Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman News

About 200 members of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 45th Infantry Brigade returned to Oklahoma on Sunday, the first of about 2,600 coming home from a tour in Iraq. The first group landed Sunday morning, the second group landed after 6 p.m.

Both groups were honored with a ceremony at Southern Nazarene University’s Sawyer Center, where the banner above the door read: Mission Accomplished.

Maj. Gen Harry M. Wyatt III, the state’s adjutant general, said the most important standard in measuring the brigade’s success in its deployment to Iraq is a simple one. “Everyone we deployed is coming home,” Wyatt said. “I could not be prouder than I am today.”

Three more arrivals are expected today.

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Lord, have compassion on us in our weaknesses. Help us to keep our covenant with You. Amen.

Oklahoma City police still have not confirmed the identity of a man wounded in a shoot-out with police early Saturday, police Sgt. Daniel Stewart said Sunday.

Police think they know who the man is, but are choosing not to release his identity until it can be confirmed, Stewart said.

The man first fired shots at officers from the porch of a home in the 700 block of SE 49 about 3:05 a.m. Saturday, police said.

The man was arrested after a short manhunt and taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound. Stewart said the man has been booked into the Oklahoma County jail.

No one else was hurt in the incident.

The officer who shot the man, Sgt. Claylan Cline, has been placed on routine administrative leave pending the outcome

Kenneth Lee Russell shouldn’t have been behind the wheel of a car on July 24.

No one knows that better than Sharon Cary, who lost her father that day in a wreck.

Cary said it was "inexcusable” that Russell, 49, still was allowed to drive after being arrested three times in the previous two months following traffic accidents or complaints of erratic driving.

The self-employed electrician blamed an unknown medical condition for his driving trouble after a July 8 crash in the 6700 block of NW 63, according to court papers. Russell told the Warr Acres police he had "palsy or Parkinson’s disease.

Pediatricians double vitamin D suggestion The nation’s leading pediatricians group said children from newborns to teens should get double the usually recommended amount of vitamin D because of evidence that it may help prevent serious diseases.

To meet the new recommendation of 400 units daily, millions of children will need to take daily vitamin D supplements, the American Academy of Pediatrics said. That includes breast-fed infants — even those who get some formula, too, and many teens who drink little or no milk.

the benefits Reduced risks: Research has shown potential benefits from vitamin D besides keeping bones strong, including suggestions that it might reduce risks for cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Three Oklahomans died in weekend vehicle accidents, according to officials.

→Alvin Lee Harrison III, 7, Beggs

Harrison died after a sport utility vehicle crash about 2 p.m. Saturday on Interstate 35 near Wellsville, Kan. The Kansas State Highway Patrol said the boy was thrown from the vehicle. The patrol said Ravin Harrison, 28, of Del City lost control of the SUV. Two other children in the vehicle — an 8-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy — were taken to a Kansas City, Mo., hospital. Their conditions were not released.

→Deborah Fay Bates, 52, Stilwell

Bates died when the car she was driving north on U.S. 59, a mile north of Watts, crossed the center line to pass another vehicle and

IN BRIEF DEL CITY

ARREST MADE IN JULY DEATH Police arrested Anthony Hopkins, 30, on Friday in the July 31 shooting death of Anthony Parks, 20. Hopkins was booked on murder and armed robbery complaints in the death, said Del City police Capt. Jody Suit. Hopkins was booked into the Oklahoma County jail on Saturday.

Aaron Crespo,

Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY

17-YEAR-OLD HELD IN SLAYING Police arrested a 17-year-old in connection with the stabbing death of an 18-year-old in northwest Oklahoma City. Geovanni Rodrigo Palacios, 17, was booked into the Oklahoma County jail Sunday on a murder complaint, a jail spokeswoman said. Bail has not been set. About 4:30 p.m. Saturday, police found Manuel Serrato dead at 16113

ST. LOUIS — Ten years ago, most of Dr. Brian Nussenbaum’s oral cancer patients were men over 60 who used tobacco and drank heavily.

Today, his patients with oral cancer look different. And so does the risky behavior that seems to be leading to their cancer.

Nussenbaum, an ear nose throat doctor at Washington University, estimates that 70 percent of his cancer patients have tumors on the back of their tongues and tonsils caused by human papillomavirus-16. Most of those patients are between ages 45 and 55. About half are women.

And experts suspect that all of them — men and women — got HPV from oral sex.

"We know now that 98 percent of cervical cancer is caused by HPV, and mostly HPV-16,”

Here’s an example — and good news — of a little form of financial carpooling.

Everybody gets a ride.

Does the school district in which you buy your car tag receive a larger portion of that money? Or is all the tag money prorated to the schools?

Lee, Oklahoma City

Each of the state’s 530-plus school districts benefits from license tag fees, Lee, no matter where the tag was bought.

Paula Ross of the Oklahoma Tax Commission says money from tag sales is prorated and divided among the state’s school districts to be fair.

Years ago, she says, it wasn’t that way.

Brandon La Fuente has made hundreds of prosthetic eyes, including one for his most unusual patient: a one-eyed miniature show horse named KBuck.

The horse was born June 1 at Lil Chums Miniature Horse Farm in Lawton. It lost its eye a few days after birth. Owner Kelsey Chumbley, 12, said she suspects the young horse was the victim of a swift kick from its mother.

"We thought he was going to end up being a backyard pet” instead of a show horse, Kelsey said. "When we found out he had a second chance I was really excited for him.”

KBuck’s prosthetic eye was handcrafted by designers at La Fuente Ocular Prosthetics in Oklahoma City.

CATOOSA — Seeking work that pays at least $2.45 above the federal minimum wage? One of the Cherokee Nation’s expanding casinos may hold just the job for you.

Just one thing: Whites, blacks, Asians and most other races need not apply. Not yet, anyway.

The tribe’s business arm is hosting a job fair next month for American Indians only, hoping to fill 1,000 casino jobs. Leftover jobs will be opened to non-Indian applicants.

Normally, a race-specific job fair would violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

However, tribes are exempt from that landmark law’s hiring provisions, said Dianna Johnston, an attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

No other race has such an exception.

Oklahoma City Metro Area

→Westbound Interstate 40 narrowed between Agnew and May Avenue, 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. until November, surface repair.

→Shields Boulevard between SW 29 and SW 6, until early 2009, bridge work. Detour.

→Pennsylvania Avenue, closed between Reno Avenue and Exchange Boulevard until late 2009, bridge work.

→SW 7 closed between Broadway and Santa Fe until further notice.

→Memorial narrowed to one lane each direction at Broadway Extension interchange.

→Various lane closures on eastbound I-240 at Douglas Boulevard through November, bridge work.

→Various lane closures on eastbound and westbound I-40 at Council Road, from 10:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. through

PHOENIX — Proponents of a ballot measure to restrict ballot measures call it a financial necessity. Opponents say it would deliver a near-crippling blow to a form of direct democracy that Arizona has used since statehood.

Under the proposition on the Nov. 4 ballot, no initiatives that raise taxes or require new spending could take effect unless they’re approved by a majority of registered voters.

Special interests promote ballot measures, many aiming for low-turnout elections that attract fewer voters, to further their own nests, said Jason LeVecke, a restaurant franchisee who’s contributed $1.2 million to the proposition campaign. "This is tough medicine, admittedly, but something we desperately

Meg Salyer’s not taking anything for granted.

Although her last remaining opponent has dropped out of the Ward 6 Oklahoma City Council race and is endorsing her, she won’t be the only name on the ballot.

Former candidate Lindsay Ocker had his name removed from the ballot. Clarence Warstler missed the deadline to remove his name but has ended his campaign because of a death in the family. Both are endorsing Salyer.

So she’s still campaigning for the election, visiting neighborhoods and introducing herself to Ward 6 voters who will likely be her constituents after the Nov. 4 election.

Salyer cites the success of main street programs in Ward 6, including Automobile Alley, Stockyards City and Capitol Hill.

McCain makes economic plans

ARLINGTON, Va. — Republican presidential candidate John McCain vowed Sunday to "whip” Democrat Barack Obama’s "you-know-what” when the two meet Wednesday in their final televised debate. McCain made that pledge as top advisers said he is weighing new economic proposals. The Arizona senator refused to say Sunday what his plans are.

Palin promises to bring jobs ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Sunday told voters in southeastern Ohio that she and John McCain will bring jobs to this economically depressed piece of Appalachia. Palin said "Small Town USA” gets the value of hard work and neighbors.

Biden

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told international leaders on Sunday that isolationism and protectionism could worsen the spreading financial crisis. With a new trading week dawning, U.S. lawmakers urged quick action by the Bush administration on measures to make direct purchases of bank stock to help unlock lending.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said an administration proposal to inject federal money directly into certain banks, in effect partially nationalizing the banking system, "is gaining steam.”

"I am hopeful that tomorrow, the Treasury will announce that they’re doing it. And they have to do it quickly … markets are waiting,” Schumer,

WASHINGTON — The government’s plan to make sure private managers of a $700 billion bailout plan are free of conflicts of interest is weak, according to some critics, and allows too much room for abuse.

The Treasury Department is in the process of hiring financial experts to run the giant, taxpayer-financed fund, created by the legislation that President Bush signed Oct. 3.

The law allows the department to offer contracts that are not governed by federal procurement regulations, but requires it to draw up conflict-of- interest guidelines.

Interim guidelines released last week require applicants to disclose "any actual or potential conflicts of interest” that may come into play.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — In polarized Lebanon, flaunting a political leader’s poster can spark a gunfight. So shopkeepers on Beirut’s al-Maamoun Street are breathing a little easier now that "poster disarmament” has been declared.

Most of the posters once plastered on Beirut’s walls and lampposts have come down by agreement between the main factions of Shiite and Sunni Muslims — part of a broader attempt to ease nearly three years of sectarian and political tensions that almost dragged the country back into civil war.

The move is giving a new look to a city where political posters and banners once outnumbered advertising billboards.

This year, several people were injured in battles in

IN BRIEF AMERICAS

Party shooting kills six men

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Six men between the ages of 20 and 25 were killed late Saturday at a family party in the gang-plagued Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, officials said Sunday. Authorities were looking into the motive for the attack, but they said the deaths may have links to warring drug gangs.

Canadians set for election TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is gambling that an opposition pushing an unpopular carbon tax will steer voters to the right in Tuesday’s election. If the polls are any indication, though, the election will give the country yet another minority government.

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somali pirates on the Ukrainian MV Faina, which is carrying 33 tanks and other heavy weapons, continued to demand ransom money Sunday before releasing the ship and its 20 crew.

The pirates have threatened to destroy the vessel tonight or early Tuesday unless a ransom of up to $20 million is paid. The ship has been held for more than two weeks.

Pirates have seized more than two dozen ships this year off the Horn of Africa, but the Faina has drawn the most international attention because of its dangerous cargo.

Many fear the weapons on board could end up in the hands of Islamic militants in Somalia.