JournalRecord

As city leaders discuss how to deal with Oklahoma City’s tax revenue shortfall, the mayor has often referred to “we” and “us” in making promises to hire more emergency personnel, even as other staff cuts loom.

Dozens of employees at state mental health facilities will be laid off by March because of budget cuts, according to a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

The stock market closed higher Wednesday, led by gains in shares of banks and drugmakers, while energy companies were held back by a drop in crude oil.

Consumer bankruptcies increased 32 percent nationwide in 2009 from the previous year, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

From a TV soap opera advocating savings in the Dominican Republic to banking by motorbike in Ethiopia and India, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s most recent grants to promote global development have a decidedly more creative bent.

Wall Street executives said Wednesday they underestimated the severity of the 2008 financial crisis and apologized for risky behavior and poor decisions. They also defended their bonus and compensation practices to a skeptical commission investigating what caused the collapse.

Venezuela’s currency devaluation efforts could accentuate the challenges facing Tulsa drilling contractor Helmerich and Payne.

Oklahoma’s budget hasn’t hit the bottom – yet. And things could get worse.

Further cuts to Oklahoma’s mental health budget would be a false economy because the responsibility – and cost – of caring for those who need treatment would simply pass to other state and local agencies, the mental health commissioner has warned.

President Barack Obama is weighing recovering tax dollars from government-rescued financial institutions with a levy, which could put the president on the popular side of public opinion that is decidedly against Wall Street.