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:
Jack Mildren, who quarterbacked the Oklahoma Sooners to great glory and then became the state’s lieutenant governor, died after a bout with cancer. He was 58.
A Texas appellate court ruled that child welfare officials had no legal right to seize more than 400 children living at a polygamist sect’s ranch. The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger. The ruling gave a lower-court judge 10 days to release the youngsters from custody, but the state could appeal.
China observed three days of mourning for those who died in the earthquake centered on Sichuan province. The Olympic torch run was suspended during the mourning period. Hope dwindled for trapped survivors, although a 35-year-old woman with multiple fractures was pulled from a tunnel nine days after the quake.
Tulsa rocker David Cook was declared the new “American Idol,” capping a record-breaking finale to the reality TV series’ seventh season. Cook won the finale by 12 million votes out of 97.5 million cast.
Transportation officials are awaiting an Amtrak report on the feasibility of expanding the Heartland Flyer route between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Kansas officials are asking for a separate study looking at expanding the link to Kansas City through Newton, Kan.
The House and Senate overrode President Bush’s veto of the $290 billion farm bill but found that a printing error had omitted 34 pages dealing with international food aid and trade, so the bill Bush vetoed was incomplete. The missing section was to be taken up separately.
Two inmates were killed and a dozen injured in a recreation-yard melee at the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Greer County. No workers were involved, but the prison went into lockdown.
Oklahoma hit 100 degrees Monday for the first time in 2008. Thermometers registered 102 degrees in Grandfield and Walters, 101 degrees in Altus and Mangum and 100 degrees in Hollis.
Emma and Ethan were the most popular baby names in Oklahoma in 2007.
Only 83 percent of Oklahomans used their seat belts on the roads last year.
A study by research meteorologist Tom Knutson said the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic is expected to fall by 18 percent by the end of the century and the number of storms making landfall will fall 30 percent. In the past, Knutson has raised concerns about the effects of climate change on the number of hurricanes.
Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. wants to build a high-capacity electrical transmission line between Woodward and Oklahoma City to provide more wind energy.
Making another big gift to Oklahoma State University, Texas oilman Boone Pickens has given $100 million for endowed faculty at OSU. The state must match the gift.
A hybrid strain of Africanized honeybees was spotted in Stillwater this spring. The bees were exterminated without trouble, but their stings can be deadly in large numbers.
Sulphur saddlemaker Billy Cook’s company was sentenced to three years probation and fined $51,000 for furnishing phony Social Security numbers for some of his employees who were in the U.S. illegally. Fifty-one employees were deported during a 2006 raid that left the company struggling financially.
Former Gov. Henry Bellmon and retired Tulsa businessman Ted Anderson were honored by state veterans’ officials for their role in the fight on Iwo Jima during World War II.
Sen. Edward Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor after he suffered a seizure at his home. The Massachusetts Democrat, 76, left the hospital with a square bandage on the back of his head where doctors performed a biopsy.
Former Marble City school superintendent Larry Couch was charged with embezzlement and lying on his tax forms. Couch, 55, is expected to plead guilty next week. The government is seeking $979,000 in restitution.
American Airlines will charge $15 for the first checked bag, cut domestic flights and lay off what may be thousands of workers in the face of record fuel prices.
In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama moved to within 100 delegates of the total needed to win the nomination at the party convention this summer. Obama won the Oregon primary and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won Kentucky. There are three primaries remaining: Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota. Clinton pledged to fight to seat Florida and Michigan delegates at the convention — if the two states want to take it that far.
Gen. David Petraeus said he is likely to recommend further troop reductions in Iraq but won’t offer more details until fall.