June 2024

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Veterans Commission is considering removing 126 beds across three veterans homes from its inventory.

If approved, the beds would no longer be available in the Claremore, Ardmore and Sulphur facilities. In a proposal during the June 10 meeting, commissioners were asked to consider decertifying those beds to “bring supply into closer alignment with local demand.”    

OKLAHOMA CITY – Norwegian solar energy company NorSun has selected Tulsa for its first U.S.-based factory, an initial planned investment of $620 million in a new 5-GW silicon ingot and solar wafer manufacturing facility.

The expansion, which was facilitated by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust, will create 320 new direct jobs and provide domestic production of ingot and wafer capacity to meet the increasing demand from U.S. solar cell and panel manufacturers, supporting the growth of the renewable energy sector.  

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed legislation that offers hundreds of millions of dollars to the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals to relocate from Missouri.

The legislation, an expansion of one of the state’s tax incentive programs, could help finance up to 70 percent of the cost for one or both teams to build a new stadium in Kansas.

 WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than a dozen pro-life Americans are currently in federal prison. Their crime? Staging a peaceful sit-in at a late-term abortion business in the nation’s capitol because it potentially illegally killed babies in full-term abortions or infanticides.

LAWSUITS

Midland Credit Management Inc. vs. Tana Rafter for $1,609.56 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Midland Credit Management Inc. vs. John Barnett for $1,501.63 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Midland Credit Management Inc. vs. Lisa Bodey for $2,092.20 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Midland Credit Management Inc. vs. Jo Greeff for $2,235.00 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

The man suspected of killing an El Reno man, as well as others in a cross-country crime spree, met his alleged victim here at the local AA meetings. 

El Reno Police Chief Ken Brown said Stacy Lee Drake, 50, of Birmingham, Ala., is the main suspect in the death of Phillip Emerson, 56, who lived at 204 N. Macomb. 

Parents, at least for now, will no longer have the option of free after-school care for their children. 

El Reno Public Schools Superintendent Matt Goucher said the decision to put all district-wide, after-school programs on hiatus was not easy.

“It was a horrible decision to make. We wanted to be able to offer it but we lost the federal funding that allowed us to do it for free the last three or four years at no cost to the parents.

Golfers at Crimson Creek will pay a bit more for everything after the El Reno City Council approved a 10 percent across the board hike at the municipal course. 

The vote at the June council meeting was 5-0. City Manager Matt Sandidge said the course has not had a rate hike since 2022 and inflation has driven up the costs to operate and maintain the course. 

WASHINGTON – The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an aborted landing after a Southwest Airlines flight buzzed Yukon early Wednesday morning.  

To the Editor:

On May 1, workers from OG&E showed up at a duplex I own and told my renters they would be turning their electricity off so they could top trees in the neighbor’s yard. This was at 8 p.m. and no notice was given. 

The trees were in the yards of two neighbors that join my property in the backyard. 

The limbs were dragged through my backyard and piled 6 feet high on both sides of my driveway in the front lawn.