Recently in Oklahoma::Politics Category
Cardinal McCarrick: Frank Keating Blew the Whistle a Long Time Ago - Patheos - Rebecca Hamilton
Shortly after the McCarrick scandal broke in 2018, former Oklahoma legislator Rebecca Hamilton recalled former Gov. Frank Keating's righteous anger at the corrupt behavior of Catholic bishops when Keating served as the first director of the Church lay oversight committee on the clergy sex abuse scandal:
"Needless to say, the whole thing blew up. Before long, Governor Keating had resigned his position, declaring that the bishops behaved 'like Cosa Nostra.'
"Here is what he said in his resignation letter:
"'My remarks which some bishops found offensive, were deadly accurate. I make no apology. To resist grand jury subpoenas, to suppress the names of offending clerics, to deny, to obfuscate, to explain away; that is the model of a criminal organization, not my church.'"
"The OSBI has determined a longtime Texas political consultant known as Dr. Dirt hired the private investigators who put a tracker on a legislator's pickup court records show.
"The consultant, George C. Shipley, 70, has been subpoenaed to appear next week before the Oklahoma multicounty grand jury 'to provide testimony.'
"Shipley was told to bring business records on who hired him to do research into state Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore....
"'A friend ... told him the "wind group" wanted to discredit McBride and for McBride to be careful,' Special Agent Steve Tanner wrote in a court affidavit. 'McBride was attempting to write legislation to tax wind energy companies because he felt those companies could pay more taxes to Oklahoma.'
"Tanner also wrote, 'Through an internet search, I ... learned the "Wind Coalition" offices at the same address as Mr. Shipley, 919 Congress Ave., Austin, Texas.'"
OCPA - Oklahoma K-12 Education Spending & Revenue
Easy-to-navigate data compiled from the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System and State Department of Education.
Overview: Statewide education spending, student enrollment, and spending per student; from 2005-2006 to 2015-2016.
District Trends: Select a district to see the 11-year trend for spending and enrollment, and revenue and spending per student.
District Spending by Year: See spending by Function (such as instruction) and Category (such as salaries), both the dollar amount and by percent of total spending. Trend graphs are also included on this tab.
Function Detail: See a district's spending in detail, by Function type and details (objects) for each type.
Spending Detail: See a district's spending in detail, by Category type and details (objects) in each type.
Revenues: See the overview of a district's revenue by year.
Revenue Details: See the details of a district's revenue by sources of money and by funds.
Ranking: Which district spends the most on education, has the most revenue, has the largest enrollment, and the highest spending per students.
Oklahoma Resists Push for Enrollment in Affordable Care Act Coverage - NYTimes.com
Makes me proud to be an Oklahoman:
"Consumers who are eligible for insurance subsidies, in the form of tax credits, worry that they are getting something others cannot. Many Oklahomans have a strong streak of independence and are reluctant to rely on federal assistance. When told of their subsidies, Mr. [Steven] Goldman [insurance counselor at the Oklahoma Primary Care Association] said, consumers ask: 'Am I getting more than I deserve? Have I earned this? Is it fair?'...
"But for conservatives like Jonathan Small, the president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, it is a matter of prudence. The state cannot afford the Medicaid program it has, much less a larger program, he said. The federal government pays 100 percent of the cost of newly eligible Medicaid beneficiaries from 2014 to 2016, with the federal share declining gradually to 90 percent in 2020 and beyond. Critics of the health care law worry that in the future, the federal government might reduce its promised contribution.
"Then there are the rising costs, which have bedeviled many states. Premiums had been lower here than in many states. But, according to the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the cost of a benchmark insurance plan increased by an average of 35.7 percent this year in Oklahoma, more than in any other state using the federal exchange."
Edwards Says He's in Top 24 At House Bank | News OK
From 1992: "Rep. Mickey Edwards admitted Sunday that he was one of the 24 worst abusers at the House bank and said he was planning to face his constituents today in Oklahoma City to release some of the details." Since Mr. Edwards is in the news again -- complaining about the Heritage Foundation -- it's worth remembering the congressional check kiting scandal and why he's no longer a congressman. In 1992, he lost the Republican primary, finishing 3rd.
Oklahoma House of Representatives - House Historic Members
A very neat web app that lets you list past Oklahoma state representatives. You can select by county, by range of years, or by district. You can download your results as a spreadsheet. Very interesting to see the shift from county at-large representation prior to 1965 to district representation ever since. Tulsa County had seven state reps in 1964; in 1965 Tulsa County had 15.
US House Redistricting: Oklahoma
Would it have been possible to draw a congressional district in Oklahoma that Barack Obama would have won in 2008? Two different possibilities are presented, both of them long and narrow -- one stretching from north Tulsa to Lawton, the other a four-tentacled beast centered on Okmulgee, reaching into Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Logan County, the Lake Eufaula area, and Muskogee, Wagoner, and Tahlequah. But even in these districts, the best Obama could do was 51.9%.
Oklahoma State Election Board on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
A great deal of useful info from earlier elections was lost in a revamp of the Oklahoma State Election Board website. This link takes you to all available versions of the old site, going back to its launch in 1996.
26 O.S. 4-120.2: Inactive Voters
The Oklahoma law governing the designation and purging from the voter rolls of inactive voters.
Thad Beyle: Gubernatorial Power
Oklahoma has one of the constitutionally weakest chief executives -- tied for third weakest with Alabama, behind Vermont and Rhode Island. (Via Greg Ransom.)
