Oklahoma legislators have 16 weeks to get it right during the legislative session — to concentrate on the concerns and issues that our state honestly, truly faces — but, if history is any indication, there’s a next to zero chance they will. For an overview of the filed legislation and what we might see in the […]

Higher education in Oklahoma took it personally in December when Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an executive order to “review” all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the state’s public sector. Never mind DEI programs attract business and position Oklahoma students for global competitiveness, Stitt still made his move in the continuing Culture War on so-called “woke ideologies” […]

What will be remembered about 2023? Way too many lows and too few highs politically? Former Senate President-turned-Observer columnist Cal Hobson joins us for this week’s Observercast – ’23 In A Rearview Mirror – to unpack the good, bad and ugly of it all – and to offer up fearless predictions for 2024.

Michelin’s recent announcement it is closing its manufacturing plant in Ardmore sent shockwaves through southern Oklahoma and the statehouse. The Senate quickly assembled a “select committee” to consider where Oklahoma’s gone wrong in its efforts to lure major economic expansions and investments and to keep major employees from skedaddling and leaving towns high-and-dry after cashing […]

When it comes to workforce development, Oklahoma has huge opportunity: finding ways to get more of the 614,000 Sooners with disabilities employed. During this interim study season at the state Capitol, OKC Rep. Ellyn Hefner explored why only about 40% of adults with disabilities have jobs and why 30% who do are paid below the […]

Earlier this month, for the first time, survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre brought their case for reparations to the state Capitol – thanks to an interim study pursued by state Rep. Regina Goodwin, whose family survived the carnage. Goodwin, who’s now in her fourth term representing the area once hailed nationally as Black […]

In their quest to create a Top 10 state, statehouse leaders seem to think it’s a better bet to throw hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars at corporations that promise a few thousand jobs than to invest in building Oklahoma from the grass roots up. In this week’s Observercast – The Burdens On Everyday Oklahomans […]

The rightwing Republican love affair with trickle-down economics endures. Though the state Senate turned its back this week on a new round of tax cuts, there’s little doubt tax-cutters will try, try, try again. For this week’s Observercast – Cutting Revenue, Harming Ourselves – the Oklahoma Policy Institute’s Emma Morris helps us cut through the […]

Wrecking Ball Ryan Walters is at it again. He’s cut a deal to slip rightwing propaganda from the so-called PragerU into Oklahoma public school classrooms. Prager’s videos and lesson plans are full of revisionist history, extolling America’s virtues while ignoring its underbelly. For this week’s Observercast – Prager WHO? – former classroom teacher-turned-Norman state Rep. […]

Top 10? Heck, state Superintendent Ryan Walters may be the No. 1 litigation target ever among statewide elected officials. At last count, in less than eight full months on the job, Walters has been named a defendant or respondent in seven lawsuits – the most recent filed by a former state department school counselor specialist, […]