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OU death not linked to terrorism By Nolan Clay The FBI concluded a University of Oklahoma student who blew himself up last year on campus was not a terrorist, the top agent in Oklahoma says. "We have no evidence he had a social or political agenda that he was trying to bring attention to," said Salvador Hernandez, the FBI's special agent in charge in Oklahoma. "We don't consider this terrorism the way we define it," he said. "There would have to be a cause." Joel "Joe" Henry Hinrichs III, an engineering student, died Oct. 1 when his bomb went off...

Taking flightBurleson native Kelly Clarkson is taking off again, this time with the Blue Angels. American Idol's first sweetheart will fly with the Navy's flight demonstration team today at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth. She'll join Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops and CBS Channel 11's Babe Laufenberg in a preview performance of this weekend's air show.

NORMAN - A Norman police bomb expert said Tuesday he does not believe University of Oklahoma student Joel Henry Hinrichs III committed suicide by blowing himself up outside a packed football stadium. "I believe he accidentally blew himself up," Sgt. George Mauldin said. Mauldin said Hinrichs, 21, an engineering student, had two to three pounds of triacetone triperoxide, commonly known as TATP, in a backpack in his lap when it exploded Oct. 1. When asked if he believed Hinrichs meant to enter the stadium with the explosives, Mauldin replied, "I don't believe he intended for an explosion to occur at...

Note the reference to three Algerian terrorist plotters with al Qaeda links who were arrested in Italy last month for planning attacks on U.S. stadiums and other targets. Now, watch this news report by Oklahoma reporter Tamara Pratt at News9 and note the destination on the plane tickets for Joel Hinrich's roomie, which were reportedly found in the apartment the two men shared.

Norman, Oklahoma (population 100,923), is as American heartland as it gets. So on October 1, 2005, when Joel Hinrichs III, a 21-year-old Colorado Springs, Colorado engineering student at the University of Oklahoma strapped explosives to his body and blew himself up outside the college stadium where 84,000 fans were watching a Saturday-night football game, thus earning the town the distinction as home to America's first suicide bomber, I was, well, curious. Within 24 hours of the event, three players in the unfolding story issued statements aimed at quashing rumors that the bombing was terrorist related. University President David Boren, in...

NORMAN - Two men charged in Cleveland County with breaking into a University of Oklahoma room marked "biohazard" were involved in a "stupid prank" and not something more sinister, an attorney for one of the men said. Christopher Thomas Boyce, 24, of Norman and James Kent Eldridge, 21, are both charged with felony counts of second-degree burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary. Eldridge is an OU junior from Oklahoma City studying in the College of Arts and Sciences, according to the OU Web site. Boyce was not listed as being enrolled at OU. On Oct. 20, a woman told OU...

Two former OU students accused of breaking into OU’s underground tunnel network are members of a local activist group that claims it has been harassed by the FBI. Group members said they were questioned by FBI agents about Joel Henry Hinrichs III and the books they own. Christopher Boyce, 24, and James Kent Eldridge, 21, who are both charged with second-degree burglary and conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary, belonged to the Greenbriar Collective, a group that practices organic gardening and operates a lending library out of a house in east Norman. According to the Cleveland County District Attorney’s office, Boyce...

Prosecutors are considering felony charges for an OU campus burglary. ‘The circumstances of today’s environment caused everybody to look at it in a worst case scenario framework,’ an assistant district attorney says. ----------------------- Two men arrested for breaking into maintenance tunnels beneath the University of Oklahoma and burglarizing a biology building entered a room marked “biohazard,” according to the Cleveland County District Attorney’s office. Cleveland County assistant district attorney Rick Sitzman said Christopher Boyce, 24, and James Kent Eldridge, 21, broke into an opening into a tunnel network beneath the university, made their way underground into the Richards Hall zoology...

NORMAN, Okla. -- Hundreds of students are now under investigation after fake IDs are found on the University of Oklahoma campus. Police said the latest rash of fake IDs have come from Dallas and that an OU fraternity member is selling the bogus Texas driver's licenses for about $100 each. Experts say these IDs are so close to the real thing that they're virtually undetectable. "The ones coming out of Texas are really good, and they're getting better," said O'Connell's bartender Todd Emerson. Emerson has confiscated dozens of fake IDs at the Norman pub. "Most of these IDs are pretty...

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma - Has terrorism returned to the Oklahoma City area? That is what folks in Norman have been asking, ever since a 21-year-old student at the University of Oklahoma killed himself in what some are calling an attempted homicide bombing. On Saturday, October 1, engineering major Joel Hinrichs detonated a homemade bomb near Memorial Stadium, where 84,000 fans were watching the hometown Sooners take on Kansas State. That was just a hundred yards from a newly replaced bench -- it was there, just before halftime, that a powerful explosion ripped through the entire area, taking Hinrichs with it....

Published: October 23, 2005 02:11 am Close call, but fun for all • Security fears, narrow win don’t dampen OU’s Homecoming festivities By James S. Tyree Transcript Staff Writer Excerpt--from the middle of the story: A cloud of caution hung over the day’s festivities. In OU’s first home football game since the Oct. 1 fatal bombing on South Oval, everyone entering the stadium received written notices of what to do in case of emergency, and bags were checked more thoroughly. The university also showed a pregame video presentation with OU president David Boren and athletics director Joe Castiglione explaining emergency...

Everyone should own a firearm Staff column by Matt Hamilton October 20, 2005 “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” This is the text of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, these 27 words spark an enormous debate in America today. Some believe this applies strictly to the rights of the states to maintain a militia, and that no private ownership of weapons is inherently guaranteed. Though I must ask them what happened to “state” militias. Others believe...

If you're heading to OU's home game against Baylor Saturday, get ready for something new. The University will give an evacuation plan to fans heading through the gates. OU President David Boren mailed season ticket holders a letter that tells them to get to the game early, because searches will be going on at all stadium gates. This comes after 21-year-old Joel Hinrichs III killed himself with a home-made bomb outside the stadium on October 1. Investigators say the blast was an isolated incident.

Two Norman men face felony charges after allegedly breaking into a tunnel under the University of Oklahoma campus to get into a building on the South Oval. Christopher Thomas Boyce, 24, and James Kent Eldridge, 20, were charged Thursday in Cleveland County District Court with conspiracy to commit burglary and second-degree burglary. According to an affidavit, a witness saw Boyce and Eldridge entering an underground tunnel system by cutting the locks to a manhole cover in the 1100 block of Asp Avenue. Police said the pair then opened a perimeter door and entered Richards Hall, where they removed a "stoppered...

Additional bomb scares have increased safety measures by Scooby Axson October 19, 2005 After the Oct. 1 explosion outside Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and three additional bomb scares on or near university campuses in the following two weeks, OU officials are taking extra safety precautions. OU Department of Public Safety officials said officers will take additional security precautions at Saturday’s game against Baylor University, the first home game since Oct. 1. OU President David L. Boren sent a letter to season ticket holders explaining the stadium’s security measures. “Your safety while on the OU campus will always remain our top priority,”...

Sun October 16, 2005 OU student left suicide message By Nolan Clay The Oklahoman NORMAN - The University of Oklahoma student who died in an explosion Oct. 1 left a message on his computer that he was going to quit living, his father said. The FBI read the message to the father Friday, after he came to Oklahoma to clear out his son's university-owned apartment. Joel "Joe" Henry Hinrichs III, an engineering student, died when his bomb went off about 100 yards from the packed football stadium during the second quarter of OU's night game against Kansas State. Hinrichs, 21,...

One week and two days after the FBI began investigating the Joel Hinrichs case, the feds seemingly have stopped releasing information about what they have learned. It’s time the FBI opened its files and provided The Daily, other media and the greater public with some of the answers it undoubtedly has, for more than one reason. First, the public wants to know. Second, and almost more importantly, the longer this silence continues, the more students, faculty and the nation become “certain” in their “knowledge” of what has happened. But that “knowledge” is based mostly on conjecture and hearsay, and while...

Father apologizes for son's actions By Nolan Clay and Ty McMahan The Oklahoman The father of a University of Oklahoma student who died in a bombing has apologized for the actions of his son. "I truly hang my head," the father, Joel Hinrichs Jr., said from Colorado Springs, Colo. Joel "Joe" Henry Hinrichs III, an engineering student, died Oct. 1 when a bomb went off outside the football stadium during the second quarter of OU's night game against Kansas State. The FBI and OU are treating the bombing as a suicide by a troubled loner, rather than a failed...

Sorry for the vanity, but after losing for five years to these guys and Bob Stoops visor and smirk, it felt good to lay a whooping on them! Put this in your hard drive and smoke it Sooner and Aggie fans. http://www.fightmusic.com/mp3/big12/Texas__Texas_Fight.mp3

Alrighty sports fans, today is the 100th meeting between the Longhorns and Sooners, starting @noon CST on ABC! The game ought to be a great one...I'll go out on a limb and predict UT over OU, 45-10.