Articles

The following persons have been charged by the State of Oklahoma with traffic or other violations or have filed other court actions in McClain County District Court between June 22-28, 2023.

We spend a lot of time talking about public records in our office. If that’s a new topic to you, you’ll find it worth your time to become familiar. State law enacted in 1985 requires that most publicly funded entities make their records available to the public for inspection or copying. That’s an important piece of government transparency; those records belong to the public and they help keep our elected officials accountable. Although news organizations request documents regularly in the course of their research and reporting, there are no special privileges. Anything available to a journalist is also available to you. There are some problems with the law. At nearly 40 years old, there is no provision for emailing records, but there are stipulations about faxing them. The only deadline an agency has is to respond to be prompt and reasonable, which is undefined. And the only remedy for noncompliance is to file a lawsuit or persuade your local district attorney to file a misdemeanor charge against his fellow government employee who works across the hall. Some agencies are very, very good about keeping the public’s business public. Others are not. In the past year, Oklahoma Watch has filed three lawsuits to force agencies to comply with the Open Records Act. Two were successful and one, against the Tulsa Police Department, remains open.

Pioneer Cellular has entered into an agreement with Verizon to ensure that its area customers maintain their connectivity as Pioneer discontinues cellular operations by September 30, 2023.

A meeting of area Democrats is planned for 6:30 p.m. July 18 at Libby’s Restaurant in Goldsby.

After many years, Newcastle Public Schools has a new high school baseball coach for the 2023-24 school year. Hired during a Monday morning meeting of the NPS Board of Education was coach Jarod King.

Newcastle Chamber of Commerce gathered for its June luncheon at the Community Center for the annual non-profit luncheon. Speaking were Miki Farris (top photo) from Infant Crisis Services, and Audrey Hohertz-Serpan of Frontline Family Solutions. Also speaking, but not pictured, was Jayna Kinnamon of the future Jericho Home. The Chickasaw Nation and Republic Services were the luncheon sponsors, and chamber members passed the bylaws changes, as presented.

Newcastle senior softball players, from left, Hailie Guthier, Meredith Strange, Brooklyn Lyles, Aubree Ferguson, and Madelyn Torrenueva model their new uniforms for the 2023-24 season. The softball team said it thanks everyone who donated, giving them the opportunity to design their own custom uniforms.

This year’s Red, White & Blue Fest

Grading, dirt work underway at Newcastle Farms

Training helps to detect illicit drugs, apprehend suspects

Fire destroyed a home owned by Jeremy and Tiffany Fidler at 600 Eagle Lake Lane in Newcastle at approximately 3:45 a.m. on Sunday morning.