Thanks to smartphones, that list is now much longer. Drivers are texting, tweeting, emailing and taking time to kick ass on their latest Words with Friends move. That’s why state Sen. Brian Crain is pushing legislation this session to prevent drivers under 18 from using any electronic devices while driving. Senate Bill 182 cleared that […]
senate
Posted inNews
GOP candidate Childers wins Senate District 43 special election
The Senate seat, which was vacated by term-limited Republican Sen. Jim Reynolds after he successfully won the position of treasurer in Cleveland County last November, covers part of eastern Oklahoma County and goes into northern Cleveland County, encompassing parts of Oklahoma City, Del City, all of Valley Brook and part of Moore. Childers (pictured), 41, […]
Posted inNews
Detour ahead
Bingman, the president pro tempore of the Senate, refused to allow a proposed $40 million bond issue to fund construction on the AICCM to be heard on the Senate floor in May. The state’s bonding capacity, the maximum amount of money from the state budget for debt servicing, has been at the center of Republican […]
Posted inNews
End of session grades
Let’s get to my end-of-session grades: —State Senate Pro Tem Brian Bingman (Republican leader): B-plus. It is hard to steer entire pieces of legislation and issues when you are one third of the process (House, Senate and governor), but Sen. Bingman held true to his convictions. Despite going against House Speaker Kris Steele and Gov. […]
Posted inNews
Cannabis crackdown
Authored by Rep. Sue Tibbs, R-Tulsa, the measure extends the same harsh penalties currently imposed on cannabis cultivators to the industrious individuals who make hashish, the compressed resin excreted by marijuana buds. According to the Tulsa World, there has not been a surge in hashish manufacturing, yet a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics […]
Posted inNews
Counterpoint: Fallin ‘should be praised’
The legislation intended to set up a state health care insurance exchange facilitated by a $54 million “early innovator” grant from the federal Affordable Care Act, referred to by opponents as “Obamacare.” Once the bill arrived in the Senate, Steele and Fallin were both surprised when Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman said the Senate […]
Posted inNews
Last call for ethanol?
Coburn has not only caught flak over the amendment from some in the ethanol industry, but also from the conservative tax group Americans for Tax Reform. Coburn said a bill to eliminate the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, which goes toward companies that blend ethanol, will save $5 billion annually. Coburn’s attempts to eliminate the […]
Posted inNews
Art suspension
House Bill 1665 suspends for three years the Art in Public Places Act of 2004, which requires 1.5 percent of any construction project costing more than $250,000 go toward funding art pieces in the project. The maximum cost for the artwork is capped at $500,000. HB 1665’s author, Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Tuttle, said that as […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Herbal remedy
A state Senate committee bogarted a bill designed to legalize medical marijuana in Oklahoma by refusing to hold hearings on any of its assigned legislation this session, effectively keeping the measure hostage until next session. Senate Bill 573, known as the Compassionate Use Act, would allow a physician to prescribe marijuana to patients, and would […]
Posted inNews
Pollard urges Oklahomans to contact Congress over proposed arts cuts
The House of Representatives has already approved some $45 million in cuts, but the Senate has not voted yet. The Pollard receives just more than $50,000 a year from the Oklahoma Arts Council, which receives 20 percent of its grant-making budget from the NEA. A cut to the OAC via cuts to the NEA would […]