Authorities say an eleventh person has died from injuries received in Friday’s plane crash at the Reno Air Races. City spokesperson Michelle Anderson confirms James McMichael of Graham, Washington was killed at the scene.

Officials have been testing body parts found in the gruesome crash aftermath since Friday.  They have also identified Wendy Hewitt of Fort Mohave, Arizona and  Craig Salerno of Friendswood, Texas, as those among the dead.

Meanwhile, authorities say a Kansas woman whose husband, two sons and daughter-in-law were badly injured in the plane crash has been confirmed as dead.  Officials with the Washoe County Medical Examiner’s office say scientific identification proved Cheryl Elvin was among the fatalities.

Also a Sacramento City College aeronautics professor is offering insight into what may have caused the deadly plane crash at the Reno Air Races.  Kit Sodergren says the World War Two-era plane may have lost a trim tab that would have caused the pilot to lose control. 

He believes pilot Jimmy Leeward was knocked unconscious when the plane suddenly pitched straight up in the air because the force could have been as high as 10 Gs.  National Transportation Safety Board investigators are looking at the tail section of the plane.

Add to this, a newly released photograph suggesting Leeward may have become dislodged in the cockpit as a result of a broken seat.  NTSB officials are examining photos taken before and after the incident, including a picture in which the pilot isn’t visible from inside the cockpit.

Finally, the Salinas air show will go on as planned this weekend following the tragedy of the Reno air races. Executive Director of the California International Air Show at Salinas Harry Wardwell says air shows and air races are very different, adding pilots are required to undergo yearly competency tests, the planes are inspected before each show and they fly parallel to the crowd.

Reno 2011 — The city of Reno plans to hold a public memorial service for all victims, their families and others affected by the fatal plane crash at the National Championship Air Races. The memorial will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday at Idlewild Park along with a tree planting in park’s arboretum dedicated to all the victims.

Meanwhile, the death toll is up to ten.  The latest death happened Monday morning at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center. Over 70 people were injured in the accident and several others remain in serious condition.

These are the known victims of the crash at the National Championship Air Races that have been confirmed dead by either family members or the Washoe County  Medical Examiner’s Office:

Jimmy Leeward, 74, pilot, Ocala, Florida.; Greg Morcum, 47, Marysville, Washington; Michael Wogan, 22, Phoenix; George Hewitt, 60, Fort Mohave, Arizona; John Craik, 47, Gardnerville; Regina Bynum, 53, San Angelo, Texas; and Sharon Stewart, 47, Reno.

There are also two person’s unaccounted for after Friday’s crash. They include Wendy Hewitt, Fort Mohave, Arizona.; and Cherie Elvin, Lenexa, Kansas.

Finally, the National Transportation Safety Board has recovered an onboard data box and camera equipment believed to be from Leeward’s P-51, “The Galloping Ghost.” Authorities are calling the air race accident the worst in the nation’s history.

It has been a tough 11 days in the northern Nevada area.  A shooting at a Carson City IHOP that left five dead and left another 11 wounded — then Friday a fatal crash involving spectators at the Reno National Championship Air Races.

Investigators are now saying at least nine people are dead in Friday’s accident at the Reno Air Races. The National Transportation Safety Board is beginning its investigation into what caused a vintage airplane to plunge out of control, killing the 74-year-old pilot as well as spectators and injuring nearly 70 others.

Mark Rosekind of the NTSB says the agency is focusing on securing the accident site.  Rosekind also says it is unlikely there was any kind of recording device on the World War Two-era plane that would help investigators determine what caused the plane to crash.  He said it could take as long as nine months to complete their investigation.

Reno hospitals say they were prepared for twice as many casualties as they handed in Friday’s deadly air race crash. Renown Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Carter says they had up to 198 beds available for incoming patients.

Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority director Ken Romero says his organization had a medical clinic on site as well as four ambulances, two of which were crash units. One of the crash units was in the pit area, 200 yards away from the impact zone.

He said they were able to start triage and treatment, “within seconds.”  About 20 EMS ambulances were on duty, but another 20 arrived within 15 minutes of the crash.

The pilot, Jimmy Leeward, of Ocala, Fla., was a veteran airman and movie stunt pilot who named his P-51 Mustang fighter plane “The Galloping Ghost.”    Investigators say they are examining the site, gathering information and are encouraged by the large number of photos and videos available to them.

They have not speculated on a cause but organizers point to a possible mechanical failure. Pictures and video appear to show a piece of the plane coming off before it crashed.

As of Saturday, 40 of the 69 people injured enough to be treated at hospitals had been discharged. The conditions of those still held: eight are critical; nine, serious; 10 fair; two good.

At least two of the injured are children.

So far 47-year-old Greg Morcom of Washington state and 22-year-old Michael Wogan of Phoenix, Arizona have been identified as one of the eight spectators killed in the crash. Meanwhile, Wogan’s father, Bill, lost his  right eye, some fingers on his right hand, suffered over 100 fractures to his face and remains in critical condition.

Twenty-two people have now been killed in crashes since Reno’s National Championship Air Races started in 1964. Nineteen pilots died in accidents before Friday’s crash that killed the pilot of a P-51 Mustang and two spectators — the first time onlookers were killed or seriously injured.

At least two previous accidents involved P-51s. In 1999, a Mustang disintegrated during a race, scattering debris and damaging a house. In 1994, one of the planes crashed next to a runway after engine failure sprayed the windshield with oil.

Organizers softened two of the curves pilots negotiate after crashes into nearby neighborhoods in 1998 and the one in 1999. In 2007 and 2008, four pilots were killed at the races, prompting local school officials to consider barring student field trips to the event.

Last month, a pilot was killed at a weekend air show in Kansas City, Missouri and a wing-walker plunged about 200 feet to his death at a show near Detroit.  Hours after the Reno accident, another World War Two-era plane crashed at an air show in Martinsburg, West Virginia killing the pilot.

Sadness hangs heavy in the heart and in the sky.

Having a number of dogs in the home is an ongoing adventure in my life. They are always happy to see me come home and are a well-behaved lot in general.

However, once in a while something goes wrong and one of them gets it in their head to have at some object that belongs to its humans. Sometimes it’s a sock or a shoe other times its something a little more significant.

For instance — another of my cowboy hats became fodder for the dogs. I still don’t know it came off the hat-rack, but what I do know is it ended up in the back yard — ripped to shreds.

I also lost a Marine Corps cover I had managed to hold on to since before leaving the service.

Often when something like this happens, people will say, “Well, one of them must be mad at you.” But I don’t think this is the case.

It’s more like an anxiety attack on the part of the animals if they are left alone too long. A good example of this is Roxy, our pit-bull, who was locked in an apartment bedroom for hours on end as a puppy.

When I leave the house, I believe she recalls this situation and responds by stealing something and using it to relieve her sense of frustration. And that’s how my hat ended up in the back yard.

In the end I forgave her for chewing up yet a third hat. It was either that or turn her into a floor mat for my pick-up truck.

Jus’ kidding — this time.

Where Debbie Clayton’s father got the alligator, I don’t recall. What I do remember is the white Styrofoam ice chest that was carried into the room and place on a chair at the front of the class.

Whether Mrs. Damm said, “Don’t touch,” or if I ignored her – I don’t know. But my curiosity was such that I jus’ couldn’t help myself.

Maybe because the gator was only a foot-long – or perhaps it’s hiss wasn’t a deterrent enough, I reached right in the chest and touched the little reptile on the nose.

That was all it took! In an instant it had collapsed its toothy jaws around my right pointer finger and moved into what I would later learn was a “death roll,” designed to kill its prey. I felt a wave of searing pain wash over and through me.

I didn’t scream though as I was more afraid of Mrs. Damm than the gator.

After flopping about the chest for what felt an eternity, the beast let go of my finger. It was ripped up and bleeding badly.

Mrs. Damm grabbed my arm and raised it over my head. I actually thought I was about to get another paddling in front of the class at this moment.

However, she had mercy on me and rushed me to the sink to rinse the bite in cold water and wrap it as tightly as possible in a bunch of paper towels. Then she sent me to the office, where Mrs. Eunice Zwierlein had to tend to my wound.

Within in minutes she had called Mom, who called someone else to come get me and take me up to the base infirmary. There, the medic-on-duty bandaged me up and gave me a tetanus shot for good measure then sent me home.

So yeah, I can say I was bit — or even stretch the truth a bit and claim I was attacked — by an alligator. But either way the finger nail on my right pointer finger has never grown the same since.

As I worked the newsroom throughout the evening, there was one story glaringly absent from the national broadcast. In fact, I only saw it posted three or four times on the wire service.

On Wednesday, either part of a roof or large scaffolding – maybe both – collapsed at one of the most volatile border crossings between the Mexico and the U.S. Yet it was treated as a non-news story.

The cause of the structural failure is under investigation.

At least 11 people were injured, one seriously, as a 50- by 50-foot section of wooden platform collapsed onto northbound traffic entering the U.S through a construction zone at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department says debris, including support beams and pieces of concrete, fell onto 15 vehicles.

Eight of the victims were able to free themselves from their autos and the structural wreckage, but emergency crews had to extricate the remainder. Paramedics took the patients to four hospitals in San Diego and the South Bay, including a pregnant woman and four construction workers.

Two dozen other motorists and renovation workers were evaluated for possible minor injuries, including respiratory irritation from breathing in dust kicked up by the collapse. Federal engineers were called in to assess remaining hazards at the site and develop a cleanup plan.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say the border-crossing facility was closed to northbound travelers after the scaffolding gave way just north of the primary inspection. Near 13 hours later agents began allowing vehicular traffic to cross into the states.

Meanwhile, jus’ across the border from Laredo, Texas, Mexican gangs hung another two bodies from an overpass in Nuevo Laredo as a threat to those using the Internet to report on the drug war. Messages found near the bodies were specifically directed at two websites: Blog del Narco, which publishes gruesome accounts and video of drug war casualties and Al Rojo Vivo, a forum set up by the Monterrey newspaper El Norte, Mexico.

In late July, Mexican federal police arrested Jose Antonio “El Diego” Acosta Hernandez, leader of the Juarez cartel enforcement group, “La Linea.” Officals sat the recent void appears to have allowed the drug organization Los Zetas to step up its fight for control of the drug trafficking across most southern border points.

Then Tuesday, Border Patrol agents found a rocket launcher, assault rifles and explosives in a bag near the Rio Grande River in Texas. Inside that bag were six assault rifles, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, 20 ammunition magazines for various-sized weapons and three packages of what appeared to be C-4 plastic explosives.

Is there something we’re not supposed to know about or that were not supposed to be paying attention too, here?

I think it’s a question worth asking.

Kyle, my 19-year-old son, was sitting on the edge of his bed when he announced, “Ah-ha! I found my marbles.”

Unable to resist, I turned and looked, “I didn’t know you had lost your marbles.”

Without missing a beat he held up his hand, displaying the little glass globes and responded, “Ha-ha – I meant these marbles, smart ass!”

Kyle knows me too well.

It was a history making day for me – and anyone else who vote in Nevada’s Congressional District 2’s special election. History making because Nevada had never held a special election for a congressional seat since it was accepted into the Union, until now.

I waited to vote on election day, instead of voting early as many did, at my local precinct — Shaw Middle School on Eagle Canyon.

The seat opened up after Dean Heller was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill-out the term of John Ensign who resigned amid a series of scandals.  Heller had been the CD-2 House Representative since first being elected in 2006.

There were jus’ four candidates in this election: Kate Marshall, Democrat and the current state treasurer; Mark Amodei, Republican; Timothy Fasano, Independent American Party; and Helmuth Lehmann, Moderate Independent.

Regardless of the winner, I’m using the event to point out – we all participate in history. We should record these things for our families and the future.

I also take voting seriously and I hope you do too.

Happily, the four hardest days of September for me have come and passed. But they’ll return next year.

At one point, September 8th was a fun date. It was the day my step-dad, Del Middleton, was born in 1938. However he passed away September 9th, 1997.

To make things harder is the fact that Mom was born in 1940 on September 10th. It became hard to celebrate her birth after Del’s death and I hate to even think of it now that she’s been gone since 2002.

Then of course there’s September 11th — the anniversary date of the worst terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. It’s still hard to mourn the day without holding one’s breath waiting for another attack.

But then again — it could be worse — I have a friend and co-worker whose birthday is September 11. Talk about a real party-pooper.

As the nation mourns the loss that occurred a decade ago this date — I’ll head home from my post at the radio station and mourn my own personal loss. You see, today a friend is to be buried in services to be held in private.

I wasn’t invited — but that’s okay.

Instead I’ll go out into my backyard, pull up a chair and drink an ice-tea (or maybe something stronger) to my friend. I’ll say a small prayer for her soul, thanking God for letting me know her friendship and I’ll shed a few tears along the way.

In my head I keep saying, “Your smile, your silly grin, your laughter and your friendship will be sorely missed. And I’ll never look at another cupcake in the same way.”

I’ll see you on the other side of the hill,  Miranda.