SWITCHGRASS CENTER OF STATE BIOFUEL PUSH
In May Gov. Brad Henry signed legislation creating the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center with $10 million in funding. The bold and ambitious proposal was designed to put Oklahoma at the forefront of the emerging biofuels industry. Oklahoma's investment is already paying dividends with the state's ranking in the biofuels research hierarchy and is in position to advance. - David Page

DEVON SELLS MORE AFRICA PROPERTIES
Devon Energy on Thursday made another move toward clearing out of Africa when it announced the pending sale of its oil and gas business in Cote d'Ivoire to Afren plc for $205 million. - Jerry Shottenkirk

BILL TO FORCE INSURANCE PAYOUTS DEFEATED
Senate Bill 2114, which would have required any health benefit plan offered in Oklahoma to cover any health care service deemed by a health care professional to be medically necessary, was voted down on the Senate floor on Thursday. - Janice Francis-Smith

BIG GROWTH IN 'SMALL' BIZ
Swagelok is just one of many businesses exhibiting at the third annual NanoFocus state conference at the Cox Center in downtown Oklahoma City. The event, sponsored by the Oklahoma NanoTechnology Initiative and the state Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, will conclude Friday. - Brian Brus

A TALE OF TWO OFFICE MARKETS
Both Oklahoma City and Tulsa office markets showed largely empty class C and D buildings spurring huge downtown vacancy rates, countering stronger suburban trends. But where Tulsa posted a rising overall vacancy rate of 23.7 percent for classes A though C, and generally rising lease rates only in class A space, the 2007 Oklahoma City report recorded a falling vacancy rate of 15.46 percent in those three classes, and overall rising lease rates averaging $14.21 per square foot. - Kirby Lee Davis

COMANCHE NATION POLICE CHIEF PLEADS GUILTY
Ray Anderson, police chief of the Comanche Nation, has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $12,000 in tribal funds. - Marie Price

RETAIL PROJECT PLANNED FOR NORTHWEST METRO
A retail development project is planned for a relatively lonely stretch of Northwest Expressway in the far northwest section of the Oklahoma City metro area. - Kelley Chambers