Oklahoma News Report

Hal the high tech computer controlled mannequin helps students in Tulsa Community College nursing courses learn about patient care.

Prospective nursing students attending the Tulsa Community College “Careers in Caring” workshop at the Hillcrest Hospital Oklahoma Heart Institute, Saturday March 28, are eligible for one of 34 $500 stipends to help pay for their nursing education. To be eligible for a stipend prospective students must attend the workshop then enroll in a fall ‘09 TCC nursing program.

The stipends are being offered by Hillcrest HealthCare System as an incentive to encourage students to pick careers in nursing whether those students are looking for a first career, or a career change to field where new employees are in high demand.

The workshop with go on rain, snow or shine from 1-3pm at the Oklahoma Heart Institute, classroom A, 1120 S. Utica in Tulsa.

For more information call TCC Nursing: 918-697-4198

Tulsa’s trash board will fund a voucher plan to recycle old televisions.

Because of the digital transition this year, television sales have skyrocketed. And now folks are left wondering what to do with their old tv’s.
The Metropolitan Environmental Trust Director Michael Patton says televisions and other e-waste should never be left out on the curb. He says televisions have dangerous metals, including lead, that should not sit in a landfill.
Patton says the best way to dispose of old televisions is through recycling companies that take e-waste.

The approved voucher plan by the Tulsa trash board will pay as much as $35,000 for city residents to properly recycle their old televisions for free.
How the two thousand vouchers will be requested or distributed is yet to be decided.

Rogers State University in Claremore is celebrating its centennial. “On this day 100 years ago, the Legislature passed legislation, the Governor signed it creating this institution as a part of the statehood agreement.” However, RSU President, Dr. Larry Rice, says the institution wasn’t called Rogers State Univerisy back then. It was originally known as Eastern University Prepatory School.

After WWI it became The Oklahoma Military Academy. In 1971 the name changed again. The Oklahoma Military Academy became Claremore Junior College. Rice says that wasn’t the end of name changes. “After Claremore Jr College then we became Rogers State College, still a two year school, and then in 1998 through the leadership of Stratton Taylor, Senator Taylor, he led the charge to get authorization to allow this institution to become a a four year baccalaureate degree granting regional university.” A full fledged university that is now known as Rogers State University.

This morning in the auditorium of Tulsa Public Schools the Cherokee Nation presented a check representing three million dollars in donations made to public school districts within its boundaries in Northeast Oklahoma.

The Nation is donating $144 for each Cherokee student enrolled in public schools. The money comes from the sale of Cherokee Nation car tags.

Since 2002 the Cherokee Nation has donated more than $16 million dollars in car tag revenues to public schools.

Tulsa Zoo experts say a spider captured by workers unloading a shipment of bananas from Honduras at a Tulsa Whole Foods grocery story was misidentified by University of Tulsa biologist, Terry Childs. Childs claimed it was a Brazilian wandering spider like the one pictured above, and that if it bit a person its venum could kill in 25 minutes.

The story quickly went national on newscasts and in newspapers and was see world wide on internet news and blog sites.

Tulsa Zoo Aquatics and Herpatology Curator, Barry Downer, says Childs misidentified the spider. Downer says Brazilian wandering spiders do not live in Honduras, and the spider seen in news video clips did not look like a Brazilian wandering spider.

Downer says the eye pattern of the spiders on the news clips show it is a type of huntsman spider like the one pictured below. Eye patterns are used to identify spiders.

Downer e-mailed me the photos seen above and this note when I asked why he believed the spider captured at Whole Foods had been misidentified.

“Here is the huntsman spider photo. The eye arrangement of 2 rows of 4 is distinct to this Family (Sparassidae). The Phoneutria (wandering spider) have what is called a box pattern which is 4 eyes up front and the pair of eyes on both sides are set back.

I am also including a picture of the Phoneutria (wandering spider) so that they can be compared to the spider in the video clip. If you pause the clip on the closeup of the spider, you will see the distinct 2 rows of 4 eyes. Its NOT a wandering spider.”

Downer asked spider specialists around the country whether they thought the spider had been misidentified. The Tulsa Zoo forwarded to me the first response he got back. It’s from Charles Kristensen of Spider Pharm, Inc. Yarnell, AZ

“You’re right. It is a Sparassid (possibly Olios). This is very easy to distinguish by general appearance and eye pattern from the video and photos of the site. For example, compare the relative width of the eye row in the videos.

In addition, the medical assessments are way off the mark. There is very little chance of death from Phoneutria, even without antivenom and with a poor immune system. I’m not sure why they even mentioned the health of the immune system since even a healthy immune system would have to be trained against the venom to be effective.”

Downer says after viewing news clips of the spider he called Childs and asked to see the spider in question for himself. He was told the would not be possible. The spider had been destroyed Wednesday night.

“You know I understand that if they honestly believed that it was the Brazilian wandering spider that they probably did have a general fear that if it did get out something serious could happen. I just think its weird that the spider would not still be available for other people to view and that it would no be made part of a dead collection.”

When I called TU, spokesperson Amethyst Cavallaro, confirmed the spider had been destroyed. She also said the University would put out a statement regarding my questions about whether Childs misidentified the spider. However, no statement was issued by newstime on Thursday.

I contacted Whole Foods to ask for an interview about why employees captured the spider and took it to TU for identification. This was the response.

“We aren’t granting interviews because we want our store to focus on their day to day business and our guests but here is some information we can provide:

On Sunday, March 15th, a spider was found in our banana display at our Tulsa store. A produce Team Member captured the spider and sent it to Tulsa University. The university originally identified the spider as a Brazilian Wandering Spider. Since the initial discovery, an expert from the Tulsa Zoo has come forward and compared images of the spider found at the store to two different species of spider and now believes that the spider was actually a Huntsman spider, a relatively harmless species.

We take every precaution to inspect all of our produce as it arrives in the store and prior to it being merchandised on the sales floor. This incident is an extremely unusual circumstance, and one that we’ve never encountered before. We are confident that this will remain an isolated incident as we are very cautious when unpacking produce for our sales floor.”
Laura Zappi | Associate Marketing Coordinator
Whole Foods Market Southwest

Friday afternoon, David Hamby, Director, University Relations at TU sent out this e-mail regarding the spider.

“A staff member of The University of Tulsa’s biology department was given a potentially dangerous spider, and the staff member accepted responsibility for it in the interest of public safety. The staff member later made the decision to destroy the creature. University procedures do not allow accepting such creatures, and TU officials are reviewing the matter.”