All posts tagged: Oklahoma

Oklahoma City plans to have the country’s tallest skyscraper

Oklahoma City plans to have the country’s tallest skyscraper

Published by skeptic

In the near future, the tallest skyscraper in America might not appear in New York, or Chicago, or Los Angeles. Instead, it could jolt upward through the comparably sparse Oklahoma City skyline. If realized, the hulking building proposal referred to as the “Legends Tower” would be more than double the height of the city’s next tallest building.  [ Related: The tallest building in the world remains unchallenged—for now ] Oklahoma City’s planning commission approved a height increase request submitted by the tower’s developer last week, nudging the once seemingly unlikely idea close to reality. Designers want the building to soar 1,907 feet high, a number that purposely coincides with the date Oklahoma became a US state. That audacious height would make the Legends Tower more than 200 feet taller than New York’s 1,776-foot One World Trade Center. Globally, only five other buildings are taller. Developers previously suggested a 1750 foot tower prior to the height increase. Clearly, that wasn’t tall enough.  The mixed used tower, as currently proposed, would be mostly residential with 1,750 apartments …

CHURCH & STATE | Oklahoma Devalues Transgender and Nonbinary Kids — With Tragic Results

CHURCH & STATE | Oklahoma Devalues Transgender and Nonbinary Kids — With Tragic Results

Published by Sam

The Pew Research Center reported in 2022 that 1.6% of Americans are transgender or nonbinary. Among those aged 18-29, the figure hit 5 percent. That’s millions of people. They are children, our neighbors, our friends and our coworkers. And in many parts of the country, their lives are treated as disposable. Consider Oklahoma. Under State Superintendent of Instruction Ryan Walters, the state has embarked on an aggressive campaign to reverse the gains made by LGBTQ+ people in recent years. Walters seem to have a special antipathy for transgender/nonbinary students. Put bluntly, Walters not only doesn’t care about these young people, he denies their very existence. In Walters’ opinion, which is informed by his worldview of rigid, fundamentalist Christianity, there are only two genders. God said so. End of discussion. This callous attitude is having dire consequences. Early in February, Nex Benedict, a nonbinary sixteen-year-old sophomore at Owasso High School, was assaulted in a school bathroom, allegedly by three girls. Benedict, who used they/them pronouns, died in a hospital two days later. Initial media accounts implied …

Oklahoma court considers whether to allow the US’ first publicly funded Catholic school

Oklahoma court considers whether to allow the US’ first publicly funded Catholic school

Published by Sam

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general urged the state’s highest court on Tuesday to stop the creation of what would be the nation’s first publicly funded Catholic charter school. Attorney General Gentner Drummond argued the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board violated both the law and the state and federal constitutions when it voted 3-2 in June to approve the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City’s application to establish the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School. “I think that they betrayed their oath of office,” Drummond told the nine-member court. “And they knew they betrayed their oath of office because I told them if they did that they would.” The case is being closely watched because supporters of the school believe recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have indicated the court is more open to public funds going to religious entities. One of Oklahoma’s high court justices asked Drummond if there aren’t already examples of using taxpayer funds for religious purposes, such as Medicaid funding for patients who go to St. Anthony’s Hospital, …

Oklahoma official with white nationalist ties is voted out of office

Oklahoma official with white nationalist ties is voted out of office

Published by skeptic

ENID, Okla. — Voters in Enid decided by a nearly 20-point margin Tuesday to remove a City Council member over his ties to white nationalist groups.  Judd Blevins lost his seat on Enid’s six-member City Council by 268 votes, according to unofficial results from the Oklahoma State Election Board. Nearly 1,400 people turned out, about a quarter of Ward 1’s registered voters and hundreds more than voted when Blevins was first elected last year. Blevins will be replaced by Cheryl Patterson, a former teacher and longtime Republican who campaigned on a return to “normalcy” for this small city nearly 100 miles north of Oklahoma City, which was divided by the furor over Blevins. Cheryl Patterson said she hoped the results would show that Enid residents stood against white nationalism.Michael Noble Jr. for NBC News “We won,” said Connie Vickers, a Democrat in conservative Enid, who was among the first to publicly confront Blevins over his white nationalist ties. “Blevins lost. Hate lost.”  Blevins faced the recall vote after local activists learned that he had marched …

Head Start Preschools Aim to Fight Poverty, but Their Teachers Struggle to Make Ends Meet

Head Start Preschools Aim to Fight Poverty, but Their Teachers Struggle to Make Ends Meet

Published by skeptic

WASHINGTON (AP) — In some ways, Doris Milton is a Head Start success story. She was a student in one of Chicago’s inaugural Head Start classes, when the antipoverty program, which aimed to help children succeed by providing them a first-rate preschool education, was in its infancy. Milton loved her teacher so much that she decided to follow in her footsteps. She now works as a Head Start teacher in Chicago. After four decades on the job, Milton, 63, earns $22.18 an hour. Her pay puts her above the poverty line, but she is far from financially secure. She needs a dental procedure she cannot afford, and she is paying down $65,000 of student loan debt from National Louis University, where she came within two classes of getting her bachelor’s degree. She dropped out in 2019 when she fell ill. “I’m trying to meet their needs when nobody’s meeting mine,” Milton said of teaching preschoolers. Head Start teachers — 70% of whom have bachelor’s degrees — earn $39,000 a year on average, far less than …

Wildfires Rage Across the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma

Wildfires Rage Across the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma

Published by skeptic

The Smokehouse Creek Fire, which was sparked on Monday, has already burned across more than 500,000 acres, pushed by high winds and dry conditions. It is the largest of several brush fires now burning across the Texas Panhandle and parts of northwestern Oklahoma, prompting evacuations and disaster declarations, as authorities warn the weather will remain dangerously dry for at least another week. Gathered below, some early images from the region. Source link

Vigils held nationwide for nonbinary Oklahoma teen who died after school fight

Vigils held nationwide for nonbinary Oklahoma teen who died after school fight

Published by skeptic

A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died one day after a fight in a high school bathroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City. Nate Billings/AP hide caption toggle caption Nate Billings/AP A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died one day after a fight in a high school bathroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City. Nate Billings/AP EDMOND, Okla. — Vigils took place across the nation for an Oklahoma teenager who died the day after a fight in a high school bathroom in which the nonbinary student said they were a target of bullying. Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns, got into an altercation with three girls in an Owasso High School bathroom who were picking on Benedict and some friends. The girls attacked Benedict for pouring water on them, the teen told police in a video released Friday. Benedict’s mother called …

Vigils nationwide mourn nonbinary Oklahoma teen Nex Benedict

Vigils nationwide mourn nonbinary Oklahoma teen Nex Benedict

Published by skeptic

EDMOND, Okla. —  Vigils took place across the nation over the weekend for an Oklahoma teenager who died the day after a fight in a high school bathroom in which the nonbinary student said they were the target of bullying. Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old Oklahoma student who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns, got into an altercation Feb. 7 with three girls in an Owasso High School bathroom who were picking on Benedict and some friends, the teen told police. The girls attacked Benedict for pouring water on them, the teen told police in a video released Friday. Benedict’s mother called emergency responders to the family home the day after the fight, saying Benedict’s breathing was shallow, eyes were rolling back and hands were curled, according to audio released by Owasso police. Vigils for Benedict were held in cities including Boston, Minneapolis and Huntington Beach. Others were held or planned in several states including Washington, New Jersey, New York and Texas. Kanan Durham, executive director of Pride at the Pier, said during the Huntington Beach …

Video: Oklahoma nonbinary teen after attack in school bathroom, day before their death

Video: Oklahoma nonbinary teen after attack in school bathroom, day before their death

Published by skeptic

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A 16-year-old Oklahoma student who died the day after a fight in a high school bathroom was conscious and alert when telling police about the attack by three girls that occurred after the teen squirted them with water, according to police video released Friday. Nex Benedict’s mother called police to come to the hospital on Feb. 7 after the teen was attacked at school in the Tulsa suburb of Owasso. Nex, who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns, died the next day after their mother called emergency responders to their home, saying Nex’s breathing was shallow, their eyes were rolling back and their hands were curled, according to audio also released by Owasso police. In the video from the hospital the day of the altercation, Nex explains to an officer that the girls had been picking on them and their friends because of the way they dressed. Nex claims that in the bathroom the girls said “something like: why do they laugh like that,” referring to Nex and their friends. …