By NOLAN CLAY | The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City | Published: January 27, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (Tribune News Service) In March, at the start of the pandemic, Oklahoma health officials turned four times to a Tulsa piano bar owner who was promising he could get N95 masks from China in large amounts and quickly. They ordered more than 2 million of the highly sought after masks from his brand new company, PPE Supplies LLC. On the second order, they even paid him half upfront $2.125 million after he promised delivery in 10 days.
Dec 21, 2020
State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd speaks at the Enid Rotary Club meeting at Stride Bank Center Ballroom on Monday. (Kelci McKendrick / Enid News & Eagle)Kelci McKendrick | Enid News & Eagle
ENID, Okla. â State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd was the guest speaker at Enid Rotary Clubâs meeting on Monday.
At Stride Bank Center Ballroom, Byrd provided information about what the State Auditor and Inspectorâs Office does, the different types of audits it conducts and how it conducts its business and her audit into Epic Charter Schools.
The State Auditor and Inspectorâs Office was established by the Constitution to be the oversight authority in Oklahoma, and Byrd said it conducts more than 350 audits every year, with approximately 115 employees doing the work.
Youtube / Gov. Kevin Stitt
UPDATE at 5:15 p.m. on Fri., Dec. 18: A judge granted plaintiffs a temporary restraining order in this case. This story has been updated to include that development and reaction from the governor and the ABLE Commission.
A group of bar owners filed a lawsuit against Gov. Kevin Stitt Thursday, saying his executive order that in-person service stop at 11:00 p.m. each night in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 is onerous, unlawful and outside the bounds of his authority. This administration needs to just cut the charade, do the honorable thing and just level with everybody, said attorney Frank Urbanic, representing six businesses from across the state in the suit filed in Oklahoma County District Court. (The petition, which has not yet been posted online to the state court system, was published in full by KOCO 5 News.)