Tahlequah, Oklahoma — Local News & Community Updates Your source for the latest news, events, and stories from Tahlequah, Oklahoma — the county seat of Cherokee County, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, and the oldest municipality in Oklahoma. Nestled in the Ozark foothills near the Illinois River and Lake Tenkiller, Tahlequah is home to Northeastern State University and a living Cherokee heritage that stretches back to the Trail of Tears.
Crimes
Inside the multi-town fraud network that turned a routine retail courtesy into an automated cash machine. By EastOklahoma.com Staff If you have spent any time waiting in line at the customer service desk of a Walmart Supercenter on a Friday afternoon, you know the rhythm. It is the
Police Corruption
Tahlequah's Assistant Police Chief built a career on community trust and law-and-order events. Now surveillance footage puts him at the scene of a Memorial Day vandalism that destroyed a children's summer attraction — and the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office isn't done
Tulsa
Who Has the Right to Put You in Prison? Inside the Legal War Tearing Eastern Oklahoma Apart There is a child pornographer sitting in a federal prison cell serving 50 years. There is also a drug trafficker whose case may be thrown out because the wrong court filed the charges.
Webbers Falls
The Future of Farming is Growing in Webbers Falls—And You're Invited to See It Why hundreds of Oklahoma growers are marking August 5th on their calendars for an event that could transform their harvest WEBBERS FALLS, OK – There's a moment every farmer knows—standing in
Politics
A little-known bill quietly died in committee this spring. What it reveals about who really controls Oklahoma's deer—and the $200 million industry built around them. OKLAHOMA CITY — On a legislative calendar packed with debates over education funding and tax cuts, Senate Bill 1074 slipped through the
Government Corruption
How Oklahoma's Cash Bail System Imprisons the Innocent An Investigation into America's Highest Incarceration Rate On any given morning in Oklahoma, more than 9,000 people wake up behind bars who have never been convicted of a crime. They are legally innocent—presumed so by the
Tulsa
A comprehensive investigation into Governor Kevin Stitt's controversial midnight veto and the cascade of corruption allegations that defined his tenure On a late spring night in May 2025, as most Oklahomans slept, Governor Kevin Stitt made a decision that would crystallize his administration's troubled relationship with
Tulsa
An eight-year federal lawsuit alleges a statewide extortion scheme that jails the poor while generating profits for law enforcement By EastOklahoma.com Investigative Team Kendy Killman became a prisoner in her own home, though she'd never been convicted of a violent crime. The Cleveland County mother of