• Edmond Rotarians celebrate 75 years serving community, world

    BY STEVE GUST | Published: Tue, Jun 18, 2013

    The Edmond Rotary Club celebrates 75 years of public service.

  • House passes far-reaching anti-abortion bill

    Updated: 23 min ago

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led House on Tuesday passed a far-reaching anti-abortion bill that conservatives saw as a milestone in their 40-year campaign against legalized abortion and Democrats condemned as yet another example of the GOP war on women. The legislation, sparked by the murder conviction of a Philadelphia late-term abortion provider, would restrict almost all abortions to the first 20 weeks after conception, defying laws in most states that allow abortions up to when the fetus becomes viable, usually considered to be around 24 weeks.

  • Zimmerman trial attorneys pick 40 potential jurors

    Updated: 59 min ago

    SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — Forty potential jurors in George Zimmerman's murder trial were asked Tuesday to return for further questioning, clearing the first round of interviews for a case that involves issues of race, equal justice and gun control. Prosecutors and defense attorneys whittled down the pool from hundreds of prospects on the seventh day of jury selection. The attorneys had been questioning jurors about their exposure to media coverage of Zimmerman's fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Starting Wednesday, they will be able to ask those invited to the next round more detailed questions about how they feel about the case. Attorneys ultimately need six jurors and four alternates for the trial.

  • Radar shows tornado touched down at Denver airport

    Updated: 1 hr ago

    DENVER (AP) — Radar indicated a tornado briefly touched down Tuesday over the east runways of Denver International Airport, where thousands of people took shelter in bathrooms, stairwells and other safe spots until the dangerous weather passed, officials said. There was no significant damage, airport spokeswoman Laura Coale said. Some flights headed to Denver were diverted elsewhere during a tornado warning that lasted about 30 minutes, she said. A 97 mph wind gust was measured at the airport before communication with instruments there was briefly knocked out, said National Weather Service meteorologist Kyle Fredin.

  • WATCH: Oklahoma City boulevard meeting

    FROM LOCAL REPORTS | Updated: 1 hr ago

    Watch a live video stream from the Oklahoma City boulevard meeting tonight.

  • NTSB: Train engineer's vision problems led to deadly Oklahoma wreck

    BY CHRIS CASTEEL CCASTEEL@opubco.com | Updated: 1 hr ago

    Investigators say a train engineer couldn't read key signals before an Oklahoma wreck that killed three.

  • Edmond musicians conclude summer camp with concert

    FROM STAFF REPORTS | Published: Tue, Jun 18, 2013

    Edmond students, who participated in Summer Strings Orchestra Camp and Santa Fe Band Camp, performed their final concert June 13.

  • Suit: McDonald's wages put on costly debit card

    Updated: 1 hr ago

    PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Would you like fees with that? A Pennsylvania woman has filed suit to avoid fees she may be charged to get her McDonald's wages from a debit card. Single mom Natalie Gunshannon has filed suit over bank fees that allegedly include $1.00 to check her balance, $1.50 to withdraw cash and $15 to replace a lost card. The 27-year-old Gunshannon, who lives near Wilkes-Barre, says the JPMorgan Chase payroll card was her only payment option. Her suit names franchise owners Albert and Carol Mueller, who employ about 800 people at 16 McDonald's restaurants in northeastern Pennsylvania. Gunshannon's lawyer, Michael Cefalo, says employers and banks are "squeezing the most vulnerable" workers.

  • NSA director says plot against Wall Street foiled

    Updated: 1 hr ago

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. foiled a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange because of the sweeping surveillance programs at the heart of a debate over national security and personal privacy, officials said Tuesday at a rare open hearing on intelligence led by lawmakers sympathetic to the spying. The House Intelligence Committee hearing provided a venue for officials to defend the once-secret programs and did little probing of claims that the collection of people's phone records and Internet usage has disrupted dozens of terrorist plots. Few details were volunteered. Army Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, said the two recently disclosed programs — one that gathers U.S. phone records and anot

  • Chrysler agrees to recall of Jeeps at risk of fire

    Updated: 2 hr ago

    DETROIT (AP) — Chrysler abruptly agreed to recall 2.7 million older model Jeeps Tuesday, reversing a defiant stance and avoiding a possible public relations nightmare over fuel tanks that can rupture and cause fires in rear-end collisions. In deciding on the recall, Chrysler sidestepped a showdown with government safety regulators that could have led to public hearings with witnesses providing details of deadly crashes involving the Jeeps. The dispute ultimately could have landed in court and hurt Chrysler's image and its finances. The company said calls from customers concerned about the safety of their Jeeps played a part in its going along with the government's request.

  • Ex-Bulger cohort says he's not a serial killer

    Updated: 2 hr ago

    BOSTON (AP) — A former enforcer for James "Whitey" Bulger who admitted killing 20 people insisted Tuesday that he is not a hit man or a serial killer, but instead is a "nice guy" who was only trying to help his family and friends when he pumped bullets into victims while working with Bulger and his gang. John Martorano made the statements in his second day on the witness stand during an aggressive cross-examination by a lawyer for Bulger, who is charged in a racketeering indictment with participating in 19 killings in the 1970s and '80s as leader of the Winter Hill Gang. Bulger's lawyer, Hank Brennan, went after Martorano, sarcastically asking him about an assertion that he did not consider himself a hit man.

  • G-8 seeks unity on Syrian peace talks, tax evasion

    Updated: 2 hr ago

    ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) — President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other G-8 leaders attempted to speak with one voice Tuesday on seeking a negotiated Syrian peace settlement — yet couldn't publicly agree on whether this means President Bashar Assad must go. Their declaration at the end of the two-day Group of Eight summit sought to narrow the diplomatic chasm between Assad's key backer, Russia, and Western leaders on starting peace talks in Geneva to end a two-year civil war that has claimed an estimated 93,000 lives. G-8 leaders also published sweeping goals for tightening the tax rules on globe-trotting corporations that long have exploited loopholes to shift profits into foreign shelters

  • Fox News sued over airing suicide of chase suspect

    Updated: 2 hr ago

    PHOENIX (AP) — A woman sued Fox News Network for airing live footage last fall of a carjacking suspect in a police chase committing suicide in the Arizona desert and not using a time delay that would have prevented the death from being broadcast on national television. The lawsuit alleges the children of 33-year-old suspect JoDon Romero have suffered emotional distress from having seen the video of their father fatally shooting himself on Sept. 28 at the end of an 80-mile car chase. The lawsuit seeking unspecified damages was filed June 6 in county court in metro Phoenix by Angela Rodriguez, the mother of Romero's three sons, ages 15, 13 and 9. It was also filed against Fox Entertainment Group Inc. and Fox's parent company,

  • Tornado insurance claims near 71,000 in Oklahoma

    | Published: Tue, Jun 18, 2013

    OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Insurance Department says nearly 71,000 insurance claims have been filed after central Oklahoma was raked by a series of violent tornadoes last month. Insurance Commissioner John Doak says insurance payments from the storms have topped $560 million. Doak announced plans Tuesday to hold a series of weekly forums for storm victims to allow those impacted by the storms to to ask questions and receive assistance with insurance-related issues. Department experts will discuss how to file a claim, what to do if a claim is denied, how to file a complaint and how to spot fraud, among other concerns. Two of last month's tornadoes were top-of-the-scale EF5s.

  • McCaskill endorses Ready for Hillary group

    Updated: 2 hr ago

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Claire McCaskill endorsed an outside political group encouraging Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for president in 2016, saying it was important for Democrats to build a groundswell of support for the former secretary of state. The Missouri Democrat's support of the Ready for Hillary PAC on Tuesday marked the first time a member of Congress has endorsed the group. The organization does not have official ties to the former first lady, but it's trying to lay the foundation for another Clinton campaign. McCaskill, an early supporter of Barack Obama when he was running for president in 2008, said Clinton had to give up her political operation when she joined Obama's Cabinet in 2009.

  • Australian aerospace company to expand to Grove

    BY BRIANNA BAILEY Business Writer bbailey@opubco.com | Published: Tue, Jun 18, 2013

    Move will create 20 jobs, and company expects to expand in Grove in the future.

  • Stocks move higher on home building, low inflation

    Updated: 7 hr ago

    NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market is moving higher in midday trading after the government reported gains in home construction and low inflation. Investors are also sending stocks up because they expect the Federal Reserve will keep in place programs meant to prop up the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 110 points, or 0.7 percent, to 15,292 at noon Eastern Daylight Time Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 10 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,649. All 10 industry groups rose, led by telecommunications. The Nasdaq was up 25 points, or 0.7 percent, at 3,477. The pace of home construction rose in May and builders applied for permits to build single-family homes at the fastest pace in five ye

  • Obama hints Bernanke likely to leave Fed in Jan.

    Updated: 7 hr ago

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has given the clearest signal yet that Chairman Ben Bernanke will likely leave the Federal Reserve when his term ends in January. During an interview with PBS' Charlie Rose that aired Monday, Obama said Bernanke has "already stayed a lot longer than he wanted or he was supposed to." Obama also said Bernanke has done "an outstanding job." Obama's comments came in response to a question that touched on whether he would reappoint Bernanke to a third four-year term. Bernanke is widely expected to make this his last term. The speculation intensified when Bernanke said through a spokesman in April that he would skip the Fed's annual August conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

  • Two teacher programs at Oklahoma universities called ineffective

    BY SILAS ALLEN sallen@opubco.com | Updated: 7 hr ago

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

  • Family sues over Colo. woman's death in TV project

    Updated: 7 hr ago

    DENVER (AP) — Survivors of a woman killed during the production of a reality TV show pilot have filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit against Discovery Communications Inc. and Anthropic Productions Corp. Terry Flanell's husband and daughter filed the lawsuit last week in federal court in Denver. It says the companies were producing a pilot focusing on the family's Colorado Springs business, Dragon Arms Inc. The suit says the opening sequence was to have employees walk through a cloud of smoke, but pyrotechnic devices that were used to create the smoke malfunctioned, and one struck Flanell. The lawsuit alleges no licensed pyrotechnics operator was on scene last year for filming of the "Brothers In Arms" pilot.