Sometimes it’s easy to miss an event, so here’s a look back at the past week or so to help bring you up to date.

  • Two years after the Liberty Baptist Church south of Duncan was destroyed in a wildfire, the congregation hosted an opening and homecoming service in a new sanctuary capable of seating 200 people. The lost 7,200-square-foot building was replaced with a 10,000-square-foot structure.
  • Criminal charges were dismissed against Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum of Edmond. The Marine had been accused in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in 2005. Two officers remain charged in the incident.
  • The Bush administration has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the way the nation’s financial industry is regulated, giving major new powers to the Federal Reserve.
  • Aggressive planning is under way for possible construction of an exposition center at Oklahoma City’s State Fair Park. Cost would be between $30 million and $50 million.
  • More than 100 law enforcement agencies across the country have begun or are awaiting training to help the Homeland Security Department root out illegal immigrants.
  • An incident of road rage that ended up in a man’s death may be used to test Oklahoma’s Stand Your Ground Law, as defense attorneys seek immunity from prosecution for their client, Kenneth Ray Gumm, 67.
  • A couple in Colbert were hospitalized with mercury poisoning after attempting to salvage gold from electronic equipment. Officials quarantined the home, saying mercury levels there were extremely high and may have contaminated everything down to the wallboard.
  • Greece handed off the Olympic flame for its journey through 20 countries to Beijing as about two dozen protesters chanted, “Save Tibet,” and unfurled a banner reading, “Stop Genocide in Tibet.”
  • Marcie Isaacson took refuge with her 4-year-old twin sons in the laundry room of her home as a tornado ripped the roof off the structure at 2205 NW 182. Several other homes in the area also were damaged.
  • The American Heart Association changed its recommendations for CPR, saying a hands-only technique can work as well as the standard method used for years.
  • Archaeologists began digging at Stonehenge in an effort to find out when and why the mysterious monument was built.
  • Oklahoma State University fired Sean Sutton as basketball coach, and is now looking for a replacement.
  • Voters in the Jones School District approved a $12.4 million bond issue to pay for construction of a high school to replace the one that burned in late 2007.
  • The FBI reported a parachute found in southwestern Washington last month was not the one used by hijacker D.B. Cooper in 1971. His fate remains a mystery.
  • More than 1,500 people crowded into the first floor of the state Capitol in support of state Rep. Sally Kern after she called homosexuality the biggest threat facing this country. “This is not about me,” she said. “It’s about the church having the right to speak out about the redeeming love of Jesus Christ who died to set us all free from our sins.”
  • Oklahoma ranked 47th worst in the nation in a measurement of 10 child well-being indicators, right behind Texas and ahead of New Mexico, Mississippi and Louisiana.
  • John Tyler Hammons, 19, faces a runoff election for mayor in Muskogee, after getting the most votes in a group of six candidates. The runoff will be in May against 70-year-old Hershel McBride, a former mayor.
  • Former Rep. Mickey Edwards, a Republican and “Reagan conservative,” said the current administration has overstepped its bounds, ignored the checks and balances imposed by the Constitution and “basically, taken the position the president doesn’t have to obey the same laws that you and I do.”
    • Posted: 06 Apr, 2008 |
    Categories: Uncategorized By: The Oklahoman.