fbpx
Your donations are matched up to 12x between now and Dec. 31. Support The Frontier today.

Archives: Stories

Pickens: ‘They’re not even earthquakes’

Ziva Branstetter May 23, 2015

t_boone_pickens

OKLAHOMA CITY — In the face of volumes of contrary evidence, billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens said Friday that Oklahoma’s increase in earthquakes isn’t due to the energy industry, just to better monitoring.

“Wastewater wells and fracking have nothing to do with — they’re not even earthquakes,” he told KFOR news anchor Kevin Ogle, who interviewed the oilman from Holdenville before a crowd of 300 guests at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City.

Pickens’ statements came during a special limited seating luncheon, billed as the “T. Boone Pickens Birthday Bash” to celebrate Pickens’ 87th birthday.

Tulsa Jail trust funds went missing as auditors raised red flags

Ziva Branstetter May 18, 2015

default thumbnail

For the past five years, state and federal auditors have repeatedly criticized the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office for lax oversight of inmate trust accounts – but those warnings prompted little change and some of the funds went missing, an investigation by The Frontier found.

State auditors also questioned the sheriff’s office for lack of oversight over federal grant funds used to finance a multi-agency drug task force, records show. Questions remain regarding a lack of documentation for nearly $200,000 in federal grant funds.

Sources say up to $25,000 was discovered missing from the inmate trust funds – money held on behalf of inmates in the jail – in 2012. It is unclear how the Sheriff’s Office made up the shortfall or whether some inmates simply didn’t receive their money after release.

Security guard found with weed when he shot and paralyzed Tulsa man

Dylan Goforth May 13, 2015

bird before and after

The security guard who shot and paralyzed a 21-year-old man earlier this year had marijuana in his truck at the time of the shooting, police records provided to The Frontier show.

Ricky Leroy Stone shot at Monroe Bird III three times on Feb. 4, when Bird drove away from a confrontation at a south Tulsa apartment complex.