WRITING

“A new day.” This Land, Summer 2016. Also featured in This Land Race Reader: A literary chronicle of conflict and oppression in the middle of America, 2017.

… "They were like, 'Why should we have a day just for Natives when they don’t have days for black people?'" Blue said. "And I’d argue with that, because they have a whole month: Black History Month. And they were like, 'Well, why isn’t there a day for white people?' I’m like, 'That’s almost every day.'" …

"Life was ugly," Jessie said. "And if we always whitewash everything that we tell our kids, then they grow up and they're all like, 'Woe is me.' No, woe is not me. Rape is real. Murder is real. It's what our country was built upon. It needs to be taught as such."

— Bartlesville residents Blue and Jessie Haase on Indigenous Peoples' Day and the teaching of U.S. history

Bird even suggested the development might somehow be good for Turkey Mountain.

“Why not put up a parking structure and include that?” he said. “… And maybe it’s a parking structure with a rock climbing wall, … and guys, I’m not the bad guy here, I’m trying to—no I’m not the bad guy. Dude, I’m not the bad guy. But if we don’t try to come up with something that will work for everyone—that could be a win-win—then I don’t know what to do beyond that, other than we just tell them, just go on down the road, we don’t want it here. [loud cheering and applause] … If that’s really what most people want, and if that’s the way the City Council feels, that’s the way that it’ll be resolved. This is a public process.”

Read the full article.

that they might not come back, so they could decide who was going to come back.” Gist said. “A lot of times people say everyone was fired.”

After the staff was notified, the teachers union agreed to the original plan.

“The superintendent was thrilled,” Gist said. “I brought in a mediator, they sat down, they worked it out. Everyone got their job back. Today their graduation rate is 70 percent.”

Read the full article.

“Jumping the lizard: Solving some of Tulsa’s weightiest issues requires long-term perspective.” The Tulsa Voice, December 2014.

… CM: [Some organizations estimate] there are roughly 4,000 homeless people in Tulsa. That’s a manageable problem. You can solve that for about $20 million, I think. [With the Tulsa Housing and Recovery Program in 2009] we threw $2 million at the problem, building permanent supportive housing. And it worked really well. So, if we can build houses for a few dozen homeless people, then let’s just multiply—let’s just scale that. It can’t be that hard.

TTV: Say you have $20 million. What’s the first step?

CM: I would put at least $15 million into permanent supportive housing. Don’t have a house? We’ll build it for you. I mean, how do you solve homelessness? Give people a home. I know that sounds like something that my 7-year-old came up with, but it works. And it’s proven. And you can look at reports and statistics and data and all that stuff that says that it works. And I’d take at least the other $5 million, if not more, and increase the services that we have for mental health, and probably combine the two programs.

So, if we can get you better, great. If we can’t, we’ll support your housing. This is an open book test. We know the answers. We know what works.

— Carlos Moreno, sustainable development and civil rights advocate

bones in her Momentum piece. Exhibit by Aberson now owns the instrument series—including the mouth gag—Green painted when she first started working at the hospital (she was permitted to take the tools home to paint).

“Those I think were actually more like portraits than some of my figure painting,” she said. “They’re so evocative, like pokey things, and stretchy things and sharp things, blunt things.”

But “even though they’re instruments, I’m still thinking about the body,” she said. In her paintings, Green gravitates toward the flesh and bone and “charged artifacts” of the natural world. Her medium has the same organic quality as her subjects and the surgical aftermath at her job.

“Oil painting is just so gross,” she said. “The texture of it, its oiliness, I think is very much bodily.”

Although Green never intended to sterilize surgical tools for a living, the peculiar connection to her painting interests isn’t lost on her. “I don’t know, it’s a little morbid maybe,” she said. “It was by chance, but there is definitely a relationship there.”

Read the full article.

Are the developers tuned into our community? What immediate environmental impacts would result from such a project?

… Robert Alexander – Simon’s senior vice president of mall leasing and the person who made the initial announcement – said, “We have every intention of building the project, but we’re not a hundred percent there yet.”

… Alexander was not familiar with Turkey Mountain or any controversy related to the project. He directed us to Simon spokesperson Les Morris.

Morris said he was familiar with the area – “Turkey Mountain? Turkey Hill?” – and the controversy. He said although the dissenters are determined, “there’s obviously the silent majority ... of people who are really in support of this type of project in terms of economic benefit for the city. So I don’t know that I would term it controversial, but yeah, I’m aware of what’s going on.”

Larger animals like foxes, coyotes and and bobcats would be forced into territory already occupied by their counterparts. The reduced hunting and nesting area would also squeeze out Red Tailed Hawks, Screech Owls and other birds.

“[A habitat] can only get so small before some animals have to just leave the area completely,” Reese said. “I don’t know how small that really is for them.”

Jay Pruett, director of conservation for The Nature Conservancy in Oklahoma, said such a development would also disturb the surrounding wilderness. Unfamiliar disruptions like automobile noise and nighttime lighting “can make [animals] feel uncomfortable obtaining food or raising young ... such that they are not able to do it sufficiently,” Pruett said.

… The details of any development are worth an earnest look because all life is connected, Reese said.

“I think sometimes people think that we don’t really need nature, because we’re separated from it,” Reese said. “... What they forget is that everything is tied together, and when you start taking pieces of that puzzle out, the puzzle starts to fall apart.”

Read the full article.

“Rescue worker doesn’t give up despite odds.” Breaking news for The Weather Channel, May 2013.

… The possibility that one child was left in the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School kept rescue crews working to sift through debris late Tuesday night.

"It's enough of a chance that the child is here that we're working," said Michael Walker, the leader of Task Force 1, a specialty disaster response team made up of fire fighters and police officers.

Walker said approximately 50 people, a crane operator and welders were actively searching the site last night for voids in the rubble where a child might survive. But he was clear the odds were very long.

“At this point, it’s not very good,” he said. “We've searched every void that we can search for survivable victims. If we come across new voids, we're searching those.”

… Plaza Towers Elementary School is at the heart of the tragedy that struck Moore, Okla., on May 20. Several children reportedly drowned to death in the school’s basement after a massive tornado leveled the 50,000 person city. The National Weather Service rated the 200-mph twister an EF-5, the highest and most devastating category. The current death toll is at least 24, according to the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office - a lower number than was originally feared, although nine children are among the dead.

Read the full article.

anything around us besides to go up there. … It was a mess. It was a nightmare running in there and trying to figure out who was going to be alive and what you were going to find … .”

Although everyone was pulled from the school alive, a person Ledford found in the wreckage of a house did not survive.

“She died after I got her out to the curb,” he said. “I didn’t know her. We believe that she was thrown. We don’t really know.”

Read the full article.

spoke to England on the morning of April 7. The shootings had occurred in the early hours of April 6. Wilde said she asked England if he had heard about what happened.

“I said, ‘Jake, you wouldn’t do something like that would you?’ ” Wilde testified. “And he said, ‘Yes, I might have.’ ”

Wilde testified that she later asked England about what happened and he told her he shot several people.

“I said, ‘Oh, my god! You didn’t use my pistol?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I did. But don’t worry. They’ll never find it,’ ” Wilde testified.

Wilde, of Tulsa, is the mother of Sheran Wilde, England’s former girlfriend, who committed suicide in England’s presence in January.

… Wilde said England described to her how he would drive up to some of the victims in a pickup, ask for directions and then shoot them.

He also told her about watching a man fall off a porch after he was shot, she testified. “It was like a normal conversation — he was just telling a story,” she said.

… Another witness, Tina Cobb, testified that she and her boyfriend were at home when they heard a gunshot and found Dannaer Fields in the grass across the street. … They could hear three or four more gunshots going off as they tended to Fields, she said. Cobb said she unzipped Fields’ jacket, told her help was on the way and that she’d be all right, and held her hand as they waited for assistance.

Read the full article.

… Others stonewalled the requests entirely.

A lengthy debate with Washington County's District Attorney Kevin Buchanan prevented the World from obtaining records from the county within a reasonable time frame. …

"What article will this information be published in conjunction with?" Buchanan wrote in an email to the World. "Who is the author of the article? What element of this information has become newsworthy? If we can be honest and acknowledge that you are simply adding to or building a new database with this information we will probably get this done sooner."

A 1999 attorney general's opinion forbids public employees from requiring a requestor to give the reason for a records request beyond determining whether the request is for commercial use.

… Buchanan wrote that the World's request for payroll data was for commercial purposes and challenged the notion that the release of payroll information was in the public interest.

"It's not a commercial interest for a newspaper to request that information, and a district attorney should know better," [media law professor Joey Senat] said. … "Not when a newspaper asks, 'How much do government employees get paid by taxpayers?' "

… The city of Tulsa took a month and a half to fill a request for a day's worth of emails - 43 total - sent to or from Mayor Dewey Bartlett.

Public bodies must respond to requests within a "reasonable" amount of time, according to the Open Records Act.

… The Skiatook Police Department had been overcharging for records and levying illegal search fees for years until a World investigation called attention to the matter.

People requesting records in less-populated areas may find that budget and staffing constraints, and lack of understanding about the law, contribute to roadblocks.

Several public employees expressed surprise, irritation or confusion when records requests were made.

Morris City Clerk Kim Johnson wanted to know the reason for the request.

"What story are you all working on?" Johnson said. "I thought that you guys were like open records too, can we not know? If you're asking us for something, can we not ask you guys?"

Read the full article.

2011 Joplin Tornado

“Columbia’s Task Force 1 searches for survivors, bodies in Joplin.” Columbia Missourian cover story with Kristen Zeis, May 2011.

Columbia-based Missouri Task Force 1 worked to rescue survivors, recover the bodies of victims and clear rubble from Joplin’s destroyed big-box store, The Home Depot, at 20th and Range Line Road on Tuesday.

A key purpose of Task Force 1 is to support local police, fire and emergency management efforts, Task Force Leader Doug Westhoff said. He said the force operates according to priorities set by the local agencies.

The team came to Joplin to assist in the response after Sunday’s devastating tornado. Other Task Force 1 projects in Joplin have included an auto parts store, Academy Sports + Outdoors and extensive residential areas in the city.

Westhoff described the wreckage in Joplin as “total destruction.”

It would be difficult to describe the location any other way, based on the tangled mountain of debris. The former big-box store could only be recognized as The Home Depot by the white and orange metal, twisted and piled high; mangled orange shopping carts atop dumpsters; and the screws, pliers and other miscellany flung about the surrounding area.

Westhoff said the building’s particular style of tilt-up construction, with concrete walls “pinned at the roof” did not withstand the tornado.

“When the roof comes off, essentially what you have are those big tall concrete panels that are standing vertical," he said. "In this particular case those panels had nothing to hold them up in the air.”

Based on witnesses’ accounts, Westhoff said that the likely scenario involved the roof coming off the building, people moving to the front of the store to seek shelter behind the front wall and then the wall falling in on top of them.

“So yesterday was the recovery of seven individuals from underneath those concrete slabs … Fatalities. ‘Recoveries’ to us is fatalities, ‘rescues’ is lives,” he said.

Task Force 1 had made 10 recoveries and no rescues as of noon Tuesday, Westhoff said. He said most rescues are completed by “spontaneous bystanders, people that happened to be here and weren’t hurt” in an event’s immediate aftermath.

“We understood … there was a rush of locals that came here, saw the destruction, helped people out,” Westhoff said.

A handful of ruined automobiles sat on one side of The Home Depot’s parking lot. Westhoff said some people recognized the vehicles as belonging to their family members, indicating that the person was inside the building.

“We had a man standing on the corner right here in front of our command post all day yesterday,” Westhoff said, “that knew that one of those vehicles there belonged to ... I believe it was his son-in-law. And his son-in-law and his two grandchildren were in that store, and we recovered them yesterday afternoon. And he was not gonna leave until he had some kind of closure on that.”

Task Force 1 has 210 members, nearly all unpaid volunteers, who take leave or vacation time from their day-to-day jobs for deployment. Each deployment comprises one-third of the force, or 70 members, plus 10 support staff. Westhoff said the federal government requires three-deep staffing of each position to ensure availability.

This count does not include the team's dogs. Task Force 1 only uses dogs trained to alert when they find live people, Missouri Task Force 1 Canine Search Specialist Eliodora Chamberlain said.

“The reason for that … is, if there were … live people who were trapped with people who have passed we want to make sure that the dogs are not gonna hit on cadaver and forget about those who are still alive," Chamberlain said.

Chamberlain has been working with Katy, a petite black dog named after the Katy Trail, since 2002. Katy was deployed after Hurricane Katrina and has been involved in many other assignments.

“The dogs are phenomenal,” Chamberlain said. “We came in the day of; Katy and I got here like around 11 or so … We started like at 2 o’clock that morning and just went non-stop throughout the day yesterday.”

Chamberlain said Katy is the most experienced dog on the team, and because of this she is called upon to confirm the findings of other search-and-rescue dogs.

“What her alert is when she finds somebody who is alive,” Chamberlain said, “she will bark right at that place, and we come to her. She will stay with that person in that location the entire time until I get to her.”

Columbia-based Task Force 1 is one of only 28 such teams in the U.S., Westhoff said, and the force’s equipment is worth $1 million or more. He said most rescue teams cannot afford such an array.

“People don’t realize that we’ve got a very unique asset sitting in the backyard,” Westhoff said about Missouri Task Force 1. “You don’t use it very often … but when these events happen … we wanna get in there and effect some life-saving processes if we can.”

Westhoff said Task Force 1 brings together individuals from a variety of fields including trauma and emergency medicine, structural engineering and information technology.

“So we bring all those different disciplines together and everybody uses the skill sets that they have in their particular discipline," Westhoff said. "We blend those all together, and we have one heck of a little machine working here.”

Task Force 1 members don’t know how long they will be in Joplin.

“We’ll stay here until the local officials need our services, and once they don’t have any more jobs for us then we’ll go home,” Westhoff said.

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