Apr 24 Tornado barrels through Oklahoma, damaging 40 homes and shutting down roads By Sean Murphy, Associated Press Communities began cleaning up Friday after a powerful tornado in Oklahoma damaged at least 40 homes, ripping roofs off of some and reducing others to rubble in a rural community as emergency crews rescued trapped residents, authorities said. Continue reading
Mar 24 Energy executive Alan Armstrong picked to fill Mullin's Senate seat through end of year By Sean Murphy, Associated Press The choice by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who had pledged to pick a “conservative voice” to fill Markwayne Mullin's seat, elevates to the Senate the chairman and former CEO of Williams Companies, a major pipeline operator based in Tulsa. Continue reading
Mar 06 Trump's pick for DHS secretary leaves U.S. Senate vacancy in deep-red Oklahoma By Sean Murphy, Associated Press Stitt said in a statement Thursday that he will look to appoint "a strong, small government conservative voice to support President Trump."… Continue reading
Feb 12 Trump attacked this GOP governor while claiming Democrats were always included in annual meeting By Steven Sloan, Joey Cappelletti, Associated Press In a social media post, Trump blasted Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who chairs the NGA, as a “RINO,” meaning Republican in Name Only. Trump said Stitt “incorrectly stated my position on the very exclusive Governors Annual Dinner and… Continue reading
Nov 24 Viola Ford Fletcher, one of the last survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, dies at age 111 By Jamie Stengle, Associated Press Fletcher spent her later years seeking justice for the deadly attack by a white mob on the thriving Black community where she lived as a child. Continue reading
Nov 13 Oklahoma governor spares the life of death row inmate just before scheduled lethal injection By Sean Murphy, Associated Press Stitt granted clemency on Thursday to 46-year-old Tremane Wood, who was sentenced to die for the stabbing death of a man during a botched robbery on New Year's Day 2002. Continue reading
Nov 13 Dozens hospitalized, hundreds evacuated after an ammonia gas leak in Oklahoma By Cliff Brunt, Kathy McCormack, Sarah Brumfield, Associated Press A leaking tanker truck spewed dangerous ammonia gas outside a hotel overnight, filling its hallways with fumes and forcing hundreds of nearby residents of a small Oklahoma city to evacuate, authorities said Thursday. Continue reading
Sep 25 Ryan Walters resigns as Oklahoma's top public schools official to lead conservative educators' group By Associated Press Walters has been involved in several controversial initiatives, including promoting religion in classrooms and requiring teachers to pass ideology exams. Continue reading
Aug 19 Oklahoma to require ideology test for teachers from New York and California By Heather Hollingsworth, Jamie Stengle, Associated Press Oklahoma will require applicants for teaching jobs from California and New York to pass an exam that the state’s top education official says is designed to safeguard against “radical leftist ideology.”… Continue reading
May 22 Supreme Court 4-4 vote ends Oklahoma's taxpayer-funded Catholic charter school By Mark Sherman, Associated Press The outcome keeps in place an Oklahoma court decision that invalidated a vote by a state charter school board to approve the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would have been the nation’s first religious charter school. But… Continue reading