Oklahoma House Forms Committee To Review Mental Health Agency Finances
The Oklahoma House of Representatives is forming a select committee to review the state’s Department of Mental Health and its finances.
It’s the fourth ongoing probe into the agency’s spending.
A special state audit, an independent legislative study and a review by a special investigator are all in progress.
The House’s select committee is just the latest effort by Oklahoma’s leaders to get a closer look at what is going on inside the state’s department of mental health.
Internal criticism about financial decisions of the previous commissioner and her staff plus cancelled contracts and a federal lawsuit, have created a storm of mass confusion.
In front of the committee, current department leader Allie Friesen will be tasked with answering questions about her request for more money for the department, how funds are being spent and what the legislature can expect moving forward.
The select committee is set to meet on Thursday at the State Capitol.
Stillwater Public Schools Hires New Superintendent
The Stillwater Public School District has a new leader.
Tyler Bridges will take over as superintendent July 1, following a unanimous vote by the school board during a special meeting.
Bridges takes over as the district recovers from financial missteps that led to staffing cuts and the resignation of its previous superintendent, Uwe Gordon.
Bridges touts more than two decades of experience in education, from coaching and teaching in Chandler to leading capital projects and grant-funded programs in his current position as Clinton Public Schools superintendent.
He said he's excited to build on Stillwater’s strong foundation and help the district reach new heights.
Verbatim Theater Brings OKC Bombing Stories to Life for a New Generation
For high school students, the Oklahoma City bombing could seem like an event that happened in the distant past.
But a touring theatrical production hopes to bring the stories of those impacted by the tragedy to the next generation.
At Putnam City West High School, students gathered Tuesday to watch an abbreviated performance of In the Middle of the West — a play of testimonies from survivors, family members and others affected by the bombing.
Oklahoma City University junior Kevin Alvarado portrays Chris Fields, a firefighter captured in an iconic photo holding a baby who had died in the blast.
"Once that first kind of wave hit, we just, we were waiting, and we waited, and we waited. I was just, you know, that was tough. That was the toughest part, just waiting for people to come in, and they were all gone," Alvarado said.
The actors, all students at OCU, are practicing “verbatim theater.” Not only are they performing interview transcripts word for word, but they also each have an earpiece with interview recordings so they exactly mimic inflections.
Junior Maddy Grimes portrays Aren Almon, the mother of a baby who died in the blast. That baby was carried by a firefighter — a moment immortalized in an iconic photo.
"The more I look at that picture, it’s just. I don’t think it memorializes her — it memorializes everybody who died that day. ‘Cause everybody is somebody’s child. That wasn’t who Baylee was — she wasn’t the baby in the fireman’s arms. She was… she was my child," Almon said.
Putnam City West senior Orion Bruins said seeing the performance gave substance to something that to him, always felt intangible.
"Being able to hear that commonality between these different perspectives of people, it really made me think about how I might have reacted or how I may have handled something like that in that moment. And really just, makes me think a lot," Bruins said.
The cast tours at four Oklahoma high schools and will perform selections from the play at Arts and Culture Day on Thursday at the State Capitol.
Oklahomans Remember ‘Black Sunday’ 90 Years Ago
Ninety years ago this week, Oklahomans were met with a rolling dust and sand now known as “Black Sunday.”
A gathering was held this week to remember the devastating storm in the Dust Bowl.
Marietta Foreman was a child in Northwest Oklahoma on Black Sunday.
“It was just so still. You could see this coming but there was no wind; but the birds, there were just thousands of them coming, just coming and coming and coming. When it hit, they were still hitting the car, just like hailstones,” Foreman said in a 2001 OSU oral history.
Ben Pollard is president of the Oklahoma Conservation Historical Society.
“We've experienced our own pretty significant dust storms here, just in the last month in Oklahoma. So we know that this is not something that's been fixed once and for all, and that conservation really is an ongoing system,” Pollard said.
He said the Dust Bowl led to the launch of a conservation ethic today.
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