If any individual member of an American Indian tribe wants to ignore the speed limit in Tulsa—say, by driving 100 miles-per-hour through a school zone—that individual can do so without fear of facing a ticket or charges by city police under a new...

When members of the Oklahoma Senate convened this week to vote on overriding Gov. Kevin Stitt’s veto of a state-tribal compact drafted by the Legislature on tobacco taxes, lawmakers were effectively told they had only two choices. They could vote t...

Because of a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, new state-tribal tobacco compacts drafted by state legislators could provide a gargantuan expansion of tribal territory – an expansion of up to 109,037 percent in one instance. That change could result i...

Gov. Kevin Stitt has joined Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential GOP 2024 presidential candidate, to push back against President Joe Biden’s efforts to indirectly defund domestic energy production by imposing so-called “Environmental, Social, and...

Members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives have approved an $800 million education package that includes a half-billion dollars in new funding for public schools and $300 million in refundable tax credits for families that choose to send a chil...

Oklahoma incarcerates more people per capita than most states yet still has some of the worst crime rates. Experts told lawmakers they can drive down both statistics by, in part, increasing the number of police on the street and boosting the use of d...

The failure of Oklahoma’s public-school system to produce enough students proficient in core academic subjects is creating significant workforce challenges that compound over time and deter new job creation, based on data presented to lawmakers durin...

The following public schools were identified by the by Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) as those that that received no money from the state’s school-funding formula in the 2020-2021 school year due to significant local property tax fu...

Professors and professionals across the country, including some in Oklahoma, have urged K-12 schools to preserve higher-level math courses, which are now under attack because some racial minorities are underrepresented. In a public letter signed by...

The Biden administration has tried to make Covid vaccination a condition of employment via multiple regulatory efforts. Oklahoma has initiated or joined legal efforts to combat them all. During a press conference, Gov. Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma...

Oklahoma Democratic lawmakers have called on Gov. Kevin Stitt to declare a health emergency following a recent uptick in Covid cases, saying schools should be allowed to mandate mass quarantine of students who may have been exposed. But Stitt has...

“Two out of every five young women in the state of Oklahoma choose to participate in sports,” said Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin. “And I’m trying to prevent those women from being denied opportunities when they have to compete against male-bodied athl...

The top two leaders of the Oklahoma House of Representatives promise lawmakers will work on “big” policy measures in the pending legislative session, although they provided few specifics. “We are going to work on big things this year for the state...

Center for Independent Journalism Members of the State Board of Education have voted to suspend school A-F report cards for another year, but will require schools to administer state tests to provide some level of public reporting on how students...

As parents across Oklahoma call for local schools to reopen and provide in-person instruction, one of the most vocal opponents they face is the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA), the state affiliate of the National Education Association. The...

A survey recently conducted by the Oklahoma Department of Education found 346 school districts, or 65 percent of the 536 districts surveyed, have some form of mandatory mask policy in place for teachers or both staff and students. The remaining 35...

In a majority of Oklahoma counties – 39 – a COVID-19 diagnosis for three or fewer individuals can elevate the entire county’s daily infection rate to a “moderate risk” level some policymakers say should trigger various forms of mandatory shutdown....

A letter signed by 1,288 self-proclaimed public health professionals, infectious diseases professionals, and undefined “community stakeholders” declares that anti-racist protests “must be supported” and should not be constrained by authori...

Gov. Kevin Stitt and other officials say improved tracking of the COVID-19 virus will be crucial in reopening Oklahoma’s economy in the coming weeks. “Two of the main keys to getting Oklahoma back open are enhanced testing and contact tra...

Clinton “Doc” Hole, owner of C Bar H Saddlery in Yukon, first opened his custom saddle-making business in 2009. That same year, he was in a traumatic horse accident that left him with a broken neck and head injuries that required surgery and mon...

Gov. Kevin Stitt’s decision to unilaterally expand Oklahoma’s Medicaid program to include able-bodied adults has left lawmakers scrambling to fund the program. A measure that would redirect Oklahoma’s tobacco-settlement funds to Medicaid is one p...

Despite a dramatic increase in school funding and the adoption of what state officials say are higher academic standards, Oklahoma students’ academic performance on state tests mostly remained stagnant in 2019 or lower than in 2017. That has some o...

Under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare, states that expand Medicaid to cover able-bodied adults are given $9 in federal funding for every $1 in state funding spent on the expansion population. Supporters argue that...