Motorcycles

Four men have been charged in a Florida shootout that apparently killed two members of the local Warlocks motorcycle club, Winter Springs police said Monday. In a televised news conference, police Lt. Doug Seely said authorities were still investigating the Sunday morning incident in the parking lot of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post before a charity ride. Thirteen guns have been recovered, along with a similar number of weapons with an edge, he said. “We believe this is an isolated incident,” Seely said.

Los Angeles firefighter Greg Pascola spotted a column of smoke from the corner of his eye - a fire burning on a distant hillside. He looked east from his vantage point on a mountaintop road near Mulholland Drive and felt wind at his back. It was 3 p.m. on a September Friday that would see record-breaking heat, and cars choked every lane of the 405 Freeway for miles. He and his partner gunned their motorcycles. They are part of the Los Angeles Fire Department's pilot motorcycle response team, a five-man unit that can speed to the side of an injured victim, provide information to dispatchers and skirt traffic to scout fires and other problems.

Wynonna Judd's husband, Cactus Moser, was hurt Saturday in a motorcycle accident in South Dakota, suffering serious but not life-threatening injuries that forced the singer to postpone this week's scheduled concerts in Canada. Judd, 48, who was riding her own Harley-Davidson  with Moser, 55, when he drifted over the center line and hit the door of an oncoming car, was not hurt, according to an official statement from Wynonna's camp. The couple, who married in June, canceled their Saturday night show scheduled for the Deadwood Mountain Grand Hotel & Casino in Deadwood, S.D. Moser is the drummer in Judd's band.

Cactus Moser, husband of Wynonna Judd, had his left leg amputated above the knee at a Rapid City, S.D., hospital following a motorcycle accident Saturday. His leg was "severed at the scene of the accident," according to a statement from a Judd rep. Judd and Moser had been riding a couple of motorcycles before their show in Deadwood, S.D., when he drifted across the center line and collided with an oncoming car. Moser, a drummer in Judd's band, also had surgery done on one of his hands.

It was 70 years ago that a tiny shop on Venice Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles produced its last motorcycle. At the time, Crocker Motorcycle Co. made the most powerful race bikes of any American manufacturer. But like other small companies facing supply shortages during World War II, it was forced to close, leaving only a few dozen bikes that have become a favorite of collectors and enthusiasts. Steve McQueen owned one before it was sold in auction for more than $276,000. Now the Crocker is back, with a modern, limited-production version of the Big Tank V-twin.

SANTA BARBARA — Sue Fish disappears on a morning motorcycle ride over the mountain passes and fire roads in the foothills of Santa Barbara. She escapes for hours into what has been her favorite spot for decades, available to no one. Lights remain off at her house. Phone calls go straight to her voicemail. Fish, 53, lives life on the edge. Always has. Five neck surgeries haven't slowed her down, nor have various head injuries and broken bones. She makes her friends nervous.

WASHINGTON - The Washington, D.C., Police Department is investigating allegations that an officer who works as a motorcycle escort for the White House made threatening comments directed toward First Lady Michelle Obama. The officer was moved to administrative leave after he allegedly said he would shoot the first lady, using his phone to display a picture of the firearm he would use, according to the Washington Post, which quoted unnamed police officials. “We received an allegation that inappropriate comments were made.

Out among the desert scrub brush, this quiet Las Vegas suburb is already sweating the coming weekend invasion -- not high-plains wanderers or tourists per se, but leather-clad, tattooed motorcycle riders. Hundreds of them. On Friday, the infamous Mongols Motorcycle Club will begin a three-day national meeting in this town of about 15,000 founded during the Depression to house laborers who built Hoover Dam. Folks here have long prided themselves on holding off the mayhem of the Las Vegas sprawl just over the hill.

The "girl" bike has long been a put-down for motorcycles so diminutive and underpowered that no "real" bikers would be caught riding them. But a number of niche motorcycle makers that produce lightweight, low-to-the-ground models say they are experiencing unusually high sales these days, particularly among women. Just 11% of motorcyclists are women, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council in Irvine, but Taiwanese manufacturer SYM says 80% of its 266-pound Wolf Classic buyers are women.

Boxer Paul Williams was left paralyzed after a Sunday motorcycle crash near Atlanta, and doctors are unsure whether the 30-year-old will be able to walk again. Williams' manager told the Associated Press on Monday that Williams severed his spinal cord and that he cannot move from the waist down. "He's in very good spirits, though," said George Peterson, Williams' trainer. "He still believes he's going to fight again. " Williams crashed while trying to avoid an oncoming car after trying to maneuver away from another car in a lane next to him. Williams, of Aiken, S.C., was in the area to attend his brother's wedding on Sunday afternoon.