Education Meeting Scuffle Arrest
Two Oklahoma men are facing charges following a scuffle at last month’s State Board of Education meeting.
The men were arrested Tuesday in connection with their alleged behavior at the June meeting.
The defendants are Edwards Moore Jr. and Leonard Scott III. The heated exchange happened in the lobby before the meeting began while the crowd waited for the doors to open.
Without authority to do so, Scott handed out numbers for people to enter the meeting and along with Moore, they are accused of blocking the doorway and not allowing people to enter.
Both men are charged with obstructing passage within a state building. Scott is also charged with willfully disrupting state business agency operations.
Moore is also charged with two counts of assault and battery after he allegedly grabbed and pulled back a crowd member trying to enter the hallway, and pushed a security officer. The bonds were set at $500 each, and both men have bonded out.
Tulsa Waits on FEMA Approval
The Tulsa area is still waiting on FEMA to approve their request for public assistance in the aftermath of last month’s destructive storm.
Tulsa Area Emergency Management Director Joe Kralicek says the state submitted its request to the regional FEMA office on July 1.
Kralicek says the Tulsa area has exceeded the damage threshold needed to claim money.
"We exceeded that well beyond just debris costs alone, not including all the infrastructure damage we had to areas such as Expo, the Convention Center, our parks areas."
The storm also damaged more than 1,000 homes in the Tulsa area.
Kralicek says state officials told him Tulsans were not eligible for individual assistance from FEMA, which is why they’ve promoted Small Business Administration relief loans.
A FEMA spokesperson says the agency is currently assessing the damage.
OKC Boy Catches Amazonian Fish
An 11-year-old boy went fishing in his neighborhood pond north of Oklahoma City and caught an exotic species that is native to the Amazon rainforest and fresh bodies of water in South America.
Pacu fish is the common name for several different species of fish related to piranhas. Think two sides of the same coin; the piranha eats meat, the pacu eats plants. The black pacu and the red-bellied pacu are popular in the pet trade. And famous for their underbite of human-looking teeth.
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation told NPR this isn’t the first time a pacu has been caught in a neighborhood pond. The last occurrence happened five years ago in Lindsay, Oklahoma.
In a viral Twitter post, the Department blamed a pet owner for dumping their pacu into the Oklahoma City neighborhood pond. This often happens with fish like koi or goldfish when they outgrow their tanks.
The Department of Wildlife Conservation asks exotic fish owners to consult them and their local pet stores before getting rid of aquarium fish to prevent the spread of nuisance and invasive species.
Attorney General's Office Faces Bomb Threat
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol evacuated a state government building that houses Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office Wednesday afternoon.
A spokesperson with the Highway Patrol confirmed someone called in a bomb threat to its dispatchers, which included a vehicle description.
After evacuating the premises, which are near the state Capitol in Oklahoma City, the Highway Patrol set up a perimeter and stopped a vehicle that matched the caller’s description.
They took the driver, who they believe made the call, into custody.
After searching the car, the parking lot and the AG’s office, Highway Patrol found no sign of any explosives. It was about an hour between the initial call and the all-clear.
The threat also disrupted ongoing grand jury proceedings, according to a report from Fox25.
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