• KJRH: Budget cuts last year forced the city to turn off some expressway lighting to save money. Now, the lights will be turned back on. Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett will join personnel from the City of Tulsa Public Works Department's Traffic Engineering section Sept. 1st as employees re-energize expressway lighting circuits. Budget shortages and higher energy costs, compared to last year, mean there is only funding to pay for 10 months of expressway lighting. When the lights get turned back on, they should remain lit for the remainder of the fiscal year which ends June 30, 2011.
• KTUL: Schools Urge Parents To Apply For Free Lunch -- Schools don't want your students missing meals. The more children receiving free or reduced lunches, the more federal money schools receive. So you can understand why schools are sending free lunch applications home to you. At Jones Elementary, 99-percent of the students have qualified for free and reduced meals. But all students have been recipients--as part of the universal meal plan.
• KOTV: The City of Tulsa has agreed to a $35,000 settlement of an excessive force case against a Tulsa Police Officer. Edward Bennett sued TPD Officer Dan Fuller over the incident. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court. The money for the settlement will come from the sinking fund, which is a property tax collected by the City.
• A state lawmaker whose district lost electric power during a winter storm said he wants backup generators and an approved emergency plan in all assisted living centers. State Rep. Joe Dorman held an interim study on the issue Tuesday before the House Human Services Committee. A Health Department official testified that of the 139 continuum of care and assisted living centers in the state, nearly 70 percent reported having a generator. Penny Ridenour is the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Assisted Living Association. "Back up power in assisted living is a great idea but the question is should we be able to tell private business what to do with private money?" Ridenour said. She also has concerns that many business owners would not be able to afford the mandate.
• KRMG.COM: Citing a wide variety of reasons for their respective decisions, City Councilors have effectively abandoned the idea of creating an ordinance that would allow the spouse of the Mayor to have business cards with the city seal. A citizen filed an anonymous complaint saying the cards represent a violation of the city's ethics code. Councilor Maria Barnes deemed the matter trivial and irrelevant.
• KTUL: Longtime radio play-by-play announcer Bob Barry says this will be his last year as the voice of Oklahoma Sooners football and men's basketball teams. In a statement on OU's athletic website Tuesday, Barry said he had targeted 2010 as the year he would wrap up his announcing duties. School president David Boren said he looks forward to Barry's continuing involvement in Oklahoma's athletic programs and sports broadcasts.
• NEWS9OKC: One person was killed and another person was injured after an object fell off a crane on the Chesapeake campus Tuesday night near 63rd Street and Western Avenue, according to Oklahoma City police. Oklahoma City Police Lt. Daniel Stewart said the workers were attempting to dismantle a crane around 8:30 Tuesday evening when something fell from the crane onto the workers. The employee who was taken to the hospital has non-life threatening injuries, according to Lt. Stewart. OSHA will be handling the investigation, although they're not expected to arrive there until Wednesday morning.
• The wealthiest members of Congress grew richer in 2009 even as the economy struggled to recover from a deep recession. The 50 wealthiest lawmakers were worth almost $1.4 billion in 2009, about $85.1 million more than 12 months earlier, according to The Hill's annual review of lawmakers' financial disclosure forms. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tops the list for the second year in a row. His minimum net worth was $188.6 million at the end of 2009, up by more than $20 million from 2008, according to his financial disclosure form. Total assets for the 50 wealthiest lawmakers in 2009 was $1.5 billion -- that's actually a nearly $36 million drop from a year ago. But lawmakers reduced their liabilities by even more, cutting debts by $120 million last year. There were a few other new faces in the Top 50, including Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), who received an inheritance after his late father, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), died in 2009.
• Actor John Cusack went on a caustic Twitter rampage Sunday evening, attacking former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Fox News. "I AM FOR A SATANIC DEATH CULT CENTER AT FOX NEWS HQ AND OUTSIDE THE OFFICES ORDICK ARMEYAND NEWT GINGRICH-and all the GOP WELFARE FREAKS," Cusack tweeted. Cusack has long been outspoken about politics. He supported Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election and has contributed to The Huffington Post, but this is the first known time he has stooped to the level of making threats. And while the U.S. Constitution protects Cusack's right to speak his mind, some critics say he should be more careful about what he says, since he has more than 200,000 Twitter followers.
• Cold and flu sufferers looking for relief may soon find that cough medicine has been put behind the counter along with Sudafed, as federal health regulators consider restrictions on cough suppressants like Robitussin and NyQuil because of concerns over their abuse. The ingredient dextromethorphan, which is in more than 100 over-the-counter medications, can be abused for its euphoric effect in what's called "robotripping." It's mostly teenagers who abuse cough medicines this way, taking more than 25 times the recommended dose. At high doses, dextromethorphan can cause elevated blood pressure, heart rate and fever, and its abuse was linked to nearly 8,000 emergency room visits in 2008, up more than 70 percent from 2004. One option for the FDA is to make dextromethorphan available only by prescription. That would be a huge blow to the cough suppressant makers, and industry observers believe it won't happen because it would also create a big workload for doctors and pharmacists. Other options include putting them behind the counter, as was done with Sudafed because its active ingredient pseudoephedrine could be processed into methamphetamine, and banning sales to those under 18.
• 1 IN FOUR LAP DANCERS HAVE A DEGREE: A study of the stripper industry in Britain showed that one in four lap dancers has a degree. Most dancers worked two to four shifts a week -- giving them annual incomes of between $30,000 and $55,000 a year. Many were aspiring actresses, models and artists who hoped to use lap dancing as a lucrative platform for breaking into their desired industry. Almost 90 percent had at least completed a further education course, while one in four had undergraduate degrees.
• You can use a golf club for all kinds of non-golfy purposes -- walking stick, fishing rod, club, to name three. And now we can add to that list -- firestarter. Over the weekend, a golfer's routine swing in the rough at the Shady Canyon Golf Course in Irvine, Calif., struck a rock. Not so different from the way you play, right? Only this time, the impact caused a spark, and the spark set off a blaze that eventually covered 25 acres, according to the Steven Buck, General Manager of Shady Canyon Golf Course, and required the efforts of 150 Orange County firefighters, writes the Associated Press.
• ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Aug. 31) -- U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has conceded her Senate primary race to Joe Miller. The Republican made the concession speech Tuesday night, a full week after the primary. Murkowski trailed Miller, a Fairbanks attorney, by 1,668 votes after last week's primary. Election officials began counting absentee and outstanding ballots Tuesday. Murkowski made slight gains, but was never able to get Miller's lead below 1,100 votes.
• BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (Aug. 31) -- A doctor involved in an "on-again, off-again" relationship apparently tried to force her way into her boyfriend's home by sliding down the chimney, police said Tuesday. Her decomposing body was found there three days later. Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac, 49, first tried to get into the house with a shovel, then climbed a ladder to the roof last Wednesday night, removed the chimney cap and slid feet first down the flue, Bakersfield police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said. While she was trying to break in, the man she was pursuing escaped unnoticed from another exit "to avoid a confrontation," authorities said. DeGeare said the two were in an "on-again, off-again" relationship.
• FLORIDA-- A 3 year old boy was accidentally shocked Monday after a deputy tried using his taser on a wanted man who was in the vehicle with the boy. It all happened in the middle of the day with lots of shoppers looking on in downtown Deland. A Volusia County deputy pulled over a vehicle because the window tint looked too dark. In the car he found Sylvester Hill, a wanted man. When the deputy realized Hill was wanted on an outstanding warrant for allegedly beating up a pregnant woman, the deputy tried to arrest Hill. The deputy says Hill got out of the vehicle halfway through the window and had the deputy pinned against the car through the window in a head lock. The deputy got out his taser and tried to shock Hill. That's when the deputy says Hill grabbed the taser and, as they fought with it, it went off. Hill fell to the ground, then took off running. The incident caused most of downtown Deland, including some schools, to be put on lockdown for several hours. Deputies and Deland police caught up with Hill a few hours later hiding in a home nearby. The boy was checked out at the scene, and was sent home with his mom, who was driving the vehicle.
• A Florida man faces multiple counts of aggravated assaultfor going into a violent rage after losing an arm-wrestling match. Fort Pierce police say Erick Lee Blanton drove his pickup truck across a lawn, over a mailbox and at several people after losing the match yesterday, the Associated Press reports. The 25-year-old man also drew a rifle and pressed the barrel against the forehead of the man who beat him.
• TMZ.com: Ian Benardo -- the former "American Idol" contestant who sued the show for $300 million -- has withdrawn that lawsuit ... only to refile a new one for $100 million. Benardo refiled his lawsuit for workplace discrimination and sexual harassment today in federal court. The original suit was filed with the NY State Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A rep for Benardo says he was advised that the case was not under the jurisdiction of NY's EEOC -- and instead he had to take the matter to federal court. Benardo is suing because he claims "Idol" producers exploited his sexual orientation and told him to "gay it up." As for why he dropped his astronomical demand from $300 mil to $100 mil -- Benardo's rep inexplicably says it was a "cleaner amount." Then again, $100 gazillion is also pretty clean.
• Gay couples legally married in other states cannot get a divorce in Texas, where same-sex marriage is banned, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 5th Texas Court of Appeals ruled that a Dallas district court judge didn't have the authority to hear a divorce case involving two Dallas men who married in Massachusetts in 2006. Republican state Attorney General Greg Abbott's office had appealed after Judge Tena Callahan, a Democrat, said she did have jurisdiction and dismissed the state's attempt to intervene.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas set to participate in bilateral meetings at the White House on Wednesday. In advance of those talks, Obama has taken on a posture that experts say could result in anything from (not wholly unexpected) failure to the most fruitful set of such discussions to date. The administration has insisted that getting the two parties to attend the first direct talks in more than 18 months is a major victory in its own right.

• KRMG: The City of Tulsa pays for crossing guards at Tulsa schools.  The city's budget crisis means 30 fewer guards are helping students get safely to and from school.  Mark Brown is in charge of Traffic Operations with the City of Tulsa.  Brown says the location where a youngster was struck by a car Monday morning was not impacted by the crossing guard reduction.  The youngster was hit trying to cross 15th and 71st East Avenue.  There was crossing guard was stationed at 73rd East Avenue.
• KTUL: New details in the playground death of a young girl in Wyandotte. The medical examiner has classified 9-year-old Alyssa Avila's death as "undetermined." The 4th grader was playing with other children on equipment called the X-wave when she fell off. She collapsed after she tried to get back on and later died. The ME says he found "no overt signs of trauma." He says that's unusual but says it does not eliminate the possibility of a fatal head injury.
• KTUL: TPS officers were trained to write tickets Friday. They were supposed to start that work today, but TPS assistant chief Dwight Jackson say there's a legal hold up. Until it's resolved, they don't have legal jurisdiction. TPS police hope to start writing tickets sometime this week.
• REPUBLICAN PRIMARY RUNOFF TODAY: The only statewide race on the ballot is a Republican contest between former Insurance Commissioner John Crawford, 78, of Oklahoma City and John Doak, 47, a former insurance agent and executive from Tulsa. The winner will meet Democratic incumbent Kim Holland in the general election.
• NEW CREDIT CARD RULES ARE NOW IN EFFECT: The new rules include a late payment fee capped at $25, or $35 if there's a second violation in six months; no inactivity fees if you don't use your card; and a rate increase now requires an explanation to justify the hike and a re-evaluation every six months.
• KRMG: Questions abound after a grandmother found her six-year old granddaughter on an Owasso school bus, passed out from the heat. Marybeth Tomco says the child was late getting home last Friday, so she located the bus and the driver said she yelled the girl's name, but the girl never answered. Tomco says, "They never checked on this child. You could touch her or you could look at her and see that she was flushed in the face and not responding." Now, after the girl's doctor diagnosed her with heat exhaustion, the girl won't get on a school bus. "Who knows what would have happened in that hour had I not found her when I did," Tomco says. Owasso transportation officials say the driver thought the girl was asleep and had no idea she was sick.
• The first school in the D.C. area named after the current president opens Monday morning as the school year begins in Prince George's County. Barack Obama Elementary School opens its doors in Upper Marlboro, Md., for the first time Monday. The school is being touted as being an environmentally friendly "green" school. There have been other schools named after President Obama in the country, but this will be a first in his own backyard in the D.C. region.
• TULSA WORLD: Tulsa County commissioners twisted an old axiom - where there's smoke, there's fire - on Monday, turning a resolution intended to make all county buildings and vehicles tobacco-free into one that sparked a bit of controversy between the commissioners themselves. In the end, they voted 2-1 to table the issue - but not before Commissioner Karen Keith, the lone "no" vote on the postponement - made her displeasure known. Smaligo said he was concerned about how the resolution would affect judges in the Tulsa County Courthouse and residents and staff in the county's emergency shelter, where smoking outside could create security issues. Perry said Smaligo had made good points and that it made sense to notify the judges before acting on the resolution. An exasperated Keith pointed out that the resolution would not have been implemented until Oct. 15.
• KOTV: A Putnam City High School student collapsed while running Friday during a conditioning class. Traquan Patton, 16, was a new student at Putnam City High School and was taking part in an after school off season conditioning class on Friday at Dolese Park when he collapsed. A person passing by the park found Patton lying on the track unconscious and called an ambulance. Patton was rushed to the hospital. He died Saturday morning at INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center. The heat index that day was well over 105 degrees and the Medical Examiner has ruled the cause of death as hyperthermia.
• In the tony town of New Canaan (CT), students might someday get tracking tags along with their textbooks. No decisions have yet been made, but school officials plan to look into the possibility of adding radio frequency tags to student or staff ID cards, or place them on school property, like laptops, the New Canaan Advertiser reports. The technology could be used to track people within the school, something district transportation coordinator Roy Walder said could help during an emergency, such as a fire or a school-wide evacuation, the Advertiser reports, and tracking who is coming and going from the open campus. "I can perceive parents would have an issue with tracking kids through the school and through town. ... There's a big difference between putting this on the school bus or putting it on backpacks or an ID card," says a board member. Student involvement would be voluntary and parents would have to agree to it, Supt. Dr. David Abbey, told the Advertiser.
• Jimmy Carter is set to travel to North Korea very soon, according to two sources familiar with the former president's plans, in what they characterized as a private mission to free a U.S. citizen imprisoned there. Carter has decided to make the trip and is slated to leave for the Hermit Kingdom within days, possibly bringing his wife and daughter along for the journey. His goal is to bring back Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a 30-year-old man from Boston who was sentenced to 8 years in prison in April, about three months after he was arrested crossing into North Korea via China. In July, North Korea's official media organ reported that Gomes had tried to commit suicide. Earlier this month, the State Department secretly sent a four-man team to Pyongyang to visit Gomes, but was unable to secure his release. There will be no U.S. government officials on the trip and Carter is traveling in his capacity as a private citizen, our sources report -- much like when former President Bill Clinton traveled to Pyongyang last August to bring home Current TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had wandered across the North Korean border with China and were promptly arrested and threatened with years of hard labor.
• The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records. A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration's Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a "DEA Sensitive" security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of "telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media" The DEA's need for full-time linguists specializing in Ebonics is detailed in bid documents related to the agency's mid-May issuance of a request for proposal (RFP) covering the provision of as many as 2100 linguists for the drug agency's various field offices. Answers to the proposal were due from contractors on July 29. In contract documents Ebonics is listed among 114 languages for which prospective contractors must be able to provide linguists. The 114 languages are divided between "common languages" and "exotic languages." Ebonics is listed as a "common language" spoken solely in the United States. Ebonics has widely been described as a nonstandard variant of English spoken largely by African Americans. John R. Rickford, a Stanford University professor of linguistics, has described it as "Black English" and noted that "Ebonics pronunciation includes features like the omission of the final consonant in words like 'past' (pas' ) and 'hand' (han'), the pronunciation of the th in 'bath' as t (bat) or f (baf), and the pronunciation of the vowel in words like 'my' and 'ride' as a long ah (mah, rahd)."
• SEE STUNNING VIDEO AT KRMG.COM -- SUGARCREEK TWP., OH - A single car crash on Interstate 675 shut down the southbound lanes in Sugarcreek Twp. for six hours Aug. 23. Brennan S. Eden, 19, of Mason, Ohio, lost control of his car and slammed into the concrete pillar of a bridge south of Indian Ripple Road about 7:15 a.m. The force of the crash broke the car into three pieces and Brennan was ejected. Witnesses said moments before the crash, Brennan was passing other drivers at speeds of at least 100 mph. He crashed when he drove off the left side of the roadway while passing a Sugarcreek Twp. police car. The crash was caught on that officer's cruiser camera.
• After months of speculation, the marriage between Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren Woods is officially over: The couple were present at Bay County Circuit Court in Panama City, Fla., Monday for the execution of their divorce agreement. "We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future," they said in a statement released by Nordegren's Virginia-based law firm of McGuireWoods. "While we are no longer married, we are the parents of two wonderful children and their happiness has been, and will always be, of paramount importance to both of us."
• ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Aug. 23) - Levi Johnston, the father of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's grandson, has filed papers to run for office next year in his hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. Johnston filed his letter of intent Friday with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, a first step needed to begin campaigning. The letter doesn't specify an office, though Johnston's manager, Tank Jones, has said Johnston's interested in a run for mayor or City Council.
• Fletcher, Oklahoma (The Weekly Vice) - Tiffiny Bray, a 39-year-old Fletcher woman, was arrested after police and her fiance searched for her for 30 days only to find her allegedly shacked up in a hotel with another man. According to the Comanche County Sheriff's Office, Bray allegedly took her fiance's truck on July 19th to go shopping in the nearby town of Lawton - and never returned. When Bray didn't return by the next day, her fiance reported her missing, police say. A full-scale search was executed, including billboard advertisements in an effort to find her. After tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours searching, police located her in a hotel room in Corpus Christi, Texas, deputies say. Corpus Christi is about 550 miles and 9.5 hours away from Fletcher, Oklahoma. Bray was detained and asked if she was being held against her will; she answered that she was not, according to deputies. "We estimate probably in the tens of thousands of dollars, and we will be asking for it back because it's not fair for the taxpayers to have to foot this bill," said Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman, Jessica Brown. Bray was arrested for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and obstructing officers. She is currently awaiting extradition to Comanche County, Oklahoma.
• Food and Drug Administration officials said Monday that there is no evidence a massive outbreak of salmonella in eggs has spread beyond two Iowa farms, though a team of investigators is still trying to figure out what caused it. FDA officials said they do not expect the number of eggs recalled - 550 million - to grow. As for consumers, the FDA had some practical advice: Reject over-easy eggs. Consumers should strictly avoid "runny egg yolks for mopping up with toast," she said, and noted that it is impossible to see, smell or taste any difference between eggs tainted with salmonella and those that are safe. The most common symptoms of salmonella poisoning are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever eight to 72 hours of eating a contaminated product.
• Media Matters, which has raised the torturing of Fox News to a high art, has come up with a new one: The group is trying to run an ad touting News Corporation's widely-reported $1 million contribution to the Republican Governors Association -- on Fox, during Bill O'Reilly's show. A Media Matters official sends over the ad, which you can watch below, and the spot coincides with a new front the group is opening against Fox: Media Matters and several other groups are about to call on the White House Correspondents Association to consider yanking Fox's front-row seat in the White House press room. The idea behind the ad is that Fox News devoted little to no coverage at all to its parent company's $1 milllion donation, even though it was widely covered by many other news outlets and was widely pilloried by Dems as proof that Fox is a wholly owned subsidiary of the GOP. By running the ad during O'Reilly's show, Fox's most watched program, Media Matters hopes to bring to Fox viewers' attention what Fox News mostly wouldn't.
• Facebook is slated to start rolling out the new width - 520 pixels, compared to earlier width of 760 pixels - of Page tabs. The change has been announced back in October 2009, but was delayed, presumably to let administrators prepare for the reduced tab width. Still, many popular Pages still use 760 pixel wide elements, which will look broken once Facebook implements the change. A good example is this tab on the official Victoria's Secret Facebook Page. If your Page contains elements that are over 520 pixels wide, you should reduce them to that width as soon as possible.
• This weekend the web discovered that Mark Zuckerberg is unblockable on Facebook, and while many assumed that was an Easter egg created by Facebook developers, it turns out that's not the case. Rather, Zuckerberg is unblockable because of an automated system that kicks in when too many people try to block one user. This afternoon we received an e-mail from a Facebook (Facebook) spokesperson who revealed: "This error isn't specific to any one account. It's generated when a person has been blocked a certain large number of times. In very rare instances, a viral campaign will develop instructing lots of people to all wrongly block the same person. The purpose of this system is to protect the experience for people targeted by these campaigns. We're constantly working to improve our systems and are taking a closer look at this one."

• With temperatures in Oklahoma soaring into triple figures and power usage records being set, Oklahoma Gas and Electric has issued an electricity advisory for this week. Customers are encouraged to use less electricity, particularly between high-demand periods between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. daily. OG&E suggests raising air conditioner thermostats, keeping blinds and drapes closed, not using ovens, clothes dryers or dishwashers and turning off or unplugging any unnecessary electric equipment.
• Parents, you may have received a note in the mail about failing schools. The preliminary report is in, on schools that need improvement. Last year, 11 schools made an appearance on that list. Now, early numbers show that this year, 23 TPS schools will be marked as "Needing Improvement." Now, you have the option to transfer your student to higher performing schools. Preliminary List: Academy Central, Alcott, Houston, Kendall-Whittier, Key, Lindbergh, MacArthur, McClure, McKinley, Roosevelt, Sequoya, Whitman Elementary Schools are on the preliminary needs improvement list. Also Byrd, Cleveland, Clinton, Gilcrease, Lewis and Clark, Madison, Nimitz, Whitney Middle Schools and Central, Hale and Rogers High Schools.
• TULSA WORLD: The one Tulsa police helicopter that has been approved for flight has been grounded since last week due a leaking seal. Police say this is an example why they prefer to have both helicopters available so they can alternate between flying and maintenance, Capt. Jonathan Brooks said. Both of the department's helicopters were grounded in October due to budget cutbacks. The newer helicopter has been flying again since mid-July after city councilors unanimously overturned a mayoral veto so that $226,021 could be designated to get both of the Police Department's helicopters off the ground.
• A JetBlue flight attendant got into an argument with a passenger on a jetliner arriving at John F. Kennedy on Monday, cursed the passenger, grabbed a beer from the galley and then deployed an emergency exit slide and fled the plane, authorities said. Flight attendant Steven Slater was arrested at his nearby home in the Belle Harbor section of Queens by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police on charges of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing. Slater, 39, remained in custody Monday night. His attorney's name wasn't immediately available, and there was no home telephone number listed for him. A woman who answered a phone at a previous residence listed for Slater in Thousand Oaks, Calif., identified herself as his mother but said she wasn't speaking to the press.
• Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has some advice for the people of Earth - it's time to get off. "I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space," Hawking said to Big Think, a global forum that includes interviews with experts. "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load." The physicist called humankind's survival "a question of touch and go" and referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963 as one time people narrowly avoided extinction. He also referred to the 22,600 stockpiled nuclear weapons, including 7,770 still operational, scattered around the planet.
• Police say a Dallas officer was injured when his motorcycle crashed as he led President Barack Obama's motorcade. A police statement says the crash happened about 4 p.m. Monday at an intersection as Obama's motorcade was heading to a Democratic Party fundraiser. Witnesses say the officer was standing and talking before he was taken to a nearby hospital. They say the officer was leading the motorcade when he apparently lost control of his motorcycle and flipped on a median. In February 2008, a Dallas motorcycle officer died in a motorcycle crash while escorting then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's motorcade.
• In an unprecedented act of celebrity philanthropy, the charitable foundation created by Johnny Carson has reported receiving $156 million from a personal trust established by the entertainer years prior to his January 2005 death. The nine-figure transfer from the late entertainer's estate was disclosed in a tax return filed three months ago by the John W. Carson Foundation, records show. The massive bequest leaves the Carson foundation with assets dwarfing the largest Hollywood charities--even the foundation run by entertainment titan David Geffen, whose organization listed assets of $80 million on its most recent tax return. In a tax return received by the Internal Revenue Service in mid-May, the Carson foundation disclosed its receipt of $35.2 million in cash and $121.2 million in securities and royalty rights from the John W. Carson Trust.
• A Tulsa real estate developer is asking the City Council to approve a measure that would allow residents of 119 Downtown to not pay property taxes for the first six years. During that time, the city would forgo $72,000 in taxes. But then collect $314,000 every year there after. The council will discuss the issue in committee on Tuesday. It could be placed on the council agenda for a vote at a later date.
• Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Rod Stewart is expecting a second child with his wife, model-photographer Penny Lancaster, Stewart's spokeswoman said on Monday. The couple's first child is 4-year-old Alastair Wallace. Stewart, 65, and 39 year-old Lancaster celebrated their third wedding anniversary in June.
• Puberty at age 7 or 8 isn't so unusual these days. A new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, shows that more American girls are maturing earlier and earlier. Typically, U.S. girls hit puberty around age 10 or 11. Exactly what this shift means for girls isn't clear yet - either on a group or individual level. But there are budding concerns. For instance, studies have linked an early start to menstruation with an elevated risk of breast cancer.
• The owner of an Ohio strip club and some of his dancers have been protesting at a church that has done the same to them for four years. Women in bikinis sat in camp chairs Sunday outside the New Beginnings Ministries church in Warsaw, about 60 miles northeast of Columbus. Tommy George owns the Foxhole strip club in nearby Newcastle. He says he and his employees decided to start coming to the church because they were fed up with church members hassling the clientele of the strip club.
• An Oklahoma State University junior said he completed a 4,000-mile bike ride to Alaska nearly a month ahead of schedule. Curtis Moss, who began his bike ride in Stillwater, Okla., in June and finished this month in Anchorage, Alaska, said his accomplishment was aimed at raising awareness of the National Student Exchange, a domestic exchange program his school participates in, The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman reported Monday. The student said his route to Alaska covered 4,000 miles
• Levi Johnston is set to star in a new reality project chronicling - get this folks - his surprise run for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. That's  the same office Sarah Palin held before she became governor, a position that later launched her to the national stage as the failed GOP veep candidate. The show's announcement comes just days after Palin's daughter Bristol, 19, broke off her second engagement to Johnston citing his insatiable thirst for the limelight. The project is under development at Stone and Company Entertainment, the same production house that brought us Ivana Trump's "Ivana Young Man" in 2006. Titled "Loving Levi: The Road to the Mayor's Office," it will chronicle Johnston's dual pursuits in Hollywood and his "red-neck" life as a single dad, skilled hunter, avid biker and wannabe politician looking for love and success back home in Alaska.
• Transportation Security Administration agent Leroy Ray has been arrested for allegedly stealing $500 from a wheelchair-bound woman as she passed through a security checkpoint at Newark Airport. Ray was reportedly caught on videotape taking money from the woman's bag as it went through an X-ray machine.
• TMZ: 24-year-old Kerry Schwartz -- who won VH1's "Frank the Entertainer in a Basement Affair" -- claims she decided to head to the ER on Sunday after noticing a bump resembling a bug bite on her leg ... that had grown to the size of a handball. Schwartz tells TMZ, doctors quickly determined it wasn't a bite ... and sliced into the bump to get a better look ... revealing a nest of "insect eggs" buried deep inside of Kerry's flesh. Doctors performed a two-hour surgery -- during which they scooped the eggs out of a gaping hole in her thigh ... leaving Kerry with a pretty nasty wound. Kerry tells us she has another doctor's appointment tomorrow -- you know, to make sure there aren't any leftovers. As for the burning question -- what kind of bug was it? -- Kerry tells us the doctors weren't sure.

• 33 teachers signed up to resign in exchange for the district paying for their health insurance for the next 18-months. It's part of TPS's plan to trim its teaching staff and cut millions of dollars from next year's budget. TPS needs more than 200 to take them up on the offer.
• TPS suspends a staff member at Skelly Elementary Tuesday. Police served a search warrant to that employee on school grounds. Investigators seized a school computer. That staff member suspended with pay, pending an investigation.
• FOX23: For a month the alleged victim's parents had no idea an administrator at Skelly Elementary was reportedly inappropriately touching their six-year-old son.
• BOK Financial 1Q earnings top $60 million.
• The former Air Force member who was detained Tuesday on a trans-Atlantic flight after allegedly claiming he had explosives in his luggage and a fake passport lives a "squeaky clean" life and has never been in trouble before, his father claims.
• The only man to admit shooting Malcolm X was freed on parole Tuesday, 45 years after he assassinated the civil rights leader. Thomas Hagan, the last man still serving time in the 1965 killing, was freed from a Manhattan prison where he spent two days a week under a work-release program. Hagan, 69, has said he was one of 3 gunmen who shot Malcolm X as he began a speech at Harlem's Audubon Ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965. But Hagan has said the 2 men convicted with him were not involved.
• The Santa Clara (CA) County Board of Supervisors, tackling the problem of childhood obesity, voted yesterday to ban restaurants from offering toys with children's meals unless the food meets specific nutritional standards.
• Budget cuts are affecting how far OK Highway Patrol Troopers can travel each week. They will still respond when called, but routine long-range patrols are cut. Gone are 1,000 mile weeks. Troopers are told to keep their driving to 500 miles a week.
• KTUL: Tulsa police say a man shot in the leg in east Tulsa arrived at his job despite the wound Monday afternoon. Officer and first responders were sent to the area of 51st and Mingo shortly after 3:00 p.m. after a report of a business shooting. Instead of being shot there, police said the victim was injured in his car near 3100 S Pittsburg. He told officers that he went on to work because his bosses told him he'd lose his job if he failed to show up again.
• Senator Tom Coburn on Obama's presidential commission tasked with reducing national debt. First meeting held yesterday.
• Fifth 'Dancing With the Stars' cut made - "Bachelor" star Jake Pavelka is used to eliminating contestants -- not being on the chopping block
• The US House votes 402-15 yesterday to REJECT their automatic pay increases. The 15 votes in favor of the pay increase were all Democrats.
• FINANCIAL REFORM - Democrats will force a vote on proceeding to their Wall Street reform bill for a third straight day at 12:20pm ET
• Obama will visit a biorefining business in Macon, Missouri, then talks about financial reform in Quincy, ILlinois, on this latest leg of his white house to main street tour
• NASA holds a media teleconference at 1:30pm to discuss the status of agency-sponsored astrobiology research, including the search for extraterrestrial life
• TW: Principal of Oolagah-Talala Elementary school where the meningitis outbreak occurred, killing two students, has resigned for personal reasons.
• FACEBOOK VS. CAPITOL HILL Yesterday, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and a number of other democratic senators expressed concern about the changes Facebook has made to its privacy settings.  During a press conference, the legislators announced that they would like Facebook to make their new "Instant Personalization" service "Opt-In" rather than "Opt-Out" by default.  The issue surrounds Facebook's decision to automatically share your data with select partners the moment you visit the site.  The new settings have drawn outrage online
• Controversy flares over ship named for Murtha - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the Navy's decision to name an amphibious warship after Rep. John Murtha. Murtha -- "our dear Jack," as Pelosi referred to him -- deserved the honor as a tireless advocate for troops generally and Marines in particular. It will be the first in the San Antonio class not named for an American city. Thousands of Web users remembered a different Murtha -- the one who opposed the Iraq war and accused Marines in 2005 of killing Iraqis "in cold blood" -- when reacting to the announcement about the ship named in his honor. A Facebook group called "People Against Naming A Navy Ship USS Murtha" had 1,336 members as of Monday morning, and it was becoming a clearinghouse for angry comments and homemade cartoons criticizing Murtha.

•    BEWARE: It's April Fool's Day today
Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We've been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.
•    The Tulsa City Council plans to discuss the possibility of legal action against Tulsa County, over an unpaid utility bill for the Tulsa County Fairgrounds. The City Council has set an executive session for Thursday at 5 p.m. to discuss "pending litigation" over the outstanding stormwater and refuse fees. The past due bill is for about $216,000.
•    Citing multiple violations, the Department of Human Services shut down one of the largest daycare centers in Sapulpa. Instead of applauding the decision, parents who sent their children to Christian Daycare and Preschool are outraged.
•    A campus police officer at Tulsa Community College is under scrutiny after he pulled his gun on a group of skateboarders. It happened at the downtown campus over the weekend and part of the confrontation was caught on tape. The video is stirring up a lot of reaction
•    Batter stunned by who his foul ball struck. A line drive by Minnesota's Denard Span hits his mother, who was watching from the stands.
•    It's the matchup action fans have been waiting three decades for: Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger in a movie together for the first time. "The Expendables," the upcoming flick written and directed by Stallone.
•    Man who filed lawsuit against OK Tax Commission seeking "I'M GAY" license tag found dead in his Norman apartment yesterday. 28-year-old Keith Kimmel alleges a confrontation with Tulsa Police Friday night outside a gay club and had filed a complaint with Tulsa Police.
•    Tulsa Public Schools issues news release yesterday announcing the closure of Newcomer International School only to later rescind the release as "premature," "not authorized."
•    AEP-PSO bills will increase nearly $20 monthly next month as the power company has completed paying a refund to customers.
•    Good Friday tomorrow; Easter Sunday. Tulsa City Hall closed tomorrow; most schools.
•    Drill Baby, Drill: In a nutshell, environmentalists hate it, and some Republicans say it doesn't do enough.  But it's a start, and the plan would require Congress to lift a drilling moratorium it imposed several years ago.  As part of an overall energy policy, all the legislative work lies ahead.
•    6-year-old Jeremiah Mitchell to undergo his first facial reconstruction surgery to repair damage from bacterial meningitis. He was transferred Monday from St. Francis to Shriner's Hospital for Children in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remains in critical condition.
•    I toured OneOK Field yesterday!
•    Allegations of corruption against a Tulsa police officer and a former ATF agent. In court records, a federal prosecutor accuses the officer and agent of making up a drug bust, then lying about it on the witness stand, which sent a man and his daughter to federal prison.
•    Are you a fan of KRMG on Facebook? To to www.facebook.com/KRMGtulsa. 

What are Tulsans talking about today?
•    Tulsa Public Schools - BUDGET CRISIS - School Board approves elimination of 225 teaching jobs; classroom size to increase. Another 100 non-teachers jobs also cut. Are school closings next?
•    None of Tulsa's remaining laid off police officers will be rehired, because those jobs have now been eliminated by Mayor Dewey Bartlett. One hundred twenty-four officers were originally laid off. All but 89 were rehired and now, those 89 jobs have been dissolved.
•    Health Care Takeover - President Obama to sign health care takeover today. It will be the law of the land.
•    Attorneys General in about a dozen states are saying 'no' to the federal government's plan to force citizens to buy health insurance.  Virginia may be the first state to file suit against health reform because it's already passed a law prohibiting the mandate.
•    Rep. Randy Neugebauer ended a day's worth of intrigue on Capitol Hill when he acknowledged in a statement that he was the lawmaker who shouted "baby killer" at Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak during debate on the health care bill Sunday evening. "In the heat and emotion of the debate, I exclaimed the phrase 'it's a baby killer' in reference to the agreement reached by the Democratic leadership," the Texas Republican said in a statement released by his congressional office this afternoon.
•    KTUL: A Tulsa city councilor is calling for a probe into how federal funds were used to save police jobs. The movement for a council-led investigation stems from an interoffice memo from three deputy chiefs to the police chief. It gives several instances showing chief of staff Terry Simonson knew the grant money could be used to keep officers rather than rehire after layoffs. "We met with the mayor and Mr. Simonson on December 8th and expressly asked that they consider the use of grant finds to prevent officer layoffs," the memo states. The memo is in response to a leaked email Terry Simonson sent to the Department of Justice. In it, he claims police management told the mayor officers had to be laid off first in order to use the money.
•    OUTBREAK: Jeremiah Mitchell is the last Oologah meningitis victim in the hospital. The 6-year-old is showing signs of improvement, but has an amputation scheduled for Wednesday.
•    KJRH: A 6-month-old boy from Langley was being treated in a Tulsa hospital Monday.  His father said he has a form of meningitis and is in critical condition. The boy's 2-year-old sister is also being treated at the Children's Hospital at St. Francis.   Tests on both children were still being conducted.
•    IRS: Average tax refund so far this year: $3,036 - that's up 10% from last year.
•    ACORN to Disappear - The once mighty community activist group ACORN announced Monday it is folding amid falling revenues -- six months after video footage emerged showing some of its workers giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute.  Several of its largest affiliates, including ACORN New York and ACORN California, broke away this year and changed their names in a bid to ditch the tarnished image of their parent organization and restore revenue that ran dry in the wake of the video scandal.
•    Are you a fan of KRMG on Facebook? To to www.facebook.com/KRMGtulsa.

• The largest school bond in state history to be decided today for voters living inside Tulsa Public Schools boundaries. The $354M bond will be separated into four ballot questions, each of which requires not just a simple majority vote, but a 60% supermajority to pass.
• A "NO" vote will lead to ultimately lower taxes as previous bond expires.
• A "YES" vote will keep your taxes at the current level.
• Tulsa City Councilors John Eagleton and Rick Westcott (both attorneys) will both seek two open special judge seats. Both would have to surrender their council seats if chosen.
• NOT JUST TULSA: Sapulpa police take 4 furlough days
• Lots of comments at KRMG.com about the callous disregard for human life at the north Tulsa Chicken Shack following the shooting there overnight Sunday.
• Tulsa World: Victims from Sunday's plane crash in Bristow identified as Tulsans Allen Couch, president of W. N. Couch, Inc. Contractors and computer manager Tim Toppins.
• Following a decision by SCOTUS to not hear the case, officials in Stigler are now removing the Ten Commandments statue in front of their courthouse.
• Eric Clapton to rock the BOK Center tonight!
• Registered sex offender arrested in San Diego in search for missing 17YO high school senior. Chelsea King of Poway, CA, disappeared after going for a run in a county park. Rescuers continue search for her body.
• Washington State man survives car crash, dies after urinating on downed power line from crash. When it's your time...
• Kate Gosselin, Cincinnati Bengals' Chad Ochocinco and Shannen Doherty were among the stars announced as a part of the "DWTS" cast, which was revealed during Monday's "The Bachelor" finale.
• THE NEXT FOOD VILLIAN: Working with the food industry to cut salt intake by nearly 10 percent could prevent hundreds of thousands of heart attacks and strokes over several decades and save the U.S. government $32 billion in healthcare costs, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
• Toyota Motor Corp will roll out an aggressive incentive program for U.S. consumers in March, including zero-percent financing for five years and two-year free maintenance, a source briefed on the matter said on Monday.
• A virtually hairless animal caught near the Dry Gulch USA camp (NE of Pryor) has caused widespread speculation that it's the famed mythical El Chubracabra. In reality, it's a raccoon with mange.
• Are you a fan of KRMG on Facebook? To to www.facebook.com/KRMGtulsa.
• Espresso Yourself with Nordaggio's Coffee and the KRMG Morning News - Win delicious gourmet for your office by entering today at KRMG.com.

• TPS Superintendent Keith Ballard tells the district that 100 administrative jobs may be cut in 2010-2011 fiscal year. Administrators and support staff will face furloughs of 1-3 days for 2009-2010 year.
• Join News Talk KRMG and 2News for "Food 2 Families" to benefit the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma as Rick Couri and I will broadcast live from Reasor's at 71st and Sheridan Friday (12/18) from 4-6pm.
• Where has all the chocolate chip ice cream gone? Blue Bell? Anyone?
• KISS will rock and roll all night ... and part of every day ... tonight at the BOK Center
• Election day today for many Green Country school districts - 100s of millions of dollars in school bonds need a vote.
• Google launches 'Real Time' search, Google Goggles for Android
• EPA chief: 'Hacked emails' change nothing...
• Tiger Woods standoff - Day 11: The World Held Hostage continues.
• Report: Tiger's wife has moved out of their FL home.
• Police docs indicate wife claimed on scene that Tiger had consumed alcohol, ambien, vicodin on day of crash; Tiger denied the request for a blood sample.
• 7th woman linked to Tiger is an adult film star
• Orange Co. Fire Officials say an unidentified woman was rushed to a local hospital from Tiger Woods home around 2:30 am.
• STIMULUS MATH: $246,436 cost per job so far...
• Billboard has named Daniel Powter, whose song "Bad Day" topped the Billboard charts for five weeks in 2006, the one-hit wonder of the decade.
• KRMG's new and improved text number - 95920
• NOW: Copenhagen 2-week climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140 private planes and caviar wedges
• Are you a fan of KRMG on Facebook? To to www.facebook.com/KRMGtulsa.
• Win a free 7-1/2-foot tall Christmas tree, pre-lit with 800 lights (like the one in the KRMG studio) from Seasonal Concepts. You'll also get $50 in FREE decorations for your tree!  Visit the store at 71st & Highway 169. To win, just visit the Contest Page at www.krmg.com!
• What would you do with extra holiday cash?  Visit the contest page at KRMG.com and register to win a $1,000 Discover gift card.  We'll have $100 Discover gift card winners daily through December 23rd...and all are entered to win the $1,000 grand prize.  Cash back this holiday season from DISCOVER and AM 740 and FM 102.3, News Talk KRMG

Today's Tulsa World Editorial Board fires with both barrels at Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Michael Zolkoski.

Until Monday, most of the voices making the accusations in the Tulsa Academic Center scandal were people directly involved in the situation: students, parents and teachers. Because of that, the Tulsa World suspended final judgment on the problem and on Tulsa Superintendent Michael Zolkoski.

All that changed Monday night when the school board released a summary of the school district's internal investigation of how the district's alternative school so quickly got to be in such a mess.

...

In short, the summary describes the school as violent, overcrowded and out of control. It wasn't a school. It wasn't even a zoo. It was a madhouse, and no one behaved as if it was his job to stop the madness.

That's a failing grade from an objective source, and an immediate, severe response is needed.

It's time for the district to fire Zolkoski.

He either knew, or should have known, that the school was in chaos. Either possibility is unacceptable.

Dr. Z's salary clocks in around the $200,000 mark.

Many will argue for that level of compensation, Dr. Z should not be allowed to be rewarded for sub-standard performance with a contract payout. Make him fix this problem.

It is also worth examining the performance of the other schools in TPS. If TAC is a disaster but the rest of the schools are improving, it might seem unwise to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Either way, people who pay taxes into the TPS system have every reason to be chafed by the seemingly endless flow of troubling news that comes from them.  

From Fox 23 News -

(TULSA, Okla.) April 18 - A run-in for Tulsa police officers who were trying to catch teenage speeders.

Instead they caught a very irate adult. The dramatic traffic stop happened Wednesday afternoon as our camera rolled during patrols near East-Central High School.

It turns out this just hasn't been his week. Tulsa police pull over a man who says he says he got a ticket just yesterday, and now today slapped with another one. And it's not cheap, at $130.

Even so officers really didn't know what to think when they approached his car, and he started yelling at them.


Feel like the teacher may have gotten off easy?

Especially given the stop sign dash?

From the Tulsa World -

One 15-year-old girl was arrested, and a 17-year-old girl was treated by EMSA after she was pepper-sprayed by school security officers, Tulsa Police Officer Leland Ashley said.

The student who was taken into custody allegedly incited the fight and then assaulted a police officer who was trying to break it up, Ashley said.

McLain's school resource officer called for backup just after noon.

"He said he had a rather large fight in progress," Ashley said.

Male students became involved, and eventually 20 or more students were either directly involved in the brawl or "egging it on," Ashley said.

Additional officers arrived, and Ashley estimated that at least 15 squad cars were at the school, 4929 N. Peoria Ave.

The fight might have been gang-related, he said.

Teens and fist-fighting violence obviously have a long history.  

I remember vividly my high school and middle school cafeteria were a hot-bed for short tempers and teen angst.

"FIIIIGHT!"

I also remember that in the 1980s the school officials didn't treat fights with the same severity that the school officials do today.

I don't mean to imply that my school administration didn't punish fighters. They did.

But, they also largely let them fight until a coach could be found to intervene. Suspensions were typically short - just a couple of days.

Times have changed.

For the better? 

Today's Tulsa World has the details on continuing trouble at Tulsa Academic Center.

Officers first were called to the school, 2740 E. 41st St. North, to arrest a student who was caught with marijuana. Police were summoned later to apprehend five students who ran from the school and broke into a nearby vacant house.

Information obtained from the Tulsa Police Department through an open records request shows that police have been called to the Tulsa Academic Center 33 times between late August, when it was founded, through the end of March.

The reported reasons for the calls include multiple assaults, disturbances, and fights in progress.

Calls about a "disturbance with a weapon" were placed on Nov. 1 and March 7.

It would appear that the environment at TAC is likely not the most optimal for learning.

One has to wonder, though, if (for whatever reason) the TAC experiment fails, where will these juvenile delinquents go next?

Will they all be sent back to integrate with the rest of the productive law-abiding students in the rest of the Tulsa Public Schools?