October 29, 2019 Issue, Page 1 of 14

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yd Serving 7 By. Western Oklahoma 4 (| Since 1901 Weekday Edition Students raise money Elk City High School choir members, from left, front row, Makenzie Armstrong, Hannah through auction White, Lauren Peffer, Kelly McQuinn and, back row, Britney Reyna and J’Lynn Hodnett practice on Friday. Staff photo by Don Munsch. Elk City FFA students Shailee Ross and Hai- ley Earle await people to call prices during the FFA Labor Auction last week. Staff photo by Don Munsch. By Don Munsch, Editor Elk City High School FFA students auctioned themselves off to the highest bidder on Thursday evening during the annual Labor Auction in the high school commons. Students must perform the work for the company that bought their services between now and May 1. Around 80 Elk City junior high, high school students participated in the auction, which attracted several businesses. A silent auction also was held, and refresh- ments were served. Some 135 ECHS students are involved choir members stay busy in FFA. As they were being auctioned, students in FFA attire stood on a podium with the FFA motto of “Learning to Do, By Don Munsch, Editor work hard this semester and being selected for this group Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve.” Elk City choir students ventured to Weatherford last week was definitely rewarding.” “Be generous with your bids, and we'll try to get through to participate in an honor choir event on the campus of Nearly 1,000 students from all over Western Oklahoma these kids as fast we can,” said Jeremy Justus, one of the Southwestern Oklahoma State University. auditioned in September in order to gain a spot in one of auctioneers of the event, moments before the auction began. Thirty-one Elk City Middle School and High School stu- three choirs, Ediger said. After the auction, FFA teacher Karie Dillinger explained dents participated in the annual Western Oklahoma Choral “It’s a very competitive process,” Ediger said. “Students to buyers they can call the high school’s ag department to Directors Association honor choir festival on Oct. 21. have to learn three to four pieces of music on their own voice arrange having a student come by and do the work at the ECHS co-choir director Justin Ediger said the day was a part and then sing in a ‘blind audition’ where they get there iness. Most businesses will not actually put the students success. and have no idea what parts (cuts) of the songs they’re going See Auction page 2. “We were very proud of all of the kids that both auditioned to have to sing for a panel of judges.” and were selected for this group,” Ediger said an email.”Lori On Oct. 21, the students selected got the opportunity to [Daubenspeck], my co-teacher, and I have seen these kids See Choir page 2. ADA discusses the complicated field of drug laws By Don Munsch, Editor and there exists limited space for incarceration. Drug laws can be a cloudy area for prosecutors to deal “So, if our choices are send them somewhere or lock them with, especially these days in Oklahoma. up, we have some issues,” he said. “This is kind of com- Brian Henderson, assistant district attorney for Beckham pounded how it is when we made these things misdemean- County, discussed the state of narcotics Thursday at the Elk ors and took out the ability of the Department of Corrections City Rotary Club. Gina Webb, another ADA for Beckham to deal with it.” County, also was on hand to deliver some recent stats on As stated in a story on KFOR television, HB 1269 seeks prosecutions. to ease prison overcrowding by applying 780 retroactively. Changes are afoot with state laws, and law enforcement SQ 780 reclassified some offenses, such as drug possession and prosecutors are trying to keep track. and property crimes, to misdemeanors instead of felonies. “What I will tell you about a lot of this stuff that’s go- Henderson read from an article that said in November, ing on with drugs right now, we simply don’t know the an- Oklahoma will the largest single-day commutation of sen- Yesterdayz Pants. Photo by Casey Lantz. swers,” Henderson said. “Things have changed so much, so tences in the nation’s history. So, when the law goes into quickly, that the district attorneys and law enforcement, we effect, the Department of Corrections will start having hear- don’t how to handle things and how it’s going to really play ings in which people’ sentences are reviewed and those sen- Elk City making progress out. It keeps changing very, very rapidly.” On Nov. 1, a number of changes will occur, he said. One tences will be commuted and people jailed for felony pos- session of drugs will be let out. for music scene. of those changes is House Bill 1269 goes into effect. “T’m not sure I think that’s entirely bad, but it’s certainly By Casey Lantz, Contributing Writer In a PowerPoint presentation, Henderson showed some not entirely good, either, and it’s causing us lots of issues,” The band Yesterdayz Pants played a show Saturday after- data about marijuana patient cards, including how their he said. “We’re seeing rises with the crimes now being mis- noon on Broadway Avenue in Elk City, in front of BTB’s numbers continue to rise. He explained how in 2016, Okla- demeanors, we’re seeing rises in property crimes and em- records in downtown Elk City. It was their second time homa had State Question 780 on the ballot in which pros- ployment issues and things like that.” playing a free show downtown in the past couple of months. ecutors reduced a lot of felony possession of drug cases to He noted that in Oklahoma, the issue was about drugs in Elk City has never been known to have too much of a live misdemeanors. House Bill 1269 is about to go into effect, in general, not marijuana. music scene, but several people are taking steps to make it which State Question 780 will be made retroactive. “We didn’t elect to make marijuana a misdemeanor; we become a reality. “So what we have then is all of the folks who have previ- made all the drugs a misdemeanor,” he said. Brady Butcher, who owns Carrol’s shoe corner, and more ously been convicted of felony possession of marijuana or He discussed how there’s no list in Oklahoma of what an recently BTB‘s records, is one of those people. methamphetamine — and they may even been incarcerated ailment has to be in order for someone to receive medicinal Beatty Beatty’s is a good place to run into fellow musi- for that felony possession — now there are mechanisms in marijuana. cians and people who are like-minded, and passionate about place for them to go back and very, very simply fill out some “Tf you can articulate some sort of condition, then you are music. documentation and get that reduced,” Henderson said. eligible for that marijuana,” he said. That’s just what happened when a musician who had just Henderson said there are limited resources in Western Henderson pointed out how the new statues have moved moved to Elk City to follow his fiancée who got a job at Oklahoma for treatment for those who have drug problems, See Drug laws page 2. See Yesterdayz Pants page 2. OT Te Vol. 117, No. 81 Weather tomorrow 6 / 20 75 cents, 12 pgs. Mail delivery 580.225.3000 View online elkcityoknews.com