Associated Press

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — The chief deputy of the Tulsa office of the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office has been fired, along with several other employees.

Agency records show that Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Andrew Sibley was fired on July 12, along with an investigator and a supervisor.

Sibley told the Tulsa World he doesn't know why he was fired and the agency wouldn't release his termination letter because it had not verified that he had received it.

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (AP) — A piece of equipment used by Colorado authorities who defused booby traps in the apartment of the alleged movie theater gunman is made by a company in Broken Arrow.

Tactical Electronics manufactures a pole with a camera on the end, a device that enabled officers to see a trip wire affixed to the apartment door that led to an explosive device.

Officers could be seen with the pole as they worked outside the apartment window.

DRUMRIGHT, Okla. (AP) — Authorities say two people are dead after a fire truck crashed into a minivan that turned in front of it.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says the collision happened Sunday afternoon on Oklahoma Highway 16 in Creek County. Authorities say the Olive Fire Department was responding to a fire with its emergency lights engaged at the time of the crash.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An electronic system to connect Oklahoma with other states to track sales of drugs containing a key ingredient in methamphetamine is expected to be running by October 1st.

A state law approved earlier this year established the system went into effect July 1st — and state Bureau of Narcotics spokesman Mark Woodward said work to integrate the state's current system into the system is under way.

Woodward said Oklahoma is the only state that already has a real-time tracking system in place while other states were simply "plugged into" the larger system.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Reports filed with the state Ethics Commission show lobbyists provided 37 Oklahoma lawmakers with tickets to Oklahoma Thunder NBA games during the past season.

The reports filed Friday show corporate lobbyists spent about $4,000 for the tickets and to host the lawmakers at the games throughout the year.

The most tickets — 29 — were handed out by The State Chamber. Chamber lobbyist Gwendolyn Caldwell says that helps her build better relationships with lawmakers and to connect lawmakers with business leaders.

OKEMAH, Okla. (AP) — Authorities say a man has drowned in Okemah Lake in eastern Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says 41-year-old Okemah resident Paul Lombard was swimming in a designated area near the west shore when he attempted to swim across the cove around 6:30 p.m. Friday. About halfway there, he turned back but wasn't able to make it shore.

Troopers say Lombard called out for help but couldn't stay afloat.

A dive team using side scan radar recovered his body about 25 yards from the south shore in 18 feet of water.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Former Oklahoma state Senator Gene Stipe, whose long political career ended amid a congressional campaign finance scandal, has died. He was 85.

Longtime family friend Barry Moore says Stipe died peacefully Saturday at home in McAlester following a long illness. Moore's wife Mary, daughter Beth, and other relatives were with him.

Stipe, a Democrat, had the longest continuous run of any U.S. state senator, serving in that role from 1957 until 2003.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing part of a controversial rule that sets the first federal standards to reduce toxic air pollution from power plants.

The rule was issued in December. It's aimed at curbing mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants.

The Obama administration calls the rule a sensible step to reduce pollution, but Republicans have denounced it as a part of a "war on coal." The rule could force hundreds of the nation's oldest and dirtiest power plants to clean up or shut down.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new report shows the U.S. with the fewest cattle in at least four decades as a widespread drought forces ranchers to sell off animals.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service said Friday that the number of cattle and calves in the United States totaled 97.8 million head as of July 1st. That's 2 percent less than a year ago.

It's also the lowest number since the agency began a July cattle count in 1973. The agency now estimates the size of the nation's herd each January and July.

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) — A jury has convicted a man of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a teenager at a Muskogee mall more than two years ago.

The panel deliberated more than four hours Friday before finding Dondray Fowler guilty of murder and of assault and battery with a deadly weapon. Jurors recommended a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Fowler was accused of fatally shooting 17-year-old Jarrod Reed and wounding four others on April 10th, 2010, at Arrowhead Mall.