Charley has been helping kids who struggle with their reading skills gain confidence by providing a willing, uncritical audience. Charley is a 7-year-old AKC Certified therapy dog who, along with her person, Jerry Nickell, visits The Village Library to participate in Children Reading to Dogs, a weekly program at several Metropolitan Library System branches. A […]
Kids
Posted inNews
Enterprise schools work best
All three types of choice schools have excellent records that are virtually indistinguishable. Our application-only school market is oversaturated, however, and we must think anew. OKC’s Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Reach College Preparatory, for instance, does great work, but its potential is maxed out. It still serves about half of the students as the […]
Posted inNews
What’s wrong with Christmas?
Devout and inflexible in their interpretation of scripture, these children of the Mayflower viewed celebration of Christmas as pagan and idolatrous. Throughout its colonial days, much of New England could not “make merry” without incurring the ire of magistrates and a hefty fine. Even after the Colonies gave way to the United States of America, […]
Posted inNews
Full of hope
According to the Violence Policy Center’s (VPC) 2013 report, Oklahoma ranked third in the nation for the number of women killed by men, a startling jump from the previous year’s ranking. In 2012, VPC ranked Oklahoma at No. 17 in the nation. “Nine women each week are [killed] by their husband or intimate partner,” said […]
Posted inNews
Egged on
The perpetrators busted lights, slashed inflatable decorations and destroyed ornaments because bah humbug. Neat told News9 that he has had to contact several groups that visit the decorations every year and he hopes to have everything repaired or replaced before Christmas. However, there is hope that justice will be served, as Neat’s surveillance camera caught […]
Posted inNews
What’s to hide?
Joey Senat, author of Mass Communication in Oklahoma and associate professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University, said divorce filings are as much a public record as lawsuits and criminal charges.“Divorce records are not private and are included in the public court system,” he said. Senat’s comments come on the heels of a legal battle […]
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LETTERS
Keep in mind that this is Oklahoma, smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt, flyover hicksville where we are all inbred and stupid compared to the left coast because we generally don’t accept liberal socialist ideals. So our young folks even here are falling for what has historically failed every time, including this […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Board again
For children of the ’80s or earlier, it likely involved a board game like Wahoo, whose origins date back to the Depression era, when a 15-by-15-inch piece of scrap wood could be transformed into the strategy game played with marbles and dice. While Wahoo (also called Aggravation) went commercial with plastic and paper versions in […]
Posted inMusic
Poolboy — Soda Kids
Guitarist Michael Loveland, bassist Sean Barker and drummer John Calvin are no strangers to the local scene, nor are they, apparently, strangers to good, old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll. The band’s debut EP, Soda Kids, clocks in at less than six minutes, with four capricious and impassioned tracks that mimic a bygone golden era of punk […]
Posted inNews
‘No tolerance’ doesn’t teach
In 1999, the committee was shocked to learn that the OKCPS only had 485 alternative school slots for students with behavioral or attendance problems, health conditions, pregnancy or parenting challenges or who were institutionalized. According to the state’s Needs Assessment, the OKCPS needed another 1,205 slots. We also knew that punitive policies, such as “zero […]