Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Colossians 3:13

Sallisaw coach pleads guilty 

MUSKOGEE – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Joshua Lee Bolin, 26, of Sallisaw entered a guilty plea to a Superseding Indictment of one count of Receipt of Certain Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, punishable by five to twenty years in prison and a $250,000.00 fine.

The Superseding Indictment alleged that beginning in January 2024 and continuing until June 28, 2024, Bolin received visual depictions of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

The charge arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Sallisaw Police Department.

Gerald L. Jackson, U.S. Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, accepted the plea and ordered the completion of a presentence investigation report. 

A U.S. District Court Judge will determine the sentence to be imposed after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Bolin was remanded into the custody of the United States Marshals Service pending sentencing.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessie K. Pippin and Emily Wittlinger represented the United States.

OKLAHOMA CITY – A joint investigation by the Attorney General’s Office and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority has led to an indictment from the Multi-County Grand Jury. Robert Dewayne Mayfield, Jr., 23, faces five felony counts related to the robbery of a medical marijuana operation. 

According to court documents, Mayfield is accused of an armed assault and robbery with other co-conspirators in July 2024 at Redbud Relief Farms LLC in Chandler. The filings allege Mayfield and at least two other men were carrying firearms and wearing masks when they broke into both a house on the property and the marijuana grow buildings. They are accused of assaulting multiple individuals and stealing marijuana, cash, credit cards, ID cards and a truck.    

"Those who think they can terrorize legitimate businesses and workers in Oklahoma are gravely mistaken," said Attorney General Gentner Drummond. "My office will continue to aggressively pursue those who use violence and intimidation to victimize hardworking Oklahomans."  

Mayfield is charged with conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, robbery in the first degree, burglary in the first degree, burglary in the second degree and assault while masked or in disguise.

Every person arrested or indicted is presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

Read the indictment on Mayfield. 

 The 2025-26 Oklahoma Fishing & Hunting Regulations from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is now available online! Whether you’re planning your next fishing trip or scouting your favorite hunting spot, the updated regulations booklet is a must-read to keep your outdoor adventures safe and legal.

Read them here.

Printed copies of the regulations will be available at license dealers statewide by the end of August, so be sure to pick one up when you're getting your license and gear.

LeFlore County weather forecast for Saturday is for partly cloudy skies with scattered showers and thunderstorms possible during the afternoon for the county and area.

The high is forecast to be 92 degrees with a low of 75. A heat advisory is in effect from noon through 8 p.m. Heat index value of 109 is expected.

Sunrise was 6:24 a.m. Sunset is 8:25 p.m.

Friday’s high was 99, tying for the hottest recorded temperature in 2025, with a low of 76. No rain was recorded, leaving the monthly total at 4.06 inches, surpassing July’s average rainfall of 3.10 inches. The last day to have rain in the county was July 14.

Average temperatures for July 26 are a high of 95 and low of 66. Records for the date were a high of 104 in 1972 and a low of 60 in 1970.

Last year on July 26, the high was 89 with a low of 69.

LeFlore County calendar of events for the next week. The calendar is a free service for our readers. If you are with a non-profit and want an event publicized, email [email protected].

Saturday

Benefit dinner for Dalton Spencer 5:30 p.m. at KTC

Sunday

Celebration of life service for Joe Soriano III

Monday

LeFlore County commissioners meet 9 a.m.

William Keith Jones funeral service

Peggy Jane Spradley funeral service

Tuesday 

Poteau Evening Lions Club meet 6 p.m. CASC

Wednesday

Poteau Rotary Club meets noon EOMC

Thursday

Poteau Kiwanis Club meets noon

Heavener VFW bingo 6:30 p.m. Highway 59 North 

Friday

Poteau Rodeo

By Jonathan Small 

In a press release issued earlier this year, House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson of Oklahoma City declared that Oklahoma ranks “last in the region for teacher pay.” 

That claim may align with longstanding stereotype, but not with reality. By any measure, Oklahoma teacher pay is not the last in the region nor anywhere near the bottom. And nationally, our average teacher pay is in the middle-tier of states. 

It’s not “right wing” entities making that claim, but data from liberal entities including the National Education Association (NEA), a teachers’ union, and the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA), a lobbying entity employed by public schools. 

A report issued in April by the NEA showed that Oklahoma’s average teacher salary in 2023-2024 was $61,330, which was higher than the average in three of the six states bordering Oklahoma. 

OSSBA reports the average teacher pay in Oklahoma surged from $45,292 in the 2016-2017 school year to $61,686 by the 2024-2025 school year. 

In raw terms, OSSBA also showed the average teacher salary in Oklahoma is higher than the average in three of six bordering states – beating out Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri – and trailing Texas by less than $2,100. 

Based on the raw dollar figure, the NEA ranked Oklahoma’s average teacher pay 34th highest among the 50 states. 

But the raw figure isn’t the end of the story because there are significant differences in cost-of-living from state to state. 

While Colorado teachers may be paid an average $68,647, due to cost-of-living differences the buying power of an Oklahoma teacher’s salary is actually slightly greater than the Colorado salary. 

The same thing holds true when comparing the NEA-reported average salary for teachers in Texas ($62,463) and Oklahoma ($61,330). A modest cost-of-living difference means Oklahoma teachers come out slightly ahead. 

In some cases, the differences are stark. Oklahoma’s average teacher pay of $61,330 is equivalent to around $86,000 in both Hawaii and Rhode Island. 

Once you adjust for cost-of-living differences, Oklahoma’s average teacher salary ranks about 29th and is within a few thousand of the five states (or so) ranked above us. 

Admittedly, the cost-of-living comparisons I cite are rough figures, and they don’t account for other differences, such as the impact of state tax burdens or differences in teacher benefits. A 2021 report from the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) found that when you included those factors, Oklahoma’s teacher pay ranked 21st highest at that time. 

Rankings will shift as states adjust teacher pay each year. (Indeed, Oklahoma just boosted pay for veteran teachers this year.) And cost-of-living differences can also shift based on state policy. 

Even so, Oklahoma’s teacher pay is highly competitive in our region and nationally. Whatever the rationale for potential future raises may be, getting “out of last place” is no longer among them. 

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (www.ocpathink.org).

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA, prohibiting discrimination based on mental or physical disabilities.

In 1847, the western African country of Liberia, founded by freed American slaves, declared its independence.

In 1863, Sam Houston, former president of the Republic of Texas, died in Huntsville at age 70.

In 1945, Winston Churchill resigned as Britain’s prime minister after his Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Labour Party. Clement Attlee succeeded him.

In 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act, which reorganized America’s armed forces as the National Military Establishment and created the Central Intelligence Agency.

In 1948, President Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the U.S. military.

In 1953, Fidel Castro began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba. (Castro ousted Batista in 1959.)

In 1971, Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy on America’s fourth successful manned mission to the moon.

In 2002, the Republican-led House voted to create an enormous Homeland Security Department in the biggest government reorganization in decades.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

In 2018, the last six members of a Japanese doomsday cult who remained on death row were executed for a series of crimes in the 1990s, including a gas attack on Tokyo subways that killed 13 people.

In 2020, a processional with the casket of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, where Lewis and other civil rights marchers were beaten 55 years earlier.

William Keith Jones obituary

William Keith Jones of Derby, Kansas (formerly of Heavener) was born Aug. 21, 1972 in Little Rock, Arkansas to William Henry “Bill” and Carolyn (Fox) Jones and passed away July 21, 2025 in Iowa City, Iowa at the age of 52. 

A full obituary will be posted and updated when it is received. 

Funeral services are 10 a.m. Monday at the Dowden-Roberts Funeral Home Chapel in Heavener with Brother Joey Bottoms officiating. Burial will follow in the Reichert Cemetery with military honors by the Poteau DAV Chapter #63. Arrangements are under the direction of Dowden-Roberts Funeral Home of Heavener. 

Pallbearers are David Holley, Randall Fox, Trevor Fox, Jimmy Dunigan, Wes Jones and Cody Harvell. 

Viewing is from noon until 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The family will visit with friends Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the funeral home. 

To sign Keith’s online guestbook please visit www.dowdenrobertsfuneralhome.com.

Peggy Jane Spradley funeral service is 10 a.m. Monday in the Mallory Chapel in Spiro with Pastor Matthew Sebo officiating, under the direction of Mallory Martin Funeral Home. 

Interment will follow at New Hope Cemetery in Spiro.

Peggy was born Sept. 19, 1948 in the Racetrack community to Vernon Pierce and Lena Mae (Craig) Smith and passed away July 25, 2025 in Spiro.

She married Randy Spradley April 3, 1981 in Spiro. 

Peggy retired from Riverside Furniture as a finish furniture repairer. She was very active in her church and was a member of The Well Assembly of God Church in Pocola, where she served as a Sunday school teacher.  Peggy also helped her husband with the bus ministry. She lived for her grandchildren and great grandchildren and enjoyed genealogy, crafting and sewing.

Peggy leaves behind her husband of 44 years, Randy; daughter, Shelly of Fort Smith, Arkansas; grandsons William Morris and wife Jessika of Spiro, Leighton Morris, also of Spiro; granddaughter, Piper Morris, of Pocola; great grandchildren Gabriel, Brooklynn, Brodyn, Malakai, Weston and Axl Morris, all of Spiro; brothers Wayne Smith and wife Sharon of Spiro; and Keith Smith of Tucker; brother-in-law, Raymond Jackson, of Spiro; sister-in-law, Barbara Lou, of Spiro; many nieces; nephews, other family members, friends and loved ones.

She is preceded in death by her parents Vernon and Lena Smith; sisters Carolyn Smith and Linda Jackson; brothers Donald Smith and Dennis Smith; grandson, Chanton Dean; and great grandson, Colt Lee. 

Pallbearers are William Morris, Gabriel Morris, Leighton Morris, Michael Branscum, Isaac Doss and Elijah Branscum.  Honorary pallbearers are her great grandsons Brodyn, Malakai, Weston and Axl.