Tulsa Updates Public Transit System’s Look
Tulsa’s public transit system has new look.
The city’s transit authority unveiled its updated name and branding Monday.
The Metropolitan Tulsa Transit Authority, better known as Tulsa Transit for the last 40 years, is now MetroLink.
Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said the rebranding is part of a larger metamorphosis for public transportation.
“Our public transit system in Tulsa has really radically transformed over the last decade. It is not just the old clunker bus system," Bynum said.
Bynum said he wants to see public transit become a “vehicle of choice” for Tulsans rather than a last resort.
The MTTA board approved the rebranding in December after nearly two years of concepts and planning.
The transit authority has been trying to reach more potential riders, which took a steep dive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
More Resignations At OSDE
Two members of State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ administration are stepping down.
The agency is losing its executive director of accreditation and its top general counsel.
According to The Oklahoman, attorney Bryan Cleveland and director Ryan Pieper have resigned.
Cleveland began working for the department at the start of Walters’ tenure and has been a prominent fixture in State Board of Education meetings, providing advice to the board for a range of legal issues from administrative rule changes to lawsuits.
Pieper has worked for OSDE’s accreditation division for nearly a decade and as its director for about four years.
He tells The Oklahoman he was proud of his work and “there still are a lot of great people working at the Oklahoma State Department of Education.”
The resignations follow several high-profile personnel losses since Walters took office, as well as a mass exodus of at least 80 other department employees last year.
Pieper says OSDE employee Brent Meeks will take over as interim director of accreditation.
Latest Ruling: Wyandotte Reservation Was Not Disestablished
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has recognized that the Wyandotte Reservation was never disestablished.
The Wyandotte Reservation was founded in Northeast Oklahoma in 1867, after the tribe’s members were forcibly removed from the upper Midwest.
Steven Leon Fuller was charged with a DUI on their land in 2022 but appealed his conviction.
As a Cherokee Citizen, Fuller argued the DUI should be under tribal or federal jurisdiction, not the state’s.
That appeal hinges on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 McGirt decision, which affirmed that the Muscogee Nation’s reservation was never disestablished, and its lands remain under tribal jurisdiction.
Wyandotte is the ninth tribal reservation to have its continuous existence recognized in Oklahoma post-McGirt.
In a statement, Chief Billy Friend said, “While the Wyandotte Nation knew the Wyandotte Reservation was not disestablished, we are glad to see the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirm this truth.”
Former Oklahoma Police Officer Faces Stiff Sentence Under VACA
A former Oklahoma police officer is the first in the nation to face a harsher penalty under the 2022 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
Jeffrey Scott Smith Jr. is facing up to 40 years for sexual assault.
A federal jury found Smith guilty of violating the civil rights of a woman by sexually assaulting her in 2022 during a traffic stop in Savanna.
The previous maximum penalty for the count was 10 years, but Congress’s decision to renew and update the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 enhanced penalties for civil rights offenses involving sexual misconduct.
In a news release, the Justice Department Civil Rights Division’s Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke called the case “historic” and said the Justice Department will hold law enforcement workers accountable when they abuse their authority by engaging in sexual misconduct.
Smith is also facing up to 20 years for two counts of obstruction of justice for turning off his body cam and dash cam prior to the assault.
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