Kasie Pense, shown here exhibiting a sculpture of a neanderthal man, was among fifth-grade students in Terri Cloyde’s class who recently participated in a simulated archaeology dig and museum. Cloyde was one of 78 instructors nationwide who were selected for a $10,000 grant for science instruction from the Toyota TAPESTRY Program.

A proposal from a Town of Oakland Trustee to annex additional property into the town limits met with resistance during a town meeting Monday.
At the meeting, which had been rescheduled when the regular November meeting was cancelled due to lack of a quorum, an agenda item appeared to repeal an earlier resolution to research annexing land west of the current town limits.
Bobby Patton, who resides in the proposed annexation region, was blunt in voicing his opposition to the annexation.
“You can’t take care of what you got,” he told trustees when the topic was introduced. “You need to just back off.”
Council member John Moss, who originally proposed the annexation, said he remains in favor of extending the town limits, in order to avoid being “overtaken” by the City of Madill. He says some citizens support the proposal.
“If the people want to see the town grow, let the town grow,” Moss said.
Patton said he didn’t know to which people Moss was referring.
“You need to talk to the property owners,” Patton said. “There’s not a one of them that wants this.”
After much discussion, the measure was tabled, upon the suggestion of a citizen, who said the board, which was missing two members at the time, should hold off until they “get some smarter heads up there.” Trustee Sam Dishmon was quick to comply.
“I’ll make that motion — to table this until we get some smarter heads up here,” Dishmon said, drawing chuckles from the approximately 20 community members present. Moss and Mayor Margarette Redwine joined him in voting to postpone a decision. Trustees Larry Rothenberg and Kirk Hallmark were not present, although Rothenberg arrived later in the meeting.
Earlier this year, trustees voted to “consider” the annexation, and later voted to proceed with research into the proposal.

Kingston Police Officer David Jones, with some good old-fashioned foot work and a little gumshoe craft, is being credited with cracking an area-wide grand larceny case against two women being dubbed as the “housewife bandits.”
Rebecca Robertson, 39, of Kansas City, Missouri, and Melanie Dawn Clark, 34, of Mead, were arrested on suspicion of stealing and using stolen credit cards at numerous retail outlets in Madill and Kingston as well as in Ardmore, Durant, Denison and Whitesboro.
They were dubbed the “housewife bandits” by area law enforcement, one officer said, after their alleged operating motives typically involved the purchase of women’s and household goods along with children’s items.
Jones reported that the case began for him March 11 of this year when he was called to investigate the theft of an antique shop owner’s purse, containing credit cards.
Two women, recently identified as Robertson and Clark, came into the shop. As one of the women distracted her, the other stole her purse, the shop owner said.
Shortly later, her credit cards were reportedly used to make a purchase at Denison’s Wal-Mart as well as a diamond ring from JC Penny. One of the women allegedly attempted to make a purchase at the Sherman Wal-Mart but was rejected, Officer Jones said. All the attempted purchases totaled over $1,270.
Video footage of the two women was reportedly obtained from a Kingston dollar store when the two subjects left the store on August 26 after being asked for identification when attempting to pass a forged check.
The forged check left by the women from the incident was from a women operating an antique store in Whitesboro, Texas. The store owner said that one of the suspects distracted her while the other stole her checkbook.
Officer Jones discovered that checks from the Whitesboro theft were used the same day to make purchases in Durant and Madill the same day. One was “to purchase two registered Yorkshire terrier dogs” from a woman in Durant, he said. “They forged a check for $1,400.” In a two-hour, twenty-three minute span of time, Jones calculated, the suspects forged checks totalling $4,336.06.
In another instance, the women purchased cosmetics from a Madill retailer, investigators say.
“I saturated the local law enforcement agencies and retail stores with photos of the subjects,” Jones said.
His work paid off. On Wednesday of last week, Jones received a call from a Madill Wal-Mart employee stating that a women matching the photo on Robertson was in the store being questioned by the Madill Police.
Madill Police report that they were questioning the woman after a local pawn shop owner walked up to Patrolman Alan Adams in the Wal-Mart parking lot and told him a woman inside the store had recently purchased about $1,500 worth of merchandise with a stolen credit card from a flower shop in Tishomingo.
While Officer Adams spoke to Robertson outside the store, an employee came up to him and asked to speak, he said.
She reportedly showed him the photo of Robertson and Clark that Kingston Officer Jones had left.
Adams reported calling Jones who said he had been “trying to catch up with this lady and a friend since March.”
Jones said the subject at the store admitted that the photo was of her and her friend Clark.
Robertson was then arrested and booked into the county jail in Madill on grand larceny complaints.
Upon completing a phone call to suspect Clark, Jones said, “she informed me that she wished to come to Madill and pick up her Ford Explorer” that Robertson had been driving and was left in the store’s parking lot. “Once she arrived, she was arrested and booked” into jail, he added.
According to Jones, Robertson admitted to conspiring with Clark to commit grand larceny, forgery and identity theft.
Clark reportedly identified herself in some of the surveillance photos provided but refused other comment to investigators.
Robertson is being held on multiple complaints from Marshall County, including grand larceny, conspiracy, uttering a forged instrument and identity theft. She was still in the county jail as of press time. Bail has been set at $50,000.
Clark, who is facing complaints of grand larceny and conspiracy, has been released from the county jail on a $20,000 bond.
A status hearing for the pair has been set for November 21, at official confirmed.
• Elsewhere, Kingston Police arrested a subject on suspicion of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia. Two others living with her have been cited on complaints of marijuana possession and drug paraphernalia.
Mary Elizabeth Higgins, 43, of Kingston, was arrested by Officer Jones last Tuesday when a search warrant was executed at her place of residence in the 1100 block of Hawn Street. Officials from the MCSO assisted.
Several containers of a substance believed to be marijuana was found in the bedroom occupied by Higgins, Jones said.
The officer also reported finding a green, leafy substance at other locations in the home. Randal Lee Gallop, 44, and Virginia Ruth Gallop, 47, both of Kingston, were identified by investigators as the names on the lease of the residence. The pair were cited for possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Jones said that the search warrant stemmed from a traffic stop Halloween night. A video camera was reportedly found along with drugs inside the stopped vehicle.
The officer, believing the camera could have incriminating evidence against the suspects in that incident, sought and received a search warrant to review the camera’s contents.
The camera reportedly displayed footage of Higgins parceling up a quantity of marijuana for resale. It also provided officers with a kind of blue-print of where drugs were being kept in the house, Jones explained.
That evidence, in turn, provided police with probable cause to obtain a warrant to search the home where the driver of the car with the camera inside lives.
• On Saturday, Madill Police arrested Garry McKinney, 40, of Oakland, on two countys of petit larceny.
The charges resulted, Officer Chris Smith said, after McKinney was caught attempting to leave Madill’s Wal-Mart with a stolen auto headlamp.
Store employees also identified the suspect as the person who had left the store earlier that day with a stereo system that he did not pay for.
McKinney was booked into the county jail on the misdemeanor theft charges.
• A 37-year-old Oakland area man was arrested at a Madill restaurant on First Street Friday of outstanding warrants.
Officer Steven Ray took Wesley Davis into custody on the misdemeanor warrants, including one for unlawful possession of urine to defeat a drug screening and another for malicious injury to property.
He was transported and booked into the county jail without incident.
• Madill Officer Logan Prather arrested Jason Bamburg outside city hall Friday on an outstanding city warrant alleging larceny of water.