Commentary

A decade ago, Oklahoma decided to create a biotech industry. The area south of the Capitol has become home to a nationally recognized group of scientists who are finding cures for diseases, solutions to health problems and doing collaborative research with the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and a […]

Women’s medical privacy rights could be threatened and the state’s growing bioscience industry would have suffered under new pro-life legislation in Oklahoma. House Bill 1595, which has passed the House and Senate, would require doctors to submit detailed information on each abortion they perform to the Oklahoma Health Department, which would put the information on […]

Mary Fallin is running for governor, and the 5th Congressional District is once again open. The consequences are many, as political ambitions again get released and posturing starts. The fires of ambition are burning brighter and earlier than usual in an Oklahoma campaign season. The Democrats’ best bet, former Corporation Commissioner Jim Roth, likely won’t […]

Prior to the onset of the legislative session in Oklahoma, the buzz was all about our potential to lead the nation in renewable energy development and its economic impact on our state. Capacity crowds at the Oklahoma Wind Energy Conference in December illustrated the desire of thousands of Oklahomans to participate in the new energy […]

Tremendous potential exists for rebuilding the U.S. economy on green jobs, particularly as energy companies gear up to meet rising electricity demand. Nuclear energy is one of the few bright spots in the U.S. economy ” expanding rather than contracting. That’s due to a growing consensus that any credible program to address climate change while […]

Tyson Foods recently announced it is shifting production from its Ponca City processed meat plant to three plants outside the state. Production will be moved to plants in Buffalo, N.Y., Cherokee, Iowa, and Houston. A total of 580 local workers will be cut because of the closure. The announcement comes on top of Conoco Phillips […]

American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma. United Way of Central Oklahoma. Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. OPUBCO Communications Group? Would the parent company of The Oklahoman, the state’s largest-circulation newspaper, join the list of area nonprofits? What about Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., owner of The Edmond Sun, The Norman Transcript and 12 other Oklahoma newspapers? […]

“Anything can have happened in Oklahoma. Practically everything has.” I underlined those sentences when I read them because this is the state I know, love and have such hopes for. Not because it’s perfect ” probably precisely because it isn’t. It is still a work in progress. And we all get to participate in creating […]

Using gaming revenues to prop up a fundamental tenet of state government is foolish. I voted against the lottery. With that said, we need to change the way the lottery operates both to get our money’s worth and to restore trust in flawed promises by politicians who made bold statements to get elected. We have […]