OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The official tapped to lead Oklahoma's embattled Department of Health says his office already has implemented some of the recommendations from a scathing multi-county grand jury report that said financial mismanagement led to nearly 200 employees unnecessarily being laid off. Interim Commissioner of Health Tom Bates released a statement Friday saying beyond the nearly 200 employees whose jobs were cut, the agency has seen another 231 employees resign since October.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The aunt of a Tulsa woman accused of stabbing her daughter 50 to 70 times, hitting her head with a pickaxe and setting their home on fire says the mother recently lost her job and "snapped" after being banned from her son's graduation. Police say 39-year-old Taheerah Ahmad attacked the 11-year-old girl Monday and also bound and gagged two younger daughters. Debrecka Fields told KHRH-TV that her niece "thought herself into a nervous breakdown."
EDMOND, Okla. (AP) - Police have arrested a teacher's aide in central Oklahoma after allegations she was high on meth during work. Edmond Police arrested 42-year-old Amanda Greenfield this week for public intoxication, possession of a controlled dangerous substance 1,000 feet of a school and possession of drug paraphernalia. An affidavit says an officer saw Greenfield on Tuesday rambling and unable to sit still at Will Rogers Elementary. The report alleges Greenfield admitted she last used methamphetamine Monday.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A University of Illinois alumna says officials should form closer ties with the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and reinvent the university's former mascot. The alumna tells the News-Gazette that the university should ask the tribe to endorse the "Fighting Illini" name and work with the tribe to create a new version of the Chief Illiniwek mascot. The tribe recently issued a statement calling the mascot a "degrading racial stereotype." University officials say the mascot won't be returning.
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