As of early this morning nearly 72,000 PSO customers are still without power in Northeast Oklahoma, four days after the area was rocked by severe storms.
Heat advisories are making for dangerous conditions for people who don’t have power as they try to keep from overheating. As a result, the City of Tulsa has a number of cooling centers open across town.
Crews continue working to restore power throughout the Tulsa Metro area.
A utility provider spokesperson tells the Tulsa World, many of the remaining people without power should see their lights come back on in the coming days.
Public Service Company of Oklahoma anticipates the “vast majority” of people in Northeast Oklahoma will have power back Saturday afternoon.
Tulsa Police Chief: Drivers Need To Slow Down
Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin says in the wake of storms, drivers in the city need to slow down. He spoke at a press conference Wednesday) afternoon.
One of his biggest concerns is reckless driving while street lights are down.
"We need you to slow down. We need you to follow the rules of the road. And our largest concerns are intersections," said Franklin.
He says intersections that have flashing lights or no lights have been the sight of unnecessary collisions. He says people need to move slower through intersections and come to complete stops when needed.
Franklin says police are going to ramp up citation enforcement in order to prevent collisions moving forward.
Jimcy McGirt, the man at the center of the landmark Supreme Court ruling, had his federal child rape convictions overturned in a federal court.
A new federal trial for McGirt is possible. He is currently serving three life sentences in federal prison for child rape.
Federal appeals judges ruled McGirt’s conviction should be overturned because his 2020 jury was wrongly limited in how to weigh inconsistent witness testimony from 1997. The court says in its order while the jury could have still found McGirt guilty, the judges were unsure they would have.
In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled McGirt was wrongly tried in state court because the crimes were committed on the established Muscogee Nation reservation and McGirt is Native American.
The McGirt decision reaffirmed several reservations in eastern Oklahoma. It set the precedent that crimes involving Native American defendants on reservations must be tried by the federal government or tribal prosecutors.
Federal attorney Christopher Wilson originally prosecuted the case. He says he is disappointed in the reversal, but will keep pursuing it.
Certain Oklahoma City citations are eligible to be cleared at a reduced cost until the end of the year.
People with warrants for an unpaid ticket for a class “A” offense dated on or before June 30, 2021, can participate in a penalty reduction program until December of this year. Participants will not be arrested or go to jail.
The program reduces the cost of overdue tickets that have acquired extra fines or failure to appear charges to a cost similar to a ticket paid on time.
People with financial difficulties can request a hearing from a judge at the Oklahoma City Municipal Court to determine their ability to pay.
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