The most-anticipated college tennis match ever in Tucson was a hot ticket, so much so they had to print out more just to accommodate all the people who wanted to watch Arizona try and make history on Saturday afternoon.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma County jail refuses inspection, setting up fight with state Health Department • Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma County jail has twice refused surprise inspections from the Oklahoma State Department of Health, setting the stage for a potential standoff between the county’s district attorney and the state agency tasked with ensuring county jails are safe.
The decision to block what should be a routine annual inspection has raised concerns among some who said unannounced visits are not unusual and are necessary to ensure inmates are receiving proper care.
County officials first denied entry to an inspector on June 25, saying the jail did not have enough staff to support the inspection, and again Tuesday for the same reason.
Jail officials instead invited the Health Department to conduct the inspection on a predetermined date.
The state Health Department rebuffed that offer in its own letter dated July 1, which Oklahoma Voice obtained with an open records request.
“We will not be deterred from obtaining an accurate understanding of how the facility operates on a day-to-day basis and decline your invitation for a planned and potentially curated inspection,” wrote Health Commissioner Keith Reed.
He wrote that it was concerning that the jail did not have adequate staff for inspections given its history of “noncompliance with basic health, safety, and sanitary standards.”
The agency then attempted a second unannounced inspection Tuesday morning.
In response, the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office sent a letter stating that the agency had “exceeded its lawful authority.”
Aaron Etherington, assistant district attorney, wrote in the letter that the Health Department must submit a 10-day notice prior to any inspections.
The Health Department maintained Wednesday that unannounced inspections are legal and necessary and 10-day notice is not required.
According to Oklahoma law, inspectors employed by the health department are permitted to enter the jail for inspections.
Damion Shade, executive director for Oklahomans For Criminal Justice Reform, said the agency has the right to conduct unannounced inspections.
However, he said there could be legal context the public is unaware of that led the district attorney to support the jail in this case.
Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, said he is a long-time advocate for improving prisons and detention centers around the state. When it comes to surprise inspections, he’s very supportive of them.
“If they know something is coming, they’re gonna do things differently and prepare … If we have random inspections, you’re gonna have to be prepared at all times,” Humphrey said. “Who wouldn’t want that?”
The Oklahoma County jail has been plagued with problems since it opened in 1991. A trust, the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority, took over administration of the jail in July 2020 but the jail continued to experience above average death rates, poor facilities, overcrowding and understaffing.
“I think there are historical issues that have plagued that jail, really, since its design and inception,” Shade said. “I think it’s unfair to blame them (the trust) for all of those years of lost public trust.”
In 2023, The Oklahoman conducted a lengthy investigation which covered the long history of issues with the jail. Since the trust took over, over 40 people have died in custody, with four people dead this year alone.
A grand jury decided in March 2023 that the trust controlling the jail should be dissolved, returning control to the county sheriff. So far the nine-person trust has opted to continue running the facility.
Shade said that abiding by state laws reflects a commitment to voters and the Oklahomans incarcerated in the jail. He said these unannounced inspections could help to rebuild public trust in the jail.
“If the state Health Department was going to a school and the school said, ‘Hey, we don’t have enough staff to walk you around. We can’t do surprise inspections,’ … I don’t think the public would be satisfied with that type of explanation in the context of a school,” Shade said. “So we certainly shouldn’t be satisfied with that explanation in the context of a jail where we have Oklahoma citizens.”
Back in 2022, unannounced inspections revealed repeated violations of state standards. Shade said such inspections help protect the civil rights of the people in the jail and ensure that they are being properly cared for.
“You (voters) all pay the taxes. You have a right to know what is happening in any space that you are paying for to house Oklahoma citizens. Be that a school, be that a jail or a prison,” Shade said. “Oklahoma voters have a right to know what’s happening.”
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Oklahoma
Tulsa Race Massacre reparations is soul-redeeming work for the US, Oklahoma civil rights lawyer says
NEW YORK (AP) — It wasn’t until his junior year of college that civil rights attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons learned about a devastating massacre that took place in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
His African American studies professor lectured about what is known today as the Tulsa Race Massacre — the days in 1921 when white mobs carried out a scorched-earth campaign against an outnumbered Black militia protecting the fabled Black Wall Street, a prosperous all-Black community.
“I actually told a teacher, ‘I’m from Tulsa. That’s not true,’” Solomon-Simmons recalled. “And of course, I was wrong.”
That day planted a seed for the then-aspiring attorney, who went on to lead a reparations campaign for the living survivors of the massacre and their descendants. Nearly 105 years later, no one has been compensated for what they lost, and none of the culprits have been held accountable.
That fight for reparations is the subject of Solomon-Simmons’ first book, “Redeem a Nation: The Century-Long Battle to Restore the Soul of America,” which is intended as a blueprint for justice in historic atrocities that Black Americans endured but never received reparations for. The book hits shelves Tuesday.
After the massacre, more than 35 city blocks of the neighborhood known as Greenwood were leveled in fires, an estimated 191 businesses were destroyed, and roughly 11,000 Black residents were displaced. The state of Oklahoma declared the death toll to be only 36 people, although many historians and experts who have studied the event put the death toll between 75 and 300.
Greenwood, founded in 1906, had been a bustling city within a city, with Black-owned grocery stores, soda fountains, cafés, barbershops, a movie theater, music venues, cigar and billiard parlors, tailors and dry cleaners, rooming houses and rental properties.
“If you can ignore Greenwood, which was the beacon of Black prosperity and Black progress in the history of this country, then you can ignore Black people in general,” Solomon-Simmons recently told The Associated Press. “I think that’s why people around the nation are so focused on the work that we’re doing, because they understand what it means to all of Black America.”
Solomon-Simmons’s book comes just months before the United States will mark 250 years since its founding in 1776. That was 89 years before the institution of chattel slavery — meaning an enslaved person was held as legal property of another — was abolished. The civil rights attorney questions the idea that Americans can truly celebrate the country’s accomplishments when it has yet to pay reparations, which historians say informs modern day disparities in wealth between Black and white people.
“We cannot talk about what America has been and will be, without making sure that these issues are discussed and we get reparatory justice for both” slavery and the Tulsa massacre, Solomon-Simmons said.
‘America has never had a soul’
In 343 pages, Solomon-Simmons does more than recite the history of the massacre or make a legal thriller out of his reparations campaign. For him, securing justice for the survivors and descendants of the massacre is also about healing a nation whose earliest promises of equality for all rang hollow.
“When I speak of repairing America’s soul, I do not mean restoring something that was once whole,” Solomon-Simmons writes in the book. “America has never had a soul. … There was no moral center to recover.”
He suggests that America’s soul cannot be repaired if it is forced to choose between rebuilding the nation or repairing Black America. They must do both, he says.
“The struggle for justice in Greenwood is not about returning to a mythical past. It is about proving whether America can build a soul at all through truth, through justice, through repair.”
Reparations for slavery and other historical racial injustices has been debated in the U.S. since Reconstruction, through the Civil Rights Movement and for much of the 21st century. Jennifer L. Morgan, a professor of history at New York University, said such debates are complicated by the question of exactly who pays the reparations and exactly who receives the payment.
“I don’t think that we’re talking about individuals who owe anybody else reparations. I think we’re talking about states, about institutions, about the nation,” Morgan said. “America is still grappling with reparations because America is still grappling at the legacy of slavery, racial discrimination, Jim Crow, and violent exclusion of Black people from the body politic.”
Some opponents of reparations argue there are no living culprits or direct victims of enslavement, much less people with verifiable claims of harm that can be presented in a court of law.
Solomon-Simmons disagrees.
“We know who did the massacre — the perpetrators are still living in Tulsa,” he said referring to the city and the chamber of commerce, which plaintiffs alleged had a hand in obstructing Greenwood’s recovery.
There is one remaining massacre survivor involved in the reparations lawsuit: 111-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle.
“If we cannot get her reparations while she’s alive, for the massacre, it’s gonna make it that much harder for us to get reparations for enslavement, Jim Crow, redlining and all those things that we are owed,” Solomon-Simmons said.
Fight for Tulsa reparations continues
In the book, Solomon-Simmons reflects on what committed him to the reparations fight.
While in law school, he was introduced to high profile civil rights attorneys working for the Reparations Coordinating Committee – the late Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree Jr., who mentored Barack and Michelle Obama; and the late Johnnie Cochran, who is widely known for defending O.J. Simpson during his trial for murder of his ex-wife. Solomon-Simmons became a law clerk for the committee.
After witnessing Ogletree argue a Tulsa reparations case in federal court in 2004, Solomon-Simmons said the practice of law stopped being just a credential for speaking, writing, or teaching. It became a calling.
In 2020, Solomon-Simmons led a lawsuit on behalf of 11 plaintiffs, including the last three known living survivors of the massacre, against the City of Tulsa and seven defendants. The suit was the first of its kind in state court and the first to get far enough to see a judge. In 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit. In the final days of the Biden administration, the Justice Department released a report saying it had determined there is no longer an avenue for criminal prosecution over the massacre.
But the fight continues, Solomon-Simmons says, for cash payment to Randle and other descendants, as well as the return of land stolen after the massacre and during a period of urban renewal in Tulsa.
In 2025, the city’s first Black mayor, Monroe Nichols, endorsed a broad proposal dubbed Project Greenwood, which calls for financially compensating Randle, funding a scholarship program for descendants of victims, and designating June 1 as Tulsa Race Massacre Observance Day.
Solomon-Simmons also runs the nonprofit Justice for Greenwood, which he founded a year before the community marked the centennial of the massacre in 2021.
“One thing I’ve learned from this work, and as a lawyer in general, is that people want justice,” he said. “People want reparations, but people (also) want acknowledgment. They want to be seen. They want people to understand that something happened to them and their family, and they want an apology.”
___
Aaron Morrison is the race and ethnicity news editor at AP.
Earlier this year, Sooners On SI broke down Oklahoma’s opponents in 2026. With spring football in the rearview window, how do the Sooners’ foes look heading into the summer following their March/April practices? We continue with the Ole MIss Rebels.
As Oklahoma journeys deeper into November, the talent level keeps rising.
While Oklahoma worked to secure a pivotal player’s return for one final season, Ole Miss had already pulled off one of the offseason’s most impactful moves — locking in an extra year of eligibility for quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.
Exit Lane Kiffin, enter Pete Golding. Well, that already happened before the College Football Playoff, but now the country waits to see if Golding will be able to continue his impressive run as a head coach into an offseason.
How did spring treat the Rebels? Even if Ole Miss appears strong on paper. OU does get the benefit of hosting the Rebels for a second straight season once November arrives.
The Injury Front
Good news and bad news for Ole Miss during spring ball: The good is that no players will be dealing with injuries deep into the summer.
The bad news was that an “injury bug” plagued the offensive line, causing the defensive-minded coach to scale back on full-contact drills and practice during the spring to avoid further injury.
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While injuries weren’t a large concern for Ole Miss this spring, they have to deal with replacing top-end talent — mostly on defense. Talents like edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen, who transferred to LSU to follow Kiffin.
Ole Miss Strength
Chambliss ranks among the best quarterbacks in the country, and the way he rises to the occasion in Ole Miss’ biggest games makes the Rebels dangerous every time he takes the field.
Even without Kiffin, Ole Miss was busy during the transfer portal in trying to replenish a great deal of skill talent that either exited the program or graduated.
Post-Spring Oklahoma Opponent Breakdowns
With Kewan Lacy in the backfield and tight ends Dae’Quan Wright and Luke Hasz, the Rebels’ offense will no doubt be one of the tougher units Oklahoma will face.
If Golding is able to maintain his impressive control of the program he showcased during last season’s College Football Playoff, the offense should still be one of the best in the country.
The Final Verdict
Ole Miss has had Oklahoma’s number in the Sooners’ first two years in the SEC. Could a fortitous schedule factor — a second game in Norman in back-to-back years — finally get Oklahoma over the Rebels?
No matter the feelings prior to the game, Ole Miss may be one of the tougher games on the schedule for OU — including the first six-week crucible. Chambliss has proven to be that good, and despite the defensive departures, Ole Miss has proven to reload talent quickly.
Depending on Oklahoma’s record at the time of the game, their match with the Rebels could prove to pivotal for either team’s playoff chances. Last season for OU, this was the road game against Alabama.
OU will have the talent to combat Ole Miss, but the Rebels will have a sure-fire Heisman contender under center.
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And after more than three hours, the Wildcats finally broke through.
Arizona rallied from down 3-1 to beat Oklahoma 4-3 in the NCAA Men’s Tennis Sweet 16 at LaNelle Robson Tennis Center, advancing to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. The 8th-seeded Wildcats (24-4) will face top-seeded Wake Forest, the defending NCAA champions, in the quarterfinals Thursday in Athens, Ga.
Arizona had lost in its previous four Sweet 16 appearances, including three in a row, but this was the first time it got to host.
But with temperatures nearing triple digits, the UA found itself in a position where it needed to win every remaining singles match. No. 9 Oklahoma (20-7) had taken the doubles point and won in straight sets at No. 2 and No. 4 singles, with Arizona’s lone win to that point by sophomore Glib Sekachov (6-2, 6-2) at No. 5 singles.
“We got down 3-1 and I think the guys just said, you know what? This is destiny,” UA coach Clancy Shields said. “It’s supposed to happen this year. We’ve been to the Sweet 16, but we haven’t gotten any further. You saw how the guys buckled down to make it.”
Arizona began to turn a corner when it won first-set tiebreakers in two of three matches, including senior Jay Friend 8-6 at No. 1 singles after being down a break to Oklahoma’s Luis Alvarez. Junior Sasha Rozin started the comeback at No. 3 singles, winning 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4).
Friend lost his second set 7-5, and freshman Alejandro Arcilo did the same 6-4 at No. 6 singles after winning the first 6-4. Arcilo then fell down a break before going on a tear, winning the last three games to take the third set 6-4 and even the match at 3.
After a brief celebration, the entire UA team—and the crowd of 500-plus—migrated around Court 1 for the deciding set between Friends and Alvarez.
“He’s been in that situation so many times, and he looked cool as a cucumber, and I think everybody knew when it came down to his court … we might as well start booking tickets,” Shields said. “He’s not gonna lose that match.”
Friend made quick work of his opponent, winning 6-0 and finishing with an ace.
“I just entered a flow state that I’ve never been in before,” said Friend, the winningest singles player in school history. “The guys kept telling me it’s never going to come down to you because I play too fast, but it did. And I’ve been in this position before, and the last time I lost 7-6 in the third so obviously I was fighting those demons a little bit, but the guys did their job, and that took so much pressure off me, and then 6-0 in the third set to clinch. That’s crazy.”
The remainder of the NCAA Tournament will be held at the Dan Magill Tennis Center in Athens, with quarterfinals Thursday, semifinals on May 16 and the championship May 17. At No. 8, Arizona has the second-lowest seed remaining behind No. 10 Baylor.
“Now we’re really dangerous,” Shields said. “This is a team that has accomplished their main goal, and now they’re hunting for something else, and they’re playing free, and we’re gonna play free down there in Athens. I think our team’s gonna have the most fun, and they’re playing with the least amount of pressure. And that’s a dangerous squad. And I think our team also knows how good we are.”
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