Oklahoma Briefs

ntencing is set for March 11. Still pending are rape charges against three Marines and charges of enabling child neglect against the girl’s parents. Police said the girl is now 13 and is in protective custody.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Linda Banks, 47, of Marietta died Thursday after a one-vehicle accident on U.S. 77 about 3 miles north of Marietta, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. Banks died at a Marietta hospital after the sport utility vehicle she was riding in went into a ditch and overturned. She was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the SUV, troopers said. The driver, Eric W. Banks, 26, of Ardmore, was wearing a seat belt and was not injured.

FROM STAFF REPORTS

OKLAHOMA CITY

State Health Department officials said no new deaths from swine flu were reported last week, and there were nine new hospitalizations. Forty Oklahomans have died from H1N1 and more than 1,000 have been hospitalized since Sept. 1. Flu activity has slowed but not ceased, so officials still recommend vaccinations. For a list of sites, go to www.ok.gov/health. For information, go to NewsOK. com/swineflu.
SUSAN SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER

OKMULGEE

Bob Klabenes, president of Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology at Okmulgee, said he plans to retire in January 2011.

Klabenes has been the president since 1983. In the interim, he’ll help with the transition as OSU conducts a national search for his successor.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ongoing Coverage: Swine flu