This year was a great year for The Frontier, bringing Oklahomans news that delves beyond the surface-level press releases and soundbites. And with your help, we can be better than ever in 2024. Your donations help us report stories that matter.
This year, I wrote about chronic flooding in Miami, Okla., and the city’s fight with the Grand River Dam. I pored over decades-old documents to report that officials were aware of the risks of flooding in the area since the 1940s and that one consultant recommended buying out land owners.
I also took a deep-dive into an Oklahoma law that requires the state Treasurer’s Office to create a blacklist of financial companies deemed to be boycotting the fossil fuel industry. The law prohibits state and local agencies from doing business with companies on the list. My reporting found that many of the companies that initially landed on the blacklist did not meet the criteria in the law to be included.
Another big story this year was the release of a state audit of federal coronavirus relief money that confirmed much of The Frontier and Oklahoma Watch’s reporting in 2022 about questionable spending. The audit found that special interest groups that now-Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters used to distribute the federal funds gave preferential treatment to some private school parents by allowing early access for application submission. The audit also found that lax state oversight and outsourcing to special interest groups was to blame for misspent money intended to purchase school supplies for kids.
I also reported this year on poultry farms in eastern Oklahoma and how neighbors are blindsided when a mega farm capable of holding hundreds of thousands of chickens at a time moves next door.
We couldn’t have reported any of these stories without financial support from our readers.
Now through Dec. 31, donations to The Frontier will be matched by a collaborative fundraising movement called NewsMatch that supports independent, public-service journalism. We can earn up to $50,000 in matched donations.
