This is the story of a building in Tulsa's Greenwood District that rose from the ashes of the Tulsa Race Massacre, housed a successful pharmacy, became a beloved malt shop, served briefly as a neighborhood co-op grocery, saw its share of burglaries, robberies, and violence, suffered an ignominious old age, and finished its life as a location in a beloved cult film based on a book by a local author, before its final destruction at the hands of city officials, backed by federal funds, after a mere six decades of existence.

Danny Boy O'Connor reports on the discovery of a foundation stone from a demolished commercial building on Greenwood Avenue. The building, on the southeast corner of Greenwood and Latimer Street, was used by director Francis Ford Coppola as the pet shop in the movie Rumble Fish, based on the novel by Tulsa's S. E. Hinton. The stone will be moved to the Outsiders House for preservation:

You're looking at an 8-foot concrete footing, left buried on Greenwood from the original buildings featured in Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish, based on S.E. Hinton's classic novel and filmed in Tulsa in 1982. I discovered this hidden piece of history a few years ago while searching for historic filming locations. I immediately thought the site would be a perfect location for a future museum. As fate would have it, I later met with Kimberly Johnson, CEO of the Tulsa City-County Library. To my surprise, this very site was the planned location for her new library in North Tulsa. I shared the story with her, explaining that a piece of cinematic history lay buried beneath the surface. I asked for permission to recover it for a future exhibit or museum, and she graciously agreed to let The Outsiders House Museum preserve it. Today was a good day! I can't thank Nathan Tuell and the team at Nabholz Construction enough for carefully digging out the footing and loading it onto our trailer. Huge thanks as well to Gary Coulson from The Outsiders DX in Sperry, Oklahoma, for helping transport and store it. And, of course, my deepest gratitude to Kimberly Johnson for making this dream a reality--allowing us to save the last remaining piece of the Rumble Fish pet store location. P.S. Thank you, Patrick McNicholas, for the reference photos and the photo mashes.

Rumble Fish and its locations inspired Chilean author Alberto Fuguet to visit Tulsa and then to create a documentary about the experience: Locaciones: Buscando a Rusty James (Locations: Looking for Rusty James"), which was screened at Tulsa's Circle Cinema in 2014.

The pet store location was a two-story retail building on the southeast corner of Latimer St and Greenwood Ave. The 1957 Polk City Directory says that Kyle's Sundry was at 1023 N. Greenwood, and the Kyle Apartments were upstairs at 1023½. This was one of the last surviving bits of a commercial area on the north end of Greenwood Avenue between King Street and Pine Street. Sometimes called Upper Greenwood, the area was considered more family-friendly than Deep Greenwood, at Archer. Many of the buildings, like this one, were two stories, with rooms to rent on the 2nd floor. There were a number of churches here, a movie theater (the Rex, just two blocks away at 1135 N. Greenwood), groceries, cafes, barber shops, and pool halls. The area was cleared as part of the City of Tulsa's urban renewal program. This sort of retail building, and the idea of having retail next to residential, was considered "obsolete" and "blight" by urban planners of the day, so it was demolished at some point in the mid-1980s.

I see a lot of hair-on-fire social media posts from my friends on the political left about the way the Trump Administration has hit the ground running, particularly the rapid moves by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to shut down questionable flows of Federal funds through the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Notwithstanding President Trump's denial of any links to the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, he clearly understood the same urgency that inspired Project 2025: If you're going to be a good steward of the authority entrusted to you and the political capital you have after an election win, you have to have plans and personnel queued up long before Inauguration Day. Really, you need to start well before Election Day to draft executive orders, vet sub-cabinet political appointees, and lay out a sequence of events. That didn't happen in 2016, and opportunities were wasted as a result. There are wild-eyed claims that Trump is driven by an agenda developed by Curtis Yarvin, an online personality known as "Moldbug."

Your incoming team needs to be well versed in laws and precedents involving presidential authority, government finances. To look at it as a computer software engineer, you need to know the operating system, the kernel, system functions, the whole toolset you have at your disposal to accomplish your aims. None of this requires violating the Constitution, federal statutes, or court precedents.

A friend reposted a claim that Trump was violating the Constitution by spending money on DOGE without explicit action by Congress to appropriate money for the initiative.

DOGE (as the US DOGE Service) is just a new name of an existing office (US Digital Service) which President Obama established by Executive Order. It is under the Executive Office of the President, and presumably it is spending money that Congress has appropriated for the current fiscal year to the EOP or possibly that was directly appropriated for the USDS. I haven't been able to find any number more recent than $30 million appropriated to USDS in 2016.

An apportionment is an Office of Management and Budget (OMB)-approved plan to obligate budgeted resources. Here's an OMB document showing how the apportionment process was handled by the Obama Administration in 2016. The OMB ensures that funds are apportioned in accord with appropriations and continuing resolutions authorized by Congress. Apportionments are listed on the OMB website. Under FY 2025, under Executive Office of the President, you'll find JSON and Excel versions of apportionment requests.

I found several apportionment requests for US DOGE Service, citing 31 USC 1535 and 5 USC 3161 as authorizing legislation. The first provision allows agencies to purchase services from other agencies; the second allows funding for temporary organizations established by executive order or by statute. So presumably the USDS is using appropriated funds to pay the US DOGE Service Temporary Organization to track Federal funds and analyze spending for fraud, waste, and abuse.

When President Obama was faced with a Congress he thought would obstruct him, he said, "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone," and used executive actions within the discretion already authorized by law to move money and people around to pursue his priorities. There's bound to be plenty of litigation, but it appears that the Trump team is following Obama's example.

Take a close look at Executive Order establishing DOGE. Section 4(a) specifically links the US DOGE Service mission to the purpose for which US Digital Service was created -- "Modernizing Federal Technology and Software to Maximize Efficiency and Productivity." Section 5 carefully bounds the Executive Order so as not to override the statutory authority of OMB, agency heads, and congressional appropriation authority.

Several people on social media have mentioned Franklin D. Roosevelt as another example of a president making sweeping changes, using powers delegated by statute, without needing immediate congressional action, finding ways around the existing bureaucracy to get things done:

In addition to revamping the Supreme Court, FDR believed that he needed to reform and strengthen the Presidency, and specifically the administrative units and bureaucracy charged with implementing the chief executive's policies. During his first term, FDR quickly found that the federal bureaucracy, specifically at the Treasury and State Departments, moved too slowly for his tastes. FDR often chose to bypass these established channels, creating emergency agencies in their stead. "Why not establish a new agency to take over the new duty rather than saddle it on an old institution?" asked the President. "If it is not permanent," he continued, "we don't get bad precedents."FDR would look at other ways to increase his administrative and bureaucratic power. His 1937 plan for executive reorganization called for the President to receive six full-time executive assistants, for a single administrator to replace the three-member Civil Service Commission, for the President and his staff to assume more responsibility in budget planning, and for every executive agency to come under the control of one of the cabinet departments. The President's conservative critics pounced on the plan, seeing it as an example of FDR's imperious and power-hungry nature; Congress successfully bottled up the bill. But in 1939, Congress did pass a reorganization bill that created the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and allowed FDR to shift a number of executive agencies (including the Bureau of the Budget) to its watch. While FDR did not get the far-reaching result he sought in 1937, the 1939 legislation strengthened the Presidency immeasurably.

FDR won the 1932 election precisely because he promised to take quick and decisive action to address the Great Depression, in contrast to Herbert Hoover, who was careful to stay within precedent and norms. As the above linked article shows, FDR was a pragmatist willing to move from one experiment to another to find measures that would put Americans back to work, relieve hunger, and stabilize the financial system. (Although FDR was not an ideologue, he was steered and influenced by ideologues, including Harry Hopkins, a Soviet agent.)

After taking office in 1993, Bill Clinton fired nearly every US Attorney and the head of the FBI and replaced them with loyalists. Republicans hated it, but what's the point of an election if the newly elected officials aren't allowed to change anything? The Framers of the Constitution would not have approved of a permanent branch of government that pursues its own policy preferences unaffected by the results of an election. (They'd also object to the size and scope of the Federal government, stretching the Elastic Clause to the breaking point.)

I am old enough to have lived through several cycles in which control of Congress and control of the White House changed hands. Back when Nixon, Ford, and Reagan were president, the House was Democrat-controlled throughout, and the Senate as well, except for Reagan's first six years in office. During that period, Republicans wanted the executive branch to have more power at the expense of the legislative branch, and Democrats wanted Congress to have more power to constrain the President. When the situation was reversed under Clinton and Obama, Democrats were defending the prerogatives of the President, and Republicans were urging Congress to use the power of the purse to reign him in.

I've seen the same thing in discussions of voting systems -- caucus selection, jungle primaries, non-partisan elections, instant runoff voting. People will argue for one or the other based on whether it would have helped their preferred candidate to win or not. But that will change from year to year. Republicans love first-past-the-post when the Green Party siphons enough Leftist votes to allow the GOP to win with a plurality. The GOP loves runoffs when right-of-center voters are split among several candidates and the Leftists are united behind the Democrat.

It makes more sense not to decide matters of long-term constitutional structure on short-term advantage. If we want to talk about extra-constitutional authority, 90% of what the Federal Government spends money on is not authorized by the Constitution. The Framers intended for there to be "energy in the executive" to be able to respond quickly to emergent situations at home and abroad, but Congress has delegated far more power to the Executive Branch than the Framers would have believed to be wise. A smaller, less important Federal Government would reduce the stakes in federal elections and hopefully reduce the amount of fear and panic that is generated over the results.

DOGE meme from imgflip.com

MORE:

A friend has posted a YouTube video from the MinuteEarth channel warning: "Your Favorite YouTube Channels Might Not Survive This."

And here's the thing: Many of your favorite channels, rely, at least in part, on the kind of funding that's in danger. Here at MinuteEarth, half of our production budget last year came from partnerships with scientists at government organizations like NASA, and through government-funded universities and National Science Foundation grants. These institutions allocate a tiny amount of their budgets to outreach and communication about science, which include supporting editorially independent videos on channels like ours so we can share the important -- and awesome! -- research they are doing with curious folks around the globe.

The end of the video identifies Neptune Studios LLC as the copyright owner of the video. From MinuteEarth's partners page (which hasn't changed substantially in four years):

We help our nonprofit and university sponsors reach a large, engaged, and scientifically-minded audience. In addition to crafting traditional sponsorship messages, we often work with experts from these organizations to tell the stories in the videos themselves. Past partners include the University of Minnesota, Bill and Melinda Gates, GiveWell, and the Heising-Simons Foundation....

Many of our videos contain sponsored ending messages, in which we thank partners for their support and tell our audience about their products. We work with brands to shape engaging messages that are true to the spirit of each brand. Past successful integrations include a diverse group of consumer brands, from Audible to 23andMe to Crunchyroll....

No shame in selling your visual storytelling skills, but when "half of [y]our production budget" comes from government money, it calls into question your editorial independence. Would you ever do a video that exposes research that is unimportant -- or non-awesome! -- or shoddy, misleading, or harmful, if it makes your government clients look bad. Would you do a video on the practice of estimating temperatures for defunct climate monitoring stations? Or the influence of urbanization changes on global temperature measurement? Or the hazards of gain-of-function research? You'd figure out pretty quickly what you can and can't say in order to keep the funds flowing that allows you to keep doing what you love.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025, is the annual school primary for Oklahoma school districts and technology center districts, plus city elections in some charter cities, and a number of special county, municipal, and school elections. Polls will be open on election day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Visit okvoterportal.okelections.gov to find your polling place and view your sample ballot. Early voting will be available on Thursday and Friday only from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will be no early voting on Saturday. Tulsa County early voting will be at the long-time election board building in the old Marina-style Safeway at 555 N. Denver. Only one early-voting location will be open for Wagoner County, at the First Baptist Church, 401 NE 2nd, Wagoner; unlike many recent elections, the Broken Arrow location will not be open.

Tuesday is a primary election for any school board seat with three or more candidates; if any candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, that candidate is elected; otherwise, the top two candidates compete in the school general election on April 1, 2025, alongside school board seats for which only two candidates filed. Also on February 11, some charter cities, including Oklahoma City, Norman, Edmond, Bristow, Pryor Creek, Ponca City, and Altus, will elect mayors or city councilors; in Tulsa County, only Owasso has a municipal election. Special primary elections will be held for unexpired county commission seats in Oklahoma and Okmulgee Counties. Many school districts, including Jenks and Owasso, will vote on bond issues (property tax increases). There are county-wide propositions in Garvin, Major, Sequoyah, and Wagoner Counties, most notably the Wagoner County proposition to increase the county sales tax for 15 years, in lieu of a 10-year increase in property taxes, to pay a $13 million dollar civil rights judgment. Here is the full, statewide list of elections for February 11, 2025.

Tulsa County elections:

Tulsa Public Schools, Office No. 3: Brandi Joseph. Incumbent Jennettie Marshall is not seeking re-election for this district, which covers nearly everything north of Pine Street, plus all of the Osage County portion of the Tulsa Public Schools district. Brandi Joseph (39) is the lone registered Republican running. Joseph is an ORU alumna and member of Victory Christian Center. Dorie Simmons (50) and Eartha (Shanina) McAlester (46) are registered Democrats; Kyra Carby (39) is registered independent. Simmons is a real estate agent and attends Metropolitan Baptist Church. Carby was a TPS teacher and a community engagement manager for the Gathering Place and Guthrie Green and is now "Community Genealogy Grant Coordinator for the City of Tulsa. In this role, she oversees the administration of the Emmett Till [Cold Case] Grant Program providing support to grant subrecipients while advocating for the victims and families of racial violence from the Tulsa Race Massacre." None of the candidates filed the required pre-election campaign and expenditures reports by the Monday, February 3, 2025, 5 p.m. deadline. Nehemiah Darnell Frank doesn't like Brandi Joseph, which is a very good endorsement in her favor.

Broken Arrow Public Schools, Office No. 5: Bruce Allen Lamont (48) is the lone Republican running. Jerry Denton (60) is the incumbent Democrat. Another challenger Kate Williams (40), a freelance writer and an adjunct professor at TU and TCC, is also a Democrat. Williams filed a Statement of Organization, but none of the candidates filed the required pre-election campaign and expenditures reports. In response to my open records request, the BAPS district clerk indicated that she was unaware that candidates were required to file anything other than a Statement of Organization. The Broken Arrow Sentinel interviewed Williams.

Owasso City Council, Ward 5: Chad Balthrop (R, 54) is Executive Pastor at First Baptist Church, Owasso; Brandon Shreffler (R, 43) is a driving instructor. Long-time incumbent Doug Bonebrake is not seeking re-election. Neither candidate has anything on the web or social media that describes specific policies or what they would change about Owasso's direction as a city. Balthrop filed a Statement of Organization with the city clerk, Shreffler did not, and neither candidate filed the pre-election report of contributions and expenditures required by state ethics laws.

Jenks Public Schools bond issues: Proposition No. 1 is $18,950,000 for Phase III Freshman Academy expansion, plus other improvements; Proposition No. 2 is $650,000 for student transportation equipment. According to the Jenks Bond Transparency Act document, Jenks Schools has $114 million in outstanding debt principal, plus $33 million in unissued bonds approved at the 2020 bond issue election.

Owasso Public Schools bond issues: Proposition No. 1 is $193 million for a new 5th grade center, fine arts center, soccer complex, and other improvements; Proposition No. 2 is $4.5 million for vehicles for student transportation. According to the Owasso Bond Transparency Act document, Owasso Schools has $56 million in outstanding debt principal, plus $33 million in unissued bonds approved at the 2022 bond issue election.

Beyond Tulsa County:

• Wagoner County sales tax increase, 0.25% for 15 years, to pay federal court settlement
• Garvin County sales tax increase, 1% for 15 years to build a new county jail
• Major County sales tax increase, 11/32-cent (0.34375%) for 18 years to build a new County Health and Education Center and renovate the existing Health Department building
• Major County sales tax increase, 3/32-cent (0.09375%) for 7 years for county courthouse renovations
• Sequoyah County 4% permanent lodging tax for fairgrounds operation (60%), contracting for marketing and tourism promotion (30%), and roadside beautification (10%)

RESULTS:

132,627 votes were cast for 112 races or propositions across the state, but many jurisdictions had two propositions and there was some overlap between school, municipal, and county issues. The biggest turnout: 18,452 for mayor of Norman. The smallest turnout: 16 voters in the town of Paradise Hill in Sequoyah County. Only 20 voters each chose a Moffett school board member (also in Sequoyah County) and an Ada city councilor. Langston had 26 voters for a town proposition -- can't find any info on what issue was on the ballot. Two seats on the Bristow city council for Ward 3 -- a regular election and a special election for an unexpired term -- were decided by 39 voters.

Image by Grok

Dueling worldviews are holding conferences this week at the University of Tulsa.

TU's Honors College and Department of Philosophy & Religion is sponsoring an evening-plus-a-day conference commemorating the 1500th anniversary (sesquimillennial?) of the death of early medieval Christian philosopher and polymath Boethius. Registration is $15 or $25 for two and includes meals and receptions. (TU students and staff can attend for free. At this writing, the registration link is broken, and I have emailed the conference contact to see if it is still possible to register and attend. UPDATE: Registration closed on January 31. The banquet is full, but you may still be able to register by email to attend the other conference sessions.)

Please join The University of Tulsa's Honors College and the Kendall College of Arts and Sciences Department of Philosophy and Religion as we commemorate the 1500th anniversary of the death of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius Feb. 6-7, 2025. We will be joined by internationally recognized scholars to honor the life and work of one of the fundamental thinkers of western Civilization. Across the centuries, his works have illuminated the path of reason and revelation for thoughtful readers. His exploration of the themes of fortune and providence continue to resonate to the present day. Though known primarily for his Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius wrote widely, including works in the fields of theology, logic, mathematics, and musical theory.

He was key for the transition from the ancient Roman and pagan eras into the Christian Middle Ages. Besides his intellectual works, he was a prominent figure in the history and politics of the post-imperial west. Imprisoned and executed by the Arian Ostrogothic king Theodoric, Boethius has become an example of resignation and resistance in the face of injustice, and an example of the resilience of humanity under persecution. His cultus as a saint was confirmed by the Catholic Church in 1883.

This conference will have two keynotes by some of the worldwide experts on Boethius, John Marenbon of Cambridge University and Peter Kreeft of Boston College. They will be joined by numerous other scholars to illumine the world bequeathed by this pivotal figure, who will explore the many dimensions of Boethius' work and influence, honoring a man whose vision has shaped the intellectual landscape of the West.

Here is the list of sessions:

• Why read Boethius now?
• Boethius and the Concept of the Person
• Virtue and Knowledge: Boethius and the Quadrivium in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
• A Soft Sword, Two Clocks, and an Abandoned House in Milan: Boethius in the Context of Ostrogothic Italy
• Teaching Boethius in a Classical Curriculum
• The Feminine Genius of Lady Philosophy
• The Consolation of Music: An Exploration of the Use of Music in Boethius' Healing
• The Icon of Boethius and Lady Philosophy
• The Contemporary Relevance of The Consolation of Philosophy: Twenty Healing Lessons

Fans of John Kennedy Toole's hilarious novel A Confederacy of Dunces will recall that Ignatius Reilly's misreading of Boethius's most famous work, The Consolation of Philosophy, was often on his thoughts as he suffered the indignities of the fickle finger of Fortuna.

The Boethius conference begins Thursday evening, February 6, 2025, at TUPAC with a social hour followed by a keynote address by John Marenbon of Cambridge University, "Why read Boethius now?" On Friday, February 7, 2025, there will be eight sessions at Helmerich Hall, including a panel discussion on "Teaching Boethius in a Classical Curriculum." The conference will be capped off in the Great Hall of the Allen Chapman Student Union with a banquet and a talk by Boston College Professor Peter Kreeft, "The Contemporary Relevance of The Consolation of Philosophy: Twenty Healing Lessons."

You may know Prof. Kreeft from his popular works of philosophy published by Intervarsity Press, such as Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley, Socrates Meets Jesus: History's Greatest Questioner Confronts the Claims of Christ, or The Unaborted Socrates: A Dramatic Debate on the Issues Surrounding Abortion. Between Heaven and Hell imagines a conversation between three very different thinkers who all died on November 22, 1963: Lewis representing orthodox Christian thought, Huxley representing eastern mysticism, and JFK representing modern western secularism.

(I met Prof. Kreeft about 40 years ago when he came to MIT to speak to a roundtable of students from various Christian organizations on campus. It was a fairly small group, and we were around a large table in a Course III (Materials Science) classroom in Building 8. It was there that I learned that the double-E in his Dutch surname is pronounced like an English long A.)

Meanwhile, at 101 E. Archer in downtown Tulsa (the old AHHA building, acquired by TU), the University of Tulsa's Center for Heterodox Economics (CHE) will hold its inaugural conference. (Someone at TU thought it would be cute to create an acronym honoring a murderous Communist.)

The Center for Heterodox Economics invites you to our first conference addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time. From the global political issues to the challenges of inequality, poverty, gender equality, climate change, and anti-capitalism movements, our discussions promise to be both engaging and impactful.

This event is open to everyone, and we encourage you to join us in exploring these critical topics. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of a vibrant community dedicated to understanding capitalism.

The description on the Center for Heterodox Economics homepage is a little different:

The Center for Heterodox Economics (CHE) is excited to announce its inaugural conference, set to take place in February 6th to 8th. This groundbreaking event will bring together leading scholars, organizers, students, and local citizens to explore alternative perspectives in economic theory and practice.

Understanding the history and mechanisms of capitalism is crucial for addressing social and economic issues. By examining timely topics through a heterodox perspective, we can explore how our economic system functions and how people drive societal transformation.

Join us for this landmark event as we pave the way for a more inclusive and dynamic understanding of economics.

The conference sessions:

• How does Your Work Embody Heterodoxy?
• The Political Economy of Karl Marx
• Inflation, Austerity, and Class Conflict
• The Political Economy of Occupied Palestine
• Community Organizing and Class Consciousness
• The Political Economy of Piero Sraffa
• Probabilistic Political Economy
• The Exploding Crises of Care and Climate under Capitalism

The conference will also be presented on CHE's YouTube channel.

Rabbi Dovid Feldman will lead the session on "Occupied Palestine." Feldman heads Neturei Karta, an anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox Jewish organization that rejects the legitimacy of the State of Israel because only Messiah can restore Israel.

I note that this Communist-inclined conference is being held on the same block as a museum devoted to a famous Communist agitator and Stalin fan, and I can't help but wonder if the jolly banker who financed the latter is also involved with the former. If any of my readers have information on the funding source for this new TU initiative, I'd be very interested.

Interesting too that the CHE conference got two mentions in the Tulsa Whirled, but no mention was made of the Boethius conference. That may be indicative of the Whirled's Leftist leanings but may also reflect a powerful and persuasive local force behind CHE.

As pleased as I am that classical philosophy has regained a foothold at the University of Tulsa so quickly after the "True Commitment" demolition of the humanities at TU, it is disturbing to see TU at the same time opening a new avenue for the propagation of destructive illusions about human nature. Donors and alumni may wish to communicate their concerns to President Brad Carson and his administration.

Talk radio host Lee Matthews is back on the air in Oklahoma City, but in Tulsa you'll only be able to hear him on the internet.

In early November 2024, there was a big layoff of iHeartMedia employees, including on-air talent. Lee Matthews, whose evening drive show had been simulcast 5 - 7 p.m. weeknights on KAKC 1300 and 93.5 in Tulsa and KTOK 1000 in Oklahoma City, was one of those suddenly off the air. In January 2024, Matthews's 6 - 8 a.m. morning drive show on KTOK only had been displaced by the nationwide "Your Morning Show with Michael DelGiorno." 1300/93.5 The Patriot is now syndicated talk radio 24/7. The station also recently replaced Charlie Kirk with Armstrong & Getty, a Sacramento-based morning show delayed six hours, and they added Houston-based Michael Berry to fill a two-hour gap in the evening. Armstrong & Getty and Berry are all based at iHeartMedia stations, so I suspect there is a financial benefit to using them.

Last week, on Inauguration Day, Matthews returned to the Oklahoma City airwaves on KQOB Freedom 96.9, with a weekday 4 to 7 p.m. evening drive program. Freedom 96.9 is licensed to Enid, with transmitter in Crescent and studios in Oklahoma City, and is owned by Champlin Broadcasting, which also owns KWFF Hank FM. (Champlin was also the name of an Enid-based oil company and refinery.) Freedom 96.9 also features former State Sen. Jake Merrick with a daily morning drive show from 7 to 8 a.m. The rest of the schedule is syndicated conservative talk, including Brian Kilmeade, Dan Bongino, Dana Loesch, Joe Pags, and Jimmy Failla.

Meanwhile, Tulsa remains without a daily local talk show. Tulsa Beacon Weekend, hosted by Jeff Brucculeri, provides a one-hour long-form interview every Saturday at noon, often on local topics. KRMG has occasional in-depth interviews with local newsmakers. KWGS's Studio Tulsa, a daily 30-minute interview with Rich Fisher, left the air in June 2023. But no station in town is offering the kind of local talk radio we enjoyed on KFAQ for nearly two decades, with local officials in studio to converse with their constituents, candidate and issue debates, and in-depth analysis from the host and local opinion leaders.

I have heard that there have been stations with an interest in offering local talk radio, but perhaps not for the kind of money needed to get someone to do three hours a day, five days a week, with all the off-air preparation involved.

To be honest, even when Matthews was on 1300, despite my early hopes, Tulsa issues never got much air time. Perhaps because of iHeart's prescribed format, the show's content segments were short, constantly interrupted with traffic reports and PSAs. A good amount of time was devoted to conversations with national iHeart reporters or talking to local callers about national issues, and there was often an interview with a nostalgic pop culture figure promoting a new book. It was fun to listen to Freddy Boom Boom Cannon and Juliet Mills, but I don't ever recall Matthews doing an interview with a Tulsa newsmaker. When Matthews was off for vacation or some other gig, the station simply moved Jesse Kelly's national show earlier, rather than have another local host substitute for Matthews.

Local talk radio matters. Conservative Republican voters will turn out and vote for RINOs in Republican primaries and progressive Democrats in non-partisan city and school elections because there isn't a mass-media outlet discussing local politics from a conservative perspective, there isn't a voice with a reach big enough to contradict dark money and big money. This is how you get faux-conservatives like Gentner Drummond, who couldn't win in 2018 when Pat Campbell was on the air, but could in 2022 after Pat's passing and the end of KFAQ. As I discussed in my City Elders talk in April 2022, the lack of an effective conservative mass-media voice is how you get a turnout for school board that's majority Republican but votes for the Democrat-backed progressive.

FOR THE RECORD:

From the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, captures of the schedules of KAKC and KTOK before the advent of Your Morning Show with Michael DelGiorno, after his show launched on KAKC and KTOK,

• KAKC schedule August 2023
• KAKC schedule September 2024
• KAKC schedule January 2025
• KTOK schedule December 2023
• KTOK schedule March 2024
• KTOK schedule January 2025

In Oklahoma, election season never ends. (Just ask our weary election board secretaries.)

Two special elections have been called to fill vacancies in Tulsa County State House seats that were just up for election last year: House District 71 in midtown Tulsa and House District 74 in Owasso. The filing period is this Monday, January 27, 2025, through Wednesday, January 29, 2025. The Special Primary Election will be held on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, the runoff (if necessary) on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, and the Special General Election: Tuesday, June 10, 2025. If a runoff is not necessary, the general election will occur on May 13.

(Filing for the vacancy in Senate District 8 in Okmulgee County took place earlier this month, and its primary will occur in March, with a runoff in April, and a general election in May. Filing for non-charter cities like Broken Arrow will be next week, February 3-5, 2025.)

Democrat Amanda Swope faced no opposition when she ran for reelection last year for House District 71. Swope resigned shortly after the start of her new term to take a job in Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols' office. Republican Mark Vancuren faced no primary opposition, then defeated an independent candidate with 76% of the vote. Vancuren is now chief deputy to newly elected Tulsa County Commissioner Lonnie Sims. Both Swope and Vancuren have swapped hours of driving on the Turner Turnpike and miserly pay for a job close to home and a much better salary.

Except for a brief two year period, District 71 had been Republican from its creation in 1967 until 2018, producing conservative representatives like Bill Clark (founding pastor of Redeemer Covenant Church) and John Sullivan (who went from the State House to the U. S. House in 2001). There was a brief interregnum from 2002 to 2004, when a scandal involving RINO incumbent Chad Stites erupted after the primary but before the general election; Democrat Roy McClain, the beneficiary of the scandal, was known as "Dead Man Walking," losing overwhelmingly in his 2004 bid for re-election, the year of the first Republican House majority since the Harding Administration. But Democrats have held the seat for the last four elections, beginning with former news reader Denise Brewer in 2018 and 2020, and Amanda Swope in 2022 and 2024.

In redistricting after the 2010 Census, House 71's boundaries were shifted to include the 61st and Peoria area, a neighborhood of public housing and subsidized apartment complexes. Democrats finished first in House 71 in every race in 2022, and Kamala Harris won 56% of the election-day vote in 2024. It would be amazing if Republicans could retake the district and regain a foothold in midtown Tulsa. That seems quite unlikely, but odd things can happen in low-turnout special elections.

Grover Campbell was the first Republican to win House District 74 in 1990; he held it for two terms before moving to the State Senate. Democrat Phil Ostrander held the seat from 1994 to 2000, when Republican John Smaligo upset the incumbent. District 74 has been in GOP hands ever since. In the 2022 elections, Republicans won the district overwhelmingly in every race, and Donald Trump received 71% of the election-day vote in 2024.

The full list of candidates is here. The filing fee is $500 and candidacy must be filed with the Oklahoma State Election Board in the State Capitol.

On the first day of filing, one Republican, attorney Beverley Atteberry, and two Democrats, PR consultant Amanda Clinton and stand-up comedian Hudson Harder, have filed in House 71. Atteberry ran for the seat in 2018 and 2020, both times making it into the Republican runoff and then losing by a wide margin to a nominee (Cheryl Baber in 2018, Mike Masters in 2020), who went on to lose to Democrat TV news reader Denise Brewer. (In 2020, Masters won election-day voters by almost 800, but was swamped by Brewer's 2,069 absentee and early-vote lead.) Clinton was communications director for Monroe Nichols's mayoral campaign and is a board member of Planned Parenthood of Eastern Oklahoma.

House 74 drew four Republicans and one Democrat on the first day of filing. Johnathon Shepherd is a Marine Corps veteran and Director of Operations for Eagle OPS Foundation, which helps veterans transition to civilian life. Kevin Norwood is a motivational school speaker with wiredinc and a ministry coach. Maggie Stearman is a wife and mother of two small children who has served as a teacher at Owasso Preparatory Academy and as a field organizer for the Republican Party of Pennsylvania during the 2022 election cycle. Stearman has pledged not to take money from lobbyists. Sheila Vancuren is a Realtor and the wife of incumbent Mark Vancuren; just as he is stepping away from the Oklahoma City commute, she is seeking to resume it. Amy Hossain, the lone Democrat so far, is an HR professional with pronouns in her LinkedIn bio.

UPDATE 2025/01/28: At the end of day two, three additional candidates have filed: In House 71, Democrats Ben Riggs and Dennis Baker, and in House 74, Republican Brad Peixotto. Dennis Baker, an attorney, former Tulsa police officer, and former FBI agent, was the Democrat nominee for Congress last year and received 51% of the election-day vote in District 71. He would have a significant name-recognition advantage. The only Ben Riggs I can find is a Sand Springs school teacher.

Brad Peixotto was a Republican candidate for House 74 in 2018 and 2020, losing the primary both times to Mark Vancuren and receiving only 15% of the vote in a two-man race each time, and for Senate 34 in 2022, managing 42% in a losing primary effort against Dana Prieto, who went on to defeat Democrat incumbent J. J. Dossett. In each of these campaigns, Peixotto spent his own money on the campaigns (excepting $700 in contributions in the 2018 race), which appeared as loans to the campaign in 2018 and 2020 and as in-kind contributions in 2022.

UPDATE 2025/01/29: On the final day of filing, two more Republicans filed in District 71: Tania Garza, 35, and Heidemarie Fuentes, 73. Garza is an experience specialist for Tulsa Remote. She appears to be very plugged into the Tulsa establishment.

State Sen. Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin) has filed a bill to require "that any organization engaging in independent expenditures in Oklahoma political campaigns must report to the Ethics Commission the name, address, and contact information for its President and Treasurer." He made the following pitch for SB 1051 on Facebook and makes some great points about the real purpose of these anonymous attacks (emphasis added). Here is the bill info page for SB1051 and a direct link to the bill as introduced.

It is time to clean up Oklahoma politics with SB1051, the Campaign Expenditure Transparency Act!

Those of you in Senate District 32 probably remember the cartoonishly absurd dark-money advertising in the 2023 special election. An anonymously sourced organization going by the name "Common Sense Conservatives LLC," about whom we know almost nothing, spent a quarter of a million dollars publishing mailers and TV ads depicting me as a grim reaper, a Chinese dictator, and other nonsensical slander. I know from knocking doors and interacting with voters that people were fed up with the whole election before it even ended; and sadly that is the desired effect of these anonymous liars.

I will let you all in on a trade secret of political campaigns: these sorts of obvious lies are not meant to persuade but meant to demoralize a voter base; to so inundate a district with lies and hyperbole that people check out of the process.

This is bad for Oklahoma politics as a whole. It is bad for each individual voter to be treated in this way. It is bad for those candidates who stick their necks out to run for office out of a genuine desire to serve. It is bad that our election process can be attacked by hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of anonymous lies with no purpose other than to discourage civic engagement.

The anonymity allowed under current law enables mega-wealthy anonymous organizations to bombard our inboxes without voters having any ability to find out who is behind them. When I am assessing a bill before a hearing, I want to know: Who supports this bill and why? Who opposes this bill and why? How is it a voter supposed to determine the validity of a claim on a mailer if they are unable to find out who is making the claim?

Politics, at its best, is about a battle of ideas and debating the issues. Sadly, right now in Oklahoma, politics is largely about destroying reputations. SB1051 could change that by requiring that any organization engaging in independent expenditures in Oklahoma political campaigns must report to the Ethics Commission the name, address, and contact information for its President and Treasurer. People, naturally, will be far less willing to engage in such absurd, shameful, and discrediting behavior if they have to attach their name to it.

This important bill would reform Oklahoma politics to become more idea-driven rather than mudslinging-driven. Everyone should support that.

The bill also requires disclosure of the owner of any post office box used by an independent committee. (It may need to mention private mailboxes explicitly.)

B. It shall be unlawful for any individual or organization to engage in campaign expenditures through the use of a fictitious or unregistered name, or through the establishment of a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, or entity with the primary purpose of concealing its identity. Entities engaging in campaign expenditures through rented post office boxes shall disclose the name and contact information of the renter and all beneficial owners of the entity.

This would be a great start, but we have a great deal of work to do to improve transparency. Independent expenditure committees and political action committees need to be on the same reporting schedule as campaign committees with a pre-election report and continuing disclosure of major contributions and expenditures up to election day. (Currently these committees are only required to file quarterly reports.) All candidates in Oklahoma for any office in any political subdivision should be filing with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission's Guardian system. Citizens should not need to file an Open Records request and show up during school board office hours to view handwritten, illegible, and incorrectly completed disclosures. Everything should be filed digitally and available online 24/7.

The Ethics Commission website needs some improvements, too, such as permanent, sharable URLs to each filed report, the ability to search across all campaigns by donor or by vendor, and the ability to produce whole-campaign reports of contributions and expenditures, rather than having to download each individual report and total them up.

So far the bill has no coauthors and has not been assigned to a committee. Encourage your state legislators to support SB 1051 and to work for these other improvements to campaign transparency.

UPDATED 2025/01/27 with information about Wagoner County precinct meetings. See the end of this entry for details.

This coming Tuesday, January 28, 2025, at 6:00 pm, Republicans will gather for precinct meetings across Tulsa County, the first stage in a series of conventions leading to the Oklahoma Republican State Convention in May.

Precinct meetings were traditionally held in homes, but in recent years the Tulsa County Republican Party has arranged for central meeting places where multiple precincts can gather. These are organized by State House district and located at churches, community centers, and libraries. The complete list of meeting places is at the end of this article (click the "Continue reading" link if you're on the main page).

Here's how the meetings typically go: After the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation for all the precincts present at the location, voters separate by precinct, then each precinct caucuses to decide who will serve as precinct chairman, vice chairman, and secretary for the next two years, decide who will go as the precinct's delegates to the county convention (usually everyone present), and then debate and discuss any resolutions for platform planks or amendments to the party rules. All of the above gets recorded on various forms. Often, only one voter shows up for a particular precinct, and things go very quickly. Nearly all precincts choose to send an "open" delegation to the county convention, which means that the number of delegates attending is not limited by the number of votes allocated to the precinct; the votes of those who attend are weighted proportionally to the votes allocated.

On Saturday, March 1, 2025, the Tulsa County Republican Convention will meet at the Stoney Creek Convention Center in Broken Arrow and elect a new chairman and vice chairman, the county's two representatives on the State Committee, and the county's two representatives on the 1st Congressional District Committee. These six individuals together form the county's Central Committee. Incumbent chairman Ronda Vuillemont Smith is not running for re-election. The county convention will also vote on a county platform and any proposed rule changes. The county convention will almost certainly vote to attend the state convention as an open delegation, allowing any of the county convention delegates to serve as state convention delegates, where a state party chairman and vice chairman will be elected to a two-year term. The Oklahoma Republican State Convention will be on Saturday, May 3, 2025.

It's best to be present at your precinct meeting if you wish to serve as a delegate to the county and state conventions, but there is another path if you cannot attend on precinct meeting night. Details are below.

Following are the official details about the precinct meetings sent out by the Republican Party of Tulsa County:

UPDATE 2025/01/26: Sen. Goodwin has paid the traffic citation online, pleading nolo contendere. News on 6 initially mis-reported the disposition of the case; details at the bottom of this entry.

State Sen. Regina Goodwin (D-Tulsa) refused to cooperate with a Tulsa County Sheriff's deputy during a routine traffic stop in downtown Tulsa, refusing repeatedly to produce her driver's license, resulting in her briefly being handcuffed and sat in the back of the deputy's vehicle. The stop occurred on Saturday, January 11, 2025, at 1:23 pm, at the corner of Cincinnati and Archer. Deputy Freddy Alaniz informed Sen. Goodwin that she had run two consecutive stop signs without coming to a complete stop. During the traffic stop Goodwin's attorney Mike Manning, Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols, and District 4 City Councilor Laura Bellis all walked up to the scene, with Manning and Nichols both speaking to law enforcement officials. Goodwin was issued a citation and allowed to go on her way.

KOTV News on 6 was the first with the story. In response to BatesLine's Open Records request, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office provided all the bodycam footage from the three deputies who responded to the location. TCSO blurred or bleeped any personally identifying information, such as dates of birth and addresses. The videos released by TCSO have now been uploaded unedited to Rumble and are embedded below (click the "Continue reading" if you're on the home page). Many thanks to the Tulsa County Sheriff's Public Information Office for their prompt response to the request.

Goodwin did almost everything you shouldn't do during a traffic stop. She did pull over, but rather than waiting for the officer to approach her, she got out of her car and walked toward the deputy's vehicle, she began arguing about whether she had run the stop signs, and she refused to produce her driver's license when requested.

Deputy Alaniz asked ten times for her driver's license, and on the 10th occasion he explained that the consequence of not producing her license would be a trip to jail. At that point she projected her voice toward the open driver's side door on her vehicle, repeating what was said about going to jail, perhaps attempting to be heard by someone on the other end of a phone call via the car's Bluetooth system. (There did not appear to be anyone else in the vehicle.) Alaniz asked for her driver's license five more times, for a total of fifteen times, and after Goodwin said "Do what you gotta do" the second time, he told her to turn around and place her hands behind her back. He proceeded to handcuff her and had her sit down in the back of his patrol car.

Attorney Mike Manning can be seen walking up to the scene from the east at about 2 minutes into the video. He stood on the curb and recorded the interaction between Goodwin and Alaniz on his phone. After Goodwin was seated in the car, Manning asked if he could approach and speak to the deputy. When the deputy asked for a moment to close Goodwin's driver's side car door and Manning walked in the same direction, there was a brief feedback ring, possibly indicating that a phone call between Goodwin's phone and Manning was still connected. This may explain how Manning was on the scene so quickly: Goodwin may have either been on the phone with him as she was driving or called him as soon as she had been pulled over. Manning told the deputy, "We were getting ready to meet."

Manning showed Alaniz his courthouse access badge and Oklahoma Bar Association license, and then said, "I realize Senator Goodwin can be a little strongheaded at times, but don't you think...." His comments are hard to hear as Alaniz directs him out of traffic and back to the side of the road, but Manning asked about just issuing a citation. Alaniz told Manning he had only intended to give Goodwin a verbal warning, but Goodwin's refusal to cooperate with his instructions meant he had to proceed with an arrest. When Manning asked to speak with Goodwin, Alaniz readily agreed.

As Manning attempted to get Goodwin to "take a deep breath" and cooperate, Goodwin continued to filibuster and argue. Eventually she gave her name and date of birth verbally to Alaniz, who then ran the information on his car's laptop. About that time, Deputy Caleb Stout arrived on the scene. Alaniz gave Stout the story so far and mentioned that Manning and "some other people" had been recording the interaction. "When he was telling me that she was a senator, something like that, I was like, yeah, better get Corporal up here."

Historically, state legislators have been entitled to a special license plate with H or S followed by the district number, e.g. S-11 for Goodwin's Senate District 11, but the car Goodwin was driving had a specialty Historic Greenwood District plate instead, PAYBWS, which appears to be advocating for reparations to victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (BWS standing for Black Wall Street).

Alaniz did not stop or cite Goodwin for speeding, but he mentioned to each of his fellow deputies that she was traveling at a high rate of speed, telling Stout, "she was bookin' it down Archer," and later telling Deputy Corporal Swatzenbarg that she was "haulin' butt, she was going so fast that when she was hitting the puddles of water they were shooting out."

While Alaniz was completing the citation, Stout and Goodwin were standing on the sidewalk, and Manning walked back up. At 1:40 pm, Manning asked for confirmation from Stout that a citation was being written. Stout said that Goodwin would be allowed to go on her way, and then Manning walked off to the east. A minute later, Bellis can be seen on Stout's bodycam crossing Archer and then approaching Goodwin from her right. Bellis was not visible at this point (Stout is on Goodwin's left) but can be heard asking, "Do you want me to call anybody?" Goodwin replied, "Mike was just here." Bellis responded, "Just checking. Let me know if you need anything, OK?" Bellis can then be seen walking back to the corner of Archer and Cincinnati, appearing to make a phone call and then walking back to the other side of Archer.

At 1:46 pm, 23 minutes after the traffic stop began, Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols walked up to Stout and Goodwin, asking, "What's going on?" As Goodwin continued to argue with Alaniz about what happened, Nichols interrupted: "Senator, senator, senator, let's, let's, let's take care of it in court." When Goodwin showed annoyance and confusion over the answer to her question about paying the fine versus going to court, Nichols intervened to try to calm Goodwin down and bring the encounter to a conclusion: "You misunderstood what she was asking. It's all good. Let's go ahead and get this taken care of."

City Councilor Laura Bellis returned at this point and began speaking to Nichols. She was dressed as if for an exercise or yoga class, was carrying a large insulated mug, and said something to Nichols about needing to get her nails done. She didn't interact with the deputies at all and didn't appear to interact with Goodwin this time, walking off at 1:51 pm as the deputies were returning to their vehicles.

Goodwin was given a citation with a court date of February 25, 2025. The case number is TR-2025-581.

This is not Goodwin's first traffic citation. She was twice stopped by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol for speeding 11-15 MPH above the limit on the Indian Nations Turnpike, in August 2000 and April 2003. In August 2003, she was cited for an expired license plate on a 1999 Mazda. In 2012, Goodwin was stopped by a Creek County deputy on State Highway 51 near Silver City for speeding; she pled nolo contendere and paid the ticket. In 2021, Goodwin was sued by a collection agency for an unpaid medical bill from 2017 for $2,397.42.

(Someone named "Regina L. Goodwin," with a different date of birth and vehicle, a 1990 Mercedes, was cited in July 2003 for an expired plate and lack of insurance verification; a bench warrant was issued for failure to appear for these citations, and a notice of suspension was "RETURNED BY DPS UNABLE TO SUSPEND. NO RECORD FOUND FOR LICENSE NUMBER." This may be a strange coincidence involving someone else with a similar name, or it may reflect transcription errors.)

I have twice in my life been pulled over for failing to come to a full stop. As a senior in high school, I was driving downtown, heading south on Denver and turned right on 6th Street against a red light without coming to a complete stop. There happened to be a detective in an unmarked car right behind me, heading back to police HQ, who saw what happened and pulled me over.

Many years later, I was driving through my neighborhood and did a rolling stop at a four-way stop intersection, and there happened to be a police officer there specifically because of complaints from nearby residents about drivers failing to stop and speeding on that street, a cut-through street through the neighborhood. The officer told me that he ought to be able to count the lugnuts -- in other words, the car would need to be motionless for at least three seconds, long enough for someone to count to five.

In both cases, I pulled over, rolled down my window, answered the questions the officer asked, and produced my driver's license when I was instructed to do so. I didn't argue. In the second case, I had to pay for and attend an all-day-Saturday defensive driving school to avoid getting points on my license.

Throughout the incident, the sheriff's deputies acted with courtesy, patience, and professionalism. I didn't see anything untoward in the actions of Manning, Nichols, or Bellis. Manning and Nichols seemed anxious to mollify Goodwin. My guess is that Bellis called Nichols (possibly before we first see her on bodycam) to ask him to come by, but Manning may have made the call.

The only person in the situation with a reason to be embarrassed is State Sen. Regina Goodwin, who behaved like a spoiled brat throughout the incident, even after her brief timeout in the back of the squad car. The reactions of Manning and Nichols seem to indicate that this kind of behavior is nothing new for her. We hope that she will find the grace and humility to acknowledge and apologize for her inappropriate behavior.

Twenty-two jurisdictions -- counties, small towns, and rural school districts -- across Oklahoma had elections this past Tuesday, January 14, 2025. Just over 10,000 voters turned out statewide, casting 10,681 votes on 27 propositions (five jurisdictions had two propositions).

Twenty-four county election boards had to set up for early voting and staffing election day precincts. Cleora and Inola school districts and the city of Clinton extend into multiple counties. Two Mayes County precincts had to open for Inola Public Schools. One person showed up and voted no. Craig County had to open a precinct for Cleora schools and Washita County had to open a precinct for the City of Clinton, and no voter showed up at either precinct. The one Wagoner County precinct in the Inola school district drew five voters.

Biggest turnout: 5,379 voters in Muskogee County voted to approve a 0.849% public safety sales tax. Runner-up: 1,159 voters in Inola defeated a $62 million school bond issue 49%-51%. Smallest turnout: Town of Sparks in Lincoln County voted 8-1 for a 25-year extension of OG+E's franchise as the town's electricity provider. (Carlton Landing, Oklahoma's lakefront version of Seaside, Florida, was a close second: 11 voters voted unanimously to authorize the mayor to appoint the town's clerk-treasurer with town council approval.)

The only reason to schedule a special election in January is to hope for low turnout mainly consisting of motivated yes voters. (That gambit doesn't always work, and it didn't work for the Inola school board this time.)

Oklahoma law sets one possible election date for every month in odd-numbered years and for seven months in even-numbered years (January through April, plus June, August, November).

It's time for our legislature to consolidate elections: Every year a June primary, August runoff, and November general election. Federal & state elections in even-numbered years. Elections for all political subdivisions -- including counties, municipalities, school districts, fire-protection districts, rural water districts -- in odd-numbered years. Propositions on the November ballot only. In a true emergency, a proposition could be on another date but would need at least 50% of the number of votes cast in that jurisdiction's previous general election.

When I say municipal, I mean every city and town, including charter cities like Tulsa, Owasso, and Catoosa that currently are allowed to set their own dates. My fraternity brother Brad Waller, who is a city council candidate and former school board member in Redondo Beach, California, says that "California passed a bill (SB 415) to consolidate elections, but they forgot to specifically include charter cities." While most cities moved their elections to conform with the law, Redondo Beach did not, and the city pursued its right to its preferred dates all the way to the State Supreme Court and prevailed there. So any Oklahoma reform will need to include an explicit provision to overrule any dates to the contrary in city charters.

State Rep. Chris Banning has a bill, HB 1151, that is a step in the right direction, putting school elections on the ballot in even-numbered years and making all school board terms four years, with half of a school board's members up for election every two years.

Odd-numbered years would be better. Our federal, state, and judicial ballots are already long enough, and since City of Tulsa elections were moved to the federal schedule, city issues are overshadowed by state and national issues and don't get the public scrutiny that they got when Tulsa's elections were in the winter/spring of even years or (all too briefly) in the fall of odd years.

I would also cut some language out of section 4, so that there is always a top-two general election in November, since far fewer voters turn out for a primary, and some voters have the attitude that the "real" election is not until November, and they're content to let more active voters winnow the choices for them.

4. If more than two candidates qualify to have their names appear on the ballot, the names of all such candidates shall appear on the ballot at the board of education primary election. A candidate receiving more than fifty percent (50%) of the votes cast in the board of education primary election shall be elected to the office. If no candidate receives more than fifty percent (50%) of the votes cast in the board of education primary election, then the two candidates with the highest number of votes shall appear on the ballot at the board of education general election.

Repurposed from a post on Facebook.

Wagoner County residents face a Hobson's Choice at next month's school primary election. In November, the county settled a Federal wrongful-death lawsuit for $13.5 million. Wagoner County taxpayers are stuck with the bill, but they get to decide on February 11, 2025, whether to pay for it with a higher property tax or a higher sales tax.

On May 17, 2021, Angela Liggans, 41, was arrested for assault and battery against a police officer and was booked into Wagoner County jail. According to the complaint in federal court, Liggans was a Type 1 diabetic and was deprived of insulin by jail personnel for days. The complaint alleges that staff did not move her to emergency care despite skyrocketing blood sugar levels and hallucinations. She died at the jail 16 days after her arrest. Here is the complaint in the federal lawsuit, Liggans v. Elliott, via thetruthaboutwagonercounty.com. The lawsuit was filed by Liggans's mother, Sharon Dalton, who was appointed as Special Administrator of Liggans's estate in 2022.

The parties reached a settlement on August 16, 2024, which was entered on November 19, 2024. The county's insurance through the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma Self-Insured Group (ACCO-SIG) already paid the plaintiff $483,156.70, out of the county's $1 million maximum benefit; according to the County Commission resolution accepting the settlement, the remainder went to pay "attorney's fees and costs pursuant to the reducing liability coverage provided to Wagoner County in its liability protection plan." (Since the settlement, other parties have intervened in the probate of Liggans's estate, including someone claiming to be her common-law husband.)

To pay the settlement, Wagoner County will vote on a single sales tax proposition on Tuesday, February 11, 2025. The proposed sales tax increase is for a quarter of a cent on the dollar (0.25%) for up to 15 years, in order to satisfy the judgment levied against the county in a Federal lawsuit. If debt issued to pay the judgment is satisfied sooner, the sales tax increase ends sooner. Wagoner County currently has a 1.3% sales tax, which would increase to 1.55%, and several municipalities, including Coweta, Okay, Tullahassee, Porter, and Wagoner, would see their total sales tax rate, including state and municipal sales tax, go to 10.05%.

Here is the ballot language for the proposition:

A Proposition providing for funds for Wagoner County, Oklahoma; levying a one fourth of one percent (one-fourth cent) sales tax increase on gross receipts or proceeds on certain taxable sales; the sales tax increase to terminate on July 1, 2040 or until any debt issued in connection with said sales tax increase has been satisfied in full, whichever occurs sooner; such tax to be used to provide funds to pay and satisfy the balance due and owing on the judgment entered against Wagoner County in Case #23-CV-139-RAW-GLI in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma on November 19, 2024 by depositing said balance owed on the described judgment into the County's sinking fund to be used for that purpose and that purpose only; authorizing the payment of debt service and costs of issuance; fixing an effective date; making provisions severable.

(An election-systems gripe: The above is from a ballot image that was texted to me by someone who had received an absentee ballot for the election; the sample ballot was not available in the Oklahoma Voter Portal on Tuesday, possibly because there was an election for Wagoner County voters in the Inola Public Schools district that day. In order to look at sample ballots for jurisdictions other than my own, I have to find a voter in that jurisdiction from the voter database and enter his name and date of birth. The state election board needs to make all sample ballots directly and publicly accessible, with a permanent link for sharing, and they ought to be accessible as soon as the ballots have been ordered.)

Here is the ballot resolution, approved by the County Commissioners on December 2, 2024, which defines more precisely what Wagoner voters would be approving on February 11, 2025. Sections 5 indicates that the Commissioners intend to issue revenue bonds against the sales-tax proceeds, so there would be additional costs -- debt service and costs of issuance -- beyond the settlement itself. Section 6 means that a bank or banks in Wagoner County will get to make some money off of these revenue bonds, which would not be the case if the settlement were paid from the sinking fund.

SECTION 5. The sales tax shall be limited to a period of Fifteen Years (15) from the effective date or until any debt issued to satisfy the purpose set forth herein has been satisfied whichever occurs sooner. Any debt issued pursuant to this resolution shall allow prepayment in whole or in part at any time with excess bond proceeds or excess sales tax collection.

SECTION 6. That any debt issued to be paid with this sales tax shall be offered through the underwriter with banks located in Wagoner County to be given an opportunity to participate in the financing either through bonds purchased by the local bank or banks.

(Section 6 is missing an "or" for its "either.")

A year ago, Wagoner County residents defeated 8 tax propositions that would have made existing temporary taxes permanent, added new taxes of a half-cent on the dollar, and added a 5% lodging tax. The three sales-tax increase propositions failed by 18% to 82%.

So what happens if Wagoner County voters say no to a sales tax this time?

By state law, court judgments are paid out of the county's sinking fund which is replenished by property tax. Each year, the county excise board calculates for the county, each municipality, and each school district how much money has to come out of the entity's sinking fund to make bond repayments and pay for court judgments. They take that number and divide it by the assessed value of property in the jurisdiction to calculate the necessary increase in the property tax millage rate for each entity. Here's an example of the Estimate of Needs completed by each taxing subdivision of the state: In the 2024-2025 Fiscal Year, Wagoner County has no sinking fund at all and no levy for a sinking fund because it had no obligations to pay from that fund. Exhibit Y, on page 106 of the PDF, shows that the total valuation excluding homesteads of Wagoner County is $892,586,381, which forms the denominator for all millage levy calculations.

The settlement in the case calls for the repayment of the balance of the settlement of $13,016,843.30 "in ten equal annual installments plus post-judgment interest compounded annually on the first day of January of each year," beginning May 1, 2026, with interest accruing from January 1, 2025, 4.96% for first three payments, then 6% thereafter. If I've understood the nuances correctly, each year's payment will decrease because the interest accrued each year will decrease as the principal is paid down.

My calculations put the first payment at $2,159,583.46 and the last at $1,379,785.39. That would be the numerator for the annual millage levy calculations. Assuming no growth at all, the sinking fund levy would be 2.42 in the 2025-2026 tax year and would decline to 1.55 in the 2034-2035 tax year, a property tax impact on a $200,000 home of $51.78 in the first year and $33.08 in the last. A FAQ on the County's website estimates a slightly lower amount, $41.77 in higher taxes the first year on a $200,000 home, then decreasing over time. If Wagoner County valuation grows by 5% a year (last year's growth was 8.7%), the sinking fund levy would be 2.30 in the 2025-2026 tax year and would decline to 0.95 in the 2034-2035 tax year.

Here are the property tax rates for Wagoner County for 2024-2025. They range from 74.58 mills in the Okay School District to 129.42 in the part of the Haskell School District in the city limits of Bixby. The portion of that millage that goes into county government's general fund is 10.31 mills. Currently the county has no sinking fund nor do any of the municipalities based in the county. (Tulsa, Catoosa, Broken Arrow, and Bixby, which all have some territory in Wagoner County, have sinking-fund obligations.)

The Wagoner County website has a Frequently-Asked Questions page on the proposed tax increase, which acknowledges that each method for paying the settlement has its advantages.

Taxpayers might ask why this burden should fall on them. Well, you elected the official responsible. When it comes to the jail, the buck stops with the sheriff, who was just re-elected by Wagoner County voters to another four-year term. Sheriff Chris Elliott had two Republican primary challengers last June and was forced into a runoff with Tyler Cooper. Elliott won the runoff and re-election by just 35 votes, 4,327 to 4,292. Only Republican candidates filed for the office.

Note that the mandatory two-month gaps between filing in April, June primary, August runoff, and November general elections mean that a lot can come to light between filing and the election, too late for candidates to jump in to the race. When I was a kid, filing was in July, three months later. Perhaps we need a None-of-the-Above option on the general election ballot, to give voters a final option to say no in response to late-breaking scandal and force a special election.

There is a perverse incentive for Oklahoma government entities to settle a lawsuit: Paying for insurance comes out of the budget. Paying lawyers to defend a lawsuit comes out of the budget. Operational improvements to avoid lawsuits come out of the budget. But a lawsuit judgment or settlement comes out of the sinking fund, which does not eat into the elected officials' budget. In 2008, Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor agreed to a settlement with the Bank of Oklahoma, regarding Great Plains Airlines, that cost Tulsa taxpayers $7.1 million dollars. It was no skin off her nose when she agreed to the settlement, and it undoubtedly made her corporate cronies happy. Happily for taxpayers, the Oklahoma Supreme Court threw the settlement out, and BOK was forced to repay the City of Tulsa.

The Wagoner County FAQ addresses a couple of the obvious questions.

Why can't the county sell property or pay for it some other way?

State statute governs the way judgements are to be paid through a sinking fund. The tax levy,either sales tax or property tax, must be sufficient in itself to repay the debt. If collections exceed projections, the tax must be stopped at that time even if it is prior to the end of the stated term of the tax. The county cannot lawfully collect more than is due. The county can commit other funds (such as use tax) to the sinking fund in an effort to retire the debt early if the commissioners decide to do so.

Why can't they just take it out of the Sheriff's budget?

The Sheriff's office is a Constitutional Office, meaning it is first in the priority of funding for the county along with other Constitutional offices. The governing boards are bound by statute and the State Constitution to provide for law enforcement for the county. The Sheriff's office does have other funds by which to operate his office, however they are restricted for that purpose and cannot be used to pay for a judgement. The statutes provide for judgements to be paid for with a sinking fund instead.

Note the acknowledgment that the county could choose to draw on other, unrestricted funds (such as use-tax revenue) to pay toward the settlement and retire it early.

Ken Yazel, the late Tulsa County Assessor, was a strong advocate for the idea that elected county officials had discretion to use more of their earmarked funds to cover operation of their offices related to the earmarked purposes, thus reducing the amount of money the officials would need from the general fund, freeing general fund money for capital improvements, rather than always asking the taxpayers for more. He wanted the law to require annual county budgets to account for all funds accessible to county officials, including carryover earmarked funds. State Rep. David Brumbaugh proposed such a bill in 2013, but it died in the Appropriations and Budget Committee. I seem to recall that State Rep. Pam Peterson had a similar bill some years earlier, but pulled it at the request of county officials who promised to adopt similar reforms voluntarily.

If I were a Wagoner County voter, I would vote against the sales tax and then tell my elected officials (especially the two County Commissioners up for election next year) that I'll be watching to see if they can free up money from their budgets so that not all of the cost of this settlement falls on property owners.

Yesterday I received the sad news that Josiah and Erin Conrad, friends from Tulsa who are now living in southern California, lost their home in the Altadena wildfire. They were among many Californians who had been unable to secure insurance coverage.

Josiah was a program manager for FlightSafety in Broken Arrow. Erin was involved in Republican politics in the Oughts, then became a well-regarded portrait photographer. Eleven years ago this month, they moved to southern California and have since added two children to the family.

Three of their friends (two of whom, Connie Pearson and Jeremy Bradford, I know from local politics 20 years ago) have set up a GoFundMe to help the Conrad family recover:

As you know, the Los Angeles area has been devastated by wildfires in recent days, and our dear friends, Josiah and Erin Conrad, along with their children, Naomi and Benjamin, have lost everything. Their home in Altadena was completely destroyed, and, tragically, all of their belongings have been lost to the flames. The emotional toll of such a loss is unimaginable, but on top of that, they are now facing the overwhelming task of rebuilding their lives without any insurance coverage. Despite their best efforts, they were not able to secure coverage for their personal property.

We know that many of you want to help, but because of the distance and current circumstances, it can be difficult to know how. That's why we've set up this GoFundMe campaign to support Josiah, Erin, Naomi, and Benjamin as they try to recover from this unimaginable loss. Your generous donations will go directly toward helping them replace what they've lost--from the everyday essentials like toothbrushes and clothing to larger items like furniture and appliances.

Additionally, once logistics are figured out, we will share a link to their Amazon wish list for those who prefer to send specific items directly to the family. Every little bit counts, whether it's a financial donation or a much-needed household item.

We wish we could physically be there to lend a hand, but this is the next best way to show our love and support. Together, we can make sure that they don't face this hardship alone.

Thank you for any contribution you can make, whether large or small. Your kindness will make a world of difference to the Conrads during this difficult time.

The fundraiser is going well. As I write this, over $90,000 of the $125,000 sought has been donated, after just four days. Thank you for whatever support you can provide.

We are in between two 100th anniversaries of the Shipping Forecast on radio. The summary of maritime weather for sea areas near the British Isles was first broadcast on the radio on January 1, 1924. It was first broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corporation in October 1925. The forecast itself dates back to 1861, developed by Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy and originally delivered via telegraph to coastal stations.

Beyond its utility to ships at sea, the Shipping Forecast is beloved for its soothing effect. It is read by a BBC continuity announcer at a steady pace and tone, with the names of sea areas and terse forecast terminology read at a hypnotic rhythm. The forecast is preceded by the playing of "Sailing By," a waltz by light orchestral composer Ronald Binge; the music is meant as an aid to tuning in advance of the forecast, but the sweet strings and flutes enhance the calming effect. I encountered the broadcast on my first visit to the UK in 1989, when I listened to Radio 4 throughout the day.

In the early days of BatesLine, in December 2003, I posted a self-indulgent reminiscence about a novelty song I had heard once on Doctor Demento, the Shipping Forecast set to Anglican chant, by a group of school teachers who called themselves the Mastersingers. (The reminiscence was inspired by a Daily Telegraph column by future London Mayor and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.)

That post served as a beacon, and it attracted emails and comments from people connected with the group, including Helen Keating, the wife of Geoff Keating, a member of the group. It's an interesting story with connections to Beatles producer George Martin and comedic actor Peter Sellers. I compiled that authoritative information into the definitive story of the Mastersingers, the Weather Forecast, and the Highway Code, published in May 2007. I note with some pride that it is the chief source cited by the Wikipedia article on the Master Singers. (The name of the group appears on the records with a space, but I follow Helen Keating's practice of treating Mastersingers as one word.)

BBC Sounds has a collection of programs in honor of the Shipping Forecast centenary. Be aware that many of these programs will be available online only until the end of January 2025:

• My Shipping Forecast: Leading fans of radio explain what the Shipping Forecast means to them.
• The Shipping Forecast: A Beginner's Guide: Paddy O'Connell guides us through the history and meaning of 'The Ships'.
• Sailing By: Soul Music: Stories about a piece of light music which became interwoven with the Shipping Forecast.
• Solomon Browne: Forty years on, the dramatic story of the Penlee lifeboat disaster.
• The Shipping Forecast: A Haven Illuminated: Discovering who really listens to the Shipping Forecast at 00:48 every day.
• The Shipping Forecast: Poetry Please: Roger McGough is joined by Paul Farley, sharing poems inspired by the Shipping Forecast.
• Archive on 4: The Shipping Forecast: Shipshaped: Jerry Brotton explores how Britain's maritime heritage has shaped us.
• Sea Like a Mirror: An atmospheric gathering storm of a documentary explores our language for naming the wind.
• Seaborne by Nuala O'Connor: Irish author Nuala O'Connor's sixth novel is a rollicking portrayal of the life of 18th-century pirate Anne Bonny. (Ten 15-minuted episodes.)
• The Shipping Postcards: Visits to the areas from the Shipping Forecast: Lundy, Dogger, Forth, Irish Sea, Wight. (Two hour-long episodes.)
• Front Row on the Shipping Forecast, at the Cutty Sark: Samira Ahmed with a special edition of the arts programme exploring the Shipping Forecast.

This archived Met Office article has the history of the Shipping Forecast and changes to the sea area definitions over the years.

"The Shipping Forecast - an icon of British weather and safety at sea" is the slide deck for a 2018 presentatio by Jim Galvin of the Met Office, Exeter, explaining the history and terminology of the forecast, and the importance of forecasters in the unique conditions around the British Isles. One slide shows the cones and cylinders that would be hoisted at coastal observation stations to indicate approaching gales and high winds, used before radio communications were available. The presentation explains the Beaufort wind scale, sea states (wave heights), and the meanings of the terse terms used to stay within the 380-word limit.

MORE:

Jo Ellison writing in the Financial Times:

It's always seemed one of the more yawning ironies that a nightly radio dispatch designed to protect sailors from the most treacherous stretches of water should have been co-opted by half of its audience as being the equivalent of aural Xanax.

BBC continuity announcer Viji Alles (whose radio voice I envy) offers the #ShippingForecastChallenge -- try your hand at making a recording.

As an aid to sleep, here is five whole hours of the Shipping Forecast.

Peter Jefferson, who read the Shipping Forecast from 1969-2009, now has a version featuring unusually calm conditions for the Calm app.

Recently, the Royal Museums Greenwich posted a sea areas map from 1956, placing the sea areas listed in the broadcast Shipping Forecast in the larger context of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. FAREWELL is a rather ominous name. I wonder if MILNE is meant to honor the author of Winnie The Pooh. (The map can be found here as well.)

France has its own set of sea area names, like Romeo, Altair, and Faraday. It has a Finisterre which overlaps with but is smaller than the British area formerly known as Finisterre, changed in 2002 to Fitzroy. The US has sea areas too, but they aren't geographical or poetic at all -- three letters followed by three digits.

Oklahoma State Rep. Tom Gann of Inola, one of the most principled members of the Republican caucus, has issued a set of reforms designed to increase transparency and the power of individual members of the House (each of whom was elected to represent an equal-sized constituency) and to decrease the centralized control of an imperial speakership and the lobbyists who control him.

To understand the unhealthy dynamics in the Oklahoma House of Representatives that developed principally under the imperial speakership of Charles McCall, I encourage you to read the Oklahoma State Capital, a Substack by former State Rep. Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie), who served in the House for a term-limited 12 years, from 2006 to 2018. During that time, his optimism about the initially reform-minded Republican majority gave way to despair about a toxic culture driven by lobbyists, laziness, and centralized control. One of Murphey's most recent pieces deals with the impact of the new Speaker's new committee structure and how it may undermine grassroots-driven efforts at stemming "the government-subsidized invasion of the fiberglass-shedding, forever-chemical dropping, eagle-killing, sunset-destroying, headache-inducing, light-polluting, unable-to-be-disposed-of, likely-non-economically-viable-sans-subsidization, massive wind turbine invasions." A month earlier, Murphey wrote about the process of assimilating freshman House members, many of whom had run against the system and defeated better-funded, PAC-backed opponents.

Here is Gann's press release from today December 30, 2024:

Gann Proposes Sweeping Reforms to Restore Transparency to House of Representatives

OKLAHOMA CITY - In a far-reaching, and transformative effort to modernize the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, has sponsored a reform package - House Resolution 1001 - designed to distribute power, promote transparency and reinvigorate the legislative process. His reforms aim to end the culture of opacity and concentration of authority that he says has hindered the chamber's effectiveness for far too long.

"The time has come to ensure the House of Representatives becomes an institution of laws, not of one man," Gann said. "For years, our legislative process has stagnated, with decisions made behind closed doors and power centralized into the hands of one individual, the House speaker, who is elected by a single House district and not the people of Oklahoma as a whole. In recent years, at best, the House has simply marked time, failing to embrace new transparency measures. At worst, it has regressed, relying on secretive processes controlled by a single person."

"No one individual should hold the power to appoint committee members, designate chairs, assign legislation, block legislation approved by committees, control the multi-million-dollar House budget, withhold resources from other members, or introduce legislation outside the normal guidelines that apply to everyone else. This reform fundamentally changes that dynamic, redistributing authority to ensure fairness, transparency and member-driven governance."

Gann's proposal is a comprehensive effort to decentralize authority, empower individual members, and ensure legislative operations are conducted openly and accountably. Key highlights include delegating certain speaker powers, creating new transparency safeguards and improving member-driven processes.

The package's proposed reforms include:

• Delegating Speaker's Powers
• Many of the speaker's powers would be delegated to a newly proposed Governance Committee, which would operate transparently making its decisions by recorded vote and would be reflective of the composition of the House membership.
• Floor consideration powers would be transferred to a floor leader elected by the House and limited to a single term.
• Member-Driven Process

The proposal would establish an actual open general appropriations process through which the general appropriations document is built and debated in open committee by all House members, is advanced early in the session, and removed from the current, behind-closed-doors process.

Members would be empowered to designate two priority bills annually. These bills must be heard in committee and, if passed, must also be considered on the House floor. This ensures the voice of all Oklahomans is heard and a vote is taken on these proposals.

Members could enter motions without needing prior approval from the floor leader.
The proposal would restore the authority of the House to consider issues, even those bottled up in committee, if the will of the committee is out of sync with the will of the full House.

House Transparency Committee

The proposal would establish a five-member Transparency Committee composed of the newest members of the House. This would ensure the newest House members are aware of the need for new transparencies and openness while providing the committee and the House with the services of those who are least likely to have been impacted by the current culture of opaqueness.

The committee would be charged with auditing compliance with House rules, recommending transparency improvements, and promoting best practices to make the Oklahoma House the most transparent legislative body in the nation.

Restoring Legislative Order

The proposal would eliminate the ability of powerful House members to create new bills out of thin air and/or to bypass committees prior to House consideration of substantive legislation.

It would restore the requirement for titles and enacting clauses to remain intact on House-approved bills.

"This package represents a seismic shift in how the House operates," Gann said. "It would distribute power among the members, foster a culture of transparency, remove the influence of special-interest money and the few politicians who seek to broker their closed-door power to channel that money, and ensure the legislative process reflects the will of the people rather than the control of one person."

Gann emphasized the importance of the House Transparency Committee, calling it "the most important contribution even the newest members of the House could make--ensuring that transparency is a permanent and evolving feature of this institution. We are setting a new standard for openness, accountability, and member-driven governance that will serve as a model for other states to follow."

Gann is calling on House leaders to bring the proposal to the floor, for a recorded vote, during the upcoming legislative session.

"Oklahoma deserves a legislature that is transparent, effective and accountable to the people it serves," Gann said. "This proposal delivers just that."

-END-

Earlier this month, Scott Pendleton, a long-time reader and friend of BatesLine, told me about an op-ed he had written, providing some historical perspective on the topic of special education, looking back to the passage in 1975 of the predecessor of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the growth in the proportion of students receiving special education, the growth of autism, and the implications of the legal requirement for mainstreaming of special-education students. Whether or not you agree with Mr. Pendleton's conclusions, I think you'll find his perspective thought-provoking, which is why I offered to publish it here at BatesLine. I have added links where possible to the news articles and editorials mentioned.

In the Sunday, October 15, 1989, Tulsa World, the editorial board wrote on the increasing share of education dollars spent on special education and urged separate education for special ed students.

Without passing judgment on the wisdom of the programs, Tulsans must at least recognize that schools have inherited a tremendous social and financial burden that was unheard of only a few years ago. The problem is not confined to Tulsa, of course. It is one that legislators must recognize. A sensible course would be to set up a separate system of special education so that the public school system can concentrate on its larger mission of educating ordinary children.

As this is a sensitive subject, and as I serve as a board member of Tulsa Classical Academy, I feel compelled to say that my comments above are in an individual capacity and don't represent the views of the TCA board, administration, or faculty. Mr. Pendleton is not affiliated with TCA. I am pleased to say that TCA has recently made some significant improvements in the special education department as TCA works to ensure that the special needs of all its students are addressed in full compliance with Federal and Oklahoma laws while at the same time upholding the high academic standards of the Hillsdale K-12 American classical curriculum.

Reading test scores at Tulsa Public Schools have not improved, attendees at the June 17, 2024, school board meeting were told.

Now what? Round up the usual suspects? Those would be the hypothetical "bad teachers" or the tight-fisted state legislature.

Although both teachers and legislators often blame each other, neither is willing to point to a third group, the gorilla in the room that the public does not see: students who are so brain-damaged as to be unteachable, uncontrollable, and downright dangerous.

Why the reticence? Teachers don't want to publicize the magnitude of the problem for fear of stampeding capable students and their state funding into homeschool or private schools. Politicians pretend the problem doesn't exist so that no one will demand them to address it.

Yet, thanks to the 50-year-old federal law that requires "mainstreaming" such students, public schools are fast on their way to becoming asylums for the growing percentage of students who require special education and for those who have no other education option. As overall enrollment drops, there are fewer state dollars to provide pricey special education to ever more students needing it.

Fingerpointing about test scores, teacher quality, and adequacy of funding completely obscures the real question: Why, why is the number of special education students surging? What is happening to us, and to our children?

To understand where we are today, let's back up to 1989. Thirty-five years ago, Oklahoma was faced with a public education crisis. Language, music, art, field trips, advanced math courses, and related teacher, librarian, and nurse positions were being eliminated. Classrooms had far fewer textbooks than students.

Despite a $275 million state tax increase just two years earlier, money in 1989 was of course still the issue. Teacher pay ranked 48th in the nation. A starting teacher earned $15,000, while the Oklahoma average was $23,583. In 58 of 77 counties teachers could qualify for food stamps. Per-pupil expenditures of $3,000 also ranked 48th.

In an editorial titled "Our Eroding Schools," the Tulsa World warned citizens to wake up or else schools would continue a downward "spin that might soon be irreversible." [Tulsa World, April 24, 1989, p. A-6]

Contributing to the crunch was the trend of making schools the one-stop provider of everything a student needed: clothes, shoes, medicine, meals, as well as counseling about sex, HIV, drugs, and race relations. "If you want us to be social service agencies, we can do that" but only with adequate funding, Tulsa County Superintendent Kara Gae Wilson told the Tulsa World. [October 8, 1989, p. A-1]

Meanwhile schools faced another costly trend - rising numbers of special education students. A 1975 federal law, today known by the acronym IDEA, required school districts to provide a "free appropriate public education" to all students from birth to age 21. That half-century-old bill had 29 co-sponsors in the Senate, of whom only one - Joe Biden - is still alive.

Promised federal funding to support that effort was short billions of dollars year after year, further burdening Oklahoma schools. For example, in 1969, when enrollment at Tulsa Public Schools peaked at 80,000 students, a mere two percent were enrolled in special education. By 1989 TPS enrollment had halved, while the SPED share grew to 13 percent of students and to a quarter of the district's $124 million budget.

Estimates of what educating a SPED student should cost ranged from $13,000 annually up to $33,000, depending on the severity of the disability. TPS was spending $6,500, of which the federal government provided just $266, and the state $3,000.

Browsing the news coverage from 1989, a reader is struck by the unflinching reporting and frank conversations. Words like "handicapped" and "retarded" and "vagrant" had not yet been outlawed by advocacy groups self-deputized as vocabulary police.

A particularly blunt editorial in the Tulsa Tribune railed against the US Supreme Court. In the fall of 1989, the high court ruled that a New Hampshire school must continue special education services for a child who was so disabled that school officials deemed the services a wasted effort. Deriding the ruling as "compassion gone wild," the editorial said, "What the court seems to have lost sight of is the difference between a school and a hospital." [November 29, 1989, p. A-14]

The editorial could just as easily have been talking about Wes Franklin, an eight-year-old TPS student who could not walk, talk, see, nor control his bowel movements. He was fed through a tube in his stomach. Doctors had told his family that his rare, inherited condition would worsen until death in a matter of months.

Nonetheless, Wes's parents insisted that he attend school. All through 1989 they fought TPS for services they believed were his right under IDEA. He was receiving a half-hour of physical therapy once a week. They wanted Wes to receive it daily, as well as up to an hour daily of occupational therapy, and the attention of a full-time aide. "I think everything points to the school dragging its feet," his mother said to reporters, "in hopes that Wes will die and it won't have to spend money on him."

"The school district is providing an appropriate program," was the TPS lawyer's response. "The parents will always want more." The Franklins lost the case in 1990; Wes passed away the next year. Today Wes's sister, Elizabeth Franklin, is a family therapist in Broken Arrow. "My parents always felt very proud of how fiercely they advocated for Wes with Tulsa Public Schools," she recalls.

[Wes Franklin's story and his family's formal complaint against TPS were covered by Tulsa Tribune reporters Diana Nelson Jones and Cece Todd and photographer David Crenshaw in the May 25, December 15, December 16, and December 22, 1989, and March 23 and May 30, 1990, editions.]

As the 1989 education crisis dragged on, sometimes resentment was voiced against special education as detracting from educating non-SPED students. "We know who's paying for [special education] and it's the regular child in Oklahoma," a teachers union official complained to Task Force 2000, a committee appointed to present education and funding reform ideas to the Legislature after a special session in the summer adjourned without results. [Tulsa World, September 24, 1989, p. A1]

To some, special education wasn't just underfunded, it was utterly unforeseen. "When many of those parents went to school, no one ever had heard of a learning disability," a SPED coordinator told the Tulsa Tribune. [May 29, 1989, p. 8A]

Let that sink in for a moment: As recently as 1989, there existed parents who had never heard of a learning disability. These days it seems like there's at least one such child in every family.

Public awareness changed thanks to Rain Man, which had debuted in movie theatres the previous December.

"No gigantic public education or PR effort could have produced the sensational awareness [of autism] that Rain Man brought to the national and international radar screen," according to the late Darold Treffert, a psychiatrist who was a consultant on the Academy Award-winning film.

The prevalence of autism was around one in 10,000 in 1980, but had been on the rise nationally. By 1989 prevalence was estimated as high as one in 276 eight-year-olds. Oklahoma was just starting to deal with the needs of such students. "We had a workshop last summer, and that was our biggest effort to date," a special education official with the Oklahoma Department of Education acknowledged to the Tulsa World.

Since then, the rate of autism has soared while the cause remains vigorously disputed. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that one in 36 eight-year-olds is autistic. Oklahoma has experienced that dramatic increase. Between 2002 and 2019, according to OSDE data, the number of all students rose 12 percent; SPED students, 34 percent; autistic students, 788 percent. Sixty-two percent of school districts had no autistic students in 2002; by 2019, only 15 percent had none.

On the road to today, a teacher walkout in 1990 forced a tax increase out of the Oklahoma Legislature. The resulting public displeasure resulted in ballot initiatives that created term limits for Legislators and a required vote of 75 percent in each house to raise taxes. Continued challenges for teachers led to another walkout in 2018, followed by a rare successful supermajority vote to raise taxes again.

Last year's federal statistics for the 50 states rank Oklahoma 28th in population, 26th in K-12 students, 21st in SPED K-12 students, and 10th in percentage of K-12 students who are in special education. Almost one in five Oklahoma students now receives special education services.

Yes, it does sound harsh and cruel to talk as if hapless SPED students are villains. They are not. They deserve compassion for a condition that is not their fault. But have you ever considered the psychological impact on a healthy child when an autistic child erupts in class and turns over all the desks? If you don't know, the teacher is only allowed to lead all the other students out ("clear the room") till the episode passes. And then pick up the shattered pieces of the classroom, to say nothing of the other students' shattered nerves.

No wonder kind, caring, inspiring teachers are giving up and quitting in droves. They have an impossible job.

Back to the big question: What is happening to us? What did this to us? (Since I first wrote this, President-elect Donald Trump has nominated vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to his cabinet with a mission to "make America healthy again.")

Here's what a Tulsa doctor told me and others over lunch when asked what he thought of "the vaccine-autism controversy." Without a heartbeat's hesitation, the doctor said, "I had three or four young patients go autistic immediately after I gave them the MMR vaccine. And I knew that was the reason. So, I stopped giving that vaccine."

I was dumbfounded. When a medical professional is so sure of something based on his training and repeated observation that he permanently alters his practice of medicine, that's pretty compelling.

I e-mailed that to the Tulsa World the next day, urging them to interview the doctor. I thought I was handing our local newspaper a Pulitzer Prize on a platter. "Just his opinion," they scoffed. And later, the Tulsa World told me, "We don't publish anything that contradicts public health authorities so as not to confuse the public."

Can you imagine any other medical topic about which mere journalists would presume to know more than a doctor who was a repeated eye-witness? Well, thanks to Covid we all have a better idea of just how far "public health authorities" and their shills in the media ought to be trusted.

By the way, the doctor whom the Tulsa World declined to interview was Tom Coburn, who as a US Senator had earned nationwide respect for his integrity. Sadly, Dr. Coburn is no longer with us, but Tulsa has other doctors who assert that vaccines made their own child autistic.

The pharmaceutical industry, meanwhile, likes to cite "the Danish study" as proving that vaccines do not cause autism. In fact, that's not what was studied. Only the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine was considered. The most that can be concluded from the study is that a child was no more likely to get autism from the MMR vaccine than from some other cause - such as one of the many other vaccines given to toddlers? Meanwhile, more than a hundred other studies have suggested a link between vaccines and autism.

Post-Covid, are we ready yet to consider that the hotly debated crisis of public education is but a manifestation of the discussion-suppressed crisis of child health, and that vaccines just might be doing far more harm than good?

Are we ready to hit the brakes on "mainstreaming" so that those who can learn will not be traumatized by seeing their classrooms destroyed and their teachers attacked and harmed by students with neurological damage?

Are there any legislators in Oklahoma willing to spend a few days observing classrooms and talking to teachers - most especially to those who've left the profession - to grasp the absurdity of mainstreaming brain-damaged, diaper-wearing teenage students with normal students? And to grasp just how much more money the Legislature must provide so that special education students get the services they need?

HISTORICAL NOTES: I have added links to Newspapers.com and to NewsBank. NewsBank is an online service, available to Tulsa Library cardholders, which has text of Tulsa World articles from 1989 to the present and Tulsa Tribune articles from 1989 to the paper's demise on September 30, 1992. 1989 was when Newspaper Publishing Corp., which handled printing, circulation, and classifieds for the World and Tribune under their Joint Operating Agreement, began computerizing content. When the World refused to negotiate an extension to the JOA, the Tribune was sold to the World and was shut down. Consequently, the two papers' stories are mixed together in the same database, and all Tribune stories in the NewsBank database are labeled as Tulsa World. Using NewsBank and newspapers.com in combination, I was able to determine which stories mentioned by Scott Pendleton were in which newspaper. Unfortunately, there is still a 25-year gap in online access to the Tribune archive: Newspapers.com's Tribune holdings end in April 1964, and NewsBank's begin in January 1989.

The court case mentioned above was Timothy W. v. Rochester. The US Supreme Court denied certiorari to the Rochester, N. H., school district's appeal of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the case.