School funding Conservatives demand accountability when public tax money is distributed. Yet, the Education Savings Account or “scholarship” bill (Senate Bill 609) gives away taxpayer money with no reporting on effectiveness. All Oklahoma taxpayers should be concerned since SB 609 means more than parents getting back their own tax payments. It appears to disburse to […]
Barack Obama
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Political roundup: Politics of Ebola, Barresi v. Obama for governor
Politicians take different tones on the spreading Ebola panic and candidates for governor try to link their opponents with unpopular figures.
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Left and right
A state representative has organized what he promises will be a bipartisan rally Friday evening at the state Capitol to protest potential U.S. involvement in Syria’s bloody civil war. Rep. Paul Wesselhöft, R-Moore, said he hopes to help spur a nationwide antiwar movement in the wake of President Barack Obama’s announcement that he will arm […]
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Say you’re sorry
Credit: Brad Gregg On June 11, freshman U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Tulsa, took to the House floor to demand — nay, to demand! — that President Barack Obama apologize to Oklahomans for not spending more on weather research. “This president spends 30 times as much money on global warming research as he does on weather […]
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Opposites attract
Credit: Brad Gregg So when Coburn last week made Time magazine’s list of the Top 100 most influential people in the world, Obama honored his conservative chum with a write-up. “The people of Oklahoma are lucky to have someone like Tom representing them in Washington — someone who speaks his mind, sticks to his principles […]
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Building brains
Credit: Shannon Cornman The idea was generated in December 2010 when the school district’s board of education approved funding for the pre-K teachers over a four-year period. Sixty have been hired so far, with an additional 60 slated to be added by the 2014-2015 school term. A report from the district last year shows full-day […]
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Mitt Romney and the demise of Anthony’s
Credit: Brad Gregg Mitt Romney does, or at least he might, as detailed in a recent Newsweek story by David Stockman, former budget director in the Reagan administration. As reported in the article, Romney’s private equity firm, Bain Capital, began buying up big-box retailers in the late 1980s and early ’90s that were failing amid […]
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Clear and ‘present’ changer
That’s the impression you’d have after Coburn told The Oklahoman it was “stupid” for Senate Republicans to block a vote to confirm federal Magistrate Robert Bacharach to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. But then Coburn and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, both of whom have strongly endorsed Bacharach, stepped aside and left the judicial […]
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Wedding bell blues
Today, Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin are still fighting the state to make their 15-year relationship official in the eyes of the law. Their suit challenging Oklahoma’s voter-approved 2004 state constitution amendment barring same-sex marriage continues to wind its way through the federal courts. “Sharon and I are suing for the right to marry,” Bishop […]
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Harumph, harumph, harumph
Gov. Mary Fallin called it “a bad day for Americans,” noting that Oklahomans had approved a constitutional amendment to block implementation of the bill. “Today’s decision highlights the importance of electing leaders who will work to repeal the federal health care law and replace it with meaningful reform focused on commonsense, market-based changes,” she said. […]