For many years, I’ve been concerned about this issue. I was privileged to work with 22 other Oklahomans appointed to the OCSS to analyze our current school security climate. The panel consisted of professionals from diverse fields such as local education, homeland security, mental health, local law enforcement, parents and operational planning. When tragedies strike, […]
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Posted inNews
Whole lotta crazy going on
How about this simple analogy: Republicans, with super majorities in the House and Senate, are like children who suddenly find themselves in a free candy store. They’re gorging. “Will it eventually make them sick?” ask hopeful progressives. Democrats call it a whole lot of crazy going on. “Excuse us,” argue Republicans. “Aren’t we simply fulfilling […]
Posted inNews
Artful dodge
State appropriations are vital to the agency, which funds more than 300 organizations and programs throughout Oklahoma. House Bill 1895, by Rep. Josh Cockroft, R-Tecumseh, would have cut funding to the arts council by 25 percent each fiscal year until 2017. Cockroft placed HB 1895 as his ninth priority bill, he said. In the House, […]
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Watching the feds
Speaker T.W. Shannon State legislators in 2011 attended a WallBuilders conference in Texas for “pro-family” lawmakers. According to Rep. Lewis Moore, R-Arcadia, the idea for a States’ Rights Committee emerged from that gathering. Moore, who will chair the panel, said he approached House Speaker T. W. Shannon, R-Lawton, following the conference. “I asked the [then] […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Possession
Now that the former has followed the latter onto Blu-ray and DVD, the difference is startlingly clear: The Possession is by far the superior ghost story. I’d expect nothing less from Evil Dead mastermind Sam Raimi, who produced it under his Ghost House Pictures banner, which has brought some of the better entries in the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chiller: The Complete Television Series
And, as with any media in the omnibus format, some episodes clearly work better than others. The irony is that Chiller begins to find its footing as the hours click by, yet it’s all over and done with after five. The two-disc set contains the entire quintet of the supernatural stories. The first, “Prophecy,” […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Ice House
The corpse is located in the titular locale on the grounds of an opulent estate occupied by three women whom the townspeople refer to as “the butch beauties of Streech Grange.” The home is owned by Phoebe Maybury (Penny Downie, Invictus), whose husband disappeared a decade earlier — a case that remains unsolved. She lives […]
Posted inArts & Culture
House of Dark Shadows / Night of Dark Shadows
Both directed by Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis (Dead of Night), the pair of flicks conveniently has arrived in long-overdue DVD and Blu-ray releases from Warner Home Video. Both also benefit in the production value inherent of theatrical releases, which the live, shot-on-video soap often severely lacked. It took me a while to realize this, […]
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It’s a TV-on-DVD fall frenzy!
The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season Now that the third season has started, I guess we’ll know soon enough, but The Walking Dead must figure out a way to deliver a consistent season. It delivers awesome season openers and closers, but the ones in between can be maddening; they can take several episodes to […]
Posted inMusic
’Van go
The closer we creep to Halloween, the more gypsy-folk band Caravan of Thieves feels in its element. “We’re fascinated with the idea of the world of supernatural. There’s as much dark and twisted out in the world as happy things. We want to encapsulate the whole thing,” said singer Fuzz Sangiovanni. “There’s some gore and […]