News

Voters will get the chance to address Oklahoma’s exploding Medicaid costs, which threaten to divert hundreds of millions of dollars from things like schools and public safety, under two pieces of legislation approved by members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives this week.

Somebody should tell Mullin’s critics that academic credentials ain’t what they used to be. It was William F. Buckley who said, “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty.” That was in the late 1950s.

In recent years, the State of Oklahoma has engaged in business-subsidy bidding wars with other states, trying to land so-called “mega” projects. In those competitions, Oklahoma has generally fallen short, despite offering hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to individual businesses.

Kimberly Wageman-Prack, executive director of The Chisholm museum in Kingfisher, was guest speaker at the March meeting of the Kingfisher County Retired Educators Association. The meeting featured the theme “Hats Off to Teachers!

Grady Storm (homeschool) of Dover and Brooke Barton (adult) of Kingfisher both brought home state titles in Desktop Publishing and Spreadsheets, respectively.

Hennessey area farmers Todd Vaverka and Scott Hajek recently met and talked with a group of rice farmers in the Philippines about those farmers starting a marketing cooperative.

Kingfisher junior high and high school choir members had a busy - and important - stretch of competitions earlier this month. For some, the contests aren’t finished. Junior high and high school performers took part March 7 in the OSSAA’s district solo and ensemble competition at Bethany.

Wildfires aren’t the only concern with the recent dry spell. Crops are going backward by the day, County Extension Director/Agricultural Educator Bryan Kennedy observed Thursday.

When Madell Henderson retired in 2005, she left big shoes to fill. With 32 years of dedicated service as dispatcher and records clerk to the Kingfisher Police Department, Henderson was an important and loved asset to the department and the community. She would be hard to replace.