Top ten Tulsa stories for 2007
Monday morning on 1170 KFAQ, Gwen Freeman and I talked about top stories at the state and local level. These were my top 10 local stories, in no particular order:
- Defeat of the proposed Tulsa County sales tax for Arkansas River projects
- ORU: Professors' wrongful termination lawsuit and resignation of Richard Roberts
- December ice storm
- Tulsa Police Department: tenure of interim chief David Bostrom and rehiring of former chief Ron Palmer
- Illegal immigration: Tulsa County Sheriff's Office qualifies under 287(g) to hold illegal immigrants for deportation; Tulsa City Council passes new policy for checking immigration status of people taken into custody for felonies and serious misdemeanors
- City Hall move to One Technology Center
- Centennial celebrations, including the Belvedere unearthing in June
- City of Tulsa annexation of the Tulsa County Fairgrounds (will go into effect at the end of 2008
- Arena: first city budget accounting for arena expenses, at the expense of police academy and golf courses; decision not to demolish convention center arena
- Bell's removal and demolition
We didn't cover these, except to go through the AP's list, but on the state level, these were the stories I thought most notable, beyond those above:
- Oklahoma's centennial
- Passage of HB 1804 on immigration enforcement
- Sidetracking of HB 1648 (competitive bidding for PPPs, killed by big construction lobby)
- Former State Sen. Mike Mass pleads guilty, turns state's evidence
- Indictment of TABOR petition leaders (the "Oklahoma Three")
- Power-sharing in the Oklahoma State Senate
My list tends to be political, and I have probably overlooked sports, business, and human interest stories. What would you add to these lists of top local stories?
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I think the item you listed that may have the most long term impact is the power-sharing in the Oklahoma Senate. This has already allowed for passage of legislation that would have never happened in the past. This will also be interesting in a few years when redistricting occurs.
Not enough can be said in favor of State Senator Anthony Sykes of Moore. He ran a great campaign against an incumbent democrat, Daisey Lawler, in a district that was evely split between the two parties. More votes were cast in his district than in any other and he won by one of the slimmest margins in any house or senate race. If not for his efforts and the efforts of many of his constituents we wouldn't have the senate tie. Thank you Anthony.
I would have to include the even worse January Ice Storm. Areas south and east of Tulsa and OKC got 3" of ice, compared to 1.5" in Tulsa with the December storm. People were out of power for over 25 days.