The Ledger/LCJ blog 5-16-2022

By CRAIG HALL

Welcome to the Ledger/LCJ blog for today.

You can listen to today’s podcast HERE. Or watch our morning news.

Today is May 16, 2022. The 136th day of 2022. There are 229 days left in the year.

Thanks to everybody for joining us. If you like this, please share it with anybody you think might be interested. If you don’t care for it, let’s keep that between us and tell me why. We will try to do better next time.

The LeFlore County commissioners meet 9 a.m. Monday for their usual business meeting. Among the items to be discussed are possibly awarding a bid regarding the sale of a 2011 4×4 Caterpillar backhoe to benefit Highway district #2.

In today’s weather, partly cloudy skies with a chance of more storms overnight Monday.

The high will be 83 degrees with a low of 64 degrees.

Sunrise is 6:14 a.m. Sunset is 8:16 p.m.

Averages temperatures for May 16 are a high of 81 and a low of 59. Record temperatures for the date were a high of 93 in 1931 and a record low of 41 in 1970.

On the county calendar for today, in addition to the commissioners’ meeting, Funeral service for David Bullard is 10 a.m. Monday at Church of God Seventh Day in Wister with Lamar Ford and Chip Hinds officiating. Burial will follow at Maxey Cemetery in Wister, under the direction of Evans & Miller Funeral Home.

The white gunman accused of committing a racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket made threating comments that brought police to his high school last spring, but he was never charged with a crime and had no further contact with law enforcement after his release from a hospital, officials said.

The revelation raised questions about whether his encounter with police and the mental health system was yet another missed opportunity to put a potential mass shooter under closer law enforcement scrutiny, get him help, or make sure he didn’t have access to deadly firearms.

Europe pushed Monday to sharpen and expand its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Sweden poised to follow Finland in seeking membership of NATO and European Union officials working to rescue proposed sanctions that would target Russian oil exports helping the Kremlin finance its war.

On the ground, Russia saw more setbacks in its offensive in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian defenders are fighting desperately against attempted Russian advances and even successfully rolling back the front lines in some areas.

In sports, the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks advanced in the NBA playoffs, Grant Williams scored a career-high 27 points and hit seven 3-pointers, Jayson Tatum added 23 and Boston set a Game 7 record with 22 3-pointers to eliminate the NBA champion Bucks 109-81 on Sunday in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Mavericks also advanced in the playoffs, as Dallas overwhelmed the top-seeded Phoenix Suns 123-90 in a Game 7 that will be remembered for the Mavericks’ dominance and the Suns’ disappearance.

On this date in history, in 1943, the nearly month-long Warsaw Ghetto Uprising came to an end as German forces crushed the Jewish resistance and blew up the Great Synagogue.

In 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.

In 1866, Congress authorized minting of the first five-cent piece, also known as the “Shield nickel.”

In 1939, the federal government began its first food stamp program in Rochester, New York.

In 1957, federal agent Eliot Ness, who organized “The Untouchables” team that took on gangster Al Capone, died in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, at age 54.

In 1990, death claimed entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. in Los Angeles at age 64 and “Muppets” creator Jim Henson in New York at age 53.

On today’s birthdays Actor Pierce Brosnan is 69; Actor Debra Winger is 67; Singer Janet Jackson is 56; Political commentator Tucker Carlson is 53; and Actor Tracey Gold is 53.

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