Ron Marshall

Sometimes a basketball ticket can turn into a winning lottery ticket. One of college basketball's premier events--the NCAA West Regionals--starts tonight at the Arrowhead Pond, a first for Orange County. Tickets sold so quickly during last March's mail-order lottery that some fans are now scrambling to buy or sell them at two to three times face value.

For many children, the Fourth of July seems extra special, for no better reason than it comes smack dab in the middle of summer. There isn't another holiday in sight for months. So what better way to beat the heat than with picnics and music and, of course, fireworks. And regardless of age, these are still pretty good reasons. "It's a wonderful day for people to come together and have a good time," said Jess Margarito, director of the 66th annual San Fernando Fireworks Show.

Central Municipal Judge C. Robert Jameson went to a home near Tustin Friday to see for himself where Deanna Slender was killed during a June, 1984, melee involving two sheriff's deputies and three Slender brothers. Jameson, who is presiding over a second preliminary hearing in the case, is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to dismiss charges against Charles George Slender, 22, Monte Slender, 21, and Steve Slender, 24, or bind them over for trial in Superior Court.

The latest mutation in the evolution of the pool hall has occurred right here in Oxnard with the recent opening of the Hollywood Club, part upscale billiard parlor, part video arcade, and part karaoke bar. In the old days, pool players had to be wary of the stranger with the customized stick; now, it's the guy who belts out his own arrangements. Once near extinction, pool halls are surviving and thriving in the lean '90s by diversifying.

As Los Angeles firefighters and police spent a weary day and night battling arson blazes and looters, stunned residents and business owners grappled with the question of who is torching and pillaging their communities. The answer seemed to be: both criminals and opportunists. The rampage, which began Wednesday within hours of the verdicts in the Rodney G.

Wichita State is off to its first Final Four since 1965 with the appropriate nickname: Shockers. The ninth-seeded team from Kansas concluded its siege through the West Regional on Saturday with a 70-66 win over Ohio State in front of 17,998 at Staples Center. Wichita State is the first team seeded No. 9 to reach the Final Four since Penn in 1979. That was also the last year a team from the Missouri Valley Conference made it: You may remember Indiana State, Larry Bird and the Sycamores.

Did you hear the one about the mentally ill comic? He's no joke. He is Billy Moody, 44, survivor of Vietnam, heroin addiction and schizophrenia, in that order. Moody is a big thinker: For instance, he used to believe he was Jesus Christ II. The voices told him so. "Sometimes it (was) pretty hilarious," Moody remembered. "They said: 'You will be a great healer. . . . There will be no more sickness, no more mental problems.' And I was believing them."

Don Ashley is not one to slight the friendly fleets to the south, but the owner of Long Beach Sportfishing was quick to point out, in essence, that "Our yellowtail are bigger than theirs." Ashley will get no argument from the San Diego skippers, who have been putting their customers on five- to 15-pound yellowtail every day for the last two weeks.