Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 66
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Members of an Oklahoma Senate panel on Wednesday criticized the costs of bringing the state's drivers licenses into compliance with a federal anti-terrorism law before deciding to send the proposal to the floor for a final vote. Following more than one hour of discussion and debate, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 34-9 for the House-passed measure and sent it to the full Senate for consideration. If approved by the Senate, the bill will be sent to Gov. Mary Fallin, who is expected to sign it into law. Fallin h...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The mayor of Oklahoma's largest city says he will not seek re-election in 2018. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett announced Wednesday that he will not run for re-election after serving about 14 years in office. He did not say what his future plans are. Cornett had served three years on the City Council when was elected mayor in 2004 in a special election to fill the unexpired term of Mayor Kirk Humphries. Cornett had previously spent about 20 years as an Oklahoma City television sports and news anchor. In addition to b...
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Not far from a gleaming $183 million arena and other signs of a midsize city striving to become something more, smooth pavement gives way to potholes, rusted fences and shuttered storefronts. They're the remnants of what was once known as Tulsa's Black Wall Street, before one of the worst race riots in U.S. history. Businesses that are still open in this north-side section that some locals are adamant about reviving — the off-brand gas-and-go stores, the thrift shops and salvage yards — are often separated from the next...
HENRYETTA, Okla. (AP) — Kick off the Sunday shoes: Dancing in public is now legal throughout Henryetta. City leaders voted Tuesday to abolish an ordinance on dancing, the Tulsa World (http://bit.ly/2lprhhr ) reported. The dance ordinance, with a penalty of $25, prohibited dance halls within 500 feet of a church or public school. In February, resident Joni Insabella decided to host a dance above her store, which is within 500 feet of a church. The city's Chamber of Commerce posted about the event and called Insabella a rule breaker on F...
LAWTON, Okla. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration is awarding an $850,000 grant to Cameron University in Lawton to build fully integrated science laboratories and associated facilities on the CU-Duncan campus. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regional Affairs Tom Guevara said Wednesday that the grant will help improve career opportunities for students in the region and provide the health care industry in southwestern Oklahoma with skilled health workers in addition to creating more than 370 new jobs. T...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House on Wednesday advanced a bill expanding Medicaid to more low-income, non-elderly adults, a proposal that was denied votes and floor debates for four years. The measure passed a first-round House vote 83-40 and will see final action Thursday. The bill would expand the state's Medicaid program, KanCare, to between 100,000 and 200,000 people ages 19 to 64 who earn up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, about $16,000 for a single person. Under current law, the federal government will pay 94 percent of t...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators pushing to roll back Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's signature income tax cuts scrambled Wednesday to find a new plan to fix the state's dire budget problems after he vetoed their bill. The bill vetoed Wednesday morning would have raised more than $1 billion over two years by raising income tax rates and ending an exemption for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners. Brownback called the measure "punitive," but bipartisan majorities saw it as crucial to closing projected budget shortfalls t...
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Two southwest Kansas men were punished Wednesday for their roles in a hate crime attack on three Somali that a federal judge said flies in the face of everything cherished in this country. U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten sentenced Omar Cantero Martinez, 32, a Mexican citizen, to 26 months in prison. His brother, Armando Sotelo, 24, of Dodge City, got a time-served sentence for the 20 months he had already been in jail in the case. The men were tried last year for three hate crimes charges but the trial ended in a h...
LA CYGNE, Kan. (AP) — Two Kansas school administrators have been charged with failing to report suspected child abuse involving a former teacher who is accused of having sex with at least one student. Prairie View High School principal Tim Weis and former Prairie View School District superintendent Chris Kleidotsy were charged Tuesday in Linn County. They are accused of not reporting potential sex crimes involving Keaten Krell, a former English teacher and head girls' basketball coach at Prairie View High School in the eastern Kansas town of L...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House has given final approval to a bill restoring guaranteed teacher tenure. The bill now goes to the Senate. The body passed the bill Wednesday with a 72 to 53 vote. It originally dealt with arbitration but was amended Tuesday to include the tenure measure so that a separate tenure bill wouldn't die in committee. The Education Committee Chairman had refused to hold a vote on the tenure bill, and an upcoming deadline for bills to pass their chamber of origin could have killed it. Supporters argued that the b...
HALSTEAD, Kan. (AP) — A former southern Kansas police chief has entered a no contest plea to two misdemeanors involving the theft of ammunition from the town of Halstead. The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/2luTdP8 ) reports that a 60-day jail sentence was suspended after Steven Lewis agreed to pay $1,255 in restitution to the city, $230 in court costs and to surrender his law enforcement certification. In exchange for the plea, the Harvey County prosecutor dismissed a felony charge alleging Lewis misused public funds. The charges against Lewis a...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The National Rifle Association said Wednesday it no longer supports a bill allowing concealed handguns on Arkansas college campuses after it was limited to people 25 and over who have gone through active shooter training. The NRA urged legislators to remove the changes to the bill that were made through a deal between Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson and lawmakers. The group supported an initial version of the measure approved by the House that would have required colleges and universities to allow faculty and staff with...
JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas State University has suspended all fraternity and sorority social events until April 1 after a student was accused of raping a woman at a fraternity party. The letter was sent out Tuesday by the university's Greek Life officials. The suspension includes "all registered social events, drop-ins, formals, semi-formals, date nights" or any other social events. The university says it will host mandatory "risk-reduction" training sessions in March for fraternity and sorority members. Last week, an ASU student was a...
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — A Navajo energy company is in talks with the Arizona Public Service Co. to acquire a stake in the Four Corners Power Plant near Farmington. The Daily Times reports (http://bit.ly/2lG2xSE ) that Navajo Transitional Energy Co. is negotiating with the Arizona utility company to acquire a 7 percent interest in the power plant. NTEC is an enterprise owned by the Navajo tribe. It owns the Navajo Mine, which is the sole supplier of coal to the power plant. APS acquired the 7 percent stake through an affiliate, 4C Acquisition L...
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri got one step closer Wednesday to establishing a prescription drug monitoring program after a heavily-debated measure that would track when prescriptions for controlled substances are written and filed advanced in the Senate. On a 20-13 vote, Senators gave initial approval for a program designed to prevent so-called doctor shoppers from going to multiple doctors to get multiple prescriptions filled. Missouri is currently the only state without a prescription drug monitoring program. The bill was sponsored b...
EULESS, Texas (AP) — A 17-year-old transgender wrestler who qualified for the girls state tournament while transitioning from female to male has become a high-profile test of a year-old Texas policy now being criticized by the attorney who tried to keep the athlete from competing. Mack Beggs, a junior at Euless Trinity High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, won a regional championship after two opposing wrestlers forfeited, apparently over concerns that Beggs has an unfair advantage because of testosterone treatments that are part of the t...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas' Medical Marijuana Commission has approved a final set of rules on how businesses can cultivate and sell the drug. The rules approved Tuesday will now go up for public comment, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/2kMoXCq ) reported. Lawmakers must adopt them no later than May 8. Commissioners are expected to hold a hearing March 31. Dr. Ronda Henry-Tillman, the commission's chairman, said questions remain about who would educate patients and ensure safety. "People who want it are thinking about the r...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Amazon is resisting an effort by Arkansas prosecutors to obtain potential recordings from a slaying suspect's Amazon Echo smart speaker, saying authorities haven't established that their investigation is more important than a customer's privacy rights. The issue comes in the investigation into the death of Victor Collins, who was found floating face-up in a hot tub in a friend's Bentonville home in November 2015. The friend, James Andrew Bates, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Benton County prosecutors a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Transgender students on Wednesday lost federal protections that allowed them to use school bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identities, as the Trump administration stepped into a long-simmering national debate. The administration came down on the side of states' rights, lifting Obama-era federal guidelines that had been characterized by Republicans as an example of overreach. Without the Obama directive, it will be up to states and school districts to interpret federal anti-discrimination law and determine w...
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors in southwest Florida have filed charges against an officer who accidentally shot a woman to death during a citizens academy "shoot/don't shoot" exercise, as well as the officer's boss. State Attorney Stephen Russell announced Wednesday that Punta Gorda Police Officer Lee Coel has been charged with felony manslaughter and faces up to 30 years in prison. Police Chief Tom Lewis has been charged with misdemeanor culpable negligence and faces up to 60 days in jail. Authorities say 73-year-old Mary Knowlton was t...
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Most students say they feel safe on West Virginia University's main campus, but 1 in 3 women surveyed reported being sexually assaulted, and ten percent of the female students responding said they'd been raped. Unfortunately, these numbers are roughly standard for college campuses across the United States, and are most likely under reported, a leading researcher says. The "climate survey" was sent electronically last spring to 30,470 students on the university's main campus in Morgantown. Of the 5,718 who responded, 5...
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge will let some farmers seek punitive damages against the Syngenta seed company for selling genetically modified corn seeds before China approved imports of crops grown from them. In an order unsealed Tuesday, Hennepin County District Judge Thomas Sipkins wrote that there's evidence Syngenta knew the risks of commercializing Viptera and Duracade corn containing a trait that China had not approved for imports, and intentionally disregarded the high probability of losing the Chinese market for U.S. corn f...
LONDON (AP) — Romanian children adopted from overcrowded orphanages in the 1990s were more likely to suffer psychological problems as adults compared to other children taken in by British families, according to a decades-long study. Doctors say the findings suggest there is a critical window when young brains develop that may determine someone's future mental health, and that some problems might not be fixable later. "These kids came to the U.K. in desperate conditions, very malnourished and very stunted in growth," said Edmund Sonuga-Barke o...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell faced some tough questions about his efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act during a visit home Wednesday. Among those sticking up for the embattled health law were a businessman who credits it with helping him offer insurance to his employees and a diabetic who said it allowed her to get coverage after being turned down by insurers. Outside the Louisville-area hotel where McConnell spoke, hundreds of chanting protesters condemned the Kentucky Republican's stand on iss...
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) — An anorexic and bulimic woman who petitioned a court to refuse force-feeding has died three months after a judge granted her request. Her court-appointed lawyer, Edward D'Alessandro Jr., said Wednesday that the 30-year-old identified as Ashley G. died Monday at Morristown Medical Center's palliative care unit. "This has been an incredibly difficult ordeal for her loving and supportive family," D'Alessandro said. "I'm happy for my client that she's at peace, but sorry and sad that despite everything that was done for h...
