A Trump plan to close Oklahoma's weather labs has drawn the ire of Representative Tom Cole. State park restaurants have been closed indefinitely as part of a contract dispute. We've got stories from Guymon to Idabel, Altus to Miami, all over the state, the best journalism you can find in a quest to grow media literacy. Coming up next on the Wednesday edition of Oklahoma Memo.
[upbeat music] Well, I'm not sure if you can hear the thunder and rain behind me, but it is Tuesday night here in Northwest Oklahoma City. My name is Ryan Welton. Welcome to Oklahoma Memo, and it is storming outside. It means that I don't have to water my plants for another day this summer. You know, they say you can drown those plants way quicker than you'll starve them, and we have, uh, not wanted for rain in this part of Oklahoma City the past couple of nights.
It is July ninth, and for those of you who are not familiar with Oklahoma Memo, here's what we do. In a quest to grow media literacy, because I believe that a free press and a healthy press is vital to democracy, my goal is to make you more aware of the quality journalism that's being done across the state, and there's quite a bit. Many of these stations, newspapers, digital outlets, you're already familiar with, but I'm probably gonna introduce you to a few that you're not so familiar with.
So, uh, if you're not familiar with the newsletter, you can subscribe to it at oklahomamemo.com, and each day has largely the same format. I start with a little story from myself, just a little personal take. Maybe it is spicy. Maybe it's a little storytelling. For example, this morning I tell the story of Michael Dean, a, uh...
He was a, uh, radio DJ with KOMA for many years, and he was also a producer with OU Athletics, working on, uh, basketball broadcasts back in the day and the football broadcasts more recently, and I worked with him in my time at Griffin Media. I was the director of digital content for Griffin Media, meaning I oversaw digital for News nine, News nine six, and I'd often see Michael Dean.
Here's the thing to know about Michael Dean, and I should note he passed away on Monday. That's the reason why he's part of the newsletter. Uh, a great man and a man who knew his history. It didn't really matter what the subject was, but he and I shared a passion, a passion for Sooners athletics, and particularly we used to talk about Billy Tubbs.
I've always thought that Billy Tubbs was probably the most innovative coach in the history of college basketball. Not the best coach, that would be John Wooden, but the most innovative. If you think about Mike Leach and what he did at Texas Tech and at Washington State and Mississippi State, and his personality on top of that, that was Billy Tubbs forty years ago.
Um, and Michael Dean had all sorts of great stories about Billy, and I, um, hated to hear that Michael passed away on Monday. He was one of a kind. Boomer Sooner to Michael Dean.
Um, and then we have usually one or two big stories, and for those of you who don't know how I pick the big stories, because you usually see them from Oklahoma Watch or Oklahoma Voice or KOSU or KGOU or KWGS, I pick s- the big stories to republish parts of them from publications that have that sort of agreement available freely, and I actually work to make sure that the outlets are okay with what I'm doing, uh, most of the time before I do that.
There are some, for example, the Oklahoma Voice have a very clear republication policy. And the big story, I, I pick it. Now, I will tell you something about this whole s- There's a section called The Oklahoma Rundown with headlines from across the state. But for these one or two really big stories, I pick them. One of the primary roles of a journalist is to be a gatekeeper, is to tell you what is most important, what you should know.
It's sort of an eat your vegetables mentality, but that is, that is what the Fourth Estate, that's what journalists are supposed to do. And I think that the big story yesterday was from M. Luetkemeyer at Oklahoma Watch. Her story's headline was Trump Administration Wants to Close Down Key Weather Labs Nationwide.
But really, I thought the gist of the story wasn't so much what we had heard about the potential shutdown of, uh, the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Um, it was Tom Cole's reaction to it. Representative Tom Cole, most of Oklahoma's delegation has gone with anything President Trump wants to do without a lot of pushback. But Representative Cole is pushing back on this.
H-his quote in Oklahoma Watch, "I want to make sure that whoever's proposing this actually goes down there and looks at it and meets with them." He's the chair, by the way, I should note, end quote. He's the chair of the Appropriations Committee. Regaining the quote, "I've allowed things in my district to be closed before, but this is a national asset, and I wanna be very careful about what we do with it." End quote.
So it's, it's important not only in light of what's happened in Central Texas and that awful, awful tragedy down there, but also in terms of the increased number of weather events that we have across the country, and the cuts that have already been made across the board, uh, amongst meteorologists and climate scientists across the country.
It's a big deal, but it's also a big deal in terms of the number of jobs that would be impacted in Norman. So it is refreshing to see Representative Cole put up a fight. You can find that story in the Oklahoma Memo newsletter, but I would invite you, check out Oklahoma Watch if you're not familiar with it. I used to work with, uh, or I used to, uh, office kind of in the same area as Oklahoma Watch.
They were above us, uh, in the Griffin Media building downtown.Second story that caught my eye, and I added this as a big story, and I only add big stories if they're really big, uh, and they're from one of the publications that would allow me to republish. This one is from Oklahoma Voice and a reporter, uh, a rockstar reporter, Em Luetkemeyer from Oklahoma Watch, Barbara Hoberock from Oklahoma Voice, rockstar reporters. I wish we could do trading cards of reporters.
Journalism is that important. Her story for the Oklahoma Voice is headlined, "Oklahoma State Park Restaurants Closed Until Further Notice Following Dispute." If you're familiar with what happened, um, with Swadley's and all the restaurants at the different state parks a few years ago, he got into an agreement with the state, and then there was a dispute, and then the state turned on him and said,
"You've committed a crime here," and now he's gonna go to trial. Well, there's been another company step in and say, "Hey, we'll be the restaurant of choice for state parks." They're called the Lookout Kitchen, and now they're having trouble with the state of Oklahoma, and specifically the Department of Tourism and Recreation.
From Oklahoma Voice, officials with the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation said they made the decision to close the Lookout Kitchen restaurants because the vendor owes the state $254,000. Uh, it, it's almost $255,000, uh, and that they haven't supplied required records, and that they still must provide a $500,000 surety bond or letter of credit, according to a letter made public by the agency.
So if you go to a state park, I think there are some to-go options now or something that you might be able to grab and go, but there are no restaurants at the moment because another vendor has decided that the deal with the state wasn't very good, and the state has said, "Hey, you owe us all this money."
I, I'm not a mathematician, and I'm probably not a great business person, but it, it doesn't really feel like these agreements are quite, uh, fair to the restaurants. I don't know. That's just me. In the Oklahoma Rundown, we usually do about 10 to 20 headlines from Guymon to Idabel, Altus to Miami, and I, I literally go through every news site that I'm aware of. We're talking the Tulsa World, The Oklahoman.
We're talking all of the TV station sites, including Lawton and Ada. We're talking Black Wall Street Times, The Oklahoma Eagle, Cherokee Phoenix, Osage News, Muskogee Media. Um, I'm talking, uh, uh, all of the CNHI newspapers, Woodward, Enid, Tahlequah, Muskogee, McAlester, and then anything I can find along the way. Arden writes a good paper. Uh, you got the Durant Democrat.
You've got Kay, uh, County News. I believe it's Kay Newscow. Guthrie News Page. Chris Evans does an amazing job, uh, in Guthrie, and has-- He's an OG at this, and he's done it for 25 years. Uh, so I pick out the stories as I find them, and I pick them on, uh, in terms of importance and whether they're compelling. I want them to be interesting, but I also want them to be important. And to let you know, because people have asked me, "Is this just an AI newsletter?" And no, it's not.
Uh, but I do allow AI to do one thing, and that is I allow AI to pick the order of the stories in the rundown after I've chosen them. And I-- the prompt that I give ChatGPT is to rank these from, uh, most important and clickable to least important and clickable. And that way, it takes my bias out of the equation. Okay. So some of the big stories we have from across the state, and we usually have 20 to 25.
And remember, the goal is to introduce you to the m- best journalism across the state, or at least the most interesting stories, so that you can, in five minutes, be the most conversant person about Oklahoma news in the state. All right. Oklahoma City man arrested after shooting death of a three-year-old. That comes from KFOR. News 9, my former station, a very interesting story, and I'm sure a real pain in the butt for them.
Somebody cut the power to their radar that was back at the old station or, or where the old station was off of Kelly. That turkey has been arrested. Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to grace cover of upcoming NBA 2K26. That's from KOCO. And The Oklahoman with a story about Big Brother 27's cast. I happen to be a big fan of Big Brother, and we learn about Riley Jeffries from Luther, who will be heading into the house soon. Uh, KTUL detailed some breaking news this afternoon.
There's not much in the story, but there's some videos there. Severe flooding in Sallisaw after storms in eastern Oklahoma. Flooding's top of mind for folks right now. The Oklahoman with some restaurant news. Bojangles, a popular chicken and biscuit chain, is expanding in Oklahoma City. I will tell you, I've had Bojangles before. It's fantastic. Sip of water there. Uh, Guymon water shortage.
I, I promised Guymon to Idabel, right? So I gotta get Guymon in there. Guymon water shortage, what to know about the cause and where to find water. That story, unfortunately, wasn't in the Guymon newspaper. That was in The Oklahoman. I try to find the most local version of the story possible. Uh, from The Oklahoma Eagle, SNAP and Medicaid cuts leave thousands of Oklahomans at risk, advocates say.
Uh, from KOCO, Joe Castiglione, outgoing AD from OU, says Norman Entertainment District is a priority before he leaves, but it won't be easy. KFOR, Andretti Indoor Karting and Games opening in North OKC on July 15th. I think I've actually seen that building over there by Chicken and Pickle. Um, I think that's where it was. Or maybe, maybe it's over in the, the Chisholm Creek District. I'm not sure. Amazon Prime Day.
Have you bought anything yet? I've got a few things in mind, but I haven't done that yet. Bella Rotte from News On 6 put together a feature called Amazon Prime Day: Oklahoma Businesses You Can Support Online. We all wanna support Oklahoma businesses.Tulsa World reports lawsuit seeks to make portion of Will Rogers Turnpike free. Muskogee Media, now note Muskogee is spelled like Muskogee Creek Nation, but Muskogee Media is M-V-S-K-O-K-E, the proper Cree spelling.
Muskogee Nation celebrates Sovereignty Day, a new holiday for them on the anniversary of the McGirt decision. You'll want to read that. Tulsa World also has a good story on that. From 2 News Oklahoma, that would be KJRH, developer pulls out of Crybaby Hill project, statue almost completed. KJRH also reported more progress at Family Center for Juvenile Justice as probation status is lifted.
From KSWO, City of Lawton officials share updates on Cash Road bridge constructions. From Oklahoma Voice, economic impact of Oklahoma higher ed tops $14 billion study finds. I think that story is in the face of a lot of the back and forth between the Trump administration and universities or institutions of higher learning. From KOSU and their Indigenous Affairs reporter, two-spirit discrimination persists as questions swirl around Aubrey Dameron's murder investigation.
From Nondak, who does the best job in Oklahoma at covering all the elections, not just the big ones. We're talking about the ones in your county, in your city, in your town, and within the tribal nations. Their article today, Choctaw Nation District 4, incumbent Jess Henry challenged by Kenneth Marshall. Also from Nondak, Seminole Nation General Council election will determine eight seats.
From the Tahlequah Daily Press, Tahlequah City Council hears suggestions for curfew and more lights in parks. From KSWO in Lawton, Cameron University to hold multiple meet and greets for the new university president. I thought new university president, no matter which university in Oklahoma, that was worth a mention. From KXII, Boys and Girls Club of Red River Valley, Oklahoma affected by loss of 21st century grant.
Now I should note about KXII, I included a story of theirs the other day about this youth stickball team, Choctaw Nation youth stickball team that's competing in a World Series. They were supposed to play, I think they play sometime on Wednesday. I will keep up with that and try to get you a result. And then lastly, from Fox 25 in Oklahoma City, high water pressure isn't causing increase in water main breaks, according to the Oklahoma City Utilities Department. And that is our roundup.
As we get into fall, there'll be more coverage of sports, the Sooners, OSU, Tulsa, high school football. I'm a sports geek. We're going to do a lot of that. I also want to have conversations with leaders in, with newsmakers and political newsmakers and people in business, small business especially, and sports. You'll probably hear me a lot, especially about the Sooners.
I happen to be a Boomer Sooner, a graduate of, not of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. I was there when it was the H.H. Herbert College of Journalism and Mass Communication, but Gaylord might claim me. I don't know. The Oklahoma Memo mission is simple. Reignite the daily news habit by connecting Oklahomans and those who love Oklahoma to quality sources of news and vetted information, and to make that process frictionless, painless, stress-free, in, out.
If you don't like the newsletter, subscribe to this podcast. It probably won't be this long every time. I just wanted to yap a little bit, and I would love to get feedback from you. News at OklahomaMemo.com. News at OklahomaMemo.com. If you'd ever like to be a guest on the podcast and you have a particular perspective or news event or anything, message me. We'll make it happen, man.
I'm a chill guy with what I think is a really important big mission to make sure that Oklahomans, especially in news deserts, are getting connected to quality journalism. Well, that's all we've got for today. I appreciate you listening to the Oklahoma Memo. We'll do it again tomorrow. If you like it, tell a friend, subscribe to the newsletter at OklahomaMemo.com, and subscribe to this podcast right here.
Show me that it's important to you by doing that. I appreciate your time. My name is Ryan Welton. Play us out.