The Summer 2012 Nike N7 collection will be available beginning Friday at select Nike retail locations across North America including the Nike Factory Store in Oklahoma City.

• N7 is Nike’s commitment to bringing sport and its benefits to Native American communities. To support this Kevin Durant and N7 have collaborated on 2 special editions of the KD IV. 
• N7 is a presenting sponsor for the Jim Thorpe Native American Games which take place June 10 – 17 in OKC.  The Games will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Jim Thorpe’s record setting Olympic performance in Sweden.
• The collection is anchored by the new Nike N7 Zoom KDIV that Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder debuted last month in a home contest against the LA Clippers, and also features the Nike N7 WindRunner jacket and Nike N7 Free Run+3.
• The Nike N7 collection is designed with inspiration from Native American culture and embodies Nike’s Considered Design ethos, which creates performance product that is engineered for superior athletic performance and lower environmental impact.
• A portion of profits from sales of the N7 collection help to support the N7 Fund, which awards grants to Native American and Aboriginal grassroots sport and fitness programs for youth, including the Central Oklahoma American Indian Health Council and local program 4 The Love of the Game. 
• The fund has raised more than $1 million for grantees since it began.
• Learn more at www.niken7.com.

SYMBOLISM ON DESIGN OF SHOE:

The color of turquoise, is the color friendship and the signature color of N7. The Pawnee Star detail representing the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. N7 logo represents the medicine wheel and is reflecting of the circle of life philosophy and the 4 cardinal directions. 

Playing in Oklahoma, brought KD close to the N7 cause. This collaboration between Nike Basketball is Durant’s way of giving back to the community, who have supported him by raising awareness of N7. A portion of the sales go into the N7 Fund which helps support programs such as the Jim Thorpe Native American Games.

Here is a link with info on the new KD shoe which launched Friday and how KD is doing it as his commitment to give back to the community.
It also describes in detail the symbolism of the design of the shoe. 

“When the tanning beds came out I thought I had to go every day,” she said.

That caught up with her.

“The place on my leg just looked like a busted blood vessel. When I went to the doctor,  the first thing they said was, ‘Oh, you’ve got melanoma.’”

She’s since had a number of run-ins with skin cancer and warns other to protect themselves now. 

OU Physician Dr. Pamela Allen agrees.

“We know by the age of 18 a person has received 80 percent of their sun damage, so it’s what we do as a young person that will determine how our skin will behave down the road,” she said.

New sunscreen guidelines won’t come out until December but changes will include warnings on sunscreens under SPF 15 and no more sweat-proof or water-proof listings on bottles.

Allen recommends SPF 30 or above however, she said anything over 50 doesn’t give any extra protection. 

She said sunscreen should block both UVB and UVA rays and should be re-applied every two hours.

Allen also warns people to keep a close eye on moles.

If you notice they are asymmetrical, have jagged borders, are more than one color, are bigger than a pencil eraser or have changed in some way, you should see a dermatologist. 

Skin doctors also recommend limiting your sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. when the rays are the most damaging.

Angela almost lost her 3-year-old daughter, Jada, this week. 

The family was teaching Jada how to float on her back in Arcadia Lake. 

They admittedly left her unsupervised, briefly, without a life jacket.

Killgore said, “If I could tell one person, take a life jacket for your kids.”

EMSA medics said Oklahoma lakes can be extremely dangerous, even in shallow water.

Medic Tony MCCarty said, “If they go down in an Oklahoma lake, the wind and rain, they are so dirty. You can’t find them if they go under.”

Luckily, Jada’s older brother, Tristen Bradley, came to the rescue.

He scooped up the unconscious girl and raced her to shore.

Bradley said, “It was scary. I freaked out. I didn’t know what to do but call 911. I scooped her up and she was blue. Mom was out of it, scared to death.”

Angela’s sister-in-law, Logan Wright, is CPR-certified. 

She told us, “I laid her on the ground and started doing CPR. I wasn’t scared or anything. I was just emotionless.”

Jada was revived and taken to an area hospital for observation. 

She’s expected to be just fine.

Angela Killgore was issued a $119 citation for not having a life jacket on her daughter. 

It’s a penalty she said she’ll gladly pay, knowing this could have been so much worse.

She said, “I know what I did and it will never happen again. I will always have life jackets.”

Free Military Admission to OKC Attractions

Museums around the state are teaming up to provide free admission for all active-duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

The program provides free admission to active-duty military and up to five of their immediate family members.

Some of the participating museums include:

• American Banjo Museum - Oklahoma City
• Oklahoma City Museum of Art - Oklahoma City
• Oklahoma History Center - Oklahoma City
• Oklahoma Museum of Telephone History – Oklahoma City
• Guthrie Museum Complex - Guthrie
• Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art - Norman
• Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History - Norman
• Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art - Shawnee
• Sherrar Museum of Stillwater History - Stillwater

For a complete list of participating museums, visit the Blue Star website.

Paseo Arts Festival

Bring the family to the 36th Annual Paseo Arts Festival Saturday through Monday.
Check out the showcase of original works and live music in the historic Paseo Arts District. 
Art lovers, music cravers, people watchers and everyone in between will find something to enjoy at this OKC creative celebration. 

Paseo Arts Festival
Memorial Day Weekend 
May 26, 27 and 28
Saturday & Sunday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. with music until 11 p.m.
Monday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with music until 7 p.m.
Between N.W. 30th St. and Dewey and N.W. 28th St. and Walker Ave. 

Edmond Jazz & Blues Festival

Bring a blanket to relax at the Edmond Jazz and Blues Festival Saturday and Sunday. 
It’s free to join in this Memorial Day tradition at Stephenson Park each afternoon.
Let the sounds of smooth jazz soothe away the day at this family-friendly, free outdoor festival.

Edmond Jazz & Blues Festival
Saturday: 4 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Sunday: 2 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Stephenson Park – 5th St. and Boulevard 

Harkins Theatre Summer Movie Fun

Need a place for kids to beat the summer heat? 
Head to Harkins Theatre in Bricktown for Summer Movie Fun June 4 through Aug. 10. 
Kids can see a series of 10 movies for just 50 cents each.
Season tickets are just $5 for all 10 movies or you can purchase individual tickets the day of the show for $2 each.

Click here for more information on tickets

Other Memorial Weekend Activities:

Bethany 66 Festival

Northwest Library Opening

Northwest Library (5600 N.W. 122nd St.) invites guests to celebrate the opening of the new library with fun activities, musical performances, story time, face painting and crafts. Saturday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (405) 606-3580.

Bass Pro Shop Free Summer Challenge

Layton Jeffries, 14, and 11-year-old David Scott were playing with a toy gun across the street from Jeffries’ home.

They say an off-duty Guthrie Police officer stopped the boys and drew his weapon, pointing the firearm at the boys.

According to the tort claim, Jeffries was empty-handed.

Scott was playing with a plastic, orange-tipped, toy handgun.

The officer told the boys to drop the “weapon” and allegedly yelled, “What the (expletive) is this?”

Scott remembers, “I thought they were going to shoot me execution-style.”

According to witnesses, Scott dropped his toy gun but the officer did not drop his weapon until Jeffries’ mother walked up.

Layton Jeffries remembers, “All I said is that we were only 14 and 11 years old and we weren’t doing anything wrong.”

The families feel like they were targeted because of the color of their skin.

Both boys are mixed race.

The families’ attorney, Alex Bednar, has filled three other claims against the City of Guthrie for similar incidents.

“There’s no time or place for racial profiling and targeting certain people because of the color of their skin is inapropriate in this day and age,” he said.

The city attorney for the City of Guthrie, Randel Shadid, provided this statement about the tort claim:

“We’ve already investigated this incident. The families weren’t happy with the outcome of the city’s investigation. We’re proceeding with the legal municipal process.”

Read full Guthrie tort claim here

You don’t have to look far down on the Oklahoma Sex Offender Registry before finding violators who list some of those motels as home.

“I think it’s the result of them passes is restricting where they can live. They’re literally making them go underground,” attorney David Slane said.

He said legislators have unfairly forced sex offenders to find homes in motels.

But many Oklahoma parents who may stay at these establishments with their children believe they should be forewarned from the beginning.

“The motel should let you know if there is a sex offender staying there at the time you are there with your children,” one parent said.

“I want to know where all the sex offenders are all the time. In their neighborhood, a motel or wherever they live,” another said.

One motel owner we spoke with did not want to be identified but said he has no idea if a guest has a criminal past or not.

“When they come in and get a room, they pay like everyone else. We don’t know if they are a sex offender or not,” he said.

He did say when they have a suspicion about a person, they check their background and pay closer attention to them while they’re on premises.

We spoke to the owner of another facility by phone; he said he knows about several sex offenders living at his location now but he said he won’t discriminate.

Slans said, “I don’t think sex offenders have to tell anybody that they are on the sex offender list and I don’t think the hotels have an obligation to tell anybody anything.”

Legally, they aren’t required to inform anyone.

HOMINY, Okla. — Dick Conner Correctional Center Warden Terry Martin knows how easy it can be for an offender to break out of his cell.

“This offender was able to manipulate his cell door lock and we had a female officer that was working the unit and he did attack her. He had made some devices. The report did say it was a rape kit,” Martin said.

Some of the locks at Dick Conner are so old, they’re falling apart.

That’s not all the officers who patrol the cell blocks are worried about; the number of staff at the prison has been on a steady decline since the 1980s.

“I think when I came to work in 1995, we had 130 officers for three shifts, give or take a few,” Lt. Justin Reeves said. “And now we have somewhere around high seventies, low eighties.”

The corrections system just doesn’t have the funding to pay people enough to want to work at the prison.

Because of the prison population boom, the funding corrections does get usually goes to providing basic needs for additional prisoners.

“If staffing levels continue to decrease, certainly opportunity for inappropriate offender behavior increases and that would include the attempt to escape. Public safety would be at risk,” Martin said.

Lack of funding doesn’t just affect public safety while offenders are in prison.

Several studies have shown having money to employ additional in-prison treatment and education programs reduces the chance a convict will re-offend.

That’s exactly what Todd Johnston is counting on.

“Not here but at another facility I got my associates degree,” Johnston said.

He’s at Dick Conner doing time for attempted kidnapping and robbery.

He said he got the tools to turn his life around while in prison.

“If you’re able to have a goal and able to achieve that goal and find that achievement inside yourself, then you’ve accomplished something in your life,” Johnston said. “And to be able to continue doing that through programs and other things that are offered here, then that gives you the initiative to set other goals and do better when you leave here.”

Prison officers and inmates said the Department of Corrections could use more rehabilitation programs but with funding as low as it is, that’s not likely to happen.

Monday night, tune in to Freedom 43 TV at 9 p.m. for the concluding piece in this series, where we’ll take a look at alternatives to incarceration Oklahoma can use to free up tax payer money.

Norman Richards, 22, remains in critical condition after he was shot in the back Monday night.

His parents, Norman Richards, Sr. and Elonda Quinn-Powell, said they are thankful for the support and prayers during this difficult time.

In a written statement, the family said, “We appreciate the continued support of the community and are grateful that everyone is praying for Norman and thinking of us.”

Richards’ family said he is making improvements every day.

They said he is talking and even asked about the Thunder game.  

Richards was shot while he was walking back from Thunder Alley with a friend.

Seven other people were also wounded in the shooting.

His parents want to thank a stranger who immediately came to help Norman.

His family said, “We would love the chance to thank and hug the woman who gave Norman CPR at the scene. Her quick actions may have saved his life. This compassion is what makes OKC great.”

There will be a blood drive benefitting Norman this Saturday at Quail Springs Mall on the lower level by Sears from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Anyone wanting to donate blood can also go to any OBI donor center and mention his name. 

The family has set up a bank account for Norman at Bank of Oklahoma.

People can donate at any branch.

About midnight, a driver crashed into as he was making a left-hand turn onto Memorial.

Police say, the man was driving northbound on Clearbrook Road (which is between May and Lake Hefner Parkway).

Police say the driver was traveling too fast when he rolled his car and hit a gas main, which sparked the gas fire.

Flames shot 50 feet into the air, burning nearby power lines.

An eyewitness pulled the driver from the wreckage.

Police shut down Memorial Road while the fire was contained.

Police arrested the driver for DUI.

There were no injuries.

Here’s how the scam works; the caller claims he’s participating in a debt elimination program for people with debt of $5,000 or more.

He then demands personal information such as income, birth date and social security number.

Legal Aid tells In Your Corner the program simply doesn’t exist and the non-profit law firm will never initiate a call to a client.

There’s a second scam where the caller targets victims of the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

He makes them believe they’re eligible for big cash settlements and expedited benefits for a fee.

The caller is really after your personal information.

Oklahoma’s Attorney General controls benefits.

In order to find out if you are eligible for any benefits from the foreclosure settlement, you must contact the Attorney General’s Office.

“Other people judge me before they even know me,” Shartell said.

At first Shartell did not want to show her face on camera.

She’s a man who looks and lives like a woman and says when people at work found out she was a man, she lost her job.

Now, she is revealing who she is and her story.

It is a story she claims contains harrasment by her coworkers.

“When you become a parent are you going to be the mommy or the daddy?” Shartell said. “Or how do you guys have sex?”

She complained to her boss but was soon fired.

She believes she lost her job solely because she is transgender.

When someone is fired based on sexuality, it is against the law.

“Discrimination against transgender individuals under the current EEOC guidlines is sex discrimination, and the fact that you move from one gender to another does not remove you from the category of sex,” Attorney and Equality Network Board member Brittany Novotney said.

Shartell works as a certified nurses aide.

She says when filling out job applications, she never specifies her gender or her race.

“No doubt in my mind I was fired because I’m a male, but I come off as a female,” Shartell said.  ”That’s why I was fired.”

She filed a complaint with the EEOC, but she says she was told there is not much that can be done without eyewitnesses or other evidence.

“I was thinking about committing suicide,” Shartell said.

We’re not naming Shartell’s former employer, because the EEOC investigation is ongoing.

As for Shartell, she has not found another job.

It’s like a workout buddy only for your money; someone who helps keep you on track and pushes you to meet your goals.

The suspect, from El Paso Texas, was allegedly caught red-handed.

Authorities with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife said they caught the suspect selling at least 23 turtles on a busy street corner.

Head out to your favorite fishing hole or nearby pond and on a sunny day you’re likely to see turtles sunning themselves on a log.

The most common breed is the red-eared slider.

“If you had a turtle as a kid, odds are it was a red-eared slider. They’re everywhere,” Oklahoma Department of Wildlife spokesman Lance Meek said.

Meek said despite how easy it is to see red-eared sliders, it’s very strange that someone would actually be busted selling them illegally.

“To actually have someone arrested for selling turtles on the street corner as pets, that’s a pretty rare thing,” Meek said.

Yet in this case, a wildlife official recently caught a man by the name of Christen Jaquez setting up shop at S.W. 59th St. and Penn. Ave., selling 23 red-eared sliders.

The man even had signs up advertising the sale.

Meek said the suspect selling the turtles may not have even realized he was breaking the law.

That’s why state wildlife experts have a message for everyone.

“What happens is, someone who doesn’t deal with wildlife, they think they can do something and they don’t even consider that it’s illegal. Anytime you do anything with wildlife, you need to check the hunting and fishing guides to see if it’s OK to do that,” Meek said.

The state does have several commercial retailers and even some breeders and harvesters that sell turtles but in each case, the businesses are licensed with the state.

The suspect in this case had no license.

Two years ago, voters approved a measure prohibiting the courts from using international or Sharia law when making rulings.

However, an appeals court ruled that measure unconstitutional.

State Senator Dan Newberry (R-Tulsa) describes the thought of foreign law trumping state law to justify a crime as “appalling.”

He’s the author of Senate Bill 671, which aims to “protect its citizens from certain applications of foreign laws.”

Although Newberry said he can’t cite a case where foreign law has negated state or federal law, “sometimes preemptive medicine is the best medicine.”

He said there have been other incidents around the country where courts are using foreign law to determine cases.

“I think it’s a dangerous precedence,” Newberry said. “We should be talking about our state, our rules, our laws when determining cases within our boundaries.”

ACLU Executive Director Ryan Kiesel said this bill feeds into an unhealthy attitude toward muslim Americans.

“The people of Oklahoma might tend to believe that there’s this problem when there’s just not,” he said. “That problem just does not exist.”

In a time when the legislature is fighting a deadline to come to an agreement on a budget, income tax cuts and even repairs to the Capitol, Kiesel believes the bill is a waste of time.

“I think the legislators have a lot more on their hands and I think the taxpayers of Oklahoma would agree with that,” he said.

But Newberry said the Senate has filtered through over 4,000 bills this year and has decided this issue was very important.

“The bill doesn’t specify a religion or a group of people,” he said. “The bill talks about the laws of the state of Oklahoma and how we believe they should be interpreted by the judges.”

The Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill 40-to-3.

It now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Memorial Day to Labor Day are the “100 deadliest days” for teen drivers. 

AT&T Spokesman Ryan Stafford said, “It’s when all the kids are out of school and on the road a lot more so we are bringing awareness to this deadly situation.”

Forty-three percent of teenagers admit to texting and driving. 

Authorities said it’s among the most dangerous behind-the-wheel distractions.

According to Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel, “The last two stops I made that I thought were drunk drivers turned out to be texting and driving. One was worse than any drunk driving stop than anything I’d ever seen.”

In an effort to make the streets safer this summer, AT&T has embarked on a 30-city tour with a computerized driving simulator.

Teens like Jamiece Nelson can see what it’s really like to simultaneously text and drive at 45 miles per hour.

Nelson said, “It was horrible. I killed somebody. That’s bad. I’m glad I don’t text and drive.”

Stafford said, “They may kill someone but at least it’s not real people. It is really a good illustration of what can be expected or what can come up whenever you do text and drive.”

In many cases, the bad behavior is learned from adult role models; 77 percent of teens surveyed said their parents reply to texts and emails while behind the wheel.

A year later the Boutwell family has rebuilt on their property and are spending their first week in their new home.

They’re busy unpacking and getting things in order.

They’ve lived 25 years in Piedmont but Mom, Andi Boutwell, said they now have an even greater love of their community. 

“We had always appreciated but after the tornado, we really appreciated how the town came together and helped,” she said.

Now empty nesters, with daughter Brooke on her own, it’s an oasis for her mom and dad. 

Andi said she’s getting back to what was before.

“For me a big thing was backing out of the driveway. This is the first time I’d done it in a year. I headed to work on my normal routine from a year ago and it felt really good,” she said.

Brooke Boutwell said it’s bittersweet but she’s glad her parents have rebuilt.

“This is like their first home with no children. They get to live here for forever. It’s basically their dream home,” she said.

Sept. 26, 2009, a Valley Brook police officer pulled over and arrested Detective Chuck Wheeler.

Wheeler was off-duty from his post as an Oklahoma City detective at the time.

Wheeler was detained for three hours and never charged.

Wheeler sued the town following the arrest because he said the officer had no probable cause to make the arrest.

Wheeler’s attorney, Scott Adams, said, “The Valley Brook Police Department is an embarrassment to law enforcement throughout the State of Oklahoma. They are a joke. I’ve never seen a more dysfunctional police department in my life. Throughout this case, the department continued to change stories, to lie, to cheat. They did whatever they could to defame an honorable detective.”

Wednesday, an Oklahoma County jury returned a verdict in favor of Detective Wheeler.

The Town of Valley Brook has been ordered to pay $11,000 to Wheeler for the arrest.

The officer who made the arrest, Shelby Field, was ordered to pay $1,000.

Adams said, “It was never about the money. It was simply to try to get Valley Brook to behave like a respectable police department.”

Current Police Chief Michael Stamp was not the police chief at the time of the arrest.

Chief Stamp said his department would like to move forward past the incident.

“We were hoping for a different verdict but we had our day in court. We received a fair trial. In the end we lost. They won,” he said.

Valley Brook calls the arrest an isolated incident.

Officer Shelby Field is no longer with the department.

The Police Chief said the officer resigned for unrelated reasons.