Kristi Conatzer said the governor has created an unneeded public debate over keeping children safe based on comments she made opposing an initiative petition. Conatzer’s daughter, Emily, was one of the seven children who died at Plaza Towers Elementary School. “There shouldn’t be an argument over this,” she said. “We lost something on May 20 […]
Governor
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Hunger pains
Yet, even with all those credentials and a productive work history, she has a hard time making ends meet. At 75, Graham works part-time at Gold’s Gym Express, but that income plus her Social Security check still isn’t enough to pay rent and put food on the table. It’s her reality, but she doesn’t complain. […]
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OKC Regional Food Bank, governor launch food drive
Oklahoma consistently ranks among the top 10 hungriest states with more than 675,000 residents struggling with hunger every day, Gov. Mary Fallin said during a kickoff press conference Tuesday at OKC’s Regional Food Bank. “Time and again, Oklahomans have proven themselves to be the most caring and giving individuals in the nation. Last year, Oklahomans […]
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Federal grant helps fund disease research
Photo by Mark Hancock Grant funds will create the Oklahoma Shared Clinical and Translational Resources program, which creates partnerships between the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF), Native American tribes and physicians across the state. “This gives us access to people and data immediately,” said Courtney Montgomery, Ph.D, an […]
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Seeking shelters
Their wish is that storm shelters had been in place four months earlier as a powerful EF-5 tornado swept through southwest Oklahoma City and Moore, killing 47 people, including seven students at Plaza Towers Elementary. Among the students who perished were their sons — Nicolas McCabe, 8; Kyle Davis, 8; and Christopher Legg, 9. With […]
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BREAKING: Petition drive seeks storm shelter funding
Take Shelter Oklahoma is a movement that comes four months after a series of tornadoes ripped through southwest Oklahoma City and Moore, killing 47 people, including seven children at Plaza Towers Elementary. Twisters also struck Canadian Valley Vocational Technology Center on May 31 and leveled parts of Pottawatomie County on May 19, killing two people […]
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Resilient repetition
From our elected officials and our local celebrities to those survivors affected directly by the most current crisis, some version of these words gushes out each time: “You can replace things, not lives. We’re going to rebuild. Oklahomans are a resilient people.” The adjective “resilient,” in particular, has become the word du jour following a […]
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Mary, Mary, quite contrary, where are your PR people, anyway?
Credit: Brad Gregg On Aug. 25, Fallin made the comment that it would be “a nice gesture” if President Obama reached out to the family of an Australian college student who was gunned down in Duncan. Christopher Lane, a baseball player at East Central University in Ada, was jogging near his girlfriend’s house when three […]
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Legal challenge threatened over MAPS 3
Oklahoma City attorney David Slane contended that passage of the 2009 MAPS 3 package was unconstitutional based on a state law that restricts voters from approving multiple projects with a single-ballot question. Slane, known for taking often-unpopular stances on controversial issues, claims the ballot language violated the state’s so-called “single subject” law since it provided […]
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Flatlined
Hundreds of Oklahomans in need of free dental care packed the Oklahoma Mission of Mercy in Lawton last month. Photo: Clifton Adcock On a cold February evening at the Comanche County Fairgrounds in Lawton, a steady stream of people entered the building and walked between the cattle gates erected on either side herding them to […]