EDMOND, Okla. — A day after being fatally shot while trying to visit a parolee in Midwest City, Department Of Corrections parole officer Jeffrey McCoy is remembered at a “Blue Mass” service in Edmond. The service, held at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, honors Oklahoma officers killed in the line of duty. Officers from several agencies had been preparing to honor 24...

LOS ANGELES — The News Channel 4 Sports Team has arrived in Los Angeles, California. They are preparing to cover Game 3 of Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs. The Oklahoma City Thunder take on the LA Lakers Friday night at the Staples Center. Tipoff is 9:30 p.m. (CST). The Thunder lead the series 2-0. Some sports analysts are saying the Lakers need to win Game 3 to stay alive in the playoffs....

OKLAHOMA CITY — Construction on the Kilpatrick Turnpike is in full swing and while many drivers say it’s a headache, others say they are tired of seeing drivers speed through the work zones. “I don’t know, it’s just annoying, it takes forever to get to work,” turnpike traveler Victoria Walker said. The previous 70 m.p.h. speed limit has been reduced to 55 m.p.h...

ARCADIA, Okla. — The geese outnumber the swimmers right now at Arcadia lake but Memorial Day Weekend is almost here and fisherman Micah Carter knows chaos is not far behind. He said, “It gets pretty busy. No doubt about it. Crazy!” Arcadia Lake will be a hot spot for the next several months.  City crews are preparing the sandy beaches.  Maintenance worker Leon Mixer is raking...

BY DIANA BALDWIN dbaldwin@opubco.com

BY STEVE GUST

Summertime: everyone’s outside, getting their suntans on, relaxing by the lake, chillin’ out with family and friends, maybe even getting ready for a super-patriotic holiday or two. Not the dudes in TRAGEDY. Here’s what they’re doing instead: writing songs about the end of the world.

That Mayan calendar thing was a myth, y’all.

The new TRAGEDY album, “Darker Days Ahead,” is a pretty standard crust-metal amalgamation, with ultra-heavy bits mixed in with more atmospheric doom mixed in with some genuinely pretty pieces of guitar-picking. That really doesn’t stop it from being absolutely crushing in quite a few places, but I have to say that I really prefer some of TRAGEDY’s earlier material, like the “Can We Call This Life?” 7-inch from 2002 (which had much more of a blues influence, and was generally faster), to this.

It’s not that I find “Darker Days” bad, but comparing this to, say, “Can We Call This Life?” is like comparing BLACK SABBATH to MÖTORHEAD - they’re two totally different sounds.

Some notable tracks on this album include Wail of Sirens, Darker Days Ahead and Power Fades.

(Tragedy Records)

BY DIANA BALDWIN dbaldwin@opubco.com

OKLAHOMA CITY — A state lawmaker is pushing to fund construction for a new State Medical Examiner’s office in Edmond.   State Senator Clark Jolley said the $42 million facility would be built on the University of Central Oklahoma campus.   This week the cooler at the current facility broke and forced officials to move bodies out of the M.E.’s office. “We’ve allowed this facility...

LOS ANGELES — The News Channel 4 Sports Team has arrived in Los Angeles, California. They are preparing to cover Game 3 of Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs. The Oklahoma City Thunder take on the LA Lakers Friday night at the Staples Center. Tipoff is 9:30 p.m. (CST). The Thunder lead the series 2-0. Some sports analysts are saying the Lakers need to win Game 3 to stay alive in the playoffs....