Here is the audio of Oklahoma Watch’s published stories for the week of April 27, 2026.

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Kim McGuire had already spent nearly two weeks at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City when a hospital case manager delivered the news: her insurance would not cover a transfer to a rehabilitation facility.

She still needed wound care. She still needed physical therapy. But there was nowhere for her to go.

Then, someone mentioned a small hospital in Stroud.

“I mean, it really sounded too good to be true,” her husband, Mike McGuire, said.

By Tuesday, Kim McGuire had been transferred.

Fifty days into her hospitalization, the couple says they found something they didn’t expect in a rural hospital: time, attention and a level of care they say goes beyond what they had experienced elsewhere.

“It’s phenomenal, the way we’ve been treated here,” Mike McGuire said.

Cases like McGuire’s highlight a growing gap in the healthcare system — one that rural hospitals are increasingly stepping in to fill. Patients who no longer need acute hospital care but aren’t ready to go home often struggle to find placement in traditional rehabilitation facilities.

At some rural hospitals, that gap has become an opportunity and, in some cases, a lifeline.

Reinventing the rural hospital

At the hospital in Stroud, operated by Rural Wellness, Inc., that role is central to the business model.

Administrator Angelia Sylsberry describes a category of patients who fall between levels of care: too sick for home, not appropriate for long-term nursing facilities, and not eligible for higher-level rehabilitation programs.

“They’re in limbo,” she said.

The solution is a program known as “swing bed,” which allows hospitals to use inpatient beds for post-acute care. Patients typically stay longer than traditional hospital admissions, receiving therapy, wound care and medical oversight as they recover.

At Stroud, that model has become dominant. Most patients are in swing bed care, with stays averaging around three weeks.

The hospital draws patients from across the region — Oklahoma City, Tulsa and surrounding communities — effectively serving as a step-down facility for larger hospitals.

It’s a different kind of rural hospital: not just a place for emergency care, but part of a broader system managing patient flow.

But Sylsberry is clear that this didn’t happen overnight.

To support that model, the hospital has added services over time as a deliberate, long-term strategy to increase both the complexity of patients it can treat and the number of people it can serve.

Today, about 90% of the hospital’s 25 beds are used for swing-bed patients, reflecting a fundamental shift in how the facility operates.

The approach has also become central to its financial survival.

“When you only have two or three patients in the hospital, your overhead is still high — you’re losing money,” Sylsberry said. “As your census grows and those service lines grow, then you start gaining.”

Without those services, she said, the hospital would likely revert to what it was a decade ago when it was a small facility with limited patients, reduced staff and fewer resources.

More broadly, she sees the model as part of a necessary shift for rural healthcare.

“If a community loses their hospital, there goes their community,” Sylsberry said. “Industry won’t come in without a hospital. You just see that decline.”

Looking ahead, she said rural hospitals will need to continue expanding services — whether through swing-bed programs, outpatient care or visiting specialists — to remain viable in a system where funding pressures and staffing shortages are likely to intensify.

“It’s a strategic long-term plan,” she said, requiring investment in staff, equipment and training before the hospital could take on more complex cases.

Not one model, but many

While the hospital in Stroud has leaned heavily into post-acute care, other rural hospitals are adapting in different ways.

Just 10 miles south of the Oklahoma border, Ochiltree General Hospital in Perryton, Texas, has expanded its swing-bed program and added services such as rehabilitation and visiting specialists, drawing patients from across a broader region, including Oklahoma.

Community outreach director Amie Marrufo said those additions do more than expand care — they change how residents think about the hospital.

“If they’re going to drive past your hospital, that’s not helpful,” she said. “If they think you don’t do something, they won’t come back.”

The hospital also brings in specialists from larger cities on a rotating basis, allowing patients to receive surgery and follow-up care locally instead of traveling.

In Sulphur, a different approach has taken hold.

There, the hospital has focused on core services — emergency care, primary care and basic diagnostics — supported by its designation as a critical access hospital, which provides cost-based reimbursement through Medicare.

Jared Chanski, chief executive officer of Preferred Management Corp., which provides administrative and management support to the Arbuckle Memorial Hospital in Sulphur and several rural hospitals in Texas, said the biggest challenge for rural facilities is simple: volume.

“Rural areas just don’t have the volume to generate income the way urban systems do,” he said.

Instead, survival depends on controlling costs, focusing on essential services and, increasingly, working with outside partners to handle administrative and financial functions.

For some systems, the solution is scale.

Ozarks Community Hospital in Arkansas operates a network of clinics across rural Missouri and Arkansas, feeding patients into its hospital for specialized care while also receiving transfers from larger hospitals for swing bed rehabilitation. Until recently it also operated a clinic in Jay, Oklahoma.

But even with that network, administrator Scott Taylor said the math remains difficult.

The system recorded its highest revenue year recently, he said, but still operated at a loss.

The financial squeeze

Even as some rural hospitals are finding ways to adapt, the financial pressures driving those changes are intensifying.

Hospitals across Oklahoma are bracing for significant reductions in Medicaid funding, a program that plays an outsized role in rural health care. Oklahoma hospitals are projected to lose about $6.7 billion in Medicaid reimbursements over the next decade due to federal policy changes, according to the Oklahoma Hospital Association, with rural hospitals expected to be among the hardest hit.

That matters because rural hospitals rely more heavily on Medicaid and Medicare than their urban counterparts. Many are already operating with negative margins and depend on supplemental payments to stay afloat, said Rich Rasmussen, president of the Oklahoma Hospital Association.

“Today is the high-water mark,” Rasmussen said, warning that the financial strain will deepen as cuts take effect.

At the same time, administrators say the growing use of Medicare Advantage plans has introduced additional challenges, including delays, denials and lower reimbursement rates, further complicating an already fragile funding model.

Rural hospitals face a structural disadvantage: they serve smaller populations but carry many of the same fixed costs as larger facilities. When reimbursements fall, Rasmussen said, those hospitals have fewer options to absorb the losses, often forcing difficult decisions about which services to maintain and which to cut.

Some are already reducing or eliminating high-cost departments such as obstetrics or inpatient care. Others are shifting toward outpatient services, telehealth and regional partnerships as they attempt to adjust.

More than half of Oklahoma’s rural hospitals are considered at risk of closure, according to health care analysts, and nationally, hundreds of rural facilities face similar threats.

Health care leaders say the result is a fundamental shift in how rural hospitals must operate.

“They will have to redefine what their mission is,” Rasmussen said.

Beyond access to care, the consequences extend into the broader economy. Rural hospitals are often among the largest employers in their communities, supporting local jobs and serving as anchors for economic activity. Cuts to Medicaid funding could lead to job losses, reduced economic output and further population decline in already vulnerable areas.

Lawmakers have created a $50 billion rural health fund aimed at supporting new care delivery models, including technology and workforce innovations. But hospital leaders say those efforts are unlikely to offset the scale of the financial pressures.

“It does not stabilize hospitals. Not at all,” Rasmussen said.

Even where adaptation is possible, administrators say it comes with limits.

Rural hospitals must contend not only with reimbursement pressures but also with structural challenges in volume, said Chanski. Many reimbursement models assume patient volumes that simply do not exist in smaller communities.

In that environment, he said, standing still is not an option.

“For those that stagnate, they will struggle,” Chanski said.

At Newman Memorial Hospital in Shattuck, Chief Executive Officer Tom Vasko said those pressures are already reshaping how care is delivered.

“The financial pressures tied to Medicaid and Medicare aren’t incremental,” Vasko said. “They’re structural.”

His hospital has responded by expanding services — adding surgical capabilities, specialty care and a broader clinic network — in an effort to keep care local and sustain operations. But even that approach has limits.

“Grant-based and short-term funding mechanisms are not a substitute for sustainable reimbursement,” Vasko said.

Taken together, hospital leaders say the changes reflect a system under strain and one where adaptation is necessary but not always sufficient.

Rural hospitals as part of larger systems

Some rural hospitals have been absorbed into larger, urban-based health systems, becoming part of networks that aim to keep routine care local while shifting more complex cases to regional hubs.

At Integris Health, that approach is built around treating rural hospitals as community anchors, said Aaron Steffens, the system’s chief strategy officer. The goal is to preserve local access and identity while providing resources that standalone facilities often cannot sustain.

“A rural hospital inside a larger system can offer things a standalone facility simply can’t,” Steffens said, citing shared technology, clinical resources, administrative support and access to specialists.

Under that model, routine and urgent care — including emergency services, primary care, imaging and basic surgery — remains local, while higher-complexity cases such as cardiac procedures, neurosurgery and advanced cancer treatment are referred to larger facilities in Oklahoma City.

“The principle is simple: right care, right place,” Steffens said.

Patient flow between those facilities is coordinated through a centralized transfer system, with an emphasis on continuity of care. After receiving specialized treatment in urban hospitals, patients are often transferred back to their home communities for follow-up care.

“It’s not a hand-off so much as a handshake,” Steffens said, describing the coordination between rural and urban teams.

Post-acute services such as swing beds and rehabilitation also play a key role in that system, allowing patients to recover closer to home while easing pressure on larger hospitals.

Even large systems face the same pressures affecting rural healthcare more broadly. Steffens pointed to tight margins, workforce shortages and the fixed costs of maintaining services such as emergency care in low-volume areas.

Looking ahead, he said rural hospitals may increasingly function as community-based health centers focused on primary care, chronic disease management and prevention, supported by telehealth and centralized resources.

But those networks are also under increasing financial strain. Integris Health officials have said the system expects an annual revenue loss of roughly $130 million tied to reductions in

Medicaid and Medicare funding, prompting clinic closures, service line cuts and workforce reductions across the state. In a statement, the organization said the changes are necessary to remain a “forever” health system — a reflection of the difficult tradeoffs large providers now face in maintaining access while adjusting to shrinking revenue.

Closures and their consequences

Not every rural hospital has been able to adapt before financial pressures forced a shutdown.

In Clinton, the city’s hospital closed at the end of 2022 after its private operator withdrew following years of shrinking services. It later reopened under public control with fewer services and a reduced footprint.

In Pauls Valley, the hospital closed again in early 2025, less than four years after it reopened. The facility struggled with ongoing financial losses, and a decades-old decision not to convert to critical access status limited its reimbursement options.

In Stilwell, where the hospital shut down in 2025, residents remain without nearby emergency care, traveling roughly 30 miles to reach the nearest facilities.

“It’s terrible that we don’t have a hospital,” Mayor Jean Ann Wright said.

Local officials in several communities have explored converting facilities to rural emergency hospital models, which focus on emergency and outpatient services while relying on larger systems for inpatient care.

A system in transition

Taken together, the changes point to a broader shift in rural healthcare.

Hospitals are no longer trying to be all things to all patients. Instead, they are redefining their roles — as rehabilitation centers, outpatient hubs, regional partners or integrated systems of clinics and specialty care.

Some are finding ways to adapt.

Others have already closed.

And even those that are expanding say the underlying financial pressures remain unresolved.

Rural hospitals, administrators say, are not just evolving — they are racing to keep up with a system that is changing around them.

Stephen Martin is an Oklahoma City-based journalist and contributor to Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at smartin0170@gmail.com.

The post Facing Financial Pressure, Rural Hospitals Adapt to Survive appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Nearly four years after their arrests, the criminal case against Epic Charter Schools’ founders took a step forward Thursday.

Oklahoma County Special Judge Jason Glidewell concluded prosecutors presented enough evidence for nearly all of the charges against David Chaney, 47, and Ben Harris, 50, to move forward to trial. 

Prosecutors in 2022 charged Chaney and Harris with 14 felonies each in connection with their roles managing the online school, alleging they diverted tens of millions of dollars meant for students’ education into their private companies. They are charged under the state’s racketeering statute with embezzlement, conspiracy and fraud.

The judge on Thursday dismissed one count of embezzlement against Chaney and Harris, as well as one count of computer fraud against Chaney. Probable cause exists for the remaining charges, Glidewell determined.

A formal arraignment is scheduled for June 24. 

The judge also addressed Chaney and Harris’ key defense; their attorneys claimed the public funds became private once deposited into their business accounts. Glidewell said he didn’t find that persuasive. The money remains public, he said, until its purpose is fulfilled.

The state auditor, whose audit in 2020 triggered the criminal charges, called the scheme the largest abuse of taxpayer dollars in Oklahoma history.

Chaney and Harris deny wrongdoing. 

Procedural delays have plagued the criminal case. Thursday’s hearing began more than two years ago, in 2024, but stalled after attorneys sought to remove the case’s trial judge. Multiple courts rejected the effort to remove the judge but she stepped down anyway. 

Over eight days, the judge listened to testimony from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Epic staff, state auditors and longtime chief financial officer Josh Brock, the state’s star witness. Brock is also charged in the multimillion-dollar embezzlement case, but is cooperating with prosecutors to avoid prison. 

Brock managed the books of Epic Youth Services, the private management company, and served as encumbrance clerk for the school. He received a 10% cut of Epic Youth Services’ profits, while Chaney and Harris kept 45% each, Brock testified. 

Prosecutors’ review of Epic’s bank accounts revealed the company collected more than $69.3 million in management fees between 2013 and 2021. Of that, the trio split $55 million: Harris made $25 million, Chaney made $23 million and Brock made $7 million.

The company also controlled Epic’s student learning fund, an account set aside for students’ laptops, extracurricular activities and other expenses. Investigators said Epic Youth Services kept unspent funds instead of returning the money to the school. 

Brock described how the men used shell companies and submitted false invoices using estimates, rather than actual costs, to conceal their profits from the state. Prosecutors say they spent public money meant to educate students on political donations, expenses for a California charter school and Chaney and Brock’s personal credit card expenses. 

A confidential, deep-dive investigation by the Internal Revenue Service is ongoing. Epic cut ties with Chaney, Harris and Brock in 2021.

Jennifer Palmer has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2016 and covers education. Contact her at (405) 761-0093 or jpalmer@oklahomawatch.org. Follow her on Twitter @jpalmerOKC.

The post Judge Moves Epic Charter Schools Embezzlement Case Forward appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Though 26 states require presenting one’s government-issued ID to a police officer upon request under threat of arrest, Oklahoma law does not require that.

The Supreme Court upheld stop-and-identify laws in its 2004 Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada ruling, in which the justices held that state statutes can require individuals to disclose their names during brief legal stops based on reasonable suspicion of a crime. 

In Oklahoma, as well as 23 additional states without stop and identify laws, identification is only required of drivers in traffic stops; passengers in vehicles and people in public are not obligated to identify themselves. 

 Traffic stops require only vehicular violations, not criminal suspicion, though the former may give rise to the latter. 

Oklahoma drivers may refuse field sobriety tests without incurring automatic criminal penalties, as such tests are not required under implied consent laws; chemical tests are.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• World Population Review Stop and Identify States 2026
• ILRC STOP AND IDENTIFY STATUTES IN THE UNITED STATES
• ACLU Oklahoma Stopped by Police
• Cornell Law School Terry stop / stop and frisk
• LegalClarity Can You Refuse a Field Sobriety Test in Oklahoma?
• Justia U.S. Law 2025 Oklahoma Statutes Title 47. Motor Vehicles §47-751. Implied consent to breath test, blood test or other test for determining presence or concentration of alcohol or other intoxicating substance.

The post Is Oklahoma a stop-and-identify state? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

It happens to hundreds of Oklahomans every month.

Rent is due on the first, but the paycheck hits their bank account on the sixth.

The reality for many tenants is that by then, an eviction notice has already been taped to their door.

Nearly half of all evictions filed in Oklahoma County during the first quarter of this year were dismissed, and, of those dismissed, 18% were dropped before the first court hearing, according to data from the Mental Health Association Oklahoma. This indicates that eviction filings were being used as a form of rent collection, according to the association.

There were 3,982 evictions filed in Oklahoma County from January through March. That means 335 cases were filed and then dismissed before the first court hearing in the county during the first three months of the year.

When the tenant pays and satisfies the landlord, the eviction is dismissed, allowing them to stay at the property. Still, the eviction is on the tenant’s record, and court fees can increase their monthly housing cost by 20%, according to a study conducted by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

Because of the negative effects of the filing on the tenant, Amy Coldren, director of advocacy and communications for the Mental Health Association Oklahoma, questioned whether those evictions were even necessary at all.

“It is resolving before the hearing, yet the tenant is responsible for the filing fees, the attorney’s fees and they have this eviction of their record permanently,” Coldren said. “Now, something that likely resolves on its own has serious implications for the tenant.”

Rent Collection

Katie Dilks, executive director of the Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation, said the argument from landlords and landlord attorneys is often that they do not want to engage in this process, but it’s a way to get tenants to pay rent. However, she said that there’s an underlying problem with that argument.

“It can be hard when you’re paying a 20 or 30% premium on your rent to build the stability or savings that you might need to avoid that going forward,” Dilks said. “The more you are increasing these costs on people on a month-over-month basis, the harder it is to pay their rent on time.”

Tulsa County’s total number of evictions dismissed last year mirrored the new numbers from the Mental Health Association Oklahoma.

Last year, 45% of all evictions in Tulsa County throughout the year were dismissed, said Eric Hallett, an attorney with Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma. 

Hallett said that Oklahoma’s fast, cheap eviction process makes it easy for landlords and property managers to use eviction to collect rent. The eviction filing will now follow the tenant and make it harder to secure housing in the future. It also indicates the problem could have been solved outside of court.

“They’re using this cheap and easy process to strong-arm people,” Hallett said.

A 2020 study conducted by the Eviction Lab found that landlords across the United States use evictions to collect rent, often resulting in serial evictions — where landlords file on one household multiple times without removing the tenants in order to seek rent and additional fees.

Serial eviction filings were more common in mid-range rental markets — areas with rents between $1,200 and $2,000 per month — and in counties that made the legal process of eviction fast and cheap, according to the study.

Fast and Cheap

Oklahoma County, and the greater state, is one of the places where the legal process of eviction is fast and cheap. The state also experiences its share of serial evictors.

In the state’s counties with the highest eviction rates — Oklahoma and Tulsa — the filing fee for an eviction can be as low as $58. And, Oklahoma’s eviction timeline is one of the fastest in the country. Landlords can serve a five-day notice to quit the day after rent is late in the state. After the five days are up, an eviction is served. The tenant now has an eviction filed against them, and can find themselves in court three days later.

Hallett said an extended timeline on the five-day notice to quit could be a way to avoid landlords using the courts as a rent collection tool.

Eviction Lab also suggested an extension as a solution to serial evictions in their report. Additionally, the report suggested that more expensive filing fees could deter landlords from using eviction as a form of rent collection.

“The evidence is even stronger on the cost of an eviction,” Dilks said. “Filing fees are directly correlated with filing rates. When you have higher filing fees, you have lower filing rates because it changes the financial incentives and considerations for the landlord. When it’s cheap to file an eviction, that can be seen as a rent collection tool.”

Solutions

Dilks said that it is difficult to know exactly the circumstances of the eviction filing being dismissed. She said it could be that the tenant self-evicted, but also that some are resolved because people are paying.

“I think that is an indication of what an extended timeline could do,” Dilks said. “If it (an eviction) got filed on the 5th or the 6th, but court wasn’t until the 11th or 12th, and it got paid somewhere in between the 6th and the 12th, what would it have looked like if the filing date wasn’t until the 10th or the 12th? There’s a very real world where that household would have been able to pay that late rent with just the late rent fee without all of these other things stacked on top of it.”

Hallett said that an extended timeline could help, but also that mediation before an eviction could be a step toward avoiding using the process as a rent and fee collection tool.

One step to preventing eviction suggested by the United States Department of the Treasury is mediation. The treasury used Massachusetts’ two-tiered eviction system as an example.

“In the first tier, landlords and tenants work with a mediator who can direct them to ERA resources to cover qualified rental arrears,” the Department of the Treasury wrote on its website. “This state-funded program also engages legal aid services, as well as housing reinstatement services, for those cases where tenants ultimately experience eviction.”

The state of Massachusetts details how mediation benefits both landlords and tenants. For landlords, mediation can help resolve a case of rent arrears more quickly and reduce costs associated with an eviction. And for tenants, mediation can help work out if arrears can be paid off and how, and allow them to stabilize tenancy, according to the State of Massachusetts website.

Hallett said solutions like mediation have proven to be successful.

“Mediation is successful,” Hallett said. “But, it’s only successful in states that require mediation before the eviction filing.”

Jake Ramsey covers evictions, housing and homelessness. Contact him at (405) 370-3798 or jramsey@oklahomawatch.org.

The post Oklahoma’s Eviction Process Is Being Used as a Form of Rent Collection, Data Shows appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

A previously unseen toxin surfaces in Oklahoma, raising urgent questions about the safety of industrial biosolids and the transparency of our air-monitoring systems. Plus, we look at the rising trend of Republican primary challengers vowing to reject lobbyist gifts, and the latest developments in the ongoing investigation into financial links within the state’s Invest in Oklahoma program. Catch these stories and more on the latest Long Story Short with Shaun Witt.

The post Air Alerts, Ethical Pledges, and Invest in Oklahoma appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Two-year-old Locklynn’s father tucked her into bed Nov. 18, and her mother returned home late from her job at a Sonic Drive-In. The mother heard breathing noises coming from her daughter’s bedroom, and went in to check when she heard what sounded like bouncing. The dog, Ella, was covered in blood. The little girl was dead.

Police arrived to a home in disarray. 

It smelled of animal feces and urine, a detective described in court. There was old food, pots and pans, trash and clothing stacked on the floor. But toddler clothes hung neatly on hangers in Locklynn’s bedroom closet, and childproof safety covers wrapped the doorknobs.

There were four dogs, each in a crate except Ella, a pitbull whose ribs and hip bones stuck out. Koda, a Husky mix, was on the thin side, an animal welfare officer testified. There was a black-and-white pitbull mix, a male, in a kennel with a comforter. The puppy, Hazel, had a scar across its face. The wound hadn’t been stitched and was healing on its own. They all had fleas.

Investigators looked for dog food in the house, but couldn’t find any. The mother later told them she only feeds the dogs outside, once a day, and they eat until they’re full. They drink from a five-gallon bucket, also outside.

There were two bearded dragons and a pet rat in the home. The bearded dragons had metabolic bone disease, which is caused by a lack of vitamin D, calcium and proper lighting. The only pet food investigators found was for the rat, but it was crawling with roaches.

The investigation into Locklynn’s death revealed warning signs that, had they been heeded, might have saved Locklynn’s life. Whether her parents, state child welfare workers or medical personnel shoulder the blame depends on who you ask. 

Two weeks earlier, Locklynn arrived at an Oklahoma City hospital, both ears bleeding. There were cuts and puncture wounds on her right ear, and her left ear was partially severed. Doctors stitched her up, and the hospital contacted child welfare. 

Her mother suspected that Ella, the pitbull, caused the injuries. But the physician treating Locklynn didn’t think it was the dog. Instead, he suggested it was the girl’s bed, according to Department of Human Services records. 

A caseworker visited the family’s house after the injury. In keeping with the doctor’s conclusion, they focused on the girl’s bed, and told the parents to place the mattress on the floor so she couldn’t cut her ears again, said Betty Crain, Locklynn’s grandmother. 

“They saw the dogs, but they didn’t say anything about the dogs,” Crain said. “They weren’t worried about the dogs.”

Complying with the caseworker’s instructions, the parents removed the bed frame, toys and hangers from Locklynn’s room, but not the dog, records show. 

Locklynn’s death was ruled an accident; Ella had attacked and killed her. But prosecutors charged the girl’s parents, Darci Lambert, 25, and Jordan McGuire, 34, with murder, alleging they knew the dog was dangerous and malnourished, yet kept it in the bedroom with their daughter.

DHS laid blame on the caseworker’s supervisor, Tara Diggs, who they fired over the girl’s death. Diggs contested her firing and claims she was scapegoated to shield the agency from accountability for systemic failures. At the time of Locklynn’s death, child welfare workers  juggled unmanageable caseloads and mandatory furloughs.

The doctor, Curtis Knoles, and a spokesperson for OU Children’s Hospital, declined to comment. 

Much of what is known about what led up to Locklynn’s death comes from DHS records obtained by Oklahoma Watch and court testimony in the parents’ March 11 preliminary hearing, which is scheduled to continue May 7. 

A History of DHS Involvement

On Oct. 17, a couple of weeks into a federal government shutdown, DHS moved a backlog of 55 cases to supervisor Diggs’ unit, which was already managing nearly 100 other cases, according to Diggs’ statement to the state’s civil service division, which handles dispute resolution for state agencies and employees. 

Among the cases was Locklynn McGuire’s. 

DHS had investigated Locklynn’s mother before. The agency removed a child from her custody in 2017 due to neglect and threat of harm, records show. Lambert was 16 at the time.

When Lambert gave birth to a baby in 2020, DHS investigated again. They were concerned because the newborn lost weight after birth. 

Lambert told the agency she was following the doctor’s recommendations, and, when the baby’s weight was no longer a problem, DHS closed the case. 

The baby, a little boy named Hugh, died at 3 months old, according to an obituary. The baby and his father had been sleeping on a couch when the father (who is not McGuire) woke up on top of the baby. Authorities ruled the death accidental. 

When Diggs received Locklynn’s file, it was to investigate a report that Locklynn had been exposed to marijuana. Locklynn’s parents took her to the hospital because she was having a hard time staying awake. They worried she had ingested marijuana edibles. 

DHS assigned caseworker Naciska Gilmore, who visited the family’s home on Nov. 3, records show. Lambert made statements that concerned DHS about wanting to get a medical marijuana card for Locklynn and exposing her to marijuana smoke, something the mother later denied. 

After the parents purchased a lockbox for their edibles, Gilmore reported no ongoing safety or parenting concerns. Diggs directed the caseworker to review the girl’s medical records, but she never did, according to DHS records. 

By this time, the agency was juggling staff furloughs because of the government shutdown. Child protection employees reduced their schedules to 32 hours per week. 

And then the agency was called to investigate Locklynn’s injured ears. 

It Couldn’t be the Dog

Lambert put Locklynn to bed and ran to the store. When she returned, she heard Locklynn crying in her bedroom. Blood covered the girl’s ears, and Lambert called 911. 

At OU Children’s Hospital, Lambert told the doctors she suspected one of their four dogs, a pitbull named Ella, had bitten their daughter. Ella slept in the bedroom with Locklynn and had since Locklynn was a baby. 

Lambert wanted to put the dog down, according to court testimony from a doctor consulted that night and from an Oklahoma City Police detective. 

But doctors told Lambert not to euthanize the dog because they didn’t think the dog caused the girl’s injuries, the detective recalled Lambert saying during questioning.  

The cut was too perfectly straight, Crain, Locklynn’s grandmother recalled, like a folded piece of paper torn in half. 

“You have to believe what the doctors tell you,” Crain said. “If they say it’s not a dog bite, it’s not a dog bite.”

The doctor, instead, offered a somewhat implausible explanation: bed springs. That is mentioned in a review of Locklynn’s death, based on DHS records, released April 9 by the Office of Juvenile System Oversight. 

It’s absent from the arrest warrants and charges against Lambert and McGuire. 

And Locklynn’s medical records don’t point to the bed springs, but they don’t attribute her injuries to a dog bite, either, according to a doctor who testified during the parents’ preliminary hearing. That doctor said he did believe the girl was bitten by a dog, but he only consulted with Locklynn’s doctor that night and wasn’t treating her. Oklahoma Watch has not been able to review Locklynn’s medical records.

The caseworker didn’t ask Locklynn what happened. But they did ask her brother, who lives with relatives. He said he saw Ella hurt Locklynn’s ears, but couldn’t elaborate, DHS records show. 

What isn’t in dispute: neither DHS nor the hospital reported Locklynn’s injuries as an animal bite, which medical staff are required to do within 24 hours according to the Oklahoma City municipal code. 

Had they reported the bite, animal welfare workers likely would have required the dog to be quarantined for 10 days at home if vaccinated for rabies, or at the city shelter if not.

Lambert and McGuire did separate Locklynn and Ella for more than a week while Locklynn’s ears healed. The night before the fatal attack, the parents moved Locklynn back to her own room, with the mattress on the floor. 

The Fallout

Unbeknownst to Diggs, the DHS supervisor, a second caseworker had visited the girl’s home and returned to report there was knee-deep trash and four dogs. 

Still, DHS didn’t take the girl into emergency protective custody or report the dogs.

Diggs found out during a staff meeting that Locklynn had been killed, records show.  

DHS initiated an internal investigation that found serious missteps, according to Diggs’ termination notice dated Feb. 2. Had she followed agency policies and best practices, the agency would have been able to intervene before Locklynn died, the agency found.

“You failed to provide adequate supervisory oversight and ensure the safety of a vulnerable child,” the notice reads.

The agency said Diggs should have followed up with the caseworker to ensure she obtained professional and medical consultations, conducted a comprehensive safety assessment, reviewed the family’s prior child welfare history, and identified active safety threats to the child.

Diggs, in a complaint contesting her firing, pointed the finger at Gilmore, the caseworker, who left the agency voluntarily shortly after Locklynn’s death. Diggs also blamed staff shortages, unmanageable caseloads, and mandatory furloughing of child welfare specialists. 

Diggs is asking to be reinstated. When reached by phone, Diggs declined to comment based on her attorney’s advice. Gilmore did not return multiple calls for comment.

DHS, through agency spokeswoman Nazarene Harris, declined an interview. 

After reviewing details of the case, prosecutors upgraded the charges against Lambert and McGuire to murder in the first degree, which requires deliberate intention to kill. They’re being held at the Oklahoma County Detention Center. Bail was set at $10 million each.

“This is an unspeakably tragic case,” Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna said in a Dec. 8 press release announcing the charges. “Lambert and McGuire’s complete disregard for the health, safety, and welfare of their child, and their failure to protect her despite knowing she was at risk, led to her death.” 

Investigators pointed to the round toddler locks on Locklynn’s door as evidence that they placed her in danger, as well as keeping Ella uncaged in her room. The parents are also charged with animal cruelty based on the condition of the animals.

Locklynn wasn’t abused or mistreated, and her family loved her, Crain, McGuire’s mother and Locklynn’s grandmother, said. 

“They’re not monsters,” Crain said about Locklynn’s parents. “They’re not dope addicts. They weren’t high on meth or whatever. They were just working parents, and a stupid mistake was made, and we lost the best little thing that ever happened to us.”

If you suspect child abuse or neglect, please call the Oklahoma Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-800-522-3511. 

Editor’s note: This story was updated on 4/29/26 to show the parents’ bail was set at $10 million.

Jennifer Palmer has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2016 and covers education. Contact her at (405) 761-0093 or jpalmer@oklahomawatch.org. Follow her on Twitter @jpalmerOKC.

The post Three Parties, One Dead Child: The Failures That Led to Locklynn McGuire’s Death  appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 22.9% of adolescents ages 12-19 are obese, or have a higher weight-to-height ratio than what is considered normal. 

Children and adolescents with BMIs, which do not directly measure fat, greater than or equal to the 95th percentile are considered obese. 40.3% of adults are considered obese, with BMIs of 30 or more. 

Discussing his Healthy SNAP Act, Rep. Josh Breechen cited an estimation of federal funding costs for obesity and obesity-related diseases. 

Obesity is just one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and a complex one at that; equally obese individuals can have substantially different cardiometabolic risks and states of health. 

Evidence indicates that markers such as visceral adiposity and liver fat are more important than mere obesity in determining cardiometabolic risks associated with obesity, rather than BMI, which has dubious origins in 19th-century statistics rather than medicine and fails to account for individual body differences. 

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• CDC: National Center for Health Statistics Obesity and Overweight
• CDC: Growth Chart Training BMI-for-Age as a Screening Measure
• National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Overweight & Obesity Statistics
• AHAIASA Journals Body Fat Distribution and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
• PubMed Central The History and Faults of the Body Mass Index and Where to Look Next: A Literature Review

The post Are 50% of teens in America obese, as Rep. Brecheen claimed? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

On Monday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court met en banc — that is, nine justices gathered live — to hear 40 minutes of oral argument over Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s effort to intervene in Hursh v. State Farm, a bad faith insurance case that has come to represent upwards of 1,000 similar cases involving hail damage to Oklahoma roofs.

It was the second time in a month that a portion of the symbolically significant Hursh case has reached the Supreme Court.

But lurking behind Monday’s arguments was an even more portentous second.

Two weeks ago, the months-long State Farm roof claim saga appeared to have reached maximum audacity with the story of the insurance giant’s refusal to pay the claim of retired administrative law judge James R. Linehan.

That turned out to be more prologue than postscript.

On Monday, as Oklahoma’s sitting justices weighed arguments and posed questions to attorneys about whether Drummond should be permitted to exercise heightened subpoena powers to access critical State Farm documents, one of the justices’ own colleagues, retired Chief Justice Joseph M. Watt, awaited word on the State Farm roof claim case that he and his wife first brought 10 weeks ago.

Let that sink in for a moment.

In 2025, long after litigation over State Farm roof claims began — that is, when it was already apparent that the lawsuits would one day ascend to the state’s highest court — State Farm refused to pay the claim of a retired chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

Thousands of Our Citizens

The core issues of Monday’s argument, which saw the solicitor general of Oklahoma pitted against a former solicitor general, were presented in briefs submitted over the past several months.

Former solicitor general Mithun Mansinghani of the Oklahoma City offices of national litigation firm Lehotsky Keller Cohn, representing State Farm, argued in a brief that Drummond had been too aggressive, in general, in inserting himself in litigation in Oklahoma. Furthermore, Mansinghani said, the Hursh case, which State Farm’s attorneys have doggedly argued should be considered in isolation despite hundreds of virtually identical cases, did not implicate the collective interests of Oklahoma insurance consumers.

“He cannot simply declare the public’s interest in private litigation and thereby intervene,” Mansinghani wrote of Drummond.

In response to Mansinghani’s argument that the Oklahoma Constitution vests authority over insurance matters solely to Oklahoma Insurance Department Commissioner Glen Mulready, Solicitor General Garry Gaskins, arguing on behalf of the Hurshes, was quick to point out that Drummond was not in conflict with Mulready in any way.

“Far from claiming the Attorney General is intruding on his prerogatives, the commissioner has invited his participation,” Gaskins said of a letter Mulready wrote on January 29.

As his own roof claim case has moved through the legal system, retired Justice Watt, having embarked on a second-act career as senior counsel in the office of the attorney general, has been uniquely positioned to appreciate the wild and surprising swings of the State Farm roof saga.

Speaking in anticipation of Monday’s arguments, Watt expressed admiration for Drummond’s intervention and offered comments addressed to all of those who will, come November, face voters who have increasingly become aware of State Farm’s alleged scheme.

“It’s my hope that the elected officials in this state recognize the problem that exists in this area today, and that in the future they will take steps, whatever those may be, to solve this problem that affects thousands of our citizens,” Watt said.

They Did it Anyway — Twice

A tender man with a dry wit, Watt offers new Oklahoma acquaintances a tongue-in-cheek apology for having attended law school in Texas. In 1973, he relocated to Altus, the city that for a time would become his adopted home.

“Best move I ever made,” Watt said.

After 14 years of diverse work as an attorney, Watt ascended to the bench and served five years as a Jackson County district court judge. In 1992, after 15 months as general counsel to Governor David Walters, he was appointed to the Supreme Court. Watt sat on Oklahoma’s highest court for 25 years, with two consecutive two-year terms as chief justice.

To those who have followed the State Farm roof claim saga closely, Watt’s close encounter with the insurance behemoth will sound only too familiar.

Fifty years of coverage, Watt said, hundreds of thousands of dollars in premiums paid on every home he and his wife had lived in and cars as well, and older claims settled without a hitch. Nevertheless, State Farm balked when the Watts submitted a claim in late 2024 after discovering a sudden water leak from a recessed ceiling light in the living room of the house in Edmond that the Watts thought of as their dream home.

Watt said a State Farm claim adjuster, Joe Barresi, quickly determined that the leak was the tip of an iceberg: recent hailstorms had inflicted unseen damage, and like many of the Watts’ neighbors, they needed a total roof replacement. Barresi took it to corporate but came back with bad news, Watt said. State Farm rejected the claim.

Two things would be remarkable about Watt’s tussle with State Farm, which would stretch over this claim and another resulting from additional sudden water damage that destroyed the hardwood flooring of their 2012-built home.

First, although Watt had never used his position in public service to escape so much as a speeding ticket, he knew that both his State Farm agent, Mike Teague, and Barresi were aware of who he was. Watt believed that Barresi had fought for him, and surely Barresi would have told his superiors at State Farm’s headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois, that they were denying the claim of a chief justice.

They did it anyway — twice.

Second, regarding both of Watt’s claims, State Farm called in a nationwide third-party adjuster, SeekNow. SeekNow adjusters overruled Barresi’s initial determination that the Watts’ home needed a new roof, and rejected as well the later claim over sudden water damage that profoundly buckled the home’s hardwood floors and rendered it treacherous and unlivable for Watt, 79, and his wife, Cathleen, 77.

In 2023, attorney Chip Merlin, of the Merlin Law Group, wrote a scathing critique of SeekNow after coming into possession of an internal SeekNow text memo. The message from manager Steve Wilson to adjusters noted that State Farm accounted for 50% of SeekNow’s business and that adjusters would be punished if their work on State Farm cases led to reinspections.

“To me, the message was clear,” Merlin wrote. “Make your opinions about damage lower or face getting reduced wages.”

It wasn’t just a plaintiff’s attorney who was complaining. Since 2023, policyholders have registered nine complaints against SeekNow with the Better Business Bureau.

In December 2025, a policyholder questioned the company’s ethics: “SeekNow lacks the integrity and expertise to document/report any insurance claims.”

In December 2024, a policyholder accused them of actionable wrongdoing: “It would appear SEEKNOW is in the pocket of the insurers and are accomplices in fraud.”

In August 2024, a policyholder offered stark advice: “If SeekNow is a company the insurance sends to inspect your roof…RUN.”

State Farm, Joe Barresi, and SeekNow did not respond to interview requests about the Watts’ claims.

Like Judge Linehan, Watt and his wife reached a breaking point. As Monday’s oral arguments approached, Watt reflected on the decision they had made to lawyer up.

“I know how insurance works,” Watt said. “The Court wrote many opinions on insurance companies over the years, so I had enough knowledge of the insurance industry to know that I wasn’t being treated fairly. I was getting lowballed — and it just wasn’t right.”

You Will Get a Verdict Soon

Monday’s arguments, for the most part, followed the script anticipated in the briefs.

Mansinghani repeated his argument that the insurance commissioner held sole power over insurance law. Referring to Mulready’s January 29 letter, Mansinghani suggested that the commissioner’s unequivocal power nevertheless halted at the ability to share his power with the AG.

“The separation of powers does not turn off and on if the commissioner and the AG happen to agree right now,” Mansinghani said.

This prompted Vice Chief-Justice Dana Kuehn, citing the AG’s sole statutory authority to bring RICO charges, to question what would happen if an insurer committed an act that the commissioner was not empowered to prosecute.

“Are insurance companies immune because the insurance commissioner can’t do anything against an insurance company?” Kuehn said.

The justices peppered both Monsanghani and Gaskins with questions about alternate remedies to the decision they might render, about conflicts between statutes that conflicted with a Constitution that also mandated following written law, and about whether State Farm’s malfeasance might be better prosecuted as criminal fraud rather than civil fraud.

Special Justice James Huber questioned Gaskins as to why Billy Hursh, who attended Monday’s arguments, would want to have his case burdened by the AG’s intervention.

“Why did the Hurshes want to expose themselves?” Huber said.

Gaskins replied that gaining access to the now-infamous State Farm documents would make the case more efficient. Gaskins also spoke to a more fundamental motive for the AG’s intervention.

“The people of the state of Oklahoma have an interest in protecting the state from what may be one of the largest frauds in this state’s history,” Gaskins said. 

For his part, Hursh, after the arguments, gently questioned Huber’s assumption that the case was simple.

“All respect in the world to the justice, I don’t think it’s simple,” Hursh said. “This was a widespread, pervasive scheme that, as far as we know, affected thousands of people. I don’t think it’s just a bad-faith negotiation on a contract. We thought it was, but it seems like it’s much bigger than that.”

Toward the end of the argument, Justice James Edmondson, quiet to that point, waxed eloquent in reply to Mansinghani’s final minutes of speaking.

Edmondson spoke of Oklahomans who may even now live in fear of leaking roofs, and he also expressed sympathy for State Farm employees who may be concerned about being dragged before either civil or criminal tribunals.

“I wouldn’t want to be in either position,” Edmondson said. “I don’t know who we are going to rely on to determine whether there has been actionable conduct, but I think it is an act of service that [the AG] owes to this state to plumb the intricacies of this issue.”

Edmondson told Mansinghani and the crowd of dozens that at least some portion of the State Farm roof saga would be resolved quickly.

“I’m sure you will get a verdict soon,” Edmondson said.

The Attorney General Would Reload

Oklahoma Watch obtained a binder of documents from a one-time State Farm whistleblower, including a 1981 file titled “Claim Superintendents’ Manual Memo #77.” A section of the memo called Suits Against the Company advised evaluating which liability cases could be removed from district to federal court and said that pendency — that is, a lawsuit that remains pending, or undecided — could be a useful legal strategy.

“It is not always desirable to have a legal question decided,” the State Farm manual read.

Justice Watt’s case against State Farm has been removed to federal court, despite having sued Teague, his agent, an Oklahoma resident, alongside the company. Watt was miffed that there were many others in the same boat.

“I was surprised to learn that all of these cases were being removed to federal court because there was no jurisdictional reason in my mind, no constitutional issues, it’s purely state issues,” Watt said. “It should have stayed in state court. It rightly needs to be back in state court. That’s where all of these cases need to be litigated.”

After Monday’s argument, the Supreme Court is tasked with deciding whether the attorney general can intervene in how State Farm cases will be litigated. Gaskins’ brief made clear that denying the intervention would merely be a speed bump; the attorney general would reload.

“Denying intervention would not prevent the Attorney General from enforcing consumer-protection laws; it would merely force a separate lawsuit raising identical OCPA and ORICO claims over the same alleged conduct,” Gaskins wrote.

Watt, it’s fair to say, hopes that as the sitting justices deliberate the Hursh case, they will bear in mind cases like his own, and, more important, the cases of many Oklahomans who may not even know that they can fight back against the insurance giant’s alleged scheme.

“State Farm wasn’t being a good neighbor to them, and they sure weren’t being a good neighbor to us,” Watt said.

Ed. Note: This story was updated on April 28, 2026, to correct the location of State Farm’s headquarters.

J.C. Hallman covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at jchallman@oklahomawatch.org.

The post A Former Chief Justice Battles State Farm as Sitting Justices Weigh Insurance Giant’s Fate appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Here is the audio of Oklahoma Watch’s published stories for the week of April 20, 2026.

– Full Week Playlist: Listen to all the stories back-to-back, without interruption.
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