It’s something that nearly everyone takes for granted in this country. Clean drinking water has been the norm since I was alive, but due to failing infrastructure it may be at risk. Scott Huler, author of “On the Grid” takes us on an incredible journey through the pipe lines and drainage systems of this vast land.
In the week’s video blog, we see just how deep our water problem may really be as we travel through drainage systems and waterways throughout Oklahoma.
~Courtenay Dehoff
The temperatures are dropping and the ground is beginning to freeze, with that comes the endangerment of an aging infrastructure that is weakening by the minute. Across the nation, cities are dealing with the same issue – the need to update their infrastructure, but lack of funds is stalling the process.
In this week’s video blog, see how the City of Stillwater, Oklahoma, is dealing with their underground piping problems. We take a look at the replacement process and some ways you can prevent an unpleasant sewage backup.
Andy Barth
It has been an interesting year. We have gone noodling, seen students compete at the world’s largest junior livestock show, and tangled with some spirits from the afterlife. Life is never dull at Oklahoma Horizon.
In this week’s video blog, we take a look at an Oklahoma author who loves telling people about the unique stories of Oklahoma. His stories include Bigfoot, paranormal activity and American Outlaw tales like the infamous Battle at Ingalls.
Andy Barth
With cotton being a staple in our day-to-day lives, it is big business for farmers in Southwestern Oklahoma. I had the opportunity to travel to Altus, Okla., with the OSU Oklahoma Ag Leadership Encounter. We learned about the irrigation district and how vital it is for cotton producers in the area.
In this week’s video blog, we take a look at the devastation the drought had on this year’s cotton crop.
~Andy Barth
Maybe I was just too young to fully appreciate some of the finer aspects of the long running show Hee Haw, but in working on this week’s story I noticed something for the first time. The women on the show called the “Hee Haw Honey’s” are as we would have said in high school… Stone Cold Foxes.
I promise this week’s video blog is much more than me leering at girls in daisy duke shorts and bandana tops, but I have to admit they sure made this week’s segment a lot of fun to put together. Salute!
Rob McClendon
Have you ever been on a bus tour anywhere? I’ve been on several of them now and have completely enjoyed my experiences. While most bus tours are all about just seeing what’s to see, the ones I’ve been on this past year have been about not only seeing what’s to see but also about learning how to be an agritourism destination. We’ve learned all sorts of things like insurance, taxes, etc., but one of the most important lessons they’ve learned is simply how to.
All the people who have been on the bus with me have either been owners of agritourism destinations or people who want to become one. Many of them have been on most of the tours with me and I’ve really come to like these people. They are hard working, honest people and will tell you exactly what they think. And they always get ideas to take back home and try out at their places.
In this week’s video blog, meet some of these fantastic people and see some of the places we went on the most recent rolling bus workshop to South Central Oklahoma.
Alisa Hines
Here in the United States, we take water for granted. We turn on a faucet, out comes water. Flush a toilet, more water. Need to wash your clothes, not a problem. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case in a lot of the world. In many places, water, while being a necessity, isn’t an on-hand commodity. Many times, it has to be lugged from a well that could be a mile or two away…daily. There isn’t running water in the home or even close to the home. Women and children are the main people who have to do the lugging as part of their daily life. A lot of times this means that some children can’t even go to school because they have to help bring water to their home which could mean many trips to the well with whatever container they have to haul it in. It’s not a picture we like to think about but one we really shouldn’t ignore.
I wasn’t really crazy about going to do a story on the demonstrations being done about how to dig water wells in other countries. It was a very cold morning and I didn’t know what to expect. What I found was a group of people who were very dedicated to solving the world’s water crisis. They were very passionate about it and many of them had seen first-hand just how bad the need really is. My heart became softened as I realized just how big the problems really is and how many people it affects…especially children. Without clean drinking water, many children become sick and die. It’s a shame really because the need is really about the ability to drill for water and filtrate it to make it clean.
And that’s what this week’s video blog is about, some solutions to drill for water and clean it up in remote areas and as one person put it, available clean water equals people freed up to go to school and learn equals peace in the world. All because of clean, drinking water. My hope is for you to realize the need and that you, too, can help.
~Alisa Hines
Before Jon Stewart or even Andy Rooney, there was humorist Will Rogers. Covering the day’s topics, Rogers made you feel like you were talking to a friend. That friendly persona along with Rogers’ wit and wisdom is captured in cowboy humorist Will Roberts’ revived segment called “Will’s Weekly Telegram”.
Focusing on current events, as well as timeless and popular topics, in a comedic style that is approachable to all ages while being straight to the point for a world filled with tweets and sound bites. Roberts’ is considered to be the Modern Day Will Rogers right down to the fact that he is currently one of the featured acts as a trick roper in one of the largest stage shows on the Las Vegas strip.
In this week’s video blog, we’d like to introduce you to our old friend, Will Roberts and why he got to thinking…why we are willing to pay for what we can get, for almost free.
Rob McClendon
Vince Orza has truly done it all and he is the type of person that I aspire to be. For years Orza called television home and then eventually took a job teaching. In the meantime, he ran for governor of Oklahoma, became the Dean of Business at Oklahoma City University and opened up a chain of restaurants. Eventually his career would come full circle and he would step back under the bright lights to save a dying television station.
If his lifetime of careers is not impressive enough, in this week’s video blog, just listening to Vince Orza is sure to enthrall you. His voice comes easy, much like you would expect from anyone working in television, but what may be surprising are his values on life and the advice by which he lives by.
Courtenay Dehoff
Old Station Monuments and More is barely one mile from my own home and I had yet to step foot inside. Like so many people, my mom and I would always discuss what a “cute little place” it is as we flew by on Highway 33. Little did I know, there was not only a unique story about the property, but a truly unique story about the couple behind the business.
In this week’s video blog, I’ll show you the quirkiness that will keep you coming back and an atmosphere that is sure to please.
~Courtenay Dehoff
About 80 percent of prison inmates are there because of a drug conviction or crimes fueled by a drug dependency. I am not one to blame drug dependency or my love of greasy Mexican food on anything more than the lack of self control. I know breaking a drug addiction is difficult, but many people have kicked the habit. So while I am in the no excuses camp, I do believe state prisons are an awfully expensive solution to solve the state’s drug abuse problem.
My hat is off to Oklahoma’s Speaker of the House Kris Steele who led the passage of the some of the first alternative sentencing laws despite lots of pressure from within his own party not to. A landmark corrections bill, dealing with nonviolent offenders and intended to relieve prison overcrowding, took effect this month. HB 2131, the first significant piece of legislation favoring alternative sentences for nonviolent offenders, expands both the use of community sentencing programs and the electronic monitoring of low-risk, nonviolent inmates.
In this week’s video blog, I introduce you to a guy our tax dollars are paying to house until 2034…at the earliest. Vince loved his cocaine and went on a robbery spree in Tulsa a few years back. He would call a taxi, have them drive him to a Subway sandwich shop, stick his finger in his pocket and then tell the teenager behind the counter to give him all his money. Pretty stupid stuff, and leaves little doubt he must have been on drugs. No surprise he gets caught and under mandatory sentencing gets a huge sentence.
Is Vince a threat or just a person with poor judgment and a drug problem? Take a look at what he has to say and let me know what you think. I am curious if I am just a sucker.
Rob McClendon
Across the country, pharmacy robberies are on the rise, partly because of the increasing demand for prescription drugs. According to law-enforcement, prescription painkillers rank second behind marijuana as the country’s most common illegal-drug problem. Completing an assessment from a qualified substance use treatment professional is the best strategy for determining if someone truly has a substance use disorder and what the level of severity may be. If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, you might want to look into Addiction treatment Thailand.
Prescription drug abuse cuts across all age groups and economic classes; often times sneaking up on people and taking over their lives. Prescription drug addiction is a problem that often does not end up in rehab; in this week’s video blog we explore the impact prescription addiction is having on our prisons.
Alisa Hines
My experience with doing stories with war veterans is those who have seen the most, talk the least. I think there are some memories they had just rather forget.
Put Charles Migliorino in that category. It was only by chance I heard his story. He was interviewing for an associate district judge appointment, and I was a member of the Judicial Nominating Commission interviewing him. It was after the interview was over, he added, almost as epilogue, the thing he was most proud of in life was letting a sister hear her dead brother’s voice for the first time in 40 years.
I was fascinated, as I think you will be in this week’s video blog, with this Marine’s Love Story.
Rob McClendon
Many rural communities around Oklahoma are building tech parks in the hopes of attracting big business and in Pryor, that gamble is paying off. Google announced in 2007 that it would build a data center right here in Oklahoma. All because of availability of land, electrical infrastructure, a very high quality excellent workforce, and a business climate that was really conducive to making things fast and simple; which is what many rural communities have to offer.
Now because of the recession, it’s taken quite a while to get up and running but just recently, they held the grand opening of their newest Google data center. In this week’s video blog, see the connections going on in Pryor, Oklahoma.
Alisa Hines
The U.S. economy is on the minds of many Americans and is it is not a positive thought to most. From unemployment to a failing stock market, people are unsure of their future. What lies ahead? What about my children? What about my retirement?
For those living in Oklahoma there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is a bright one. The market crash did not hit the state nearly as hard as the rest of the nation and jobs are springing up all over. In this week’s video blog see how from aerospace and energy to small business the economy in Oklahoma is on the up and up.
~Andy Barth
As a sports mom, I’ve always had a tendency to either blame or yell at the refs on the field of play. But after doing this week’s story, I have a new found respect for those hard working men (and occasionally women). They are asked to make calls about things happening on the field that those of us in the stands can’t always see with a discerning eye and get upset about if the call is against our team. We get all uppity if we feel the call has been made wrong only we didn’t necessarily really see what happened. The refs on the other hand have a close up view of what is really going on. Now they might get a call wrong every now and then but they are much closer to getting it right than those of us in the stands and most of the time, don’t get upset back at us when we yell about something we didn’t like. So remember that the next time you get upset with a call made by a ref and maybe pause and think before you say something..
In this week’s video blog, I hope you will fall in love like I did with the two long-time friends who have been refs for many years and could possibly have even been a ref at one of your kids’ games.
Alisa Hines
We all remember those spooky stories by the camp fire and when grandpa would tell us ghost stories right before we went to bed. But what happens when those ghost stories come to life?
In today’s video blog we take you to a business in North Central Oklahoma where the past life is still present. From creaky doors to items flying off shelves, the paranormal takes spooky to whole new level. Turning skeptics (me) into believers, and believers running for their lives.
Andy Barth
I love going to the movies. It’s always interesting to see how they make them and where they are filmed. But I often wonder, why aren’t more films done here in Oklahoma? Especially the ones about Oklahoma, that would make sense after all. We have the wide open spaces you see so often depicted in movies and our cities are prettier than many on the East or West coast. Take Tulsa for example: I was there just the other day, up in a very tall building looking out over the city area and was amazed at all the green. Houses and buildings were interspersed throughout all the trees almost like they built them around the trees. How much prettier is that than the concrete jungle you see in most cities/movies.
Now don’t get me wrong, there have been some movies shot here in places like Tulsa, but I think most people just don’t think of Oklahoma when then think of movies. And it can be big business for Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Film and Music Office is working toward making Oklahoma the next Hollywood. What they’ve discovered is that for every dollar spent in Oklahoma’s film industry, an impact of $1.72 is made on our state’s economy. The impact just continues to grow. Due to recruitment efforts, the 2010 production of “The Killer Inside Me” was filmed almost exclusively here in Oklahoma even though the story was set in Texas. Another Red River Rivalry??? That production spent three million dollars in Oklahoma in only six weeks to make the movie and generated over five million for the state. That’s huge. Some may complain about tax rebates the film industry gets but overall, I think it’s worth it. You have to have some kind of incentive to bring the film industry out of their comfort zone and into our state.
In this week’s video blog, meet one Oklahoman who didn’t run to Hollywood to make his movie, but kept it right here in Oklahoma using local talent and local crews.
Alisa Hines
Funny how a little rain can make all the difference in how things look. It’s been so dry that even the well-watered plants around the house have been looking a little thirsty. But if you think it’s been dry here, just head south to Texas. I was there in September and the leaves were already falling from the severe drought they have been dealing with.
So while we have been dry, they are parched, which has just exacerbated what has been a growing problem for the Lone Star State…lots of people and not enough water for them. In this week’s video blog we take a closer look at Texas’ thirst and the implications that could have on Oklahoma’s water supplies.
~Rob McClendon
The first time I met the focus of today’s video blog, I didn’t know quite what to think. I was sitting in an out of state conference, when Temple Grandin sat down beside me. Decked out in a pair of wranglers and an embroidered pearl snap western shirt she did stand out a bit. Actually a lot.
Fast forward a few years, and I send a TV crew to Colorado to interview a leading animal behaviorist, and guess who is there in her pearl snaps. Dr. Grandin is widely credited as driving force in the humane treatment of animals in slaughter houses. (Interesting note: while many people in the meat industry refer to animal slaughter as “harvesting” Temple says such semantics are bunk. She says not only should the industry not try to “sanitize” what’s going on, but slaughter houses should have cameras set up to webcast the entire process.)
To fully understand Temple’s impact on the meat industry you need to understand her background. Grandin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and diagnosed with autism in 1950. Having been labeled with brain damage at age two, she was placed in a structured nursery school with what she considers to have been good teachers. Grandin’s mother spoke to a doctor who suggested speech therapy, and she hired a nanny who spent hours playing turn-based games with Grandin and her sister.
At age four, Grandin began talking, and making progress. She considers herself lucky to have had supportive mentors from primary school onwards. However, Grandin has said that middle and high school were the worst parts of her life. She was the “nerdy kid” whom everyone teased. At times, while walking down the street, people would taunt her by saying “tape recorder,” because she would repeat things over and over again. Grandin says that, “I could laugh about it now, but back then it really hurt.”
After graduating from Hampshire Country School, a boarding school for gifted children in Rindge, New Hampshire, in 1966, Grandin went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Franklin Pierce College in 1970, her master’s degree in animal science from Arizona State University in 1975, and her doctoral degree in animal science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989.
Grandin is considered a philosophical leader of both the animal welfare and autism advocacy movements. Both movements commonly cite her work regarding animal welfare, neurology, and philosophy. She knows all too well the anxiety of feeling threatened by everything in her surroundings, and of being dismissed and feared, which motivates her in her quest to promote humane livestock handling processes.
Take a look at this week’s video blog. I am interested in what you think.
Rob McClendon