Akin to some Unions that have negotiated lower health care costs by excluding insurance coverage for so-called “risky” behavior such as horseback riding, skiing and riding motorcycles, the state of Georgia may soon exclude motorcyclists from their healthcare benefits.

The chairman of a House study committee looking at Georgia's health benefit plan said the state might require employees to disclose dangerous activities like skydiving and riding motorcycles.

State Rep. Carl Rogers (R-Gainesville) said that the panel is looking to bring down skyrocketing costs in the state health plan. Earlier this year, lawmakers were forced to scramble to fill a $300 million budget hole for the health benefits.

Rogers told the Associated Press that state employees who take part in risky activities might eventually pay higher premiums.

“Nowadays, officers also have to worry about lawsuits when they pull over a ‘one-percenter’,” reported the Philadelphia Daily News in response to a civil rights lawsuit claiming profiling and police harassment, adding that “Biker gangs might have a well-deserved reputation, but one local attorney who represents several clubs says that ‘reputation’ isn't a valid reason for a traffic stop.”

"Some of this tension between the cops and the bikers is because the cops hassle them ALL the time," said Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (A.I.M.) Attorney Boyd Spencer, who represents the Eastern Pennsylvania Confederation of Clubs.

Spencer is representing three bikers in a civil-rights lawsuit stemming from a July 30, 2009, traffic stop involving six motorcyclists, two of the defendants are Pagan’s M/C members and a third defendant was a Tribe M/C member.

According to the complaint, the bikers were ticketed for not having approved helmets and were told to remove their "colors", the patched jackets members wear. The whole traffic stop, which lasted more than an hour, was captured by mounted cameras in the police cruisers.

"Now you're all going to take your jackets off, because on this highway, these are the only colors," one of the state troopers, referring to State Police blue and gold, told the group after nearly 50 minutes had passed.

The bikers didn't budge. None of them took off his colors. The helmets were later found to be legal, and a prosecutor dismissed the charges. Spencer, who said the demand to take off their colors was out of bounds, chalks up the traffic stop to harassment.

Spencer said he always hears about bikers getting harassed. "I've got a guy in Upper Darby who gets pulled over every time he goes out on his bike," he said.

Upper Darby police Superintendent Michael Chitwood Sr. told the newspaper that bikers get pulled over if they break traffic laws, like anyone else. Police keep tabs on them, though. "These operations have become very sophisticated. They know what their rights are and what the police can do," he said.

A motorcycle is stolen every 9.5 minutes in America, but according to a report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau, motorcycle thefts last year were down 24% from their 2007 total. There were 65,678 motorcycles reported stolen in 2007 compared with 49,791 in 2010, according to data from theft reports contained in the National Crime Information Center.

The top five makes stolen last year were: (1) Honda, 12,260; (2) Yamaha, 9,853; (3) Suzuki, 7,869; (4) Kawasaki, 5,470; and (5) Harley-Davidson, 3,301. Combined, these five brands accounted for 38,753 thefts in 2010, or 77.8 percent of the total.

The top five states with the most motorcycle thefts in 2010 were: (1) California, 5,662; (2) Texas, 4,394; (3) Florida, 4,148; (4) North Carolina, 2,649; and (5) Indiana, 1,925. These five states accounted for 18,778 thefts, or 37.7% of the total.