By Stephen A. Martin

The most truly sobering thing about the current nuclear crisis in Japan is not the amount of damage and death it has the potential to bring, but how common such disasters are.

News that Friday’s devastating earthquake and tsunami centered in the area of Sendai, Japan, caused the cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear plant to fail, exposing the fuel rods and leading to the possibility of a meltdown, have conjured up images in both the media and the public imagination of Chernobyl in 1986 and Three Mile Island in 1979.

by Gene Perry

As we approached Bokoshe, Oklahoma, a large dump truck barrelled past us on the narrow road. In the pouring rain, it sent up a heavy spray that hit our van with an audible thump.

“That was a fly ash truck,” someone said.

It was one of the 80 truckloads of ash that come every day from the AES Shady Point coal plant, 7 miles east of Bokoshe, to a dumpsite operated by the Making Money Having Fun corporation…

by Casey Holcomb

Last weekend Oklahoma celebrated 89er Day with parades, cook-outs, and festivals held all over the state. But for some Oklahomans, the Land Runs these festivals commemorate are not cause for celebration. Existing alongside the popular history of the Oklahoma Land Runs is a story of painful relocations, extermination, and loss.

by Danny Marroquin

It was 10 p.m. on a Thursday night. Ice from the latest winter storm was just beginning to thaw, and the damp Tulsa parking garage was lit dimly by florescent bulbs and portable heaters. With doors set to open at 5 a.m. the next morning, already a line of four hundred curled around the yellow tape and metal gates…

by Asia Scudder

On January 21 the City of Norman hosted the second in a series of water related forums. Kyle Arthur of the Oklahoma Water Resource Board spoke about how Oklahoma has gone through “boom and bust” periods of water availability since the mid-1800′s…

by Asia Scudder and Gene Perry

In October the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments (ACOG) held a public meeting to share its long-range transportation plan for central Oklahoma. ACOG is a volunteer association of city, town, and county governments within Central Oklahoma that is responsible for coordinating regional development and aiding local governments in planning for transportation needs…