Daily Elk Citian journalist receives award at contest

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Published on Tuesday, 24 April 2012 14:20

Denwalt places first, second, and third for writing and photography

Mary Loveland
Daily Elk Citian

A Daily Elk Citian journalist was honored at the Oklahoma Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awards banquet Saturday night.

Dale Denwalt, journalist at the Daily Elk Citian for almost a year now, received three awards: First place for feature writing, second place for photography portfolio and third place for general news reporting.

"There were more than 1,000 entries in this contest, and for me to place three times in three separate categories for pretty much completely different things makes me feel really good about my abilities and what I bring to this newspaper," Denwalt said.

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Roger Mills lowest unemployment for a year

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Published on Thursday, 12 April 2012 14:14

Only 2.7 percent of the Roger Mills County workforce were out of a job in February, according to state records.

That means that for 12 straight months, Roger Mills has held the top spot when it comes to unemployment, according to data from the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

Western Oklahoma has some of the lowest unemployment rates in the state. Counties in eastern and southeastern Oklahoma fare the worst. Sequoyah County, who has had the highest unemployment rate before, found 11.4 percent of its work-ready population without a job.

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History, family motivated new Ag spokeswoman

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Published on Tuesday, 10 April 2012 15:33

Former Elk Citian writer takes post promoting Oklahoma Agriculture

Dale Denwalt
Daily Elk Citian

A 2004 Elk City graduate is now a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.
Kirby Smith recently graduated from Oklahoma State University with a master's degree in agricultural communications and recently was hired as public information manager under Agriculture Secretary Jim Reese.

Smith grew up in western Oklahoma, where both of her grandfathers were farmers.

"But I only had the opportunity to meet one, and only for a while. So when I get to visit these guys' farms I don't take that lightly," she said. "When someone opens up the gate or the door to let you onto their land, that their blood, sweat and tears is in, that they've raised their family on, that they take such pride in - I don't take that lightly.

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Livestock Auction Owner: Farmers and ranchers questioning futures

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Published on Monday, 02 April 2012 15:31

Without the green grass and water in the ponds due to the exceptional drought last year, many ranchers opted to sell their cattle and get out of the busy, at least temporarily.

Brandon Hickey, owner of the auction, says there are 700-800 fewer heads of cattle being sold a week compared to this time last year.

Based on what he's seen at his auction, Hickey said about 20 percent of his customers have said they won't get back into the business, but he thinks that percentage will be more like 10 when it's all said and done.

"We're starting to get enough moisture now that some of these farmers and ranchers are starting to think about stocking [the cattle] back up on their pasture," Hickey said.

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Daily Elk Citian recognized in statewide contest

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Published on Friday, 23 March 2012 15:18

Judges give writing, coverage, ads top place in four categories

The Daily Elk Citian has been notified that out-of-state judges have awarded several top awards in the annual Oklahoma Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest.

In a letter received from the OPA, Executive Vice President Mark Thomas wrote that the independent judges awarded The Daily Elk Citian a first place award in news content. Publisher D.W. Manning said this award, more than any other category, personifies the paper's effort to bring local, up-to-date and relevant news content in a way that is presented with the reader in mind.

"Out of all the awards that we won in this competition, we are most proud of the award for 'News Content,' he said. "That category looks at the main elements that drive this newspaper, when it's all said and done. The judging criteria for that category are based on such things as an emphasis on staff-written, locally generated news stories. The criteria also require that our coverage be balanced with a good mix of stories in all subject areas, including local government, schools, human interest features and breaking news.

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Elk City grad enters into Apple's tech world

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Published on Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:56

An Elk City High School graduate created an iPhone application with two friends that is now available to the world on the Apple App Store.

Jake Spencer graduated from Elk City in 2001 and is now a computer engineer for the Air Force.

He, Jeff Watson and Duggan Roberts recently created an application that lets users know exactly how long they have, down to the seconds, until their anticipated events.

Tminus is free to download and now has over 250 users.

The trio spent about eight months sporadically on the project, whenever they could find time.

There are future plans to create an iPad version of the application and possibly an iPhone game.

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