Freezing rain and drizzle is disrupting travel from Central Texas to the Great Lakes, with ice-glazed roads leading to hundreds of traffic accidents, including one in Kentucky that killed a toddler.

Hundreds of flights were canceled Wednesday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas braced for an ice storm.

More than half an inch of ice could accumulate in parts of the Ozarks through Friday morning, while another area of freezing rain was expected to hit south-central Pennsylvania and western Maryland, the National Weather Service said.

In western Kentucky, ice on a bridge caused multiple collisions that left a toddler dead and closed interstate lanes for hours, officials said.

Seven collisions involving 12 tractor-trailers and 6 passenger cars were reported beginning late Wednesday on Interstate 24 in Marshall County due to ice on the Tennessee River Bridge, Kentucky State Police said in a statement.

In one crash involving two semi-trailers, an 18-month-old unrestrained child was ejected and then hit by a car, police said. The toddler was declared dead at the scene by the Marshall County coroner.

In Arkansas, dozens of schools were closed or switched to remote learning on Thursday as another round of freezing rain was expected by midday. Airlines canceled more than 1,700 U.S. flights Thursday, according to the FlightAware.com tracking site. Many of them were at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, where temperatures were expected to top out above freezing only briefly late on Thursday afternoon.

DFW Airport is the biggest in the American Airlines network, and American had canceled 21% of its Thursday flights by Wednesday night, according to FlightAware. Meanwhile, heavy snow was expected in upstate New York and New England later this week, with more than 6 inches possible through Saturday morning.

Winter took a fleeting break in the Northeast on Wednesday, with temperatures soaring into the 60s before plunging within hours. The warm spell sent people streaming outdoors, but it was bad news for ski resorts.

"It's not exactly what you want to see in the middle of the busiest week of the year," said Ethan Austin, spokesperson for the Sugarloaf ski area in Maine, which was busy because of school vacation week. But he was happy to hear snow was on the way.

The weather whiplash marked the second time in less than a week that there was to be a temperature swing of more than 40 degrees in 24 hours.

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Tax season kicks off Monday, but the pandemic continues to impact filing.

The big takeaway this year is to not rush. Accountants suggest taking a second look to make sure all documents are in order, particularly those regarding COVID-19 relief payments.

“Typically, you’d want to wait until the early part of February unless you are 100% sure you have these items when you file,” said CPA Joshua Jenson, founder of Jenson and Companies in Oklahoma City.

Jenson said the best way to avoid delays is to wait until you receive two letters from the IRS: documents for the third stimulus payment and the child tax credits.

“On your 2021 tax return, if you didn’t get the full amount, this is where you get the rest of those dollars that are due to you,” he said.

Experts also advise taxpayers to take advantage of a new deductible this season.

“The new big deduction in 2021 that’s very exciting is that you can deduct up to $600 in charitable contributions directly on form 1040 even if you do not itemize your deductions,” he said. “Do not miss that. It’s right there on Form 1040.”

Jenson said that while the pandemic may have caused some returns to be delayed last year, he doesn’t expect things to be the same this year.

“The IRS has done a phenomenal job, as well as the Oklahoma Tax Commission, at where it’s possible, having their agents either work remotely or in a safeguard situation that allows returns to continue to be processed,” he said.

Another thing to keep in mind before filing is that employers had until Jan. 21 to send W-2s.

Christmas Day doesn't feel much like winter for much of the South and Southeast.

More than 200 records may be broken Christmas Day through Wednesday from Texas to the southeastern U.S. as warm air pushes into the region, bringing spring- and summerlike temperatures. Many locations, including Dallas, Houston and Austin are expected to break daily record highs, but high-temperature records for the entire month of December could also be broken.

Specifically, Dallas has a forecast high for Christmas of 83, which is only 6 degrees under its July 4 high; Houston has a forecast high of 81, which is 9 degrees below its July 4 high.

Wichita Falls, Texas, hit 91 Friday -- warmer than its July 4 high of 88, and Grandfield, Oklahoma, reached 89, which also beats its July 4 high of 88.

Along with the warm temperatures, level 2 of 3 critical fire danger has been issued by the Storm Prediction Center for parts of west Texas and Oklahoma and east Colorado on Sunday due to minimal rain chances, sustained winds up to 25 mph and very low relative humidity that will raise wildfire concerns. The warm weather trend will continue through Wednesday before temperatures lower slightly, but highs will remain above average all week.

The West faces rain and heavy snowfall

Contrasting the spring- and summer-like temperatures across the South, the West is seeing rounds of coastal rain and heavy high elevation snowfall.

Multiple rounds of snow are impacting the West from a Christmas Day system, contributing to significant mountain snowfall and lower elevation rainfall on the West Coast.

More than 6 million people across the Western U.S. are under a winter storm warning.

Winter storm warnings are reaching as far south as the San Bernardino and Riverside County Mountains.

This is due to Arctic air pushing into the Pacific Northwest, which is causing winter storm alerts to reach near the coast, producing a rare White Christmas for places like Seattle and Portland.

Seattle has only seen measurable snow on Christmas Day nine times in 127 years of records. Holiday weekend travel conditions in the region could be dangerous due to tall snowdrifts and whiteout conditions.

Oregon is in a state of emergency through Jan. 3 due to the potential for hazardous winter weather conditions and sustained subfreezing temperatures.

Portland may see up to 4 inches of snow for Christmas Day. This system is also bringing heavy rainfall to Southern California on Christmas with much of the California coast seeing up to 4 inches of rainfall throughout the next five days.

The system that is causing heavy snow and rainfall to the West will head toward the upper Midwest, bringing heavy snowfall to much of the area. Winter weather watches have already been issued, and some places can see up to a foot of snowfall.

Winter weather advisories issued for the Northeast

The Northeast is also not free from inclement weather. Winter weather advisories are in effect for parts of the Northeast, largely due to freezing rain.

Freezing rain may create slippery and hazardous road conditions in major cities like Boston. New England could see more widespread snowfall by Saturday night. Some parts of the northeast could see up to half an inch of ice accumulation.

Three former inmates have reportedly filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after they say they were forced to listen to the children's song “Baby Shark" on repeat.

According to The Oklahoman, they are suing Oklahoma County commissioners, the county sheriff, the jail trust and two former officers at the jail.

An investigation found the officers handcuffed the inmates to a wall and played the song loudly, over and over, as a form of punishment, The Kansas City Star reported. The lawsuit reportedly compares the action to torture.

The officers were charged in 2020. They are scheduled to go to trial in February, The Oklahoman reports.

The inmates are reportedly seeking $75,000 in damages.

Two people escaped from the LeFlore County Detention Center in Poteau, Oklahoma, early Friday morning, according to a press release.

Sheriff Rodney Derryberry said that the two men stole a truck with a rifle, a handgun and ammunition inside.

The two pried a hole in a steel wall and went through it into a utility room. They then knocked out a window and escaped from the building.

It had taken the two some time to pry open the hole, Derryberry said. A blanket had been used to cover the hole.

Jailers discovered they were missing during an hourly headcount at about 2 a.m.

Law enforcement later got a report of a stolen truck. The truck had been left unlocked with the keys inside, Derryberry said.

The truck is a 2015 white Ford F-150 pickup with Oklahoma license plate number BOK160. There is damage to the rear driver-side bumper.

The two inmates who escaped are Jeromy Call and Jason Delao. Call was at the detention center on charges of burglary and escape, according to Derryberry, while Delao was at the center on drug charges.

Call had escaped in February from the same facility. He stole two vehicles during that escape, Derryberry said.

If you see the truck or have other information about the escape, you're asked to call LeFlore County Dispatch at 918-647-2317.

Hispanic Heritage Month: Leader of Latino organization uses life experience to help others

Updated: 11:48 PM EDT Oct 11, 2021

From the streets of Chicago to Puerto Rico, a school dropout to a college graduate, the president and CEO of the Latino Community Development Agency in Oklahoma is using his life experience to help thousands of Latinos."Well, I was a Puerto Rican kid born and raised in Chicago – southside Chicago, where all the mess is still going on today. A mom that didn't know how to raise a kid, so I was raised by the streets," said Raul Font, president of the Latino Community Development Agency. "At some point in time, my mom, Puerto Rican, decided, 'I need some help. I need to be raising these kids in Puerto Rico.' So, We go to Puerto Rico, and I quit school. I quit school at 11 years old. I decided that school was not for me, and I was mad at the whole world because everyone had parents, nice houses and stuff, and I didn't.""You said you were raised by the streets at the age of 11, moved to Puerto Rico. It's a culture shock, culture change. What was that like for you?" sister station KOCO 5 asked."We had a problem of fitting in. We didn't know where to fit in, and I personally not having a home and not having a country, it was pretty hard," Font said. "We got in a lot of trouble, but we were really not into gangs."What kind of trouble did Font get into as a child?"I could still open your home in about 18 seconds, most likely," Font said. "I knew how to push the envelope. But then, at that age, that preteen age where you really get in trouble, here comes the basketball. This guy comes up and says, 'Just bounce the ball every time you ...' I started going to the basketball court, and I started seeing them play, and I started kind of imitating them. And then I realized that maybe there is something else that I can do."Font said basketball gave him the structure he needed to get to where he is today. "The structure and the support, because behind every basketball team there is someone there that is always watching you and making sure that you are at practice and that you're doing the right thing," Font said. "Nobody around in our neighborhood went to college. So, everybody kept on saying, 'You can take this to college.' I don't know what that was, but if they were going to pay me to go to college, why not? Why not try it?"Font also explained how he got involved in the Latino Community Development Agency."In the early 80s, I worked for the State Department of Education. Then, I was maybe the highest-ranked Latino in any state or federal program around, which is sad," he said. "But I thought that sitting at the table was important. Finally, we got the attention of several leaders in the community that said, 'Hey, there's not an agency that serves Latinos. How about if we start petitioning the United Way for some funding and start one?' A group of three of us, plus me, we decided to go to the United Way. And the United Way, in their wisdom, decided to give us $42,000. And that's how we got started.People who do this kind of work don't do it for recognition. Font was recently named one of the 100 most powerful people in Oklahoma."If it's a personal recognition and it doesn't yield anything for the community, then it's, what am I going to do – take a plaque and put it in my office or go away two years from now and it doesn't do anything? It has to produce something for the community," Font said. "What happens at LCDA is not because of me. It's because of the people that we hire and their passion."Watch the video above for the full story.

TOO CUTE: Farm welcomes adorable miniature horse named Pumpkin

Updated: 6:22 AM EDT Oct 8, 2021

Meet Pumpkin, a tiny miniature horse born at Chester's Party Barn and Farm in Piedmont, Oklahoma. At 15 inches tall, the owners say Pumpkin is the smallest miniature horse ever born at their farm.Watch the video above to see the adorable miniature horse!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

It’s estimated that by the end of this year, approximately 30% of new cancer diagnoses for women will be for breast cancer.

One in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes. But there are also nearly 4 million breast cancer survivors in the United States, which means breast cancer can be treated and managed if it’s caught early.

Dr. Lori Frederick with Oklahoma University's Health Breast Health Network said women should get yearly mammograms starting at age 40, regardless of family history.

"We know that breast cancer is most commonly not related to your family history, so that’s kind of a misconception out there," she said.

She recommended 3D mammograms whenever possible.

"It helps us identify cancer that may be hidden – with the 3D imaging," she said.

Men can also get breast cancer, although it is much rarer. The National Breast Cancer Foundation estimates about 2,700 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.

Although we are still in a pandemic, it’s important not to neglect yearly screenings. Frederick said she is seeing things pick back up.

"I think the word got out that you need to come in and get this done," she said.

It could save your life.

An Oklahoma man was reunited with the doctors who saved his life after going into cardiac arrest.

Christopher Fennell was having dinner while visiting his son in Norman, Oklahoma. And as they were leaving a restaurant, Fennell fell to the ground and went into cardiac arrest, which led to a brain seizure.

"I was basically dead, and they brought me back," he said.

His son is now a junior at the University of Oklahoma and is studying pre-med. He knew exactly what to do to keep his father alive until paramedics arrived.

"The quick action of my son to call 911 and then hand the phone to my wife, who was in shock and started CPR was, I mean, I wouldn’t be here without that," Fennell said.

Fennell was taken to the hospital, where he stayed in the ICU for 10 days.

"Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest does not have a very good prognosis overall," Dr. Archana Gautam said.

Fennell was later sent to rehab, where he was able to get additional treatment and fully recover.

"To see someone physically recover and cognitively recover after a cardiac arrest is rare," said Dr. Lane Tinsley.

Fennell said without the quick medical attention from his son, paramedics and the doctors — he wouldn’t have fully recovered.

"All of these things God put in place, put breadcrumbs down on the ground to get me here, for the great people here to continue my recovery, put me on the road to recovery and get me back in the position I am in today," he said. "I am a walking miracle, but this is not a story about me. This is a story about how God works in the world today."

Officers at Oklahoma Air Force base remember responding to 9/11 attacks

Updated: 11:08 PM EDT Sep 6, 2021

Tinker Air Force Base was a hub of activity on Sept. 11, 2001, with the Oklahoma base's planes making sure nothing was flying above the U.S. that wasn't supposed to be there.Sister station KOCO 5 spoke with three Air Force officers who were in the air and on the ground that fateful day."What? Like, 'That’s dumb. That thing’s so big. How do you not miss that thing, right?' And we thought about it for a minute, and he turned on the TV and we watched the second plane hit. And it was like instantly the entire room just changed," Col. Keven Coyle, with the 552nd Air Control Wing, said. "And he looked at me and goes, 'You need to go get your 72-hour bag right now.'""So, just like everyone else, the light bulb clicks," retired AWACS Officer Andrew Bruce said. "The unimaginable had happened at that point. But we didn’t know what that all meant, either. Just like everyone else, you’re trying to figure it out."Forced immediately into action, the thousands of people working at Tinker Air Force Base 20 years ago will never forget the moments they knew their country needed them. That included scrambling to get into place before the base was inevitably locked down."I got pulled over, and I, essentially, I just said, 'Hey, officer, I know I'm going fast. Gather my data and send me a ticket, but I got to get back to the base.' And he goes, 'Whoa. What's going on?' And I go, 'I don't know if you heard the news at all.' And he goes, 'No.' And he got back on the radio and within about two minutes he goes, 'Just follow me.' And he escorted me back to the base very fast," Coyle said.They were then sent on missions they'd never flown before, including patrolling for hijacked aircraft."Launch and look over what's going on in the western half of the United States because we don't know what else is going to happen and if anything else is going to happen. As it turns out, nothing else happened over there. But it was very, very eerie," Bruce said. "You'll launch in the United States nowadays, and you got that nice radar dome on top, and you can see thousands of dots. And you know, there's airliners everywhere. And we launched that day, and it was a blank screen except for just a couple of handful of dots, and you knew exactly who these, every one of them was.""One thing I do remember he goes, 'If you have any reservations firing on civilian airliners, then speak up now. That's not going to be held against you, but we need to know,'" said Col. Jim Mattey, with the 513th Air Control Group. "Man, silence came across the room because the gravity of the situation really hit, because we never thought that we actually have to fire on United States aircraft."And, 20 years later, the moments live with them."In this unit, I think we still have four members that were around on that day serving. And you bring up 9/11, and, automatically, you know, it kicks in," Mattey said. "You know exactly where you were. You can feel it. You can taste it. You can sense everything that was going on. Those deployments, their hardships. But I tell you what, you made some amazing relationships."And the sense they were there when their country needed them."It was nice to have the stability of knowing what I was doing was of benefit, but it was also kind of refreshing to know that we were needed. I think that’s kind of the key. In any situation, people want to know that they’re valued and needed," Coyle said. "And that day, for sure, we felt that we were valued and needed as an Air Force. And you can’t buy that. It was great."After that memorable, surreal day, many men and women from Tinker Air Force Base were deployed to fight overseas, spending years more serving their country.Watch the video above for the full story.

In Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and even as far away as Illinois, clinics around the country are reporting an increase in Texans seeking an abortion.

"Our phones have been a lot busier this week, mainly from Texas patients and also from patients that normally would be seen in Texas," said Ashley Brink, clinic director at Wichita Trust Women.

"We've had to cap our schedule. We're scheduling out three weeks, until September 21, is the earliest available appointments," said Kailey Voellinger, the Oklaholma City clinic director at Trust Women. "We had a patient call today who was a Texas patient. She had done her ultrasound visit, right in Texas. They have the mandatory ultrasound, 24 hours in advance. She was under six weeks. When they got her back for her procedure, they could hear heart tone, and they had to turn her away right before her surgery."

Researchers at the Guttmacher Institute have predicted some of the impact on women.

In Texas, instead of driving an average of 12 miles one way to an abortion clinic, they now need to drive closer to 250 miles. That's 20 times more.  

"Even if you have the money to afford abortion, could you have the time to take off of work? Do you have the people to watch your children? Can you stay overnight? You know?" Voellinger questioned. "Or can you do a 20-hour day driving to the clinic, for seven hours being in the clinic, for eight hours and driving home?"

Back in Texas, providers say the punitive damages that would come from violating the new law aren't worth the risk.  

"The state has placed a bounty, a $10,000 bounty, on our head," said Marva Sadler, senior director of clinical services at Whole Woman's Health. "They've now allowed the everyday citizen to bring lawsuits against us if they feel we've aided and abetted a woman having an abortion past the time of fetal heart tone."

Anti-abortion groups say these providers represent a minority and the law reflects the will of many Texans who see abortion as a matter of life and death. 

"This is a law that was passed and signed by the governor, passed by duly-elected state legislators, you know, that are representing the people, signed by the governor, who was elected and to represent the people," said Mallory Quigley with the Susan B. Anthony List. "This is what Texans want to do."

In Washington, Democrats in the House are pushing for a bill to make Roe v. Wade a federal law. But without a majority in the Senate plus 10 votes from Republicans, that push is mostly symbolic. 

This story was originally reported by Amber Strong on Newsy.com.

This month, Hearst Television is celebrating Black history by having courageous conversations. The fight for civil rights and justice goes back generations and has looked different each decade. We’re speaking with community leaders, elders – those who have lived through victories and troubled times, to talk about their experiences, and compare them with what we still struggle with today.

Joyce Jackson is a journalism and civil rights pioneer.

Jackson was a part of the Katz Drugstore sit-in in Oklahoma in 1958 — the beginning of a movement that changed the country forever.

Jackson also became the first Black woman on television in Oklahoma, at Oklahoma City's KOCO-TV.

Jason Hackett, a reporter for sister station KOCO, spoke with Jackson about her past, the country's present and what lies ahead in the future.

“Where I first started in television, I was a gopher, Jackson said, noting that John Harrison, the then-vice president of KOCO, hired her as a part-time receptionist, tour guide and as his assistant."

We asked Jackson how she ended up being on-air and in front of the camera.

“Well, I had been here about six months, and John called me in the office and he said, ‘Have you ever thought of being on television?’ And I said no. They brought me to the studio, put me in front of the cameras, and as much as I run my mouth, I couldn’t talk. They kept asking me questions and then the tears started rolling down,” Jackson said. “Yes, I cried. Because I was just afraid, you know, afraid of the unknown. “

Jackson was a Black voice in a sea of white voices at that time. We asked her if she felt the weight of those expectations of people looking up to her.

“Yes, absolutely. But of course, I had a lot of detractors. We had a lot of calls to get that person off the air. Why do you have that person on the air?” Jackson said. “But the community was very supportive. And so I became a voice to the community.”

Jackson talked with Hackett about the responsibility of journalists when it comes to reporting on race – what we are doing right and what we could be doing better.

“I think wherever you come from, you should make a point to know the community, to find out who the people are in the community so that you are, one, accepted, and two, that they will trust you with their story,” Jackson said. “I think there should be a better effort to reach the community and to make sure that the community is being included in the story of what’s going on in the nation because right now there’s a lot going on. And, of course, growing up, there was a lot going on.”

Jackson was involved in sit-ins in Oklahoma with civil rights leader Clara Luper. And now we’re seeing a civil rights movement again as people march in the streets and fight for justice and fight for inclusion.

“Aug. 19, 1958, is when they started the march downtown Oklahoma City to do a sit-in. And it was always non-violent and Miss Luper had us trained to deal with whatever would come at us,” Jackson said. “I never would imagine that in this day and time we would still be dealing with our civil rights.”

Jackson said we are still fighting.

“It just saddens you that someone running down the street for exercise can be killed. Some kid playing in the park can be killed. A woman driving by herself on the highway and not complying or talking back can be killed,” Jackson said. “All the things that Miss Luper told us about the color of your skin and that you were equal and that you are as… Sometimes it makes me sad and it makes me cry sometimes that here we are, still trying to get justice and trying to be treated equally and it’s all because of the color of our skin.”

We asked Jackson what she thinks the future hold for those fighting for justice in America.

“I think we need to go back to the things that we’re taught as little kids, to be kind to each other. To respect each other. To care about each other. Dr. Martin Luther King always said love triumphs all. And that’s what we need to do,” Jackson said. “We think that we’re so different that we’re trying to overpower each other. We can’t go back. We will not go back to a time where we were subservient and placed in situations where we did not have a voice. Today, everyone has a voice. And we need to use it.”

“You paved the way for what I’m able to do right now, stand there at that desk and deliver the news every morning,” Hackett said, thanking Jackson for giving us the opportunity to speak with her. “I want to say I appreciate that and appreciate you and the path you paved for kids like me, that grew up wanting to be journalists to be able to have this opportunity now, so thank you very much.”

An Oklahoma firefighter is making what hospital officials call a “remarkable” recovery after surviving COVID-19 and receiving a double lung transplant at a hospital in Arizona.

According to Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Capt. Randy Blake with the Stillwater Fire Department was first admitted to a hospital in his hometown after contracting COVID-19 in October. He was later taken to the Oklahoma Heart Institute in Tulsa.

“You guys saved my life,” Blake said to the health care workers who helped him. “I’m forever grateful. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

Hospital officials said that before being diagnosed with COVID-19, Blake, the father of four, had no preexisting conditions, was in excellent physical shape and made it a point to take good care of himself.

Blake eventually had to be placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for more than a month, officials said. He also had a tracheotomy and underwent several procedures to treat blood clots that had formed as a result of the infection.

Essentially an artificial lung that oxygenates the blood, ECMO can be used to help support patients while their lungs recover, hospital officials said. Although it is not always a treatment option, ECMO can help some patients recover from severe pneumonia caused by COVID-19.

Although Blake was able to improve and come off of ECMO in December, COVID-19 caused severe and irreversible lung injury, and hospital officials said he required a lung transplant to survive.

Blake said that one of his physicians suggested that he would be a good candidate for a double lung transplant and called someone he knew in Arizona.

“Before I knew it, I was on a medical transport plane to St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute in Phoenix. The team at St. Joseph’s worked so quickly, so diligently and with such compassion that not long after I arrived at St. Joseph’s in January, I had a new pair of donor lungs,” Blake said.

Being hospitalized for nearly four months, Blake lost 55 pounds of muscle and spent two weeks in St. Joseph’s Barrow Neurological Institute Neuro-Rehabilitation Center to retrain his muscles and relearn what most would consider basic tasks, according to hospital officials.

“Randy is doing wonderfully, and we couldn’t be happier that he’s ready to go home. He is no longer on oxygen and is working hard in physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy,” said Sofya Tokman, MD, Blake’s pulmonologist at St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute. “In fact, just a few days before his discharge, I saw him walking and lifting weights.”

Blake said he hopes his story will inspire other individuals and families who are facing similar situations. He was discharged from the rehab unit on Friday.

St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute was the third lung transplant program in the country to perform a lung transplant as a result of lung damage from COVID-19, and Blake’s case is Norton’s fourth post-COVID-19 lung transplant, according to officials.

Giving birth to rare identical triplets.

A mother from Oklahoma delivered three baby girls in June.

The family is finally together after the two youngest came home from the hospital.

Aspen, Kensli and Layken spent nearly two months in the NICU.

“They were born at 29 weeks. So, they were all a little over two pounds. So, they were really small,” mom Stephanie Norman said.

Small but mighty – and growing every day.

“Aspen, she actually got to come home first,” she said. “The other two were still in the NICU, so that was really hard.”

The Normans are all together now. Stephanie, dad TJ and 2-year-old Wyatt are adjusting going from a family of three to six.

Stephanie gave birth to the triplets on June 2.

“They all have their own sack, so since they all shared one placenta, that made them identical,” she said.

The news of three babies came as a huge shock to the high school sweethearts.

“We wanted one more and we were hoping it would be a girl. And then we were surprised we got three girls!” Stephanie said.

“I kind of joked about it on the way there for the first ultrasound. Yeah, what are we going to do if we hear more than one heartbeat – and then there were three of them in there," TJ said.

Big brother Wyatt couldn’t be prouder.

“When they get up in the morning, he’ll be like, ‘Hi, sissy,’” Stephanie said.

Telling the girls apart is a challenge.

“We have little anklet bracelets on them right now of different colors with their initials on them,” Stephanie said.

It’s three of everything now – a three-seat stroller and lots of diapers. But the Normans are grateful.

Related video: Arkansas governor ponders future in post-Trump GOP

Republican U.S. Sen. James Lankford would seem to have all the conservative credentials he'd need to coast to re-election in deep-red Oklahoma.

A devout Baptist, Lankford was the director of the nation’s largest Christian youth camp for more than a decade. He speaks out regularly against abortion and what he describes as excessive government spending. And his voting record in the Senate aligned with former President Donald Trump’s position nearly 90% of the time.

But like several other seemingly safe GOP incumbents, Lankford, who didn't even draw a primary opponent in 2016, finds himself under fierce attack by a challenger in his own party. The antagonist is a 29-year-old evangelical minister and political newcomer who managed to draw more than 2,000 people to a “Freedom Rally" headlined by Donald Trump's former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, at which Lankford was accused of being not conservative enough.

“When James (Lankford) certified the big lie, he joined the big lie," Jackson Lahmeyer told the raucous crowd in Norman, citing Lankford's failure to endorse Trump's false claims about the election outcome. “The 2020 presidential election — that was a stolen election and we will never, ever allow it to happen again.” The state's GOP chairman, John Bennett, has already endorsed Lahmeyer in the race.

Similar scenes are playing out in other red states where ultra right-wing challengers are tapping into anger among Republicans over Trump's election loss and coronavirus-related lockdowns. Some incumbents suddenly are scrambling to defend their right flank, heating up their own rhetoric on social media and ripping into President Joe Biden at every opportunity.

In Texas, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who faces a contested reelection primary next year, is pushing looser gun laws than he ever previously embraced and proposing unprecedented state actions, including promises to build more walls on the Mexican border.

AP Photo/Eric Gay, File

“I think it’s unquestionably attributable to the aftermath of the 2020 election and the insurrection and former President Trump’s claims of voter fraud,” said Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

Some conservative incumbents are obvious targets for right-wing challenges — notably U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney in Wyoming and Anthony Gonzalez in Ohio who voted to impeach Trump. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's offense was refusing to block Georgia's electoral votes from being awarded to Biden.

But with the 2022 election cycle approaching, the backlash is also touching even those who backed Trump consistently through countless controversies. Texas' Abbott echoed Trump's partisan positions and has banked $55 million in campaign funds, more than any sitting governor in history.

But he's drawn a challenge from Allen West, who until recently was the chairman of the Texas GOP. West, a tea party firebrand and former Florida congressman, has attacked Abbott's leadership after Democrats temporarily thwarted a GOP voting bill by decamping to Washington.

And he can draw a crowd. Last year, West led a boisterous rally outside the governor’s mansion to demand an end to coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

“We cannot sit around and continue to do nothing,” West told supporters in South Texas during one of his first campaign stops.

Actually winning a primary is probably more than many challengers, including West, can expect. But they can succeed in pushing the party farther to the right while also raising their own profiles as public figures.

Republican officeholders have faced challenges from the right in the past, but “Trump’s put a different name and spin to it" this time, said Pat McFerron, a Republican strategist and pollster in Oklahoma.

“As we become more self-selective with the media we consume, people find like-minded people in different social media channels and they think they’re in greater numbers than they are and feel they have an opportunity," he said.

In Arkansas, Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman, a two-term incumbent, has drawn several GOP challengers, including the owner of a gun range that drew national attention for banning Muslims. Another is a former Arkansas Razorbacks football player whose campaign kickoff ad shows him firing an assault rifle and complaining that Democrats in Washington have been “taken over by radical socialists."

Boozman's opponents have criticized him for certifying the presidential election results. He may also draw fire because he is unusually mild-mannered for such a highly charged time. While he has historically focused on the state's agriculture industry and services for veterans, he now frequently mentions Trump in his campaign emails and even offered tickets to a Trump rally.

Republican officials in Idaho would usually be considered among the farthest right in the nation, but they, too, are under pressure. Anti-government activist Ammon Bundy has announced plans to challenge incumbent GOP Gov. Brad Little in 2022, and Bundy's People's Rights organization has been among those staging mask-burning rallies to protest coronavirus restrictions.

The anti-incumbent exposure can even be seen in lower state-level races in blue states. In one of Virginia’s most solidly red state House districts, an attorney who worked on the Trump campaign’s challenges defeated a seven-term incumbent in a June primary.

“I saw firsthand what happens when election integrity isn’t maintained,” challenger Wren Williams said in a campaign ad. Williams criticized Del. Charles Poindexter for failing to speak out against alleged voter fraud and defeated him by more than 25 points.

In Oklahoma, Lankford was jarred by the party chairman's endorsement of his opponent, which he said was an “unheard of" breach of traditional party neutrality.

In response, he’s quickly ramped up his criticism of Biden, hammering the president in particular on immigration.

“This is the problem,” Lankford said in a recent video from the Texas-Mexico border with immigrants being processed behind him. “This is the thing that Biden does not want you to see ... this is absolutely an open border situation.”

In the current political climate, it's hard for a Republican official to be safely conservative enough, said Abramowitz.

“You look at Sen. Lankford, there aren’t many Republican senators as conservative as him.”

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Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Keith Ridler in Boise, Idaho; Paul Weber in Austin, Texas, and Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.