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Oklahoma corrections head quits amid flaps
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s prisons chief resigned amid disagreements over whether more state corrections facilities should be run by private companies and whether his agency properly documented money held in reserve, but the governor’s office said Tuesday she did not ask for him to step aside. Corrections Director Justin Jones announced to his staff Monday that he would quit effective Oct. 1. Prisons agency spokesman Jerry Massie s...
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Oklahoma executes inmate for couple’s 2000 deaths
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a 36-year-old man on Tuesday for taking part in the brutal killing of a ranching couple 13 years ago. James Lewis DeRosa was killed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, becoming the state’s second inmate executed this year. At a clemency hearing last month, DeRosa took responsibility for his role in the Oct. 2, 2000, stabbing deaths of Curtis and Gloria Plummer,...
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Tornado insurance claims near 71,000 in Okla.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Nearly 71,000 insurance claims have been filed since violent tornadoes ripped through central Oklahoma last month, with payments already topping an estimated $560 million, the Oklahoma Insurance Department reported Tuesday. “These numbers are more proof of the dramatic impact the tornadoes had on our state,” Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak said. “Thousands of Oklahomans are now in the process of rebuilding...
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Two charged in Bokchito drug bust
Two people have now been charged in a Bokchito drug bust that happened in May. Edward Grig Jordan and Karona Gayle Thomas are both being charged with making methamphetamines. Jordan is also being charged with the unlawful use of a police radio. The bust occurred when the Bryan County Sheriff’s Office received a call advising them that Jordan and two other men were cooking the drugs in and RV on Jordan’s property. When authorities arrived ...
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Man drowns in Red River
A Denison man drowned Monday while swimming in the Red River, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. Enrique Amador, 29, was swimming with friends at approximately 3 p.m. below the spillway of the Denison Dam in Bryan County, according to the patrol, and he was last seen sitting on rocks in the body of the river. Friends called him and when they did not respond, they walked to their vehicle, and when they looked again, he was no longer on the...
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Jercolby Bradley
Suspended students file suit against university
Five Southeastern students have filed a lawsuit against the school and its campus disciplinary council over their handling of an April 1 incident, alleging denial of due process. The lawsuit, filed this month, names Jercolby Bradley, Keith Craddock, Matthew Leatherwood, Arinzechukwu (“Izzy”) Eziakor and Krishon Daye as plaintiffs. The Southeastern Board of Regents and the “Campus Disciplinary Council” of the university are listed as defenda...
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Land commissioners hire attorney for Pointe Vista project
  State Land commissioners are hiring an outside attorney, said Land board Secretary Dr. Harry Birdwell, to “protect state interests” in the stalled $500 million Pointe Vista resort development at Lake Texoma. The commissioners voted Thursday for the hiring, with the fee capped at $250,000. Birdwell, who is also the Land office’s chief operating officer, said in a Daily Democrat phone interview that the hiring will be made quickly, perhaps...
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First-grade teacher Shara Davis shows her support for student Tanner Piearcy who collected funds for Moore in his milk carton.
First grade student collects change for Moore
Tanner Piearcy is a 1 st grade student at Northwest Heights Elementary School who said the tornado in Moore made him sad. Piearcy decided he wanted to help the victims of the tornado, so the next morning he drank his milk at breakfast and asked if he could keep the carton. Piearcy washed and decorated the carton and promptly went around collecting money to help tornado victims. It started with classmate Kadence Stephens giving a penny,...
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Okla. Rep. files bill for native veterans memorial
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma congressman has introduced legislation to build a memorial to Native American veterans in Washington, D.C. Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin said his bill would amend existing law to allow the National Museum of the American Indian to build the memorial on the museum’s grounds on the National Mall. Current law authorizes a memorial inside the museum, but Mullin said there isn’t enough room. “Our Native ...
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Benefit for Steve Redwine to be held June 22
BENNINGTON – A full day of activities has been planned for the Steve Redwine Benefit on Saturday, June 22 starting at 10 a.m. Redwine served in the military for many years and was a long time teacher and coach at Bennington Schools. The benefit will be held at the school in Bennington, with dinner and an auction at the Chitwood Center. Early events include a dice run, a car, truck, and bike show, an antique tractor show, and a hoop shoot....
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The ladies of Heritage Quilters display the quilt to be raffled off at the quilt show on June 28-29.
Heritage Quilters prepare for quilt show
The Heritage Quilters will raffle off a handmade quilt at the group’s quilt show on June 28 and 29 at the Bryan County Community Building located at 1901 South 9 th Avenue in Durant. The show will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. both days. The quilt to be raffled was made by the 25 women in the Heritage Quilters group while practicing a new quilting technique. The Heritage Quilters donate several quilts made by the group to charities s...
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DAR to hold flag retirement ceremony
  Mary Quisenberry Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will be conducting a flag retirement ceremony at 10:30 a.m. June 22 in Durant at the Pavilion on Market Square. Chapter members will be assisted by Sequoyah Chapter Children of the American Revolution and Preston Drain will sing The National Anthem. Attendees should bring lawn chairs. Flags that have become worn and tatter...
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<p>Among those attending the June 10 meeting of the Bryan County Democratic Party are, left to right, standing, Chair Dave Northcutt, Mary Kathryn Hodge, Ronda DeCaire, Marion Hill, Wanda Johnson, and Hal Johnson; seated are Sandra Levins, Joe Littlejohn, Johnny Manners, Gil Alexander, and Vice-Chair Marilyn Alexander.</p>
County Democrats vow to help hunger programs
  Hunger in Bryan County was a focus issue when local Democrats got together for a meeting in the Donald W. Reynolds Community Center and Library June 10. The meeting opened with Dave Northcutt, Chair of the Bryan County Democratic Party, giving a report on the Party’s state convention in Oklahoma City in May. Nine of Bryan County’s 11 delegates were either present or represented at the convention. ...
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Mr. Gremory’s Caravan of Curiosities promises to thrill audiences
DURANT - The Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival is excited to open their Magical Season with Mr. Gremory’s Caravan of Curiosities. Audiences across the nation have been terrified by the newest, darkest creation by magician Dustin Curry. Mister Gremory’s Caravan of Curiosities is part circus sideshow, part séance, part night of terror. The show features bizarre magic and sideshow stunts as performed by Mister Gremory, a travelling showman who mus...
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Frontier Days begins today
The 72 nd Durant Round Up Club Frontier Days Rodeo kicks off today with the Frontier Days Window Judging at 2 p.m. and the rodeo beginning at 8 p.m. Downtown shops have been encouraged to decorate their store front windows in a western theme. Prizes will be awarded for criteria such as best decorations and best dressed employees. Events continue Saturday at 8 a.m. with a Chuck Wagon Breakfast at Market Square. Breakfast will cost $2 per ...
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Court sides with Oklahoma in Red River dispute
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday decisively sided with Oklahoma and rejected Texas’ claim that it has a right under a 30-year-old agreement to cross their common border for water to serve the fast-growing Fort Worth area. The justices unanimously said that the Red River Compact “creates no cross-border rights in Texas.” The case concerns a dispute over access to southeastern Oklahoma tributaries of the Red River that s...
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Benefits set for local woman injured in chopper crash
A couple of events are planned to benefit a local nurse who was injured in an EagleMed helicopter that crashed Tuesday at the Choctaw Nation Health Care Center in Talhina. Tosha Whitmire is employed as a flight nurse by EagleMed and she is also a nurse at the Medical Center of Southeastern Oklahoma in Durant. She is being treated at a Tulsa hospital where she was last reported to be in critical but stable condition. Friends and fa...
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Board approves new hires for Durant schools
The Durant Board of Education held a special meeting Thursday June 13 in which five resignations and the hiring of nine certified staff members were approved. Those resigning included Vision Academy counselor Amy (Riley) Ramirez, Robert E. Lee 3 rd grade teacher Lori Bennett and Durant High School’s Stacey Thompson, Washington Irving Special Education Teacher Karen Staley and DMS eighth grade English and Writing Teacher Glenda Haddock. D...
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Friends of NRA banquet to be held Saturday
The Red River Friends of NRA is having its annual banquet and fundraising event at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Bryan County Community Building. The event aims to raise funds for FFA sporting clay programs, hunter safety and other events to promote the safe and responsible use of firearms. Organizers say that statewide, these events raised more than $1 million, and this year, funded approximately 100 grants totaling $446,000. Local FFA prog...
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Stabbing leads to charges for Bennington man
Authorities have filed a felony assault charge against a 31-year-old Bennington man in connection with a Wednesday night stabbing incident at a Durant bar. Shaun Casey Long was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon one day after the incident which left Curtis Ratcliff, 54, in the hospital with nearly a dozen knife wounds. An arrest affidavit outlined the investigator’s version of events which took place around 9:45 p.m....
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