November 2023

The El Reno Tribune has partnered with El Reno VFW Post 382 and Auxiliary to hold a silent quilt auction to help raise funds for El Reno High School’s annual Gifts for the Yanks program.

Started during World War II, the nationwide Gifts for the Yanks began raising funds to purchase Christmas presents for American military personnel.

El Reno High School joined the effort 77 years ago and today is the only known high school in the United States to take part in the program continually since adopting it.

Fewer than 1 percent of U.S. newsroom employees are Native American.

But one local news coordinator, CATV Director of Operations Randy Burleson, is hoping a new partnership will make a difference in raising those numbers among Native youth in Oklahoma.

Since late September, Cheyenne and Arapaho Television has been broadcasting OU Nightly, the student-led daily news broadcast of Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.

What was reported as a trespassing call escalated into a stabbing that left a 54-year-old man dead, Canadian County Undersheriff Kevin Ward said.

Ward said deputies received a call Friday about 5:45 p.m. reporting a “trespassing” issue at 2935 N. Old Highway 81. While driving to the scene, deputies were notified the matter had escalated to a stabbing.

City workers spent days putting up the Christmas lights in Legion Park as El Reno jumps into the festive season.

Some of the displays were erected during mild weather, but crews could be seen working in less than perfect conditions on other days.

The lights are shining and motorists have been seen driving by to take in all the Christmas color.

The Canadian County Sheriff’s Office has been awarded a grant from the Oklahoma Attorney General’s “Safe Oklahoma” for the purchase of body cameras.

The grant is for $56,735 and will purchase body cameras for 50 deputies, Sheriff Chris West said in a press release.

This is the second year in a row the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office has received the award.

The body-worn cameras will augment the move to the electronic filing of criminal charges and cases presented to the district attorney’s office.

Thirty-one El Reno High School students from the Forensics and Criminology classes got the privilege of visiting the brand new Crime Scene House at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.

The students were able to learn about forensics careers such as Crime Scene Investigators (CSIs), behavioral analysts, fingerprint experts, DNA experts, pathologists, anthropologists and many more.

This trip was made possible by the Gear Up grant.

A January trial is set in a lawsuit against Canadian County Sheriff Chris West filed by former employees who allege they were wrongfully terminated.

County commissioners met in executive session Nov. 13 to receive confidential communications from legal counsel about the civil suit.

Two separate lawsuits - filed in April 2022 by former sheriff’s investigator Marty Burns and deputy Chelsea Adkins - were consolidated this June as one case in Canadian County District Court.

A jury trial is set Jan. 8 before Canadian County Special Judge Khristan K. Strubhar.

El Reno High School October Students of the Month are Garrett Wells, Sinthia Puebla, Alan Torres, Madison Rochdi, Riley Ray, Emercyn Looper, Grady Lesperance, and Kelly Gonzales.

Oklahoma Home and Community Education Underwood Club held its November meeting recently in the home of Vicki Duncan. The flag salute was led by Ann Ricketts, with Janan Fletcher giving the treasurer’s report.

Natalia Valenzuela called the meeting to order with the question, “What kind of buttons do you have?”

Duncan presented the lesson on “The History of Buttons.” Everyone had buttons handed down from mothers and grandmothers.

Members looked at a handout of different craft ideas with buttons.

On Nov. 20, X Corp. - the corporate entity through which Elon Musk owns X, formerly known as Twitter - filed suit against Media Matters for America, which styles itself as a “progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”

At issue is a Media Matters expose claiming that X, contrary to CEO Linda Yaccarino’s promise that advertisers are “protected from the risk” of having their ads placed next to unsavory content, has been running ads next to “pro-Nazi” posts.