Category Archives: Local

Pastor pleads guilty to embezzlement

Willard Lenord Jones

Willard Lenord Jones

Willard Lenord Jones, 63, of Tulsa, church pastor and former Executive Director of the Greater Cornerstone Community Development Project, pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge John E. Dowdell to three counts of wire fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return, announced U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams Sr., for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Jones was charged by information on August 13, 2014, and sentencing is scheduled for January 12, 2015 at 10:00 a.m.

At the change of plea hearing, Jones admitted that, from September 2007 to June 2013, he misappropriated approximately $933,000 from the Greater Cornerstone Community Development Project, a non-profit organization formed to raise money for the building and operation of a community center in South Haven, a neighborhood in West Tulsa.

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Voters should apply early for absentee ballots

TulsaVoteSmartVoters in Tulsa County who want to have absentee ballots mailed to them for the November 4th State and County General Election, City of Tulsa General Election (Council Districts 3, 6, 7 and 9 only) and Town of Sperry Special Election should apply now, County Election Board Secretary Patty Bryant said today. Although the County Election Board can accept applications for absentee ballots until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, October 29, Bryant urged voters who want to vote by absentee ballot to apply early.

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Judicial candidate forum

TulsaJusticeThe League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Tulsa will partner with the Oklahoma Bar Association, Tulsa County Bar Association and the Tulsa Historical Society to present a Judicial Candidate Forum on October 7th. The event will be held at 6:30 pm at the Tulsa Historical Society Travis Mansion (2445 South Peoria). The public is welcome and encouraged to attend.

“We are excited to present this judicial candidate forum to the public,” said Kathleen Kastelic, Tulsa League of Women Voters president. “It is the aim of the League to help educate voters before they go to the polls. Judicial offices are so important; this forum will give the District 14 judicial races the attention they deserve before the November 4th election.”

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Big money flows to top brass of pipe welders union

WorkersCompOkA Tulsa based plumbers and pipe welders union is clearly flush with cash, as a dozen of their top officials make more than $200,000 last year, federal records show.

Plumbers AFL-CIO Local Union 798 paid business manager Daniel Hendrix $280,000 and financial secretary/treasurer Wade Pilgreen $272,000 in fiscal 2013, according to disclosures the union filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.

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TCC, RSU partner for seamless transfer

RSU President Larry Rice and TCC President & CEO Leigh B. Goodson sign articulation agreements September 3, 2014

RSU President Larry Rice and TCC President Leigh B. Goodson sign articulation agreement today

Tulsa Community College and Rogers State University joined together today to make it easier for students to earn their associate degree at one institution and then seamlessly transfer to complete their bachelor’s degree at the other.

The framework for the articulation agreements between the two institutions was signed Sept. 3 by TCC President & CEO Leigh B. Goodson and RSU President Larry Rice during a ceremony held at the Thomas K. McKeon Center for Creativity at the TCC Metro Campus.

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