Oklahoma’s 4-H and FFA youth work hard year-long to showcase their animals at the fair.
Addie Raber, a junior at Oklahoma State University, is a first-time judge at the Payne County Fair Dairy Show, but she’s been around cattle for most of her life. Raber says it’s crucial for young people, like her, to get involved in livestock shows.
"With farms getting bigger but there being less numbers, we need to keep the youth interested because that's the next producers of our nation."
Dairy farms across the country have been declining for nearly 20 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Raber says one reason might be because working a dairy farm is hard.
“You have to milk the cows every morning and night. And sometimes three times a day, depending on the kind of operation that you run. They have to be fed once or twice a day, you have to keep the barns cleaned out constantly..."
Raber says showing animals like dairy cows at the fair is important — because it informs people about the agriculture industry. She hopes to continue showing animals by becoming a livestock photographer one day.
A settlement with an e-cigarette company will lead to a payout for several states and territories, including Oklahoma.
JUUL Labs has agreed to pay nearly $440 million to 34 states and territories following a two-year multi-state investigation into the company for marketing their nicotine products to youth and using misleading packaging.
Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor announced in a press release the state will receive just under $9 million from the settlement.
The company also agreed to a strict set of marketing and distribution standards that restrict the content and placement of their ads and limit where and how much of their product
can be sold to prevent the advertisement and sale of their products to young people.
JUUL has said it isn’t acknowledging any wrongdoing as a result of the settlement.
As the western U.S. continues to experience record breaking heat, Oklahoma just had its hottest summer on record in over ten years.
According to State Climatologist Gary McManus, this summer’s statewide average temperature was 82.7 degrees—2.6 degrees above normal. It went down as the hottest climatological summer in the state since 2011.
Drought also remained a concern. At one point last month, more than 92% of the state was under severe drought or worse.
Relief in the immediate future appears bleak. The latest outlook from the Climate Prediction Center indicates a below average chance for precipitation in Oklahoma, and temperatures may once again turn even hotter by the middle of September.
While the odds for another 100-degree afternoon in Oklahoma City is waning, it's not impossible. The National Weather Service says the latest 100 degree day on record is Sept. 30.
Oklahomans will soon have access to the new COVID-19 booster shots formulated to target specific sub-variants.
The Oklahoma City-County Health Department says they have the new Moderna vaccine in stock and they are expecting the Pfizer booster in the next few days.
A spokesperson for the health department says they hope to roll them out later this week or early next week.
You can find more information and make an appointment online at vaccinate.Oklahoma.gov.
In his annual state of the nation address, Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. spoke about investments in language and culture, the impacts of the McGirt case, the increase in the tribal nation's criminal justice system and the threat to sovereignty saying that some political leaders want the tribe from 100 years ago, not Cherokee Nation of 2022.
He also touted major investments in health care-including the construction of a new hospital, improvements in existing clinics and a new drug addiction treatment center as a result of the opioid crisis.
"We will build a new drug treatment center by Cherokees for Cherokees and we are making the opioid industry pay for every penny of it."
Cherokee Nation settled with opioid drug manufacturers for a record $75 million in 2021.
Because of a rebound COVID-19 infection, Hoskin Jr. was unable to give this year’s address in person at the Cherokee National Holiday celebrations in Tahlequah. It was the first time the events returned fully since the pandemic began in 2020.
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