Newsmakers

Appearing Seattle Seahawks safety Kevin Ellison has a date to appear in court on Oct. 5 after pleading not guilty to drug possession in Southern California. A court clerk confirmed that Ellison entered the plea Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Torrance. He remains free on $10,000 bail. The 23-year-old former All-Pac-10 safety and USC defensive captain was released by the Chargers after he was pulled over for speeding by police in Redondo Beach on May 24. He was arrested after officers allegedly found he had about 100 Vicodin pills but no prescription for the painkiller.

Hired Montana State football coach Rob Ash said the school has hired Kerry Dixon II as running backs coach. Dixon, a native of Houston, comes to MSU after a season as offensive coordinator at NCAA Division II Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Dixon coached quarterbacks at Texas Southern in 2008 and Morgan State in 2007.

Subpoenaed The New York Daily News reported three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond has been served with a grand jury subpoena as part of a federal investigation of possible fraud and doping charges against Lance Armstrong and his associates. The newspaper reported on its website that a grand jury in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California issued the subpoena, which requests testimony and documents related to the four cycling teams Armstrong has led.

Constructing Former heavyweight title holder Larry Holmes is getting a statue in his eastern Pennsylvania hometown. Organizers held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday at Scott Park in Easton, about 50 miles north of Philadelphia. The statue will be 9 feet tall and weigh between 600 and 800 pounds. It will stand across the street from the restaurant and office plaza owned by the 60-year-old former champ.

Suspended A Catholic priest who made headlines around the world by holding an orange mass to pray for the Dutch team before its World Cup final against Spain has been suspended by his bishop. Bishop Jozef Punt of Haarlem said in a statement issued late Thursday that service held by Rev. Paul Vlaar in the village of Obdam north of Amsterdam “did not do justice to the sacred nature of the Eucharist.”