Factchecking Oklahoma: Is state ed funding up $2 billion?
To say that taxes are unpopular among Oklahoma conservatives is an understatement. If the past decade is any indication, Republicans here are willing to hold the line on this issue, even when it comes to educating the state’s children. Earlier this month, former Gov. Frank Keating and Larry Parman, former secretary of the commerce and…
SUMMER GUIDE Panoramic parks
While Oklahoma City awaits the grand opening of downtown’s 70-acre Scissortail Park, which is slated for late September, other parks around the state are ready for summer business. These parks feature beautiful scenery and a variety of activities for the whole family — a perfect combination for your Instagram page. Gathering Place 2650 S. John…
Youth crisis
Sisu Youth Services has seen the number of drop-in clients nearly double since the closure of another nonprofit organization. Sisu has offered resources for individuals since 2010 and last year started offering overnight shelter every night. “It’s with a heavy heart that Be the Change announces the closing of our youth shelter. We have encountered…
SUMMER GUIDE Summertime strains
There is only a short window — as little as a few weeks — between the days of moderate temperatures interspersed with violent severe weather and the scorching heat of the seemingly endless Oklahoma summers. In that brief period, Oklahomans would be advised to pack in as many outdoor activities as they can before surrendering…
Candied cannabis
Tucked inside a nondescript, labyrinthine building on the northwest side of Oklahoma City, bakers and confectioners are hard at work inside a commercial kitchen. It is Nature’s Key, a prominent edibles manufacturer and wholesaler that supplies roughly 300 dispensaries across the state. At its heart is Lynn Key, who retired from her previous job to…
SUMMER GUIDE Go tacos
Despite their mobility, taco trucks generally have set locations unless they are heading out for catering or private events. They are the best way to get a tasty meal that is not filled with the processed items found at the drive-thru. Oklahoma Gazette has compiled a list of trusty neighborhood trucks that are open rain…
SUMMER GUIDE Hello, Oklahoma!
Not long ago, a roundup of notable concerts hitting Oklahoma in a given summer would have been depressingly Tulsa-heavy. Our neighbor to the northeast is well-represented on the list below, but at the risk of jinxing an encouraging trend, fans of music in many genres can get their concert fix without ever leaving the OKC…
Hard Work
Further solidifying Oklahoma’s reputation as a germination pool for thoughtful, high-consciousness hip-hop, Changing Frequencies’ (CF) debut album FREQ Work is a full-length mission statement — not only for the Tulsa rapper, but for her society’s future. In no way does FREQ Work demand to be graded on a local-statewide curve; CF is ready to take…
Road MAPS
Oklahoma City Council will soon start hearing presentations and discussing MAPS 4 project ideas, which Oklahomans have been submitting since October. Mayor David Holt expects to lay out a schedule of public discussions happening throughout the summer by the end of May. While some ideas are buildings and facilities, some are more abstract and deal…
Founders view
In a space that is one of the most unique and historic in Oklahoma City, the owners of 3Sixty Restaurant & Bar, 5900 Mosteller Drive, want to balance the pull of nostalgia by tapping into market trends of the present. Owners John Curtis, Johnny Yi and Sean Crowe opened the restaurant atop Founders Tower in…
Flower Review: Black Jack
Strain name: Black Jack Grown by: Craft Cannabis Company Acquired from: Craft Cannabis Company Date acquired: May 14 THC/CBD percentages: Not available (flower was not tested) Physical traits: Mid-tone green with dull orange stigmas throughout. Moderate trichomes. Buds are compact and dry, but they leave a sticky residue on fingers when pulled apart. Bouquet: Fruity…
Chicken-Fried News: Teacher strikes
While everybody was abusing the new “gender swap” filters, a Del City High School teacher was captured on Snapchat taking down a student. The video shows a student wearing a mask opening a classroom door and spraying the unsuspecting teacher with Silly String as part of what is a very uncreative, untimely and insensitive prank.…
Gazedibles: Beat the heat
We’re only days away from the temperatures getting to unbearable levels. In this issue dedicated to all things summer, these are seven places that will help you beat the heat. By Jacob Threadgill with photos Gazette / file and provided Poké Loco 14600 N. Pennsylvania Ave. gopokeloco.com | 405-607-0035 Enjoying a nice poke bowl or…
Musical threats
Disaster! June 7-29 Pollard Theatre 120 W. Harrison Ave., Guthrie thepollard.org 405-282-2800 $15-$30 Guthrie’s Pollard Theatre Company is following its production of Beehive: The ’60s Musical by leaping ahead a decade to ensure the 2018-2019 season ends in Disaster! While both productions are called “jukebox musicals” because their scores consist of popular songs, Disaster!, written…
Presidential rebound
University of Oklahoma Board of Regents named an interim president less than a week after James Gallogly announced his retirement. The decision came around 2 a.m. May 17 after an executive session that lasted nearly six hours. Joseph Harroz Jr., current dean of OU College of Law and director of its law center, will be…
Salvadoran specialty
El Majahual 3301 SW 29th St. 405-602-2661 What works: Pupusasas and horchata are some of the best in the city.. What needs work: The carne asada is tasty but tough. Tip:Weekend soup sells out by 12:30 p.m. SW 29th Street has Oklahoma City’s highest concentration of taquerias, both of the brick-and-mortar and taco truck variety,…
Chicken-Fried News: Snake eyes
Doorbell cameras are an important line of home security, allowing people to see who is at the door even when they are not at home. When doorbell camera footage makes the news, it is often for something weird like that guy in California who licked a doorbell for a few hours and then walked away.…
Big picture
Visual artist Denise Duong compared painting a mural on the side of a parking garage to cliff diving. Before adorning two walls of the roughly 40-feet-tall West Village Parking Garage, 927 W. Sheridan Ave., with her vivid murals titled “Life in the Light,” Duong had never worked on a project of that scale, but she…
SUMMER GUIDE Destination meals
The summer doesn’t just mean planning trips to visit the great outdoors or family members; there are plenty of meals in small-town Oklahoma worth their own trip or to make a detour when headed out of state. North of Oklahoma City Ree Drummond of Pioneer Woman fame has helped transform the small town of Pawhuska…
Fan service
Rocklahoma Friday-Sunday 1421 W. 450 Road, Pryor rocklahoma.com $99.50-$199 Contrary to what you might have seen online in recent months, Ace Frehley said he does not believe his former bandmates Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have ever tried to kill him. In January, Simmons told an interviewer that Frehley and Peter Criss could never return…
Closing time
One of the first dispensaries to sell cannabis in Oklahoma City has closed its doors. Cannabis Aid, 1612 NE 23rd St., weighed its last flower sale May 9. The dispensary previously sold CBD products but was one of the first shops in the city to sell raw cannabis flower on Oct. 26, the first day…
Chicken-Fried News: Hold the phone
Countless hands have been wrung raw over the negative influence the ever-present cellphone has on modern life, but Oklahoma Department of Corrections is worrying about them more than the Momo challenge. Earlier this month, The Oklahoman reported that the department has confiscated nearly 1,800 contraband phones from inmates since the beginning of the year and…
