The Tulsa City Council on Wednesday appointed two interim councilors to fill vacated seats in Districts 3 and 7. Karen O’Brien is the District 3 councilor and former Councilor Arianna Moore was chosen for District 7. They both will serve until December 3, when the winners of the November 6 elections take office. Councilors thought…
Utility bills are going up in Broken Arrow again. In November, an average residential customer who uses 7,000 gallons of water a month will pay about $2.29 more per month for water, $2.19 for sewer and 57 cents for stormwater fees. That’s about $5 a month more. Residential customers got a similar hike in utility…
To help end veteran homelessness, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) awarded $153,053 to provide a permanent home to an estimated 35 veterans experiencing homelessness in Oklahoma. The rental assistance is provided through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program, which combines rental assistance…
Newsroom employees of The Omaha World-Herald voted overwhelmingly on October 8. to unionize. The 71-5 vote by reporters, copy editors and photographers to affiliate with The NewsGuild, was what they called an effort to ensure a local voice in the direction of the state’s largest newspaper. “Today is a historic day as journalists make the…
Out-of-state political action committees have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in “dark money” to defeat conservative candidates in Oklahoma. And it’s having an effect. The dark money PACs succeeded in creating enough negativity to ensure the defeat of some of the most conservative lawmakers in the primary and runoff elections. State Rep. Chuck Strohm,…
As expected, state tax revenues soared in September in the first full month’s impact of the largest tax increase in Oklahoma history. Revenues jumped by 14 percent compared to September of 2017. The $1,200,000,000.00 collected was the highest total ever in the history of the state for that month. The $12,500,000,000.00 for the past 12…
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has granted Oklahoma’s REAL ID extension through October 10, 2019, according to the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety. This means the federal government will continue to recognize Oklahoma driver’s licenses and ID cards until that time. There will be no restrictions for Oklahomans using state licenses to fly commercial…
The Oklahoman, the state’s largest newspaper, is part of a sale to New York-based Gatehouse Media. The sale closed October 1. Gatehouse Media publishes 145 daily publications in 37 states. Some of their papers are in Shawnee, Oklahoma; Bartlesville, Oklahoma; North Little Rock, Arkansas; Stockton, California; Daytona Beach, Florida; Jacksonville, Florida; Gainesville, Florida; Savannah, Georgia;…
The University of Oklahoma Max Westheimer Airport will hold its 12th Annual Aviation Festival from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 13. This year marks the 77th year of flight training at Max Westheimer Airport. Admission and parking are free. A S.W.A.T. Team, the Norman Police Department and the NOAA Mobile Doppler Radar are scheduled…
State Rep. Lewis Moore held an interim study before the House Public Health Committee on mental health and substance abuse issues among the state’s prison population. “A lot of people in our prison system are there for drug- or alcohol-related crimes or because they suffer from some sort of mental health issue that got them…