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STURGIS, S.D. - On Hogs and Indians, they rumble in from all points on the compass and explode the population of Sturgis, South Dakota, from less than 7,000 to nearly half a million. For one week each summer, they create a noisy pop-up city unlike any other and as the nation closes in on midterm elections, they lay bare America's political divides. While the modern-day biker tribe is vast and varied, containing more middle-aged couples than brawling outlaws, one can go hours -- or days -- without seeing a person of color in the crowds here at one of the...

STURGIS, S.D. — A South Dakota saloon that billed itself as the “world’s largest biker bar” and was the subject of a reality TV show was destroyed early Tuesday by a fire that may have gained momentum when it hit an adjoining distillery containing 500 gallons of grain alcohol. Volunteer firefighters found heavy smoke when they responded to the Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis around 12:30 a.m., and the main building was gutted less than three hours later. No injuries were reported. The bar, which featured such amenities as zip lines, musical stages and rental cabins, had been the subject...

The bar, which featured such amenities as zip lines, musical stages and rental cabins, had been the subject of a reality television series. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Vanity post here, which I rarely do... Who is going to Sturgis this year? With well over a million attendees expected in Sturgis this year for the 75th anniversary of the Sturgis Rally, I can only imagine there will be a number of Freepers present. I'd like to commence a thread for this, and facilitate some in person meetings. It would be a pleasure.

STURGIS | Perhaps, the comeback starts in Sturgis. Lance Armstrong, who has been stripped of seven Tour De France titles and received a lifetime ban from competitive cycling for doping, was named Monday as the grand marshal of the 12th Annual Mayor's Ride at the Sturgis motorcycle rally.

Heidi Mayer Kruse has lived in Fargo, N.D. and eastern South Dakota, but she says she has never experienced a storm such as the one that buried their Blucksberg-addition home Friday. "It's chest deep consistently over our driveway," she said. Kruse and her family were without power most of Friday and into Saturday. "It was 39 degrees in our living room before power came back on this morning," Kruse said Saturday... Kruse, like many of her neighbors in the subdivision south of Sturgis, is amazed at the ferocity of the storm. "Having lived in areas that experience rough winters, I...

The Michigan Planned Parenthood abortion business was denied a chance to extend their lease at centers in Three Rivers, Sturgis and other cities. A WLKM report indicates the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency recently decided not to renew the leases of the Planned Parenthood of South Central Michigan facilities. The radio station indicates Planned Parenthood locations in Hillsdale, Coldwater, Sturgis and Three Rivers were affected by the agency’s 60-day notice not to renew. WLM reports Three Rivers will be relocated to another site that will take time to open due to renovations but no replacement site has been located in...

Folk music icon Bob Dylan will perform at this year's Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. Buffalo Chip Campground owner Rod Woodruff says Dylan is scheduled to perform on Aug. 10.

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...