Oklahoma News Report

Bob Yerton works in fingerprint analysis section of the Tulsa Police Department Crime Laboratory. “As you can see from looking around we’re rather cramped. We’re probably in less than two hundred square feet of actual working space when we process evidence from crime scenes.”

The National Institute of Justice recommends one thousand square feet of working space per analyst in a crime lab. A soon to be built new crime lab will provide that space. The City of Tulsa and Oklahoma State University are pooling resources to build a new five story facility with a state of the art crime lab, research facilities and classrooms. The building will be both a working crime lab and training ground for students studying forensic science at OSU. It is scheduled for completion in mid 2010.

With more people choosing exotic animals for pets the demand for veterinarians who can treat the animals is greater.
There is also a growing need for vets who can treat animals we see at zoos and wildlife preserves.
At OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences in Stillwater, students are studying to serve our most unique animals.
Dr. Cornelia Ketz-Riley heads up the department that takes care of zoo, exotic and wildlife animals at the Boren Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.

“We are a professional service for any kind of exotic pet animals anything that non domesticated that’s not dog or cat or cow, horse that goes through our service and also we take care of injured or orphaned wildlife,” Ketz-Riley said.

Her students learn how to treat anything from red-tailed Boa’s to wild birds.

“They learn how to clean how to feed the animal how to do a perfect proper husbandry they learn how to handle these animals how to restrain them properly without injuring them or without getting injured,” she said.

And students eventually work their way up to caring for animals that are definitely capable of injuring someone. Such as, Golden Eagles. After the animals are treated they are trained to survive in the wild once again.

“If it’s raptures that are depending on prey catching live prey then we usually train them to go out after live prey again and have them in a cage where they can exercise their wing muscles their leg muscles that they’re really in the condition to go out and survive on their own,” she said.

If they’re not able to survive in the wild again, they are given up for adoption to area zoos.

A downturn in the economy is not keeping folks from getting pampered. But, to save money more people are turning to beauty colleges.
Camille Pritchett is a teacher in Broken Arrow and is always looking for ways to still get pampered but not pay upscale prices.

“This place is a lot more in my budget I could say than other places this is about $40 and the other place was over a hundred,” Pritchett said.

The economy has given Clary Sage College, a beauty school in Tulsa, a boost in business.

“A lot of the clients that have recently come into Clary Sage have been clients that still want to be pampered they still want to receive their massages their facials still get their hair done and feel good about themselves and look good but they don’t want to spend $150 every time they go into the salon and especially with the way the economy is being able to go somewhere and still receive quality services at a discounted price is very beneficial,” said Christen Brummett, campus director for Clary Sage.

Brummett says the economy has not only changed their clientele but it’s also brought in new students.

“Because of the way the economy is we have many single women or married that was just one parent income but now are going back to school to be able to provide a dual income or provide a better income for their children and for themselves,” she said.

The troubled economy and the winter weather are creating big problems for organizations that help needy children in Oklahoma. Homeless shelters are reporting record numbers of babies and toddlers living under their roofs.

The City Rescue Mission Homeless Shelter in Oklahoma City always sees a spike in the number of families it serves during cold weather, but this year is different. More babies and young children than ever before are calling the shelter home, and that number is expected to go even higher in the next few weeks.

“It just sort of happened overnight,” said Heather Selement, director of family ministries for City Rescue Mission. One night we had about 20 kids, and the next night we had 40. It’s just a huge increase we were not expecting.”

Almost 60 children live in the shelter right now, and taking care of all of the babies puts a strain on resources. The shelter is in desperate need of diapers, especially sizes 4, 5 and 6. Supplies of baby wipes and older stage baby food are also running low. Healthy snacks for older children and toddlers are needed too.

“The kids that we serve, this is the best place that they can be in the situation that they’re in,” Selement said. “We want to make sure they have everything they need and we’re showing them the love of God in every way possible so that when they leave here, they leave with something even if they don’t leave with much.”

Kathleen Kopp-Badgley recently brought her four young children to the shelter. She and her disabled husband could no longer pay their utility bills. City Rescue Mission was the last resort for the family. Family, friends and even other shelters were unable to accommodate all six of them.

“I just had ultimate fear,” Kopp-Badgely said. “You can’t think about yourself anymore because you’ve got four children looking at you, saying, ‘I want to eat. I’m hungry. I’m cold.’ It’s just devastating.”

Homeless shelters are not the not only ones seeing more need. Infant Crisis Services in Oklahoma City supplies families having a hard time keeping up with the expense of having a baby. Requests for their services hit a record high of 1,000 in September.

“We were shocked at that number,” Jo Lynne Jones, operations director for Infant Crisis Services, said. “That was the most we’d seen in one month in the 24 years our doors have been open. Then in October, we saw more than 1,200 babies and toddlers. We just couldn’t believe this huge increase in clients.”

Jones said Infant Crisis Services also needs day-to-day baby items like diapers, wipes and formula. Jones is also concerned that some parents may be trying to save money by adding too much water to infant formula to make it stretch. She points out that can be very dangerous for babies. Infant Crisis Services is working with its clients to make sure they exactly follow the directions on the can, and making sure they have enough formula to supply their babies.

.

Fire, police and EMSA dispatchers are settling into the Tulsa area’s new 911 dispatch center. The heavily fortified building is designed to withstand an F4 tornado while dispatchers work safely inside.

The state of the art facility has computers and software designed to make it easier and quicker for dispatchers get help to callers. It also has extra room to add additional call takers and dispatchers during major emergencies like last December’s ice storm
By the end of 2009, it will add E-911. Enhanced 9-1-1 technology allow dispatchers to automatically pinpoint the location of callers using cell phones. Without E-911, dispatchers have to rely on callers knowing where they are or being able to give landmark discriptions to guide help to them.

These days more than half the calls to 911 dispatch centers are made from cell phones.

The center offers an additional safety feature for smaller communities surrounding Tulsa. If anything knocks out police or fire dispatchers in those towns, calls can be re-routed through the new 911 center to prevent disruptions of emergency dispatching services.