Notes from the Newsroom NewsOK.com Blogging Community

If you’re like most people, when you hear the words, Civil Air Patrol, you think of search and rescue guys looking for crash victims or helping after tornadoes or fires. And, you would be right.

But, did you know children as young as 12 years old can become a cadet?

From its beginning, the Civil Air Patrol has served America valiantly. During World War II, they were called “Minutemen” and logged more than half-a-million flying hours, sinking two enemy submarines, and saving hundreds of crash victims.

Officially, the Civil Air Patrol is a “volunteer, non-profit auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. Its three missions are to develop its cadets, educate Americans on the importance of aviation and space, and perform life-saving humanitarian missions.”

Did you catch that word, “volunteer?” That’s what impressed me most when I conducted a media workshop recently at the Oklahoma Civil Air Patrol Wing Conference at the Reed Center in Midwest City.

I thought I knew what the Civil Air Patrol was all about. After all, I’m the wife of a retired Air Force master sergeant and I know a thing or two about the military — especially the Air Force. While I knew the mechanics of the organization, I didn’t fully understand the true dedication shown by cadets, members and maybe most importantly, by those tireless volunteers. Many are parents of cadets that want to be involved in their child’s interests, and many are businessmen, civic leaders, factory workers and others who want to devote their time and energy to a noble cause.

I salute these men and women who take time out of their busy schedules to help shape the mind of future everyday heroes.

Looking for something to keep your children occupied this summer? Something productive? Something life-changing, character-building, pride-inducing, and self-esteem-boosting? Face it, the latest video game won’t accomplish anything. Encourage your children to aspire to something bigger than themselves. Check out the Oklahoma Civil Air Patrol at www.cap.gov, or by calling 736-6044.

Judy Hooper
Copy/Design Editor

State wildlife officials are worried how much damage will be done to the new Evening Hole and Lost Creek project on the Lower Mountain Fork River as a result of flooding.

Broken Bow Lake on Monday reached its highest level ever (more than 26 feet above normal) and the flood gates have been opened for only the third time in its history, releasing water into the Lower Mountain Fork River and flooding popular trout fishing areas such as Spillway Creek and Evening Hole.

Beavers Bend State Park has been closed and more rain is forecast. Paul Balkenbush, southeast region fisheries chief for the state Wildlife Department, said some structural damage has already occurred around Lost Creek, a new trout stream that state wildlife officials constructed in 2006.

“We don’t know what it’s going to do to our project,” Balkenbush said of the flooding. “We are cautiously optimistic, but it could be a big deal if we get the rain that is projected.”

Balkenbush said several people have asked what will happen to the trout.

“I think the trout will find their way,” he said. “They will get dispersed around a little bit, but they will find places to hang out until it calms down.”

Trout anglers should keep their fingers crossed and hope all of the work the state Wildlife Department did to improve Evening Hole and to build Lost Creek will not be washed away.

Ed Godfrey, Outdoors Editor

It’s time to see how much attention you’ve been paying to the news in the past week or so. From The Oklahoman’s news copy editors and designers, here’s a quiz.

1. Adults have been meeting lately at Crooked Oak High School to participate in a five-team “semi-pro” league, playing what?
a) Football.
b) Baseball.
c) Texas Hold ’em poker.

2. Pro-Tibet protesters have been targeting:
a) Chinese restaurants in Oklahoma.
b) Sites where the Olympic torch is visiting.
c) Holy sites of major religions.

3. Former OU women’s basketball player Caton Hill is embarking on a new career in what field?
a) Law.
b) Medicine.
c) Sportscasting.

4. A Yukon car craftsman is creating replicas of what car?
a) Herbie, the Volkswagen Beetle from the Dean Jones film, “The Love Bug.”
b) A 1921 Oldsmobile truck from the TV series, “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
c) Eleanor, the 1967 Mustang from the Nicolas Cage film, “Gone in 60 Seconds.”

5. Scientists in England hope to find the reason behind what famous British icon?
a) Stonehenge.
b) Big Ben’s chimes.
c) Driving on the left side of the road.

6. What awaits 19-year-old John Tyler Hammons on May 13 in Muskogee?
a) He will begin medical school training.
b) He faces a runoff election for mayor.
c) He will try out for Sooners football.

7. Third-grade students in what state plotted to attack their teacher after she scolded a classmate?
a) Utah.
b) Wyoming.
c) Georgia.

8. In 2015, NASA’s Constellation program is to begin operations. What is it?
a) A worldwide teleportation program.
b) A rocket ship to Mars.
c) A colony ship to carry hibernating settlers to a distant star.

9. State Rep. Mike Shelton is keeping track of what type of deaths with an electronic counter on his desk?
a) Smoking deaths.
b) Iraq war casualties.
c) Traffic accident deaths.

10. Oklahoma ranks 47 among the states in a child well-being report. What were the three lower-ranked states?
a) Texas, Alabama and Mississippi.
b) New Mexico, Mississippi and Louisiana.
c) Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

11. According to a national report called the “Pig Book,” which Oklahoma earmark project costs the most?
a) Fuel System Maintenance Hangar at Vance Air Force Base in Enid.
b) Fort Gibson Lake operations and maintenance.
c) McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.

12. What supposed rare animal is being taken on tour by the staff of G.W. Exotic Animal Park?
a) Red-jacketed woodpecker.
b) Barbary lion.
c) Bat boy.

13. What did motorists say they might do if the price of gasoline reaches $4 a gallon?
a) Commute to work using a hang glider, launching from the roof of their homes.
b) Buy a horse and buggy, stop mowing and let the horse keep the lawn trimmed.
c) Cut spending on other things, get a moped, change jobs.

14. Thanks to the energy industry, Houston has been booming. Between February 2007 and the same month this year, how many energy jobs were added in Houston?
a) 8,600, the same number NASA anticipates losing when the space shuttle is retired.
b) 86,000, yet companies are having trouble finding enough workers, particularly engineers.
c) 860,000, the total of workers employed by the energy industry in the first 50 years after oil was discovered.

15. Oklahoma City plans to submit a bid to host what between 2012 and 2016?
a) College World Series.
b) Women’s Final Four.
c) NCAA Final Four.

How did you do on the quiz? Here are the correct answers:
1-A; 2-B; 3-B; 4-C; 5-A; 6-B; 7-C; 8-B; 9-A; 10-B; 11-A; 12-B; 13-C; 14-B; 15-B.

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.

‘Know It: Cancer’ is NewsOK.com and The Oklahoman’s first installment of what will become a monthly project on topics that affect the community.

To find the special page, search ‘cancer’ on NewsOK.com.

As well as a wealth of information in videos, articles and links, the page opens the doors to the biggest, fastest growing source of information available: you.

Share your wisdom

Through the interactive message boards on the page, which can be found under the sub-heading ‘Share Your Wisdom’, you can have your say on a variety of topics relating to cancer.

Please share your information on how to choose a physician who will give you confidence, on how the costs of treatment can be handled, on dealing with cancer from a caregiver’s point of view and more. These message boards can be the starting point of just the kind of information you were looking for.

They are more than just a place to give information: They are designed to be the place where people can find support and ask the questions they can’t find answers to. The place where an open, honest conversation can be conducted without judgment or embarrassment.  

Find an event

Another exciting, interactive element of the page is the cancer-related events calendar powered by wimgo.com, OPUBCO’s online events calendar. You can see upcoming events like support groups and charity events, and you can find other events in the handy search bar.

Tell your story

If you have a story about cancer – yours or a loved ones – we want you to upload that  story to our Web site. Through a simple series of a few clicks, you can tell the world about your experience.

On the page, click the link on the video player that says ‘Share your wisdom. Submit your video’. It will walk you through uploading your video file and within a day or two your video will be on the page.

Maybe you’re just starting chemotherapy and want to give a weekly update on your treatment; maybe you are caring from someone dear to you with cancer and you want a place to share your experience; or maybe you are a survivor of cancer and want to pass along a message to those going through treatment. It doesn’t matter exactly what your story is, this is the place to share your story through video.

In an increasingly interactive online world, we wanted to give you the opportunity to share your story in many different ways.

You never know who you might touch by sharing what you know and what you went though.

- Lindsay Hodges, Web editor

Southern Oklahoma’s G.W. Exotic Animal Park says it has eight members of a lion subspecies that’s extinct in the wild. They’re called Barbary lions, and they once were native to North Africa. Only 100 are thought to live in zoos around the world.

I went to the town of Wynnewood this week to see the lions. A new cub named Oliver was born there earlier this month. Here’s a slice of the experience: (also check out a story tomorrow in The Oklahoma)

A trip to the G.W. park feels more like a visit an outdoor kennel than a stroll in a zoo. Tigers roam tight cages and perch on cinder-block houses, their backs sometimes almost touching cage ceilings.

Some animals have muddy puddles to play in. Others, like lions and tiger cubs, have spare toys to toss around — a basketball, stuffed animal or a tattered Puma shoe.

So many animals surround visitors that it can feel like they’re being hunted.

On a tour, a park worker insisted the animals are content. But approach a lion, and chances are it will become irritated enough to spin around, lift its tail, and spray at you — a warning to get off its territory.

That wouldn’t seem like a problem, perhaps, until you know that visitors are within an arm’s length of the cages.

Beth Corley, the park worker, approached the cage with a rare lion cub’s parents in it. The two lion parents — Inkendayo and Ada — were cuddled up in the corner.

“You can see the long, thin nose, which is characteristic of the Barbary,” she said. “And the laziness is just the lion.”

After some coaxing, the lions hopped to their feet. Ikendayo’s long, chocolate mane trailed down to his mid-back.

Soon, Corley was paw-to-paw with a lion, then petting its nose.

“So far, we haven’t had any answers that we can come up with,” she said. But “they certainly look like it.”

John David Sutter

Environmental Writer

jsutter@oklahoman.com

As part of The Oklahoman and NewsOK.com’s new monthly special project, ‘Know It…’, we are proud to present our first topic this month.

Search ‘cancer’ on NewsOK.com to explore Know It: Cancer.

The special Web site is an online resource on everything you’d need to know about cancer – living with it, getting treatment, supporting someone with it, choosing a physician, finding cancer-related events and so much more.

One of the key parts of the site is the hundreds of links that our researchers put together to give you a starting point for any cancer-related topic you are looking for. The Web site also offers interactive forums to discuss various aspects of cancer with other people.

The video player offers vignettes of people who have cancer stories to tell to compliment our comprehensive range of cancer stories told on a very personal level.

Related articles from The Oklahoman and from all over the Web are automatically fed to the page, so whether you look at the stories today or in six months from now, the content will be up-to-date and give you the most current information you need.

Everyone is touched by cancer in some form or another. Know It: Cancer is the place where you can gather all the information you need to help your situation when cancer gets close to you.

- Lindsay Hodges, Web editor

You can be forgiven for thinking yesterday was anything more than a nice day to watch college hoops.

It was, but it also was National Doctor’s Day.

The American Medical Association uses the day to honor the more than 900,000 physicians in the United States.

“On this day of tribute, Americans can express appreciation for physicians’ continued commitment to providing exceptional medical care,” according to an AMA release.

The nation’s doctors, throughout almost 1 billion patient visits annually, are called to be healers, confidants and advocates, the AMA says.

The organization also says two-thirds of U.S. doctors provide some form of charity care and in 2006 were ranked the nation’s most trusted occupation.

Furthermore, the AMA says:

• Ninety percent of patients say they are very satisfied with their doctor.
• Americans’ life expectancy has increased by seven years since 1960.
• There has been a 77 percent decrease in the infant mortality rate since 1950.
• There has been a 63 percent decrease in the overall death rate for heart disease since 1950.
• There has been a 72 percent decrease in the overall death rate for stroke since 1950.
• There has been a 14 percent decrease in the overall death rates for cancer since 1990.

Do you consider the medical profession admirable and respectable? Do you respect your physician? Are you satisfied with him/her? Drop me a line at The Medicine Bag blog at http://blog.newsok.com/health.

Now back to basketball!

Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer

It’s time to see how much attention you’ve been paying to the news in the past week or so. From The Oklahoman’s news copy editors and designers, here’s a quiz.

1. According to an Associated Press report, millions of people around the world are learning what language, which some say could become the next global language?
a) Mandarin Chinese.
b) Swahili.
c) Spanish.

2. Besides the Dalai Lama, who is China blaming most for Tibetan protests?
a) Yao Ming.
b) Tom Coburn.
c) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

3. What last-minute strategy did Sherri Coale use in the first round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament that paid off in a win for the Sooners?
a) Fouling to stop the clock.
b) Switching to one-on-one defense.
c) Not passing to a star player.

4. Which animals enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt at the Oklahoma City Zoo?
a) Primates.
b) Pachyderms.
c) Reptiles.

5. Wes Brown, Southmoore High School’s first baseball coach, spent the last nine years where?
a) Westmoore High School.
b) Vinita High School.
c) University of Oklahoma.

6. What was missing for a while from J.L. Mitch Park in Edmond?
a) The Edmond band gazebo.
b) A bronze statue of a Girl Scout.
c) A statue of Edmond’s first mayor.

7. A company with offices at Tinker Air Force Base landed a contract to build what?
a) An air tanker.
b) A top-secret bomber.
c) A new smart bomb.

8. Which Kennedy will speak about environmental issues at OU in April?
a) U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy.
b) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
c) Baseball player Adam Kennedy.

9. Crews worked in Payne County to relocate what historic object?
a) A Pistol Pete statue.
b) A commemorative plaque near State Highway 51.
c) A truss bridge on State Highway 51.

10. An ice shelf in the Antarctic recently broke free. How big was it?
a) 2 square miles.
b) 35 square miles.
c) 160 square miles.

11. Vince Gill played a benefit concert to aid the elementary school he attended. What is the school’s name?
a) Coolidge Elementary School.
b) Cleveland Elementary Arts and Science Specialty School.
c) Hayes Elementary School.

12. What group did Oklahoma educators meet with to discuss ways to help students succeed?
a) Military community.
b) Rodeo participants.
c) Members of the clergy.

13. Sheriff’s deputies in Cotton County set a single-day record for what?
a) Traffic tickets.
b) Drug arrests.
c) Miles driven.

14. A former barista for Starbucks has filed a lawsuit against the company in Massachusetts. What reason did he give?
a) He had to share his tips with supervisors.
b) He now has an incurable addiction to espresso.
c) He disliked using tall, venti and grande as drink sizes.

15. Why have the owners of Cheever’s Cafe decided to restore a 1935 Phillips 66 gasoline station on NW 23?
a) They plan to use it as space for their catering business.
b) The old building will be used to sell gasoline and diesel fuel.
c) It will serve as a Route 66 museum.

How did you do on the quiz? Here are the correct answers:
1-A; 2-C; 3-C; 4-A; 5-B; 6-B; 7-A; 8-B; 9-C; 10-C; 11-B; 12-C; 13-B; 14-A; 15-A.

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.