Edna's Lounge

NORMAN ? Latest estimates indicate Norman's population has topped 110,000, city planners said.

Planning manager Doug Koscinski said the number is based on U.S. Census Bureau figures and the number of building permits issued in Norman every year.

"We just do the math. We take the U.S. Census Bureau's figure and use it as a baseline, then look at the number of building permits issued each year and add in about how many people that would be. We also take into consideration the number of vacancies in the city.?

Right now, the planning department is using an official figure of 110,349, said Joyce Green, the city's Geographic Information Systems manager.
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NORMAN ? The children's state and county pedal pull contests will be today during the Cleveland County Free Fair.

The State Children's Pedal Pull Championship will be at 11 a.m.; the Cleveland County Children's Pedal Pull Championship will be at 1 p.m. Both will be at the stage area in the arena parking lot.

Competitors will ride child-powered John Deere tractors pulling weighted sleds to a finish line in the timed event. The sleds will be provided. Whoever pulls the farthest within each specific age group will win that age category. All entrants will receive a participation ribbon, and winners will receive trophies.

Children may not pedal barefoot.
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PIEDMONT ? The black-and-white photo of a wholesome teen beauty shows her knee-deep in a hefty stack of fan mail.

Sandra Sue Stout tried to read all the letters and the marriage proposals and the fan mail from overseas and across the country.

It was 1958 and Stout was the American Dairy Princess.

The photo, taken 50 years ago in the office of the American Dairy Association in Chicago, shows more letters for her than there were people in the then-18-year-old's hometown of Piedmont.

Stout was a farm girl who could milk a cow and drive a tractor. She studied home economics in the classroom.
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Former TU star receiver Neal Sweeney died on Friday, after he was shot in his East Tulsa office.

Beneath the sweat, the pads, and the cheers of a Friday night crowd, an unlikely Edison Eagle waits for her turn to fly onto the field.

Football fever means big business for one sports magazine.

Oklahoma's multicounty grand jury adjourned Friday after a 19-month term that included interviewing five people about the shooting deaths of two girls.

A $25,000 reward is offered to find the person who shot Neal Sweeney in the head on Thursday.