Recently, I participated in a hearing before the 911 Management Authority on behalf of the City of Catoosa. Police Chief Ronnie Benight and I spoke in support of the city’s application to build a 911 dispatch center in its new police/fire station. 

Catoosa submitted its application several months ago, but it was slowed by the Authority’s red tape. In fact, Catoosa’s application was slowed down so much it was in danger of not being approved by the statutory deadline of July 31.

This is a really big deal for our community. Catoosa, in 2022, bonded $20 million for the police/fire station, with $2.2 million of that specified for the 911 dispatch center. Catoosa was very much in peril of losing this application and having to build its dispatch center for nothing.

Seaman Landon Gregory, a native of Owasso, Oklahoma, is one of more than 5,000 sailors serving aboard the self-contained mobile airport, USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Equipped with a full flight deck and more than 60 aircraft including attack fighter jets and helicopters, aircraft carriers are one of the largest warships in the world.

Gregory, a 2022 graduate of Tulsa Lighthouse Christian Academy, joined the Navy over a year ago.

“In third grade, my teacher asked our class what career they wanted when they got older,” said Gregory. “I chose the military. My grandad was in the Navy and, although I had other dreams growing up, the military stayed with me.”

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma Clinton J. Johnson reports that U.S. District Judge John F. Heil, III sentenced Lee Finch, II, 49, of Houston, Texas, for Coercion and Enticement of a Minor and Travel[ing] with Intent to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct. Judge Heil ordered that Finch serve 180 months imprisonment, followed by lifetime supervised release. Upon his release, Finch will also be required to register as a sex offender.

According to court records, Finch started coercing and abusing the 12-year-old victim in Jun. 2016 during “sleepovers” at his house. In Sep. 2016, Finch moved to Houston, Texas. He would travel back to Tulsa to have sexual intercourse with the minor. From Jun. 2017 through Feb. 2018, the abuse continued while the minor victim lived with Finch and his family in Houston, Texas. When the minor victim relocated back to Tulsa, Finch continued the abuse through sexually explicit text messages that corresponded with flight records back to Tulsa. 

Beginning local conflict in the current election cycle, Democrat candidates for the office of Tulsa County Commissioner District 2 faced off at an administrative hearing of the Election Board Tuesday morning in a two-on-one attack.

Maria Barnes, the complainant, asserted that Jim Rea had not lived in the district for the full six months prior to filing as required by law. Sarah Gray, running for the same office also as a Democrat, was beside her helping Barnes make the case.

Rea closed on the purchase of a residence in District 2 September 29 and updated his voter registration October 1, 2023. The new home is a few blocks from his previous residence which was not in the district and Rea declared he purchased the new home specifically to run for the county office.