Experience Paseo First Friday (for May 1) from Home
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As Oklahoma’s first arts district, the Paseo Arts District holds the safety of their visitors, artists and merchants as a top priority. With that in mind, the Paseo is excited to host First Friday From Home, a live stream of all the best things about Paseo — social distance style.
During the event, which will take place Friday, May 1, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., the Paseo will partner with The House Helps to raise money for district personnel who are now unemployed due to the pandemic. The goal is $10,000 and 100 percent of the proceeds will go to personnel through an application process, similar to a grant.
Donations can be made by visiting thehousehelps.org beginning Monday, April 27 through May 8. More good news: Paseo merchants are also getting involved by putting items up for sale with half or more of the proceeds going to the fund.
Paintings, fashion apparel, jewelry and gift certificates will be available for purchase and will be posted on the thehousehelps (https://ift.tt/2VPbElw) website.
Follow the Paseo Arts District on all social media or check here (thepaseo.org) for updates about the live stream event.
Additionally, The Paseo Arts District for this month’s First Friday (https://ift.tt/3f9gbXG) is focused on a virtual gallery walk to take the place of the in-person strolls:
“Though we aren’t able to gather in the way we typically would at this time, you are invited to take a virtual stroll down the curved Paseo Drive and get your monthly dose of First Friday magic.
Stop in to your favorite galleries and meet the artists. Peruse the shelves of Literati Press, pick out a new spring ensemble from Eden or some super cute shoes from Betsy King. A Shoe Boutique.
Learn artist Carol Webster’s eco-printing technique using natural materials in the workshop of Brayer&Brush. Listen to live performances by Chase Kerby and Kyle Dillingham from the steps of the red “Flamenco” sculpture and powerful readings by Poetic City in the Studio Six courtyard.
The Paseo has put together an evening full of everything you miss most about visiting Oklahoma City’s unique arts destination, and they hope you will join the fun and support Paseo personnel.
The community can find updates and ways to support Paseo merchants by visiting thepaseo.org, including how to order curbside takeout and delivery and where to shop online, and by signing up for their e-newsletter at the bottom of the website.
Oklahoma City’s Unique Arts Destination, the Paseo Arts District is located between NW 27th & 30th Streets and Walker & Hudson. A wide range of galleries, ten restaurants and a handful of shops round out the Paseo’s distinctive atmosphere. For more information, call the Paseo Arts Association at (405) 525-2688 or email at amanda@thepaseo.org.
Visit here (thepaseo.org/join for membership information.
Experience Paseo First Friday (for May 1) from Home Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
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COMMENTARY: Are OU students being punished? Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
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Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt’s reopening plan begins implementation Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
When it comes to implementing our future development plans for Oklahoma City residence; are we planning appropriately for the population growth of the disabled? In recent years the number of individuals with disabilities has grown exponentially. In 2016, the overall percentage (prevalence rate) of people with a disability of all ages in Oklahoma was 16.4 percent.
In other words, in 2016 (632,400 of the 3,861,200) individuals of all ages in Oklahoma reported one or more disabilities. Among the six types of disabilities identified in the American Community Survey (ACS), the highest (prevalence rate) number by category was for “Ambulatory Disability,” which was (9.5) percent.
In December 2019, Oklahoma City passed a MAPS 4 penny sales tax that will raise $978 Million dollars over the next 8 years to fund 16 projects throughout Oklahoma City. MAPS 4 is a debt-free public improvement program funded by a temporary penny sales tax; that has become a very innovative model for making and implementing city improvements.
Voters thus allocated this funding for 16 specific projects: Parks ($140 million),Youth Centers ($110 million), Senior Wellness Centers ($30 million), Mental Health and Addiction ($40 million), Family Justice Center operated by Palomar ($38 million), Transit ($87 million), Sidewalks, bike lanes, trails and streetlights ($87 million), Homelessness ($50 million), Chesapeake Energy Arena and related facilities ($115 million), Animal Shelter ($38 million), Fairgrounds Coliseum ($63 million), Diversion Hub ($17 million), Innovation District ($71 million), Freedom Center and Clara Luper Civil Rights Center ($25 million), Beautification ($30 million), Multipurpose Stadium ($37 million).
I find myself asking if we are spending this money wisely and efficiently. In the area of Public Housing, Community Development, and Urban Development: We are using the American’s with Disabilities Act or ADA Standards for developments that will be used or offered to the public. The ADA was established and signed July 26, 1990. It was amended in September of 2008, updated in 2010, and the final rules went into effect on March 15, 2011.
The current ADA standards are a great starting point; but they have become the bare minimum standards that we are legally required to meet. If we continue to plan and develop using only the bare minimum required standards “we are not doing enough.” The standard baseline of ADA standards gives us guidelines and perimeters to follow as we allocate the use of funding like Oklahoma City’s Maps 4 funding; but at some point we need to drill down and focus a little more on the end users of this funding.
We have individuals with multiple disabilities that are recognized and acknowledged in our society and local communities. “However we cannot continue to categorize or treat them like a one size fits all solution.”
Although it will be very challenging to address these different needs for Public Housing, Community Development, and Urban Development our oversight and responsibility does not end there.
It actually leads us into other areas like transportation, employment, sustainable living, and healthcare; just to name a few areas where it is becoming increasingly more important for us to start thinking “big picture.” We need less of “this is how we have been doing it so that’s good enough!”
My goal and challenge is to get more of our Community Leaders, Builders, Developers, Real Estate Brokers, Realtors, City Planners, Architects, Attorneys, and Politicians to transition their thought process. To transition their view of building for right now using today’s disabled population numbers and focusing on the long-term planning and development integrations and their impacts on communities and city’s differently. By looking into the future from the perspective of specifically planning in 5, 10, 15, and 20 year increments. Shifting our focus to correctly projecting and addressing the disabled population growth and needs during these periods. Utilizing the people that will be using these developments as the standard in which we measure development, and plan for the future.
So the real question becomes; are we asking our City Planners, Construction Builders, Developers, Architects, ADA Coordinators, City Leaders, Bankers, and Brokers the right questions?
Can we do more?
1. What will we do; as we allocate our approved funding to ensure that we are properly planning for our future needs?
2. What is the true cost of not doing it; or getting it right the first time?
3. What actions and steps are we going to take moving forward?
4. Is it time for us to amend the ADA to properly reflect the disabled population growth and ADA requirements in all areas?
I would like to propose some of the following solutions and improvements in the areas we should consider adjusting when using our current ADA standards and requirements for:
• increasing the number of disabled parking spots
• increasing the number of hotel bedrooms
• increasing the standard doorway minimum size to 36 inches
• increasing the standard number of wheelchair roll-in accessible toilet water closets
• increasing the hallway and sidewalk widths to accompany companion animals
• integrate wheelchair accessible bathroom water closets within our transportation system like buses, airplanes, trains and the public restrooms associated with them
• increasing our sidewalk widths at recreational parks to accommodate a minimum of two wheelchairs with animal companions to pass and traveling in different directions
• integrate additional wheelchair accessible seating in churches, auditoriums, stadiums, and other publicly used facilities as we build and develop in the future.
I understand that some facilities such as churches and privately built homes are not required to meet the ADA compliance standards; but doesn’t it just make common sense to integrate these standards in our future building and developments?
NOTE: Willis Washington is an ADA ICC Compliance Inspector and Certified Aging in Place Specialist also known as CAPS and has completed levels I, II, & III with the Oklahoma State Homebuilders Association and currently works for A to Z Commercial and Residential Inspections (https://ift.tt/2VDPhQ4). He was recently accepted into the Oklahoma University Graduate School Degree Program to become a Regional City Planner. This analysis first appeared earlier this year in The City Sentinel newspaper’s print edition, where his stories appear frequently. A prior analysis from him posted on CapitolBeatOK.com can be read here:
https://capitolbeatok.worldsecuresystems.com/reports/lift-a-work-in-progress-from-willis-washington
Planning For Our Future: Are we missing the mark? Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
OKLAHOMA CITY — COVID-19 could claim the lives of approximately 100,000 more people nationwide than current projections stipulate if jail populations are not dramatically and immediately reduced, according to a new epidemiological model released yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union and academic research partners.
The findings indicate that even if communities across the United States continue practicing social distancing and following public health guidance they will still experience much higher death rates if no substantial action is taken to reduce jail populations.
“We are likely facing massive loss of life — both in Oklahoma jails and in our communities — if dramatic steps aren’t taken to reduce our incarcerated population,” said Nicole McAfee, ACLU of Oklahoma Director of Policy and Advocacy. “Mass incarceration was a major public health crisis before the outbreak of COVID-19, but this pandemic has pushed it past the breaking point.”
In some analyses, the U.S. is the largest incarcerator in the world. About 40 percent of all incarcerated people suffer from at least one chronic health condition, such as asthma or diabetes. This means the U.S. faces a unique challenge in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and is likely facing a much higher death count than models based on data from other countries predict.
For this study, the ACLU model pulled data from more than 1,200 midsize and large jail systems around the country, whose surrounding communities account for 90 percent of the U.S. population. It found that keeping people out of jail saves lives — both inside the jail and in the surrounding community.
Other key findings from the model include:
• If a model that doesn’t account for jails predicts the U.S. death toll will be 100,000, the ACLU model shows that that projection undercounts deaths by 98 percent. Actual deaths, once accounting for jails, could be more than double, rising to 200,000, the study’s analysts conclude.
• Implementing swift, bold reforms to reduce arrests by 50 percent can save 12,000 lives in jails, and 47,000 lives in the surrounding communities.
• Aggressive action and policy change could save as many as 23,000 people in jail and 76,000 in the broader community if arrests end for anything but the five percent of crimes defined as most serious by the FBI — including murder, rape, and aggravated assault — and double the rate of release for those already detained.
• States that have begun to reduce their jail populations are quantifiably saving lives. Colorado, for example, has so far achieved a 31 percent reduction in jail population. The ACLU analysis/model found this likely will save 1,100 lives — reducing total lives lost in the state by 25 percent.
• Delaying action for a week could mean a difference of 18,000 lives lost in the U.S., the ACLU analysts believe.
“The prevailing epidemiological models largely fail to take into account our incarceration rates and the complete absence of social distancing in our jails — which is why we had to build our own model,” said Lucia Tian, chief analytics officer, ACLU. “We can't save our community while ignoring our jails.”
The original model was developed by Dr. Nina Fefferman at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Eric Lofgren at Washington State University, and Dr. Kristian Lum from the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with Aaron Horowitz and Brooke Madubuonwu of the ACLU’s data analytics team, experts from the ACLU and other corrections organizations contributed expertise.
Recently, the ACLU of Oklahoma submitted a draft Executive Order to Governor Kevin Stitt
(https://ift.tt/3azPeZL) with recommendations on steps to take to address concerns around prison and jail populations.
Additionally, the group joined eight other organizations in a joint statement (https://ift.tt/3bPNXzf) to encourage swift action to manage the serious threat of a COVID-19 outbreak in Oklahoma Corrections facilities, and are continuing the push for commutations and a medical needs docket.
The white paper with key results outlined can be found here (https://ift.tt/3bPNXzf ).
The original academic paper on Allegheny County can be found on MedRxiv, here:
(https://ift.tt/2xRbmBA ).
www.City-Sentinel.com
ACLU advances model to prevent COVID death surge in prisons and jails Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
(April 24, 2020) This is a true story.
Forty years ago, I was in my final semester at Oklahoma State University. I had earned a B.A. and a Master’s in History. Then, I garnered teacher certification in several areas. I originally intended to teach in Tulsa at a Catholic School (social studies), or in Bartlesville at public schools (Latin). But in the four years I was getting the M.A. and then certification, I began to write commentaries and occasional news stories for the campus newspaper, The Daily O’Collegian. I was pegged as “conservative,” but in some instances did not fit in anyone’s “box.”
At that time, OSU had one of the largest concentrations of students from Iran (some preferred to call their homeland Persia) on any American campus. The students were divided about 50/50 between supporters of the authoritarian former ruler, the Shah, and backers of the radical Islamist Ayatollah Khomeini.
My personal views were strongly opposed to Khomeini, but I had cordial relations with members in both camps from Iran (Persia), in part because of involvement in student government, in part due to my writing.
Then came the Iranian hostage crisis, beginning in November 1979.
Tensions on campus soared. There are many stories worth telling about those months.
The spectacular and horrific failure of the American military’s attempted hostage rescue mission came on April 24, 1980. It happened at night time over there, and afternoon/day time in Stillwater.
I had a reasonably deep level of knowledge about the region, and had often spoken about Israel, Iran, Iraq and Aghanistan both in the community at off-campus forums and on-campus.
When news of the desert disaster got to Stillwater, America, the editor of The O’Collegian called every reporter, asking them to come to the O’Colly office, including me.
The next day’s newspaper had already been printed, but we were told the O’Colly would do a “wrap” – a single sheet equal to four pages that would “wrap” around the paper then in the printing process.
We spread out over campus to get student reactions – both Americans, Iranians (Persians) and other international students. We worked like banshees. People wrote up their notes and the editor compiled them – asking me to help – into overviews touching both the national implications and the campus reaction.
We finished the writing in the early morning, sending it to the printer. I recall that pizza and soda was shared along the way.
When the “wrap” got back to the O’Colly, it was long past the time papers would normally (wee hours of the night/early morning) be in racks on and near campus.
The delivery guys had more work than they could do in the time available. Editors, reporters and a commentator were recruited to (by hand) wrap each and every regular edition within the special edition.
We spread out over the campus with bundles and directions on how many to place, and where.
It was about 3:30 or 4 a.m. as the papers got into the racks. With the extra hands and people, it went quickly. In some cases, students walked up to grab the papers.
The editor had told us to go home and rest, after delivery.
I understood better than before the process of taking complex information, distilling it and sharing it with fellow citizens – and doing it in a hurry, but well.
As the sun rose in the east, I went home to Married Student Housing, where I lived with my wife Pam. Our unborn child, Josef Bruce, would be born in early May.
I walked into our apartment at “Vet Village” (the name dating from the post-World War II era). No cell phones in those days, but I’d found a landline and alerted Pam an hour or two earlier with an approximate time I would be home.
She was making us breakfast as I walked in the screen door.
She asked, “How did it go, honey?”
I told her about the frenzy, the hard work, the fast writing/editing, waiting for the wrap, the deliveries (it was the only time I helped with that)
I now truly understood, I told her, what the professor who taught “the writing of history” had said to me a dozen times after I started those commentaries for the campus newspaper:
“Journalism is the first draft of history.”
She looked at me after I repeated that and just shook her head.
And I looked back at her to say, “I always thought I’d be a teacher of history. I’ll probably still do that. But now I know. Honey, I have the soul of a reporter.”
A Day in the Life: Journalism in a hurry, and the soul of a reporter Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
Healing, like grief, traverses boundaries.
Self-care is of the paramount importance after experiencing a loss. Cherishing beautiful memories and verbalizing one's feelings are important aspects of self-care.
Grief cannot be processed if one hides one's emotions.
A dear friend of mine, with whom I enjoyed an excellent professional relationship, was afflicted with the same disease as my father. After battling the disease for a while, he succumbed to it a couple of days ago.
After hearing that he had passed away, I relived my own bereavement of recent weeks, but I also focused on my capacity for enhancing resilience – both mine and that of another.
I reached out to my friend's widow. She was processing her loss in her own way and candidly talked with me about her grief and painful emotions.
The experiences of my friend’s widow, as his care-taker, were similar to my mother's journey as my father's care-taker. The devotion and commitment with which she took care of her husband reminded me of my dear mother.
Their only child, who lives in New York City, was not able to make it to Oklahoma to see his ailing father because of the present lockdown, and he also was unable to come for the funeral.
At the end of our conversation, she said, "I hope you get to be with your mother soon."
I responded, "I hope your son gets to be with you soon."
In the process of grief and healing, willing hearts can traverse every divide.
NOTE: Dr. Nyla Ali Khan writes regularly for CapitolBeatOK and The City Sentinel. Her analyses of contemporary issues in the Indian sub-continent, including her native Kashmir, appear frequently around the world.
Healing Traverses Every Divide Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
In a joint statement last evening (Wednesday, April 22), leaders of two Oklahoma tribes affirmed their respect for statewide officials who have reached conflicting conclusions about recent compacts between the state and, respectively, the Otoe-Missouri Tribe and the Comanche Nation.
The two leaders said: “We respect the Governor and the Attorney General, who both have a track record of supporting tribal sovereignty. We believe the compact language is consistent with both positions as it says event wagering will be permitted only ‘to the extent such wagers are authorized by law.’ We remain focused on the momentum established with new gaming compacts that anticipate the future of the gaming market, expand opportunity for all parties for generations to come and leave behind the one-size-fits-all approach to the old Model Gaming compact.”
Continuing in their comments sent to CapitolBeatOK, The City Sentinel and other news organizations, John R. Shotton of the Otoe-Missouria and William Nelson, Sr. of the Comanche said: “In other words, so long as such wagering is unlawful, the Otoe-Missouria and Comanche Nation would not be permitted to engage in such gaming under the express language of the compacts. Although state law currently does not authorize event wagering, the compacts nonetheless included such language in anticipation that the state legislature will eventually see event wagering as an important source of revenue, and authorize the activity accordingly.
“There is absolutely nothing unlawful about entering into a compact that guides the parties’ behavior and expectations in contemplation of potential future events. In fact, the 2005 compacts also contained provisions that would authorize new forms of gaming in the event that such gaming would be ‘approved by state legislation for use by any person or entity.’ The event wagering provisions of the new compacts are fully consistent with the language of the 2005 compacts.”
CapitolBeatOK’s substantive analysis of the issues presented in the new pair of gaming compacts – based in part on analyses from the late 1990s (https://ift.tt/3auhUmD) – as to the recent statements of officials involved, concludes that the most recent release is designed to explain the language in the compact regarding “sports book.” While it is arguably true that human event wagering in the form of sports book, is not explicitly authorized at the current time, the pari-mutual and event contest statutes do authorize some event and human wagering, respectively.
Continuing with CapitoBeatOK’s analysis, the above should be considered against the backdrop that natives get the benefit of implied approvals in the law.
This is how Oklahoma tribes were allowed to offer tournament blackjack games when poker and card games were otherwise specifically outlawed. Further, approvals for event wagering in the language in the compact contemplates "to the extent authorized by law" meaning when all the proper approvals are in place.
Details on the new compacts where posted yesterday here (https://ift.tt/2XYLaiX) and
here: (https://capitolbeatok.worldsecuresystems.com/reports/comanche-nation-signs-historic-gaming-compact-with-state-of-oklahoma
About the Comanche Nation: The Comanche Nation is located in Southwest Oklahoma, with headquarters located right outside of Lawton. The tribe currently has approximately 17,000 enrolled tribal members with 7,000 residing in the tribal jurisdictional area around the Lawton, Ft. Sill, and surrounding counties. In the late 1600’s and early 1700’s the tribe migrated from their Shoshone kinsmen onto the northern Plains, ultimately relocating in Oklahoma. For more information about The Comanche Nation, visit https://ift.tt/2KtZdoU.
About The Otoe-Missouria Tribe: The Otoe-Missouria Tribe is located in North Central Oklahoma in Red Rock. There are currently 3,288 members enrolled in the tribe with 2,242 living in Oklahoma. The tribe was relocated to Oklahoma in 1881 from its first reservation on the border of Nebraska and Kansas. For more information about the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, visit https://ift.tt/3axBuOQ.
Otoe-Missouria Tribe Chairman John R. Shotton and Comanche Nation Chairman William Nelson, Sr. comment on perspectives of both governor and chief executive; nuanced analysis offered Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
Employment in Oklahoma is not expected to rebound to pre-coronavirus levels for two years, and state tax collections are falling to 2016 levels, officials announced at this week’s emergency meeting of the State Board of Equalization.
In response, Gov. Kevin Stitt called on lawmakers to tap state savings and to reduce spending to “smooth out” financial challenges over the next few years.
“The question becomes do we want steep cuts, or should we try to smooth them out over the next couple of years and use our $1 billion over the next couple of years?” Stitt said.
The board met to declare a revenue failure for the fiscal year 2020 (FY20) state budget and sent a letter advising lawmakers they have far less to spend for the pending budget year.
For the current FY20 budget (which ends on June 30), lawmakers spent $8.13 billion. That spending level has now been maintained by drawing down $459 million out of roughly $1 billion held in state savings at the start of the year.
If lawmakers spend all $534 million that remains in state savings for the FY21 budget, they will still have to reduce spending by 7.5 percent, Stitt noted. In the FY22 budget year, officials now expect to have $6.9 billion available, which would require another 8.2 percent reduction in state spending.
“Our budget won’t recover overnight,” Stitt said, “and we’ll have to get creative about how we protect our core services for the long term.”
One option Stitt highlighted involved spreading savings over three budget years by implementing a 1.2 percent spending reduction in the current FY20 budget year, which would preserve $100 million in savings. That then would allow officials to reduce future cuts to 6.4 percent in FY21 and 5.6 percent in FY22.
That scenario is now hypothetical since three measures that rely entirely on savings without any cuts for FY20 have become law. The measures passed the Legislature with little opposition, and Stitt signed two of the three, while the third measure became law without his signature when it was not vetoed.
Among the reforms Stitt said lawmakers should consider are agency consolidation and reduction of the state’s “real estate footprint.”
“Right now, all of our employees are working from home in state government,” Stitt noted. “It is a great time to re-envision and strategically reform how we deliver core services.”
While the state has received around $1.6 billion from the federal government to address the financial challenges created by the COVID-19 shutdown, officials said that money may not be available for use in addressing broader budget shortfalls.
“There are some stimulus monies that we hope to use to plug the COVID-related expenses that we’re experiencing,” Stitt said. “However, the federal government has been very clear that they won’t let us use that money to plug revenue shortfalls.”
Further compounding the Oklahoma government’s financial challenges is the expected expansion of Medicaid to include able-bodied adults. That expansion, authorized by the federal Affordable Care Act (better known as “Obamacare”), was expected to require $150 million in new state spending. Due to the current economic downturn, that cost has now risen to $200 million, Stitt said, and the existing Medicaid program’s costs have increased by $50 million.
The Stitt administration is pursuing Medicaid expansion even as a similar ballot measure that would place the expansion in the Oklahoma Constitutional goes before voters on June 30.
Stitt said a hospital fee remains the most likely method of financing the expansion.
Senate Democratic Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, who recently said (https://ift.tt/3538Vrx) her caucus would not support any spending cuts for the 2021 budget, issued a statement saying, “The Legislature will have to make many difficult decisions regarding the state budget for Fiscal Year 2021. Oklahoma Senate Democrats will fight to protect funding for essential state services including education, health care, and public safety.”
House Minority Leader Emily Virgin, D-Norman, released a statement saying, “The uncertainty in the oil market and our future with COVID-19 makes this a difficult time for a lot of Oklahomans. These numbers reflect the lives and livelihoods of many Oklahomans. As this unfolds, our caucus feels a deep responsibility to protect government services that will be vital to supporting our constituents.”
The Republican leaders of the House and Senate did not immediately issue statements in response to the revised budget numbers.
Jay Doyle, executive director of the Oklahoma Tax Commission, said state tax collections will fall to 2016-2017 levels due to COVID-19 business shutdowns and plummeting oil prices, which fell to record lows and finished the day in negative territory on the futures market.
Doyle said Oklahoma “won’t return to the pre-COVID level of employment until the fourth quarter of 2022” and the state unemployment rate may hit 14 percent “for a few months.”
Due to record low oil prices, he said officials do not expect drilling to resume “in a meaningful way until late 2021 or early 2022.”
“So far, the job loss in Oklahoma has been less than the rest of the nation, and we expect a smaller total job downturn,” Doyle said. “But we’re also going to see a slower bounce-back given the weakness in the oil and gas sector.”
Stitt said the government cannot exempt itself from the financial choices that now face many working families.
“Nobody likes this,” Stitt said, “but those 220,000 Oklahomans that are out of a job through no fault of their own, they’re struggling too. And so state government is in this together. We’re going to tighten up our expenses as well.”
NOTE: This story has been updated since initial posting to include additional information and clarification on the status of FY20 funding measures. It first appeared here: https://ift.tt/2XXKvhG and is reposted with permission. Ray Carter is director of the Center for Independent Journalism, based at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.
No rapid recovery expected for Oklahoma’s economy Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles Oklahoma state Senator Nathan Dahm files bill to reopen businesses while protecting public health4/22/2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the closure of businesses across the state and left tens of thousands of Oklahomans out of work. Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, filed a bill on Wednesday (April 22) that would allow these businesses to re-open and their employees to work.
Senate Bill 1X, also known as the “Oklahoma Return to Work and Bill of Rights Conformity Act,” acknowledges the successful work Oklahomans have done to flatten the virus curve, recognizes those who have sacrificed during the pandemic and works to restore the people’s right of assembly and religion, according to a press release from state Senate staff sent to CapitolBeatOK and other news organizations.
“I’ve heard from business owners and workers throughout my district and across the state who are at a point of desperation,” Dahm said. “Oklahoma has made huge gains to protect our hospitals from being overloaded, and it’s now time we allow those who desire to get back to work to do so in a safe manner.”
The measure would include provisions for social distancing, encourage innovation, provide businesses access to signage conveying health safety guidelines, limit liability for businesses that open and encourage sick leave for those with COVID-19 symptoms. It also includes a provision that would prohibit local cities and counties from forcing businesses to close.
“It is entirely possible to see the dangers this virus poses, while still seeing the danger of keeping our economy closed and our citizens out of work,” Dahm said. “My bill balances both concerns by providing health guidance for businesses while removing the prohibitions that are keeping them from opening.
“We also have the right to assemble and freely exercise our religion,” Dahm said. “Those rights have been limited but have not received much focus. It’s time to restore our right to worship, re-open our state and get people back to work. This legislation no longer forces people to stay shut down, but also does not prohibit those who prefer to stay closed or stay home from doing so.”
The full text of the bill can be found here: (http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2019-20%20INT/SB/SB1X%20INT.PDF).
Oklahoma state Senator Nathan Dahm files bill to reopen businesses while protecting public health Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles |
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