Supreme Court affirms Muscogee (Creek) reservation status
Wendy Weitzel, Reporter
July 9, 2020
WASHINGTON -- The ground shifted in Oklahoma shortly after 9 a.m. on Thursday when the Supreme Court ruled the eastern half of the state is still comprised of Native American reservations. Suddenly, jurisdictional lines were rearranged: A member of an Oklahoma tribe can’t be tried in state court for...
Photojournalist documents Tulsans’ reactions to Trump rally
Wendy Weitzel, Reporter
June 23, 2020
TULSA -- C.J. Neal makes the two block walk from the newsroom to the businesses on Greenwood Avenue almost every day. On his way, he likes to read the names of nearly 160 Black-owned businesses, which a century earlier had been looted and burned to the ground by white mobs, from a mural on the red...
Day of reckoning looms for medical marijuana license holders
Wendy Weitzel, Reporter
June 11, 2020
KINGFISHER, Okla. – Chris McAlvain and Matt Blackwood were going by the books on their first crop – especially with their combined savings on the line. They did their research, paid for their license, bought their equipment, and cured their harvest for 40 days, three weeks past the minimum recommendation. The fou...
Wheat farmers may be left out of stimulus payments
Hogan Gore, Gaylord News
April 27, 2020
Tucked inside the $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package signed into law nearly a month ago are funds designed to help farmers, ranchers and the food supply chain to survive the pandemic’s blow. But wheat farmers, one of the largest commodities grown in Oklahoma, could be left out. “Wheat...
Cattlemen scrape by while processors reap the profit
Brooklyn Wayland
April 23, 2020
The Mid America Stockyards in Bristow, Oklahoma, sits nearly empty as cattlemen bear the brunt of a troubling time in the agriculture industry on Thursday, April 23, 2020. Processors and packers seem to be the only ones profiting during COVID-19. Photo: Brooklyn Wayland, Gaylord News Oklahoma...
Final steps taken to replace Obama-era WOTUS rule
KaraLee Langford
April 22, 2020
The Trump Administration took a crucial step to complete a years-long process to replace the 2015 Obama-era Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule that Oklahoma farmers criticized as a disastrous land grab. In its place, the Trump administration developed the Navigable Waters Protection Rule that...
REAL ID progress for Oklahoma slowed by COVID-19 concerns
Jessie Christopher Smith, Gaylord News
April 21, 2020
A long-awaited program that would help Oklahoma passengers board airline flights without issue has been delayed again -- this time because of COVID-19. For many years Oklahoma has been defiant in complying with the REAL ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005 to make state driver’s licenses more secure...
Online classes lead to claims of privacy invasions
KaraLee Langford
April 21, 2020
With Covid-19 abruptly forcing the remainder of the spring college semester to virtual learning through technologies such as Zoom or Skype, some faculty have struggled to make the transition smooth. College students say they didn’t sign up for online classes, which limits a student’s opportunities...
Supreme Court to rule on tribal justice remotely via telephone
Brooklyn Wayland
April 13, 2020
A tribal sovereignty issue that has been wending its way through the courts for two decades may be finally heading toward a final decision before a home-bound U.S. Supreme Court. McGirt v. Oklahoma oral arguments will be held in front of the Supreme Court despite the coronavirus pandemic...
State census response rate a little better than 10 years ago
Hogan Gore, Gaylord News
April 8, 2020
Forty-one percent of households in Oklahoma have completed the nation’s first primarily digital census with one-third of surveys completed online since the count began last week. As good as it may appear, that puts Oklahoma towards the bottom of the state response ranking. Currently the Sooner state i...
The Last Picture Show
April 2, 2020
NINNEKAH -- As the COVID-19 outbreak worsens in the United States, some Oklahoma drive-in theatres were trying to keep their doors open to cure cabin fever. Drive-ins across Oklahoma were open until Gov. Kevin Stitt expaned his “safer-at-home” policy to all 77 Oklahoma counties on Wednesda...
