Good morning and welcome to Oklahoma Memo. It is Monday, December twenty-ninth, twenty twenty-five. My name is Ryan. I am the founder and curator of Oklahoma Memo.
It is a daily local news recap, a newsletter focused on Oklahoma. We've got national headlines, but mostly stories from newsrooms across the state that impact your world.
I hope you had a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, whatever it is you celebrate. If you celebrate anything, I hope you had a great holiday and a great time off, maybe a time to relax for you.
In the news this morning, it is really, really cold outside, and it's not going to stay cold for too long. Today is, uh, probably going to be at upper thirties, lower forties across most of the state.
But the Forestry Service, I'm looking at News nine's story right now on the TV, Forestry Service warns of fire conditions. It's dry. I don't see rain in the forecast anywhere.
I'm not a meteorologist, but I can read a forecast. I can read a radar. There's no rain. It's really, really dry. So just understand that the chances of wildfires in Oklahoma, uh, are pretty high right now.
Other stories, let's just look nationally real quick at what made headlines, uh, over the weekend.
Of course, President Trump and Zelensky from Ukraine met at Mar-a-Lago, projecting optimism about the prospects of a peace deal. The goal here is for Ukraine not to have to cede anything back to Russia, uh, but
we'll see what happens. Uh, there were no big gotcha moments from that, that meeting yesterday. There was tragedy in New Jersey. Two helicopters collided, one person dead, another critically injured.
Uh, I linked a story from ABC News about a Texas teen missing since Christmas Eve, believed to be in imminent danger. That's there. And then French screen legend Brigitte Bardot has died. She was ninety-one years old.
In the Oklahoma space, I included a story. It's, it's Christmas, so there aren't a lot of newsrooms working, right?
Um, and so a lot of these stories were from Friday, and this one was from Friday, from Barbara Hoberock at, at Oklahoma Voice, and it's about Cindy Bird, the state auditor.
The attorney general, Gentner Drummond, who is running for governor, has been encouraging her and the state auditor's office to finish up these audits.
There are a number of audits, and he, he thinks they're just going too slowly, and but there's a reason why they're going too slowly, and Oklahoma Voice has that story.
Headline, Funding, Staffing Cuts Hamper Release of O- Special Oklahoma Audits. The lead, a number of high-profile audits have yet to be released by the state auditor and inspector's office. Why?
They don't have nearly the staff that they used to.
State auditor and inspector Cindy Bird said short-staffing, a lack of funds, and other factors, some outside of her control, impact when an audit is completed and released.
The office's manpower has been slashed by twenty-five percent, even as the demand for investigative audits has doubled in the last decade, said Andrew Spino, a Bird spokesman.
Spino used to be an anchor on Fox twenty-five and is now, uh, working with Cindy Bird and many other people. But that's the reason, and so what audits are we talking about?
Well, let's go to the, uh, Oklahoma Voice story. It caught my attention because one of my-- I, I, I claim two hometowns. I graduated high school from Henryetta, but I only spent a couple of years in Henryetta.
I spent most of my youth in, in Muskogee, so I claim Muskogee and Henryetta. And one of those audits involves the city of Henryetta, also the towns of Calvin and Fort Towson.
I remember Fort Towson from my time as a reporter in Hugo. And so the s- the state's chief legal officer, Gentner Drummond, he wants these audits done. Um, but more manpower, more money needed.
So that story from Oklahoma Voice, you can check it out at oklahomavoice.org, uh, excuse me, oklahomavoice.com, or by coming to Oklahoma Memo. I have them all linked up. I'm saving you time.
That's what this newsletter does. The other big story comes from Tulsa Flyer. Headline, As Oklahoma's Uninsured Population Drops, Care Still Costs Tulsa Area Hospitals Millions.
And when there is cost involved with the hospitals, it inevitably gets passed on to consumers or nonprofits step up. The lead-- The story for-- is from Rainie Howell at Tulsa Flyer.
The lead, Deborah Burke tells this story. A young mother with three small children walked into a Good Samaritan Health Services women's clinic in the Tulsa area.
She had no health insurance, and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The woman is one of more than four hundred thousand uninsured Oklahomans. Um, and that, of course, in the headline, it says that number is dropping.
That's good. Good Samaritan, though, had to take on the costs of her treatment. Burke, the organization's chief operating officer of Good Samaritan, has plenty of stories just like this.
Services at Good Samaritan are designed to head off medical expenses before an uninsured patient goes to a hospital, and the hospital has to absorb the cost of emergency services under federal law.
The nonprofit tracks how many patients it keeps out of the emergency room. The emergency room, if you've ever been, that's an automatic two thousand dollar charge. I, I don't go to the emergency room unless I'm dying.
Uh, not anymore. I've done it a couple of times and been just hit with a massive bill. No. Urgent care or bust. And in this case, this woman had breast cancer and needed treatment, and she was uninsured.
Uh, again, folks, uh, sort of look down on that and say, "Well, I've got health insurance. It doesn't impact me." It absolutely does. Anytime you have uninsured Americans, uninsured Oklahomans, we all pay for it.
So it is best that everybody is insured or taken care of. It is in our best interest that everybody is insured. All right. Let's go to the Oklahoma rundown, and let's be efficient today.
Do you have New Year's Eve plans, by the way?I do. We sit back and watch Andy, uh, Cohen and Anderson Cooper every year and eat from a charcuterie board.
I don't know that that's the most healthful way to start the new year, but it's protein, good fat. It's good stuff. Oklahoma rundown, what sort of stories do we have?
Today, former death row inmate Richard Glossip returns to court with a new judge presiding. That story from Griffin Media, News 9 or News on 6. I linked up to News on 6.
Father refuses to give up hope twenty-one years after son's disappearance in Tahlequah. That story from KJRH.
Also from KJRH, new medical marijuana law goes into effect in the new year, mostly impacting those who are doctors who-- or who distribute. I think mostly the doctors, though. Read that story from KJRH.
I've got it linked up in Oklahoma Memo. You can subscribe, by the way, at oklahomamemo.com/subscribe.
A story from KOCO, man armed with gun shot by Garvin County deputies, and one arrested after a Perry man was killed in a shooting. That story from News 9. It turns out that he killed-- he was killed by his husband.
So you have that. Uh, a very interesting story from KNewsCount. KNewsCount does a really good job up in northern Oklahoma. Game wardens investigating illegal dumping of deceased ducks. So you have that.
And then from, uh, KOSU, do you need your Christmas tree mulched? Is it left over? Do you not know what to do with it?
Oklahoma City and Tulsa are offering free Christmas tree mulching and free mulch for residents, so you might wanna get about that. And then finally, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It was a close game about halfway through, and then the second half, the Thunder took over, disposing of Nick Nurse and the Phil-Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers by quite a bit.
The headline from The Oklahoman, Chet Holmgren, OKC Thunder get back on track, routing Philadelphia. It seems the only team that they're having trouble with is San Antonio. So that's the day ahead.
Um, for those of you who watch this and you're to this point, thank you so much. I appreciate you greatly. Uh, the newsletter that I have is, is free. You can sign up. It hits your inbox at seven AM.
It's a Beehive newsletter. That's the platform. But I do have a Substack, I do have a Patreon, and there are ways to support my efforts there. A lot of big plans in twenty twenty-six.
I would love to hear about your plans. You can message me anytime at news@oklahomamemo.com. That's news@oklahomamemo.com. I hope you have a fantastic Monday.