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:
One person was killed when a single-engine plane nose-dived into the Will Rogers Turnpike, shaking buildings in Miami, OK. Family members identified the pilot as Clair Tromsness, 74.
More than 1,900 runners participated in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. The men’s and women’s division winners, Nathan Adams and Jennifer Graef, were both new to running marathons.
Abused and neglected children are taken from parents in Oklahoma County at a rate more than double that of Tulsa County. The average number of foster care children per month in Oklahoma County was 2,261, compared with 843 in Tulsa County.
Country music star Toby Keith had to take a break in a shelter when mortar fire interrupted a concert at a military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The federal government started depositing tax rebate checks into thousands of bank accounts as the economic stimulus program got under way. You can check when yours might arrive on irs.gov and click on Economic Stimulus Payments Start.
Oklahoma State University will play Texas Tech in the Dallas area, starting with the 2009 football season.
Local businessman Ed Evans has bought Oak Tree Golf Club, with the intention of raising the state’s profile among professional tournaments.
Ponca Chief Standing Bear was honored by the U.S. House as “one of America’s earliest civil rights heroes.”
Oklahoma registered the largest increase in the nation for health insurance costs from 2001 to 2005. The average amount Oklahoma families are paying for health insurance rose 50 percent. Median family incomes increased just 5 percent over the same period.
The Hornets’ Byron Scott was named NBA coach of the year.
University of Oklahoma President David Boren has warned students to expect a 9.9 percent increase in tuition and fees next year. He said the forecast was based on the Legislature’s not raising the appropriation for higher education.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says his relationship with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is beyond repair.
The state’s Hispanic population has increased 44.7 percent in the past seven years, the Census Bureau estimates. Of Oklahoma’s 3.6 million residents, more than 261,000 — about 7.2 percent — were of Hispanic descent. Hispanics are 15.1 percent of the total U.S. population.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation dedicated its $30 million Forensic Science Center in Edmond. The hightech crime lab is expected to employ 70 people and be the state’s most sophisticated crime analysis center for the next 20 years.
Bowl Championship Series officials, meeting in Hollywood, Fla., rejected a proposal that would have added a plus-one game to decide college football’s national champion, ruling out any playoff system until at least 2014.
Forbes.com says Oklahoma City may be “recession-proof” because of soaring commodity prices that have caused a boom in the energy and agricultural sectors and its strong housing market.
A new medical and dental clinic at Tinker Air Force Base and $120 millon in construction at Fort Sill are in a defense bill approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee. Funding has not been approved yet, as it would come in an appropriations bill.
Oklahoma standouts Troy Aikman and Thurman Thomas, and former Tulsa coach John Cooper were selected for the 2008 class in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Buoyed by the rising dollar and falling oil prices, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke 13,000 for the first time since Jan. 3.