Local & Regional

A new plan would take Tulsans’ green waste to the incinerator.

The TARE board will vote Aug. 5 to solicit bids for curbside pickup and hauling to the incinerator. Vice Chairman Paul White said the new plan meets all the board’s criteria.

"We have to implement a plan that is cost-effective, operationally feasible, customer-friendly and environmentally responsible," White said.

If the plan goes forward, White said as few changes will be made as possible, so customers would likely continue putting green waste in clear plastic bags next to their trash carts.

A big music and arts festival will be held in downtown Tulsa this weekend. Thousands are expected to attend the second annual Center of the Universe Festival which features more than a hundred bands over two days in the Brady Arts District. Co-Founder Phil Kaiser says a portion of the proceeds will go back into the community. Also some of the proceeds will go to the Red Dirt Relief Fund, a non-profit that benefits Oklahoma music artists in times of need.                                 

The 31st National Night Out, celebrated across the nation, will be held at Hicks Park this year in Tulsa. The national movement is way for the community to gather in an area and discuss crime and other issues. The police and fire departments, EMSA, and other first responders will be there to chat with people as well.

Program Coordinator, Bart Dean, says there will also be non-profit organizations there to talk with the community.

Since February there has been a pile of charred rubble where the 75 year-old Bowen Church once stood in north Tulsa.  Arsonists torched the building, but that property will soon bear fruit.

The land has been donated to Habitat for Humanity. Habitat’s Jane Dunbar says it is large enough for at least a half-dozen homes. Site work is now underway with large trucks hauling away the debris.

The lots are in the Crutchfield Neighborhood. That is near Independence and North Peoria.

Tulsa's next traffic bottleneck will be Riverside Drive. The City held a meeting last night to detail how the construction of 'A Gathering Place for Tulsa' will impact Riverside Drive.

There will be lane shifts and closures, and this time next year the entire roadway will be closed near the Pedestrian Bridge. That means drivers will have to find new routes into and out of downtown Tulsa.

Tulsa fire fighters spent the night battling an apartment blaze near the University of Tulsa campus. The fire was reported in a small complex, west of TU, on 7th street near Lewis.

Three units at the complex sustain damage from smoke, flames and water. The Red Cross will assist those people displaced. There were no injuries.

Tulsa Police investigate a grim discovery in a midtown Tulsa home. Two people are found dead inside a fashionable home near 22nd and South Delaware.

Police say a mother and her son were found dead inside the home. Homicide detectives speculate that the 17-year-old son killed his mother and then himself in a murder-suicide.

In the Local News:

• Tulsa ranks high when it comes to fatal DUI crashes.
• Plans for Riverside Drive are discussed at a city gathering.
• A mother and son are found dead in a Tulsa home.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A state legislator who is one of two doctors in the Oklahoma Legislature says state officials are ignoring his request that unaccompanied immigrant minors being housed at Fort Sill be quarantined.

Republican state Rep. Mike Ritze of Broken Arrow said Tuesday he's received no response from Gov. Mary Fallin, Attorney General Scott Pruitt and Commissioner of Health Terry Cline to a letter Ritze sent them last week requesting the quarantined.

Tulsa comes in at number four on a list of cities with high rates of fatal DUI accidents.

John Kuo, an analyst for the financial website NerdWallet said Tulsa had 74 deadly crashes from 2010 to 2012 — as many as some much larger cities.

"Tulsa actually has as many alcohol-related fatal crashes as Oklahoma City, which is a city that has almost 200,000 more residents than Tulsa," Kuo said.