Opioid Abatement Grants
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond extended the deadline for local groups to send letters of intent for grants meant to counteract impacts of the opioid epidemic.
Eligible groups like counties, municipalities, public school districts and other groups have until 5 p.m. on November 8th to pursue opioid abatement grants. Those can be used for things like treatment and recovery programs, opioid abuse education and prevention, and strategies to decrease narcotics supplies.
The $23 million in grants is the first distribution of nearly $1 billion in opioid lawsuit settlement funds from the Oklahoma Opioid Abatement Board. The number of grants awarded and their amounts will be determined by the number of letters submitted and each category of local entities.
Forms for letters of intent are on the board’s website, and finalized letters can be emailed to the board. For StateImpact, I’m Jillian Taylor.
Oklahoma Meta Lawsuit
Oklahoma has filed a lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
According to the suit filed in Osage County, the social media giant knowingly used addictive features to harmfully hook children into staying on its platforms.
The petition comes as 33 other states are suing Meta in federal court for similar reasons.
Attorneys general across the country point to internal company research exposed by the Wall Street Journal proving Meta knew about social media’s ill effects.
According to one company study, 32% of teen girls who already didn’t like their bodies felt worse after looking at Instagram.
Moore Dispatcher Honored For Life-Saving Work
A Moore Police dispatcher was honored for her life saving work at a special event in New York City today.
Keara Duncomb was presented with a First Responders Children’s Foundation Hero Award at a National First Responders Day event in Times Square on Tuesday morning.
Last August, Duncomb answered a call from a 10-year-old boy whose grandmother had fallen and hit her head, resulting in severe blood loss.
Duncomb was able to walk the boy through how to stop the bleeding until paramedics arrived on the scene.
A representative from the First Responders Children’s Foundation was in Oklahoma when Duncomb and the boy were honored by the Moore Police Department, leading to Duncomb’s national recognition.
Oklahoma City Thunder Season Opener
The 16th season of Oklahoma City Thunder basketball tips off Wednesday, as the team travels to Chicago to face the Bulls.
The Thunder will once again be one of the youngest teams in the N-B-A, adding seven-foot-one-inch Rookie of the Year candidate Chet Holmgren to the mix - after he sat out all of last year due to injury.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault says it’s important for the young team to constantly be getting better.
“You gotta be able to improve on the marginal things. That’s the great thing about the game - it’s 48 minutes long, there’s 105 possessions on each end of the floor," said Daigneault. "There’s gonna be some good things and there’s gonna be some things you need to improve. You wanna maintain the good and you wanna improve the bad.”
Tip-off for Wednesday's game is set for 7 p.m. The Thunder's first home game of the season will be Sunday evening, against the reigning NBA champions, the Denver Nuggets.
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