UPDATE: Tornado Watch Issued For Western Half Of State

Credit National Weather Service / Norman Forecast Office
The counties in red are under a Tornado Watch until 11:00 p.m.

The National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Watch for nearly two-thirds of Oklahoma.

The Norman Forecast Office says the tornado potential is not equal in every one of the counties shaded in red. If storms develop, tornadoes are most likely to occur along and north of a line from Arnett to Fairview, to Enid to Ponca City in far northern Oklahoma.

"Areas south of that line, including most of the rest of watch, will likely see severe storms with large hail and damaging winds, but the tornado potential is lower, but not zero!" the NWS says on its Facebook page.

Forecasters say instability and wind shear are forecast to increase Sunday, leading to a "significant severe weather outbreak." But they also say the situation continues to develop, and the exact area where the most severe weather will hit is likely to change.

Read more
Movies
11:04 am
Fri March 8, 2013

'Oz': Neither Great Nor Powerful

Credit Walt Disney Pictures
James Franco stars as the Wizard of Oz before the Wizard meets Dorothy in Oz the Great and Powerful.

Originally published on Fri March 8, 2013 12:34 pm

Oz the Great and Powerful. Say that name aloud and you will smile, I guarantee you: It will conjure up so many images, characters, actors, songs. Then hold that smile as long as you can, because you won't be doing much smiling at the movie called Oz the Great and Powerful, the so-called "prequel" to The Wizard of Oz from Disney Studios.

Read more
NPR Story
10:50 am
Fri March 8, 2013

Venezuela, World Leaders Mourn Hugo Chavez

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Leader from around the world have arrived in Venezuela to pay their final respects to President Hugo Chavez, who used his country's oil wealth to put in place his vision of socialism during 14 years in power. And this larger-than-life leader presumably will continue to inspire his followers. The Venezuelan government plans to embalm his body and keep it on display in a glass coffin.

Read more
Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz
10:46 am
Fri March 8, 2013

Stacy Rowles On Piano Jazz

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Stacy Rowles on the cover of Tell It Like It Is.

Stacy Rowles once wrote a note to her father, pianist and composer Jimmy Rowles, stating: "Dear Dad, if you buy me a flugelhorn, I'll play the [expletive] out of it." Indeed she did, and she picked up singing, as well. A longtime mainstay on the Los Angeles jazz scene, Rowles worked with the all-female quintet the Jazzbirds, led by the late multi-instrumentalist Betty O'Hara, as well as the Jazz Tap Ensemble and the DIVA Big Band.

Recently, host Marian McPartland remembered this 2001 session with Rowles.

Read more
The Salt
10:24 am
Fri March 8, 2013

Nation's Biggest Honey Packer Admits 'Laundering' Chinese Honey

Credit AFP / AFP/Getty Images
A Chinese farmer tends to bees producing honey to supplement her income at a farm in China's Anhui province.

Originally published on Fri March 8, 2013 10:59 am

There was bombshell news from the world of honey two weeks ago, and somehow we missed it. Two big honey packers, including one of the largest in the country — Groeb Farms of Onsted, Mich. — admitted buying millions of dollars worth of honey that was falsely labeled.

Read more
Courts
10:20 am
Fri March 8, 2013

Judge Rejects Police Argument in Fatal Shooting

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) A judge has rejected a request to dismiss manslaughter charges against a white Del City police captain accused in the shooting death of a black teenager.  Attorneys for Randy Harrison sought to have the charges dismissed, but a judge denied that request Friday. Trial is set for April 8.  

Read more
Barbershop
10:19 am
Fri March 8, 2013

13 Hours Later, Did Rand Paul Have A Point?

Was Senator Rand Paul's 13-hour filibuster a smart political move or a total disaster? The Barbershop guys weigh in on that — and how Major League Baseball could be affected by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's death. Host Michel Martin checks in with writer Jimi Izrael, civil rights attorney Arsalan Iftikhar, sports writer Dave Zirin and columnist Mario Loyola.

World
10:19 am
Fri March 8, 2013

A Decade After Invasion, Are Iraqi Women 'Lucky'?

It's been 10 years since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. That conflict drastically changed the lives of Iraqi women. On International Women's Day, host Michel Martin talks with Iqbal al-Juboori, about how the war affected her personally, and what it's like for women to live in a conflict zone. al-Juboori works to provide job training and life skills to women and their families in rural parts of Iraq.

Krulwich Wonders...
10:16 am
Fri March 8, 2013

What Happened When Humans Met An Alien Intelligence? Sex Happened

Originally published on Mon March 25, 2013 1:50 pm

Shots - Health News
10:05 am
Fri March 8, 2013

A Man's Journey From Nepal To Texas Triggers Global TB Scramble

Credit NIAID/Flickr.com
Although tuberculosis is declining around the world, drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are on the rise.

Originally published on Fri March 8, 2013 11:47 am

We don't know too much about a Nepalese man who's in medical isolation in Texas while being treated for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, the most difficult-to-treat kind. Health authorities are keen to protect his privacy.

But we do know that he traveled through 13 countries — from South Asia to somewhere in the Persian Gulf to Latin America — before he entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in late November. He traveled by plane, bus, boat, car and on foot.

Read more
The Two-Way
9:38 am
Fri March 8, 2013

Bill Clinton: Defense Of Marriage Act That I Signed Is Unconstitutional

Credit Stephen Jaffe / Reuters /Landov
Former President Bill Clinton (and then-Vice President Al Gore) in 1996, the year Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act.

Times were different in 1996 when he signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, former President Bill Clinton writes in today's Washington Post.

Read more

Pages