The Legislature has wrapped up our first month of session, and the House ended this busy week with a deadline to have all bills out of committee. A bill must pass a House committee before it can be he...

On June 23rd, 1972, President Nixon signed Title IX into law. This landmark legislation had one goal in mind: to protect women from sex discrimination in all federally funded school programs, includin...

Dear Editor and Community, It has been brought to our attention and the attention of many other Checotah citizens that one of the upcoming elected City Officials/Council Members does not meet the qual...

The state Board of Equalization met Feb. 16 to certify revenue for the Legislature to appropriate for Fiscal Year 2022. The board approved a constitutional limit on appropriations of $7.9 billion. A t...

It’s been a full year since the world experienced such a game changer in our everyday lives - a COVID-19 pandemic that would shake us to our very core. COVID would redefine the way we worked, he way w...

“Numb.” That was the one-word answer I submitted to a group call on an online meeting platform last week. The question, “How are each of you feeling?” was likely asked in a kind gesture with the expec...

115 Years Ago: Checotah Times • October 26, 1906 A Cordial Reception Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks arrived in Checotah Tuesday afternoon about two hours behind schedule time and notwithstanding ...

Winter weather shut down most of the state this week, but the House continued to meet as often as possible to prepare for next week’s deadline. Thursday, Feb. 25 is the final day to pass any House bil...

This cold snap is raising awareness of homelessness in Oklahoma - especially in northeast Oklahoma where a man froze to death overnight last week. Officials and volunteers have been working around the...

As I write this column, Oklahoma is enduring one of the coldest weather spells on record, and many areas are seeing large amounts of snow. We’ve had serious, even fatal, wrecks on Interstates and stat...

I truly believe it is the hard times that mold us and make us into who we are supposed to be and these hardships only make us stronger physically, emotionally and spiritually, but only if we let them....

Rural volunteer fire departments play a vital role in Oklahoma’s small towns and cities and unincorporated areas. Many people choose to live in these areas because of the better quality of life they f...

Despite President Biden’s calls for unity, the radical Left are continuing their all-or-nothing crusade of wasteful government spending, blue state bailouts, and burdensome regulations that hinder our...

A couple of years ago, after President Trump backed out of the Paris Climate Treaty and the Iran Nuclear Deal, I wrote a column for “Historically Speaking,” justifying his actions because those deals ...

I believe life is an uphill climb for most and many just don’t have enough to make ends meet. Not too many are born with a silver spoon in their mouths and my brothers and I were no exceptions to that...

Oklahoma is battling frigid temperatures and icy conditions across the state, but lawmakers continued to meet at the Capitol to address the many concerns of our constituents. On Tuesday, I presented H...

It was no secret President Biden planned to destroy the oil and gas industry if elected president and in the first week of his administration, he took action to do just that. American energy productio...

With the work beginning at the State Capitol in the Oklahoma Legislature this past week, the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) also has hit the ground running. OICA is tracking roughly 400 ...

Senseless tragedies are happening all around us today. Lives are being snuffed out by evil individuals who seem to have no sense of remorse and no conscience. Just in this past week alone seven childr...

The first session of the 58th Legislature Convened Monday, Feb. 1. We first heard from Gov. Kevin Stitt who delivered his annual State of the State address. Gov. Stitt detailed the state’s many effort...