By Janelle Stecklein | Editor
“If it was anyone else… just the common man off the streets, rancher, farmer, what not, those dams would have been taken down.” - Don Machacek of Cedar Lake residents’ fight to get two unpermitted dams removed
A water level marker at Cedar Lake near Hinton, Okla., Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (Photo by Nate Billings/For Oklahoma Voice)
By Barbara Hoberock
There is no link between the construction of two dams and declining water levels at a lake west of Oklahoma City, according to the findings of a report released by a state agency tasked with managing water.
The reduction in water levels at Cedar Lake is more likely caused by a drop in aquifer levels related to homeowners’ domestic wells, according to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board’s 69-page report, which was distributed to some lawmakers and others.
But residents of the lakefront community located about 45 miles west of Oklahoma City and an independent hydrologist dispute the Water Resource Board’s findings. They said the agency’s report is riddled with inaccuracies and not based on science.
An Oklahoma Highway Patrol vehicle is pictured. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice)
By Emma Murphy
Oklahoma law enforcement agencies’ partnerships with federal immigration forces have resulted in the arrests of over 1,800 people, the majority of whom have no criminal history, records show.
Hemlock trees in the woods that are part of the Flight 93 crash site. They were marked with spray-paint by searchers in the days and weeks after the crash. This photo is from sometime in 2006. (Photo courtesy of Tim Lambert)
OPINION
By Tim Lambert
The parking lot was dotted with just a handful of cars on this comfortable August morning. It was the first week of school for many families, so visitors were a bit more sparse than usual.
A Trump administration plan for overhauling the census could mean major changes for how millions in federal funding is allocated to states. (Photo courtesy U.S. Census Bureau)
By Ariana Figueroa
The Trump administration wants to overhaul the U.S. census to exclude noncitizens who don’t have a green card from the country’s next population count in 2030, according to a Wednesday notice in the Federal Register.
President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office on August 6, 2026. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
By Texas Tribune
Republicans are gathering in Dallas this week for an unprecedented midterm convention, where President Donald Trump and his GOP allies will look to sell their agenda, rake in campaign cash and galvanize voters amid a difficult political climate.
ICYMI
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