EDMOND, Okla. (AP) - The president of the University of Central Oklahoma says he plans to retire next year. Don Betz announced Friday he will step down as UCO's president on June 30, 2019. The 73-year-old Betz was named UCO's 20th president in June 2011. A university biography of Betz says he has been involved in higher education for more than 45 years. He formerly served as president of Oklahoma's Northeastern State University in Tahlequah and Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
LAWTON, Okla. (AP) - Emergency management officials say more than a dozen recreational vehicles and campers were overturned by winds as strong storms moved across southwestern Oklahoma. Comanche County Emergency Management spokeswoman Ashleigh Hensch says 13 vehicles were overturned and several were destroyed shortly before 7 a.m. Friday at Lake Lawtonka in Lawton, about 75 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. Hensch says one person was taken to a hospital with undisclosed, but non-life threatening injuries.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The Oklahoma Supreme Court says an initiative petition that would overturn a package of tax hikes for funding teacher pay raises and public schools is invalid. Oklahoma's highest court handed down the order Friday and ordered that the initiative petition not appear on the general election ballot in November. An anti-tax group led by former Sen. Tom Coburn had launched a referendum petition seeking a vote to repeal tax hikes on cigarettes, fuel and energy production approved by the Legislature.
DURANT, Okla. (AP) - The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says a bridge over Lake Texoma remains closed while divers search for the driver of a tractor-trailer that plunged into the lake on the Oklahoma-Texas border following a deadly collision that killed another driver. OHP Lt. Kera Philippi said the Highway 70 bridge was still closed Friday and it wasn't known when it might reopen. The OHP says the collision occurred shortly before 2 p.m. Thursday when the semi collided with a car on the bridge.
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