• Crash on I-44 reported with injuries in northwest Oklahoma City

    FROM STAFF REPORTS | Updated: 17 min ago

    Firefighters have responded to a crash involving four vehicles on Interstate 44 Wednesday. The crash is near NW 23

  • Jury recommends death for 2009 Cache slayings

    BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Published: Wed, Jun 19, 2013

    LAWTON — A jury has recommended a death sentence for an Oklahoma man convicted in the 2009 killings of a Comanche County couple.

  • FBI hunt for Jimmy Hoffa's remains enters 3rd day

    Updated: 51 min ago

    OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — FBI agents plan a third day of digging Wednesday in suburban Detroit for the remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared 38 years ago. Authorities have pursued multiple leads into Hoffa's whereabouts since his disappearance in 1975. He was last seen outside an Oakland County restaurant where he was to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit Mafia captain. The latest tip about Hoffa's remains came from reputed Mafia captain Tony Zerilli, who, through his lawyer, said Hoffa was buried beneath a concrete slab in a barn in Oakland Township, north of Detroit. The barn is gone, but FBI agents on Monday starting poring over the field where it used to stand.

  • Karzai sets new conditions for talks with Taliban

    Updated: 51 min ago

    KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's president says he will not pursue peace talks with the Taliban unless the United States steps out of the negotiations and the militant group stops its violent attacks on the ground. Hamid Karzai is upset over a U.S. and Taliban announcement the day before that they would begin preliminary peace talks in Qatar without the Afghan government. According to a statement from Karzai's office, he says that his High Peace Council would "neither attend nor participate in the talks" until the process is "completely" in the hands of Afghans. Karzai earlier Wednesday announced he had suspended talks with the U.S. on a new security deal in protest of how the talks were announced.

  • Oklahoma City water wins first place in national taste test competition

    BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Published: Wed, Jun 19, 2013

    Oklahoma City's tap water has come in first place in a national taste test competition.

  • United 787 heading to Tokyo diverted to Seattle

    Updated: 1 hr ago

    SEATTLE (AP) — A Boeing 787 flying from Denver to Tokyo diverted to Seattle because of an oil filter issue, a United Airlines spokeswoman said. An airline maintenance team was inspecting the jet after Flight 139 landed normally Tuesday afternoon at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, United spokeswoman Mary Ryan said in an email statement. United just put its 787s back in the air May 20 after smoldering batteries on two 787s owned by other airlines prompted authorities to ground the planes in January. The Tokyo-bound jet's problem was "completely unrelated to any battery issues," Boeing spokesman Kate Bergman told The Seattle Times on Tuesday evening. "We are aware of the situation, and we're working with Unit

  • Former TWA Flight 800 investigators want new probe

    Updated: 1 hr ago

    NEW YORK (AP) — Former investigators of the TWA Flight 800 crash off Long Island are calling on the National Transportation Safety Board to re-examine the case. The retired investigators claim that findings were "falsified." A documentary on the subject is coming out in July. The 1996 crash of the Paris-bound flight killed 230 people. Initial speculation ranged from maintenance problems to a bomb and even a meteorite. Some critics theorized that a Navy missile accidentally brought down the jetliner. The NTSB concluded that Flight 800 was destroyed by a center fuel tank explosion, probably caused by a spark from a short-circuit in the wiring. The agency said Wednesday its four-year probe remains one of its

  • UN says 45.2 million refugees and displaced people

    Updated: 2 hr ago

    GENEVA (AP) — The Syrian civil war contributed to pushing the numbers of refugees and those displaced by conflict within their own nation to an 18-year high of 45.2 million worldwide by the end of 2012, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday. Those are the highest numbers since 1994, when people fled genocide in Rwanda and bloodshed in former Yugoslavia. By the end of last year, the world had 15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers and 28.8 million people who had been forced to flee within the borders of their own countries, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a report. Of those, 17 percent were new to their situations in 2012: 1.1 million new refugees and 6.

  • Police: Paraplegic castrated at Philly facility

    Updated: 2 hr ago

    PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A 41-year-old man is being held on $5 million bail after police say he castrated a paraplegic during a dispute at an assisted living facility in Philadelphia. Authorities say Edgar Bonilla is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and other counts in Monday night's attack inside the Inglis Apartments at Elmwood. Lt. John Walker says Bonilla was visiting a female friend at the facility and that she apparently had some sort of dispute with the victim. Walker says Bonilla was apparently trying to settle that dispute. The victim, Bonilla and the woman were all apparently friends. Bonilla is in custody and it couldn't immediately be determined if he had an attorney.

  • Authorities name casualties in Colorado fire

    Updated: 2 hr ago

    DENVER (AP) — Bob and Barbara Schmidt dashed to their home on a dirt road in a heavily wooded area northeast of Colorado Springs as smoke from what would become the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history filled the air. After quickly grabbing a few items, they spotted their neighbors. "They were sitting on their porch, watching TV," said Bob Schmidt, adding his wife urged their neighbors to immediately flee as smoke rolled in at 4:35 p.m. on June 11. "They said they'd leave when they needed to." Marc and Robin Herklotz told the Schmidts they hadn't gotten automated calls from authorities ordering them to evacuate and that, while they were packing and monitoring the approaching blaze on TV, they weren't panickin

  • United 787 heading to Tokyo diverted to Seattle

    Updated: 3 hr ago

    SEATTLE (AP) — A Boeing 787 flying from Denver to Tokyo diverted to Seattle because of an oil filter issue, a United Airlines spokeswoman said. An airline maintenance team was inspecting the jet after Flight 139 landed normally Tuesday afternoon at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, United spokeswoman Mary Ryan said in an email statement. United just put its 787s back in the air May 20 after smoldering batteries on two 787s owned by other airlines prompted authorities to ground the planes in January. The Tokyo-bound jet's problem was "completely unrelated to any battery issues," Boeing spokesman Kate Bergman told The Seattle Times on Tuesday evening. "We are aware of the situation, and we're working with Unit

  • Sunny day in the 80s in central Oklahoma Wednesday

    FROM STAFF REPORTS | Published: Wed, Jun 19, 2013

    A sunny day is ahead Wednesday in central Oklahoma. Winds will gust up to 21 mph

  • Award-winning journalist Michael Hastings dies

    Updated: 5 hr ago

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Hastings, the war correspondent whose unflinching reporting from Afghanistan led to the resignation of a top U.S. army general, has died in a car accident in Los Angeles, according to his employer and family. Hastings, who was 33, was described by many of his colleagues as an unfailingly bright and hard-charging reporter who wrote stories that mattered. Most recently, he wrote about politics for the news website BuzzFeed, where the top editor said colleagues were devastated by the loss. "Michael was a great, fearless journalist with an incredible instinct for the story, and a gift for finding ways to make his readers care about anything he covered from wars to politicians," said Ben Smith, BuzzFee

  • Silver Alert issued for missing Idabel woman

    FROM STAFF REPORTS | Published: Wed, Jun 19, 2013

    Helen Kasony, 64, was last seen about 9:10 a.m. at the Walmart in Mena, Ark., on June 11, police said.

  • Two teacher programs at Oklahoma universities called ineffective

    BY SILAS ALLEN sallen@opubco.com | Updated: 10 hr ago

    In Oklahoma, the National Council on Teacher Quality's Teacher Prep Review flagged East Central University's undergraduate elementary education program and Northeastern State University's undergraduate special education program with consumer alerts.

  • Oklahoma shelters housing pets lost in the May storms will close after Sunday

    BY HANNAH COVINGTON hcovington@opubco.com | Updated: 10 hr ago

    Owners still looking for displaced pets are encouraged to attend Sunday's adoption day at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds. Any pets still without owners will then be dispersed to local and national rescue groups.

  • Prosecutors say stolen car was at heart of 2011 fatal shootings in Oklahoma City

    BY TIM WILLERT twillert@opubco.com | Updated: 9 hr ago

    Rayvon Johnson, 22, of Oklahoma City, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2011 deaths of Lamar Shirley and Marcel Grigsby. A third victim was the intended target, prosecutors said.

  • Audit of Oklahoma fire marshal's office reveals failure to inspect some correctional facilities

    BY RANDY ELLIS rellis@opubco.com | Updated: 10 hr ago

    The state fire marshal's office can't account for a missing shotgun and has failed to meet its legal duty to annually inspect all Oklahoma correctional facilities, a state audit has revealed.

  • Prosecutors charge Oklahoma City man in stabbing death of mother

    BY LEIGHANNE MANWARREN lmanwarren@opubco.com | Updated: 9 hr ago

    Fredric Hardeman Jr., 38, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his 60-year-old mother, Ocie Hardeman, Oklahoma City police said.

  • Cleveland County jury convicts man in accidental shooting death

    BY JANE GLENN CANNON jcannon@opubco.com | Updated: 9 hr ago

    A Cleveland County jury deliberated about four hours Tuesday before finding an Oklahoma City man guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of an Oklahoma City woman.