A Government Accountability Office report requested by Oklahoma U.S. Sen. James Lankford shows the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t have adequate financial controls in its conservation efforts to protect the American burying beetle. And its operations are full of errors and missing data. “Years ago, to protect the American Burying beetle population, the Fish …
A new report by the Oklahoma Commerce Department says the state had $2.2 billion in new investment by companies last year. Fourteen of the firms were new to Oklahoma. The total in new investment meant the creation of more than 5,200 jobs. The report says google’s $1.2 billion expansion in Pryor was the largest investment …
The Sierra Club of Oklahoma is gearing up for the start of the legislative session on Monday, Feb. 6 and leaders are already talking of “unfortunate” things they see developing among legislators. Mark Derichsweiler, the Vice-Chair and Legislative chair of the Oklahoma Chapter of the Sierra Club talked of them in a newsletter this week. …
The Sierra Club is ratcheting up its fund-raising efforts using the Donald Trump administration. “This is what we’re up against. The minute Trump took office, he scrubbed every mention of Climate Change from whitehouse.gov,” wrote Michael Brune, Executive Director in his latest effort to raise money for the national organization. “His new energy “plan” …
Some landowners, conservationists and health advocates in Montana have gone to court challenging a state law that allows energy companies to conceal the chemicals they use in fracking. Their lawsuit was filed this week in an attempt to force the energy companies to reveal which chemicals are used in hydraulic fracturing. The law in question …
The Muskogee County Sheriff’s office is working with city leaders in the eastern town of Boynton to determine if someone’s possible illegal actions might have led to the town’s water tower being emptied this week. Travis Wilson, the town’s water operator told the Muskogee Phoenix he suspected “foul play” caused the water loss. At …
While investigators have determined the identity of a person killed in a Wednesday night explosion of an oil tank battery near Waukomis, there are reports they are looking into whether the victim set fire to the tanks and was caught in the blast. The victim was Keith Milacek, 33 who was operations manager for Centennial …
They might have been at odds when it came to politics and the environment, but Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe offered fond comments about former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in a report on accomplishments of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. It was a report for the EPW committee in the 114th congress, a …
A New York Times story this week that former Texas Governor Rick Perry knew little about the Energy Department before he was nominated to become the U.S. Energy Secretary resulted in other publications calling it “fake” news. Among those making the claim of fake news is the Daily Caller. The journalism organization took on New …
A new report shows 91 percent of Oklahoma school districts now meet a minimum Internet connectivity goal of 100 kbps per student, an increase from 85 percent at this time as reported a year ago. The EducationSuperHighway’s annual “State of the States” report on K-12 broadband connectivity also showed 204,216 Oklahoma students gained access to …