Wednesday, March 4, 2026 • Rain and storms across the state, and much cooler. Highs near 60. 🌧️

👉 Weather map: SPC Day 1 outlook.

By Maddy Keyes, The Frontier
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A dog named Elle greets visitors at the door of a Victorian house near downtown Norman. Toys and books are strung across tables in the living room, framed by couches and kid-sized chairs. Nearby, a hallway is painted with dozens of handprints of different sizes and colors. 

But this is not a typical home.

Each handprint was left by a child who had witnessed or experienced some form of domestic violence or sexual abuse. Nearly every inch of the wall is stamped with finger and palm prints. And when there was no space left in the hallway, large, blank canvases were hung in the kitchen to make room for more. 

“We did fill it up in about a year and a half,” Anna Adkins said. “We see a lot of kids.” 

Adkins works as operations director for Mary Abbott Children’s House, which provides forensic interviews and medical assessments for children who have been victims of abuse, neglect, or who may have witnessed a crime. It’s one of 21 such children’s advocacy centers in the state. The centers provide services to victims of the most heinous and shocking crimes; child physical and sexual abuse, witnesses to violence and brutal murders.

Abbott House sees around 1,000 kids a year, and demand for its services continues to grow. The number of clients served by the organization has more than doubled in the past decade, records show. But the federal funding that helps pay for the services has plummeted in recent years.

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A hand-curated list of the best journalism from across the state:

• Vietnamese man living in US since childhood detained by ICE over expunged marijuana charge (KOCO)

• Roadway named after late Oklahoma country music star (Oklahoma Voice)

• SCOTUS considers whether plea deals block all appeals in Oklahoma (Gaylord News)

• OAGC alleging threats over turnpike project, Pike Off OTA rebukes (KFOR)

• Two Oklahoma bills aimed at reducing grocery costs die in committee (The Oklahoman)*

• Oklahoma lawmakers advance bill limiting ability to consider religious practices (Oklahoma Voice)

• Bipartisan bill requiring annual mental health screenings by Oklahoma providers advances (StateImpact Oklahoma)

• Choctaw Nation reports $4.1 billion economic impact at annual conference (KXII)

• Family files lawsuit against numerous people one year after OU rugby player's death (KOCO)

• Heritage Park Mall owner gets 90 days to clear the Midwest City mall (The Oklahoman)*

• Federal judge declines to confirm Osage Nation's reservation, but offers 'roadmap' to do so (KOSU)

• Oklahoma just had its warmest winter on record. How does it compare to the rest of the country? (StateImpact Oklahoma)

• South Tulsa councilor has nearly $1M to spend. Here’s where it could be headed. (Tulsa Flyer)

• How did OU football's Buster Rhymes influence rapper Busta Rhymes? | Berry Tramel’s ScissorTales (Tulsa World)*

By Lionel Ramos, KOSU
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March 5 is a major deadline date at the Oklahoma State Capitol. All advancing bills must be approved by committees and made available for floor discussion by Thursday evening. Hundreds of measures are up for floor discussion leading up to Thursday.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have managed to approve nearly 800 of the 2,600 measures filed this legislative session for floor discussion.

The deadline for bills to pass their committee of origin is Thursday, so there could be hundreds more measures approved in the coming days.

Still, from big-ticket investments in education and water infrastructure to 2030 Census planning, responses to congressional mandates, and reform of the judicial selection process, members of the Republican majority have mostly advanced their agendas.

But the question remains how they will pay for upcoming expenses, as a projected $1.5 billion budget shortfall looms and the state's nearly $3.6 billion in savings begin to dwindle.

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