Follow us on

Listen To Tulsa's #1 News, Weather, & Traffic Station Online

recent on-air advertisers

Now Playing

News-Talk 740 KRMG
Listen To Tulsa's ...

Posted: 4:19 a.m. Friday, Dec. 3, 2010

KRMG Morning News "Stack of Stuff" and Notes 12/03/2010 

Previous Posts

By Joe Kelley, Host of the KRMG Morning News

  1. KRMG - Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris and his family are under 24-hour protection by the SWAT team after a threat is made against his life. Harris and his family have been under guard since last Wednesday. Investigators say the suspects involved in this threat include some of the same people charged in the death of Tulsa businessman Neal Sweeney in 2008. Several search warrants have been issued, but police won't comment.
  2. KRMG - The Tulsa City Council delays a vote on an application to hold the Parade of Lights until a special meeting next Tuesday morning.  At least one councilor says he'll vote against the application unless Christmas is included in the title. The parade name was changed to McNellie's Holdiay Parade of Lights to the chagrin of Council Chairman Rick Westcott.  Westcott is joining U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe in showing displeasure with the name change. The parade application and a planned vote of no confidence for the interim city attorney were both moved to next week's special meeting.
  3. KOTV - The Tulsa City Council did not approve, or deny, a permit for the "McNellie's Holiday Parade of Lights" Thursday night. The item was delayed after a controversy arose over the name of the parade, because it does not include the word "Christmas." Several city councilors would prefer the name include "Christmas." The parade is scheduled for December 11, 2010, and the Council had the item on their agenda for December 2. Their delay will move the item to a December 7 meeting for discussion, and a December 9 meeting for possible approval. The permit is required for the event to be held, even though permits are occasionally issued after an event has taken place. The parade is a private event and the permit expresses City of Tulsa approval for street closures.
  4. TULSA WORLD - Denying Tulsa's Holiday Parade of Lights a permit because "Christmas" is not in the title would be unconstitutional, a media scholar said Thursday. As long as the Dec. 11 parade takes place in a reasonable time, place and manner, the City Council would have no legal basis to turn down its special event application, said Joey Senat of Oklahoma State University and Freedom of Information Oklahoma Inc. "It cannot discriminate based on the content of the message," he said.
  5. KOTV - A Tulsa City Councilor is criticizing Mayor Dewey Bartlett for accepting travel expense money directly from the Tulsa Community Foundation, without going through the standard practice requiring council approval of all travel expenses and donations. Mayor Bartlett said he recently accepted an approximately $7,000 in a check from the TCF, to reimburse him for economic development trips to Washington D.C. and Oklahoma City. City Councilor Bill Christiansen said he agreed the trips were important, but said he had a problem with the Mayor accepted money directly from an outside group.
  6. TULSA WORLD - The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority approved contracts Thursday to install cable barriers along portions of the Creek and Kilpatrick turnpikes.Traffic has increased on portions of the Tulsa and Oklahoma City turnpikes, and the barriers are needed to prevent crossover accidents, Turnpike Authority spokesman Jack Damrill said. The barriers will be installed in mid-January, he said. The Turnpike Authority awarded a $370,768 contract to Midstate Traffic to install the Creek Turnpike cable barriers from U.S. 75 to Memorial Drive.
  7. TULSA WORLD - Tulsa's City Council unanimously approved a $300,000 budget amendment Thursday to fund more salt and overtime pay for winter-storm response. Councilors Bill Christiansen and Chris Trail, who sponsored the item, had lowered the amount from $500,000 as an "olive branch" to Mayor Dewey Bartlett, who has opposed the action. Public Works Department officials said at a recent winter storm preparedness news conference that the city has 9,600 tons of salt on hand but that they would be "more comfortable" with 12,000 to 14,000 tons.
  8. NEWSOK.COM - Tammy Banovac, the headline-making woman who went through security at the Oklahoma City airport in her underwear this week, posed in 1997 for a Playboy magazine pictorial featuring "dental girls." Her Arizona dental license had actually been revoked four years earlier over the death of a child in her care. Banovac's photos were in the April 1997 issue of Playboy under her maiden name, Tammy L. Brewer, Playboy spokeswoman Theresa Hennessey said. The Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners revoked Banovac's dental license in April 1993 after a 7-year-old boy died three hours after Banovac remove nine of his teeth, according to board records obtained by The Oklahoman.
  9. YAHOO - A sharply divided House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday afternoon to extend the George W. Bush tax cuts for individuals earning under $200,000 and couples earning less than $250,000. The vote, at 234 to 188, ran largely along partisan lines. All but three GOP lawmakers voted against the bill, as they want the tax cuts extended for the wealthy as well. They were joined by 20 Democrats. Don't pay any attention. The vote was pure political theater. But a compromise is in the works for real action. The Democratic proposal was never intended as a serious bid to resolve the debate over the expiring Bush tax cuts. It also has no chance of moving ahead in the Senate, where GOP support would be needed to get 60 votes for passage. Instead, the vote was a move by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her Democratic allies to force Republicans to take a potentially embarrassing stance -- one that undoubtedly will show up in many a Democratic campaign ads come 2012.
  10. CLEVELAND (AP)--LeBron James insisted it was nothing personal. The final score said otherwise. James scored a season-high 38 points--24 in a third-quarter clinic--to lead the Miami Heat in a 118-90 blowout win over the Cavaliers, taming a hostile Cleveland crowd even before halftime Thursday night. "I have the utmost respect for this franchise, the utmost respect for these fans," James said afterward. But he spent part of the second half taunting Cleveland's bench. The game that mattered most to the franchise turned into its worst loss of the season so far.
  11. NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth. Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components. "The definition of life has just expanded," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it." This finding of an alternative biochemistry makeup will alter biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond Earth. The research is published in this week's edition of Science Express. Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur are the six basic building blocks of all known forms of life on Earth. Phosphorus is part of the chemical backbone of DNA and RNA, the structures that carry genetic instructions for life, and is considered an essential element for all living cells. Phosphorus is a central component of the energy-carrying molecule in all cells (adenosine triphosphate) and also the phospholipids that form all cell membranes. Arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, is poisonous for most life on Earth. Arsenic disrupts metabolic pathways because chemically it behaves similarly to phosphate.
  12. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A strange, salty lake in California has yielded an equally strange bacterium that thrives on arsenic and redefines life as we know it, researchers reported on Thursday. The bacteria do not merely eat arsenic -- they incorporate the toxic element directly into their DNA, the researchers said. The finding shows just how little scientists know about the variety of life forms on Earth, and may greatly expand where they should be looking for life on other planets and moons, the NASA-funded team said.
  13. Antrel Rolle admits that he is a "bigmouth" and is unapologetic about it. Thursday, however, the Giants' safety put his foot in that mouth and had to issue a scripted apology shortly after he compared his teammates to American troops returning from Iraq. In an attempt to defend ripping Giants fans Tuesday for booing the team, Rolle said: "They want to make it that guys paid this much money for a ticket. Yeah, I understand that, I understand completely. We risk ourselves out there on the field each and every day also. When soldiers come home from Iraq you don't boo them. I look at it the same way. I take my job seriously." Later, in a statement released by the team, Rolle said: "I used a very poor, inappropriate example earlier today to demonstrate how seriously I take my job. Obviously there is no comparison between the men and women of our military putting their life on the line defending our country and what I do.
  14. DISNEY-PLANNED COMMUNITY HAS FIRST MURDER: Celebration, the planned community created by Disney in central Florida, had the first murder in its 14-year existence this week. A 58-year-old man who lived alone was killed over the Thanksgiving weekend, and his body was found Monday (November 29th) by neighbors who went to his condo after not seeing him for days. Investigators aren't saying how the man died, and no suspect has been found. Celebration is a community of 11,000 people located some five miles south of Walt Disney World. It incorporated "New Urbanism" ideas like having a walkable community and a front porch close to the sidewalk to encourage neighbor interaction. Despite having master-planned Celebration, Disney gave up control of it several years ago, and it's now maintained like any other town in Osceola County.
  15. ONE-NIGHT-STANDS ARE IN YOUR GENES: People with a certain gene variant are more likely to have one-night stands and sex without commitment. Researchers from Binghamton University sampled the DNA of 181 young adults and also quizzed them on their sexual behavior. Those who had a particular variant of the gene DRD4 -- which regulates the body's reaction to the production of dopamine -- were more likely to pursue one-night stands. Reason being, people who have this variant get more of a dopamine rush from high-risk, high-reward behavior, such as one-night stands. They are also be more likely to gamble compulsively and consume drugs and alcohol to excess.
  16. MARRIED WOMEN PREFER TALKING TO PETS OVER HUSBANDS: According to a recent Associated Press/Petside poll, a third of married gals claim their pets are much better listeners than their husbands. Of the 1,112 people surveyed nationwide, one in 10 said they'd rather talk to their pet than their spouse -- and 18 percent of those respondents were actually men. As for the battle between the species, 25 percent of dog owners admitted their dog was a champion listener, while only 14 percent said the same of their cats.
  17. Recall: It just keeps getting worse for Johnson & Johnson. This time the company is recalling 12-million bottles of Mylanta and nearly 90-thousand bottles of AlternaGel liquid antacids. A company statement explains the medications contain trace amounts of alcohol that went unnoted on the packaging. The content is less than one-percent and is not likely to cause any adverse effects for people sensitive to alcohol. The recall does not involve consumers. This is solely for retailers and wholesalers. The company says it's safe for consumers to continue taking the medication. FYI: Call 1-800-469-5268 for the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Care Center.
  18. There are 22 shopping days left till Christmas, and 169 days left until Jesus' second coming. That's the message on 40 billboards around Nashville, proclaiming May 21, 2011, as the date of the Rapture. Billboards are up in eight other U-S cities, too. The Nashville Tennessean reports that fans of a nationwide Christian radio network paid for the billboards. The network's founder predicted the May date for the Rapture.
  19. STOCKHOLM - WikiLeaks' American domain name system provider withdrew service to the wikileaks.org name after the secret-spilling website once again became the target of hacker attacks. EveryDNS said in a statement that it dropped the website late Thursday because the attacks threatened the rest of its network. WikiLeaks responded by moving to a Swiss domain name, wikileaks.ch.
  20. AOL NEWS - The U.S. House of Representatives voted today to censure New York Rep. Charlie Rangel for an ongoing pattern of ethics violations. While his punishment is harsher than a formal letter of reprimand, in that Rangel was forced to sit in the well of the House while the vote transpired and the results were read, he still remains a member of Congress. As a result of these somewhat obscure and procedural maneuvers, many Americans are asking what the consequences of censure amount to, and what the future holds for Rangel, specifically. In effect, the punishment boils down to two things. 1. Power -- Though Rangel gave up his post as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee back in March, he can no longer hold a chairmanship should the Democrats return to majority status in the future. 2. Legacy -- From this day forward, Rangel will be remembered as one of just 23 House members to be censured. Having served in the House since 1971, censure is not the way the congressman would like to cap his career.
  21. AOLNEWS - Julian Assange may be getting some unlikely company. If Nigeria has its way, former Vice President Dick Cheney will be next on Interpol's international "wanted" alert, for bribery charges related to his time as the CEO of Halliburton. Nigeria's anti-corruption agency says it plans to file charges against Cheney in connection with $180 million in bribes a Halliburton subsidiary paid to Nigerian officials to help secure a $1.2 billion contract during his tenure as head of the company. "We are filing charges against Cheney," Femi Babafemi, the country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission chief, told Reuters today.
  22. ACRAMENTO -- Contraband cellphones are becoming so prevalent in California prisons that guards can't keep them out of the hands of the most notorious and violent inmates: Even Charles Manson, orchestrator of one of the most notorious killing rampages in U.S. history, was caught with an LG flip phone under his prison mattress. Manson made calls and sent text messages to people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia before officers discovered the phone, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections.
  23. SAN DIEGO -- A Marine drill instructor who admitted tossing a kitten against a wall after the animal scratched him was ordered Wednesday to pay $3,928 to cover the veterinary bills. Sgt. Fernando Pacheco, 27, pleaded guilty Sept. 30 to felony animal cruelty, but Judge Frank Brown immediately reduced the conviction to a misdemeanor. A felony conviction would have meant that Pacheco -- who has been in the Marine Corps for seven years and has done two tours of duty in Iraq -- would have been thrown out of the military. The incident happened last June.
  24. CHICAGO, Ill. -- Eighteen year old twins Tim and Will White were so excited to take their first flight they got to the airport in Chicago hours ahead of takeoff on Thanksgiving Day. But just a few minutes before boarding the plane to Minneapolis, Southwest Airlines told Tim he was too big for just one seat, and would have to buy another. Tim says he quickly called his aunt in St Paul to get her credit card number for the second seat, but that Southwest then told them they wouldn't sell a ticket over the phone because of the risk of fraud. And even though the plane wasn't full, the gate agent refused to let Tim sit next to an empty seat. So the twins had to leave the airport, and take an overnight bus to Minneapolis instead. Southwest is not saying whether it'll change that policy, but the airline did apologize, refund both tickets, and give the family a travel voucher.
  25. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em -- location-based social network Gowalla  has released version 3.0 of its iPhone app, which now integrates with two of its bigger and better-known rivals, Foursquare and Facebook Places. Using Gowalla, users can now broadcast their checkins on both networks, as well as Twitter and Tumblr, and even secure Foursquare badges and Facebook Deals. Users also now have access to a Universal Activity Feed, which aggregates checkins from Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook in real-time, so they can keep track of their friends no matter which location-based app they use.
 
 

From Our News Partners

 

© 2013 Cox Media Group. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad ChoicesAdChoices.