Free Republic

STURGIS -- The Sturgis Industrial Park is getting a new tenant. Bar-Sto Precision Machine, a firearms company based in Twentynine Palms, Calif., plans to relocate to Sturgis next year. The company, which manufactures replacement pistol barrels, firearms accessories and high-end custom firearms, is building a 6,000-square-foot building and will move in by September 2010.

STURGIS, S.D. — Aerosmith's Steven Tyler suffered head, neck and shoulder injuries in a tumble from the stage at a South Dakota show, a concert spokesman said Thursday, and the audience thought it was part of his hipshaking act until he didn't get up. Tyler, 61, fell while entertaining the crowd by dancing around as the sound crew replaced a fuse that blew during the song "Love in an Elevator," said Mike Sanborn, spokesman for the Buffalo Chip Campground, which hosted the Wednesday night concert. An amateur video showed him spinning around before falling off the stage.

When self-professed "pro-sex Republican" Meghan McCain visited the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally last year, she was with her father on the campaign trail. She's back again this year and this time she's looking for love. In a tweet posted Wednesday afternoon from the South Dakota gathering, McCain expressed her desire to find herself a pierced and tatted motorcycle man: (screw) harvard MBA's, show me your nipple ring, harley and arm sleeves of tattoos and I will run away with you Except she didn't use the word "screw."

Next week, I’ll be riding a Harley at the Sturgis Biker Rally in South Dakota—with the very same bad-asses who helped reinvigorate my dad’s campaign when it needed it most. So many memories of my father’s political career, especially the two times he ran for president, include bikers. There is something about bikers and biker rallies that makes me feel particularly patriotic and—dare I say it?—Republican. Let me start from the beginning. I have been going to political rallies since I was a young child. If you delve far enough into the depths of Google—and look at pictures scattered throughout...

Bruce Rossmeyer, known for building a Harley Davidson empire with 15 dealerships, died Thursday in a motorcycle accident. Rossmeyer and a group of friends were on their way to the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota when the accident happened. Rossmeyer was riding on a Wyoming Highway 28 when he attempted to pass a truck pulling a camper as it turned left. The 66-year-old, who was not wearing a helmet, struck the driver’s side door. Rossmeyer was pronounced dead at the scene.

More tea parties on tap; Organizers meet in CasperBy TOM MORTON Star-Tribune staff writer Sunday, June 7, 2009 2:05 AM MDT A half-dozen community organizers gathered in Casper on Saturday to order the next round of "tea parties" this summer calling attention to the growth of the federal government. "Each group has its own identity, focus," said David Kellett, who organized the tea -- "taxed enough already" -- party in Powell on April 15. While they want to shun any top-down leadership, the representatives from six cities -- Casper, Powell, Lovell, Sheridan, Cheyenne and Riverton -- want to improve their...

Motorcycle biker ralley is a big deal here in Texas. I know that there are big bike ralleys in Florida and California. Here in Austin, TX. we litterly stop the city and attend to all of the bikers that come from all over. After all, the live music capital of the world has some of the best biker scenes that there are. In Austin, TX. our ralley is known as the R.O.T. Ralley (Republic of Texas). So many of our small business thrive off of the revenues generated through this ralley. I know that it doesn't compare size wise to...

A national law enforcement advocacy organization is urging a South Dakota prosecutor to dismiss weapons charges against four law enforcement officers, including a Seattle detective who shot a Hells Angels biker in self-defense during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The four officers and a firefighter pleaded not guilty Tuesday to carrying a concealed weapon without a permit after the Aug. 9 shooting at the Loud American Roadhouse. All five men, who belong to the Iron Pigs motorcycle club, appeared in a Meade County, S.D., Circuit Court. The Virginia-based Law Enforcement Alliance of America is focused on the case out of concern...

The Meade County State’s Attorney said Friday that members of the Hells Angels initiated a bar scuffle that led to the shooting of one of club’s members at the Loud American Roadhouse in Sturgis earlier this month. Meade County State’s Attorney Jesse Sondreal said in an e-mail that the investigation has revealed the Hells Angels “instigated the assault” in a fight with the Iron Pigs on the evening of Aug. 9. The two clubs got into a fight just before the shooting, according to witnesses at the scene and authorities. The Iron Pigs is a national motorcycle organization made up...

(snip) "We're committed to making sure our customers are safe and feel safe in the Loud American Roadhouse," he said. Kinney's comments came Thursday, the day after a Meade County grand jury called for the arrests of the shooting victim, four off-duty law enforcement officers and another biker. (snip) Meade County clerk of courts Lane Keil said no warrants or summonses would be issued Thursday because there were no judges on duty to sign the orders. The grand jury heard testimony from 25 witnesses on Aug. 10 and from 10 more on Wednesday. After considering the evidence, the panel found...

At Sturgis, Harley voters crank throttles for McCain By DAVID HORSEY P-I EDITORIAL CARTOONIST Where but at a biker rally would a presidential candidate offer up his wife as a contestant in a skimpy bikini contest? If ever there were a political story for which I could claim expertise, it was this one – John McCain's visit to the Legendary Buffalo Chip Campground. Buffalo Chip is the pounding heart of the gargantuan gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts that descends on the small town of Sturgis, S.D., for 10 days each summer. The Chip is not just a place to camp; it...

Despite an outdoor audience of thousands, the nubile girls grinding on the balcony stopped dancing and sat beside their stripper poles. The bearded bikers, arrayed in rows below with their motorcycles, revved their engines in approval. That stilted parade known as the presidential campaign had marched into a High Plains bacchanal of shiny hogs, leather chaps and skanky tattoos--and the people seemed to like it. "As you may know, not long ago, a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent," Senator John McCain told the crowd on Aug. 4 at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, an...

Click to watch video: McCain: Sound of Freedom (50,000 Bikers)

Standing on the main stage at a world famous motorcycle rally in rural South Dakota on Monday, John McCain looked out on a sea of denim-wearing bikers and told them he enjoyed their company much more than that of the 200,000 Germans who turned out to see Barack Obama last month. “As you may know,” he told the tens of thousands gathered at the 68th annual Sturgis Rally at Buffalo Chip campground, “not long ago, a couple of hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I’ll take the roar of fifty thousand Harleys any day.”

ABC News' Gregory Wallace and Sara Just Report: Sen. John McCain, R-Az., perhaps unknowingly, volunteered his wife for a beauty pageant on Monday that often features contestants topless

STURGIS - Politicians are used to hearing the roar of the crowd, but Sen. John McCain heard an entirely different roar Monday night at The Buffalo Chip. Motorcycles pounded out a welcome to the Republican presidential candidate at the campground in Sturgis, as he made a campaign appearance. “This is my first time here but I enjoyed the sound,” McCain said. “It's the sound of freedom.” He noted that his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, had received a loud ovation in Berlin during a European tour last week. “I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day,” McCain said. Thousands...

ABC News' Gregory Wallace and Sara Just Report: Sen. John McCain, R-Az., perhaps unknowingly, volunteered his wife for a beauty pageant on Monday that often features contestants topless -- and, occasionally, without any decency -- at the Sturgis, South Dakota, motorcycle rally.

To counteract John McCain's positive reception at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Democratic candidate Barack Obama decided to attend the massive biker event earlier today. Early reports indicate that it didn't go so well. Curiously, the mainstream media has honored the Obama campaign's request to embargo all photographs of the visit. Thankfully for the American people, Exurban League has acquired the photos from a hardcore biker who was present at the events. (Thanks again, Stinky Bart!) The visit began with a flashy, Berlin-style speech. Seizing the moment, Obama gave the stirring call to action from atop Mount Rushmore. "Together we hope...

<p>STURGIS, S.D. (AP) -- Republican John McCain has gotten an approving roar from the thousands gathered at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.</p> <p>He mentioned how Democrat Barack Obama was cheered by a large crowd recently during his speech in Berlin. McCain told the Sturgis crowd, "I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day."</p>

The Heartland supersized Sen. John McCain last night at a ginormous motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D. While no one shouted "Free Bird" to McCain while he was speaking -- a pop culture homage to Lynyrd Skynyrd whose 2008 version of the band is playing at the rally -- the Republican presumptive nominee did call attention to the larger than normal size of his crowd: "As you may know, not long ago, a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day."

OK all you Wild Hogs!So you couldn't make it this year and are moaning about seeing all them wild women, gnarly biker dudes, and all those fabulous Sleds!Well here ya go! Grab your sixpack, or whatever, grab a seat and watch it all unfold before your very eyes! Warning! These five live webcams (from Sturgis, Deadwood, Rapid City) may show outrageous behavior, Nudity, Cop Action, Drunkeness, the whole nine yards! You must sign in that you are over eighteen btw!Enjoy!

STURGIS, S.D. - Thousands of motorcyclists greeted Republican presidential candidate John McCain with an approving roar Monday as he sought blue-collar and heartland support by visiting a giant motorcycle rally. "As you may know, not long ago a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day," McCain said, referring to Democrat Barack Obama's recent visit to the German capital. ~snip McCain played to a crowd that paused for a veterans salute. He criticized Obama for supporting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq while opposing efforts...

(dpa) - Senator John McCain, 71, heads to the unlikely town of Sturgis, South Dakota, on Monday to rub elbows with the rowdy tattooed rebels of the American roads at a campground rock concert. With a population of 780,000, South Dakota on the Great Plains is hardly an election-day prize for either McCain's Republican Party or rival Democrats. But the state doubles in population during the annual August motorcycle rally in Sturgis, at the foot of the Black Hills, that draws an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 out-of-state "wild hogs" who roar cross country to celebrate their bike culture. McCain plans...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sometimes it's hard to get bikers and NASCAR fans to dress up and attend church on Sunday morning. So Southern Baptists are taking the Gospel to them, giving away free motorcycles at biker rallies and motor speedways as they try to attract new converts with a revved-up new style of evangelism. Baptists in North and South Dakota for a second year in a row gave away a new Harley Davidson at the Sturgis, S.D., biker rally in August. To be eligible, people had to listen to a 3-minute sermon and fill out a card to get a...

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - A judge on Thursday set bond at $5 million each for two bikers charged with shooting five rival Outlaws Motorcycle Club members in a gunfight. Chad John Wilson, 30, of Lynnwood, Wash., and John James Midmore, 32, of Valparaiso, Ind., each face five counts of attempted first-degree murder for a shooting Tuesday at Custer State Park.

RAPID CITY -- Nothing will keep most bikers away from the Sturgis Rally, not even the recent motorcycle gang violence in the area, several bikers said Friday. Bikers will keep coming back for the concerts, the babes and the bikes, they said. Even the first-timers said they would not be deterred. Brian Sherman, 53, of Lafayette, Colo., said it was all about fun for him, not worries. "I don't care," Sherman said. "This is my first time. I'm having a blast. This is a wonderful venue

It would have been an unusual traffic stop any other time of year in South Dakota, but stopping several armed members of the Outlaws biker gang Thursday evening was not peculiar, a law officer said Friday. That’s because of the Sturgis motorcycle rally. Motorcycle gang members carrying concealed handguns are stopped daily during the event that draws throngs of bikers and others to the Black Hills each August, said Capt. Kevin Joffer, district commander of the Highway Patrol at Sioux Falls. “We tell the media not to sensationalize this because this is not out of the ordinary,” he said. “Please...

STURGIS, S.D. (AP) -- Biker gangs have made the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally a violence-marred affair in the past. The rally, which draws about half a million people each August to the Black Hills in western South Dakota, has since gotten older, laid-back and more diverse. But this year, gunshots about 75 miles away reminded attendees about the gangs. Authorities said two men affiliated with the Hells Angels shot and wounded five Outlaws Motorcycle Club members in Custer State Park earlier this week. Suzanne Church, who has ministered to biker gang members at Sturgis since 1997, said she hopes there's no...

STURGIS, SD (AP) -- Baby boomers are driving much of the increased popularity in motorcycling - and it's quite visible at the 66th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Most bikers these days have raised a family and can afford the sport, said Pepper Massey-Swan, executive director of the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame. "People who have lived a very respectable, steady life. You know you've worked your butt off, you want to get out there and do something crazy. Tell me what it feels like to throw a leg over and go 75 miles an hour down the highway. It's...

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - The federal transportation bill will bring a dream closer to reality for Black Hills business leaders, who want a four-lane expressway between Rapid City and Denver. About $69.5 million, a quarter of South Dakota's allocation for special projects, is slated to complete South Dakota's portion of the Heartland Expressway to the Nebraska border within the next six or seven years. "For that to come through is wonderful," said Bill Honerkamp of the Black Hills, Badlands & Lakes Association, a regional tourism promotion organization. The Heartland Expressway will increase commercial traffic and draw more tourists to the...

Preparations for Sturgis Motorcycle Rally 2005 Bikers are already starting to head to Sturgis for the annual motorcycle rally. It officially starts next Monday and runs through August 14th, but a lot of people come early. Construction crews have finished work on a new Interstate 90 exit in time for the rally. The South Dakota Department of Transportation is building a diamond interchange which will replace the existing exit and four bridges. It should be done by next fall. By: Associated Press

STURGIS, S.D. - Promoters on Wednesday canceled the remainder of the Sturgis Music Festival, putting refunds in doubt for fans that paid as much as $50 a ticket. Wednesday night's B.B. King Blues Festival was to feature the legend jamming with several other artists. The concert was nixed just four hours before show time, leaving blues fans like Debbie Fromme of Newell feeling ripped off. "I've never been involved in a situation like this," she said. "I just feel like I've been taken. Where's my $100?" Sturgis 2004 LLC, the company putting on the festival, canceled the King concert and...

Where is the reasoning with the motorcycle enthusiasts? What would be accomplished with a boycott on the 2004 Rally? Lets understand, on Aug. 16 Randy Scott, motorcycle enthusiast, 55, of Hardwick, Minn. was killed by Bill Janklow. Janklow was sentenced and recieved what is percieved to be a light sentence. Boycotting the rally will not bring Scott back, and it WILL NOT change Janklows sentence. Would Randy want anyone who loves "The Hills" to miss out on the most fantastic yearly rally in the world because of Janklows mistake and what most see as light prosection? I think not. Bikers...

Boycott call not hurting rally interest By Bill Cissell, Journal Staff Writer STURGIS - A call by some motorcycle riders for a boycott of the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally doesn't seem to have hurt interest, and this year's event may be one of the largest in the 64-year history of the August gathering, local and state officials say. This year's rally officially runs Aug. 9-15, but the weeks immediately before and after the rally typically are only a little less hectic. The calls for the boycott came in protest of the sentencing of former Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D., for the...

While other churches were returning from summer mission trips to third-world countries in August, First Baptist Church in Sturgis, S.D., was just beginning to reach the world in its own backyard. The 63rd-annual Black Hills Motorcycle Rally, held Aug. 4- 10, brought in about half a million people to the small community, which has a population of about 6,000. The overwhelming flux in population each August brings just as many ministry needs with it. This year, about 450,000 bikers and tourists from across the globe descended on the community for a week of bikes, racing, beer, music, gambling, food and...

Governor Retracts Honor for G. Gordon Liddy KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - Whoops. South Dakota's Republican governor on Tuesday said he didn't mean to authorize a special day honoring convicted Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy. An official proclamation declaring Aug. 7 as an official "G. Gordon Liddy" day was an error, Gov. Mike Rounds said after publicity surrounding the proclamation generated outrage across the state. "We received a tremendous amount of feedback about this," said the governor's spokesman, Mark Johnston. Liddy, now a conservative talk show host, served 4-1/2 years in prison for his role in the bungled 1972 break-in...

STURGIS, S.D., Aug 03, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Convicted Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy has set up shop here for the town's annual motorcycle rally. Liddy, 72, rode his 2003 Harley-Davidson 1,846 miles from the Washington, D.C., area to Sturgis, arriving Thursday night. He planned to take part in book and calendar signings, a motorcycle ride from Mount Rushmore to the Buffalo Chip Campground and will broadcast his daily radio show. In nearby town of Deadwood, the mayor has decided to designate Monday as G. Gordon Liddy Day in the gambling town. On Thursday, Gov. Mike Rounds...

Along with blue jeans, and rock and roll, one of America's cultural icons is the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The legendary bike has come to symbolize the spirit of freedom, independence and individuality. Throughout August, Harley-Davidson will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a series of events and concerts, along with a commemorative album. VOA's Bernie Bernard tells us about the festivities, and the music that has been associated with Harleys over the decades. Born To Be Wild, a 1968 hit for John Kay and Steppenwolf, remains an anthem for motorcycle riders all over the world. The song conjures up the wild, romantic,...

"Kerry says US needs its own 'regime change'" and "All your base are belong to us" signs land seven in court"

Firefighters battle winds By Tim Paluch and Tim Velder, Journal Staff Writers DEADWOOD -- Fire officials said that Wednesday was a critical day for firefighters battling Grizzly Gulch Fire south and east of Deadwood. High winds from the southeast ripped through the area throughout the day and weren't expected to stop until today. The fire was on the move in some areas Wednesday. By midafternoon, Pillar Peak, near Dome Mountain and Bear Den Mountain, was burning about four miles east of Deadwood. Scores of residents in homes from the Shonley Addition to Deadwood on the north side of Highway 14A...

Lead flees flare ups By Dan Daly, Journal Staff Writer Residents in a broad swath of Lead were asked to voluntarily evacuate their homes late Sunday when the Grizzly Gulch Fire flared up along its western edge. The new evacuation involved areas south of Lead's Main Street and the areas north of Main Street that are east of Washington Street, Brenda Bower, information officer with the U.S. Forest Service, said. That's about two-thirds of the city. Gov. Bill Janklow ordered the evacuation Sunday afternoon. The new evacuees joined thousands of people from Deadwood and rural areas east and south who...

Grizzly Gulch Fire surges to 4,500 acresBy Journal staff and AP staffThe 4,500-acre Grizzly Gulch Fire that burned Saturday on the edges of Deadwood was 30 percent contained Sunday, as the relatively small crew of about 200 firefighters managed to save the northern Black Hills gambling town. "When I first drove in here, I thought we were going to lose a lot of Deadwood, and it's because of you, we didn't," South Dakota Wildland Fire Coordinator Joe Lowe told firefighters Sunday morning. Officials ordered residents, casino guests and others to evacuate Saturday afternoon. However, not every one complied in what...