Aid for damages in Oklahoma ice storm tops $122 million

DENTON, Texas - Aid to Oklahoma has eclipsed $122 million for damage from a midwinter ice storm, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Wednesday.

The agency, the Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management and the U.S. Small Business Administration have funneled $122.3 million to the state.

Ice storms that began on Christmas shut off power for most of southeastern Oklahoma, snapped power lines and poles and damaged public facilities and homes.

Most of the assistance - $107.8 million - paid for repair to roads, bridges, public facilities and utilities as well as for debris removal and emergency protective measures.

FEMA can reimburse local and state governments for 100 percent of reasonable costs to remove debris.


Number of medium-income farms rising in Oklahoma

TULSA - Oklahoma continues to buck a national trend by adding farms, often close to urban areas where retirees and others make a part-time living off the land.

The number of larger farms is also growing, but grain producers continue to struggle with low prices and face bleak futures while higher cattle prices are helping keep some farmers afloat.

There were 85,000 farms in Oklahoma last year on 34 million acres, up from 84,000 farms on the same acreage in 1999, according to the Oklahoma Agricultural Statistics Service. Nationally, the number of farms and ranches shrunk 1 percent to 2.17 million.

The smallest Oklahoma farms, those with incomes under $10,000, fell by 100 last year to 52,500.

Farms with sales between $10,000 and $99,000 grew by 1,000, to 26,500. The largest farms numbered 6,000 last year, up 100.


House sends meth clean-up bill to governor's desk

OKLAHOMA CITY - Gov. Frank Keating's desk is the next stop for legislation to require criminal defendants convicted of operating methamphetamine labs to pay for the cost of cleaning them up.

The Oklahoma House passed the measure without opposition Wednesday and sent it to Keating for his signature. It was previously passed by the state Senate.

The measure's author, Rep. Stuart Ericson, R-Muskogee, said Keating is expected to sign the bill into law.

Ericson, a former Muskogee County prosecutor, said state law does not provide a way for authorities to require meth lab operators to pay the cost of cleaning up hazardous chemicals that are used in the process.


Man stabbed outside Oklahoma County courthouse

OKLAHOMA CITY - A man stabbed his ex-wife's boyfriend several times outside the Oklahoma County Courthouse following a domestic hearing Wednesday morning, authorities said.

The alleged attacker was taken into custody while the victim was taken to a local hospital where he was listed in good condition, officials said.

The stabbing happened around 9:30 a.m. after a domestic hearing involving a woman, her ex-husband, an infant and the woman's boyfriend, said sheriff's Capt. Rickey Barrow.

One of the men became belligerent during the hearing and began arguing with the other man, Barrow said. The argument continued into a hallway and then outside the building where the two began fighting, Barrow said.

A sheriff's deputy broke up the fight and took the ex-husband into custody on a complaint of assault with a deadly weapon, Barrow said.


Cases from flood lawsuit scheduled for fall docket

MIAMI - A multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit blaming the Grand River Dam Authority for floods in Ottawa County appears to be headed for a fall trial.

Ottawa County Associate District Judge Robert Reavis scheduled four flood-damage cases from the lawsuit for the fall docket.

It alleges damage occurred between November 1992 and June 1995, when the Grand River Dam Authority didn't release water through the Pensacola Dam, causing backwater flooding on the Neosho River and Tar Creek.

The authority says the dam could not influence flooding as far upstream as Miami and maintains it should be immune from such a lawsuit.

The lawsuit has 111 plaintiffs, including local and tribal governments and businesses.


Keating allocates oil overcharge funds to towns

OKLAHOMA CITY- More than $888,000 in oil overcharge funds is being put toward a variety of municipal and civic projects, Gov. Frank Keating announced Wednesday.

Oil overcharge funds are made available to the states by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The governor's allocations included $300,000 to install energy efficient windows at the Oklahoma School for the Blind and the Oklahoma School for the Deaf; $100,000 to help the Bristow Public Schools buy a geothermal heat pump system for a new elementary school; and $100,000 to Special Care Inc., of Oklahoma City, to purchase energy efficient equipment at a new facility.
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