Multiple Candidates Running For Open Oklahoma County Commission Seat
Four candidates are running to fill a vacancy on the Oklahoma County Commission.
The open seat is due to Commissioner Carrie Blumert's resignation.
Former Democratic State Senator Anastasia Pittman announced her intention to run for District 1 Oklahoma County Commissioner shortly after Blumert’s announcement of resignation in September.
Pittman previously ran for the position but lost to Blumert in the Democratic primary runoff in 2022.
In October, Democratic State Representative Jason Lowe announced his intention to run for the position.
In November, Midwest City Councilmember Sara Bana did the same.
Jed Green, a political consultant and founder of Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action, is running as an Independent.
The three candidates running as Democrats will face each other in a primary on February 11. The winner of that election will face Green in the general election on April 1.
Blumert resigned to take a new position as the CEO of Mental Health Association Oklahoma. She had been the District 1 Oklahoma County Commissioner since 2018.
Oklahoma Higher Education Gender Gap Widens
More women are attaining college degrees than men, and that gender gap is widening, according to a new report from the State Regents for Higher Education.
Oklahoma’s numbers represent the same national trend.
In the 2023 to 24 school year, women earned about 61% of all degrees and certificates conferred at public higher education institutions, while men earned 39%.
Women outpaced men in all seven degree and certificate categories.
The largest gaps are in certificates, associate’s degrees and master’s degrees, and the smallest is in doctoral degrees.
The share of degrees isn't the only area in which women are eclipsing men, but also the number of degrees. Over the last five years, women earning graduate-level degrees grew by 27%. And for doctoral degrees, by 41%.
For all degrees and certificates conferred this year, the top fields of study were business and management, health professions and education.
OKC Police Solve 50-Year-Old Murder Using Genealogy
For the first time, the Oklahoma City Police Department has solved a case by comparing DNA evidence from the crime scene to private genealogy databases.
The finding brings closure in the nearly 50-year-old murder of Lela Orr Johnston.
Johnston was 68 years old and had just retired from the state welfare department a few months before her death in 1976.
Her killer apparently forced his way into her Oklahoma City duplex, beat her and sexually assaulted her before strangling her to death.
The Oklahoma City Police Department’s new genealogical evidence indicates the killer was Charles Droke, who was 28 at the time. He was never connected to the crime before he was shot to death by his brother in 1989.
After going cold for decades, the search for Johnston’s murderer picked up again in 2004, when OKCPD developed a genetic profile of the killer with evidence collected at the crime scene.
The profile wasn’t a match to anyone in the FBI’s database of DNA collected from convicted offenders.
OKCPD announced this week it identified Droke as the killer based on similarities to samples his relatives submitted to private genealogy sites.
Northeast Oklahoma Law Enforcement Condemning United Keetowah Band Light Horse Police
A letter condemning the United Keetowah Band’s Light Horse police department was signed by 32 law enforcement agencies and led by the Cherokee Nation. It stems from a recent case dismissal.
In October, a person accused of drunk driving had their charges dismissed after their attorney argued a UKB officer pulled them over without jurisdiction.
In the affidavit, the UKB officer pulled the defendant over on the Cherokee Nation reservation, but the arresting officer was a Cherokee County Sheriff who was cross-deputized with Cherokee Nation Marshals.
The UKB has 76 acres in trust in Tahlequah and is surrounded by the Cherokee Nation reservation.
But police actions outside that 76 acres is a problem according to the letter. The mere existence of the UKB Light Horse force endangers tribal and non-tribal residents, the law enforcement agency leaders argue.
“The UKB’s Light Horse possess no legal authority to make traffic stops, investigate crimes, or act as sworn public safety officers on the 7,000-square-mile Cherokee Nation Reservation–a reservation where joint agreements with local sheriffs, municipalities and prosecutors have provided public safety and accountability for generations–and this should concern all Oklahomans, tribal and non-tribal citizens alike,” the letter reads.
Congressional Delegate and UKB member Tori Holland argued the tribe’s law enforcement officers are CLEET-certified and recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“Unfortunately, this is just the newest series in an attempt by the Cherokee Nation to terminate the United Keetowah Band,” Holland said. “Our United Keetowah Band Light Horse is a legitimate law enforcement agency.”
Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. disagreed.
“The issue isn't whether the UKB has authority as a federally recognized tribe,” Hoskin said. “The issue is whether it has criminal justice authority over the Cherokee Nation reservation. It does not.”
Hoskin also argued the UKB never signed a treaty with the U.S.. He says the UKB’s argument is an attempt to affirm power within the Cherokee reservation. According to him, it’s a matter of safety.
“They want all the benefits that come with being a treaty tribe and very few of the obligations. My big concern is they're putting people at risk,” he said. “We're talking about something that's beyond anything they have a legal authority to do. We just need people to be safe, and as they increase their patrols, there is a decrease in safety.”
Holland says the argument is just the latest chapter in a longstanding feud between the two tribal nations despite their shared ancestry. According to her, these battles only harm Cherokee citizens.
“I think we spend too much time, effort and money litigating every single thing, and it's only to the detriment of our tribal members,” she said. “But rather than coming to the table to talk to us and try to come up with solutions, they would rather go and spew essentially lies to the public to our detriment. It's really frustrating, especially as a Cherokee person, because we should treat our siblings with respect.”
In an opinion piece, Hoskin called the UKB a threat to the Cherokee Nation’s tribal sovereignty. But the UKB disputes those claims.
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