DEAR ABBY: Every year my girlfriend and I take each other out for dinner on our birthdays and bring a gift. This year, even though I am currently experiencing financial hardship, I bought her a gift a...

With the end of summer, we are getting close to the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy’s Fall Forum. This conference, to be October 11-13 at MetroTech in Oklahoma City, will assemble experts from v...

When the people join forces, the community wins. Every. Single. Time. Community or common unity is a type of “shelter” too. With community comes resources and resources are the literal life blood of a...

DEAR ABBY: I recently met the love of my life, and I’m planning to leave my life and family in Arkansas and move to California to marry him. He’s recently divorced after a 25-year marriage. My problem...

Wednesday, August 31, is National Overdose Awareness Day, and I want to take this time to discuss the recent surge of fentanyl analogues and the danger they pose to our communities. Fentanyl is a cont...

Our house was on a dirt road five miles out of town. Our closest neighbor lived a quarter of a mile away. The next closest was one mile. The schools were five or more miles away, depending on which on...

“Me, I am definitely a morning person!” My new friend spoke the words with such force my curiosity got stirred. An international student, he had been in my country only a short while. The two of us ha...

Football officially kicks off for all local schools this week so I thought this would be the perfect time to make some football foods! BUT then I couldn’t decide which ones I wanted to do so instead o...

DEARABBY: My boyfriend and I met and started dating 10 years ago. After about four years, during a very turbulent and toxic time in our relationship, I found out I was pregnant. When I told him, his r...

TOM DEIGHAN MOSTLY EDUCATIONAL Nothing ... absolutely nothing raises the ire of my lifelong friend and childhood hero more than a school bus drive around. He claims to have once been a school bus driv...

I am sure we all agree the break in political commercials for a few weeks before the November General Election is a welcome reprieve from the unrelenting negativity. The persistent negative ads by can...

DEAR ABBY: I have known my husband my whole life. We have been married 20 years and have three teenage children. Last year, I caught him cheating. Turned out he had been with someone for seven years. ...

It is commonly understood that driving under the influence can have deadly consequences for the driver, passengers, and any other vehicles sharing the road. As parents, many Okmulgee County citizens w...

Without somebody super wise to come alongside and coach us in this thing we call life, our best efforts leave us floundering, or simply lost. Thankfully, what we discover - when heeding the Book and t...

Many of you who regularly read the OADC’s monthly article in the Times may have heard or seen our marketing efforts, “Choose Okmulgee.” It includes a great website, several marketing publications and ...

The Okmulgee Bulldogs will be in action Friday night for the season opener so I thought this would be the perfect time to make some football foods! BUT then I couldn’t decide which ones I wanted to do...

“God can talk by thunder because thunder is really God talking out loud,” says Dianna, 8. I’m not sure how this works but Lane, 7, will explain: “God is in heaven, and when you are high, it’s easy to ...

DEAR ABBY: My lovely and successful 30-yearold daughter has recently become engaged to a 31-year-old man I’ll call “Jonas.” They have been dating for several years. He comes from a good family and is ...

TONY HAWKINS, DVM VALLEY VET SUPPLY TECHNICAL SERVICE In Part 1 of this series, we discussed heat stress in dogs, which are very prone to overheating. Now, we’re moving on to horses. Horses are very p...

People often share with me their concern that citizens do not understand civics and how government is supposed to work for the people. President Lincoln said our government is “of the people, by the p...