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Shining light on the legislative process
For starters, the state Senate needs to step up and provide the same level of transparency as the House. Both the House and Senate stream their floor sessions live on the Internet, but the House also archives the files so you can go back at any point and view them.

Holding our biased breath
Let’s be perfectly honest: When it comes to Chesapeake’s troubles, nobody in Oklahoma City can be expected to be objective. We all have been on the receiving end of too many benefits, from Classen Curve to Whole Foods to the arena’s namesake, not to mention some of the best Christmas lights in the known universe.

LETTERS
Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to pbacharach@okgazette. com or sent online at okgazette.com, but include a city of residence and contact number for verification.

Caged heat
The comments were part of a larger discussion among the council at its June 16 meeting about what to do with a $1.3 million surplus to the city budget and whether to put that money into expanded bus service, street maintenance, or the hiring of more police officers.

Street fight
During a previous council meeting, some council members said they were unaware of plans that include an elevated bridge over the area near W. Reno Avenue, S. Classen Boulevard and S. Western Avenue. A citizens group, Friends for a Better Boulevard, wants the city and state Department of Transportation to consider other options.

High and dry
As the sun rose over Oklahoma City on July 17, a strange sight greeted those walking or commuting near the western basin of the Oklahoma River. The river was not there. Sometime overnight, one of the six 65,000-pound gates on the Brum Dam, located just west of S.

Winging it
Purple martins have been a staple in our grandmothers’ backyards for generations. The birds have a long history with humans and are generally regarded as a welcome addition to any landscape. But thousands of the birds have descended on downtown Oklahoma City in the past several weeks, and are finding their surroundings anything but hospitable.

Animal kingdom
Oklahoma City’s Kirkpatrick Foundation is kicking off an ambitious initiative — to make Oklahoma the safest place to be an animal by 2032 — tonight by hosting worldrenowned philosopher and animal ethicist Bernard Rollin to lecture at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation.

Live. Local. Leaving.
“I think it was a combination of a perfect storm, if you want to use a weather term, of an opportunity there,” he said. “I’ve loved my time here [at KOCO], but after a while, you think, ‘Well, what else can I do?’ There are only one or two places I would choose a job in over Oklahoma City.

Cat fight
We all know Hello Kitty: that mouthless visage, yellow nose, and those unblinking, black, beady eyes that burrow into your soul and fill it with overwhelming dread and cuteness. Well, it turns out she has claws, too, and when two Oklahoma City women decided to appropriate the famous feline’s image for a beauty pageant, those litigious claws came out.

Fetus fetish
When it comes to receptiveness to reproductive rights, Oklahoma might be somewhere between the Vatican and the Satan who rapes and impregnates Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby..

Shot with his own gun
To loosely paraphrase the sentiment of the National Rifle Association: Guns don’t kill penises; felons with lousy.

The tree of strife
Oscar nominations notwithstanding, it turns out that spending $32 million on a meditative study on the meaning of our existence doesn’t make you the most popular kid in class..

Pr BS Lots of press releases cross our...
Lots of press releases cross our desk. Recently, these titles least screamed “Stop the presses!” —“Near-Death Experiences Reproduced in First-Ever Experiences” —“Consumer Reports: You can get a very good bagel outside of New Yawk” —“What can a 1,200...

The ultimate gentrification
We at Chicken-Fried News are thinking more along the lines of a mixed-use residential repurposing. After all, we’ve got The Hill, The Montgomery, The Regency and The Sieber in other redeveloped areas of downtown. The Slammer would.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD
popular reading of the apocalypse casts it as a fast track to heaven for the faithful.) The Talking Points Memo blog did some comparative shopping and found many of Bakker’s items to be overpriced by as much as 100 percent. Bakker also offers the devout a $100 Silver Solution Total Body Cleanse Kit, which includes enemas.

Get the scoop
While gelato isn’t exactly the same thing as ice cream, it’s definitely in the same family tree, so don’t count out Il Dolce Gelato, 937-B S.W. 25th in Moore or 1318 N. Interstate Drive in Norman. Co-owners Neil and Sommer Buss require no passport to experience one of Italy’s most delicious treats.

Still in Saigon
Well, that’s not true. I hate a lot of things more, but I don’t come into contact with them nearly as often as I do boring sandwiches. Rarely, for instance, do I step inside a restaurant and witness genocide. But lots of places have boring sandwiches..

Evergreen wine
In a spring wine-tasting at Ranch Steakhouse, 3000 W. Britton, a group of restaurateurs, wine professionals and food-service staff blind tasted some of Napa Valley’s best wines side-by-side with Washington wines. For both Cabernet and Merlot, the room overwhelmingly chose the Washington offerings.

FOOD & DRINK
July sure is sweet. On the heels of a whole month dedicated to eating ice cream, Monday is National Cheesecake Day. That’s right: a whole day dedicated to eating cheesecake without feeling guilty! The Cheesecake Factory, 5600 N. Pennsylvania, invites you to enjoy a half-price slice of pie.

OKG 7 Seven/places you shouldn’t forget about
Do you ever drive by a restaurant and think, “I want to eat there!” But as soon as it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. Memory can be a real mystery when it comes time to decide where to eat. Next time, consider pulling over pronto for one of these delicious spots.

OKG 7 Seven/things to do
Oklahoma native Pearl Mesta (née Skirvin) was the D.C. socialite of the ’50s — so much so that Irving Berlin based the musical Call Me Madam on her. With five performances scheduled between today and Saturday, Lyric Theatre stages the production on “The Hostess with the Mostes’” at Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N.

Freak it
Self-described as “the greatest show in Hell,” the Hellzapoppin sideshow revue pops into The Conservatory, 8911 N. Western, for a night of out-there entertainment. Starting at 8 p.m. Friday, you’ll see Zamora the Torture King, seductive sword-swallower Maryanne Madgdelen and more — even Mr.

Read it
Imagine baseball legend Ted Williams came back to life to play for the Boston Red Sox in 2092. Or just let Bruce E. Spitzer do it for you, in his new novel, Extra Innings..

See it
Home Alone..

Hear it
Hear it.

Yeehaw it
The Castaway Cowboy.

House it
Daily, ongoing.

Kidding around
First stop is Uptown Kids (5840 N. Classen Blvd.; 418-8881). This is a space you don’t have to be nervous to bring the kids to, because it’s designed with them in mind! The clothes racks are lower to the ground, and there’s even an area with a TV if the little ones need a shopping break.

God and science
“Rather than positing a dualistic understanding of persons — for example, body and a disembodied soul — we argue for a holistic/monistic perspective, which conceives humans as embodied persons embedded in a world of relationships,” said Strawn, who co-authored the book with Warren Brown.

LIFE
The gates open at 3 p.m. Friday, with music performances kicking off at 4 p.m., and the sounds don’t stop until midnight. On Saturday, gates open at 1 p.m., with nonstop tunes from 2 p.m. until midnight..

Life Visual Arts
Beauty and math add up to create Geometrix: Geometry in Art, a new exhibition now on display in the Satellite Galleries at Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 N.E. 52nd. An opening reception will be hosted from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday.

It’s the top
The production benefits from some strong performances by the supporting cast. Anderson joins Justin Larman, as Moonface Martin, in “Friendship.” (Larman is a promising comic actor: Imagine Jackie Gleason with Rod Steiger’s voice.) Terry Attebery adds credibility to Anything.

New moves
For almost a year, Michelle Dexter has been planning the sixth annual Oklahoma Contemporary Dance Festival, showcasing the work of five Sooner State-based dance companies and 38 dancers..

Orange to gold?
Coleman Scott, a former NCAA champion at Oklahoma State University, secured the final spot on the U.S. Olympic wrestling team in June. Despite winning the Olympic team trials in April, he still had to win a tournament in New York City to earn his place in the 132-pound (60 kg) weight class for London.

On the road
Coupens is team physician for USA Cycling, and Hines is back as team physician for USA Wrestling. Each has three separate groups: Coupens’ cyclists are divided into road racing, velodrome and BMX, and Hines oversees freestyle, Greco and women’s wrestlers.

Torch slinger
As president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Tulsa pediatrician Robert Block carried the Olympic torch through Oxford, England, as it made its way to London for the 2012 Summer Olympics..

Bastards!
“He recommended we go on tour before recording, just to tighten up those songs and try and capture that live sound. It was a really good suggestion,” said Erika Wennerstrom, lead Bastard and the only constant member. “When you go on the road, it helps you figure out what’s working and what’s not.

Bros before woes
“We have more tools at our disposal than we ever have. There’s been a gradual progression, watching the size of the rooms we were playing in increase. It’s been awesome to see what we can attempt in these huge rooms now,” Seth Avett said. “We’re doing longer shows than we ever have, too.

Honey, I quit the band
“Ryan and I had been writing our own stuff for a long time,” Natalie Houck said. “You know how artists are: We don’t want to give up control of our own work. It was a lot of tension, and we felt it was mutually beneficial for us to have our own project.

Color me busy
Months ago at Norman Music Festival, Herrera played with four different bands (Chrome Pony, The Gentle Art of Floating, Good Morning Grizzly and The Nghiems) in three days, and that didn’t even include a performance by his own solo project, Young Readers.

Last chance
“I saw them perform for the sixthgrade talent show and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s cool,’ and I liked them and they sounded really good,” Castelli said. “I talked to some of the guys who were in the band, and I tried out and made it.”.

SOUNDCHECK Album Review
Just a few minutes into Incommunicado, it becomes painfully obvious that Oklahoma native Chad Sullins knows his Red Dirt, country, classic rock and blues, and he blends them into the perfect barn-party soundtrack. The album plays like The Hangover set in Stillwater instead of Vegas, with all the emotions, amusement and reflections therein.

Beauty and Beasts
Just as the creative force of Ofelia’s imagination in that 2006 film fought back against Franco’s fascism, this one, embodied in 6-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), stands up to the racism and sacrifice of the poor for the sake of those with higher tax bases and voter identification cards.

Skin deep
A fully nude woman suspended on a wall, perched on a bicycle seat.

Good Knight
And it’s anchored by a uniformly strong cast, ranging from the franchise regulars to the welcome addition of Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception) as a rookie cop and Anne Hathaway (One Day).

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
next three weeks, you will deserve the following titles: 1.) Most Likely to Benefit from Serendipitous Adventures; 2.) Most Likely to Exclaim “Aha!”; 3.) Most Likely to Thrive While Wandering in Wild Frontiers and Exotic Locales; 4.) Most Likely to Have a Wish Come True if This Wish is Made in the Presence of a Falling Star.