From The Oklahoma Gazette:

There is no gate to chain at 6100 N. Western, but the townspeople are watching as an heir apparent to Kerr-McGee, Chesapeake Energy Corp., builds its Oklahoma City legacy and sprawls its way through boom and bust in this, one of the most tumultuous of its 20 years.

There is a pervasive sense that Chesapeake is a company apart from others, that it sprints along with a wildcatter’s mentality and a tycoon’s bankroll, that it buys high, sells higher and sometimes is laid low in the process.

Although not as eccentric as Wonka, Aubrey McClendon is a workhorse, a man of diverse interest and singular vision. But that vision — a zig when others think it should be a zag — along with a penchant for control through ownership, has defined Chesapeake as an outlier, albeit a successful one.

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From The Daily Oklahoman:

The national recession continues to be reflected in Oklahoma City sales tax revenue and could cause the city council to revise its budget, City Manager Jim Couch told council members Tuesday.

General fund sales tax revenues for July were $13.8 million, or 12.5 percent below expectations and 9.7 percent below July 2008 revenue. The July sales tax report includes taxes paid by consumers in the second half of May and estimated collections for the first half of June.

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From The Daily Oklahoman:

The legacy of the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority is almost cliche by now: a group of people who operate out of public view and tear down old buildings. Looking back on the agency’s four-plus decades of existence, it’s easy to understand how it got such a bad rap. … Anecdotally, however, some stereotypes are simply outdated.

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From The Associated Press:

A new report shows polluted stormwater, sewer overflows and a manure composting operation likely contributed to bacteria in the Oklahoma River blamed for sickening dozens of triathletes.

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality released a draft report released Wednesday that studied 12 bodies of water in the North Canadian River watershed [...] The study shows 11 of the 12 water bodies are in violation of state water standards, including the portion of the river where triathletes swam in the event May 16-17.

by Callie Campbell

Oklahoma is one of the most car-dependent states in the U.S. In times of prosperity fueled by a booming oil and gas industry, we built highways, bought cars, and neglected mass transit. Last year, Tulsa and Oklahoma City were ranked dead last in public transit use out of the 50 largest American cities.

Now a combination of rising gas prices, environmental concerns, and the financial crisis are causing Oklahomans to give public transportation another look…

by Danny Marroquin

You may not know the burgeoning songwriter John Fullbright, who’s currently planning his first 5 or 100 albums in the solitude of the East Oklahoma countryside. If you do, anything I write here is obsolete with what your ears have already told you. The best I can do is throw a few links, write some anecdotes and tell you about this really cool thing that happened at The Blue Door on a Friday in May…