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Miami Herald
07-08-2025
- Miami Herald
Pastor tries filming up woman's skirt in Hobby Lobby 11 times, Oklahoma cops say
A pastor of a nondenominational church in Oklahoma followed a woman shopping in Hobby Lobby and repeatedly tried recording under her skirt, authorities say. Kendrick Oakley, who has been removed from leadership positions at DestinyLife Church in Claremore, was taken into custody Wednesday, Aug. 6, after a warrant was issued for his arrest earlier in the day, the Tulsa Police Department said. Oakley is accused of entering a Hobby Lobby in Tulsa on July 9, 2024, and following a woman who was shopping. 'Security observed the man ... using his cell phone to photograph/record underneath her skirt when she was not looking,' police said. 'For 16 minutes, the man followed the woman and attempted to record under the woman's skirt 11 times.' A loss prevention officer wrote down Oakley's license plate number after following him to his car, according to an affidavit obtained by KJRH. The officer also helped the victim file a police report. Oakley was charged with 11 counts of Peeping Tom with photograph/electronic equipment, according to police. Charges took more than a year to be filed because Oakley told prosecutors he is Native American and not able to be prosecuted under Oklahoma's McGirt law, the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office told KWTV. 'Mr. Oakley was afforded due process and it was determined by the court that McGirt was not applicable to his case, and that he did not meet the criteria for Cherokee citizenship,' prosecutors told KWTV. 'This ruling reinforced that the State did have proper jurisdiction to prosecute Mr. Oakley.' A day after Oakley's arrest, DestinyLife Church announced he had been removed from the church's board and its staff and dismissed from serving as an elder. He was a staff member at the church for three years. 'This is heartbreaking news,' lead pastor Glenn Shaffer said in a statement. 'Our greatest concern is for the victim and their family, as well as for those in our church and school communities who are impacted.'
NBC News
10-07-2025
- NBC News
Oklahoma man accused of targeting television news weather radar
An Oklahoma man is accused of vandalizing a TV station's weather radar, police said Thursday, in what the station says could be an attack inspired by an anti-government militia group. Anthony Tyler Mitchell, 39, has been booked on suspicion of felony malicious injury to property, burglary and damage to critical infrastructure, Oklahoma City police Capt. Valerie Littlejohn said in a statement. CBS affiliate KWTV reported that it has video of a man destroying the power supply to the station's NextGen Live radar in northeast Oklahoma City. The station linked the attack to rhetoric by Veterans On Patrol, an anti-government militia group. "At this time, we are not able to confirm any connection with him and the group Veterans on Patrol," Littlejohn said. In an interview with NBC News on Thursday, group founder Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer denied giving any directions to attack weather equipment. But he welcomed such acts in Oklahoma, insisting that radars and other meteorological equipment are part of a government conspiracy to manipulate weather. The claims of such conspiracy are baseless. "When we destroy and eliminate over 15 in a state of Oklahoma, your radar maps are going to change big time, and the weather is just going to be completely different over Oklahoma and the surrounding area," he said Thursday. Government officials said they know about threats on weather equipment. 'NOAA is aware of recent threats against weather radar sites and is working with local and other authorities in monitoring the situation closely," according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration statement. Police detailed the radar allegations against Mitchell while he was in jail on an unrelated case involving alleged vandalism and violations of an order of protection. It wasn't immediately clear if Mitchell has an attorney to speak on his behalf. His father, mother and three brothers didn't immediately return messages left by NBC News seeking their comments. False conspiracy theories about weather have become increasingly visible online in recent years as extreme weather events continue to affect cities around the U.S. In particular, baseless claims that the government is somehow manipulating or controlling the weather to create such events have gained significant traction, receiving support from numerous Republican lawmakers. In 2024, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said "they can control the weather," after Hurricanes Milton and Helene, and on Saturday, she announced a bill that she said would prohibit weather control via the release of chemicals into the air. At least one member of the Trump administration has seemingly nodded to such claims. On Thursday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said, "Americans have legitimate questions about contrails and geoengineering, and they deserve straight answers,' in a news release announcing a new website about weather manipulation and research on contrails, a natural phenomenon from aircraft or rockets.
Boston Globe
22-06-2025
- Climate
- Boston Globe
Gary England, star meteorologist in Tornado Alley, dies at 85
During live coverage that day, England talked to a storm chaser who at one point described an ominous development: A tornado funnel had quickly popped up near a much wider one. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'You folks in the path of this storm have time to get below ground,' England said. 'You need to be below ground with this storm. This is a deadly tornado.' Advertisement Recalling the severity of his warning, he told NPR in 2009, 'I knew that one would get their attention because I'd never said it before and I've never said it since.' The regard that citizens felt for England was reflected in messages painted by survivors of those tornadoes on the wreckage of their houses. One read, 'God Bless Gary England,' and another said, 'Thanks Gary England for Getting Us Out Alive!!' England's coverage of the 1999 tornadoes earned him a National Headliner Award the next year. In 2009, he and his team received an Edward R. Murrow Award. Advertisement 'In the eyes of most Oklahomans, England is less a meteorologist than a benevolent weather god who routinely saves everyone's lives,' Sam Anderson wrote in The New York Times Magazine in a 2013 profile of England called 'The Weather God of Oklahoma City.' 'He has become a cult figure: a combination of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Foghorn Leghorn, Atticus Finch, Dan Rather, Zeus and Uncle Jesse from 'The Dukes of Hazzard.'' England's renown in Tornado Alley -- the central U.S. region frequently hit by twisters -- led to his serving as a technical adviser to 'Twister,' a 1996 film about storm chasers starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. He appeared in the opening scene as a forecaster giving a tornado warning on TV. Gary Alan England was born Oct. 3, 1939, in Seiling, Oklahoma. His father, Lesley, and mother, Hazel (Stong) England, owned a grocery store. While growing up, England took photographs of storm clouds and was transfixed by the TV reports of Harry Volkman, a weatherperson in Oklahoma. 'I was staring, and I turned to Dad and said, 'Dad, I want to be one of those,' and I pointed to the TV,' England said in an oral history interview with Oklahoma State University in 2013. 'He said, 'Well, what is he?' and I said, 'I don't know, but I want to be one.'' After graduating from high school, England served in the U.S. Navy, joining the Navy Weather Service. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and meteorology from the University of Oklahoma in 1965, and then worked for a weather forecasting firm in New Orleans. Advertisement He was hired in 1971 as a forecaster at KTOK Radio in Oklahoma City; a year later, he joined KWTV. He had little else to work with except for hand-drawn maps and a heavy reliance on the National Weather Service. 'In the beginning, I would only warn Jane a tornado was coming because John's house blew away,' he told the Los Angeles Times in 2013. But he urged KWTV management to build his toolbox, first with weather radar in 1973. In 1981, England became probably the first weather forecaster to use Doppler radar, which detected precipitation as well as wind speed and direction, vastly improving tornado warning times. Having followed research about the military use of Doppler radar, he made a presentation to the station's president, John Griffin. 'He said, 'Gary, you have never misled me on what we need,'' England said in the oral history. 'So we helped in the development and installed the world's first commercial Doppler radar right here.' Soon after, he said, he was watching the Doppler radar of what appeared to be a tornado. He called the local sheriff, who went outside and told him that he saw a funnel cloud. 'Now I knew I had something, so I issued the warning,' England said. 'It really upset the weather service but, you know, I wasn't going to wait and call them: 'Guys, is it OK if we issue the warning?'' Robert Henson, a meteorologist and the author of 'Weather on the Air: A History of Broadcast Meteorology' (2010), said in an interview, 'Gary had a reputation for being more aggressive with warnings than the National Weather Service because he had Doppler before other local stations. A warning doesn't always mean a tornado is out there, but he established that he was laser-focused on the threat.' Advertisement In the early 1990s, England helped initiate 'First Warning,' an automated map in the corner of TV screens that gives weather warnings, and 'Storm Tracker,' which shows a storm's path and an estimate for when a severe storm would arrive in a location. When KWTV celebrated 40 years of on-air achievements with a full page newspaper ad in 1994, nearly half were attributable to England and his weather team. He retired in 2013, a few months after a tornado, on May 20, ripped through parts of Oklahoma City, in particular the suburb of Moore, and killed about two dozen people. Another struck the suburb of El Reno 11 days later. After the latter storm, he told his wife, Mary England, that he had tired of his job. 'I just didn't want to do it anymore,' he told the chamber of commerce in Norman, Oklahoma, in early 2014. 'All that death and destruction.' After leaving KWTV, England became the vice president of corporate relations and weather development at Griffin Communications (now Griffin Media), the station's parent company, and was the consultant meteorologist-in-residence at the University of Oklahoma, home of the National Weather Center. His wife, formerly Mary Carlisle, survives him, along with his daughter, Molly Lutosky; two grandchildren; and a brother, Phil. In his decades tracking tornadoes, England found that no two were alike. 'They kind of have a life cycle just like a human,' he said in the oral history. 'It's shorter, but they behave a little differently. They do different things. They turn right, they turn left, they don't turn, and all of them are a little bit different.' Advertisement He added, 'On camera, they may all look the same, but everything is a learning process in this business. It really is.' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
18-06-2025
- Climate
- New York Times
Gary England, Star Meteorologist in Tornado Alley, Dies at 85
Gary England, whose childhood fascination with severe weather spawned a long career as a television meteorologist in tornado-plagued Oklahoma, where his storm warnings likely saved many lives, died on June 10 in Oklahoma City. He was 85. Bob Burke, a lawyer who wrote a biography of Mr. England, said that he died in a hospice center after a stroke last month. One of the biggest weather events of Mr. England's 41 years as the chief meteorologist at KWTV in Oklahoma City occurred on May 3, 1999, when a series of tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma and Kansas — including a catastrophic one that topped the Enhanced Fujita scale, which researchers use to rate tornadoes; it caused 46 deaths, more than 800 injuries and about $1.5 million in property damage. During live coverage that day, Mr. England talked to a storm chaser who at one point described an ominous development: A tornado funnel had quickly popped up near a much wider one. 'You folks in the path of this storm have time to get below ground,' Mr. England said. 'You need to be below ground with this storm. This is a deadly tornado.' Recalling the severity of his warning, he told NPR in 2009: 'I knew that one would get their attention because I'd never said it before and I've never said it since.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Legendary Oklahoma Meteorologist Gary England Dies at 85
Longtime KWTV chief meteorologist Gary England has died. He was 85. The Oklahoma City, Oklahoma CBS affiliate said England kept Oklahomans informed for 41 years. Upon his retirement in 2013, England was called the Oklahoma's Master Meteorologist by NPR, while The New York Times called him The Weather God of Oklahoma City. 'We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved Gary England passed this evening. Gary passed peacefully on the evening of June 10th, surrounded by his loved ones, including his wife of 63 years, Mary, and his loving daughter, Molly. Gary was proud to have protected Oklahoma from its deadliest storms. He will be deeply and forever missed,' his family said in a statement. He was known for pioneering the use of technology in forecasting. In 1981, he became the first person in history to implement Enterprise Electronics Doppler radar for direct warnings to the public. In 1990, England developed First Warning, an automated severe weather warning system that provided instant weather warning maps in the corner of the television screen. One year later, he created StormTracker, a system that projected the path of storms and the time of their arrival, a program that is now used nationwide. England authored 4 books and was the subject of another. He appeared in more than 50 national and international severe weather programs in addition to the Steven Spielberg movie "Twister." In 2006, England was a keynote speaker for the dedication of the new National Weather Center in Norman, OK. As part of the Oklahoma Centennial celebration in 2007, he was immortalized by the sculpting of his bust, which honored '100 Heroes and Outlaws' of Oklahoma repute during the state's first 100 years. England was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2013. KWTV
