Scott Cooper

State Speaker of the House Lance Cargill staved off a challenge and was nominated to repeat as speaker at his party’s retreat Tuesday morning. Meeting at the Noble Foundation in Ardmore, the Republican Caucus of the state House voted between Cargill and Rep. John Wright of Broken Arrow for the speakership beginning in 2009. A […]

Another top official with Oklahoma City-based Rocketplane has left the company.   Rocketplane president Randy Brinkley resigned and has been replaced by a member of the company’s board of directors, according to a report by Space News, which wrote that Brinkley sent NASA a seven-page letter blaming the space agency for Rocketplane’s financial troubles.   […]

The idea of building of facility for sex offenders in need of long-term care was presented to a legislative committee Tuesday afternoon. Lawmakers seek to address what continues to be a problem in Oklahoma: sex offenders being placed in nursing home and long-term care facilities.   Nursing home watchdog Wes Bledsoe (pictured) presented his latest findings […]

For the past few years, the leading advocates for changes in the criminal justice system have been doctors and health care organizations, claiming that numerous frivolous lawsuits are:” driving up costs,” putting them out of business or ” making them move to Texas. The organization leading the charge is Physicians Liability Insurance Co. Owned by […]

The Children and Juvenile Law Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Kris Steele, R-Shawnee, and Sen. Harry Coates, R-Seminole, will meet on Friday to discuss new adoption procedure rules, which could have a huge impact on who can perform adoption services. “It boils down to regulated versus unregulated adoptions,” said Dierdre L. McCool, executive director of […]

The Oklahoma County Republican Party, under investigation for questionable 2004 campaign contributions, was billed thousands of dollars for candidates in districts well outside of Oklahoma County during that election cycle. In documents obtained by Oklahoma Gazette, various political and survey consulting firms conducted work for nine Republican state House candidates in the fall of 2004, […]

Rocketplane, the aerospace company that claimed it would bring jobs and millions of dollars to Oklahoma, is facing more challenges. The past few weeks have brought a string of bad news for Rocketplane, beginning with Rocketplane Kistler, an orbital subsidiary of the Oklahoma City-based company, was informed its multimillion-dollar contract with NASA is in jeopardy […]

With all precincts reporting, Oklahoma City voters elected Councilwoman Willa Johnson as county commissioner. Johnson outdistanced former state legislator Forrest Claunch for the vacated District 1 Oklahoma Board of County Commissioners post. Johnson received 5,967 votes, 54 percent, to Claunch’s 5,083 votes, 46 percent. The longtime city council member maintains a Democrat party hold on […]