Tag Archives: Oklahoma Horizon TV

Oklahoma Horizon TV

On The Horizon: Tradition Meets Technology

In a world where technology seems to run our lives, agriculture serves as a role model of how to merge tradition and innovation. Farmers have proven time and time again how they utilize the past to influence the present and continue to provide for our future.

This week we introduce you to a woman who was on the fast track to a corner office in the corporate world but decided she wanted to give back to the environment…and her neighbors. Coleen Thornton is a prime example of how sustainable agriculture is a beneficial way farming can benefit an entire community. From organic crops to hand spun yarn…everything on Thornton’s farm serves a purpose.

Growing up in agriculture, I often heard the stereotype that farmers are cruel to the environment. This ag entrepreneur proves this theme wrong, because in order to be successful in agriculture, it is vital to be a steward of the land.
~Andy Barth

 

On the Horizon: Tradition Meets Technology from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.

Oklahoma Horizon TV

On the Horizon: Deadly Decision

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Balancing my job as a broadcast journalist and my career as a rodeo cowgirl can be challenging to say the least. Two different worlds that, on certain occasions, I get to combine and produce a story that is close to my heart in more ways than one.

The deadly equine herpes virus has been a hot topic in our arena at home and has the broadcast world buzzing. Should we stay or should we go? That was the main question plaguing me as a horse owner and last week I got to turn the camera on some of my closest rodeo friends and let their voices be heard.

A virus of this magnitude could potentially end our horses lives and our careers. However, after talking to the experts, we learned the nitty gritty details and got a glimpse through the eyes of horse owners all across Oklahoma as they gear up to protect their horses in several different ways.

Courtenay Dehoff

 

On the Horizon: Deadly Decision from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.

Oklahoma Horizon TV

On the Horizon: Pharmacy Danger

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I have never had a gun put in my face, but in talking to those who have, I hear a recurring theme; no matter the caliber, when you are starring down the barrel it looks like a cannon. Something I thought of when I learned of the conviction of an Oklahoma City pharmacist last week.

Jerome Ersland was given a life sentence for the first-degree murder of would be robber 16-year-old Antwun Parker. The 59-year-old pharmacist shot the youngster six times during an attempted armed robbery in 2009, leading jurors to decide he had acted beyond the limits of self defense.

Dramatic surveillance footage shows Antwun Parker and an accomplice running into the Reliable Discount Pharmacy in South Oklahoma City and pointing a gun directly at Mr. Ersland. Ersland then shot the 16-year-old dropping him to the floor. After chasing the accomplice from the store, Ersland then gets a second gun before shooting Parker another five times.

I wonder if when Mr. Ersland went to pharmacy school, he could have imagined he would find himself in such a life and death situation.

When asked why he robbed banks, bank robber Willie Sutton is reported to have said…”because that is where the money is.”

That same principle applies in a disturbing trend of pharmacy hold ups. Criminals not looking for money, but for drugs. In today’s video blog, Oklahoma Horizon’s Courtenay Dehoff introduces us to another Oklahoma pharmacist who was on the wrong side of drug store violence.

 

Pharmacy Danger from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.

Oklahoma culture, Oklahoma Horizon TV

On the Horizon: Pawnee Bill

The year was 1888 and the Wild West was changing. Recognizing that fact, showman Gordan W Lillie, known today as Pawnee Bill, started a Wild West show that traveled the country and the world until 1913. But, the story does not end there.

In 1988, the Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum hosted the first re-enactment of Pawnee Bill’s original Wild West Show. Every year since, they have continued the tradition the last three Saturdays in June.

Today in our video blog we head to Pawnee, Oklahoma, to learn more about the man who began it all, and the people who have kept his dream alive more than a century later.

 

Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Show from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.

Oklahoma Horizon TV

On the Horizon: A Sad Symptom

As I write, medical examiners have yet to release the official cause of death for University of Oklahoma football player Austin Box.   According to El Reno Police, a friend who lived with the 22 year-old found him unresponsive and believed he had overdosed on prescription pain pills.  In a 911 recording, the roommate said Box takes pain pills and he’s not responding to me.

If true, it’s just the latest sad incident in a troubling trend: the misuse of prescription medication, whether intentionally or accidentally.  Former OSU basketball coach Sean Sutton plead guilty last year for illegally obtaining pain pills that he began taking after a back surgery then to which he subsequently became addicted.

Box played a brutal sport that requires unusual physical and mental toughness.  The demands often require playing through pain and sometimes even injury.  I worry that in our attempts to explain such a tragic loss of life, we focus on the symptoms and not the wider disease.  Prescription medications are just as addictive as anything purchased from a seedy street corner.  According to law-enforcement, prescription painkillers rank second behind marijuana as the country’s most common illegal-drug problem.  Today we begin a multiple-part video post about a growing problem that cuts across all age groups and economic classes.

Rob

 

Prescription Addiction from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.