Ben Fenwick

Governor Brad Henry announced today he has appointed Oklahoma County Commissioner Jim Roth to the state Corporation Commission.   With the appointment, Roth becomes the state’s highest ranking openly gay official.   “Every opponent I ever faced in an election made that their issue,” Roth said. “And I’ve made my work the issue. I’ve always […]

The descendants of Oklahoma Cherokee slaves filed an injunction in federal court in Washington, D.C., Tuesday asking a judge to throw out the tribe’s recent decision to remove their citizenship and voting rights in the Indian nation.   Filed by Freedmen Association President Marilynn Vann and her attorney, Jon Velie of Norman, the injunction asks […]

Police last week arrested a woman accused of being involved in gymnasium theft cases around the country ” including two here in Oklahoma City, first reported in Oklahoma Gazette last fall.   According to the “America’s Most Wanted,” police arrested Lizette A. Garvin, listed as one of the aliases of a woman charged in Oklahoma […]

E.W. Marland’s mansion in Ponca City is an astonishing display of wealth and extravagance. It was here that Marland sunk much of his fortune building a home that estate officials say would now be worth close to $100 million.   It also was here he first lived with his wife, Lydie, who had once been […]

The Oklahoma State Senate passed Senate Bill 507 by a vote of 23-25. The 119-page would-be lawsuit “reform” legislation would place restrictions on average citizens filing lawsuits and require caps on non-economic (including punitive) damages. The measure will go to Governor Brad Henry for signing or veto. The vote went strictly down party lines, with […]

Writer Ben Fenwick’s selected questions and answers from the print edition’s follow-up article on OKC’s swingers.   “Derek” “James” “LeeAnn”   “Derek”What activities do you undertake that you identify as being in “the lifestyle”? My wife and I attend gatherings of swingers, private parties “¦  for swingers at which people meet and make connections that […]

Governor Brad Henry today vetoed a measure that would have restricted abortions in Oklahoma, citing that the measure did not provide exceptions for instances of rape and incest, stating it would have placed severe restrictions on the doctor-patient relationship.   “First and foremost, the measure is flawed in that it does not include exemptions for […]

Participants in the swingers scene don’t call themselves “swingers.” They just call it “the lifestyle,” according to LeeAnn (not her real name), a local woman who pursues this alternative sexual lifestyle. LeeAnn said the club she and her partner frequent on Saturday nights is a dance hall with about 30 to 60 members. “There’s not […]

Cherokee Principal Chief Chad Smith calls “desperate” an attempt by the descendants of former tribal slaves to link their ouster to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.   However, an attorney for the freedmen descendants points to contact between Smith and former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles as proof that Abramoff’s machine was at work behind […]

Former Vice President Al Gore denied he’s running for president again, at a March appearance at the University of Oklahoma.   Former Senate colleague David Boren, now OU president, said, “Well, I am going to get shot if I don’t ask this one question,” Boren said. “But “¦ do you think you might ever enter […]