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PM NewsBrief: Dec. 9, 2024

This is the KGOU PM NewsBrief for December 9, 2024.

Clemency Hearing Canceled For Death Row Inmate Kevin Underwood

The clemency hearing for confessed murderer Kevin Ray Underwood was canceled Monday morning.

This is the second time Underwood’s clemency hearing has been canceled.

Shortly before his case was scheduled to be heard by the Pardon and Parole Board last week, it lost two of its five voting members.

One stepped down in November and the second was asked to leave amid a criminal investigation.

Underwood said he’s entitled to a fair and impartial hearing before a full board of five members.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a stay, blocking the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board from going forward with its already rescheduled meeting.

No new hearing date had been scheduled as of Monday afternoon.

Underwood is set to be executed by lethal injection Dec. 19 for the murder of a 10-year-old girl. But the execution cannot go forward unless he has a clemency hearing first.

Cherokee Nation Celebrates Repatriation Of Five Former Indian Day Schools

The Cherokee Nation is celebrating the repatriation of five former Indian day schools.

After 40 years of negotiations with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the deeds to the land where these schools formerly sat belong to the Cherokee Nation again.

The five properties include 84 acres of land and are part of the tribe’s recently announced Cherokee Nation Repatriation Project.

Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said the tribe plans to turn the sites into places that benefit rural tribal citizens.

“I think some of these are so rural that there wouldn't be an opportunity to put other types of investment in there, such as health care, but there is an opportunity to do something important for community organizing and that is a community building,” Hoskin said.

Day schools featured prominently during the boarding school era, where Native children were taken from their families and forced into government or religiously run institutions.

These children often faced domestic and sexual abuse.

City of Perkins Identified Elevated Lead Levels In Several Buildings

The City of Perkins in north-central Oklahoma has detected elevated lead levels in several houses on its public water supply.

The lead was detected in several Perkins homes through routine testing earlier this year.

City Manager Bob Ernst said the lead does not come from the city’s wells or its water treatment plant, where it’s frequently tested.

Instead, it comes from pipes inside individual houses or from the service line that connects home plumbing to the city’s distribution pipes.

Lead plumbing was banned in 1986 and is most common in buildings built before 1945.

Across the country, public water supplies are working to identify and replace old lead service lines as part of the EPA’s Get the Lead Out Initiative. Ernst is now working directly with the EPA to develop a plan.

In the meantime, the city encourages concerned residents to run their water for 15-30 seconds before using it and opt for cold water because lead dissolves more easily in hot water and water that’s been sitting.

Perkins residents can contact City Hall for more information about getting the water in their homes tested.

Report: Modest Progress In Boosting Oklahoma’s Teacher Workforce

A new report suggests a potential turning point in the momentum to recover Oklahoma’s teacher workforce.

The numbers are modest but hopeful as the state continues to set records in emergency teaching certifications.

After years of decline, public colleges and universities in Oklahoma increased the number of awarded bachelor’s degrees in teacher prep programs in the 2023 to 24 academic year.

Those degrees rose by 6.1% from the previous year, according to a report from the State System of Higher Education.

But, the increase is far from what’s needed to address Oklahoma’s workforce woes.

Over the last decade, teacher prep bachelor’s degrees fell by 27%. In January, the state set another record for emergency certifications issued, at more than 4,600.

In recent years, officials have sought to combat the teacher shortage with efforts like college tuition scholarships, pay raises, signing bonuses and increased classroom funding.

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