Science Matters
4:00 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

Planet Earth

Credit Wikipedia

Got your ticket for an interstellar vacation? That trip might be your last, depending on the destination. It turns out that there are very few places in the universe hospitable to lifeforms like us. Jerry and John fill us in on what's out there.

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Local & Regional
3:31 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

Completed 'Shoppes On Peoria' Provide Expanded Shopping, Food Options to Neighborhood

A project long in the making comes into being. The Shoppes on Peoria, north of the Gateway Market at Pine and North Peoria, will have a grand opening Saturday.

Six businesses have opened there this year with more to come. One of them is the Tropical Smoothie Café.

Tim Smallwood is the owner of the café, his second in Tulsa. The first location is in South Tulsa, at the Tulsa Hills shopping center.

The North Tulsa store is only about two months old. He says part of the motivation for selecting the new location was his memory of growing up in the area.

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StudioTulsa
2:39 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

Dr. Paula Newberg, of the University of Texas-Austin, on "Pakistan's Elections: What Happens Now?"

Aired on Friday, May 17th.

On this edition of ST, a discussion of Pakistan, that vitally important yet on-again-off-again U.S. ally --- or is "ally" even the proper term here? --- which saw an electoral "first" recently. That is, after its historic elections over the weekend, Pakistan's first elected government served its full term and then ceded power to a new government, to be headed by prime minister-elect Nawaz Sharif and president-elect Asif Ali Zardari. Our guest is the noted South Asian expert, Dr.

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Kind of Blog: An Occasional KWGS Jazz Journal
1:42 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

All This Jazz Stops to Smell (and Hear) the Roses (and Other Flowers)

Join us for the next edition of All This Jazz --- a weekly survey of modern jazz, both recent and classic --- airing every Saturday night here on Public Radio 89.5-1, from 10pm till midnight. (There's also a re-broadcast of our show on Sunday night at 7pm, on Jazz 89.5-2, which is our all-jazz HD Radio channel....)

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Local & Regional
1:08 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

Board Denies Clemency for Condemned Inmate

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has denied clemency for a death row inmate scheduled to be executed next month.

The five-member board voted 3-2 Friday against commuting the death sentence of James Lewis DeRosa. He faces a June 18 execution for the stabbing deaths of 73-year-old Curtis Plummer and 70-year-old Gloria Plummer in 2000.

During the hearing, DeRosa expressed remorse for the LeFlore County couple's death and took responsibility for the killings.

Four members of the Plummers' family urged the board to deny clemency.

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Local & Regional
1:05 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

Okla. Lawmakers Near Passage of DNA Testing Bill

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Convicted criminals who maintain their innocence would have a way to seek DNA testing in their cases under a bill that is nearing final passage in the Legislature. The bill's passage would eliminate Oklahoma's dubious distinction as the only state in the nation without such a program.

The Oklahoma House voted unanimously on Thursday for the Postconviction DNA Act, which allows those convicted of violent felonies or who have been sentenced to 25 years or more in prison to file a motion in court to request forensic DNA testing in their case.

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Local & Regional
1:02 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

Man Bound Over for Trial on Murder Charge

SALLISAW, Okla. (AP) — An eastern Oklahoma man has been bound over for trial in connection with a 1997 killing.

Sequoyah County Special Judge Larry Langley ruled Friday that Rex Robbins III should be bound over for trial in the beating death of 28-year-old Mitchell Nixon. The Southwest Times Record reports that Robbins was bound over on a first-degree murder charge and an alternate charge of first-degree felony murder.

He was also bound over on a robbery charge for allegedly taking Nixon's pickup.

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Local & Regional
12:59 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

Plans to Fund Pop Culture Museum Still Alive

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Backers of a museum devoted to Oklahoma popular culture say they're still hopeful state lawmakers will approve $40 million to help build it.

A proposal to divert the money over four years for the so-called OKPOP Museum in Tulsa narrowly passed a Senate budget committee by a 13-12 vote on Thursday.

The measure now heads to a similar committee in the House, where plans for the museum fell apart last year.

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Local & Regional
12:58 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

Oklahoma Unemployment Rate Dips to 4.9 Percent

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — State officials say Oklahoma's unemployment rate dipped below 5 percent in April.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission says the state's unemployment decreased by one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.9 percent last month. That remains well below the national unemployment rate of 7.5 percent.

The commission says nonfarm employment rose by 1,800 jobs in April in Oklahoma. The professional and business services sector saw the greatest increase at 1,300 jobs, while leisure and hospitality jobs dropped by 2,000.

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Local & Regional
12:55 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

Tulsa Man Says Machete Attack Was Self-defense

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A police report says a Tulsa man arrested in the death of a 20-year-old woman told authorities he was acting in self-defense when he struck her with a machete.

Joshua Andrew Reynolds was arrested on a first-degree murder complaint in Thursday's death of Melissa Lemery. Police found Lemery's body in the backyard of a Tulsa home.

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