plus 3, Arena destroyed by fire; State official says blaze deliberately set - Muskogee Daily Phoenix

Arena destroyed by fire; State official says blaze deliberately set - Muskogee Daily Phoenix
More questions as 'Lost' begins its last season - Tacoma News Tribune
Witnesses say Ferguson was driving 120 mph before wreck that killed 5 - Houston Community Newspapers
DiSalvo, Mees Star Tonight - Cycle News

Arena destroyed by fire; State official says blaze deliberately set - Muskogee Daily Phoenix

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 10:20 PM PST

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Published February 03, 2010 12:08 am -

Arena destroyed by fire; State official says blaze deliberately set

By Donna Hales

WARNER — A predawn Tuesday fire so intense it burned through the metal roof of a 46,400 square-foot building has been ruled arson.

"The fire was deliberately set," said Assistant State Fire Marshal Joan Sellers. "An investigation is ongoing in cooperation with the Muskogee County Sheriff's Office."

The fire was so hot it warped the beams at RangeLine Arena, said Fire Chief Floyd Durossette.

The arena is two miles south of U.S. 266 on the east side of McIntosh-Muskogee County Line Road.

A sign painted in big letters on the side of the arena near the main entrance said, "Tex BURN me BURN u."

Ron "Tex" Stewart's father, Ronald Stewart, formerly owned the arena and almost 40 acres sold to Johnson and his wife, Murlene, in August 2008 for $550,000.

Stewart made a report to the Muskogee County Sheriff's Office last Saturday that someone had taken a hammer and beaten the key pad that opens two large pipe gates leading into his home and pastures off County Line Road.

Stewart's report said nails also had been thrown in front of both gates.

Deputies are looking into possible suspects on that incident.

The Stewart property is adjacent to the arena property.

"I don't think anyone thought it (arena) was our place," Tex Stewart said. "Everyone in this area knows that arena had been sold."

Everything from motorcycle races to calf roping and barrel racing have taken place in the arena.

"Ropings are Monday and Thursday," said owner Mike Johnson of Checotah. "I've got it booked out every weekend."

His arena season would have closed at the end of May, he said.

"My season is over," he said. "I don't see it (structure) getting fixed and moving that quick."

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More questions as 'Lost' begins its last season - Tacoma News Tribune

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 09:16 PM PST

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Hopeful, breathless, even fretful over what may lie ahead or be forever unexplained, "Lost" fans have welcomed back the ABC mystical thriller for its sixth season - the beginning of its long-coming, too-close-for-comfort finale.

Two of the final 18 hours were aired Tuesday as its season premiere, after a warm-up "Lost" for Dummies recap that, even for the most devoted disciple, offered helpful cues to the ever-escalating mythology.

But did this double-dip opener address the pair of island mysteries gnawing at viewers since last May?

What was the upshot of the kookie nuclear explosion Jack (Matthew Fox) masterminded to rewrite history and render the series' whole storyline moot? And what's the scoop with the dead John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) coexisting with his very-much-alive John Locke look-alike?

(Warning: possible pesky spoilers ahead.)

Well, Jack is seen back on Oceanic Airlines Flight 815, and despite several moments of troubling turbulence, soon enough all seems well.

"Looks like we made it," Jack says to a fellow passenger as the flight smooths out.

Was this a replay of the original flight, just before the plane was pulled apart by electromagnetic energy and crashed in the series premiere?

Maybe Jack's grand plan to prevent the crash didn't work.

Or maybe it did.

Then the action shifts to the island and the construction site of the Swan station, where the nuclear bomb had been detonated to cap the deep pocket of electromagnetic forces. Jack, Kate (Evangeline Lily) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) are bloodied and shaken up by the explosion.

And Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), who set off the nuke after plunging to the bottom of the shaft, is found by Sawyer alive. Alive long enough for their tearful farewell, anyway.

Elsewhere, the island's uber-boss, Jacob (Mark Pellegrino), who was apparently stabbed and burned to death in last season's finale, seems in fine fettle long enough to declare, "I died an hour ago."

As for the live version of Locke: Seems as though this is the human alter ego for the mysterious Smoke Monster, which has plagued the islanders in the past.

"I'm sorry you had to see me like that," he tells Ben (Michael Emerson), who is shocked by the sight of the carnage inflicted on Jacob's thuggish security guards.

"What are you?" asks Ben when the monster reverts to Locke's human form.

"I'm not a what, Ben. I'm a who," says ersatz Locke.

"You're the monster," says Ben.

"Let's not resort to name-calling," the Locke character says.

Then this creature that looks like Locke delivers a tribute to the real and real-dead Locke: "He was weak and pathetic and irreparably broken. But despite all that, there was something admirable about him: He was the only one of them who didn't want to leave. The only one who realized how pitiful the life he left behind actually was."

Halfway through the program, the passengers of Oceanic 815 - including Locke, Jack and other favorite characters - are seen deplaning after the jet has safely landed in Los Angeles. Oddly, they mostly appear less than happy to be there, unhappy with themselves and with their lives. Even pitiful in their lives.

During this, which is perhaps some sort of alternate narrative device on which "Lost" thrives, Jack and Locke are thrown together at the airport for a brief conversation. Jack, a spinal surgeon, asks why Locke is in a wheelchair.

"Surgery isn't going to do anything to help me," says Locke, little suspecting that, once on the island, his paralysis would miraculously be cured. "My condition is irreversible."

"Nothing is irreversible," says Jack with a doctor's confidence.

Jack could have been talking about the stirring, often murky, sometimes overreaching "Lost" premiere, on which even Sayid (Naveen Andrews) comes to life after apparently dying from a gunshot wound.

Nothing is irreversible. Except, apparently, the end of "Lost" just weeks from now.

---

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

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Witnesses say Ferguson was driving 120 mph before wreck that killed 5 - Houston Community Newspapers

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 08:04 PM PST

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During a day of emotional testimony in the 9th state District Court, witnesses testified they saw a Chevrolet Cobalt speeding to catch up with a motorcycle just before the Cobalt slammed into another vehicle, killing five people, a little more than a year ago.

Brandon Lee Ferguson, 23, is charged with five counts of manslaughter with a deadly weapon and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon stemming from the Jan. 10, 2009, wreck at FM 249 and Patridge Circle. He is accused of racing his Chevrolet Cobalt northbound on FM 249 and colliding with a Toyota van that entered the intersection at Patridge Circle.

The wreck killed Donald Lee Sexton, 60, of College Station; his parents, Lloyd and Catherine Edwards, both 83, of Salina, Okla.; Sexton's uncle, Curtis Charles Edwards, 70, of Pinehurst. They all were riding in the van. Kayla Ann Pratorius, 18, of Magnolia, a passenger in Ferguson's vehicle and his girlfriend, also died in the accident.

A prosecutor with the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office previously said he believes Ferguson was racing a motorcycle, but Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Angela Fountain testified Tuesday that the DPS never located either the motorcycle or its driver.

A photo entered into testimony shows the speedometer of Ferguson's Cobalt after the wreck stuck at 117 mph.

Karla Kay Sexton, 59, of College Station, who was ejected from the van and received numerous injuries, testified she and her husband, Donald Sexton, were in town along with the Edwardses to celebrate Curtis Edwards' birthday.

Catherine Edwards was in the back seat behind her husband, who was seated next to Karla Sexton, and she was leaning over the seat attempting to help him with his seatbelt, Karla Sexton testified. But she sat back down as Karla Sexton helped Lloyd Edwards buckle up.

As she was buckling her own seatbelt, Karla Sexton said, she saw a motorcycle "racing by" on FM 249.

She then heard Curtis Edwards, who was driving, say, "Oh, my."

Catherine Edwards also was ejected in the wreck; Curtis Edwards, Lloyd Edwards and Donald Sexton remained trapped in the van as it became engulfed in flames.

DPS troopers testified that there is a rise on FM 249 just south of Patridge Circle that limits the line of sight for drivers on both roads.

That was confirmed by two witnesses who had been driving toward Patridge Circle on FM 249 just before the wreck. James Link, a Magnolia resident, said he was returning home from a local recycling center on FM 249 when he was passed by a motorcycle and then the Cobalt.

The motorcycle was traveling "excessively fast and it was gone," Link said. "Five seconds later, I heard another vehicle that sounded like it was accelerating."

That second vehicle was the Cobalt, Link said, which sounded as if it had a turbo-charged engine and a loud, performance-type muffler.

Link looked at his speedometer, which was under 65 mph – the posted speed on FM 249 at the time of the wreck – and realized "the Cobalt was going at least twice what I was going," he said.

Both the motorcycle and Cobalt crossed the top of the hill just before Patridge Circle, Link said, and when he crested the same hill, he saw pieces of vehicles spinning, smoke rising from the radiators of both the Cobalt and the van and debris all over the road.

Link pulled over onto Patridge Circle, got out and called 9-1-1. He tried to help Catherine Edwards and Karla Sexton, who were both lying on the ground, when he saw flames behind the driver's side in the van.

Several other people were trying to get the three men out of the van, and Link went over to help, he said.

"The van became involved in flames, and we had to back up," he said.

The three men trapped in the van had made no sound or movement, he said.

Randall Ladner, a Magnolia resident who also came upon the wreck, said he noticed the black Kawasaki motorcycle – which he called a "crotch rocket" – next to the red pickup in which he was riding stopped at the intersection of FM 249 and Hardin Store Road, south of Patridge Circle.

Once the light changed, "it excessively accelerated," Ladner said.

The Cobalt then passed the pickup – "It flew by us," he said – as the pickup was traveling a little more than 75 mph.

"It looked like he was trying to catch the motorcycle," he said.

The Cobalt was accelerating up the hill just before Patridge Circle, and Ladner and the pickup's driver lost sight of it. The pickup then came over the hill.

"We saw the van and the Cobalt sliding to a stop," he said.

The truck pulled over, and both men got out, with Ladner's friend calling 9-1-1. Ladner went to the van, which had all its doors jammed shut, and he went to the rear hatch to open it. Just as it opened, "That's when it burst into flames," he said.

He backed up about 30 feet, and could feel the heat from the flames, he said.

While he previously has driven 120-130 mph a "couple of times" on a public road, Ladner said seeing the aftermath of the wreck has affected how he drives.

"I'm more cautious," he said.

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DiSalvo, Mees Star Tonight - Cycle News

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 03:03 PM PST

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The following is from Pit Pass Radio...

Top talent and industry insiders from the motorcycle world give their uncut opinions and race stories. Get your weekly motorcycle news live from Pit Pass Moto Weekly. Pit Pass Moto Weekly is now heard in over 50 countries around the world.

7 pm to 9 pm Central - Motorcycle Radio streaming individual interviews from www.pitpassradio.com, or download the program from our archives to your ipod or mp3 player anytime.

Jason DiSalvo, World SuperSport Racer - ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing
DiSalvo is headed over to Europe to race in the World SuperSport class on a Triumph with new team mate Chaz Davies. In 2009, DiSalvo rode with the M4 Suzuki team and finished fifth overall with six podiums and a third place finish at the Daytona 200. He was teamed up with Martin Cardenas on the M4 squad and both riders were consistently at the front of the pack.
www.jasondisalvo.com

Jared Mees, Dirt Track Racer - 2009 AMA Grand National Dirt Track Twins Champion
Mees finished the season in 2009 as a champion in the AMA Grand National Dirt Track Twins class. A great accomplishment for Mees, and usually it would be enough to keep your ride in a normal year. But 2010 is anything but a normal year - especially for Mees, who lost his ride and is currently putting together his own team for 2010. Mees has been busy ice racing (and winning) in the off season and so far he is 10 for 10.
www.jaredmees.com

Dan Krick, Co-owner, Fusion Graphixx
Fusion Graphixx has offered custom bike graphics since 2003. Dan is an avid motocross racer himself and truly loves working in the industry. Aside from the thousands of consumers that order graphics each year, Fusion also provides graphics to some of the top motocross and Supercross teams including TiLUBE Brown Motorsports, MotoConcepts, Red Seven, and many more. This month Pit Pass Radio will be giving a full bike graphics kit away to one lucky listener. Dan joins the program to tell us more about this promotion.
www.fusiongraphix.com

Broc Tickle, Supercross Lites Racer - DNA Shred Stix Division 7 Star Racing Team
Racing for the DNA Shred Stix Division 7 Star Racing Team, Tickle rode a solid race this past weekend in San Francisco and pulled off his first podium of the season with a third place finish on his Yamaha YZ250F. Coming off a seventh overall finish in the Lucas Oil outdoor motocross, series, Tickle is ready to fight for the podium in the SX Lites class. Originally from North Carolina, Tickle is a former Loretta Lynn's Champion.
www.starmotocross.com

PJ Larsen, Supercross Lites Racer - JDR Motorsports/Motorex/KTM Team
Larsen grew up just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. He raced in 2009 for the Canidae team and finished ninth overall in Monster Energy SX Lites class and sixteenth in the Lucas Oil Outdoors 250 class. Larsen was the 2008 Loretta Lynn's Amateur National Horizon winner and also won the 2008 Loretta Lynn's Motocross A Pro Sport Champion and the 2007 Loretta Lynn's Motocross A Class Champion. In 2010, he is racing over in Australia with the KTM team.
www.pjlarsenracing.com

Crew at Pit Pass Radio
Scott Casber, Tony Wenck, Tony Tice, Jack DeLeon and Ed Kuhlenkamp.

Pit Pass Moto Weekly is a syndicated motorcycle talk show heard across the U.S. on radio stations and around the world via the internet at www.pitpassradio.com. The show airs every Tuesday from 5-7 pm Pacific, 6-8 pm Mountain, 7-9 pm Central, and 8-10 pm Eastern at www.pitpassradio.com. Companies interested in advertising on the show or marketing partnerships can contact Ed Kuhlenkamp by clicking on the contact tab in the menu and make sure to list advertising in the email.

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