“Lust” case ends in plea to abduction, not molestation
A Tulsa man who had been accused of lewdly molesting a 12-year-old girl pleaded no contest Friday to abducting her in order to assault her, and received a 10-year deferred sentence. The record of Joseph Abraham Brookshire, 22, will be wiped clean if he successfully completes the sentence without getting in trouble again, completes “impulse [...]
Changes afoot at Bighearttimes.com
On Wednesday, The Bigheart Times made an unusual move for a newspaper: We put our website behind a pay wall. It’s also unusual for a weekly newspaper with a two-person newsroom to have a website of our caliber. The new move should please our past e-subscribers, who have been gradually left without access to the [...]
Blessing of builders
You probably didn’t notice, but last week a small army of RVs descended on Pawhuska and parked cheek by jowl for a week at Lynn Baptist Church. “We gang up like gypsies,” said Ed Risenhoover of Hugo, one of the RV-driving angels also known as Baptist Builders. Baptist Builders is a jovial and aging lot [...]
Times takes home awards
The Bigheart Times took home almost a dozen awards Saturday in the Society of Professional Journalists Oklahoma Pro Chapter’s 2011 contest among all newspapers in the state with circulations of 25,000 or under. Photographer Rachel Anne Seymour was given the top award in her field, with the best photographic portfolio, while Publisher Louise Red Corn [...]
Hopkins found guilty in child abuse case
A criminal case that has isolated a young woman from one large part of her family but united her with another ended in the conviction of a Pawhuska preacher Wednesday night, when a six-man, six-woman jury found Creth Dean Hopkins guilty of child sexual abuse and lewd molestation and recommended he serve 20 years in [...]
Jurors spared questionnaire
The child sexual abuse case against a Pawhuska preacher got under way Tuesday with jury selection, almost seven months after a previous attempt to try him was derailed by juror misconduct. More than 200 prospective jurors crammed the courthouse at 9 a.m., and by 6 p.m. a jury had been selected for the final panel [...]
Dumped pets tax good hearts
When a small white-and-gray spotted cat slides across the tile floor of Jonnston’s Vet Clinic like he is practicing for a Michael Jackson dance-off, it’s hard not to laugh. Scooter, as he is known at Jan Johnston’s veterinary clinic, was dumped off after suffering a severe spinal injury that left him paralyzed. He wasn’t expected [...]
Becoming Godly men
Last August, Jeff Wade and Joe Ross started a weekly men’s Bible discussion at Wade’s Saddlery & Cowboy Outfitters in Barnsdall. The Monday Bible talk isn’t just for cowboys though, all men from all backgrounds and all churches are welcome. But you must be a man. The group was started to give men a safe [...]
From opera to church
Freedom Ministries church in Barnsdall has an unusual story. It started under the trees in Stuart and Regiena Henderson’s front yard almost five years ago. “We started with just two families. We’re probably running at about 25 families now… and they are solid,” Stu said with pride about his fellow church members. A few months [...]
What’s in a name? Ask Cletus Hogg, Pork Chop and Bacon
Green and pink furred goats, along with green glittering cows and pigs paraded through the livestock arena auction in Pawhuska on Friday night. As unusual as they looked, they also had some unusual names. James Wilson’s first two hogs were named Pork Chop and Bacon. The Shidler native and Triple-T 4-H member is now on [...]
Avant kids don aprons for blessed baking and serious studying
On one side of the room, students are working math problems out loud over open text books, while on the other, teens are manning mixing machines and warming ovens. One student watches over the dough mixer in a white apron with red trim like it is part of his usual dress – because it is. [...]
Kateri to become first native saint
The Mohawk woman to whom Pawhuska’s Church of the Immaculate Conception dedicated a shrine in 2008 moved a major step closer to sainthood Christmas week, when Pope Benedict XVI decreed that she had performed a miracle saving the life of a Washington boy in 2006. Jake Finkbonner, now 11, was five years old when he [...]
