The Oklahoman

FIRST ON THE SCENE

The call came in to emergency responders shortly before noon on a cloudy Thursday. A man was telling dispatchers that he was having chest pains. Emergency medical workers quickly determined the cause: He’d been using methamphetamine. They dispatched...

‘PART OF A CULTURE CHANGE’

The Oklahoma County jail looks to be on firmer ground under the public trust that governs it, with full funding in the offing for the first time and a new cadet class easing the jail’s chronic staffing shortage. The County Budget Board had to bail the...

farm fallout

When Bill Sawatzky’s heifer started experiencing difficulty during labor and couldn’t deliver her calf on his farm near Custer City, Oklahoma, he quickly loaded her into a trailer and made the 15-mile journey to Highland Veterinary Clinic in...

‘RANK POLITICAL FAVORITISM’

An investigation by the state’s multicounty grand jury found that a close friend of Gov. Kevin Stitt got out of prison after just 73 days of an eightyear sentence after Stitt “made multiple calls” on her behalf to the top official at the Department of...

FUELING FEARS

Nearly 10 weeks after President Donald Trump launched his war against Iran, the price of diesel fuel in Oklahoma has now risen to its highest level since the opening weeks of Russia’s war against Ukraine four years ago. As of May 6, an average gallon...

‘IMPERFECT’ ROUT

LeBron James got his. Because of course he did. “We’ve been saying that for 20 years,” said Alex Caruso, who’s played with and against James. The Thunder threw its Lu Dort/Cason Wallace/Caruso trio of terror at the Lakers’ quadragenarian, and still...

VANCE VISIT

U.S. Vice President JD Vance made a brief stop in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, May 5, for a private fundraiser benefiting the Republican National Committee. Vance and other RNC leaders are ramping up their efforts to raise money ahead of critical midterm...

CHAOS ERUPTS

Edmond’s Scissortail Campground was quiet on Monday, May 4, the morning after about two dozen people were injured in a mass shooting at a party held on Arcadia Lake. At the entrance to the park, an Edmond police officer blocked the halfmile of road...

Exotic dancers fight proposed regulation

Alysha, 20, donned a hot pink, rhinestone-dotted outfit to dance at Deja Vu Showgirls. She has worked at the Valley Brook strip club for two years. For her, it was just another Thursday. h Oklahoma requires dancers like Alysha to be 18 in order to...

Trojan turnaround

As Douglass High School celebrates its 135th anniversary, a school that was initially founded to educate OKC’s Black children has a revitalized purpose to do just that. After years of enrollment decline, Douglass is flourishing again – and the reason...

STILL ON TRACK

Despite losing financial support from Texas, the Heartland Flyer isn’t stopping just yet, Oklahoma officials confirmed this week. The 206-mile route is operated through a partnership between the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Texas...

OK lawmakers pass new abortion limit

Providers of abortion-inducing drugs could soon face felony charges in Oklahoma after the state Senate revived a measure that seeks to tighten up the state’s already strict abortion laws. The measure was a surprise addition to the Senate agenda on...

AIRPLANE MODE

NORMAN – Amanda Scarborough didn’t even finish her sentence. The ESPN analyst was setting the stage for Oklahoma freshman slugger Kendall Wells’ latest chase, building toward history – Arizona’s Laura Espinoza’s single-season record – in real...

‘Thank God that he was there’

PAULS VALLEY – Dollar store employee Melissa Melton sat in her car outside Pauls Valley High School, waiting to drop off her son and pick up her nephew, when she spotted the young man in the hoodie. He stood behind a tree close to the school. It was a...

CHARGES FILED IN PRESS GALA SHOOTING

WASHINGTON – The suspect accused of opening fire outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend is being charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump. Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, is also charged...

Democrats try to halt Trump in Cuba

WASHINGTON – With the clock ticking down on the Trump administration’s ultimatum to Cuba’s government, congressional Democrats are scrambling to stop President Donald Trump from starting another military conflict. Democratic Reps. Jonathan Jackson of...

Places in time

As America celebrates 250 years of independence, the call to reflect on where we’ve come from and where we’re going feels especially powerful in Oklahoma. h The milestone offers a moment to look closer at the places where the country’s spirit is...

‘EVERYTHING WAS GONE’

Raeann and David Hunt had just returned to their home on East Southgate Road in Enid about 8 p.m. Thursday when the evening sky turned ominous. Like many Oklahomans who are severe weather veterans, Hunt said her husband likes to watch the storm pass....

DOSE OF RELIEF

After 89 years of considering marijuana illegal and 56 years as a Schedule I-listed drug, the U.S. government is loosening its restrictions for states that have a medical marijuana program. In a widely anticipated new rule announced April 23, acting...

FINISHING TOUCHES

Signage and plaques displaying information about the civil rights movement that inspired the Clara Luper National Sitin Plaza have been installed at the Oklahoma City site. With these latest additions, the plaza at Robinson Avenue and Main Street is...

‘WHERE WE WANT TO GO’

State officials will begin preparing educators across Oklahoma and hiring reading coaches after Gov. Kevin Stitt signed the Legislature’s major literacy reform bill into law Tuesday, April 21. About a dozen children at John Rex Elementary School in...

TITLE TWISTS

FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Faith Torrez bounded off the floor, her excitement after her championship-clinching floor routine causing footsteps to be replaced by bunnyhops. • The only person who might’ve been jumping for joy more than the OU gymnast? • Sooners...

FAMILIES, SURVIVORS RECALL ’95 BOMBING

The terrorist attack that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City 31 years ago is among the most infamous acts of violence in United States history. To Roy Sells and the other loved ones of the 168 left dead from the...

Taking a stand

Faith leaders are encouraging their congregations to speak on immigration.

PLAYOFF HOOP-LA

Excitement is building as the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder gets set to start the NBA Playoffs on Sunday, April 19. Loud City HQ returned as the official playoff prep hub for Thunder fans. h It is an immersive, pop-up event that brings...

OVER THE MOON

As Laddy Aldridge and his fellow U.S. Navy divers pulled up to the Orion spacecraft that just minutes earlier was screaming through the atmosphere at a red-hot 5,000 degrees, he wasn’t thinking about the marvel of spaceflight or the impact on American...

MIND ON REPEAT

NORMAN – Addison Fatta is a rehab-and-recovery radical. Treatment with the trainer? At least three days a week. Cold tub and massage? Every day after practice. Warm tub? Every chance the OU gymnast gets. “I am always in the warm tub,” Fatta said...

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Photos, adhesive bandages, heirloom jewelry, documents, a child’s handprint pressed in clay, a laptop, blanket and infant bottles. Joni Brandenburg had less than 15 minutes to decide which items to take as she and her family escaped into the night,...

POPE VS. POTUS

A disagreement between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV broke out into the open April 12 when Trump lashed out over the pontiff ’s criticism of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran – and then posted a photo appearing to depict himself as Jesus. The...

NEW START

Matthew Gismondi lived in a tent before developing enough composure to spend his nights at a night shelter and seek out meals and other aid at the Homeless Alliance’s day shelter. It was at the day shelter that Gismondi, 49, learned that he could earn...

WASTE WAR

Megan Langley lives on a quiet farm with her husband, two young daughters and about 28,000 chickens. • They had a fairly simple life until a few months ago, when Oklahoma’s long-running pollution lawsuit against poultry companies came head-to-head with...

RED DIRT REMIX

A year after headlining a historic concert event in their home state, the members of Cross Canadian Ragweed are back in the place where it all started — and where it all started again. “From last April to now ... everything just came full circle with...

FAST LANE

The NBA playoff bracket is shaping up swimmingly for the Oklahoma City Thunder. As if the defending champs needed a break. But the No. 1 seed, which the Thunder clinched Wednesday night, should have the smoothest postseason path. And, with three days...

Suspect wanted his own ‘Columbine’

The former student who walked into Pauls Valley High School with a gun wanted his own school shooting “like the Columbine shooters did,” according to an affidavit filed alongside multiple felony charges. An Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation...

TRUMP SUSPENDS STRIKES ON IRAN

President Donald Trump on April 7 announced the United States will delay hitting Iran with a barrage of strikes for two weeks, after he threatened to destroy Iranian energy and transportation infrastructure and wipe out a “whole civilization” if the...

DISTANCE RECORD

In a breathtaking moment, the four crew members of Artemis II set a distance record for humanity April 6. Minutes before 2 p.m. ET, swooping around the moon’s far side, the astronauts aboard Orion traveled farther from Earth than any people ever have,...

ON THE SAME PAGE?

EDMOND – A local bookstore owner recently took the Edmond City Council to task over a plan to bring a Barns & Noble to town, saying it could force her store, or two others, to close. Lori Dickinson Black took on the council in defense of her Bluebird...

Amid Route 66’s centennial, cowboy museum kicks capital campaign into high gear to appeal to newer audiences.

Against the back wall of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Kerr Gallery, Pat Fitzgerald’s towering figure, fittingly topped with a dark cowboy hat, briefly makes for a striking silhouette, until bright lights shift to illuminate his face,...

2 U.S. fighter jets downed over Iran

Two days after President Donald Trump vowed in an address to hit Iran “extremely hard,” two U.S. fighter jets went down over Iran, according to the White House and media reports. One crew member was rescued from a two-seated F-15E fighter jet that was...

Trump fires Bondi

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi after several investigations of his perceived enemies were thwarted and her handling of files related to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein came under criticism. “Pam Bondi is a...

OKLAHOMA MAKING MILLIONS IN ICE DEALS

Oklahoma law enforcement agencies have received millions of dollars from partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain and deport undocumented immigrants, according to a leaked federal ledger analyzed by The Oklahoman. Under...

‘WE’RE NOT ALONE’

The latest nationwide protest of President Donald Trump and his administration drew thousands of Oklahomans who hoped to send a collective message against what they view as unchecked presidential power. • The demonstrators were especially critical of...

LEADING THE WAY

Since the beginning of the year we’ve introduced you to nearly a dozen members of our community we thought you’d be interested in getting to know. h We told you about Dr. Jihan AbdulHaaq. She’s running a free – completely free – health care clinic for...

STRIKES ON HOLD

The Pentagon is weighing sending an additional 10,000 troops to the Middle East as the war with Iran rages, multiple news outlets reported. It remained unclear when a decision will be made on whether to send the additional combat soldiers, according...

CHANGES IN STORE

Homeland’s senior leadership have announced plans to close four grocery stores, consolidate other locations and market some stores for potential sale in a move aimed at “stabilizing business” for the Oklahoma-based grocer. “We know we had issues,”...

RED-LETTER EVENT

Nebraska basketball fans drained bars and restaurants of their beer supplies, jumped into the Bricktown Canal and made the entertainment district their home turf during the recent NCAA playoffs. By all appearances, a good time was had by all –...

POSITIVE ENERGY?

Tulsa oil and gas executive Alan Armstrong is Oklahoma’s newest U.S. senator, ending weeks of speculation about who would succeed former Sen. Markwayne Mullin. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Tuesday, March 24, that he had picked Armstrong, 63,...

CDL CRACKDOWN

A sweeping federal enforcement campaign that includes heightened regulations on non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses and the targeting of non-compliant CDL training schools is reshaping the industry landscape in Oklahoma and throughout the...

DHS to be massive challenge for Mullin

From running an Oklahoma plumbing company with a few hundred employees to leading a federal agency with more than 260,000 workers, Markwayne Mullin will likely face his toughest challenge yet heading the embattled U.S. Department of Homeland...

'I want the HQ here'

Devon Energy and Chesapeake Energy were for more than a quarter-century among the most powerful corporate names in Oklahoma City. ● The two companies at their peak employed thousands, built the city’s most visible corporate headquarters, and donated...

‘BELOVED’

Two Goldsby volunteer firefighters died early Friday, March 20, while responding to a structure fire in McClain County, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has confirmed. The OHP said they responded to a call at 3:17 a.m., where a Goldsby Fire Department...

MADNESS BEGINS IN OKC

The NCAA Tournament got underway March 19 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City with some history. Nebraska forward Pryce Sandfort, center, celebrates after the Cornhuskers beat Troy in first-round action. It was Nebraska’s first-ever NCAA Tournament...

‘I WON’T FAIL YOU’

Senator nominated to succeed Noem at DHS WASHINGTON − Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-OK, President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, offered a conciliatory approach in his confirmation hearing March 18...

MULLIN’S MILLIONS

STILWELL – In 2017, a company owned by then-U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin paid $99,000 for a half-acre empty lot along the highway that runs through Stilwell, a small city in far eastern Oklahoma near Mullin’s hometown. Mullin’s family later built a...

ENID STUDENT IN ICE CUSTODY

Juan Diego Lopez Macias, a senior at Enid High School, was counting down the days to graduation and making plans with friends for spring break when a routine traffic stop for speeding landed him in ICE custody. Rather than spending his spring break...

HOME SWEET HOMES

A triangular parcel of land near a railroad track in Oklahoma City’s historic JFK neighborhood sat largely overlooked for years. But a local developer saw an awkward constraint as an opportunity to bring more long-term homeowners to the area. It’s a...

MAIN COURSE

Not long ago, they were students in their very first chef coats, whisking sauces in the fluorescent light of a kitchen lab with an instructor checking their techniques. Today, their kitchens look very different. One belongs to a polished fine-dining...

RECORD KEEPERS

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander confessed that he’s bad at keeping track of his memorabilia. That’s why, after breaking a Wilt Chamberlain record Thursday night, March 12, Gilgeous-Alexander slipped out of his jersey and wrapped it neatly with the NBAbranded...

CHASING HISTORY

Did he do it? Find out at www.oklahoman.com/sports/.

TRUMP FACES TESTS

Can President Donald Trump run both a war and a midterm campaign at the same time? He is discovering just how difficult that can be. In week two of the biggest military operation of his presidency − a conflict that already has ensnared the Gulf...

PAIN & GAIN

Oklahomans grimacing at the gas pump as prices hit $3 per gallon may find cold comfort in knowing the geopolitical crisis affecting their fuel budget could deliver a significant boost to the state’s oildependent economy. The conflict with Iran,...

Iran names new leader

Iran’s Assembly of Experts picked Mojtaba Khamenei on March 9 to succeed his late father as supreme leader. The body of 88 clerics was charged with choosing the new leader after Ali Khamenei was killed Feb. 28 in the strikes that ignited the ongoing...

Appeals court upholds riot law

Oklahoma’s top criminal appeals court has ruled that a standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court about “true threats” of violence does not apply to the state’s century-old law on prosecuting riots. The constitutionality of the state riot law has been at...

F-BEMBS. PROFANITY POLITICS.

While political rhetoric has long been harsh and occasionally led to violence, experts warn that social media conveys vitriol faster and wider at a time when weapons are more accessible.

TWISTERS’ TOLL

The threat of severe weather remains active into the weekend across Oklahoma after a rash of tornadoes killed at least two people in storms crossing the region earlier this week. h On Thursday evening, a 47year-old mother and her 13-year-old daughter...

MULLIN GETS DHS NOD

AIR PRESSURE RISES

People look on March 2 as smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran. White House officials and U.S. military leaders show no sign of slowing attacks on Iran, but U.S. ground troops are “not part” of plan in...

‘CHAPTER 2’

MINCO – Taitlyn Voss broke into a wide smile as she hustled across the Minco High School softball field and into the Bulldogs’ dugout. Her eyes beamed. “Play ball!” the junior catcher proclaimed. Play ball, indeed. Monday, March 2, was opening...

OUT IN THE COLD

Families and local immigration attorneys say they have been unable to visit detainees virtually or in-person at the privately owned Diamondback Correctional Facility since it reopened in December to house detainees for Immigration and Customs...

TEHRAN RETALIATES AFTER LEADER KILLED IN STRIKES

Three American service members were killed in action amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, U.S. military officials confirmed March 1, one day after the United States and Israel launched strikes against the country and Tehran quickly hit back. Five...

FINDING S LUTIONS

Chance Stone is the project manager at the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE), heading a high-profile initiative to improve math performance in the state’s public schools. Stone is happy to talk about what the department is doing and what...

BRIGHT FUTURE

For kids dealing with brain injuries, a traumatic spinal cord injury or another life-altering condition, a trip to the International Space Station or a safari journey might seem impossible. But in a year’s time, experiences like those will be possible...

DEFENSE ‘ECOSYSTEM’

MyDefence, a Danish company specializing in NATO-grade drone technology, opened its Oklahoma City research and development operation on Thursday, Feb. 26, and is set to follow up with the addition of its North American headquarters later this...