Local & Regional

Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis announced on Friday he will retire July 1, 2021, after 13 years leading the university.

The former attorney and Bank of Oklahoma vice chairman is just the second OSU graduate to serve as its president.

"During our time at Oklahoma State, we have marveled at the boundless talents across our campus, enjoyed the thrill of success, and, of course, wept during moments of tragedy that have united us as a family," Hargis said in a video released by the university.

Kojo Asamoa-Caesar says he's no stranger to ugly remarks based on the color of his skin. The former teacher and school principal says over the course of his campaign challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Kevin Hern in Oklahoma's First Congressional District, he's heard more than his share of racist comments.

"It's unfortunate. It truly is unfortunate that I have become numb through this process of running for office," Asamoa-Caesar, who is Black, said.

Still, one recent comment left him surprised, less because of its contents and more because of who it came from.

Starting Sunday, Oklahoma will again require people filing new unemployment claims wait one week before receiving benefits and prove they are actively searching for work.

Oklahoma Employment Security Commission Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt said that's because Gov. Kevin Stitt's emergency order waiving those provisions expires, but with the state's unemployment rate down to 5.3% in September, the time seems right to again require those.

With COVID-19 continuing to suppress air travel, American Airlines posted its biggest net loss during the pandemic to date in the third quarter: $2.4 billion.

The news comes just weeks after federal coronavirus relief funds for airlines expired Oct. 1, and American has since started laying off 19,000 workers, about 180 of them in Tulsa, where 5,000 are employed at the airline's largest maintenance base.

American Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said on a Thursday earnings call leaders just haven't made a new relief package work yet.

Friday's top stories:

• This week's excavation in Oaklawn Cemetery in search of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims has drawn to a close, with at least 12 sets of human remains being identified. The work will be paused until 2021.
• Oklahoma's COVID-19 hospitalizations are at an all-time high, inching closer and closer to 1,000 people fighting to survive the disease in the state's hospitals.

The governing board for Epic Charter Schools unanimously approved on Wednesday corrective actions after reviewing the state auditor’s review of their operations.

Those actions include clarifying payroll processes and more specifically outlining how management fees for the for-profit Epic Youth Services are calculated, areas the auditor’s report indicated were mishandled.

But the actions do not mean members have acquiesced to the auditor’s findings.

Researchers looking for victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Oaklawn Cemetery have concluded their work for now.

State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck said Thursday on the final day of digging, they found evidence of another burial, so there are at least 12 the team now knows of.

They also figured out the north, south and west boundaries of the larger grave shaft they’re working in. Stackelbeck said the trench they dug appears to cover about one-third of it.

Thursday's top stories:

• A mass grave has been discovered in the search for victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Researchers have not yet confirmed the remains belong to massacre victims, but oral histories and funeral home records suggest victims were buried at the excavation site.
• The Trump administration is urging Oklahoma to take more stringent steps to mitigate its worsening COVID-19 outbreaks. Oklahoma surpassed 900 patients hospitalized with the disease for the first time ever on Wednesday.

Researchers at Oaklawn Cemetery made a big discovery Wednesday, the third day of their second round of searching for victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

"What we were finding was an indication that we were inside a large area, a big excavation area, a large hole that had been excavated and into which several individuals have been placed inside of coffins and buried in that location. This constitutes a mass grave," said State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck.

Wednesday's top stories:

• Human remains have been found in the search for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims, though they have not yet been confirmed to belong to an individual killed in the racist attack.
• Voting access proponents say the Tulsa County Election Board isn't adequately informing voters of changes in early voting locations.
• With COVID-19 hospitalizations at record highs, state officials say a hospital surge plan is not quite ready but will be released soon.

State lawmakers during an interim study on Tuesday dug into reported problems with Conduent, the company processing Oklahomans’ unemployment benefits.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission has complained Conduent is not giving them detailed enough information on accounts it flags for potential fraud to effectively deal with it. General Manager Paul Gates said federal privacy regulations prevent Conduent from just handing over all the information they have on an account.

State officials announced on Tuesday changes they intend to make to Oklahoma’s hospital surge plan after the number of COVID patients surpassed 800 for the first time.

Capacity would be managed on a regional basis. Oklahoma’s eight hospital regions would move among four tiers based on their hospitals’ COVID admissions to medical/surgical and intensive care unit beds hitting targets for three days.

Tuesday's top stories:

• With COVID-19 hospitalizations soaring, the Oklahoma State Medical Association is again urging Gov. Kevin Stitt to implement a statewide mask mandate, a move the governor has rejected countless times.
• Middle, junior high and high school students will be allowed to return to in-person classes at Tulsa Public Schools in January, the TPS Board of Education voted Monday.