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The University of Oklahoma is immediately severing "all ties and affiliations" between the school and its local Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, the university president said today ...

Parents of the second Oklahoma University student filmed conducting his Sigma Alpha Epsilon brothers along to a racist chant on a bus have outed their 'disgusting' son - but insist he isn't a racist. Brody and Susan Pettit, from Dallas, issued an apology on behalf of 20-year-old Levi on Tuesday night - three days after he was filmed singing 'There will never be a N**** in SAE' in a sickening video that has shocked the nation. He, along with Parker Rice, a 19-year-old privately-educated former Catholic schoolboy, were immediately expelled by the university president who also booted the disgraced chapter...

Oklahoma would stop issuing marriage licenses under legislation passed Tuesday afternoon by the Oklahoma House of Representatives. House Bill 1125, by Rep. Todd Russ, R-Cordell, would instead require those officiating marriage ceremonies to file after-the-fact “certificates of marriage” with court clerks’ offices. Alternatively, couples could file affidavits of common law marriage. Russ said his bill is intended to “protect” county court clerks who do not want to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. “This takes them out of the trap,” he said. Somewhat ironically, the bill removes from statute language limiting marriage to one man and one woman. Other marriage...

Moments after Levi Pettit’s family apologized for their son’s behavior in the SAE video, Parker Rice — the recent Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas graduate — sent his own apology, via his father Bob. Here it is in full: “I am deeply sorry for what I did Saturday night. It was wrong and reckless. I made a horrible mistake by joining into the singing and encouraging others to do the same. On Monday, I withdrew from the university, and sadly, at this moment our family is not able to be in our home because of threatening calls as well...

Some University of Oklahoma students in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity were videorecorded singing (as best I and others can tell),

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f8lr3B628c

The conductor of a sickening racist chant by a University of Oklahoma fraternity has been identified as a graduate of an elite Catholic school in Dallas. Parker Rice is an OU freshman. It is believe he did not even live in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house, which was shut down by the university on Monday. Rice graduated last year from the prestigious Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. A spokesman for the school's president, Mike Earsing, told Daily Mail Online: 'We know for sure it is one of our students and it is Parker Rice.' On Tuesday, university president...

University of Oklahoma President David Boren has expelled two students he says have been identified as leading a racist chant as part of a fraternity event. Boren said in a statement Tuesday the two students were dismissed for creating a “hostile learning environment for others.” The students’ names were not released.

Less than 48 hours after a video surfaced of a racist chant was recorded at a frat function, the University of Oklahoma ordered the closure of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house. Hundreds of students and faculty protested Sigma Alpha Epsilon on Monday morning. The University of Oklahoma is severing all ties with its Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter after leaked cellphone video shows members chanting racial slurs. University of Oklahoma President David Boren sent a clear message to the Oklahoma community Monday morning a night after a leaked video reportedly shows members of the campus' Sigma Alpha Epsilon singing a racist...

Some Oklahoma University students in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity were videorecorded singing (as best I and others can tell), There will never be a n***** at SAE There will never be a n***** at SAE You can hang him from a tree But he’ll never sign with me There will never be a n***** at SAE [Edited from source] Oklahoma University president David Boren said, “If I’m allowed to, these students will face suspension or expulsion.” But he is not, I think, allowed to do that.

A sorority at the beleaguered University of Oklahoma has come under fire over its involvement in the racist chant by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity over the weekend. The Delta Delta Deltas have been identified as the sorority members on a chartered bus when frat brothers started singing 'there will never be a n**** in SAE.' At least one female student can be seen in the video. She appears to raise her cell phone to record the incident. Her date, however, can be seen clapping to the song. It is also believed that female voices can be heard cheering on...

New revelations are fueling the outrage at the University of Oklahoma and beyond. Some members of the school's Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity face disciplinary action. A video surfaced Sunday showing members chanting a racist song containing the "n-word." ....When CBS News spoke with her, she was reacting to the nine-second video of students chanting racial slurs. But on Tuesday morning, it's her own words that have set the internet ablaze. In the 2013 video posted on Vine, Gilbow is seen "rapping" the lyrics to a song that includes the "n-word."

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...

Sigma Alpha Epsilon's national headquarters closed its chapter at the University of Oklahoma Sunday after a video emerged purportedly showing members of the chapter singing a racist chant. The video quickly gained visibility online. It was obtained and posted to Twitter by Unheard, which describes itself as "an alliance of Black students organized for change within campus administration and atmosphere," shows young men on a bus chanting "There will never be a n----r at SAE." The tweet, directed at OU president David Boren, says "Racism is alive at The University of Oklahoma." Students at the university plan to demonstrate on...

GOP Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma .. said he doesn't think relying heavily on Democratic votes is a "new normal." But he conceded the Republican-led Congress faces even tougher choices ahead, including another debt limit showdown this year, in which scores of conservatives are unlikely to help. ... Tuesday's vote was perhaps the final coffin nail in the "Hastert Rule," promulgated by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. He said a speaker should not allow votes on major bills opposed by most of his caucus. More than two-thirds of House Republicans voted against the DHS bill Boehner offered Tuesday.

<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma would become the first state to allow the execution of inmates using nitrogen gas under a bill that overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives.</p> <p>The House voted 85-10 on Tuesday for the bill by Oklahoma City Republican Rep. Mike Christian, who described the method as humane, painless and easy to administer. There was no debate against the bill, which now heads to the Senate.</p>

~snip~ It wasn't always like this. Between 1978 and 2008, Oklahoma averaged fewer than two significant earthquakes per year. In 2014, that number had spiked to 585, including 19 that measured a powerful 4.0 magnitude or stronger...

Magellan Midstream Partners and Plains All American Pipeline are teaming up on a new $850 million, 550-mile pipeline to carry crude oil from Colorado to Cushing, Oklahoma. The new pipeline, called the Saddlehorn, will be built and owned by the Saddlehorn Pipeline Co., a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies. In an announcement Friday, Plains and Magellan said the new line has binding commitments from producers Noble Energy and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., and that Anadarko has an option to obtain a 20 percent stake in the venture. The line could be in service by mid-2016 if permitting and construction...

The people who ran the Abercrombie & Fitch Kids store at a Tulsa mall in 2008 were inclined to hire Samantha Elauf. The 17-year-old got high marks in her first interview for a sales position on such criteria as “appearance and sense of style” and “outgoing and promotes diversity.” Part of Elauf’s appearance, however, was the headscarf she wore because she’s a Muslim. The store employees in charge of hiring thought it might conflict with the company’s “Look Policy” so they called the district manager for advice. He told them not to hire her. The company has been in a...

Dale Long died in the same red car he used to run into an apartment security guard on a cold night in early January. Long, who had been arrested in Tulsa nearly a dozen times since the early 1990s, was spotted by security officers who recognized him not only as the source of the disturbance to which they were responding but also as someone who had been banned from the property. Tulsa police homicide Sgt. Dave Walker said Long was shot in the torso when the security officer he ran into pushed away from the vehicle and fired a single...