13 candidates vie for 4 council seats Thirteen candidates will compete for seats in four City Council districts on November 6. No sitting councilors will be on the ballot. Districts 3, 4 and 5 have two candidates following the August 28 election but District 7 has seven candidates in a winner-take-all vote due to the…
Despite an average salary raise of around $6,000 a year, Oklahoma’s public schools are having trouble hiring certified teachers. The reported figure for Tulsa Public Schools is about 340 noncertified instructors. Here is how the number of emergency teaching certifications issued by the Oklahoma Department of Education has risen since 2011: 32 – 2011-12 98…
Federal officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations caught 98 illegal aliens in North Texas and Oklahoma – including eight in Tulsa and three in Oklahoma City. Almost all of the suspects arrested in the raids last week are accused of having a criminal record besides being in the country illegally….
City officials are drawing up plans to spend more taxpayer money – perhaps another $100,000,000.00 on Downtown projects. They are crafting a plan to submit to the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission that potentially spend tens of millions of dollars around the BOK Arena – an area that stretches from Boulder Avenue, 11th Street and…
Cold beer and wine just got easier to buy in Tulsa on October 1. Based on a statewide vote, Oklahoma has liberalized its liquor laws and that has had a dramatic effect on the availability of beer and wine. Liquor stores were legalized in 1959 and for years, Oklahoma had liquor-by-the drink restrictions. Only room…
Donna Gradel, 2018 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, has officially launched her yearlong tour of Oklahoma, vowing to visit schools in all 77 counties by June 30. Gradel has been speaking across the state since assuming her full-time Teacher of the Year duties July 1, but with the new school year now in full swing,…
Oklahoma voters could make history on November 6 if they reject any of the statewide judges who will be on the ballot for retention votes. No judge has ever not been retained on these votes. The governor appoints Oklahoma Supreme Court justices. Three of the sitting justices were picked by Republican governors Frank Keating (one)…
Some proponents for the further legalization of marijuana don’t like two new ordinances passed by the Broken Arrow City Council last week. The new city statutes create a $2,500 annual permit to operate a state-issued license to grow and distribute “medical marijuana” in Broken Arrow. The laws put marijuana dispensaries in the same legal category…
In a split vote, the Tulsa School Board appointed Jania Wester to the board last week. Wester formerly was a principal at Zarrow International School, is Hispanic and now represents District 2 in which 40 percent of the public school students are Hispanic. That district is in the north/central part of Tulsa. Board member Jennettie…
A Yukon elementary school art educator whose alter ego as the Caped Crusader earned her the nickname the “Batman Teacher” is Oklahoma’s 2019 Teacher of the Year. Becky Oglesby teaches Pre-K through third grade at Ranchwood Elementary School in Yukon Public Schools. Oglesby was a second-year teacher at Plaza Towers Elementary in 2013 when a…