The Ledger/LCJ blog 5-17-2022

By CRAIG HALL

Welcome to the Ledger/LCJ blog for today.

Today is May 17, 2022. The 137th day of 2022. There are 228 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.

Robinson Construction successfully bid to remove and rebuild two low-water crossings at the LeFlore County Commission meeting on Monday morning.

At $75,000, the company was the only bidder for a crossing on Highline Road in District 1. Robinson was the lower of two bidders on a crossing on Station Road in District 2. Robinson bid $39,800 while Shipman bid $40,000.

In today’s weather forecast, partly cloudy skies again Tuesday with a chance of showers or thunderstorms in LeFlore County.

The high will be 84 degrees with a low of 73 degrees.

Sunrise is 6:13 a.m. Sunset is 8:17 p.m.

In today’s calendar, the Poteau Evening Lions Club meet 6 p.m. CASC.

Gwendolyn Carol (Gullick) Martinez was born Oct. 20, 1964 and passed away May 14, 2022 in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

A memorial party will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday at her sister’s residence

Funeral service for Misty Michelle Catlett, 52 of Spiro is 11 a.m. Thursday at Mallory-Martin Funeral Home Chapel in Spiro with Brother Joey Underwood and Brother Brandon Mooneyham officiating. Burial will follow at Spiro City Cemetery , under the direction of Mallory-Martin Funeral Home in Spiro.

She was born May 21, 1969 in Fort Smith, Arkansas and passed away May 14, 2022 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. 

In other news for today, When Joe Biden talks about his decision to run against President Donald Trump in 2020, the story always starts with Charlottesville. He says it was the men with torches shouting bigoted slogans that drove him to join what he calls the “battle for the soul of America.”

Now Biden is facing the latest deadly manifestation of hatred after a white supremacist targeted Black people with an assault rifle at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and left 10 people dead, the most lethal racist attack since he took office.

The president and first lady Jill Biden are to visit the city on Tuesday, where their first stop will be a makeshift memorial outside the supermarket. They’re also expected to meet privately with families of the victims, first responders and local officials before the president delivers public remarks.

Under fire from parents and politicians, President Joe Biden’s administration announced steps Monday to ease a nationwide shortage of baby formula, including reopening the largest domestic manufacturing plant and increasing imports from overseas.

The Food and Drug Administration said it was streamlining its review process to make it easier for foreign manufacturers to begin shipping more formula into the U.S.

Rickie Fowler stood for nearly 20 minutes answering still more questions about his game and how can he get it back to where it used to be when he was a force in golf and notably in the majors.

Every now and then he’d cross his arms, or scratch his elbow, subconciously flashing the Olympic rings tattoo across his right forearm.

That tattoo is a link back to 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, when Fowler represented the United States at the Olympics and was at the top of his game in a three-year run that saw him reach as high No. 4 in the world. A zest for fun (note the tattoos), easy smile and breezy demeanor made Fowler one of the most popular players on tour

Eight years later, the now 33-year-old is three years removed from his last victory heading into this week’s PGA Championship, and on the verge of falling out of the top 150 in the world for the first time since his rookie year in 2010

Kentucky Derby runner-up Epicenter was set Monday as the 6-5 morning line favorite for the Preakness Stakes, which will be run without Rich Strike.

The surprise Derby winner at 80-1 is not in the field of nine for Saturday’s $1.65 million race. Rich Strike’s owner felt the two-week turnaround did not give the colt enough rest and plans to enter him in the Belmont.

In major league baseball scores Monday, Detroit edged Tampa Bay, 3-2; Miami outscored Washington, 8-2; the Yankees got past Baltimore, 6-2; Toronto defeated Seattle, 6-2; Boston beat Houston, 6-3; the Cubs blanked Pittsburgh, 9-0; Milwaukee squeezed past Atlanta, 1-0; Texas downed the Angels, 7-4; the White Sox slipped by Kansas City, 5-3; San Francisco scored a 7-6 win over Colorado; Minnesota won over Oakland, 3-1; the Dodgers nipped Arizona, 5-4; and the Cardinals’ game at the Mets was postponed.

On this date in history, in 1954 a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision which held that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional.

In 1940, the Nazis occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War II.

In 1946, President Harry S. Truman seized control of the nation’s railroads, delaying — but not preventing — a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.

In 1973, a special committee convened by the U.S. Senate began its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal.

In 1987, 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf. (Iraq apologized for the attack, calling it a mistake, and paid more than $27 million in compensation.)

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in.

In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriages.

In 2015, a shootout erupted between bikers and police outside a restaurant in Waco, Texas, leaving nine of the bikers dead and 20 people injured.

In today’s birthdays, Boxing Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard is 66; Sports announcer Jim Nantz is 63; Singer Enya is 61; and actor-comedian Craig Ferguson is 60.

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