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Road closures force drivers onto alternate routes

Governor Kevin Stitt today amended an executive order declaring a State of Emergency for all 77 Oklahoma counties impacted by flooding and severe storms. Flooding is causing big problems on on area roads and Highway. KRMG Traffic Anchor Chase Thompson put together a list of some of the major road closures and alternative routes as of 4pm Friday. OPENHwy 11 is back open from Avant – to Skiatook – to Sperry (it was closed from 156th St N to 76th St N) Hwy 20 is back open between Skiatook and Hwy 75 76th St North is open West of Hwy 169 in Owasso (it was closed from Memorial to Main St in Owasso) CLOSED Riverside Drive – Closed from SW Blvd to near 15th Street (Ark River has left the banks right there) ALT: Riverside diverted at Houston Ave – Use Houston to access 12th St – Use 12th St to access SW Blvd Mohawk Blvd – Closed to the West of Mingo (may know it as 56th St North to the East of Hwy 75) Elwood Ave – Closed from W 36th St to W 51st St (industrial area on West bank of the river) Mingo Road – Closed from 76th St North to 66th St North (Bird Creek area) Hwy 51 – Closed just West of Hwy 97 in Sand Springs ALT: Use Hwy 412 and Hwy 151 (Keystone Dam) to access Hwy 51 (West of the closure) Hwy 62 – Closed between Ft. Gibson and Muskogee (this cuts off access to Tahlequah and Eastern OK) ALT: Use Hwy 69 to Wagoner – Use Hwy 51 from Wagoner to Tahlequah Note: Hwy 69 may flood North of Muskogee – Use Musk Tpke to Hwy 51/Coweta exit Hwy 72 – Closed just South of Coweta ALT: see Hwy 104 below Hwy 104 – Closed just East of Haskell ALT: For both 104 and 72 - Use Hwy 64 from Haskell to Hwy 62 just South of Haskell – Use 62 to Hwy 69 which then drivers can use Hwy 69 to Hwy 51-B just South of the Muskogee Tpke – Use 51-B to Porter, Coweta Note: Hwy 69 may flood North of Muskogee – Use 62 through Muskogee to access Musk Tpke Hwy 16 – Closed between Muskogee and Okay Note: The town of Okay is essentially cut off – Locals will use local/country roads to get around Hwy 16 – Closed just NW of Okay Note: The town of Okay is essentially cut off – Locals will use local/country roads to get around Ft. Gibson Lake Hwy 80 – Closed 4 miles West of Hulbert (near Wildwood area of Ft Gibson Lake – known to flood) Hwy 80 – Closed just below Ft. Gibson Dam (near Canyon Rd area) Note: 251-A across the dam is OPEN Grand Lake Hwy 82 – Closed at Grand River bridge just South of Langley (due to heavy release from Pensacola dam) Tune to NEWS102.3 and AM740 KRMG for the latest on road closures and the severe weather threat.

Bank CEO pleads not guilty in bid to get Trump post

A banker who prosecutors say tried to buy himself a senior post in President Donald Trump’s administration by making risky loans to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty Thursday to a financial institution bribery charge as his lawyer said he’s done nothing wrong. Stephen M. Calk, 54, was released on $5 million bail after making a brief appearance in Manhattan federal court. Calk, who lives in Chicago where The Federal Savings Bank is headquartered, was told by Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman to have no contact with bank employees except for his brother until prosecutors next week submit a list of individuals he cannot communicate with. The small bank where Calk was CEO when he allegedly carried out the scheme said in a statement that Calk already had no involvement with the bank and is on a leave of absence. In a statement, Calk attorney Jeremy Margolis said Calk will be exonerated on the “baseless isolated charge.” He called the arrest a “travesty.” He said the bank his client founded and Calk were “victims of Mr. Manafort’s ongoing fraud. Mr. Calk did not commit any offense with him.” Another defense lawyer, Daniel Stein, said outside court: “These loans were simply not a bribe for anything.”

Veterans Day vs. Memorial Day: When is each, why is it commemorated?

If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, apparently you’re not alone. No less an authority than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says people frequently confuse the two holidays. >> Read more trending news Make no mistake about it: Both are incredibly important holidays, with their common focus on Americans who’ve served in the military. The key distinction: Memorial Day “is a day for remembering and honoring military personnel who died in the service of their country, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle,” the VA says. While Veterans Day also honors the dead, it is “the day set aside to thank and honor all those who served honorably in the military - in wartime or peacetime.” Here’s a guide to each holiday: Memorial Day When it is: This year, it is on May 27. Its original name: Decoration Day. Initially, it honored only those soldiers who’d died during the Civil War. In 1868, a veteran of the Union Army, Gen. John A. Logan, decided to formalize a growing tradition of towns decorating veterans’ graves with flowers by organizing a nationwide day of remembrance on May 30 Logan also served in Congress from Illinois and in 1884, unsuccessfully ran for vice president on the Republican ticket. During World War I, the holiday’s focus expanded to honoring those lost during all U.S. wars. When it became official: In 1968, Congress officially established Memorial Day, as it had gradually come to be known, as a federal holiday that always takes place on the last Monday in May. Its unofficial designation: Memorial Day is still a solemn day of remembrance everywhere from Arlington National Cemetery to metro Atlanta, where a number of ceremonies and events will take place on Monday. On a lighter note, though, many people view the arrival of the three-day weekend each year as the start of summer. One more thing to know: In 2000, Congress established the National Moment of Remembrance. It asks all Americans to pause at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day each year to remember the dead. Veterans Day When it is: Nov. 11 every year. Its original name: Armistice Day. The armistice or agreement signed between the Allies and Germany that ended World War I called for the cessation of all hostilities to take effect at 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year in 1918. One year later, on Nov. 11, 1919, the first Armistice Day was celebrated in the U.S. When it became official: In 1938, a congressional act established Armistice Day as an annual legal holiday. In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks first proposed the idea of expanding the holiday to one honoring veterans of all U.S. wars. In 1954, the holiday legally became known as Veterans Day. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan presented Alabama resident Weeks with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in recognition of his efforts in creating Veterans Day. Its temporary relocation: In 1968, the same congressional act that established Memorial Day moved Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October every year. That law took effect in 1971; just four years later, in 1975, President Gerald Ford -- citing the original date’s “historic and patriotic significance,” signed a bill that redesignated Nov. 11 as Veterans Day every year. One more thing to know: Despite much confusion over the spelling, it’s Veterans Day, plural, and without any apostrophes. That’s according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which explains on its website: “Veterans Day does not include an apostrophe but does include an ‘s’ at the end of ‘veterans’ because it is not a day that ‘belongs’ to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans.”

Voice of Reason: An Intimate Look At Jamie Dupree’s Return To Air

We open with a producer off-camera asking, “Can you give us a brief explanation of what’s going on with your voice?” Jamie Dupree, dressed for Capitol Hill, immediately begins writing down his response on his tablet. He looks up at the camera with a smirk and simply replies, “No.” In essence, the documentary ‘Voice of Reason’ is the story of Jamie Dupree’s return to air. But, Jamie’s story transcends radio waves. Directed by WSB Videographer Jesse Brooks, ‘Voice of Reason’ is a story of triumph and how in Jamie’s words, despite life’s adversity, “There is no reason to give up.” [Don’t see the video? Click here] As a Cox Media Group Washington correspondent, Jamie spent more than three decades covering Capitol Hill. Nearly two years ago, his method of communication had to change. Doctors say a rare neurological condition is making it difficult for his brain to tell his tongue what to do while speaking. Placing a pen in his mouth helps him speak. “It’s hard, but I’m working to come back hard,” Jamie tells WSB. As it became obvious in the last year that his voice was not coming back, Jamie doubled down his efforts to find answers. And that’s when Mike Lupo at CMG’s corporate headquarters contacted a company in Scotland called CereProc. With innovative technology, CereProc developed a special voice app that allows Jamie to use a simple text-to-speech program to generate news reports in his old voice. ‘Voice of Reason,’ which became a labor of love for WSB’s Jesse Brooks, delves deeper into CereProc’s technology and Jamie’s emotional journey over the past few years The documentary is peppered with moving interviews with Jamie’s colleagues, and even a few candid glimpses of Jamie with his kids. He’s thankful to all who have wished him well. While the condition has obviously affected his job, that’s not what Jamie says hurts him the most – “Think about not being able to talk to your kids, or your wife or your father or your friends. While my work is hard and different, life is about a lot more than that.” Specialists at Emory University in Atlanta are trying a new treatment that will slow down the movement of Jamie’s tongue to make it easier for him to speak. In the meantime, Jamie wants everyone to know his overall health is good. “Let’s be frank about this whole situation -- this sucks,” Jamie tells producers in ‘Voice of Reason,’ adding through misty eyes, “But there is no reason to quit. “There is no reason to stop trying. And so I’m not going to stop trying.” >>READ MORE ON JAMIE’S 2019 REGIONAL MURROW AWARD.

Voice of Reason: An Intimate Look At Jamie Dupree’s Return To Air

Jamie Dupree Washington Insider

Giving women the vote 100 years ago - amid fears of socialism and race With June 4, 2019 marking the 100th anniversary of the approval by Congress of a constitutional change which guaranteed women the ability to vote in the United States, a look back at the final debates in the House and Senate showcased dire predictions that giving women the franchise would bring a rush to socialism in American and spur racial problems in the South. 'It will not only add to the growth of socialism, but will likewise contribute to the upbuilding of femininism and Bolshevism in America,' thundered Rep. Frank Clark, a Florida Democrat who bitterly opposed the women's suffrage amendment. 'Every Socialist and every Bolshevist throughout the land wherever you find him is an ardent advocate of woman suffrage, and he wants it by Federal amendment,' Clark said on the House floor, as he also warned the change would stir racial troubles in the South. 'Make this amendment a part of the Federal Constitution and the negro women of the Southern States, under the tutelage of the fast-growing socialistic element of our common country, will become fanatical on the subject of voting and will reawaken in the negro men an intense and not easily quenched desire to again become a political factor,' said Clark, who led opposition to the constitutional change. While Clark's arguments did not sway the debate, there were clear sectional differences, as the House voted 304-90 in favor of the proposed constitutional change to allow women to vote. As debate concluded in the House on May 21, 1919, supporters said it was simply time for women to be allowed to vote in every state of the Union. 'I want to congratulate the good women who fought the good fight all these years, and who now see the dawn of the day of final victory,' said Rep. Frank Mondell, the House Republican Leader from Wyoming, a state which allowed women to vote when it was still a territory. 'When I came here the voice of the suffragist was like that of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness,' said former House Speaker 'Champ' Clark, a Democrat from Missouri. 'I think my wife and my daughter are as capable of voting as most men in this country are,' the Democratic Leader said to applause. But for others, what would ultimately become the 19th Amendment - referred to in debate as the 'Susan B. Anthony Amendment' - was not something to celebrate, as many southern lawmakers eyed the effort with derision and suspicion, with the Civil War, Reconstruction, and states' rights bubbling in the political background. 'Is suffrage such a question as should be snatched from the control of the States and lodged in a rapidly centralizing government?' asked Rep. Eugene Black, a Democrat from Texas, as a number of lawmakers in both parties said the individual states should decide who votes, and who does not. 'Under the fifteenth amendment, not only the negro, for whom it was adopted, but the sons of every other race under the sun may vote in any State in the Union, provided they or their ancestors have once been naturalized,' argued Rep. Rufus Hardy, a Democrat from Texas. 'What evils may yet come of the fifteenth amendment only the future may unfold,' Hardy said, as he drew applause in advocating states' rights, and denouncing federal decisions about who could vote. 'It is a privilege to be granted or withheld at the pleasure of the States,' said Rep. Clark of Florida. But some urged southern lawmakers to reconsider, asking the 'gentlemen of Dixie' to give their mothers a chance to vote for them. Several weeks later, as the Senate vote on the 19th amendment approached in early June, the debate became more testy - more focused on race - and the right of states to determine who can vote. 'When it says that there shall be no restriction of the suffrage on account of sex, it means the female sex, and means the millions upon millions of Negro women in the South,' said Sen. Ellison Smith, a Democrat from South Carolina. The argument from southern Senators was simple - the states should decide who votes, not the federal government. It was a preview of the battles to come during the Civil Rights era. 'Mr. President, it is not a question today as to whether the women of American should have the right to vote,' said Sen. Oscar Underwood, a Democrat from Alabama. “It is a question of whether, in the end, our Government shall live.” Supporters of the amendment openly acknowledged that black women in the South probably would not be allowed to vote by southern states - precisely in the same way that hurdles had been placed in the way of black Americans voting in the states of the former Confederacy - a charge that left southern Senators like Smith aggravated. 'I have heard it flippantly remarked by those who propose to vote for this amendment, 'You found a way to keep the Negro man from voting and you will find away to keep the unworthy Negro woman from voting,' Smith said on the Senate floor, as he denounced how the South had been 'deluged by an alien and unfit race.' “You went specifically after the Negro men in the fifteenth amendment,” Smith said in Senate debate. “Now you go specifically after the Negro and white women in this amendment.” On the floor, Smith and other opponents of the amendment pushed back hard on the race question, as Senators sparred over old wounds and scars left by the Fifteenth Amendment and Reconstruction. 'Those of us from the South, where the preponderance of the Negro vote jeopardized our civilization, have maintained that the fifteenth amendment was a crime against our civilization,' Smith said. 'The Senator knows full well that the fifteenth amendment embodied the color question,' said Sen. Irvine Lenroot, a Republican from Wisconsin, 'the Senator knows just as well that there is no color question at all embodied in this amendment. It relates only to sex.' 'The discussion here upon the floor yesterday makes it perfectly apparent that in part at least, in a certain section of this country, this proposed amendment will be a dead letter,' acknowledged Sen. James Wadsworth, a Republican from New York. Wadsworth and others were proven correct, as it took many years for black Americans to get around the poll tax and other means of stopping them from voting. “Oh, the white man votes because you are careful to apply tests which do not apply to the white man,' Senator William Borah, a Republican of Idaho, said to Senators from the South. 'You pick out those tests which exclude the Negro and write them into your law, and that excludes the Negro.' In an exchange with Senator John Williams, a Mississippi Democrat, Borah said, “the Negro does not vote (in the South) because he is black. That is the only crime which he has committed.” Just before the final vote in the Senate, Democrat Edward Gay of Louisiana rose on the Senate floor, making one last call to allow the states to have the final say on whether women should vote. 'I predict that there are 13 States that will never ratify the amendment which the Congress of the United State is about to present to the American people,' Gay said. Gay was wrong, as the amendment was ratified 14 months later in August of 1920. But it took years for many southern states to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution: + Virginia - February 21, 1952 + Alabama - September 8, 1953 + Florida - May 13, 1969 + South Carolina - July 1, 1969 + Georgia - February 20, 1970 + Louisiana - June 11, 1970 + North Carolina - May 6, 1971 + Mississippi - March 22, 1984

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