Oklahoma

Imagine a coffee shop where the drinks are free and the tabs are always paid for regardless of the time, day, or season.

Now add a few TVs, computers, couches, and some college kids, and you get the picture behind the new coffee house near Oklahoma State University started by two former alumni who desired to spread God's love in the community.

Friends Matt Brown and Matt Ball decided to open up their own cafe in downtown Bristow, where for seven days a week, everything – tutoring included – is free as part of their nonprofit organization Firehouse Ministries, more >>

Ralph Shortey, a Republican Oklahoma state senator, has introduced a bill banning the use of aborted fetuses in food.

The bill, brought forward Tuesday, is a preemptive and meant to raise awareness, as no cases of aborted fetuses have ever been discovered in foods or food products in the U.S.

Senate Bill 1418, requested to become effective in November 2012, asserts, "No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients." more >>

Richard Roberts, former president of Oral Roberts University and son of televangelist Oral Roberts, was arrested in Oklahoma Tuesday for speeding and suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, according to a police report.

An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper apprehended Roberts for driving his black Mercedes at 93 mph in a 65 mph speed zone, Tulsa World reported. According to Roberts' arrest report, the incident happened shortly after midnight on the Creek Turnpike west of U.S. 169.

Roberts, currently the chairman and CEO of Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, had a blood-alcohol level that was .03 percent above the legal limit, measuring at .11 percent. more >>

Bobby Miller is serving time for robbery at the Cimarron Correctional Facility in Oklahoma. To many he’s just another statistic from The Sooner State, which has the third highest incarceration rate for men in the nation.

But this week, the 30-something-year-old black man, wearing a blue-gray prison jumpsuit with braided cornrows, sat in front of a brightly colored Christmas backdrop and videotaped a message for his 8-year-old daughter. And the smile on his face couldn’t have been bigger.

During the taping he told his daughter, Jermaria, how much he loved her. He read her a book he picked out about Alice in Wonderland. “You’re like my Alice because I love you so much,” he told her before he started reading. more >>

A string of small earthquakes have been rattling Oklahoma over the past month and residents are wondering if the natural disasters are to blame for an emerging sinkhole.

The sinkhole opened up near Sayre, Okla., a few days after an earthquake struck the state around two weeks ago. Residents of Beckham County say that the sinkhole is so large that a small house can fit inside of it.

The massive hole forming in the ground is about 40-feet wide and 40-feet deep, according to NBC station KFOR-TV. The hole is likely to continue to expand in the coming days. more >>

Scientists have warned that the seismic activity that caused Saturday night’s 5.6-magnitude earthquake in Oklahoma, destroying over a dozen buildings and injuring at least three people, could still be active.

“With the pattern we’re looking at, I don’t see it stopping anytime immediately soon,” NewsOK quoted Oklahoma Geological Survey research scientist Amie Gibson as saying. “I’d like it to stop, but I don’t see that happening right now.”

The strongest earthquake in the state’s history, which shook towns about an hour’s drive northeast of Oklahoma City, was also felt in Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas. more >>