What’s happening, Oklahoma? It is April 21, and here are a few quickies:

• Reports: Hegseth shared military plans in second chat that included wife, brother.

• Ben Folds is coming to OKC’s Tower Theatre in September.

• Sunday night stock futures fall after down week. Click for live updates.

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Weather Update ☀️

After a rainy, gloomy weekend, we’ll start the week sunny and mid-70s!

But more rain is in the forecast…

🌡️ Monday's high in OKC 85°
🌡️ Monday’s high in Tulsa 81°

🕊️ Oklahoma City Bombing Remembrance

Clinton: As country grows more polarized, America needs unity, the ‘Oklahoma Standard’

By Emma Murphy, Oklahoma Voice
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OKLAHOMA CITY — On the 30th anniversary of the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, former President Bill Clinton said Americans must unite despite their differences, and that Oklahomans can help lead the way by serving as that role model for the rest of the nation.

Clinton, who was president at the time of the attack, returned to the site of the 1995 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing Saturday to deliver the keynote address to a crowd of over 1,600 that attended to remember and honor those who died and were injured in the attack. 

While the event is typically held outdoors at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, the site of the bombing, it was moved indoors due to inclement weather. The crowd that arrived to commemorate the anniversary was so large that once the pews were packed, people stood along the walls and filled an overflow room.

“The domestic terrorists who did this awful thing believed that it would spark a nationwide upheaval against the American government, and would eventually destroy our government, our democracy and our life,” Clinton said. “Instead, you gave them, as the mayor said so eloquently, the Oklahoma Standard. You gave them service, honor and kindness.”

Click to finish the story.

🕊️ Remembrance coverage

• Oklahoma City Bombing Remembrance Ceremony offers hope, praises strength of those changed forever (News 9)

• Clinton: 30 years ago, Oklahoma needed the nation, today the nation needs Oklahoma (Oklahoman)

• Oklahoma standard shines in bombing remembrance ceremony (2 News Oklahoma)

• KOCO Chronicle 30 Years of Resilience: Remembering the Oklahoma City Bombing (KOCO)

• Remembrance ceremony honors 168 lives lost, survivors of OKC bombing 30 years later (KOCO)

• Thousands gather in OKC for bombing remembrance ceremony (2 News Oklahoma)

• "We go as the state of Oklahoma goes": Flintco looks back on bombing and its impact (2 News Oklahoma)

• Community gathers for memorial ceremony held for 30th anniversary of OKC bombing (Fox 23)

• Resilience, growth, division mark 30th remembrance of Oklahoma City bombing (Oklahoma City Free Press)

• Woman removed from OKC bombing ceremony after walking onto stage, talking at officials (Oklahoman)

• A symbol of time: Oklahoma City bombing memorial architect breaks down design, community involvement (OU Daily)

• OKC bombing conspirator Terry Nichols has been allowed to make money from paintings (Oklahoman)

Researcher suggests Oklahoma City bombing survivors carry physiological traces of trauma

By Jillian Taylor, StateImpact Oklahoma
Click here to read the story.
Donate to KOSU.

New research released by the University of Oklahoma using data gathered seven years after the Oklahoma City bombing suggests survivors carry physiological traces of their trauma.

OU's study explores biological stress measures among 60 heavily impacted direct survivors compared to a local control group who were not affected by the bombing. Both groups were pre-selected to be healthy, and survivors had a mean age of 47 years, while comparison participants had a mean age of 42.

Dr. Phebe Tucker, the study's lead author and professor emeritus of psychiatry at the OU College of Medicine, said survivors were selected from an Oklahoma State Department of Health registry. Non-exposed control participants were recruited via flyers and word of mouth.

Click here to finish the story.

Before embezzlement scheme was revealed, Tulsa schools executives secretly planned departure of the man involved

By Garrett Yalch, The Frontier
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Donate to The Frontier.

Months before a high-level embezzlement scheme at Tulsa Public Schools was uncovered, former superintendent Deborah Gist and her deputies were quietly arranging an exit plan for the official behind it — and using secret payments to a private consultant to manage the transition, according to internal district records obtained by The Frontier.

Tulsa Public Schools told The Frontier the official, former chief talent and equity officer Devin Fletcher, had applied to be the superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools around the same time. But still months before his eventual departure, Fletcher was not among three finalists for the job, according to news reports from the time.

An investigator for the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s office wrote in an internal memo that the records raise questions about whether school leaders knew about Fletcher’s scheme to defraud the district of at least $800,000 long before it was reported to law enforcement. 

“If Fletcher’s plans to leave the District were not prompted by the discovery of his questionable vendor practices,” the investigator wrote, “then why did TPS act in secrecy about the transition?”

Click here to finish the story.

The Oklahoma Rundown 📰

A concise summary of the latest news from across the state:

• Multiple agencies searching for two people near Leonard after car swept away by floodwaters (2 News Oklahoma)

• Mother, son identified as those killed in Moore flooding (KOCO)

• 1 dead, 1 injured following tornado near Spaulding (News 9)

• Up to 4 confirmed tornadoes in Texoma Saturday night (KTEN)

• Tornado strikes north Ada, damaging homes and businesses (News 9)

• 1 hurt, 30 displaced in Ada tornado (KXII)

• OK School Standards with 2020 election theories “going to take effect” (KFOR)

• Drone saves man hit by train in Oklahoma City (KFOR)

• Political notebook: Russ, Drummond clash again (Tulsa World)

• Teen pleads guilty in Oklahoma Election Day terror plot (KOSU)

• Salary, contract details for new Edmond superintendent revealed (Oklahoma Voice)

• ‘We have a lot of questions’: Friesen grilled during House ODMHSAS investigation (NonDoc)

• Sooner Mall, Slaughterville Town Hall named as potential measles exposure sites (KFOR)

• A decade after racist chant, SAE rebuffed from OU return (NonDoc)

• Moore gas station owner says they never agreed to asphalt work before chaos broke out (KFOR)

• 'No Kings' protest in Tulsa draws community participation (News On 6)

• Small businesses supporting each other through events in Bartlesville (Fox 23)

• Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance offers $30,000 to honor Oklahoma’s leading STEM educators (Black Wall Street Times)

• Lifelong Woodward retail manager to turn 90 (Woodward News)

• Graves of two enslaved Trail of Tears survivors marked by Oklahoma TOTA (Cherokee Phoenix)

• CMN Extension makes airwaves with new radio/podcast program and launches second annual farmer’s market (Mvskoke Media)

• Love County Sheriff’s Office investigating truck submerged in Leeper Lake (KXII)

• Love County deputies call in drones to locate convicted felon during manhunt (KXII)

• 5 things to know: Deadline nears to request absentee ballots for Canadian Public School Special Election (McAlester News-Capital)

• Latest detainee death in Oklahoma County jail being investigated (Oklahoma City Free Press)

SPORTS 🏀⚾🥎🏈

** OU softball: Sooners sweep Mississippi State 6-5, 9-6 in Sunday doubleheader **

NBA Playoffs Game 1: Oklahoma City 131, Memphis 80

• Thunder beat Grizzlies 131-80 in Game 1, fifth-biggest margin of victory in NBA postseason history (KOCO / AP)

• OKC Thunder demolishes Ja Morant, Grizzlies in record NBA playoff rout | 5 takeaways (Oklahoman)

• Everything you need to know to cheer on the Thunder during their 2025 playoff run (KOCO)

More headlines:

• OU defensive tackle David Stone returning to Sooners after entering transfer portal (Tulsa World)

• OU defensive lineman David Stone withdraws from transfer portal, will stay at Oklahoma (OU Daily)

• Cowboy Football Completes Orange-White Spring Game (OKState)

• Oklahoma State QBs 'playing pretty good'; competition remains after spring game (The O’Colly)

• OU football post-spring position group stock report: We examine Sooners' risers, fallers (Oklahoman)

• Champions Again: Sooners Claim Seventh National Title (SoonerSports)

• ‘Knew they were special’: Witherspoon brothers’ journey to pitching prowess at Oklahoma (OU Daily)

• Cowgirl Softball secures series win over UCF (OKState)

• Tulsa Downs Top-Seeded Florida Atlantic in AAC Semifinal (News On 6)

• Cowgirl Tennis Falls to UCF in Big 12 Championship Semifinals (OKState)

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