| KRMG Local News |
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Repeat sex offenders convicted of raping a child 6 years old or younger would be eligible for the death penalty under a bill passed by a House committee.
The bill by Rep. Rex Duncan was overwhelmingly approved Monday by the House Judiciary Committee, despite a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that such laws were unconstitutional.
The Sand Springs Republican says he feels the court erred in its decision and that he believes a new court could uphold the law.
In a Louisiana case in which a man was sentenced to death for raping an 8-year-old girl, the nation's highest court ruled that allowing the death penalty in such cases violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A federal appeals court has affirmed a lower-court ruling that granted class-action status to a lawsuit against the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
A three-judge panel ruled Monday that U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell didn't abuse his discretion when he certified the lawsuit as a class-action case in June.
The 2008 lawsuit by Children's Rights, a child advocacy organization, accused the state of not finding ``safe and adequate'' homes for foster children and of inadequately monitoring their safety ``due to an overburdened and mismanaged work force.''
Agency officials have said the strategy of the case filed on behalf of nine of the state's 10,000 foster children is to force them into an expensive settlement.
Attorneys for the agency and for Children's Rights didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.
TULSA, Ok. - AM 740 and FM 102.3 News/Talk KRMG's Steve Berg reports we did a quick survey of all the surrounding towns and they're reporting all was quiet on the roads overnight. Broken Arrow, Bixby, Jenks, Sapulpa, Sand Springs, and Owasso all say they had no wrecks or slip-and-falls related to the weather. Here in Tulsa, there was one report early-on about a slick spot near 71st Street and Highway 169, but they didn't think it was a problem anymore. Also, EMSA dispatchers reported there was one slip-and-fall with a child on a porch, but that was before midnight and they say there's been nothing since then. So keep your eyes open when you head out this morning, but it sounds like there shouldn't be much problem.
TULSA, Ok. - AM 740 and FM 102.3 News/Talk KRMG's Steve Berg reports City Councilor Jack Henderson knows he's going way out on that political limb and, so far, no other councilors are going with him. The Tulsa World reports that he's proposing a one-penny increase to the city's sales tax that would go toward police and fire and also parks. But he would put it to a vote of the people. Five councilors have already come out against the idea, according to the newspaper, and the other three say they're undecided. If voters did approve it, Tulsa's sales tax would go from just over 8.5-percent to just over 9.5-percent. Henderson told the paper it's still to be decided how the money would be divided up among police, fire and parks. Councilors will talk about it today at their committee meeting.
TULSA, Ok. - Several Texas police departments are in town trying to hire the 124 recently laid off Tulsa police officers. Darin Ehrenrich has only been on the Tulsa Police Department for a year, but he's been laid off twice. Ehrenrich says, "Unfortunately, the economy is in a position where they can't afford to pay our salaries and it's just a devastating situation." Darin says he wants to work for a department that does not depend solely on sales tax to pay police like Tulsa does. Mayor Bartlett and the police union have a meeting scheduled for today to look for a way to rehire the officers.
TULSA, Ok. - The search is on for a man after an overnight armed robbery of a central Tulsa Walgreen's store. Tulsa Police Sergeant Kurt Dodd says the man came into the store at 15th and South Lewis just before 10 p.m. Monday and walked around for awhile. "Hands the teller a note demanding the money and displays a large kitchen knife. The loss at this time seems only to be cash," Dodd says. After reviewing surveillance video, police believe the same man also may be responsible for an armed robbery of a Walgreen's at Pine and Lewis last Saturday night.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management says about 4,700 homes and businesses remain without electric power from last week's winter storm.
The agency says of the 4,729 power outages, 4,696 are in Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives service areas. The other 33 are customers of Public Service Company of Oklahoma.
About 179,000 outages were reported at the height of the storm, which pummeled southern Oklahoma with freezing rain and dumped heavy snow on central and northern sections of the state over two days.
Officials say at least seven people died as a result of the storm.
(Port-Au-Prince, Haiti)--A medical team from Tulsa treats a man pulled from the rubble nearly a month after the earthquake in Haiti. KRMG reporter Richard Dowdell made contact by phone with Tulsa minister Rick Shield who is in Haiti. Shield is a member of an In His Image medical team out of Tulsa that arrived in Haiti over the weekend. They are working in a clinic set up near a damaged orphanage. Monday morning the Tulsans were alerted to shouts and screams as a crowd neared the clinic. A man was being carried inside by a group of Haitians. The man was extremely weak and dehydrated. He had been pulled from the rubble just minutes before. Shield says the man was buried for weeks. They have no idea if he found food as he struggled to live. The Tulsa team started IVs and did some first aid. Then they rushed the man, identified as Ean Muncie, to a hospital. Shield later checked on the man's condition and was told by doctors that he is expected to live. 
(Tulsa, OK) - Tulsa's salt supply should be adequate for the third winter storm of this winter season, but Public Works officials say it all depends on how long the roads stay frozen after the event.
"Currently we have 4,000 tons," Public Works Supervisor Darren Steffanek said. "So y'know, everything depends on how these things unfold as to how much you're going to use."
Tulsa started the season with 11,000 tons of salt. The city used roughly 6,000 tons to treat the streets during and after the Christmas Eve blizzard, and about 2,500 tons during and after the January 28th storm. The city purchased another 3,000 tons from a company in Kansas, of which about 1,500 has been shipped.
The longer the roads stay frozen, the more times that salt has to be re-applied. The continual applications, Steffanek says, are what depletes the supply most severely.
TULSA, Ok. - A Tulsa police officer is accused of pointing a gun and threatening to kill a bar bouncer. Witnesses said Thomas Fees was a familiar face at Oscar's Gastro Pub at 1738 South Boston. But around closing time Friday night, Oscar's owner Eli Huff said Fees started inappropriately touching some women inside the bar. "They felt like it was to the point where he needed to go and we had cut him off from drinking," Huff said. Huff and a bouncer asked Fees to leave but he refused. Witnesses said employees then had to remove Fees from the bar. But once outside, witnesses said he pulled out a revolver and pointed it at one employee's head. A police report says Fees was arrested early Saturday but is now out of jail. He is on paid suspension during the rest of the investigation.
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