When 45-year-old Oklahoma City mortgage loan officer Lauren Layman finally laid eyes on the man who raped and murdered her great-grandmother 35 years ago, she felt a little sorry for him. Lester Blackbear was 27 years old when he allegedly broke into 77-year-old Ola Kirk’s apartment one summer night in 1983. He was accused of […]
Government
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OK law
The incumbent Mike Hunter is a serious man. That’s a description that can be expected from someone whose job tasks include handling criminal and civil prosecutions, enforcing the laws of the state, overseeing a $38.4 million budget, managing over 100 employees and proposing legislation that would protect citizens. Hunter will be the first to admit […]
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Long runner
Open Conversations with Chase Cook 7-9 p.m. Friday Gaylord College of Journalism University of Oklahoma 395 W. Lindsey St., Norman foioklahoma.org 405-361-2027 $35-$50 Oklahoma City manager Jim Couch announced his retirement on Sept. 17 and said he’s hoping to go out like Oklahoma State University/Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders. “I’d like to think I’m […]
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Long-serving city manager for OKC to announce retirement
OKCTalk has learned that James D. Couch, city manager for Oklahoma City, plans to issue a press release later today announcing his retirement. Couch was appointed November 9, 2000, making him the longest-serving OKC city manager by a wide margin. Of the previous 35 predecessors, the average tenure is 2.5 years and the longest had […]
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Runoff victories
Governor Tulsa businessman Kevin Stitt won the runoff election against fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett by almost 10 percent last Tuesday. Stitt received 54.6 percent of the vote while Cornett received 45.4 percent, according to the Oklahoma State Election Board. “As your next governor, my promise to you is […]
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Operation politician
This past spring, applied linguistic scientist Daniela Busciglio was offered a tenured teaching position at University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island. She was a non-tenured linguistics professor at University of Oklahoma at the time. A true academic who had spent the past decade immersed in the trenches of research while earning her master’s […]
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Runoff is on
With Election Day just around the corner, candidates have amped up their campaigning efforts while politics buffs add their predictions to the fray. Below is a breakdown of the candidates for seven critical runoff races that will appear on ballots statewide Aug. 28. Bill Shapard, a nonpartisan polling expert and founder of the state’s only […]
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Primary issues
An unprecedented number of Oklahomans are running for office, from the U.S. House of Representatives and governor to state Legislature and local district attorney posts. In total, 794 candidates threw their hats into the ring during candidate filing April 11-13 at the state Capitol. This year’s candidate filing came on the heels of a historic […]
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Sharply focused
On the second floor of Oklahoma City Hall, just inside the mayor’s conference room connected to both the mayor’s office and the council chambers, framed portraits of the city’s past mayors have always hung on the wall. Not so anymore. On his first day as the City of Oklahoma City’s 36th mayor, David Holt left […]
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The threat to DACA is very real for recipients and their families, but also the greater community
The threat to DACA is very real for recipients and their families, but also the greater community.