Giddy, up: Rodeos bucking recession woes as staycationers flock to ‘greatest show on dirt’

MESQUITE, Texas — A few steps into the air-conditioned Mesquite Rodeo is all it takes to feel the relief.

Okla. congressman returning to DC after treatment for alcohol addiction, will seek re-election

OKLAHOMA CITY — U.S. Rep. John Sullivan, who is returning to Washington after a 30-day stay in a treatment center for alcohol addiction, said Monday he plans to work harder than ever and will seek re-election next year.

Continental flight from Houston to Omaha makes emergency landing in Tulsa, Okla.

TULSA, Okla. — A spokeswoman for ExpressJet Airlines says a Continental Express jet with 53 people on board has made an emergency landing in Oklahoma.

Republican Coburn of Okla. says he’ll run for second term in the US Senate in 2010

TULSA, Okla. — Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who has built a reputation as an anti-earmarks crusader, said Monday he will run for a second term next year.

Okla. police arrest would-be burglar after he returns to the scene of the crime with more tools

TULSA, Okla. — Police said officers arrested a would-be burglar when he returned to the scene of the crime after failing the first time to get in. Police said officers were called about 8:30 p.m. Sunday to the pharmacy of a medical center where witnesses said someone had tried to break in — but had left.

Arena Resources 1st-qtr profit drops 65 percent as commodity prices plummet

TULSA, Okla. — Arena Resources Inc., an oil and natural gas exploration company, said Friday its first-quarter profit sank 65 percent as commodity prices plummeted.

Williams Cos. CEO’s compensation rises 10 percent to $8.9 million in 2008

TULSA, Okla. — The chief executive of natural gas provider Williams Cos. earned 10 percent more in 2008 than the previous year, according to an Associated Press analysis of a filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Men find abandoned safe thought to be century old, rusted shut with locks broken off

TULSA, Okla. — Two men said they’ve found an abandoned safe by the side of some railroad tracks and that it could be more than a century old. Bill Dodd, one of the men who found the safe about a month and a half ago, says it weighs about 4,000 pounds. It’s now on display at an east Tulsa sign company while the men decide what to do with it.