Train Collision
12:26 pm
Tue June 18, 2013

Poor Eyesight Probable Cause Of Oklahoma Train Crash

Credit National Transportation Safety Board
NTSB recorders expert Doug Brazy briefs Board Member Mark Rosekind at the scene of the Union Pacific freight train accident.

Federal officials say a train driver's failing eyesight was the probable cause of a fiery train crash that killed three people in the Oklahoma Panhandle last year.

Dr. Mary Pat McKay told the National Transportation Safety Board that the driver’s eyesight fluctuated from day to day and he couldn’t always distinguish red, green and yellow lights.

“This was a very bright, sunny clear day,” McKay says. “He may have had difficulty telling which of the lights were illuminated.”

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Credit Robert Dodge

Trey Graham edits and produces arts and entertainment content for NPR's Digital Media division, where among other things he's helped launch the Monkey See pop-culture blog and NPR's expanded Web-only movies coverage. He also helps manage the Web presence for Fresh Air from WHYY.

Outside NPR, Graham has been a lead theater critic at the Washington City Paper, D.C.'s alternative weekly newspaper, since 1995, which means he's seen a good deal of superb theater and a great deal of schlock. He's still stage-struck enough to believe that the former makes up for the latter.

Graham began his career as a writer and editor at The Washington Blade; his subsequent tenure at USA Today included a stint as the newspaper's music and theater editor. A past fellow at both the O'Neill Critics Institute and the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater, Graham won the George Jean Nathan Award for distinguished drama criticism in December 2004.

Graham is also a regular panelist on Around Town, the venerable arts roundtable program on Washington PBS affiliate WETA-TV, and the author of the theater section of the newest Time Out Guide to the nation's capital. He's written about books, travel, movies and the arts for publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Born in New Orleans (during Mardi Gras, no less) and raised in South Carolina, Graham has lived in Washington, D.C., since 1990 ­ except for a couple of years in Zimbabwe, which turned out to be way more fun than a politically perilous, economically disastrous situation has any right being.

Breaking
6:07 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Jones To Step Down As Head Of State Prison System

Credit Oklahoma Dept. of Corrections
Justin Jones

The executive director of the Oklahoma Dept. of Corrections announced Monday he will resign Oct. 1, according to eCapitol’s Shawn Ashley. The announcement from Justin Jones comes after a legislative session where the department’s funding was not increased and its budget practices were called into question by key legislative and executive budget negotiators.

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Textbook Costs
3:10 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

OU Pushes Online Material As Textbook Alternative

Credit greenasian / Flickr

University of Oklahoma officials say a program that puts more course material online is saving students on the cost of textbooks.

OU President David Boren's office says the first year of the Textbook Alternatives Initiatives has saved students about 25 percent off the typical $1,400 yearly cost of textbooks.

OU is trying to push more material online after seeing a study that found up to 70 percent of students were not buying books because of the costs.

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Animal World
10:38 am
Mon June 17, 2013

21-Year-Old Tulsa Zoo Giraffe Dies

Credit Tulsa Zoo
Samburu, longtime resident of the Tulsa Zoo, died Saturday.

The Tulsa Zoo has had to put down a 21-year-old giraffe who had a broken bone in his right, front foot.

Zoo officials said Sunday that Samburu, also known as Sam, died on Saturday. He was born at the zoo in 1992.

The zoo says Sam lived longer than average for a male giraffe cared for by humans. He suffered from osteoarthritis.

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Oklahoma Voices
7:31 am
Mon June 17, 2013

Fiddling In Foreign Lands: Oklahoma's Horseshoe Road Tours The Pacific Rim

Earlier this year, Oklahoma violinist Kyle Dillingham and his acoustic trio Horseshoe Road traveled across the Far East on behalf of the American Music Abroad program. The group traveled to South Korea, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Far East Russia and Myanmar.

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Shawn Johnson covers the State Capitol for Wisconsin Public Radio. Shawn joined the network in 2004. Prior to that he worked for WUIS-FM, a public radio station in Springfield, Illinois. There, Shawn reported on the Illinois legislature. He also managed the station's western Illinois bureau, where he produced features on issues facing rural residents. He previously worked as an Assistant Producer for WBBM-AM radio in Chicago.

Shawn's work has earned awards from the Associated Press and has been featured on National Public Radio.

608-263-4358

Manager's Desk
6:57 am
Sun June 16, 2013

Jazz in June Ready to Bloom

  June 16, 2013

This is from the Manager’s Desk.   This week is the big week for the Jazz in June concerts, clinics and musician jams here in Norman – Thursday through Saturday -- the 20th through the 22nd.  Here's the link  to the Jazz in June web page to find more information about the concerts – from locations, times, the artistic line up and more. 

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Severe Storms
6:57 am
Sun June 16, 2013

It's A Sham: Shingle Recycling

Credit samuel_belknap / Flickr Creative Commons
Roofers are busy repairing homes across central Oklahoma. Officials are warning homeowners to be cautious when choosing a company to do the work.

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality is warning residents about people who claim to be shingle recyclers.

The Oklahoma City area has recently experienced three killer tornadoes that left people dead in Shawnee, Moore, El Reno and damaged thousands of homes and businesses in the metro area.

The department says people are claiming to be shingle recyclers — but that there are no permitted shingle recycling facilities in Oklahoma. The agency says shingles must be disposed of in a DEQ permitted landfill.

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7:59 pm
Sat June 15, 2013

Visualizing The Moore Tornado Debris Cloud

Lead in text: 
National Climactic Data Center scientists use radar data from the May 20 Moore tornado to present different images of its debris field. They also present comparative images for the May 3, 1999 tornado that hit in the same area.
NCDC scientists use the Weather and Climate Toolkit to provide multiple radar visualizations of the May 20, 2013, Moore, Oklahoma, tornado.

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