Good news tonight from the Salt Talks. A Tulsa man is sentenced to prison for the death of his daughter.
A light plane from Tulsa has vanished, and the McLean High School football team knows now that it has a lot of friends.
Details next on News Center 2.
Dear Savage Baggage Handlers, have we got a suitcase for you.
American tourists were available at all bag and baggage locations.
On the Muppet Show, we're going to have some wonderful music and comedy, plus the delightful Miss Gilda Radner.
The cinema is vegetable, animal and mineral, I am the very model of a modern native general.
Have fun for the whole family on the Muppet Show.
You told me this was the big time. This is chicken feed.
Saturday at 6.30 on T.
We're working to win you over.
News Center 2 with John McDonnell, Jerry Weber, Gary Galvin, and the news team of News Center 2.
Good evening, this is the news. The United States and Russia are reported to be very close tonight to a new strategic arms agreement.
U.S. and Soviet delegations met all day in Geneva, Switzerland today, working out the details of a final agreement.
Today's meetings cap three days of intensive negotiations, although Russian negotiators will still check out a few things with the Kremlin.
The negotiators say that the end of the road is near.
The secretary feels that good progress was made. He feels that we are close to the end of the road, but that we do in fact have to continue the conversation tomorrow morning.
This new arms treaty would limit the number of nuclear missiles and bombers the U.S. and Russia could aim at each other.
A Tulsa man will spend six months in jail for the death of his five-year-old daughter, 23-year-old Roscoe Morris, alleged to have been chased the night of November 21st, a chase that ended here at a Northside Tulsa apartment complex.
Though he eluded police then, Morris turned himself in several days later.
He was first charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly rammed into another car on the Keystone Expressway after a family fight.
Morris' little girl was in that car, and she died in the resulting accident.
They, Morris, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of negligent homicide.
Besides the jail term, Morris had his driver's license suspended.
The second day of a massive search for an airplane lost near Telequaz now ended, but 19-year-old Robert Michael is still missing on a flight from Little Rock to Tulsa.
For the second day in a row, NewsCenter 2's Bob Goodman has the exclusive report on that search.
More than 100 people are taking part in the search, among them the father of the missing pilot, a pilot himself.
The Civil Air Patrol is heading the search with men from four states lending a hand.
Today we followed the CAP as it flew over the area between Telequaz and Little Rock.
As you can see, some of the land is pretty rough.
The feeling at the search headquarters is that Robert Michael's plane went down in a hilly area, and that isn't good.
We're getting down to the point now where we've got our general area coverage down pretty good, and we're just going to have to go in inch by inch.
A lot of trees out there.
It's been some awful cold weather, and it's been a few hours since he's gone down.
We will find him, and hopefully he'll be alive.
This is a picture of the plane that the young pilot was flying Monday night when he disappeared.
Robert Michael was en route from Miami to his home in Boulder, Colorado.
The Civil Air Patrol says it will continue the search for Robert Michael until the young pilot is found.
Even though the chances that he survived the crash go down every day, the searchers still seem to cling to a small hope that Robert Michael may still be alive.
In Telequaz, Bob Goodman, New Center 2.
Last week we showed you the Concorde SST that was landing at Tulsa International Airport.
Well, the Civil Aeronautics Board has now approved twice-weekly Concorde service between Dallas, Fort Worth, and Paris.
The flights will be operated by Braniff International and will reduce the Paris to Dallas flight from 12 to 8 hours.
No date has yet been set for the flight service to begin, but airline officials say that it will be soon.
Tulsa will serve as an alternate landing site for the flights.
You know the Christmas holidays bring out not only hordes of shoppers, but thousands of Christmas travelers as well.
Well, New Center 2's Jill Lyons is now out at Tulsa International Airport with one of our live action cams.
Jill?
Yes, John, as we told you before at 5.30, this is one of the biggest days of the year for airline travel, highway travel, whatever.
We told you at 5.30 that the lines weren't too long, but that they'd probably be getting longer, and they have.
The crowds here at the terminal at Tulsa International are a lot bigger than they were.
The lines downstairs are a little bit bigger.
But besides the crowding, there are added dangers to holiday travelers flying this time of year.
On an airline can be denied a seat on a full plane, even with confirmed reservations.
Airlines call it bumping, and the danger is even greater this time of year when more planes are full.
But there are ways to avoid being bumped.
Airline officials recommend that you come to the airport earlier than you normally would, especially to the gate.
Have your ticket, if possible, and have your name and address on all luggage.
Also, avoid making any last-minute ticket changes.
Airline officials admit that overbooking is higher this time of year, but they say it's because of their customers' habits.
Passengers tend to overbook because they hear about over-sales on the airlines, so they'll book on two or three different airlines.
And one airline or two airlines out of the bunch will wind up with empty seats.
So it's necessary to over-sale the flights.
Because of the generally good weather throughout the southwest, there aren't too many unusually long delays at airports like Tulsa.
But hopefully that weather will keep up, and everybody will get where they need to get, and they won't have to wait too much longer.
Reporting live from Tulsa International Airport, I'm Jill Lyon, News Center 2.
Jill, how is the auto traffic out there at the airport now?
The lines of cars outside the terminal itself are long. It's three and four deep.
We had quite a bit of trouble wading through that traffic.
However, airport's manager Richard Ballinger told me earlier this evening there are a lot of parking spaces.
Apparently not as many people are parking their cars here at the airport and going places as they did last year.
All right, it's going to be a busy weekend. Thanks, Jill.
Still to come tonight, a former high school cheerleader is charged with hijacking an airliner.
And Troubleshooter Jim Bunn helps make a very merry Christmas with a McLean football tee.
Music.
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Irene is wearing a lovely opal mink coat.
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A 17-year-old girl who hijacked a TWA jetliner yesterday in Illinois will be charged with air piracy.
Robin Oswald held a coat over her head when she was transferred to the county jail there in Illinois.
She hijacked the jet in an attempt to free this man, Garrett S. Trapnel, her mother's lover and the man she believes to be her father.
Her mother was killed last May trying to hijack a helicopter to free the same man.
All 87 people on board the plane got out safely.
Still no sign tonight of four dangerous prisoners who escaped from a county jail in Loneoke, Arkansas.
The men are considered armed and dangerous. Three of them had escaped three months ago from the Texas facility.
And the lead authorities on a month-long chase and kidnapping spree.
They escaped early this morning by getting the jump on a Loneoke County jailer in Arkansas.
In Oklahoma City, the police have thrown up roadblocks, but they have failed to catch three bank robbers today.
The bandits made off with about $6,000 from the Northwest National Bank of Oklahoma City.
Police are now on the lookout for a car that was stolen in Tulsa that might, just might, have been used in that stick-up.
There is a grisly story from this Plains, Illinois tonight.
Police there have found three bodies of children stuffed into the crawl space of a house owned by a convicted sex offender.
And as Jim Cummins reports, police fear that they may find as many as 32 other bodies buried in the earth beneath the home.
Police have been watching John Gacy's suburban Chicago home for the past 10 days.
They became suspicious when 15-year-old Robert Peast disappeared after he allegedly was last seen with Gacy.
This morning, police searched Gacy's home and found the decomposed remains of three bodies in a dirt crawl space under the house.
They suspect there are several more bodies buried here.
It's suspected because of the looks of the area down in the crawl space.
There are some other mounds and it appears to be more there.
Gacy is a 36-year-old building contractor who reportedly dressed like a clown to entertain at children's parties.
Prosecutors say he once went to prison for a sex offense in Iowa.
This afternoon, Gacy was charged with murdering Robert Peast.
And after hearing the remains of more bodies were found at Gacy's house, Judge Marvin Peters ordered him held without bond.
At the hearing, police said Gacy has confessed to the Peast murder.
He will be examined by a psychiatrist.
Meanwhile, investigators have started to dismantle Gacy's house and garage as they continue to search for other bodies in this quiet suburban neighborhood.
Jim Cummins, NBC News, Des Plaines, Illinois.
Well, mother and her two small children were taken to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa late today as a result of this head-on collision at 21st and 130th East Avenue.
Four-year-old Jessica Pyle and her brother, six-year-old Clinton, are fine, but their mother Carla Pyle is in surgery now with a collapsed lung and fractured ribs.
Police are still investigating the cause of the crash.
That gas well fire near Wetunko we showed you last night was finally extinguished today.
The fire had burned out of control for five days.
After several unsuccessful attempts at putting out the fire yesterday, today the crew used hydrogen and water to snuff out the fire.
There were no injuries in the blaze.
Well, for a couple of days now, we've been telling you about the problems that the McLean High School football team's been having, raising money to go to the NFL football playoffs.
Well, thanks to new center two troubleshooter Jim Bunn, it looks like the team is going to Dallas.
As we told you earlier this week, shortly after McLean won the state championship, a drive got underway to raise $5,000 so the team could go to Dallas to see an NFL playoff game next weekend.
Early yesterday, though, head coach Melvin Driver was told that all that was in the bank was $900.
After explaining the problem to Mayor Inhofe yesterday, he was able to raise $2,400 from three business leaders in town.
Today, I contacted the people over at Bank of Commerce and they agreed to donate a $200 check to help pay for the trip to Dallas.
And late this afternoon, Bill Rollins, one of the owners of the Tulsa Driller's baseball team, dropped by new center two with a check for $250 in behalf of the drillers.
Shortly after that, McLean football coach Melvin Driver came to new center two.
And on top of the $450 I'd already collected today, I had another check for $200 from an anonymous donor.
Coupled with some other checks that have come in today, the total is now well over $4,000.
Did you ever get to a point where you thought maybe you wouldn't make it?
Well, I think you might say that. You know, at one time, three or four days after we won the state championship, things didn't seem like they were just going real well.
You know, then we contacted you guys, you know, and you took charge and I think, you know, we can really say that this is what did for us.
So, now it's official. The McLean football team will go to Dallas next weekend. A well-earned present from the city of Tulsa.
Jim Bunn, new center two, Troubleshooting.
Still to come tonight, Christmas comes a little bit early to the kids at Tulsa's Hissam Center. We'll explain that when we come back.
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Everything's nice at Sipes. So very nice at Sipes. There's a new world of nice things in store for you at Sipes Kensington.
An entire department stocked with health foods and vitamins, fresh fish and flowers, nice, helpful people, and low, low prices.
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Hi, folks. I'm Charles Mellons with Bob Drill Dodge, and we've got to sell cars. For an example, Dodge Diplomat for $48.90,
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Don't forget, folks, Bob Drill Dodge, the home of America's number one midsize car, the Aspen.
That's right, folks. Come to Bob Drill Dodge today, Levith and Harvard.
Christmas and Moody's jewelry just naturally go together. Yes, for more than 30 years, we've been helping people find those special Christmas gifts of love.
You'll find beautiful jewelry in every price range for mothers, grandmothers, daughters, and sweethearts.
We have handsome watches, rings, and accessories for the men on your list, too.
For your shopping convenience, we now have four locations with our newest store in the Woodland Hills Mall.
Make this a special Christmas with gifts of love from Moody's. Come see us, won't you?
Gary, are you in the Christmas spirit?
Why, certainly. I hope so.
I noticed you were lurking around the punch bowl during our little holiday bash.
No, I was worried that we might get a little ambient weather, and we were just checking it out, and everything looks good for Christmas.
Still no snow, though.
I'm afraid not. We tried mixing some stuff up, but just couldn't come up with it.
We looked again tonight for some snow out to the west of us here, but, you know, that was just kind of wishful thinking.
It's all clear on the 150-mile range. As a matter of fact, it hadn't rained all day in Oklahoma anywhere.
Our current conditions now, it's 55 for a daytime high in the Tulsa area after an overnight low of 26 to right now 41 degrees.
The winds are southerly at seven miles an hour. Humidity up to 54 percent right now.
Barometric pressure is on the drop, and no rainfall in the past 24 hours.
Sunrise tomorrow morning will be at 732. Sunset is at 15 minutes past the hour, 5 o'clock tomorrow night.
Satellite photo there. You can see that, well, we were fairly clear today.
But if you look up around the northwest and around the Great Lakes, you can see a couple of storm systems that are brewing up.
Here's the one up there around the Great Lakes regions. It's not too bad tonight.
There's no real bad weather associated with it, except they've got some, oh, right on the lakes themselves, they have some gale warnings up.
But otherwise, just some snow continuing through here. Already a foot on the ground in this area here.
Then we move on down through here. This front didn't do much for anybody when it swept down through very rapidly, as we promised it wouldn't.
Behind it there, we did get a little cooler temperatures, and the winds did shift ahead of the front today. Winds were generally southerly, about 10 miles an hour.
Then behind the front, things shifted to easterly, putting once again just about 10 miles an hour.
Out up here in the northwest is where the weather is tonight, what little there is around the map tonight, really.
We have some storm systems moving through here, and we've got some good gusty winds associated with it.
Snow shower amounts, not too much, generally about an inch or so.
But there's a lot of wind associated with it, gusts of 30, 40 miles an hour in many places here.
And then around Cheyenne, Wyoming, it really picks up where it was up to 60 miles an hour at times.
Right now, 40 and toss at 45 in the Muskogee, a little chillier as we move on north here.
Everyone reporting clear skies at 10 o'clock, and winds are generally calm at this hour over most of the Sooner State.
Our forecast for tonight is going to be fair to partly cloudy, overnight low 25 to 31, the warmer spots up around Independence,
Ponca City, and Bartlesville. And then tomorrow, cooler in the afternoon, excuse me, colder, that's right, in the afternoon,
as that front comes on through. And that's it for Weather Channel.
All right. Thank you, Gary. Channel 2 played Santa Claus today at the Hissa Memorial Center.
Our own Dennis Blake of the afternoon movie brought Santa along to deliver gifts to the youngsters at the Sand Springs
facility for the mentally retarded. Today's afternoon movie was dedicated to the youngsters at Hissom,
and about $3,000 worth of toys donated from the Children the Children program at Channel 2 were given by Dennis and old Saint Nick.
It's nice.
It had a nice ending to it, too. The ballgame had a nice ending to it tonight.
It really did. I went to the ballgame before I tell you about that. I've had a lot of calls tonight about that holiday bowl being played in San Diego.
Brigham Young University now leads Navy 16 to 10. That's very late in the third period in that football game in San Diego.
And for those who had already finished their Christmas shopping, there was college basketball at the Assembly Center tonight.
We'll take a look at that. The Red Men from Northeastern Oklahoma State at Tahlequah gave Tulsa University a battle royal
before finally losing 69 to 63 at the Assembly Center tonight to the Golden Hurricane.
Red Men coach Dr. Jack Dobbins had his team superbly prepared despite a rash of injuries, and Coach Jim King's Golden Hurricane just really never could shake loose.
Russell Sublette led Tulsa with 16 points. Billy Keyes and Steve McDowell added 10 each for the sluggish hurricane.
For Northeastern State, Dana Hungerford had 16 points, most of them on long-range jumpers, and Mark Dobbins,
a senior son of Red Men coach Dr. Jack Dobbins, added 13 points, and Mark performed a brilliant four game tonight.
He was easily the best guard on the floor at the Assembly Center this evening.
He's probably the best quarterback guard in college basketball in Oklahoma this season.
Final again, Tulsa University edges Northeastern State 69 to 63.
Coming up, what the sportsman is buying for Christmas and the Army football scandal.
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World champion Chuck Norris. Good guys wear black. Rated PG. Look for this ad.
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Since the Bank of Commerce opened in 1904 on the dirt streets of Tulsa, there have been a few changes.
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Sports people make up a large segment of the buying public during the Christmas season.
This is a new shop at 51st and Harvard called the Sports Buff.
It is unique in that you can buy anything from jerseys to posters to a wide range of books.
Basically they buy the same items. They just sort of buy them in greater amounts I guess. Buying for everyone.
In this market, what are some of the really popular items?
Well, really all our items sell well. I think it gets down to specific teams.
Anything red and white with OU or blue and gray with Dallas on it sells well.
I guess you could almost take a Super Bowl poll here as to a favorite.
That's right. We've sort of done that as we've gone along and I think the consensus is Dallas and Pittsburgh.
Wouldn't be a bad matchup. What are some of the other items?
You've got a complete listing of books. I think the most extensive group of sports books I've seen.
What sells well back there?
Our baseball books do the best of our books. But really we're getting known for our books.
That's what we want to make the foundation of the store.
Our soccer books sell well and our football books pick up.
They all do well. Our running books we'd like to see them do a little bit better. But they're all doing well.
Do women who come in, do they not know what they want? Do you have to help them more?
No, they know what they want. They know the teams that they're looking for and they seem to know the more popular teams too.
They're up on it.
West Point announced today that a special investigating officer has been appointed to probe charges by former Army football coach Homer Smith
that the Academy breaks NCAA recruiting rules.
The superintendent of West Point, Lt. Gen. Andrew Goodpaster, says that Colonel Robert Berry, head of the Academy Law Department,
will look into Smith's charges. Army Athletic Director Raymond Murphy had this to say.
I have no idea what his motive is. It's kind of stunning to me to find out that he has taken this action because as far as we're concerned,
you know, at West Point it has to be understood that we do everything possible.
And I think more than any other school in the country, we are interested in following the NCAA rules to the spirit and the letter.
And we feel we have to. So that if there are allegations, we certainly don't know about them.
John, as I hand it back to you, I want to give a plug. We've got three Super Bowl games coming up on Channel 2.
The Fiesta Bowl on Christmas Day with Arkansas and UCLA. The Rose Bowl, Michigan, Southern Cal, New Year's Day and New Year's Night,
Oklahoma, Nebraska. And I'll be leaving next week for Miami and we'll be reporting on that, the preliminaries to that.
You're lucky, Stiff. How did you swing it?
I thought you were going with me.
Oh, no. Are you kidding? Still to come, a little Christmas cheers. Stay with us.
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Safeway's Superstore where you can shop for more than Christmas dinner.
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Quick, convenient, easy. Safeway's Film, Sound and Gift Center is the place to shop for everything.
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Music
It's always typical for a politician to make some campaign promises, hopefully to get elected.
Well, Jack Morris says tonight that Jimmy Carter hasn't kept one of his biggest promises.
In reviewing President Carter's campaign promises, I note so many that are ignored.
One especially stands out as I hear our government's predictions of more inflation in the coming year.
Immediately after my inauguration, said candidate Carter, I will institute zero-based budgeting for all federal departments, bureaus and boards by executive order.
Well, we're still waiting. If it ever happens, we would be well on our way toward the goal of fiscal responsibility.
What is zero-based budgeting? It isn't revolutionary. The private sector practices it all the time.
It simply means justification for every expenditure. It means analyzing, combining planning, budgeting and operational decisions into one process for efficiency.
Efficiency, that's what it is all about. There are agencies and bureaus in the federal government which have been atrenched for years.
They produce nothing but payrolls. Zero-based budgeting asks if their existence is justified and says, prove it.
If we're ever to get out from under the yoke of confiscatory taxes, no promise Mr. Carter made to the nation is as important.
All of us here at News Center 2 wish you a very Merry Christmas and so do the members of the first Tulsa Choir.
We hope that the meaning of this holiday season will be especially real for you.
Merry Christmas, everyone at News Center 2.
Do you hear what I hear? Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy?
Do you hear what I hear? The song of song by a purple queen,
With a voice as big as the sea, With a voice as big as the sea,
Do you know what I know? A child, a child, a child.
Portions of News Center 2 brought to you by Berggrat Tires, Boulder Furniture, Arby's Roast Beef Restrocks, Bob Drewle Dodge, and by your Safeway stores.
When you see news happen, call the News Center 2 hotline at 587-NAWS.
If you are a part of the community being served by Clare,