The Mayor Hired Himself, His Wife Got the Contracts, and When Citizens Fought Back, Meeker Passed a Law to Silence Them

Meeker's town administrator moved from mayor to executive in a closed-door vote. His wife's firm landed the grant contracts. When the town tried to fire the police chief, it all unraveled.

1.7 Gigawatts on Wheat Fields: How Two Hyperscale Data Centers Are Forcing Piedmont Into an Existential Fight Over Water, Power, and Democracy

Two data center developers want to rezone 2,400 acres of Piedmont farmland and drain 1.7 GW from the grid. One held an open house. The other banned the press. The city council votes Monday.

Avenue Coffee’s Open Mic Brings Musicians, Poets, and Dreamers Together

Joplin Avenue Coffee Company provides a welcoming downtown stage for regional musicians, poets, and performers. Local Arts & Entertainment Where Joplin Finds Its Voice Avenue Coffee’s Open Mic Brings Musicians, Poets, and Dreamers Together By Sean Keith Gray | Miami News-Digest July 23, 2026 On Thursday evening, the lights inside Joplin Avenue Coffee Company illuminated more than a stage. They illuminated a community. One performer carried a guitar. Another brought poetry. Some arrived with polished material, while others appeared ready simply to take a chance, step before the microphone, and discover what might happen. Throughout the room, strangers became listeners, listeners became supporters, and artists who might otherwise have passed one another unnoticed became part of the same unfolding production. The July 23 Open Mic Night featured Wildwood Minstrels , Haven Lumin , and Sean and James Gray of The Grays , alongside an impressive succession of musicians, singers, poets, and other area performers. The program was not built around celebrity, competition, or carefully guarded artistic circles. Its attraction came from something increasingly precious: an open stage, a receptive

Full Send Sewer and Drainage

SPONSORED BUSINESS FEATURE When Trouble Runs Underground, Full Send Goes All In Missouri Father-and-Sons Sewer Company Brings Professional Drain, Plumbing, and Underground Utility Services Across the Four-State Region A slow drain may begin as a minor inconvenience. A backed-up sewer, broken water service, or collapsed underground line can quickly become something far more serious. When water begins rising instead of draining, unpleasant odors enter the home, or wastewater appears where it should never be, property owners need more than a temporary patch. They need someone who can identify the source of the problem, explain the available options, and complete the work with the right equipment. That is where Full Send Sewer & Drains enters the picture. Based in the Carthage, Missouri, area, Full Send Sewer & Drains is a father-and-sons business serving customers throughout Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The company specializes in sewer and drain cleaning, underground plumbing work, plumbing repairs, inspections, and emergency service. Its public business page emphasizes professional equipment, fair pricing, and availability when unexpected problems arise, day or night. A

Quantum Physiobiological Entanglement

Frontier Research Review and Experimental Proposal Quantum Physiobiological Entanglement A Frontier Review of Biological Quantum Coherence, Interpersonal Autonomic Synchrony, Nonlocal Consciousness Claims, and a Protocol for Direct Testing Chicago Notes and Bibliography Style • Research Review • July 23, 2026 Abstract Quantum biology has entered a new experimental period. Scientists have created a controllable spin qubit from a fluorescent protein, detected quantum spin resonance in engineered proteins inside living cells, and used magnetic fields to control spin-correlated chemical reactions inside a living animal. These results show that selected quantum states can exist, function, and be measured in warm biological matter. They overturn the overly broad claim that biological heat and water destroy every useful quantum effect. 1 A much stronger claim remains unproved: that two separated human nervous systems can share a lasting quantum state that coordinates heart rate, breathing, autonomic arousal, perception, or conscious experience. Present research supplies several possible building blocks, including radical-pair chemistry, nuclear-spin storage, collective microtubule dynamic

Newly Elected Nowata Commissioner Speaks at Chamber Forum

A newly elected Nowata County Commissioner appears at a Nowata Chamber of Commerce forum. District One Commissiner John Hultz discussed his plans for when he takes office and some issues he has observed with the county. Hultz says his first priority will be better maintenance of the roads . The discussion shifted to what kinds of jobs and people a county commissioner hires and looks for. Hultz says t here is a need for improving training for operators and discussed the pay level . Hultz was elected during the June 16 th primary. He defeated incumbent and current Chairman of the Board, Paul Crupper. Hultz received 61% of the vote.

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) - Notice of Event Attendance

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) - Notice of Event Attendance

Miami City Council - Notice of Event Attendance

Miami City Council - Notice of Event Attendance

Rails to Trails Pathway Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting

The City of Coffeyville is hosting a grand opening for the Rails to Trails Pathway next week. Chamber of Commerce President Candi Westbrook says the pathway has been open but this event celebrates the full completion of the project . The trail is just over two and half miles round trip with two access points, one near Leclere Park and the other off Highway 166.

Pryor Mayor Shares Advice and Experience on Data Centers

As discussion continues on data centers, communities are looking at one Northeast Oklahoma town. Google opened a data center in the Pryor Industrial Park in 2011. Mayor Zac Doyle says Pryor strives to be a good partner with anybody . While Pryor has seen economic benefits from the data center, Doyle says there is nothing worth dividing a community . Doyle says he is not an advocate for data centers . Doyle says with the amount of money these companies spend to move into a community they aren't looking to relocate in five years. He says they are looking for long term partnerships.

City Council Regular Meeting

City Council Regular Meeting Update: Minutes added or updated

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) Regular Meeting

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) Regular Meeting Update: Minutes added or updated

Local Artist Spotlight Series: Eric and Erica French

Eric and Erica French are a father-and-daughter musical duo whose story is defined by perseverance, gratitude, and the healing power of love and music. Eric survived a devastating, high-impact motor vehicle collision that left him with a broken neck and a broken pelvis. His injuries required prolonged medical treatment, complex orthopedic stabilization, and an intensive physical therapy regimen. The road to recovery was long and demanding, but Eric survived and gradually reclaimed an active, creative life. His wife and family have been very supportive on the road to recovery. Today, Eric remains active in the local music community, frequently performing alongside his daughter, Erica. Together, they share more than music. Their performances reflect a powerful family bond and an inspiring story of survival, recovery, and gratitude. For Eric, every performance represents another milestone. Erica French is making music beside her father which carries a meaning that reaches far beyond the stage. Together, Eric and Erica French remind audiences that even after life-changing hardship, creativity, love, and purpose can endure. Musically, Eric and Erica French bring distinct influences into

OKLAHOMA LEGACIES How Toby Keith Never Left Oklahoma Behind

OKLAHOMA LEGACIES Toby Keith Never Left Oklahoma Behind From oil-field roughneck to country music royalty, Toby Keith built his career with an Oklahoma work ethic, an independent streak, and a determination to remember the people waiting back home. Toby Keith did not become an Oklahoma legend because he escaped Oklahoma. He became one because he carried it with him. The oil fields, football practices, honky-tonks, hard times, military families, Saturday-night bravado, and Sunday-morning reflection all found their way into his music. Even after Nashville learned his name, Oklahoma remained more than a birthplace printed in a biography. It was his headquarters, his measuring stick, and the ground beneath nearly everything he built. He could be loud, sentimental, defiant, funny, controversial, patriotic, wounded, and tender, sometimes within the same album. Yet beneath the oversized personality was something unmistakably familiar to Oklahomans: a man who believed work mattered, loyalty mattered, and nobody else should decide how far you were allowed to go. Before the Cowboy Hat Toby Keith Covel was born July 8, 1961, in #Clinton, Oklahoma. His father, Hubert K. Covel Jr., worked as a

Let Em' Dance! Oklahoma Legacies "Footloose"

Before Footloose, Oklahoma Told Americans to Sit Down and Shut-Up How an old prohibition in Elmore City, a determined group of students, and the combined power of newspapers, radio, and television turned a small Oklahoma dispute into one of the defining films of the 1980s Oklahoma Legacies Series | Miami News-Digest Long before Kevin Bacon raced across a warehouse floor in blue jeans and a sleeveless sweatshirt, the real battle over dancing took place beneath fluorescent lights in a small Oklahoma school. There were no choreographed tractor duels, no rebellious preacher’s daughter dangling between two moving vehicles, and no Chicago teenager arriving to awaken the town. There was only Elmore City, a farming and oil community in Garvin County, a group of local students asking for something ordinary, and an old rule that had survived so long that many people treated it less like legislation than inherited truth. The students wanted a prom. The town had never permitted one. That disagreement would travel from an Oklahoma school board meeting to newspapers, radio stations, television screens, Hollywood studios, record stores, and, eventually, dance floors around the world. A Town Older

Inge Festival, Independence Museum to Receive State Arts Grants

Two Independence art and cultural initiatives are set to receive grants funding through the Kansas Arts Commission. Independence is one of 43 Kansas communities to receive the grants that were announced this week by Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland. The William Inge Festival was awarded $10,000 through the Arts Everywhere program, which is designed for non-profits, schools, and local governments, it helps enrich communities through the arts. The Independence historical Museum and Art Center will receive just over $9,000 through the Kansas Art Commission's General Operating Support grant program to help with to standard operating costs such as staff salaries and facility maintenance. In Wilson County, the Fredonia Arts Council received a similar grant for just over $4,000. “In Kansas, when we invest in the arts — there is a direct, positive impact on the economy of our state,” David Toland said. “The arts shape the unique character of Kansas — and these awards are a way to help communities harness the power of the arts to enrich local identity, encourage innovation and drive economic growth.”

Keeping the Peace While the Market Moves

Illicit Economies, Selective Enforcement, and the Institutional Management of Crime The assertion that an illegal organ market cannot exist because organ trafficking is prohibited rests upon a misunderstanding of what criminal law accomplishes. Law can prohibit a transaction, punish participants, seize proceeds, and establish investigative authority. It cannot, by declaration alone, eliminate demand, scarcity, desperation, profit, or corruption. The continued existence of illicit controlled-substance markets, human trafficking, illegal gambling, commercial sexual exploitation, weapons trafficking, and money laundering demonstrates that prohibition often changes the organization of a market rather than abolishing it. When a profitable activity is criminalized, it moves away from ordinary regulation and into systems governed by secrecy, personal trust, violence, debt, bribery, and protection. The market becomes harder to observe, but it does not necessarily become smaller. In some cases, the increased risk created by prohibition raises prices and attracts participants who possess the transportation networks, coercive power, corrupt contacts, and financial mechanisms necessary to oper

Did Jesus Experience Romantic Love?

The canonical Gospels never describe Jesus as marrying, courting, or entering a romantic relationship. Christian tradition has therefore understood his earthly life as celibate. Yet celibacy does not necessarily imply emotional incapacity, freedom from attraction, or ignorance of the longing that accompanies human love. The deeper theological question is not whether Jesus secretly maintained a romance, for the evidence does not support such a claim, but whether the incarnate Son could have experienced romantic desire, unfulfilled affection, or love that could not be consummated. Any serious answer must begin with the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. Jesus was not merely God appearing in human form. He was, according to orthodox Christian teaching, truly God and truly man. The Gospel of John declares that “the Word became flesh,” while the Epistle to the Hebrews describes him as one who shared fully in human weakness and was “tempted in all points” as humanity is, yet remained without sin. His humanity was not theatrical, partial, or insulated from ordinary emotion. He hungered, thirsted, tired, rejoiced, grieved, wept, suffered abandonment, and desired companionship. Romantic

Watch New Little House on the Prairie Show Leading up to Carrie Days

Netflix debuts another series featuring the Southeast Kansas area. The first season of Little House on the Prairie came out earlier this month and is eight episodes long. Independence Chamber of Commerce President Lisa Wilson says it is neat to have another show talk about this area . Wilson says you can enjoy the new show as they lead up to Carrie Days at the start of August . The event celebrates the birth of Carrie Ingalls, who was born on August 3 rd , 1870. The Little House on the Prairie Museum is located at 2507 County Road 3000 in Independence and is open seven days a week from 10:00am to 5:00pm.

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) - Notice of Event Attendance

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) - Notice of Event Attendance

Miami City Council - Notice of Event Attendance

Miami City Council - Notice of Event Attendance

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) - Notice of Event Attendance

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) - Notice of Event Attendance

Miami City Council - Notice of Event Attendance

Miami City Council - Notice of Event Attendance

City Council Regular Meeting Packet

City Council Regular Meeting Packet

City Council Regular Meeting

City Council Regular Meeting

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) Regular Meeting Packet

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) Regular Meeting Packet

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) Regular Meeting

Miami Special Utility Authority (MSUA) Regular Meeting

For the Love of Others and Authors

School of Life 19 July 2026 The Discipline of Impossible Love in Western Philosophy and Tradition Some forms of sincere heartache arise from rejection, betrayal, or indifference, yet another form is more difficult to resolve because neither person can dismiss the connection as imaginary. Two people may recognize a profound attraction, inspire one another intellectually and creatively, and still remain unable to build a life together. Their feelings may be reciprocal, their understanding may be unusually deep, and their bond may continue despite every rational argument against it. Yet, there can arise a tramendous grief which comes from having encountered something that feels meaningful while knowing that meaning alone cannot make the relationship possible... Western philosophy has repeatedly returned to this conflict between desire and circumstance. Plato understood love as an experience of lack, Aristotle distinguished emotional affinity from a life shared through action, the Stoics placed moral emphasis on what remains within one’s control, and Christian thinkers examined the difference between loving another person and attempting to possess that person. Later writers, including

Land, Cattle, and POWER

OKLAHOMA LEGACIES Land, Cattle, and Power The Drummond family’s rise in Osage country, the history Hollywood left outside the frame, and how Attorney General Gentner Drummond now stands at the intersection of ranching, politics, and America’s beef crisis By Miami News-Digest July 2026 The hamburgers served at the Osage County Fairgrounds were made with Drummond beef. It was Jan. 13, 2025, and Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond had returned to Pawhuska, near his family’s sprawling ranches, to announce that he was running for governor. Hundreds gathered beneath a campaign slogan promising service to ordinary Oklahomans rather than the political elite. Drummond presented himself as a combat pilot, prosecutor, businessman, cattle rancher, and independent-minded attorney general. The setting could hardly have been more appropriate. There was cattle, political ambition, a celebrated Oklahoma family name, and land in the heart of the Osage Nation. What the campaign scene did not show was the century and a half beneath it: Osage removal, oil wealth, racial guardianships, inflated store accounts, probate claims, land transfers, cattle empires, banking capital, #Hollywood celebrity,

Singer Songwriter Series : Sean Keith's "Snappin' Peas and Rolling Pennies"

Q: Your first song, "Snappin Peas, and Rolling Pennies"... What's it about? Tell us a little bit about the lyrics. A: At its heart, it is about the feeling that "someone" can be both your destination and your home. I wrote it from my own emotions and personal journey, but the more I listened to it, the more I realized that it existed within a much older mythic tradition. Older than the Greeks... or Egyptians, or recorded history. This was transcribed on the human heart. Q: Wow... So...The verses move through scattered images: snapping peas, rolling pennies, dandelion wishes, awards, islands, storms, crowds, and finally the quiet intimacy of holding hands and seeing someone’s face. They sound like memories from one life, or fragments collected across many different lives. A: Sure...There is ordinary domestic happiness, childhood, innocence, stuggle...besides fame, travel, hardship, and longing. Yet through it all, it seems to be pointing toward the same "person"... in a sense. Q: So I've heard you describe the themes as a mythological echo akin to Homer’s Odyssey. A: RIGHT. Odysseus spends years lost at sea, diverted by storms, strange islands, temptation, danger, and forgetfulness.

Atmospheric Circulation without Presupposed Global Geometry

Atmospheric Circulation without Presupposed Global Geometry Cyclostrophic Sign Degeneracy, Stationary-Planar Mechanisms, and an Assumption-Explicit Program of Model Comparison Abstract The familiar association between pressure systems and preferred directions of atmospheric circulation is commonly interpreted through equations written for a rotating spherical surface. This interpretation is strongly developed mathematically and has extensive predictive applications, but the interpretation should not be confused with the observations themselves. This paper asks what may be inferred from atmospheric circulation without presupposing either spherical geometry or surface rotation. Five principal findings emerge. First, cyclostrophic balance determines the magnitude of tangential velocity but not its clockwise or counterclockwise sign. This sign degeneracy applies to vortices in which an inward pressure-gradient force supplies centripetal acceleration; pure cyclostrophic balance cannot independently maintain steady circular flow around a pressure maximum. Second, pressure gradients, convection, baroclinic torque, shear, angular-momentum transport, and moving boundaries can generate organ

TEMU SHREDDER AND THE PINK FOOT CLAN

TEMU SHREDDER AND THE PINK FOOT CLAN Somewhere between Missouri and Oklahoma, a bargain-bin supervillain appears to have ordered organized crime from a questionable app... Meet Temu Shredder, infamous throughout the region for poorly fitted armor, suspicious business filings, and a helmet that arrived six weeks late with no assembly instructions and a missing screw... Behind him marches the Discount Foot Clan, a loosely organized army of shell companies, fake storefronts, illegal grow operations, and... questionable imports? Their master plan? 1. Buy cheap rural property. 2. Ignore every permit, labor law, and zoning ordinance. 3. Move money through seventeen companies named some variation of “Lucky Golden American Freedom Agriculture LLC.” 4. Act shocked when the sheriff arrives just as they are opening a briefcase full of bills. 5. Blame the turtles, of course... Unfortunately, #Missouri and #Oklahoma are still waiting for their heroes. #Leonardo is stuck in road construction. #Donatello is repairing the county computer system. #Raphael got banned from the courthouse for bringing his sais. #Michelangelo is still in line at Casey’s, buying more pizza. Meanwhile, Splinter is sittin

PRIVATE IN NAME. BEHOLDEN BY LAW

Miami News-Digest OKLAHOMA BUSINESS REPORT PRIVATE IN NAME. BEHOLDEN BY LAW. How the Chinese Communist Party’s legal authority reaches through private companies, global supply chains, Borneo agriculture, and Oklahoma’s kratom and drug economy In American business language, a “private company” is ordinarily understood as an enterprise operating outside direct government control. That assumption cannot safely be applied to a company incorporated in the People’s Republic of China. Chinese businesses may be privately capitalized. They may compete for customers, earn profits, employ private managers, and have shareholders who are not government agencies. However, they operate within a political and legal system that explicitly places the Chinese Communist Party at the center of national authority, requires Communist Party organizations within qualifying companies, and commands organizations and citizens to cooperate with intelligence and counterespionage authorities. The relevant question is not whether Beijing personally directs every shipment of bottles, machinery, chemicals, or agricultural products. The relevant question is this: CAN A CHINESE COMPANY LEGALLY REFUSE WHEN THE PARTY-S

Made in Oklahoma, Dependent on China

Customs records reveal the Chinese industrial backbone behind a major Oklahoma kratom operation, while its private financing and ultimate ownership remain only partly visible A Miami News-Digest Consumer and Business Investigation A small blue bottle manufactured in Broken Arrow may carry an Oklahoma address, but the industrial system behind it stretches from the forests of Indonesian Borneo to factories in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Shandong, through the ports of Ningbo and Shanghai, across the Pacific to Los Angeles and Long Beach, and finally inland to northeastern Oklahoma. The clearest documented example is Botanic Tonics LLC, manufacturer of the nationally distributed feel free line of kratom-and-kava products. Botanic Tonics says that its green-vein kratom leaf is sourced from Indonesia and that its finished products are manufactured at its Oklahoma facility. The company describes the plant as Indonesian, the ingredients as globally sourced, and the final product as crafted in an FDA-registered facility in the Tulsa area. That is only part of the supply chain. U.S. maritime records show that the bottles, caps, gift boxes, cartons, beverage-processing equipment, filling-machine p

The "Kratom" Alarm "Pipeline"

The Kratom Alarm Pipeline How 58 toxicology detections became a statewide Oklahoma crisis narrative, why officials keep blurring kratom with synthetic 7-OH, and what the public still has not been shown A Miami News-Digest Investigative Report First came the toxicology alert. Then came the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. Then came television coverage, public radio, grieving parents, police-department warnings, gas-station imagery, and nearly identical descriptions of tablets, powders, gummies, capsules, shots, and other “legal-looking” products. By the time the message reached local law enforcement pages, including the Miami, Oklahoma Police Department, the outline of an emerging statewide crisis had already been assembled. Kratom was being described not merely as a botanical product requiring regulation, but as the visible face of a new opioid-like threat hiding behind convenience-store counters. The warning deserves serious attention. Concentrated and semisynthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine, commonly called 7-OH, can produce opioid-like effects, dependence, withdrawal, and potentially fatal outcomes. Products may be mislabeled, chemically altered, or manufactured at concentrations far be

The BETTER Beef Story

There is a better beef story being built right here in Oklahoma. While national prices keep climbing, tribal nations are investing in local herds, local processing, food distribution, farmers markets, bison and cattle programs, and stronger food sovereignty. This is the hopeful side of the story: rebuilding the chain closer to home, closer to ranchers, and closer to the families who need it most. #MiamiNewsDigest #ConsumerAndUSReport #OklahomaTribes #FoodSovereignty #BeefPrices #LocalFoodSystems #OklahomaAgriculture #SupportLocalRanchers #TribalAgriculture #LocalProcessing #FoodSecurity #RanchToTable #HeartlandSolutions #OttawaCountyOK #MiamiOK #eatbeef #cherokeenation Read the Whole Story HERE

The Architecture of Breakthrough: When Punk Rock, Plumbing, and Faith Align

There is a precise moment in human perception where the mundane grid of daily life fractures, allowing a deeper reality to shine through. The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung called this synchronicity—the occurrence of two or more causally unrelated events that mirror each other in deep, symbolic meaning. It is the universe nodding back at you. This phenomenon manifests profoundly when a phrase as visceral as "down and through the roof" suddenly bridges the physical reality of a home layout, the timeless geometry of an ancient text, and the defiant energy of immigrant punk rock. Consider the physical reality first. A roof is our primary shield against the chaos of the elements; it represents safety, structure, and containment. To puncture it—whether by routing a necessary plumbing vent stack to clear toxic gases or by suffering the violent ingress of a storm leak—is an act of exposure. It demands that we look upward and acknowledge the boundary between our private internal world and the vast, untamed exterior. The physical act of penetrating a ceiling forces us out of horizontal comfort and into vertical awareness. This exact physical disruption serves as the central catalyst in one of

Miami Ok Rt 66 Heritage Fest 2026

Meeker Town Administrator Confronted Over Alleged Theft and Wife's City Contract

A town administrator faces allegations of financial misconduct and nepotism as a packed room of citizens demands answers. When the confrontation intensifies, sheriff's deputies arrive. What happened next was captured on camera.

Arkoma Mayor Seizes Power Over Police Department After Judge Warns Against It

A small Oklahoma town board voted to give its mayor sole authority to hire and fire police, minutes after being warned it violates state law. The police chief was placed on leave. A judge called it "what kings are made of."

The Day Johnny Cash Came to Welch Oklahoma

The Day Johnny Cash Came to Welch Oklahoma Legacies Series Welch, Oklahoma, is not the first place people mention when they talk about Johnny Cash. They go to Arkansas, where he was born. They go to Memphis, where Sun Records caught the early fire. They go to Nashville, Folsom Prison, San Quentin, the Carter Family, the black suit, the deep voice, the train-beat songs that sounded like they had been running before he ever opened his mouth. But tucked into the backroads of Craig County is a Cash story that does not feel borrowed from somewhere else. It belongs to Welch because Welch made it happen. The story begins with a joke song, though it was the kind of joke Johnny Cash could sing without making it cheap. “One Piece at a Time,” released in 1976, told the story of a Detroit auto worker who wanted a Cadillac so badly he decided to build one himself, smuggling parts out of the factory over the years until he had enough pieces to put together a car. The result, of course, was a glorious mess: one year here, another year there, a little bit of this model, a little bit of that one. It was not a showroom Cadillac. It was a workingman’s revenge against the showroom. That was part of th

Citizens File 74-Page Grand Jury Petition Naming Claremore and Inola Officials Over Secret Data Center and Smelter Deals

A Rogers County citizen filed a sweeping grand jury petition naming the mayors of Claremore and Inola, nine councilors, and the county commissioners over secret NDA deals, walking-quorum emails, and a $65,000 records fee demand.

China Cannot Buy Oklahoma Farmland, So Why Is Chinese-Controlled Smithfield Still Raising Hogs Here?

A Miami News-Digest Business and Consumer Report Oklahoma says foreign adversaries, including China-linked entities, should not own Oklahoma farmland. Yet Chinese-controlled Smithfield Foods still operates hog-production farms in the state. That contradiction is the heart of the story. Smithfield’s presence in Oklahoma is not the result of a simple land purchase by a Chinese buyer. It is the result of decades of American food-industry consolidation, federal approval of a foreign takeover, corporate restructuring, and state-law exceptions that appear to protect one of the largest pork companies in the United States. The controversy is not only about who owns the land. It is about who controls the meat supply, the brands, the contracts, the processing chain, and the political exceptions that ordinary citizens rarely hear about. The Short Version Smithfield Foods was once an American pork company based in Virginia. Over time, it expanded through acquisitions, including a major 2006 purchase of ConAgra’s refrigerated-meats business. That deal brought Smithfield deeper into branded packaged meats, including Armour, Eckrich, Margherita, and other consumer-facing brands (The Pig Site, 200

Rogers County Commissioners Hide Development Meetings Behind Vague Agenda Language

When citizens challenged a suspiciously vague executive session item about "economic development," officials refused to say what they were discussing behind closed doors. The confrontation over Oklahoma's Open Meetings Act escalated fast.

No Sugar Added? The Hidden Food Additive Sweeping the Nation

Sucralose, “Zero Sugar” Marketing, and the Business Behind America’s New Sweetener Habit Walk down almost any grocery aisle today and the labels sound reassuring: “no sugar added,” “zero sugar,” “low carb,” “keto friendly,” “diabetic friendly,” “light,” “reduced calorie,” and “guilt free.” But a closer look at the ingredient list often reveals what the front label leaves out: sucralose. Sucralose is the artificial sweetener best known by the brand name Splenda. It is not sugar. It is a synthetic, high-intensity sweetener that the FDA says is about 600 times sweeter than table sugar. The FDA approved sucralose for 15 food categories in 1998, then approved it as a general-purpose sweetener in 1999. Today, the FDA identifies sucralose as a general-purpose sweetener found in baked goods, beverages, chewing gum, gelatins, and frozen dairy desserts. That means sucralose is not legally “experimental.” But consumers are right to ask whether the country is living through a kind of post-market, real-world exposure experiment. The original regulatory approvals were based on defined uses, toxicology studies, estimated daily intake, and acceptable daily intake limits. They did not fully mirror

A Trump Letter, a Pentagon General, and 425 Tons of Fluoride: Inside Inola's 6-Hour Smelter Showdown

The Pentagon sent a general. The DOE sent an assistant secretary. Trump sent a letter. The residents of Inola sent them all home and voted unanimously at midnight to freeze the smelter.

Inola Passes Emergency Moratorium on Smelter as Residents Launch Ballot Initiative

Inola's town council passed a 60-day moratorium freezing all smelter permits. Tulsa Ports fired back calling it a "regulatory taking." Now residents are collecting signatures to put the smelter's fate to a public vote.

Oklahoma's $4 Billion Foreign-Owned Smelter Could Double Your Power Bill and Poison Your Cattle

A $4B aluminum smelter backed by the UAE government is headed for rural Inola, Oklahoma. Residents were kept in the dark by NDAs while officials approved $1.3 billion in new power capacity that could hike electric bills 15%. Now the AG is suing to stop it.

The Hidden Costs Behind 'Cheap' Power

Batteries: Name Brand or Brand X? The Hidden Costs Behind Cheap Power By Miami News-Digest Consumer & U.S. Report A battery looks like one of the simplest purchases in the store. It is small, sealed, standardized, and usually sold by size: AA, AAA, C, D, 9-volt, CR2032, CR2025, or CR2016. That simplicity is exactly why consumers are easy to mislead. The package may promise “long lasting,” “heavy duty,” “super power,” “high capacity,” or “bulk value,” but the real question is not just whether the battery works on day one. The real questions are how long it works, whether it leaks, whether it damages the device, whether the packaging is legal, whether the battery is counterfeit, and whether it creates a fire, burn, or child-ingestion hazard. The answer is not the same for every battery category. For ordinary AA and AAA alkaline batteries, name brands and store brands can be closer than consumers expect. For coin lithium batteries, the difference can be life or death. For rechargeable lithium-ion packs, the cheapest “Brand X” option can become the most expensive purchase in the house if it overheats, catches fire, destroys a tool, or voids a warranty. The short answer: sometimes Brand

Where's the Beef? Oh...

Why #Beef Costs So Much: The Real Players Behind America’s Outrageous Meat Prices Consumer & U.S. Report By Miami News-Digest The price of beef did not become outrageous by accident. It is not enough to blame “the economy,” “inflation,” “COVID,” “the weather,” or any other broad label that lets the real players disappear into the fog. Beef is expensive because actual people, companies, agencies, ranchers, feedlots, packers, retailers, and financial interests made decisions inside a highly concentrated food system. Those decisions collided with drought, high feed costs, limited slaughter competition, global ownership, and a shrinking U.S. cattle herd. The short version is this: America has fewer cattle, fewer independent processing options, more concentrated control over slaughter, stronger consumer demand than supply can comfortably serve, and a grocery-store system that passes the pain directly to the family dinner table. As of January 1, 2026, the United States had 86.2 million cattle and calves, with 27.6 million beef cows, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The 2025 calf crop was estimated at 32.9 million head, down 2 percent from the previous year. A

Mshkatiwi Kiishthwa: The Shawnee Raspberry Moon of 2026

Mshkatiwi Kiishthwa: The Shawnee Raspberry Moon of 2026 By Miami News-Digest Long before calendars were printed on paper, the Shawnee people measured the passage of time through the living world around them. The ripening of berries, the flowering of plants, the migration of animals, and the changing character of the seasons all served as markers in a sophisticated ecological calendar passed from generation to generation. Among these traditional lunar designations is Mshkatiwi Kiishthwa , the Raspberry Moon , a season associated with the ripening of wild raspberries and the arrival of early summer abundance. Rather than viewing time as a sequence of numbered months, the Shawnee recognized the year as a cycle of relationships between people, land, plants, animals, and the Creator. Each moon carried practical, cultural, and spiritual significance. The Raspberry Moon in 2026 Traditional Shawnee moon names follow the lunar cycle rather than the Gregorian calendar. In 2026, the Full Moon associated with Mshkatiwi Kiishthwa occurs on June 29, 2026 . The Raspberry Moon falls between the Strawberry Moon of late spring and the Blackberry Moon of midsummer, marking a period when the forests,

Beyond The Lens

Beyond the Lens: Reconciling Multiple Ways of Knowing Introduction One of the greatest obstacles to human understanding is the assumption that only one framework can be true at a time. Modern society often encourages individuals to choose between science and religion, reason and intuition, materialism and spirituality, objective observation and subjective experience. Yet this assumption may itself be the source of confusion. What if reality is not exhausted by any single description? What if apparently competing perspectives are not enemies, but complementary windows into a larger whole? This realization represents a profound shift in thinking. Rather than viewing knowledge as a battlefield where only one system survives, it invites us to view reality as a landscape too vast to be captured by a single map. The scientist, theologian, philosopher, artist, and mystic may each be observing genuine aspects of the same reality from different vantage points. The challenge is not choosing one lens while discarding the others. The challenge is learning how the lenses fit together. The Problem of Reductionism Human beings naturally simplify complex realities. This tendency is useful and ofte

Claremore Data Center Sell-Out: Secret NDAs, Walking Quorums, Retaliatory Trespass, Court Evidence, and the Massive Revenue Giveaway Nobody Wants to Talk About

Residents in Claremore are being promised economic growth through a proposed AI data center project, but questions remain about tax incentives, infrastructure strain, electricity demand, water usage, and who ultimately benefits.

Durbin v. Claremore: Judge Refuses to Read Pleadings, Citizens Fight Back with Open-Source Lawsuit Templates

A Rogers County judge admitted she hadn't read the filings, then ruled anyway. Now the plaintiff is releasing every document as free, editable templates so Claremore residents can file their own suits.

Oklahoma Police Chief Hires Officer With Multiple Domestic Violence Convictions

Chief admits to knowingly hiring officer despite domestic violence history, gun theft allegations, and terminations from multiple departments. What happened next forced an immediate resignation and surrendered police certification.

Weatherford Officer Arrested After Bodycam Shows Brain Injury Traffic Stop

What started as a DUI stop ended with a man hospitalized and suffering permanent brain injury. The officer who delivered "compliance strikes" to his restrained head later faced criminal charges for falsifying reports and sending an innocent man to prison.

Trans Attorney Rob Hopkins Arrested for Contempt in Explosive Oklahoma Courtroom

Attorney Rob Hopkins' contempt arrest in an Oklahoma courtroom spiraled into chaos. The newly released bodycam footage shows what happened when deputies tried to take Hopkins into custody. The judge's words that triggered it all are finally revealed.

Oklahoma Attorney Rob Hopkins Arrested During Heated Courtroom Exchange

Transgender attorney Rob Hopkins clashed with a judge during an Oklahoma courtroom hearing, leading to a physical struggle with deputies. The confrontation escalated when Hopkins accused the court of bias before being forcibly removed.

Joplin job fair supports workers impacted by Hopkins manufacturing closure

JOPLIN, Mo. (KOAM) - The Joplin Job Center is partnering with Oklahoma Works and KansasWorks to host its biggest job fair yet—aimed at helping workers impacted by the Hopkins Manufacturing closure in Miami, Oklahoma, as well as anyone in the…

Mission #49: David Oldham Sued in Tulsa, OK – Correspondent Files Sweeping Civil Action Against Legal Establishment

Lawsuit CJ-2026-185 names David Oldham in active Tulsa litigation. Meanwhile, a single day of civil rights legal action targeting 93 defendants is reshaping Oklahoma's accountability landscape.

Mission #48: Elizabeth Hurlbutt Sued in Stillwater, OK – Legal Action Filed to Silence Reporter on Rape Case Walkaway

Jesse Butler was convicted of raping two girls and nearly strangling one to death. He served zero jail time. When a correspondent began asking why, a protective order appeared. This is what accountability looks like when it threatens the wrong people.

Mission #47: Chief Katherine Broyles Litigating in Sequoyah County, OK – Filed Protective Orders to Silence an Investigation

When Katherine Faith Broyles filed a protective order against our correspondent on the same day as a corrupt police chief, she may have given investigators exactly what they needed to blow the case wide open.

Mission #46: Attorney Matt Stacy Targeted in Garvin County, OK – Facing 32 Felonies While the Bar Association Looked Away

In Garvin County, OK, attorney Matt Stacy racked up 32 felony charges. Then came the revelation that shocked civil rights observers: the Oklahoma Bar Association reportedly refused to act.

Mission #45: Bentonville PD Exposed in Bentonville, AR – Arrested a Rapper for His Lyrics, Then Targeted the Press

A rapper convicted for words in a song. A sergeant who confronts journalists for walking on grass. A city hall that demands ID before releasing public records. Bentonville, AR has a First Amendment problem.

Mission #44: Matthew Douglas Charged in Okmulgee County, OK – Jail Employee Faces Felony Assault After Booking Confrontation

In Okmulgee County, a jail employee named Matthew Douglas now faces a felony assault charge after a violent clash with a Muscogee Creek Nation Lighthorse deputy during a routine booking. Operation TRIBAL CLASH exposes what happens behind closed doors.

Mission #43: Tulsa City-County Library Sued in Tulsa County, OK – Security Handcuffed a Journalist for Filming in Public

A journalist was handcuffed by library security guards at the Tulsa City-County Library for simply recording in a public building. Now, a tort claim and lawsuit are being prepared.

Mission #42: Counsel Steve Wyer Litigating at GRDA, OK – Filed Legal Action to Ban a Camera From a Public Meeting

The Grand River Dam Authority has spent years blocking cameras, demanding IDs, and now filing a protective order against a correspondent. Their own attorney may have authorized every unconstitutional step.

Miami utility authority approves $5M contract for infrastructure upgrade

MIAMI, Okla. (KOAM) - The Miami Special Utility Authority has approved a $5 million contract to launch an Advanced Metering Infrastructure project and move forward with water treatment plant improvements as part of a broader push to upgrade the city’s…

Mission #41: CEO Dan Sullivan Sued at GRDA, OK – Wages Legal War to Keep Backroom Power Deals Secret

The Grand River Dam Authority blocked cameras, demanded IDs at public meetings, and sued a journalist. Now, in Operation POWER PLAY, they're facing a countersuit and a reckoning.

Mission #40: City Manager Mike Carter Sued in Sand Springs, OK – Secretly Handed Oklahoma Land to Google and Got Caught

A lawsuit filed February 2, 2026, accuses Sand Springs officials of illegally annexing land for a Google data center behind closed doors. Here is what they did not want the public to know.

Mission #39: Superintendent Max Myers Investigated in Coweta, OK – Allegedly Let Child Abuse Fester Inside Oklahoma Schools

Inside a Coweta public library, devastated parents heard what school administrators allegedly knew for years and refused to act on. Guerrilla News exposes the system that failed scores of children.

Mission #38: Commissioner Patrick Ryder Pressured in Nassau County, NY – Ordered Third Arrest of Journalist for Filming in a Lobby

Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder directed the arrest of civil rights correspondent Shawn Paul Reyes — known as Long Island Audit — for filming inside a public building. It was the third time at the same location.

Mission #37: Court Clerk Kim Hall Reported in Tulsa, OK – Journalist's SSN Allegedly Released in Records Retaliation

A Tulsa County court clerk is now named in a formal complaint after a journalist's Social Security Number was allegedly disclosed in what investigators say was deliberate retaliation for open records activity.

Mission #36: Attorney Cassidy Gist Exposed in Tulsa, OK – Two Arrests, a Child in the Car, and a Felony Probation

A former TV reporter turned Tulsa attorney drove drunk with her toddler son in the backseat, crashed into curbs, and was arrested twice. Her husband's threats made it worse.

Mission #35: Officer Houston Murray Resigned in Sallisaw, OK – Shot His Partner, Deserted the Navy, Then Taught School

A Sallisaw, OK cop with a court-martial record and a history of violence negligently discharged his weapon, wounding a fellow officer. Then he quietly resigned and walked into a classroom.