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Bible verse of the day
“I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born.”
—Isiah 44:2
Joke of the day
Why did the chocolate chip cookie go to the doctor?
It was feeling crumby.
Baseball regionals, districts set
The Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activity Association announced regional and district baseball tournaments Monday.
Class 2A is playing districts with two of the county teams at home.
Class 3A, 4A and B are playing regionals.
In 4A Poteau was sent to Verdigris. The Pirates open with Mannford at 11 a.m. with the winner/loser playing Verdigris.
In 3A, Heavener was sent to a regional at Kansas while Spiro will make the long trip to Silo.
The Kansas regional is expected to start Wednesday with Heavener taking on Holland Hall at 1:30 p.m. The winner/losers play either Kansas or Tishomingo. Spiro was paired with Kiefer with the winner/loser playing the hosts.
Cameron was sent to Amber-Pocasset for a Class A regional. The Wildcats play Sterling with the winners/losers playing Am-Po.
Class 2A is in the districts with Panama and Wister staying home while Pocola and Howe will be on the road. Wister is hosting Wewoka; Okemah goes to Panama; Pocola travels to Hulbert and Howe visits Hulbert.
Softball regionals announced
The Oklahoma Secondary School Activity Association also announced regional pairings for slow pitch softball Monday.
In Class 4A, Pocola is hosting a regional and plays Valliant 1 p.m. Thursday. The other teams in the regional are Antlers and Preston.
In Class B, Whittesboro was sent to a regional at Tupelo. The Lady Bulldogs play McCurtain at 2 p.m. Thursday. The other teams in the tournament are Tupelo and Carney.
LeFlore County scoreboard
LeFlore County sports scores from Monday
Baseball
Howe 13, Heavener 6
Panama 10, Vian 2
Smithville 6, Poteau 5
Wister 12,, Silo 4
Slow pitch softball
Pocola 17, Tahlequah 3
Pocola 13, Stilwell 2
Whitesboro 19, Vian 17 (extra innings)
To make corrections or additions, please contact us.
Howe doubles up Heavener
Howe scored five runs in the top of the third inning and went on to defeat Heavener, 13-6 in high school baseball action Monday.
The Lions improve to 13-11. Heavener drops to 6-21 and plays Holland Hall in the regional tournament Wednesday at Kansas.
With the regional and district tournaments coming up later in the week, both teams used several pitchers in the tune-up game for the playoffs.
Wesley Toney went the first 3.1 innings to get the win for the Lions. He gave up three hits and four runs, all earned, with three strikeouts and a walk. Andruw Covey threw an inning, giving up one hit and two runs, both earned with three strikeouts and three walks, Aiden Scott pitched 1.2 innings with four strikeouts and no hits or runs, before Garret Smith pitched the final two outs, giving up one hit with no runs.
Spencer Clubb pitched the first two innings for Heavener, giving up four hits and four runs, all earned, with one strikeout and two walks before Canyon Ford pitched an inning, allowing two hits and three runs, none earned, with two strikeouts and three walks, Talon Lemay went 2.2 innings, giving up three hits and three runs, two earned, with two strikeouts and a walk before Bryce Early closed out the game, going 1.1 innings with no hits and four runs, three earned, with two strikeouts and three walks.
Smith was 3-3 at the plate for Howe, scoring three runs with one RBI. Catcher Cole Wann was 3-5 with two runs and a RBI and Myka Thornburg doubled while going 2-3 with a RBI.
Early led the Wolves at the plate, going 2-4 with a run and a RBI and Bryce Morrison doubled and was 1-23 with two runs.
Howe 13, Heavener 6
HOW 2 0 5 2 0 1 3—13 10 0
HEA 2 0 0 2 2 0 0—6 5 6
After several attempts, including one already this year, Wister defeated Silo in a high school baseball game Monday for one of the Wildcats’ most impressive wins of the season.
Wister improves to 17-6 and hosts Wewoka in a Class 2A district later this week. Silo is 20-8 and hosts a Class 3A regional, that also includes Spiro, later in the week. The Wildcats also avenged an earlier 10-2 loss to Silo this season.
Landon Donaho started and went the first inning, giving up five hits and four runs, all earned, with a strikeout and a walk. Dartyn Meeks came in and threw the final five innings, allowing five hits and no runs or walks also with seven strikeouts.
Riley Crane was 3-4 with two runs and a RBI to lead the Wildcats at the plate, J. Byars doubled twice and was 2-3 with four RBI and two runs, Kord Fenton had a 2-3 outing with two RBI and Meeks doubled as he went 1-2 with a RBI and a run.
Wister 12, Silo 4
SHS 4 0 0 0 0 0 0—4 10 2
WHS 3 1 2 0 5 1—12 11 1
Illegal immigration legislation passes house
By Rep. RICK WEST
The House last week passed a bill creating the crime of impermissible occupation. Anyone in Oklahoma who came into the country illegally must leave the state or face imprisonment, fines or both.
House Bill 4156 is aimed at helping us get a handle on illegal aliens entering the state after crossing the country's wide-open southern border. It's not just people seeking humanitarian aid or asylum that are coming into our nation, we have documented cases of drug, sex and labor traffickers, cartel members and terrorists. The Biden administration is to blame for this fiasco. In 2019, Biden called for a surge at the southern border, and we got one. He's failed to do anything to stop it. Now, it's every state for itself.
Another good bill that passed the House last week is Senate Bill 1994, which would allow a property owner to request the county sheriff to immediately remove a person or persons unlawfully occupying their property.
This is becoming a big problem in our area and throughout the state. Law enforcement are often reluctant to get involved in private property disputes, leaving property owners to hire an attorney and fight it out in civil court if someone just illegally sets up camp on their property. This process can drag out for a long time. This bill gives the local sheriffs better guidance and should protect property owners' rights.
The governor signed my House Bill 2975 into law last week, which will allow homemade food producers to pay $15 to get a registration number for product labels instead of having to list their names, personal phone numbers and home addresses, if they so desire. This bill was a constituent request. I'm glad to see it become law. It takes effect in November.
Also last week, I introduced House Resolution 1037 to remember the 29th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. I lost seven co-workers in this terrible act of mass murder. As I do every year, I read their names on the House floor, and I'll repeat them here: Olan Bloomer, Peggy Clark, Jim Boles, Dick Cummings, Adele Higginbottom, Carol Khalil, Rheta Long.
For this year's ceremony, I asked our state Agriculture Secretary Blayne Arthur to share the story of her mom's death in the bombing. In a weird twist of fate, I ended up working with Arthur's sister, Rosslyn Biggs. We started talking one day, and it came out that Biggs' mom was my former co-worker, Peggy Clark. I just about fell out of my truck. I knew then that I had to let these women tell their story, and there was not a dry eye in the House when they did.
There are people that were not born or were just babies when this terrorist act occurred. It's up to us that remember to keep telling our stories so we never, ever forget, and so it will never be repeated.
As always, if I can help you with anything, feel free to call my Capitol office at (405) 557-7413 or email me at rick.west@okhouse.gov.
Rick West serves District 3 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes part of LeFlore County.
The Thanksgiving proclation
By LEON YOUNGBLOOD
In response to special request, here is the 2nd of Briar Circle’s 2023 Thanksgiving columns:
The Thanksgiving Proclamation was first read publicly by Abraham Lincoln while the Civil War was raging and the Nation uncertain of its outcome. The document is worth reading. Here it is in its entirety:
BRIAR CIRCLE
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they came, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State
.OBI needs platelets
Our Blood Institute is calling on donors to step up and give platelets as the current supply is running low.
Platelets are essential parts of blood crucial for clotting and preventing excessive bleeding. Hospitals rely on platelet transfusions to support patients undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplants, major surgeries, and those battling various medical conditions such as leukemia and aplastic anemia.
Platelets have a short shelf life, typically lasting only 4 to 5 days after donation. Consequently, they are constantly in demand in hospitals.
Six-year-old Uriya Hubbard is a living testament to the lifesaving impact of blood and platelet donations. Diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in June 2021, Uriya's journey through treatment was challenging. However, blood and platelet transfusions provided vital support, improving her condition, as shared by her mother, Amber Hubbard.
“I donate regularly,” Amber said. “Especially when she got sick, I learned there is such a shortage [of blood products] and the need for it… Knowing that my child’s life depended on someone’s generosity, it just means the world to me that people take the time out of their day to save lives.”
Uriya has been in remission since late 2021.
"Platelets play a critical role in medical interventions, and maintaining an adequate supply is essential for providing quality healthcare to those in need,” said Dr. John Armitage, president, and CEO of Our Blood Institute. “Hospital patients need donors to step up to ensure enough platelets are available for when they are needed.”
Successful donors will receive a “Stand Tall and Donate” giraffe-themed T-shirt.
Visit obi.org or call 877-340-8777 to make an appointment.
Anyone who is healthy and 16 years old* or older can give blood. Donation typically takes only about an hour, and one donation saves up to three lives. Appointments to donate can be made online at obi.org or by calling 877-340-8777. Walk-ins are also welcome.
*16-year-olds must weigh at least 125 pounds and provide signed parental permission; 17-year-olds must weigh at least 125 pounds; 18+ year olds must weigh at least 110 pounds. Photo ID required.
The forecast
Mostly clear skies during the day Tuesday with cloudy skies and a few showers possible overnight in LeFlore County.
The high is forecast to be 79 degrees with a low of 60.
Sunrise is 6:38 a.m. Sunset is 7:57 p.m.
Average temperatures for April 23 are a high of 76 and low of 49. Records for the date were a high of 86 in 1972. The record low was 32 in 1982.
Last year, on this date, the high was 62 with a low of 38.
Monday’s high was 72 with a low of 51.
The calendar
Calendar of events for Heavener, LeFlore County and southeastern Oklahoma.. If you are a non-profit, school or church, submit an event. This is a free service for non-profits and and churches so let us know if something is going on. CONTACT us.
Tuesday
Poteau Evening Lions Club meet 6 p.m. CASC
Jazz night at the Museum
Wednesday
Heavener High School blood drive to benefit Austin Davis
Funeral service for Gean Arthur Davlin
Poteau Rotary Club meets noon EOMC
Jazz night at the LeFlore County Museum
Thursday
Poteau Kiwanis Club meets noon
High school softball: Regional tournaments TBA
District, regional baseball TBA
Heavener VFW bingo 6:30 p.m. Highway 59 North
Friday
High school softball: Regional tournaments TBA
District, regional baseball TBA
Saturday
High school baseball, softball TBA
Monday
LeFlore County commissioners meet 9 a.m.
Heavener all sports banquet
4F skate night
High school baseball: Oktaha at Panama