& Livestock Expo is about more than winning awards and making the bonus sale.

It could well be on-the-job training for her future career field. Kaylee Snow is a 17-year-old senior at MacArthur High School who hopes to follow in the footsteps of her vocational agriculture adviser, Pete Dempsey, by becoming an ag teacher herself. "Since I got in FFA, I love it. It's my life. So I want to be able to be involved in FFA for the rest of my life," she said. The daughter of Russell and Shari Snow, she plans to pursue a double major of ag education and animal science when she goes to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater next fall. In the meantime, she plans to show at the Oklahoma Youth Expo in Oklahoma City and maybe at some of the shows this summer. The Youth Expo is a yearly tradition for her family, and "it's a lot of fun."

at the right pen ahead of her. "I've done this a few times," she said. "I've been showing for several years." She told the Lawton Constitution (http://is.gd/jLlaUw ) that she has two younger sisters who also show. Alyssa is in eighth grade and Tiffani in sixth. "One of them is showing right now, actually. We all really love it," Kaylee said. She brought three pigs to this year's Expo and plans to show a steer on Thursday. Each of her sisters brought three pigs as well, so they had a total of nine at the show Because the steer stands the best chance of making the sale on Friday, she's sharing her pigs with her sisters so that everyone will have a shot at making the sale. In addition to the Berk, she has a Hampshire and a Crossbreed. "My Hamp is the best pig I've ever had, so I'm really proud of him,"

They're like our pets, almost, because they get so tame and everything," she said. The pigs get to the point where they know what humans want. "Once you practice with them a few times, they usually get the hang and do what you need them to do," Kaylee said. Like dogs, pigs all have their own personalities. "Some of them are loud, some are quiet. Some are crazy, some are calm. Yeah, they're all different," she said. "They do funny things. I wouldn't really say they do tricks, but they do do some funny things sometimes. A lot of times when you first put them out in a ring, and they're in a new place, they'll run around crazy and spin and do flips and stuff. It's kind of funny" Kaylee said. When she and her sisters let their pigs out in the practice pen of the Expo Center, that's exactly how the pigs behaved.

Reader photo

McAlester Public School students Dillon Duffy and Calee McNutt receive $100 recently from pastor Paulette Crawford of Cornerstone Community Church of Arpelar. The award was given for successfully earning a place on the honor roll for the first semester of the 2012-13 school year. Each semester, Cornerstone honors students who are placed on their school honor rolls.

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CNG
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the necessary requirements. Wright said it took a few weeks to complete the conversion after the boat was delivered in December, but it has been too cold to put it on the water. He said Malibu is sending some of its technical staff to Oklahoma soon to see how the converted boat performs. "We already know that it's going to work really well," Wright said. Wright, whose business specializes in CNG conversions, said natural gas, which costs about $1 a gallon, is a good alternative for boaters because it is

much cheaper than the high-grade gasoline they have to use. Ski boats consume a "massive" amount of fuel, he said. The converted Wakesetter has two tanks that can hold up to 25 gallons of CNG, enough for a light day on the lake, he said. It still has its 59-gallon gasoline tank as well. Wright said his team was able to keep costs down on the boat conversion by working with a kit maker to engineer the needed parts. "Obviously it demonstrates our capability of pushing the bounds of performance," he said. In the future, he said Malibu could tweak its manufacturing process to accommodate CNG conversions. Q: What's the status of the lawsuit between the state and the tribes? A: We have stayed the litigation and are engaged in productive mediation right now Hopefully we'll be able to resolve our issues through that process and avoid litigation altogether. Q: Has the state been sensitive enough to the concerns of Native Americans about water? A: I've certainly heard the complaint that the state is not. I also hear that complaint about the state (not) being sensitive to anybody's particular problems and needs. It really is a twoway street. In order for us to resolve these issues with all of the 39 federally-recognized tribes in Oklahoma, it's going to take serious commitment and engagement on both the side of the state as well as the tribes. Q: How important is the pending U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the efforts by Tarrant County, Texas, to lay claim to Oklahoma water? A: It may be significant; it may not. Our initial thoughts are that it could

Wright said he expects there to be a lot of interest in CNG among boaters. He said he had gotten requests to convert boats over the past five years or so, "but nobody wanted to be the guinea pig." Wright said newer boats such as the Wakesetter are more like cars because they meet standards meant to reduce air pollution. "This could be a big advantage," he said. "Natural gas is cleaner." Wright said natural gas also is a viable option for recreational vehicles, another industry hampered by poor gas mileage and high fuel costs. "Natural gas could potentially save their industries," he said. Wright said CNG Interbe extremely significant to interstate water compacts all across the West. Q: Is the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer a crisis? Is the Panhandle running out of water? A: No. I don't think we've reached the crisis stage by any means. Certainly there's some groundwater depletion occurring. We see groundwater depletion all over the state, though, not just in the Ogallala Aquifer. A recent regional water study shows that they are producing more crops with 60 percent less water in the Panhandle than when irrigation really started in earnest in the mid-'50s. That's encouraging. That tells us that the farmers up there in the Panhandle are reducing their consumption. If those trends continue, it's possible that we could see some sort of equilibrium. Q: So you don't see another Dust Bowl in the cards? A: Not at this point in time. I think it's largely because we learned so much from that experience. The modern-day conservaDrop off and pick up using our DRIVE-THRU DRY CLEANING!

state, which has doubled the size of its workshop since it opened its Oklahoma operations in 2011, is focusing on product development, while earning certification from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board. He said he wants his company to develop better ways to install the equipment needed to convert vehicles to CNG, with an eye toward eventually supplying those solutions to other companies. Wright said he expects CNG Interstate to expand from its current 7,500square-foot space, with plans to open a separate emissions lab in the future to prepare for new federal air quality regulations. tion movement really arose from Oklahoma's experience in that Dust Bowl. We have a much bigger conservation community out there working with farmers and ranchers to make sure that we don't experience that again. Q: Is there anything your agency can do to mandate more conservation? A: Not at present. There's no statutory authority for us to do that. Nor do I think that that's necessarily the way we need to go. I think we can make great strides just through educating people and providing the right incentives and in some cases by removing regulatory obstacles.

37-pound tubby tabby Biscuit in need of home

ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) At 37 pounds, Biscuit is about the right weight for a 4-year-old human, that is. A St. Louis-area animal shelter is trying to find a new home for the sweet tabby with a sweet tooth. Biscuit's salad days were spent pigging out, and now at roughly three times the weight of a healthy adult cat, he's restricted to about a cup of diet food per day. His first owner, a disabled woman who fed him lots AP photo of treats, Biscuit, a 37-pound cat, looks at his brought him to cage in the shelter in St. Charles, the St. Charles Animal Control Mo., on Wednesday. shelter about a year ago because she could no longer care for him, Teresa Gilley, the shelter's lead animal control officer, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "She didn't mean the cat any harm," Gilley said. "I just think she didn't know any better." Another woman took him in but had to return him about a week ago because her new apartment doesn't allow pets, she said. Gilley said the tubby tabby isn't crazy about his new low-calorie diet, but he has begun adjusting to it. When he arrived, Biscuit could only take a few steps before lying down and panting, but now he's showing increased energy "The other day I went into the office, and he was up in the chair," Gilley said. "So he was able to jump pretty high." Biscuit is neutered and is believed to be about 4. Gilley said he's easygoing and loves being petted. Any prospective owner would need to keep Biscuit away from the gravy and on a strict diet.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A

Water

of that water and how they could use it more efficiently. Q: From a purely legal standpoint, is what Oklahoma City is doing right now fair and square? A: Absolutely. They have water rights from the state and they have contractual storage rights from the (Army) Corps of Engineers, which owns that reservoir. Q: Over time, has the state done enough to balance the needs of water consumers with those of recreational users? A: We need to do something about that issue. Our statutes and our regulatory system are really set up to appropriate water for people, industries and cities to use for consumptive purposes. There's really nothing specifically in our laws and regulations to make sure we're taking care of the non-consumptive uses for water: the tourism, the recreation, the fishing, the endangered species, those sorts of things.

912 S. Main in McAlester (918) 470-7170

McAlester Tae Kwon Do also has Krav Maga and Boxing Women's Self Defense Wednesday March 13th from 6pm - 8pm

Martial Arts for All Ages

Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on important public-policy issues facing the state.

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