Catherine Roberts

Woody Guthrie’s daughter Nora visits the soon-to-open Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa’s Brady District. She says she hopes her father’s legacy will speak not just to musicians.

“I’m just hoping that this center will expand,” she said, “and really connect to all walks of life, whether you’re an engineer, or a teacher, a scientist, an auto-mechanic—my dad wrote many songs about auto-mechanics as well.”

A ribbon cutting for the center will be held at 12:30 Saturday at 102 East Brady.

Five policy changes would be simple and feasible ways to reduce emissions and dependence on foreign oil.

That’s according to a proposal by the National Energy Policy Institute at the University of Tulsa. One of the report’s authors is journalist Charles Wohlforth.

“What it really is,” he explains, “is a demonstration that there are policies out there that are ready to be adopted that are low-cost and will have a big impact on these issues.”

“So there’s no excuse to say it’s too expensive, or the technology’s too expensive,” he said.

Tulsa Public Schools and its allies are advocating a vote of yes on an upcoming bond issue.

The initiative is worth $38 million, and would go to technology and safety concerns.

Specifically, TPS would like to ensure each school has at least one computer for every three students. Superintendent Dr. Keith Ballard says that’s an intermediary goal for the district, which he says would like to have a one-to-one computer per student ratio in the coming years.

More and more veterans are returning home from long years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many are able to reacclimate to their civilian lives with little trouble. Many others, however, struggle.

New study at Tulsa’s Laureate Institute for Brain Research, funded by the Department of Defense, investigates a potential treatment for post traumatic stress disorder.

One of the current subjects is a war veteran with combat experience.

The first round of results are in from testing of former patients of oral surgeon Dr. W. Scott Harrington. 

So far 57 have tested positive for hepatitis C and three have tested positive for hepatitis B.

The Tulsa Health Department's Kaitlin Snider says of positive test results for HIV, "All we can confirm is less than three."

Snyder says it's important to understand that without further investigation, it is premature to conclude that these positive test results were the result of contamination at Harrington's office.

Mayor Bartlett announces a hiring freeze for the City of Tulsa.

The Mayor says the freeze is a way to get out ahead of the last few months of lower-than-expected sales tax revenues.

He doesn’t expect the freeze to last very long and says they’ll be reevaluating approximately every month.

He also said the City will focusing on decreasing overtime hours for City employees as a way to save money. 

The legislature’s Counterterrorism Caucus worries about Islamic law in America’s courts. The caucus brought the founder of the Center for Security, Frank Gaffney, to Oklahoma City to discuss what he feels are the dangers.

“That is a fight against a doctrine that is our generation’s most serious, and I believe most potential, mortal peril. The adherence to it: call it, Sharia,” Gaffney says.

Tulsa wins a dubious honor: the “Golden Crater” championship of Streetsblog’s contest for Worst Parking Crater in a U.S. downtown.

Photos on the blog show an aerial view of the southern half of downtown, as well as two photos looking north toward the BOK Tower from Boston Avenue, one from 1978 and one from 2005.

Voting ended today in the March-Madness-style contest. Tulsa beat out Houston in the “final four” and Milwaukee in the championship.

With help from a federal grant that reimburses healthcare providers based on factors other than face-to-face visits, OU is implementing a new model of primary care: the patient-centered medical home.

“Patients are beginning to experience that they belong, or are a member, an engaged member of a medical team,” said Dr. Daniel Duffy, Dean of the OU School of Community Medicine, “and are seeing a variety of health providers in a visit.”

The model is based on a team of providers, rather than a single doctor.

A Keystone XL rally brings out crowds—in support of the pipeline. They’re Pipeliners Union workers and family members.

The rally at the Pipeliners local 798 in Tulsa drew workers from across the country, many of whom regularly travel widely for jobs.

Many expressed enthusiasm for the Keystone XL, which would pipe crude from Canada, not just because it would provide jobs in their industry, but also because of concerns about dependence on foreign oil.