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Tulsa, Okla. — A homeowner returns from a walk Saturday evening and finds an intruder inside his home near Skelly and Lewis. Police say they received the call around 6 p.m., but not just for a burglary.

Sheree Powell, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, started receiving calls around 11:30 a.m. about problems with the state's card systems. More than 600,000 Oklahomans receive SNAP benefits, and money is dispersed to the cards on the first, fifth and 10th days of every month, so the disruption came at what is typically a high-use time for the cards. Oklahoma also runs a separate debit card system for other state benefits like unemployment payments. Those cards can be used at ATMs to withdraw cash. Powell said Xerox administers both the EBT and debit card systems, and they...

People in Ohio, Michigan and several other states found themselves unable to use their food stamp debit cards on Saturday, after a routine check by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure. Shoppers from Maine to Oklahoma had to abandon baskets of groceries because they couldn't access their benefits.Ohio's cash and food assistance card payment systems went down at 11 a.m., said Benjamin Johnson, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Ohio's cash system has been fixed, however its electronic benefits transfer card system is still down. All states that use Xerox systems are affected...

TULSA, Oklahoma - Police arrested an apartment resident after maintenance personnel working in an attic discovered holes in the ceiling above his neighbor's apartment. Police have identified the suspect as Carlos Perez, 26. Tulsa Police found holes in the ceiling of several more apartments at Tower Crossing Apartments in the 4400 block of South 109th East Avenue. They also found a steak knife, pepper spray, woman's panties, a wig, unused condoms and pornographic material in the attic. The woman who lived in the first apartment told officers her personal items had been disappearing for more than a year. Police said...

A natural gas pipeline fire in rural northwest Oklahoma was extinguished on Wednesday morning with no injuries reported, and the company that owns it, Northern Natural Gas, is working to determine the cause of the blast, a company spokesman said. The fire occurred at 11 p.m. CST on Tuesday (0400 GMT Wednesday) in a remote and rural area in Oklahoma's panhandle, and could be seen up to 50 miles away, according to local media reports. No injuries were reported. About "a half dozen" area volunteer fire departments responded to Tuesday night's blaze, said Mike Loeffler, spokesman for Northern Natural Gas....

Panelists at a Tulsa County GOP event Wednesday discussed ways Oklahoma and its citizens can resist the Affordable Care Act’s requirements, including the possibility of passing a “nullification law” and refusing to pay fines for failure to carry insurance. One panelist at the event called President Barack Obama’s administration an “oligarchy” and “an undercover dictatorship.” Another panelist claimed that the federal health-care law allows federal officials to inspect the homes of people who home school their children and to share citizens’ medical records. State Rep. Michael Ritze, R-Broken Arrow, said a bill allowing the state to nullify the federal law...

Sen. Jim Inhofe underwent emergency heart surgery in Tulsa on Friday after a routine test showed extreme blockage in five arteries. Inhofe had quadruple bypass surgery and was hospitalized at St. John Medical Center. The Tulsa Republican said in an interview from the hospital Monday he felt great and was expecting to go home Tuesday. He said he'd return to Washington as soon as possible. Inhofe, 78, said he has never had any kind of heart trouble and hadn't felt any symptoms of the blocked arteries. The senator said he had a virtual colonoscopy last week. After a doctor looked...

Freshman Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma is one of the hard-line House conservatives demanding concessions from President Barack Obama on his health care law in exchange for ending the federal government shutdown. “We have got to get to the point where we’re working like a functional government, not like a dictatorship,” said Mullin, a 36-year-old rancher and plumbing business owner who insists that the president and Senate Democrats must negotiate on an emergency spending bill to re-open the government.

Ted Cruz's townhall meeting by telephone last night drew over 104,000 participants. The previous record was 67,000 people. The event was sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots and Cruz was joined by Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK). The meeting was on the continuing resolution. TPP Co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said no special efforts were taken and the only announcements were the standard Facebook post for two hours and a robocall earlier in the day. The meeting was to bring people up to date on the defunding of Obamacare through the CR. Just as 2010, the Tea Party patriots are leading the...

Dear friends and neighbors in central Oklahoma, At midnight yesterday, the federal government officially slowed down when Fiscal Year 2014 began. Today, most federal offices were still open, but they had reduced staff levels. Twenty-four hours ago, the House passed a formal request to the Senate to select lead negotiators,so we could meet to work out a compromise. The House selected our negotiators, set aside a room to meet,and waited for the Senate. Unfortunately, two minutes after opening their legislative day, the Senate voted to “table” the House measure and refused to meet with the House today.It is frustrating when...

Late Saturday evening, Oklahoma Congressman Jim Bridenstine, along with the U.S. House of Representatives once again passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) that accomplishes two objectives: fund the federal government and protect Americans from the harmful effects of ObamaCare. In a press release sent out late Saturday night, Congressman Bridenstine said, “Now the Senate will decide if they are willing to accept the bill as amended in the House or if they are going to shut down the government. “James Madison explained in Federalist No. 58 that the purpose of Article I of the Constitution is to put the ‘power of...

MOORE, Oklahoma - A Moore teenager tried to turn his dad's wrong into a right. Christian Lunsford, 15, wanted to meet his father's mugging victim to try and make amends. The victim, Tona Herndon, agreed to meet the teenager on Sunday afternoon. Christian wanted to give her some cash that he recently received from his dad. But the meeting took an unexpected turn. Tona says she is still reeling from what happened to her last month at the Bethany Cemetery. She had just buried her husband of 60 years and was visiting his gravesite, when she was mugged.

Cold cases are those murder or missing persons cases that go unsolved for years, or even decades. Some of these cases, like the disappearance of union leader Jimmy Hoffa, have inspired countless books and movies, while others never gain any traction until an accidental discovery or confession. NBC News reports that Oklahoma State Troopers who were testing new sonar equipment in Foss Lake stumbled across not one, but two cars. What they first thought was merely a couple of stolen cars came with a grisly discovery; six bodies, potentially solving two cold cases that had long gone unsolved. Troopers pulled...

Four Christian universities in Oklahoma are the latest to sue the Obama administration over its mandate that forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception. Southern Nazarene University, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, Oklahoma Baptist University and Mid-America Christian University filed the new lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on Friday. They specifically objected to providing coverage for abortifacients, the Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed the suit on their behalf, said in a statement. "Christian colleges should remain free to operate according to...

The Talk Shows September 15==22nd, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz.THIS WEEK (ABC): Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Tom Graves, R-Ga.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

THOMAS, Okla. — Firefighters are battling a fire and officials are ordering nearby areas evacuated after a fire and explosions rocked a manufacturing site northwest of Oklahoma City.

North Carolina has become the seventh state to prohibit state judges from considering Islamic law in family cases, joining what critics say is a national anti-Muslim campaign. ... North Carolina now joins Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee, according to Religion News Service, in banning Islamic Sharia law. A constitutional amendment seeking the same change in Alabama will be on the 2014 ballot. In Missouri, the governor vetoed an anti-Sharia bill because of its potential impact on international adoptions. But the law in Oklahoma was struck down in court as unconstitutional,

Police testing new sonar equipment during a training exercise at Foss Lake in Oklahoma discovered five skeletons inside a blue 1969 Chevy Camaro and a 1950s-era vehicle perhaps linked to the early 1960's disappearance of a couple.

They had lain undiscovered under an Oklahoma lake for fifty years. And now the discovery of two rusting vintage cars containing five bodies has reignited the mystery of how three teenagers and one couple vanished more than five decades ago. Highway patrol officers testing their sonar equipment Foss Lake near Elk City, Oklahoma on Friday stumbled upon the rusting 1969 Camaro and a Chevrolet dating from the 1950s. Inside the Camaro were three bodies believed to be of local teenagers who vanished after going out for a drive in 1970. Inside the Chevrolet were two bodies – thought to be...

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has ordered the National Guard to stop processing requests for military benefits for same-sex couples. Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the governor was following the wish of Oklahoma voters, who approved a constitutional amendment that prohibits giving benefits of marriage to gay couples. Because of that prohibition, Weintz says the governor's legal staff advised the Oklahoma National Guard not to process requests for benefits from gay couples. Weintz says same-sex couples that have been legally married in other states still can apply for those benefits at a federal facility, such...

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has ordered the National Guard to stop processing requests for military benefits for same-sex couples. Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the governor was following the wish of Oklahoma voters, who approved a constitutional amendment that prohibits giving benefits of marriage to gay couples. …

All, Please keep my Mother-in-Law Janice in your prayers, she on Tuesday had to go back in for re-surgery on her arm(it was not healing properly and causing ALOT of pain) anyway that(Oklahoma) is where Wendy has been since Monday. Wendy comes back home tomorrow afternoon.

A judge Friday ordered Sooner Tea Party co-founder Al Gerhart to face trial in a blackmail case. Gerhart, a carpenter, is charged with two felonies over an email he admits sending to a state senator in an effort to get legislation passed. Oklahoma County Special Judge Susan K. Johnson rejected defense arguments that the email was protected political speech. “Your First Amendment rights are on trial, not just mine,” Gerhart told news reporters after the ruling was made at the end of a two-hour preliminary hearing. Sen. Cliff Branan, R-Oklahoma City, said he felt anxious when he first read the...

administrator, Millard Jones told FOX23 that Terrance Parker was fully aware what was expected. However, for his young daughter, it just hurts. "They didn't like my dreads," said Tiana. FoX23 reviewed the school's dress code. It states, "hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable."

An adorable and surprising story is making its way through Facebook pages today. It’s the story of a Tulsa, Oklahoma couple – Andy and Sarah Justice, who had a longing in their heart to have children but struggled to conceive. After three and a half years Andy and Sarah decided to go to a specialist but the treatment was too expensive. Instead they went in a different direction and contacted an adoption agency connected to a faith based Crisis Pregnancy Center.In the adoption process the birth mother got to chose the family she wanted her child to go to. Andy...

Three Tulsa women are in jail on robbery complaints in connection with a pair of weapons-based heists. Tiffany Givens, 22, Kimberly Chenevent, 45, and Miriam Marie McCullum, 48, are suspected of taking part in robberies at Habitat for Hope on Aug. 23, as well as the robbery of a Hispanic female on Tuesday. Tulsa police said Habitat for Hope, 553 S. Zunis Ave., was robbed at gunpoint Aug. 23 when two black females fired a weapon toward a woman at the business, took money and left. Four days later, a woman was robbed at 275 S. Lewis Ave. when two...

The right to keep and bear arms may have been stolen by the Colorado state legislature, but a posse of local lawmen is riding to the rescue. ... Elected sheriffs, as the top law enforcement officers within their counties, work for the citizens and taxpayers in their jurisdictions, not the federal government. Even the Supreme Court ruled that sheriffs cannot be compelled to follow federal dictates or mandates in a landmark case on gun control. Now, with Obama pushing hard for new restrictions on gun rights — finding strong support from some anti-Second Amendment Democrats in Congress and much of...

OKLAHOMA CITY - Ten men are arrested after another undercover sex sting near Lake Hefner. A couple of the men arrested are "repeat offenders." You might wonder why any of the men arrested would ever take a chance coming back out to Hobie Point, but they do. We talked to one of them in order to get some insight, but agreed to protect his identity in the process. . . . Many parents are concerned that this kind of adult activity is happening so close to where their children come to play.

Philip Thomas Burris, Jr., 25, has spent his entire adult life behind bars, but that hasn’t stopped him from having sex with a woman. Unfortunately for him, it was non-consensual sex with a 38-year-old caseworker who used her position to force him to have sex with her. Burris is now suing the State Corrections Department for damages. Burris entered Oklahoma’s Joseph Harp Correctional Center in 2007, when he was 18, to begin serving a 13-year-sentence for attempted armed robbery, burglary, vehicle theft and weapons possession. Caseworker Kasey McDonald was unfazed by his history, nor was she bothered by the three...

The judge overseeing the case of three teens charged in the shooting death of an Australian baseball player has issued a gag order. Stephens County Special Judge Jerry Herberger issued an Order Prohibiting Extrajudicial Statements on Tuesday at the request of District Attorney Jason Hicks. The order applies to all parties involved in the case, including attorneys and law enforcement, and prohibits them from talking to the news media.

As a Latino, I have faced my share of racism over the years, and I think I know it when I see it. My current definition of racism is having a distorted, twisted view of the world based on race. While this warped way of looking at the world based on race may take many forms, the clearest illustration is found in a hypocritical, selective, inconsistent perception and evaluation of reality based on race. It is obvious that people of color have faced racism throughout history, and that societies have not often treated them fairly. Our justice systems, as part...

Chris Lane Murder Suspect James Edward Danced, Twirled and Laughed During Booking Process Posted by Gateway Guest Blogger on Sunday, August 25, 2013, 5:12 PM By: Rachel Pulaski On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace spoke with Stephens County OK District Attorney Jason Hicks regarding the Stephen Lane murder. Hicks said 15 year old James Edwards was “dancing and doing twirls, laughing and cutting up during the booking process, he thought the whole thing was a joke.”

President Obama should express condolences for the Australian baseball player killed this week in Oklahoma, that state’s governor said Sunday. “I think it would be a nice gesture for him to do that, especially since the country of Australia has expressed its sentiments as to the murder itself,” Gov. Mary Fallon (R) said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. Lane was killed in a shooting in which three teenagers shot him while he was jogging. The teens said they killed him because they were bored. The silence over Lane's shooting has infuriated conservatives, in light of the extremely vocal...

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said Sunday that Australian college student Christopher Lane's death wasn't about gun control -- "it was about murder" -- and she believes it "would be nice" if President Barack Obama would express his condolences to Lane's family. "I certainly am going to say something on behalf of the state of Oklahoma, to the family," the Republican governor told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace. "It would be nice if our nation were to certainly express their condolences, how very sorry we are." Chancey Allen Luna, 16, James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, and Michael Dewayne Jones, 17....

The UK Daily Mail has already reported that “The three boys alleged to have gunned down an Australian baseball player out for a run because they were ‘bored’ were influenced by an ultra-violent rapper.” Specifically, “rather than being part of any gang, which had been suggested before, authorities believe the boys were just wannabes who were emulating the thuggish beliefs of their idols, with Chief Keef being prime suspect.” The Chicago Sun-Times posted a similar story. It turns out that Kenan Kinard, the unapprehended suspect in the murder of 89 year-old World War II veteran Delbert Belton in Spokane, Washington,...

Bestselling author and renown investigative reporter Jack Cashill believes there are strong parallels between the Trayvon Martin case in Florida and the Duncan, Okla., case where black teens are accused of killing Australian baseball player Christopher Lane. “The drugs, the racial animosity, the violence, the attachment to the hip hop culture – if Trayvon was the son of Barack Obama, they were his brothers,” Cashill commented to WND. “They were on the same track that Travyon was.” He was referencing Obama’s comment that he made in the Trayvon Martin case, that pushed the conflict into the national political scene. Obama...

A few years ago, Jim Vich would not have dreamed of setting up an elaborate trap to catch wild hogs. But that was before Oklahoma was invaded by a plague of pigs that devour crops, uproot pastures, destroy wildlife habitats, spread disease to humans and animals, kill trees and even knock over cemetery stones.

David Axelrod lashed out against Republican senator Tom Coburn for suggesting that President Obama is nearing a Constitutional crisis and potential impeachment, calling Coburn’s remarks “way out of bounds.”

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said Thursday it would not be “smart” to shut down the government over Obamacare, but it would make sense to do it over the debt limit. … Coburn was asked what the GOP would do in the next 12 months to “correct the course” and whether Coburn would go on the Mark Levin show to talk about Levin’s book, “The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic.” “I would if I was invited. Right now, I’m kind of out of favor with the Levin show,” Coburn said, explaining that he and Levin disagree on shutting down the...

August 22, 2013 SENATOR: OBAMA 'PERILOUSLY CLOSE' TO IMPEACHMENT Garth Kane WASHINGTON – The momentum to remove the president is growing rapidly, as almost every day another lawmaker raises the possibility of impeaching President Obama. Now, it’s Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, who said Wednesday the president is getting “perilously close” to qualifying for impeachment. (Video at link below)

Our own Col. Allen West appeared on Hannity last night and took on the gansta culture that appears to have heavily influenced the murder of Chris Lane in Oklahoma one week ago today. West, who hosts at our sister site Next Generation TV along with John Phillips and Michelle Fields, told substitute host David Webb. “It is a gangster culture out there. It is a culture that is being permeated throughout the media, and throughout the entertainment industry, that we need to start speaking out about. And furthermore, when you think about the fact that 72% of black babies...

Fearful residents in the Oklahoma city where Australian Chris Lane was gunned down are buying up handguns to protect themselves. One of Duncan's most popular gun shops, Danny's Gun Pawn, is reporting a rise in sales of handguns. Top of the shopping list is the Ruger LCP, a US-made, ultra-light .38 calibre pistol that can be carried in a purse or concealed on the body. 'Oh yeah,' Elaine, a spokeswoman at the shop who did not want to give her surname, replied on Thursday when asked if there had been a rise in sales since Mr Lane's death a week...

Edwards’ Sister: He’s Not Vicious, He Just Likes to Fight, and He’s Not in a Gang, He Just Hangs Out with Gangsters The sister of alleged teen killer of the Australian baseball player, James Edwards, Rachel Padilla, appeared on CNN tonight. She gives off a strong whiff of denial. I knew he had a Facebook page, but I never looked at it. And it’s hard to believe that he will be–that he would even put things on there like that. CNN host Erin Burnett had read Padilla some of Edwards’ more offensive posts, and tweets. In terms of speculation...

Was it a thrill kill or part of a gang initiation? That would be the bushwhacking of Chris Lane, an Aussie college kid and baseball star. Lane was gunned down running along a country road near Duncan, Oklahoma, the other day. You know the story by now. Does it matter what motivated Allen Luna and James Francis Edwards, Jr., Chris Lane's accused killers, and Michael Dewayne Jones, an accessory, to off a young man with a promising future who was just going about the routine of his life on a summer's day? In one sense it doesn't matter. Whether those...

Rev. Al Sharpton responded Thursday to calls for him to address the Oklahoma murder of Australian student athlete Chris Lane, saying he is not protesting because the killing was not racial and “the system worked.”

"Ayeee I knocked out 5 woods since Zimmerman court!" young James Edwards tweeted on July 15 in the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Edwards's tweets surfaced after he and two of his homies were charged with killing Australian baseball player Chris Lane in Duncan, Oklahoma, last Friday. For the record, "woods" is short for peckerwoods, a derogatory term for white people. If Edwards, who is black, knocked out five woods as claimed, he would hardly be unique. As Colin Flaherty chillingly documents in his frequently updated book, White Girl Bleed A Lot, the...

One of the Oklahoma teenagers accused of killing 23-year-old Australian baseball player Christopher Lane previously posted images online showing himself posing with guns and wads of cash. And three days before what police call the indiscriminate shooting, the suspect, 15-year-old James Edwards Jr., tweeted, "With my n****s when it's time to start taken life's" -- a line from the Chief Keef rap song, "I Don't Like." Back in April, he tweeted, "90% of white ppl (people) are nasty. #HATE THEM." Police in the town of Duncan have charged Edwards and Chancey Luna, 16, as adults with first degree felony murder,...

Sen. Tom Coburn became the latest Republican lawmaker to link President Barack Obama to potential grounds for impeachment during a town hall Wednesday. The Oklahoma Republican – who also said Obama was a "personal friend" – responded to a question from a constituent by asserting that the president's policies were approaching a legal standard for impeachment. Without using specifics, Coburn cited "intended violation of the law" by Obama's administration, as well as general incompetence of some of his appointees. "I don't have the legal background to know if that rises to high crimes and misdemeanors – but I think they're...

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., explained to a town hall of his constituents that he wanted to call a national Constitutional Convention after reading Mark Levin’s new book, The Liberty Amendments. “I used to have a great fear of constitutional conventions,” Coburn said according to the Tulsa World. “I have a great fear now of not having one.” As the Tulsa World notes, a national convention is called by two-thirds of the state legislatures and is one of two ways the U.S. Constitution can be amended. Coburn made his remarks in Muskogee, Okla.

Editor’s note: This story contains extremely graphic language and content that will be offensive to some readers. – The Twitter account believed to belong to 15-year-old James Edwards, one of the three teens charged in the murder of Australian student Chris Lane, is filled with graphic and shocking language about killing, smoking and even hating white people. Edwards and Chancey Luna, 16, have been charged with first degree murder in the case. They each face life in prison and are being held without bond in Duncan, Okla. Micheal Jones, 17, has been charged with using a vehicle to facilitate the...