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OKLAHOMA CITY — The Native Nations Center for Tribal Policy Research, in collaboration with Tana Fitzpatrick, University of Oklahoma associate vice president for tribal relations, and the OU Center for Faculty Excellence, hosted a continuation of its Ethical Tribal Engagement Series at the OU Health Sciences campus. The event featured discussions on Indigenous perspectives in health research, governance and traditional healing. The event included nearly 70 in-person attendees and over 120 virtual attendees.

At the Mustang Central Middle School cafeteria, students pay $3.75 for lunch. To fill their lunch accounts with money electronically, parents pay a $3.25 fee, nearly as much as a meal, each time they make a deposit.

WASHINGTON - Amid growing concerns over foreign investment in U.S. farmland, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Cheyenne) introduced legislation aimed at strengthening the Secretary of Agriculture’s oversight in the role of prioritizing national security concerns tied to foreign involvement in U.S. agriculture.

OKLAHOMA CITY – El Reno High School closed out its summer baseball season last week with back-to-back losses in the Putnam City/Southeast Summer League.

El Reno, playing a mixed squad of varsity and junior varsity players, lost a 12-6 game to the Pirates before falling 4-3 to Ninnekah.

The losses dropped the Indians to 4-4 for the month-long league.

In the loss to Putnam City, El Reno allowed five runs in the first inning off two hits and three errors.

The Indians rallied in the third when Gage Lesperance hit a bases-loaded triple with two outs.

Fireworks could be heard in the skies over El Reno just moments after the Oklahoma City Thunder won the state’s first-ever major league sports championship with a 103-91 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

The 12-point win in Game 7 of the 2025 National Basketball Association Finals gave the Thunder the 4-3 series decision and the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time in the franchise’s 17-year history in the state.

Surfing the wave of excitement with the Oklahoma City Thunder being in the NBA Finals, the city of El Reno’s Fast Connect fiber optic network passed a major field test last week.

Literally.

In the grass field east of the main pavilion at Lake El Reno, the city hosted a free watch party.

More than 125 residents brought blankets, lawn chairs and umbrellas to watch Game 6 of the NBA Finals on a big screen television measuring 12 feet wide and 7 feet tall. The Internet used for the live feed was provided by the city’s fiber optic system.

The centennial of the Mother Road is coming in 2026. 

Although it was not completely paved until the late 1930s, the stretch of what was originally designated as U.S. Highway No. 66, from Chicago to Los Angeles, would enter Canadian County at County Line Road on the east and into Caddo County on the west side of the county.

The 2,448 miles of the original U.S. Highway 66 included 400 miles that would become Oklahoma State Highway 66, as it is officially named today.

The historic Route 66 highway crosses Canadian County. 

In a beeline, the first highway from Chicago to Los Angeles would change the early development of Yukon and El Reno.

Established Nov. 11, 1926, the highway would bypass Calumet and Geary by 1935 as a shorter section of Portland cement was built between El Reno and Bridgeport.

One of the historians of the Mother Road, Michael Wallis of Tulsa, was one of the first nationally known authors to spur interest in the highway.

Children involved in Project Transformation took a field trip last week to the El Reno Regional Airport. Airport Manager Scott Law took the group on a tour of buildings and offices at the airport. 

The first- through fifth-graders learned El Reno’s history of how the airport was originally built as Mustang Field, as well as its role in World War II and other aspects of aviation history. 

The group saw the hangar where helicopters are repaired and a few of the planes from Tony Caldwell’s collection.

Canadian County sheriff’s investigator Preston Hodge earned the U.S. Attorney Award for Community Impact, signed by Acting U.S. Attorney John E. Childress. Hodge was recently honored by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

Hodge was recognized for his role in a large-scale federal narcotics investigation that began with a routine traffic stop and ultimately led to a million-dollar drug seizure, multiple arrests and federal prosecution.