FBI Investigation Into Walters-Run Program
A program managed by now-State Superintendent Ryan Walters is being looked into by the FBI, The Oklahoman newspaper reports.
After a scathing state audit in June that outlined Walters’ role in the misspending of $1.7 million of federal COVID relief funds, unnamed law enforcement sources told The Oklahoman Thursday the FBI is now investigating the case.
Before becoming superintendent, then-education secretary Walters was the executive director of Every Kid Counts Oklahoma and oversaw the Bridge the Gap program — which was supposed to get federal COVID relief dollars to parents for education resources.
But, with blanket approval from Walters, funds were also spent on things like power tools, TVs and Christmas trees. The federal government has already called for the state to return $650,000 of those misspent funds.
Walters’ office says it isn’t aware of an investigation, and the FBI would also not confirm it. Attorney General Gentner Drummond didn’t confirm it either, though earlier this year, he said he would continue engaging with federal agencies investigating “state actors” for what he called “egregious misuse of tax dollars.”
Gamefowl Commission Member Charged With Illegal Cockfighting
Several people, including a member of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, are facing criminal charges relating to illegal cockfighting.
Chance Campo is a district director for the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission. He was charged with a felony and misdemeanor offense for organizing and watching a cockfight.
He was arrested alongside several others for betting, training and handling fighting roosters near a barn in South-Central Oklahoma.
Court records say about 200 people were attending a cockfight in Carter County.
One man was arrested for carrying a rooster with blades attached to its legs. Police also noted several dead roosters around the barn and trailers filled with them in cages.
The Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission supported a bill this year that would have reduced the punishment for cockfighting but even though it passed in the House, it never made it to the Senate for a vote.
Oklahomans voted to outlaw cockfighting and make it a felony in 2002.
Cherokee Nation Makes Changes To Cabinet
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner are making some changes to their cabinet.
The new Cherokee Nation cabinet nominees include four men and four women and it will have some new and some familiar faces.
The biggest change will be to the Cherokee Nation's attorney general position. Sara Hill, who navigated the tribal nation through the McGirt decision and balanced the needs of the nation's criminal justice system with sovereignty is stepping down.
Hoskin Jr. nominated Chad Harsha to replace her. Hill will still be retained as outside counsel for the nation.
Tina Glory Jordan, the tribal nation's secretary of state, is being nominated to a supreme court position. Glory Jordan helped the tribal nation through the pandemic and worked with federal agencies to secure relief money.
Hoskin Jr. and Warner won a landslide re-election victory in June.
Two More Counties On Alert For West Nile Virus
The Oklahoma State Health Department’s mosquito surveillance program has recently identified mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus in Kay and Payne counties.
At least nine counties in Oklahoma have identified West Nile in mosquito populations this year.
Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show most of those in the southern part of the state, but local reports from the Stillwater News Press and the online publication Kay News Cow indicate virus-carrying mosquitoes are also farther north.
West Nile season usually runs from May through November, peaking around August.
The CDC hasn’t reported any cases of people coming down with West Nile in Oklahoma yet.
Last year, the state recorded four cases where people contracted West Nile but found evidence of more in blood donor pools.
The State Department of Health recommends wearing insect repellants when you’re outside and draining standing water, which mosquitoes use to breed.
_________________
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 AM NewsBrief.