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A Black man has been charged with fatally shooting two White strangers in the back of the head in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as part of what authorities are calling a racially motivated hate crime. Carlton Gilford allegedly shot and killed two men to whom he did not have any connection on April 18, according to the Tulsa Police Department. Police said Gifford, who according to jail records is homeless, went inside the Rudisill Library around 9:40 a.m., walked up behind a man sitting at a desk, and shot him in the back of the head.

The former president is consolidating support among GOP members of Congress and others, even as he faces a thicket of legal woesMANCHESTER, N.H. — Former president Donald Trump, fighting criminal charges in New York and multiple other ongoing investigations by federal and local prosecutors, is pitching Republican elected officials to get behind him as the inevitable nominee — and many of them are buying it.Trump is finally seeing the response he was hoping for when he announced his candidacy almost six months ago, in a moment of political weakness, as many Republicans were openly blaming him for the party’s disappointing...

A Catholic health system in Oklahoma has threatened to sue the federal government for violating its First Amendment rights over a decision to deny re-accreditation to one of its hospitals if it doesn’t follow an order to extinguish a long-lit sanctuary candle for safety purposes. Following a hospital inspection in February, a federal surveyor deemed that a living flame in the Saint Francis Hospital South chapel – part of the Saint Francis Health System – violated code, as it is “an open flame burning unattended 24/7.” The surveyor issued a citation demanding the candle be extinguished. Saint Francis Health Systems...

Five Oklahoma transgender youths and their families have sued the state over a ban on gender-affirming health care, alleging the halt of puberty-blocking drugs, surgery and hormone treatments is a violation of their constitutional rights. The families filed the lawsuit in a Tulsa federal court Tuesday, one day after Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 613, which immediately banned gender transition surgeries, along with a six-month phase-out of other drug and hormone treatments. “We wanted to make sure we were ready as soon as possible because access to care changed immediately (with the governor’s signature),” said Megan Lambert, legal director...

Performing trans surgery on children, as well as prescribing a child with puberty blockers, is now a felony offence in the state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed into law measures forbidding the use of medical transgender interventions on children, with it now being a felony offence in the state to perform trans surgery on a child or prescribe them puberty blockers. The move has prompted outrage from U.S. progressives, with a number of non-profit organisations vowing to take the state to court over the law change. According to a report by Fox News, Stitt signed SB 613...

HENRYETTA, Okla. - Breaking News Update: Authorities involved in the search for two missing teen girls in Henryetta say that seven people have been found dead. The sheriff in Okmulgee County confirmed the bodies of Ivy Webster, 14, and Brittany Brewer, 16, have been found around the property. The body of Jesse McFadden was also found on the property, authorities say. Officials have not identified the other victims. This is a developing story. Refresh this page for updates.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt indicated Friday that he would continue vetoing unrelated bills until the House and Senate agree on school choice and tax cuts. Stitt vetoed 20 unrelated Senate bills this week, all with the same message. "Until we get tax cuts, until we get parent choice done, we are not going to do all this other stuff for lobbyists and special interest groups," Stitt said at his weekly news conference. "Let's get those things done and then we will be happy to talk about some other things in the budget." The House and Senate have passed two versions...

An online Christian preacher has been ordered by a Washington County judge in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to stay silent on social media for five years after he expressed his moral and religious concerns in posts about a church that endorses same-sex marriage and a public drag queen performance in front of children. A team of attorneys with The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, has stepped in to help Rich Penkoski. They're asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to overturn the five-year restraining order against him, denouncing it as excessive and a clear violation of the pastor's First Amendment rights to...

A devastating 'supercell' tornado system has ripped through Kansas and Oklahoma, killing at least two people while levelling entire homes and leaving a trail of destruction across multiple counties. The terrifying twisters tore through the Midwest Wednesday evening, while parts of Nebraska, Missouri, Texas and Iowa have also been placed under tornado and severe thunderstorm watches. Tennis-ball sized hail and torrential winds cut across the region, leaving approximately 20,000 people in the dark after the storms downed powerlines.

Live coverage of the April 19th, 2023 severe weather event!

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) joined a crop of Tennessee Republicans endorsing former President Donald Trump's 2024 bid. Echoing her Senate counterpart, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), who backed Trump over the weekend, Blackburn lauded Trump's achievements on the economy and border on Monday, framing his election to a second term as the solution to stubbornly high inflation and the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States. She is the ninth senator to back Trump. HAGERTY BECOMES EIGHTH GOP SENATOR TO ENDORSE TRUMP IN 2024 PRIMARY"Under President Trump, our economy was booming, gas prices were low, and inflation was under control....

The governor of Oklahoma has called for the resignations of the sheriff and other top officials in a rural county after they were recorded talking about "beating, killing and burying" a father/son team of local reporters — and lamenting that they could no longer hang Black people with a “damned rope.” Gov. Kevin Stitt called for McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy, county Commissioner Mark Jennings, sheriff's investigator Alicia Manning, and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix to step down after the McCurtain County Gazette-News published an article over the weekend about what was captured on the recording. “I am both appalled and...

Davis was arrested on a public intoxication charge this week. During the arrest, Davis was heard asking the arresting officer, "are you really doing this?" The officer responded with, "no sir, you're doing this." Davis is currently serving in Oklahoma's current legislative session. The footage shows Davis cooperating with the arresting officers. He made a statement on the House floor the next day. “I understand that last night has become a story and that many of my colleagues in the House are being asked to comment on or to explain the events of last night. I dispute any wrongdoing. However...

Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., joined forces with 18 GOP governors to reject President Joe Biden's environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) "agenda," claiming the push is a "direct threat" to the economic freedom of American retirees. Governors in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming formed the alliance Thursday in what they described as an effort to ensure American retirement funds are not used for "woke" investments. "Yet again, President Biden put his political agenda above the wellbeing and individual freedoms of hardworking Americans,"...

America's first-ever Muslim non-binary lawmaker has been censured and stripped of their assignments for harboring a fugitive friend accused of attacking a cop during a protest over transgender rights. Mauree Turner - who uses they/them pronouns, will be banned from committee assignments unless she issues a formal apology, including to Highway Patrol cops said to have been assaulted by her friend Ross. During the protest, the fugitive, Austin Ross, is accused of flinging water at Rep. Bob Ed Culver, R-Tahlequah, after the passing of HB 2177, a bill banning gender affirming care for minors.

Oklahoma has rejected recreational marijuana, per a vote Tuesday on State Question 820. The Associated Press called the race with the "no" votes up by more than a 60 to 40 percent margin just after 8 p.m. Tuesday. State Question 820 would have legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older. If passed, SQ 820 would have gone into effect on June 5

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — A man drove himself to his Tulsa home after being shot during a home invasion in Sand Springs, according to the Osage County Sheriff's Office. Deputies say they were called to a home on Heritage Hills Drive in Sand Springs just after 8 p.m. Thursday night for a home invasion. The homeowner shot the suspect, now identified as 52-year-old Robert Lee Johnson, in the face with a .45 caliber, according to the sheriff's office. Deputies say Johnson was in the process of assaulting his ex-girlfriend when he was shot, who is also the homeowner's niece. Johnson...

State Question 820 is on the ballot almost five years after Oklahoma voters legalized medical marijuana with the passage of State Question 788. Groups have worked to get recreational marijuana on an Oklahoma ballot. In October, Gov. Kevin Stitt set a date for early March when Oklahomans could decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana

On a stifling July day, Elon Musk sat across from the governor of Oklahoma under a small white pop-up tent, a red Tesla flag waving from a short pole in an otherwise unadorned field. That the billionaire was even in Oklahoma, seriously considering putting a gigantic new Tesla factory outside of Tulsa, was a major turning point for the frequently overlooked state. Suddenly, Oklahoma could boast of being on par with its much larger neighbor and rival, Texas. The only other city still in the running for the plant, by that point in 2020, was Austin. The wide shadow of...

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma sent a letter to Attorney General Gentner Drummond Monday indicating that he was “troubled” by a recent opinion the AG gave regarding religious charter schools. Drummond issued an opinion late last week recanting his predecessor, John O’Conner’s, support of religious charter schools calling it “state-funded religion.” Stitt responded to Drummond’s claims Monday, arguing that by not providing religious citizens with an alternative, they may very well be forced to choose between their faith and receiving an education, according to the letter. “You state that ‘religious liberty is one of our most fundamental freedoms’ that...