Istook’s former chief of staff pleads guilty
Former Oklahoma Congressman Ernest Istook’s chief of staff has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with a bribery scandal involving disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. John Albaugh, who worked for Istook from 1993 to 2006, pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with the department’s continuing lobbying scandal…
The Aristocrats!
San Diego City Council candidate John Hartley said he would stay in the race despite his March arrest and no-contest plea, which came after two women said they saw him, parked in front of their house one evening, masturbating into a cup. (He said it had been a long day of campaigning and that, as…
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
2008 You know a comedy is in trouble when it resorts to an animal attack. Whether the beast happens to be a hungry bear, pesky bat or horny moose, it doesn’t matter. In Hollywood, a mischievous animal is the last refuge of comic scoundrels. In “Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins,” the animal in question is a…
Fetishes on Parade
CNN TV personality Richard Quest was arrested in New York City’s Central Park after curfew in April, with drugs in his pocket and a rope around his neck tied to his genitals, according to a New York Post report (which had no explanation of the purpose of the rope). Firefighters responding to a burning house…
National firm grants clean bill to juvenile detention center
The Oklahoma County Juvenile Detention Center said today it has been given a clean bill of health from a national auditing firm. Three members from the American Correctional Association (ACA) have spent most of this week touring the facility, checking records and interviewing juveniles about the center and its operations. The auditors said they found…
Nuns implore governor to sign dog-kennel bill
Carmelite Sisters of the Villa Teresa Catholic School in Moore delivered a letter and a petition to Gov. Brad Henry’s office today urging him to sign a bill banning dog kennels operating within 2,500 feet of a school or daycare center. The school’s principal, Sister Veronica Higgins, said the bill ” Senate Bill 1574 “…
Inexplicable
In April, according to police in Fort Pierce, Fla., Amity Joy Doss, 24, grabbed a young McDonald’s employee by her shirt to emphasize her dissatisfaction with service and demanded to the manager that she be fired. A call was made to police, and Doss wandered outside, climbed a tree, hung upside down by bended knee…
Least Competent Criminals
Poor Ride-Management Plans: Two teenagers were arrested in March and charged with highway shooting sprees near Waynesboro and Charlottesville, Va., that shut down Interstate 64 for six hours. Surveillance video suggested the perps got away in a 1974 AMC Gremlin, and the only one in the area belongs to the 19-year-old. Three men were arrested…
5 Films by Dario Argento
2008 As it should, the blood flows bright red in the Italian giallo movies that comprise Anchor Bay’s box set “5 Films by Dario Argento.” Known for his stylish eye behind the camera —? not to mention the oft-traumatized eyes in front of the camera —? Argento is one of the few directors worthy of…
Museum features a 110-million-year-old crocodile
Although Oklahoma is 100 years old, its history extends long before its inception. And starting Saturday, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in Norman is bringing it all to the present. The first 4.5 billion years of the Sooner State’s life is being permanently transported into the 21st century, while an ancient 40-foot-long…
Songwriter plans Oklahoma City performance
If you’ve attended a wedding in the last 15 years, there’s a good chance the song “All My Life” was part of the ceremony; it’s a “till death do us part” favorite. What you probably didn’t know is singer/songwriter Karla Bonoff penned the tune, which went on to win a 1991 Grammy Award for its…
The politics of race
Sometimes the painful truth about the human condition comes in through the back door, or seeps into the national psyche like water into a basement. We can’t see where it comes from, but the results are obvious. We’d rather not believe it, but the sump pump has to run all night just to keep the…
Coburn: McCain an ‘old fart’
Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn said the Republican presdiential candidate John McCain is “an old fart,” but is singularly qualified to lead the country. The remarks came Wednesday during a town hall Q-and-A session before a Kiwanis Club luncheon at Rose State College in Midwest City. Coburn gave a brief speech outlining issues he said the…
UCO interior design students’ work goes on display
Putting a spin on turning one man’s trash into another’s treasure, University of Central Oklahoma interior design students went one step further, fashioning their own furniture from discarded materials. Creating a collection of benches, tables and chairs, teams of students constructed original furniture pieces from trash as final projects for their custom furniture class. After…
Egyptian mummy relocates from Shawnee to Idabel
In 1921, a monk with an art collection purchased two mummies and other artifacts in New York City and brought it to Shawnee’s St. Gregory’s Abbey before making a permanent home at the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art. One of the antiquities, M-G No. 2, will make a trip to the Indian nation in Idabel, where…
‘Dignity’ of animals
A provision in Switzerland’s constitution recognizes the “dignity” of “animals, plants and other organisms,” and a federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Gene Technology declared in an April report that vegetation has “inherent worth” and that humans cannot exercise “absolute ownership” over it but must treat it morally, measured case-by-case. For example, the committee said a…
Wrestling referee makes historic claim to fame
Aluminum trash cans, a staple gun, duct tape, a diaper, an old guitar and a plunger were packed in a shopping cart alongside the ring inside the Underground Arena. The crowd in the old movie theater in Capitol Hill bristled as Rick “Party Man” Garrett and Travis Ahboah, aka Hardcore Champion Kareem Sadat, prepared for…
Oklahoma grad argues on national stage with cable TV host
University of Oklahoma President David Boren prides himself on his wealth of knowledge when it comes to politics and world history. Unfortunately, one OU alumnus didn’t serve Boren’s school very well on either account. OU grad Kevin James has made quite a name for himself as another of those I-scream-my-points-therefore-I-win conservative radio talk show hosts.…
Oklahoma State benefactor donates $165 million
T. Boone Pickens is already on record for betting his Poke posterior that Oklahoma State would start winning after giving a $165 million gift to the university’s athletic program two years ago. What will Pickens bet now that he’s given a record-breaking $100 million for academics at his alma mater? “It’s my money,” Pickens told…
A little quiz
I have not learned a new thing in this presidential campaign season since the beginning of the year. As a white, Southern male with a college degree (the new swing vote), there are some things guys from my demographic know. So here’s a little quiz for political contenders: True or False: I have a roll…
Oklahoma attorney general settles with hotels regarding ice-storm room charges
A few (un) lucky customers in the Oklahoma City area are going to get refunds or free rooms at La Quinta Inn, according to a recent settlement with Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson. According to a release from Edmondson’s office, the free rooms and/or refunds come as part of a settlement with La Quinta (literally,…
Local H brings a year’s worth of bad relationships to Oklahoma City
Illinois grunge band Local H will play in Oklahoma City Friday. Although it would seem easy to dismiss the duo as such, Local H is far more than a one-hit wonder. Sure, the group may be best known for its alternative-rock hit of the late Nineties, “Bound for the Floor,” a song which elevated the…
Get a Clue: The Treasure of Blackbird Rock – Julian Press
Grosset & Dunlap One good way to keep kids engaged this summer: Give them a copy of Julian Press’ “Get a Clue: The Treasure of Blackbird Rock,” the first in a new “picture mystery” series. Although the book offers four interrelated, text-based mysteries for readers to solve along with the kid-detective protagonists, each right-hand page…
Tabasco: An Illustrated History: The Story of the McIlhenny Family of Avery Island, Louisiana – Shane K. Bernard
University Press of Mississippi Once upon a time, I thought my father was crazy for mixing Tabasco pepper sauce into ketchup. Now, my cast-iron stomach and I can’t have ketchup otherwise. Still, I’ll admit I didn’t know the first thing about Tabasco except that Dan Aykroyd puts it on “everything humans can consume,” according to…
Saturday Night Live: The Complete Third Season
2008 Three down, 30 to go! NBC’s venerable sketch-comedy series “Saturday Night Live” was in full force in its 1977-78 season, creating revolutionary material just fine without Chevy Chase, thank you very much. Much help came from the manic antics of Bill Murray, particularly as nerd Todd DiLamuca, and favored guest host Steve Martin,…
It’s Good to Be a British Prisoner (continued)
A high-ranking official in Britain’s prison guards union said in a radio interview in April that the jails are so understaffed and poorly managed that in one (Everthorpe Prison, East Yorkshire), drug dealers actually put up ladders at night and come over the walls in order to sell drugs, and inmates routinely comment that drugs…
Oklahoma City church hosts stroke-awareness event
According to the American Heart Association, medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and sickle-cell anemia are more likely to afflict blacks than any other race. What’s worse is that these conditions often lead to an even bigger and often fatal problem: strokes. In fact, blacks are twice as likely to die from a stroke than…
Why doesn’t the Oklahoma Ethics Commission have enough bite?
Two days before Oklahoma City officially learned it was getting a professional basketball team, a full-court press was taking place at the state Capitol. The owners of the Seattle SuperSonics were demanding millions of dollars in tax rebates to help move the team here. An all-star group of lobbyists was quickly hired and dispatched throughout…
New home provides new challenges for OSP choreographers
As Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park moves to its new home, the choreographers face new challenges. Broken fingers, scratched eyelids, a broadsword to the head ” such is life in the realm of stage fighting. Creating the illusion of violence requires carefully choreographed routines in which actors portray vicious brawls and deadly duels without actually…
Bus book series makes Oklahoma City tour stop
Junie B. Jones is traveling all over the United States in her hot pink Stupid Smelly Bus, and at 11 a.m. Monday, the world’s favorite first-grader will visit Oklahoma City. Enticing young readers to open a good book since 1992, Barbara Park’s “Junie B. Jones” book series is coming to life on the Stupid Smelly…
Norman exhibition features work of three artistic friends
Three artists currently exhibiting works at Norman’s Mainsite Contemporary Art gallery are revealing their individual histories through prints, paintings, bronze and wax. David Phelps organized the exhibition, which includes his work and pieces by Michael Almaguer and Jose Rodriguez “? both friends of his who have inspired his own work, he said. Phelps grew up…
Can’t Possibly Be True
After officials in Batu, a tourist town in East Java in Indonesia, asked its massage parlors to make clear to customers that they are not houses of prostitution, one parlor owner created uniform pants for his women with a padlockable zipper, and “locks in” each masseuse in front of the client at the beginning of…
Two Republican reps will not run again
Two Republicans announced today they will not seek re-election to the state Legislature. Rep. Ron Peterson of Tulsa and Rep. Susan Winchester of Chickasha are saying goodbye to their House of Representative seats. Both lawmakers still had a few remaining years to serve before term limits kicked in. PETERSONPeterson was first elected to the Oklahoma…
Clergy tax exemption garners increasing scrutiny
Nonprofit charities control $2 trillion in assets in the United States. These charities fall under the Internal Revenue Service’s tax code category 501(c)(3), a provision that allows charities and other nonprofits, both religious and secular, to be exempt from federal income taxes. Many of these charities are churches, and the smaller they are, the more…
Musical sensation ‘Spamalot’ plays out at Civic Center
The Broadway musical, ‘Spamalot,’ will come to the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall. Christopher Gurr “? who appears as Sir Bedevere, Mrs. Galahad and Concorde “? traces his love of Monty Python’s version of the King Arthur and Camelot to his performance. While adults may have thought the young Gurr’s fascination with the British…
Remington Park officials are wary of additional casino
After struggling when casinos presented competition, Remington Park found new financial footing with its own casino in 2005. However, officials are leery of planned casino opening in the Adventure District. State Question 712 in 2004 authorized Remington to add a casino in a bid to save the track. The casino opened, with immediate impact. Remington…
Jack Mildren etched out memorable legacy in his lifetime
Like a lot of little boys growing up in Oklahoma during the late Sixties and early Seventies, my fall Saturdays revolved solely around Sooner football and the exploits of such players as Steve Owens, Greg Pruitt, Ray Hamilton and Jack Mildren. Those days were spent listening to the weekly radio broadcasts or watching the occasional…
Tor #1
DC Comics Legendary artist Joe Kubert revives his legendary caveman character in “Tor,” the first installment in a six-issue miniseries. One can tell it’s special because of the glossy pages on which it’s printed. But one need not touch it to know it’s special, because of Kubert’s name. Although now 81 years old, the…
American Indian museum secures $25 million more
Progress on an American Indian museum in Oklahoma City has gained momentum with an additional $25 million in funding, part of a much larger state bond package agreement reached late last week. The funding ensures continuation of construction on the American Indian Cultural Center & Museum, east of Interstate 35 along the Oklahoma River.…
John Marshall principal withdraws resignation
New John Marshall High School Principal Corey Harris has decided to remain in the post next fall, an Oklahoma City Public Schools spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. Harris had announced earlier in May that he would leave the district June 20 to finish his doctorate. The state native was part of a leadership team implemented at the…
