Catherine Roberts

Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation is the latest casualty of the sequester.

Oklahomans receiving these benefits, which are awarded after a person has exhausted regular state unemployment insurance benefits, will soon see them cut.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission’s John Carpenter says the EUC benefits will be cut by 10.7 percent.

The cuts will go into effect March 31, and will affect all current and future beneficiaries.

He says about 5,500 Oklahomans currently receive the EUC benefits.

The Mental Health Association’s ListenUp conference, which happens every other year, gives a platform for students and young people to speak on the issues about which they’re passionate.

Presentations at ListenUp Tulsa 2013 came in many varieties. Topics included self-harm, the relationship between sports and academics, procrastination, abortion, bullying in schools, the challenges faced by young immigrants, and transitional housing for youth.

Landowners and ranchers in Osage County are calling for better regulations on oil and gas drilling.

Osage County is subject to different regulations from the rest of the state, because the Osage Nation owns all mineral rights in the county. Ranchers and other landowners own surface rights only.

They say the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which controls the regulations (as opposed to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates drilling in the rest of the state), hasn’t done an adequate job of ensuring safety.

Leaders of a major human trafficking ring which operated partly in Tulsa are sentenced in U.S. District Court.

A victim of the ring contacted law enforcement in January of 2012, which eventually led to seven federal prosecutions.

She contacted law enforcement while she was in Houston, and Homeland Security Investigations began work on the case.

A conference Tuesday will provide a platform for youth to offer their plans for solutions for problems from homelessness to bullying.

The Mental Health Association of Tulsa’s ListenUp Tulsa conference will feature eight young presenters, who will speak for five minutes each before a panel of area business and civic leaders.

“The goal is,” said MHA’s Chris Siemens, “to try to come up with a solution for the presenters to implement something into the community.”

After each presentation, the panel will have five minutes to ask questions.

Oklahoma’s notoriously poor health outcomes are being addressed by a number of entities. One of the prominent fighters of the battle is the OU-Tulsa Schusterman Clinic.

It’s just dedicated the latest in an effort to improve Oklahoma’s health, this time by improving health literacy, through a new consumer health library, open in the clinic.

The head of the Morningcrest Healthcare Foundation in Tulsa, which funded the Morningcrest Health Library at the Schusterman Clinic, tells a story about looking for medical information.

The Tulsa Zoo takes a first step in implementing its 20-year master plan by breaking ground on a new rhinoceros exhibit.

Zoo CEO Terrie Correll says it will be a needed improvement and expand capacity for the zoo’s two rhinos.

“The exhibit that they’re in now was built in the mid-70s, and it’s beginning to fail,” she said. “This was identified as one of the priorities in the master plan.”

Money from the 2006 Third Penny sales tax will pay a third of the cost, while the rest will be covered by private donations.

Oklahoma Lt. Governor Todd Lamb’s Commission on School Security issues its policy recommendations.

The first is the creation of Oklahoma School Security Institute, under the Oklahoma Department of Homeland Security.

“It’ll be a resource center of best practices,” Lamb said, “working with school districts, personnel, school boards and others to continue the conversation about school security, and making sure our students are very well protected.”

Representatives of the Tulsa's Young Professionals group visited Oklahoma's State Capitol Wednesday to meet with lawmakers and lobby for items on the group's legislative agenda. 

Members of the Government Relations Crew, as well as other young professionals and some students, heard from officials and legislators during the morning. They had an opportunity to formally lobby lawmakers in the afternoon. 

On the heels of Dewey Bartlett's formal campaign launch yesterday, former Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor officially kicks off her bid for another term in City Hall.