At The Frontier, we try to tell stories that inform our readers about the important and often overlooked issues and events that affect them and their communities, whether that be a small town or the entire state.
This year, I worked on several stories following developments in the state’s federal lawsuit against several poultry corporations for knowingly polluting Lake Tenkiller and one of Oklahoma’s scenic Illinois River, litigation that has been going for so long that if it were a person, it could legally be served alcohol next year.
Now, while almost all of the recent developments in the case occurred in the formal confines of a federal courthouse, I felt it was important to step back and take a look at what’s at stake in this decades-old case.
I felt it was important to actually float the river with one of its most steadfast advocates — former Scenic River Commissioner Ed Fite. It was an enlightening journey. Fite could point out the exact places where the river has changed course over the years, locations where algae blooms were common in the summer, water monitoring stations and areas where bank erosion into the river should be addressed.
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🔶 Donate NowAs The Frontier’s senior reporter, I often look back this time of year on the stories I’ve written to find an eclectic list of stories that don’t easily fit into one specific beat. In March, I wrote about a state-owned electric utility refusing to provide federal regulators with a study about one of the utility’s dams possibly causing flooding in the northeastern Oklahoma town of Miami.The utility company later agreed to provide the records. But by June, I was writing about a Tulsa political consultant creating political action committees and dark money groups that had listed his elderly grandmother’s name as one of the organization[s leaders and gave donations in her name, though she said she had never made a significant political donation.
No matter what we’re covering, everyone here, The Frontier has a common goal — inform the public. And it’s only through you, our donors, that we are able to fulfill this mission.
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