Digging for gold
Holiday ‘Socks’
Thunder prepares to face the Nuggets for the second time this season.
JD McPherson brings a new seasonal album home for the holidays.
ShowBiz Cinemas is putting the final touches on its first Oklahoma location in preparation for Tuesday’s opening.
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Friday, December 14, 2018
ShowBiz
REACHING MORE THAN 475,000 PEOPLE EACH DAY
NEWSOK.COM
• OKLAHOMAN.COM
$1.50
HITTING THE RAILS Downtown loop Monday-Thursday 6 a.m. -Midnight
Oklahoma City Streetcar route
Friday 6 a.m.-2 a.m. Saturday 7 a.m.- 2 a.m. Oklahoma
NW 11
BY WILLIAM CRUM
MIDTOWN
Platform stop
NW 10
NW 10
NW 5
DISTRICT
Transit Center
Federal Courthouse
Robert S. Kerr
OKC Museum of Art Civic Center City Hall
Park Library
BUSINESS DISTRICT
Main
*Per boarding
rr
NE 4
NE 2
BRICKTOWN
Main
Sheridan
Water Taxi Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark
Myriad Botanical Gardens
California
Reno Hudson
$1* $3 $32 $384
Ha
DEEP DEUCE Robinson
NW 4 ARTS
Single Daily pass Monthly pass Annual pass
is
Broadway
OKC National Memorial Museum
NW 6
235 on
Robinson
Harvey
Federal Building
Fares begin Jan. 6
AUTOMOBILE ALLEY
Walnut
NW 7
Hudson
Walker
Fares and Passes
E.K. Gaylord
After a rigorous safety review, two years of construction and six months of testing and training, the Oklahoma City Streetcar is set to announce, "All aboard." Service on the $136 million, 6.9-mile MAPS 3 downtown streetcar system begins Friday. Transit officials prepared to accommodate 10,000 to 15,000 riders on opening day, based on averages in other cities, and up to 50,000 for the opening weekend. Rides will be free the first three weeks. After that, the fare is $1 per ride and $3 for a 24-hour pass. A streetcar will be the backdrop as choirs and bands welcome the public to a grand opening ceremony starting about 9:30 a.m. at Leadership Square, 211 N Robinson Ave. The ceremony on Leadership Square's east plaza will include dignitaries' speeches, old-timers' stories of the city's original trolley system, a ribbon-cutting, and confetti. The irony is most people who attend will drive. But advocates see the streetcar as a building block to the future. "The vision," said Nathaniel Harding, a member of the MAPS 3 Citizens Advisory Board and chairman of the streetcar subcommittee, "is to provide reliable, frequent public transit for everybody." Attending a concert, play, or baseball or basketball game downtown? Catching dinner or shopping? The streetcar will make it easy to park remotely and catch a ride to and from the arena, theater, or entertainment districts.
Bricktown loop Friday & Saturday 7 a.m. -2 a.m.
Charlie Christian
Staff Writer wcrum@oklahoman.com
Russell M. Perry
Oklahoma City set to inaugurate streetcar service
Bricktown Canal
Chesapeake Arena OKC Boulevard
SEE STREETCAR, 3A
STREETCAR OPENS Oklahoma City will mark the beginning of streetcar service with free rides and a grand opening celebration that is open to the public. • When: 10 a.m. Friday • Where: Leadership Square east plaza, 211 N Robinson Ave. • Who: 10,000 to 15,000 on opening day; up to 50,000 people could ride opening weekend and, based on 2013 projections, annual ridership could be 500,000.
A streetcar travels west on Reno in Bricktown. [PHOTO
One of the new Oklahoma City streetcars is shown at a stop on Sheridan Avenue in front of the Cox Convention Center.
BY DOUG HOKE, THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVES]
[PHOTO BY JIM BECKEL, THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVES]
Blayne Arthur would be state’s first female agriculture secretary
Inhofe buys, and sells, defense stock
BY BEN FELDER Staff Writer bfelder@oklahoman.com
Blayne Arthur, a cattle rancher from Stillwater and the executive director of the Oklahoma 4-H Foundation, has been nominated by Gov.elect Kevin Stitt to serve as the state’s secretary of agriculture, which would make her the first woman to hold the post. “Blayne Arthur is a deeply respected leader in Oklahoma agriculture, known for her excellence in public service, her entrepreneurial spirit, TODAY’S PRAYER Loving God, help us be persistent in our search for truth and compassionate in our treatment of others. Amen.
(Young people) have grown up in a different era, they have new ideas and new enthusiasm, and that can make an agriculture operation totally different.” Blayne Arthur
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and her passion mentoring youth,” said Stitt, who made the announcement Thursday. The secretary of agriculture, who leads the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, requires Senate confirmation. Arthur’s nomination has Business 7B Classified 9B Comics Inside Deaths 5A
BY JUSTIN WINGERTER Blayne Arthur
Life Opinion Puzzles Sports
10A 8A 11A 1B
received support from the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association and several other agriculture organizations. Oklahoma’s current secretary of agriculture is Jim
To see a video about Blayne Arthur, who has been nominated to serve as Oklahoma’s secretary of agriculture, go to Oklahoman.com.
SEE ARTHUR, 2A
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe purchased — and quickly sold— tens of thousands of dollars worth of stock in defense contractor Raytheon this week after advocating for a record-high defense budget. On Tuesday, Inhofe’s broker bought between $50,000 and $100,000 in Raytheon stock, according to financial disclosure documents first reported by The SEE INHOFE, 2A
Weather, 12A
SUNNY H: 49
Staff Writer jwingerter@oklahoman.com
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