montana (1.6 percent), Oregon (2.5 percent), and Wyoming (1.2 percent), more than 1 percent of commuters pedal to work.

In contrast, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia all have bike commuting rates of less than 0.2 percent.

Nationwide, less than 1 percent of workers commute by bike. Bike commuters are mostly 16-44 years old, and male cyclists outnumber women by almost 3-to-1, according to the Stateline analysis.

But the rates are significantly higher in cities such as Washington, D.C (4.1 percent of all commutes) and Brooklyn (1.5 percent), where residential areas are close to workplaces. People between the ages of 16 and 34, a significant portion of the population in those cities, have shown the greatest interest in alternatives to cars, driving 23 percent less on average than they did at the turn of the century, according to a study published last year.

Though its bike commuter percentage is lower than that of some other states, Washington state has topped the list of bike-friendly states compiled by The League of American Bicyclists for seven years in a row. It gets especially high marks for educating and encouraging cyclists. Much of the credit for that ranking goes to Seattle, which has a bike commuting rate of 4.1 percent. The city is known for its innovative pavement markings and plans to put protected lanes near every home.

Davis, Calif., is another standout. The self-proclaimed “Bicycle Capital of America,” which is home to the U.S. Cycling Hall of Fame, has a bike commuting rate of nearly 20 percent, including 14 percent of female commuters.

Among large cities, Portland, Ore., has spurred tremendous growth in bike commuting with its aggressive program of protected lanes and other bike-friendly programs, like bicycle-sensitive traffic signals. Lately the city has embarked on a system of “greenway” streets where stop signs are minimized and there are speed bumps to calm traffic.

Between 1990 and 2009, the percentage of Portland commuters traveling by bike increased from 1 percent to 5.8 percent, more than any other large city, according a 2011 study of U.S. and Canadian cities by John Pucher at Rutgers University. The popularity of biking in Portland has even spawned a colorful cyclist character named Spyke on the television comedy “Portlandia.” Spyke pedals the streets proclaiming, “Bicycle rights!”

“Portland’s comprehensive package of cycling policies has succeeded in raising cycling levels sixfold and provides an example that other North American cities can follow,” according to Pucher.

The biggest single reason for a low ranking, Nesper said, is a lack of bike “infrastructure,” including dedicated bike lanes, signs, and protective barriers.

“In order to be a really great, high-performing bike-friendly community like Portland, Seattle, or Minneapolis, you have to make bicycle trips easier but you also need to give bicyclists a place to ride that is their own. That’s what’s going to attract those people who are still on the sidelines,” he said.

Photo: Tejvan Pettinger via Flickr

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