Oklahoma had tons of news stories that caught the attention of its citizens.  This is the list that caught mine.  Add your own favorites for 2009 or comment on these!

1. STATE BUDGET SHORTFALL

For the fiscal year that ends 7-1-10, Oklahoma is facing a $530 million shortfall.  This is in spite of the massive budget cuts that have been made already across the state government. 

2. WEATHER WOES

In February, a series of tornados tore through the state, but the hardest hit was Lone Grove down in the southern part of the state.  Eight people were killed. 

By July, both Freedom and Buffalo were experiencing hot, hot, heat recording temperatures as high as 115 degrees. 

Just now in December, when a blizzard blew through the state on Christmas Eve, shit shut down interstates, trapping motorists.  The governor declared a state of emergency. 

3. H1N1

May 5^th brought the first confirmed case of H1N1 to Oklahoma.  A Pontotoc County woman, after a trip to Mexico where the outbreak started, started to show flu-like symptoms.  At least 40 deaths have been reported. 

4. WILDFIRES

April 9^th saw a wave of wildfires break out in the state.  Some 160 homes were destroyed, 62 people were injured.  Oklahoma County’s eastern end was hit the hardest, where Midwest City saw 70 of her homes taken by the fires.

5. TURNPIKE ACCIDENT

On June 26^th, along a northeastern Oklahoma turnpike, 10 people were killed when a tractor-trailer plowed into a line of cars already stopped by a previous accident.  The driver, Donald Creed of Missouri, faces 10 misdemeanor counts of negligent homicide.  It appears that he didn’t attempt to brake before crashing into the line of stopped cars.  He had worked for 10 hours in the heat, delivering groceries, before the accident occurred. 

6. PHARMACIST CHARGED

On May 19^th, an OKC pharmacist Jerome Ersland, was confronted by two men who attempted to rob him.  Ersland pulled a gun, shot one suspect in the head and chased the other away.  He then proceeded to get another gun from behind his counter and shot five more bullets into the 16-year-old suspect, he had shot earlier, and who lay on the floor unconscious.  All of this was on a security camera in the drugstore. Ersland was charged with first-degree murder in June and in November ordered by a judge to stand trial.       

7. REPUBLICAN-CONTROLLED LEGISLATURE

For the first time in Oklahoma’s history the 2009 legislative session convened with the Republican party in charge of both the House and the Senate.  They gained the majority in the House in 2004 and the Senate in 2008.

8. ORAL ROBERTS DIES

On December 15^th, Evangelist Oral Roberts died of complications from pneumonia.  He used the television medium to get out his message and was one of our country’s most recognizable preachers.  There is a university in Tulsa named for him.  He was 91. 

9. HENRY BELLMON DIES

September 29^th saw the passing of Henry Louis Bellmon after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.  In 1963 he became the state’s first Republican governor and is known as the father of Oklahoma’s modern Republican party.  He died in Oklahoma City at the age of 88. 

10. WAYMAN TISDALE DIES

On May 15^th, Wayman Tisdale died after a two-year-battle with cancer.  He was a three-time, All-American at Oklahoma before playing 12 seasons in the NBA.  He also was a member of the U.S. team, in the 1984 Olympics, who brought home the gold medal.  He was only 44.

In the Oklahoma City area there are newspapers who have done their own Year in Reviews.