The Oklahoma Media Center recently selected the name “Promised Land: A Supreme Court Decision Places Oklahoma at a Crossroads” for a shared topic in 2021.
The collaborative will cover the affirmation of tribal sovereignty after the Supreme Court ruling last year.
When a deep freeze settled across Oklahoma in mid-February, the greenhouse sheltering Oklahoma State University’s wheat breeding program showed its age in the worst way.
Constructed in the 1960s, the facility’s heating system failed, pipes froze, and 70 percent of the hybrid plants inside succumbed to crippling cold. The loss was catastrophic and exemplified a need to reinvest in the crumbling infrastructure of agricultural research.
In the first school-sponsored Junior-Senior Prom since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, El Reno High School students flocked to the Festivities Event Center to walk the red carpet for the grand march. Called “The Masquerade Ball,” students turned out in colorful dresses and tuxedos for the event.
Vehicles such as classic cars, muscle cars, sports cars, farm trucks, a monster truck and stretch limousines lined up three wide for more than a block waiting to drop off students for the walk.
El Reno has a film commission in place.
Last week the city council named the 10-person board to help guide, grow and foster the film industry here.
El Reno has hosted a number of movie productions over the past year, most finding their way to the Lifetime and Hallmark television channels.
Oklahoma has an attractive rebate program tied to the movie and music industry, and while California was shut down because of COVID-19, Oklahoma was open for moving-making.
Downtown El Reno development drew attention during last week’s city council meeting.
Council agreed to rezone property on South Rock Island from Combined Residential (R2) to Convenience Commercial (CC).
The request for the rezoning was made by David Jensen. The proposal was approved 4-1 with council member Steve Jensen voting to abstain, which counts as a no vote.
The property is .45 acres. It rests on the east side of Rock Island, just across the road from the campus of Etta Dale Junior High.
Brothers Steve and Peter Jensen of Jensen Farms in El Reno were recently recognized for their farming and cattle operation as a finalist for Producer of the Year 2021.
Sponsored by Livingston Machinery Company and supported by Manitou Group, the winner of the contest will receive a new Manitou telehandler for free for one year.
Matriarch is a nonprofit organization for indigenous women and children.
Co-founder Sarah Adams-Cornell said the support group has been addressing “the moving parts” -- domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault and more -- that cause murder and missing-persons cases to manifest in indigenous communities at-large.
Cornell and her friend, Kendra Wilson Clements co-founded Matriarch together about five years ago, and have since opened two chapters in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Frank Lucas (OK-03), U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), and U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) sent a letter last week to President Biden urging him to suspend the executive order to close down prisons, including the Great Plains Correctional Institution located in Hinton.
Dear President Biden,
We write urging you to suspend your January 26, 2021, executive order to close down prisons, including those housing criminal aliens.
LAWSUITS
Galaxy International Purchasing LLC vs. Sakeenah Lewis for $1,008.45 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.
Galaxy International Purchasing LLC vs. Michelle Stinnett for $2,370.80 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.
Capital One Bank N.A. vs. Ernest D. Hubert for $4,711.79 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.
Capital One Bank N.A. vs. Blair N. Chance for $3,519.74 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.
The Canadian County Expo and Event Center will rope in some big-time tourism dollars for the area.
Nathan Smith, the director for the soon-to-be-opened multi-purpose center, has some proof to back up that prediction.
Scheduled to open in July, the new “fairgrounds” is already attracting customers from an array of events that promise, Smith said, to bring “a lot of people to the county.”
“We’re booked every weekend until the fair and then into 2022,” Smith said, referring to the 67th Annual Canadian County Free Fair set for late August.
