News;Emily Jerman

Desiring more family time, Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Betty Price will retire Oct. 1. But the move hardly will mark the end of a lifetime involvement in the arts. “Life is serendipity ” a door opens ” and it really was,” she said. The Northeastern State University graduate and Norman and Mid-Del educator plunged […]

A University of Central Oklahoma art instructor has claimed some of his works on display in the state Capitol this summer were censored. Photographer Narciso Argüelles said two of his pieces (above and below) for the “Human Landscapes” exhibit, showing in the North Gallery through Sept. 2, were taken down because they were deemed too political. […]

By 1632, Italian mathematician, physicist, astronomer and “father of science” Galileo Galilei wrote “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.” Today, the scientist’s own copy, with his gracefully slanted notes in the margins, rests halfway around the world, in the University of Oklahoma’s History of Science Collections in Bizzell Memorial Library, in Norman. Visitors viewing […]

For Billy Semler, a self-described quiet man who spent 26 years as a respiratory therapist, the “hellishness” began four years ago. The one-time junior college football player and aerospace worker was in his 50s. “I had a business that was struggling,” he said. “I had a second wife and she had a little girl, and, […]

For 100 years, a mock wedding ceremony between Mr. Oklahoma Territory and Miss Indian Territory has been re-enacted. The ceremony is symbolic of Oklahoma entering the union as the 46th state on Nov. 16, 1907. In conjunction with an official centennial project, the latest re-enactment unfolds 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the historic Foreman Prairie House […]

A long-envisioned effort to honor civil rights pioneer Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher with a portrait in the state Capitol rotunda finally came to fruition Tuesday.   Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Betty Price; Bruce Fisher, son of the late Sipuel Fisher; and artist Mitsuno Reedy unveiled the oil piece during an 11 a.m. program in […]

Norman’s Lake Thunderbird BoatHouse quietly passed its fifth year last month. With the help of many partners, the nonprofit provides programs ranging from an annual fishing derby for disabled children to first-aid certification and a regatta for kids. But, perhaps most visibly, programming has taken the form of sailing classes, including those for children. “(We) […]

While an Oklahoma City councilman says adding two wards could improve municipal representation, members of the council have differing opinions on what its repercussions might be.   Though no such proposal is on the table, a black councilwoman fears ward fragmentation could dilute minority participation in city government.   TWO MORE WARDS After recent city […]

If winter’s blah days have you feeling down, it might be a milder form of seasonal affective disorder, a still-not-quite-understood depression that affects 25 million Americans, primarily women.   Unlike depression that can crop up with stress, loss or other life events, SAD apparently is tied to repeated sensitivity to seasonal changes between fall and […]