By Warren Vieth Oklahoma Watch The social media blitz started in late July. The radio and TV spots showed up in mid-August, along with six billboards placed along key interstate highways. A sleeker website will be unveiled soon. The…
By Nate Robson Oklahoma Watch A resilient economy and low unemployment have done little to stem the tide of students who are finding themselves homeless in Oklahoma. Despite a five-year oil and gas boom and falling jobless rates, growing…
By M. Scott Carter Oklahoma Watch Though the minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour for most Oklahomans, several tribal nations pay more or have boosted their entry-level wage above the federal level, a move that could cause the…
By Warren Vieth Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma is one of only seven states that grew younger last year, thanks in part to an influx of 20-something oilfield workers, newly-released Census Bureau data shows. The Sooner State also became slightly more…
By Juan Miret LatinaLista On February 3, 2014, two CBS stations and affiliates in Oklahoma – News on 6 in Tulsa and News on 9 in Oklahoma City – aired a story connecting the increase of the undocumented population…
By Clifton Adcock and Shaun Hittle Oklahoma Watch LEXINGTON, Oklahoma — Two times a day, seven days a week, hundreds of prisoners at Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington break into four lines to receive medications from prison staff….
LatinaLista — Pingbacks are when other sites link to your site. The other night, I received an alert that someone had pinged a post on Latina Lista. The post was about the Oklahoma teen, August Reiger, who disappeared Father’s Day…
By Shaun Hittle Oklahoma Watch During most of the past two decades, the annual number of alcohol-related traffic deaths across the country has fallen by about 20 percent, to more than 11,500. More stringent drunken driving laws, widespread public…
By Juan Miret LatinaLista On June 16, 2013, 18-year-old August Reiger had the world at his feet — until he mysteriously vanished along an Ecuadorian mountain trail just a few yards in front of his family. The Oklahoma City…
By Shaun Hittle Oklahoma Watch Several years ago, legislators in both Oklahoma and North Carolina began taking steps to address rising incarceration rates. The number of incarcerated offenders in Oklahoma had increased by a few thousand inmates in the…
By Warren Vieth and Darren Jaworkski Oklahoma Watch When the government starts helping low-wage workers pay for health insurance next year, 6,704 Oklahoma cooks will be left empty-handed. So will 6,154 cashiers, 4,572 waiters, 4,207 housekeepers and 3,870 retail…
By Juan Miret LatinaLista The typical image of an American soldier is that of a strong, blond hair and blue-eyed male. That could be part of the script to a predictable war movie. However, the American armed forces are…
By Chase Cook Oklahoma Watch When they’re ill, they borrow medicine from relatives or get discounted prescriptions from a community health center. If they’re hurting from an ear infection, back sprain or other painful injury, they may go to…
By Juan Miret LatinaLista Saint Toribio Romo, patron saint of immigrants, arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma with no papers on May 21, 2008. “He did it like many other immigrants have done it before,” said Simón Navarro, president of the…
LatinaLista — Among the many sad and haunting images of the May 20 EF5 tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma is one of seven wooden crosses hammered into a patch of grass standing guard where Plaza Towers Elementary school once…
LatinaLista — May 20, 2013 is a new milestone in the state of Oklahoma’s long history as the heart of tornado alley. According to the latest reports about the tornado and its victims, the twister is classified as an…
By Chase Cook Oklahoma Watch Undocumented immigrants given temporary legal status under a new immigration bill would be denied access to Medicaid and other subsidized insurance offered by the federal health-reform law. That would mean thousands of immigrants, while…
By Chase Cook Oklahoma Watch Among thousands of Oklahoma students who could be held back in third grade for failing a state reading test next year, a disproportionate share will likely be low-income children, an Oklahoma Watch analysis of…
By Sara Martínez LatinaLista Rilla Askew is an Oklahoma author with a heart of gold and a way with a story. Her latest novel, Kind of Kin, places an Oklahoma family at the center of the vortex that was…
By Ron J. Jackson Jr. Oklahoma Watch HEAVENER — Atop Poteau Mountain, cloaked by white oak, black locust and other towering trees, sits the mysterious runestone. Ever since its discovery in 1874, experts have passionately debated whether the runic…
By Graham Lee Brewer Oklahoma Watch GUYMON, OK — It’s a weekday morning, and downtown Guymon is bustling. Guatemalans walk into a clothing store, passing a small group of Mexicans chatting on the sidewalk. Across the street, a man…
By Warren Vieth Oklahoma Watch The growth of Hennessey’s Hispanic population is mirrored in other cities and towns. Hennessey ranks among the top 10 hot spots of Hispanic population growth in Oklahoma, according to an analysis of U.S. Census…
LatinaLista — Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is hopping mad — just like the rest of his party over the passage of the President’s healthcare bill. The only difference between Graham’s anger versus his colleagues is that he’s going to…
LatinaLista — It seems there is a flipside to driving undocumented immigrants out of your state. In the past two years, there has been an irrational vengeance by some state legislators to drive undocumented immigrants out of their states….
LatinaLista — When it comes to state mandated immigration enforcement, two states that top the list of literally trying to drive out undocumented immigrants, and make Latino residents uncomfortable, are Arizona and Oklahoma. What’s happening in Arizona is more…
