Retired Enid News & Eagle Publisher Jeff Funk was named the 2021 Milt Phillips Award recipient at the 2020-21 Oklahoma Press Association meeting last weekend in Oklahoma City.

Music filled the chapel at Central Christian Church on Wednesday as Frisendahl, Atherton and hundreds of other elementary-age kids from area schools turned out for the music festival, which started in the 1930s and kicked off Wednesday with performances at CCC and St. Matthew’s Epsicopal Church.

“The request has been made to our police chief through our city attorney in several ways to do this somehow, and the answer has been 'no thanks,’” Commissioner Ben Ezzell said. “But when I see data that shows that we are less than 3% of our community is Black and 12% of our arrests are Black, I got questions.”

The city project to bring a suitable, long-term source of drinking water to Enid is set to start construction in the spring.

Enid city commissioners once again will decide on Tuesday whether to rescind the city’s mask mandate currently in effect through the end of April.

Enid Mayor George Pankonin said he believes he did the right thing last year shuttering city activities to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

ENID, Okla. — Seventeen Enid Public Schools teachers at 10 schools got surprise visits to their classrooms Friday morning.

Business owners again expressed concern about alternate parking options for themselves and customers when spaces would be torn up. City and Main Street Enid plan to release visuals that will show alternate parking.

Enid’s yet-to-open downtown hotel is set to have another owner-operator following the transfer of a city incentive agreement Tuesday.

Among the issues school districts may be facing during the pandemic is the possibility of staff shortages.

Area school superintendents say they plan to continue quarantining people exposed to positive COVID-19 cases, countering a new state policy issued this week.

The annual living history fair celebrating medieval and renaissance culture through performances, artisans and games will go virtual this year, with the exception of food.

OKLAHOMA CITY — In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Oklahoma’s annual student count shows its first decrease in overall public school enrollment in 19 years.

NORMAN — The second wave of stimulus checks is set to hit bank accounts in the coming weeks after the latest COVID-19 aid bill was approved by President Donald Trump last month.

Muskogee's Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center will shift its focus to geriatric and mental health patients when a new veterans hospital is built in Tulsa.

Oklahoma has seen several efforts to remove officials at the local level through recall petitions this year, but no provision allows Tahlequah citizens to remove their elected officials from office.

Religious organizations — including faith-based universities and schools — in Oklahoma received almost $85 million in federal aid over the course of the pandemic.

Editor's note: this story has been updated to include City of Norman comments. 

Enid City Commission voted against an ordinance requiring people to wear masks in public areas after an emergency meeting lasting more than four hours Wednesday.

A House Democrat Monday said the governor missed the mark when he hosted a race roundtable minus female panelists, young activists or organizers of the state’s Black Lives Matter movement.

A Georgia family got a real hoot from its Christmas tree: More than a week after they bought it, they discovered a live owl nestled among its branches.

ENID, Okla. — A Garfield County jury deliberated for about 8 hours Tuesday before finding a 29-year-old woman accused of shaking a boy in her care last summer guilty.

The driver was not injured, and no other vehicles were involved. It took several hours for police to clear the scene.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – The Toro Company (NYSE: TTC) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held The Charles Machine Works, Inc., an Oklahoma corporation and the parent company of Ditch Witch and several other leading brands in the underground construction market, for $700 million in cash subject to certain adjustments set forth in the definitive agreement. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is currently anticipated to close before the end of Toro’s fiscal 2019 third quarter. More detailed information regarding the transaction is included in an investor presentation available at www.thetorocompany.com.

BRANSON, Mo. — Divers with the Missouri State Highway Patrol joined a floating barge on Table Rock Lake at 9:24 a.m. Monday to retrieve the duck boat that sank last week, killing 17 of 31 passengers on board.