The Oklahoma Historical Society will receive new funding to connect historic locations related to the Civil Rights Movement.
Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Democratic Senator Kevin Matthews’ Senate Bill 509 on Thursday, creating a revolving fund for the Oklahoma Historical Society to develop the Oklahoma Civil Rights Trail.
The trail will begin in Ponca City at the Standing Bear Park Museum and Education Center. The trail will continue through the state’s all Black communities before ending at the Clara Luper Center, which will be constructed in Oklahoma City.
The fund is not subject to fiscal year limitations and can receive state and federal funds as well as gifts and donations.
As school shootings become more prevalent and deadlier than ever, Oklahoma lawmakers are requiring schools to evaluate how safe they are. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed the new measure into law Wednesday.
Senate Bill 100 was written by Muskogee Republican Senator Dewayne Pemberton, who’s a former teacher. It requires Oklahoma public schools to undergo a risk and vulnerability assessment, which would be conducted by the Oklahoma School Security Institute or another nationally qualified assessor and include recommendations for facility improvements.
Those evaluations have to be completed by July of 2026, and then, every five years after that. Lawmakers allocated $1.4 million to the state’s education department to hire ten additional staffers to help with the risk assessments.
The measure coincides with another school safety effort that passed this year worth $150 million, and that’s a three-year pilot program that gives districts about $96,000 to spend on school resource officers or security upgrades. Both the pilot program and vulnerability assessment laws go into effect July 1.
The small Osage County town of Fairfax is anticipating an influx of visitors after the movie Killers of the Flower Moon is widely released this fall. During a town hall meeting there were people who voiced concerns about telling the story of one of the darkest chapters in Oklahoma's history.
"People want stories, people want to learn the history they're going to want to learn about things that's not in the book," said Osage citizen Tara Damron.
Damron works at the White Hair Memorial near Ralston. This is the former home of Lillie Morrell Burkhart, who was a descendant of Chief Pawhuska.
She and about 40 other people sat for two hours at a meeting at the former First National Bank Building and expressed how they would like to fix up the town, provide historic landmarks that tell the story about the Osage murders and why they happened as well as try to create more economic development so those who read the book and see the movie will want to visit Fairfax.
It will be the first of many meetings as the town and residents prepare for what some see as an opportunity to face and tell the history while at the same time, helping their community.
The Oklahoma Sooners are softball national champions yet again.
OU beat Florida State by a score of 3 to 1, to secure their third straight national title.
The Seminoles got on the board first with a home run in the bottom of the fourth inning, but the Sooners responded the next inning with back-to-back home runs by Cydney Sanders and team captain Grace Lyons – and never looked back.
Coach Patty Gasso, who is in her 29th season with the Sooners, said the stress and expectations of the season made it their toughest yet. But, they tried to keep the noise out of their circle.
"We just want to play ball. Jayda Coleman wants to rob home runs. Tiare Jennings wants to hit doubles and be clutch. I mean, that's how they're made. They just want to play ball," said Gasso.
The Sooners — who only lost one game all season — will now stretch their NCAA record winning streak of 53 games into next season.
_________________
For additional news throughout the day visit our website, KGOU.org and follow us on social media.
We also invite you to subscribe to the KGOU PM NewsBrief.