News
Clifton Adcock
The public trust overseeing the MAPS for Kids project approved a contract Aug. 13 to purchase the land for the future MAPS downtown elementary school.

News
Carmel Perez Snyder
The Rock Island-Frisco Railroad heralds were displayed on Oklahoma City’s S. Robinson Street train underpass for nearly 80 years. Chances are most Oklahoma City residents drove by without ever noticing the two symbols of the city’s past.

News
Clifton Adcock
A Newcastle primate sanctuary is preparing to welcome several new monkeys, after getting a big monetary boost from famed television host and animal-rights advocate Bob Barker.

News
Dean Anderson
Wildfires have roared through Oklahoma over the past few weeks, leaving fire departments scrambling to figure out the best way to get in front of them.

News
Sarah Lobban
Earth Day might be well behind us, but Oklahoma’s ECOpass is helping ensure that the state’s future still looks green.

News
Peter Wright
A term-limited state representative will face a longtime employee of the Oklahoma County Court Clerk’s office in an Aug. 28 runoff that could become a referendum on what role politics should play in county government.

News
Greg Horton
When Shane Warren Speegle told an Oklahoma City police officer he made $60,000 last year by panhandling, the story quickly went viral thanks to The Huffington Post. Locally, KOCO Channel 5 broadcast the story, but with no way to verify Speegle’s income, it might be wise to take his claim with a dose of skepticism.

News
Jonathan Nicholson
Quick: Name an Oklahoma politician who is pals with President Barack Obama, voted for the 2008 bank bailout, believes the military can be cut by 10 percent without harm and thinks increased taxes must be on the table for deficit reduction.

News
Phil Bacharach
Tim Sharp was shocked when he heard from his aunt last month that the woman who had killed his father in a drunk-driving accident was up for parole. The inmate, Maelene Chambers, had served only four years of a 10-year manslaughter prison sentence for the 2006 death, and Sharp knew that manslaughter was one of more than 20 state crimes in which offenders were required to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.

News
Gazette staff
After an abrupt jump from the airwaves to an online-only model, the locally loved The Spy is returning to terrestrial radio. Beginning Aug. 20, The Spy will live from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. on KOSU, the NPR station that serves the Oklahoma City metro at 91.7 on the FM dial.

News
Dawn Watson
The Uptown 23rd Shopping District was once the place to be.

News
Brendan Hoover
Jewel Foundation Blues Festival
6 p.m. Saturday
Eastwood Event Center
7204 N.E. 23rd, Midwest City
jeweltheatre.webs.com
$28-$38

News
Clifton Adcock
Amid growing controversy over a planned downtown boulevard, Oklahoma City officials will hire a consultant to examine competing options for dealing with a proposed elevated section of the thoroughfare. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation has set an Aug. 21 public meeting to discuss the boulevard project, while a group opposed to the would-be elevated section on Monday will hold a town hall-style meeting on the matter.

News
Mark Beutler
When thousands of purple martins began their long migration to South America this year, the birds probably had no idea they would find Oklahoma hostile territory. The martins have long been a backyard favorite for their devouring of mosquitoes and other pesky insects, but the birds’ presence in downtown Oklahoma City also has meant loads and loads of guano.

News
Jerry Bohnen
Car horns blared from passing motorists, and the morning sun promised another scorching day as nearly a dozen protesters gathered Wednesday morning outside Frederick A. Douglass Mid-High School at 900 Martin Luther King on the first day of the new school year. The protesters — some of whom had been fired by the Oklahoma City Public Schools district — tried drawing attention to their allegations of grade-tampering by principal Brian Staples.