Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 • Warmer, low 60s and sunny. ☀️

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In today’s Memo:

• FOUND SAFE: Missing 12-year-old Ryan “RJ” Davis was found safe Sunday in Caddo County after days missing, located by Texas volunteers with the United Cajun Navy not far from his home.

• WATER AT RISK: A proposed mining expansion near Roff is reigniting concerns over the fragile Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer, which supplies drinking water to as many as 150,000 Oklahomans and recharges only a few inches per year.

• TULSA PROTEST: Hundreds of Tulsans protested ICE over the weekend following the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, calling for accountability and changes to federal immigration enforcement.

By Ryan Welton, Oklahoma Memo

We start the week with really good news. Ryan “RJ” Davis, 12, was found safe on Sunday by a couple of volunteers from Texas with a group called the United Cajun Navy.

Davis was found not far from where he lived in Caddo County. He had been missing since January 2, when he was last seen in Chickasha.

The push alerts with the good news started going out midday Sunday. KOCO’s coverage focused on the emotional moments after the 12-year-old was found. News 9 offered up a few takeaways from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation’s press conference Sunday afternoon, including that Davis leveraged some of his own knowledge about outdoor survival to find food and water.

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By Kayla Branch, The Frontier
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Michael Hearrell worries that a proposed mine two miles from his home will dry up his water well.  

Hearrell, a retired pilot, has lived around Roff, a town of just over 600 outside of Ada, his whole life. The town is dotted with a few gas stations, a senior center and a short Main Street that is home to the public school. Roff is also surrounded by mining operations, thanks to the sand reserves nearby. 

The international company Covia wants to develop a 380-acre pit about four miles away from its existing 1,400-acre operation outside of Roff, despite a state moratorium on new mining operations above south-central Oklahoma’s Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer. 

The mining industry has been embedded in the local economy for years — Hearrell’s dad helped build some of the mining infrastructure. But some landowners worry that the expansion will interfere with the sensitive aquifer beneath their feet that supplies drinking water to towns and private wells. Hearrell said he can’t afford to drill a deeper well if the proposed mine were to cause the local water table to drop. 

“If it doesn’t happen, it costs people jobs. But we can’t destroy our water system here for that,” Hearrell said. Hearrell was one of more than 40 individuals or groups who sent protests to the state against the new mine.

“I think you’ve got to look at the bigger picture,” he said.

As many as 150,000 people get drinking water from the 500-square-mile Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

But the aquifer is particularly vulnerable to depletion and only recharges a few inches every year, one study estimated. The Arbuckle-Simpson has the smallest amount of water that can be used each year compared to every other aquifer in the state, according to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

Click here for the full story.

By Angelica Perez, Tulsa Flyer
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Three days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, hundreds of Tulsans filled Fred Johnson Park Saturday to protest ICE and the Trump administration’s deportation campaign. 

The demonstration is the second protest held in Tulsa in response to the fatal shooting of Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, near an ongoing immigration enforcement operation. Trump administration officials, along with several Oklahoma lawmakers, have said the agent acted in self-defense.

Indivisible Tulsa County, a political advocacy organization founded last year, hosted the protest. From speaking up for their own families to standing by their neighbors, protesters shared different reasons for how they came to stand alongside Riverside Drive to declare their opposition to Trump administration policies. Here are a few of their stories. 

Click here for the full story.

Editor’s note: Links requiring subscriptions have an *.

Editor’s note: Links requiring subscriptions have an *.

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

• Seeking jail solutions, OK County commissioner submits 5/8-cent sales tax proposal for review (NonDoc)

• Hundreds rally in downtown OKC protesting ICE, shooting of Renee Good (The Oklahoman)*

• Oklahoma senator renews calls for execution moratorium while death penalty process is reviewed (KOCO)

• Tulsa hopes sending mental health pros to 911 calls will save lives. We rode along. (The Oklahoma Eagle)

• Islamic Society of Tulsa was ready to expand but unprepared for Broken Arrow's opposition (Tulsa World)*

• Average pay for teachers, other certified staff increased 3.2% from 2024 to 2025 (Tulsa World)*

• Oklahoma City offers warrant amnesty for old municipal tickets (KOSU)

• Hotel security guard shot and killed in downtown OKC (KOCO)

• Special needs kindergarten teacher accused of assaulting student (The Lawton Constitution)

• Major OKC metro construction projects could delay your commute (News 9)

• Tribal roundup: Choctaw clinic expands, Pratt’s legacy lives, Muscogee Council’s raise vetoed, roles decided (NonDoc)

• Fiber line network in Hollis moving closer to completion (The Lawton Constitution)

• Guthrie boys basketball team involved in four-vehicle crash, no injuries reported (Guthrie News Page)

• Tulsa plans to break records with 3K-car parade for Mother Road’s birthday (Tulsa Flyer)

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