Photo Gallery – May 30-31 Property Damage on Classen Boulevard
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On Saturday, as the sun lowered in the western sky, a demonstration took place to protest of the death, several days earlier, of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Demonstrators protested his death and that of other African-American men while in police custody over recent years.
Into the night on Saturday, May 30, unknown individuals traveling south from a demonstration at the corner of N.W. 23 and Classen Boulevard in Oklahoma City tossed bricks through the windows of several businesses.
Police had arrested more than two dozen people as a result of the events of May 30 and the early morning on May 31.
The City Sentinel visited some of the damaged buildings on Sunday morning, May 31, to take photographs and talk with proprietors of the small business locations along Classen which suffered damages.
Demonstrations continued in Oklahoma City on Sunday afternoon, May 31.
Photo Gallery – May 30-31 Property Damage on Classen Boulevard Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
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Oklahoma City – The ACLU of Oklahoma this week asked Governor Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Scott Crow to act quickly to impede the spread of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) in state prisons and jails.
The group encouraged state government officials to “heed public health experts’ advice and immediately commit to full testing for COVID-19 in all correctional facilities, work with communities so that jails across all 77 counties have adopted the ODOC guidelines for COVID response, and work to lower the populations of people in detention.”
Renewing a late April distribution of information on the issue, ACLU of Oklahoma maintained, “Taking these swift actions will ensure that jail and prison COVID-19 outbreaks can be handled safely without unnecessary harm to people who are imprisoned, people who staff custodial facilities, or healthcare workers who serve those populations.”
The ACLU and its partners released an epidemiological model (https://ift.tt/2AdAQdc) outlining how correctional facilities can “exacerbate the spread of COVID-19 and could claim the lives of approximately 100,000 more people nationwide than current projections stipulate if the populations are not dramatically and immediately addressed.”
A COVID eruption at the Comanche County Detention Center in Oklahoma, ACLU Oklahoma said in a May 26 press release, “underscores the speed with which this disease can be transmitted. Therefore, no response to COVID-19 can be meaningful or effective without across-the-board testing.”
As early as mid-May, when The Lawton Constitution’s Scott Rains detailed the COVID surge at the county facility, Brandie Holmes (a regional official with the state Department of Health) expressed that officials were “very concerned about what we have seen to date.”
(https://www.swoknews.com/news/70-percent-of-comanche-county-covid-19-cases-at-county-jail/article_2c824828-c8d0-5640-a81f-aec6366ad9ff.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share)
By late last week, state officials had removed 140 health inmates from the county facility (https://ift.tt/2Bc9ynV). Those inmates were transported to state facilities if they had twice consecutively tested negative for the virus.
In the recent ACLU Oklahoma press release, sent to The City Sentinel and other news organizations, the civil liberties group stated, “Many people who carry the virus are asymptomatic and adequately identifying the breadth of the problem or effective solutions without a clear count puts the lives of staff, people who are incarcerated and those living in the surrounding communities at risk. The immediate and universal testing in all state and local correctional and detention facilities and reporting of those results are necessary steps to understand the true scope of the problem.
“Especially in a public health emergency, our government must make every effort to protect the rights of people experiencing illness or at risk of illness. This includes jails, prisons, and other detention facilities in the state facing barriers that often have large numbers of people who are especially vulnerable to the virus.”
Key findings/projections in the national ACLU study, as reported in The City Sentinel last month, included
• 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 Trian, chief analytics officer, for the national ACLU. “We can’t save our community while ignoring our jails.”
In this week’s ACLU Oklahoma release, the group contended: “The actions of ODOC in coordination with the Comanche County Detention Center only act to underscore the need for a system-wide response in jails across the state. We strongly call on all sheriffs to implement the Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ COVID-19 response guidelines as stated in their Pandemic Planning Guide, as recommended by the Oklahoma State Department of Health.”
www.City-Sentinel.com
After anticipating jail COVID surges like Comanche County’s, ACLU Oklahoma encourages quick action to impede coronavirus spread Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
Time marches on. I'm reflective as I honor anew Father Michael J. McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus.
For me, the Christmas season lingers in memories as this challenging Year advances in America, in the world, and in the liturgical life of the Church. After what many American Catholics called “the Longest Lent,” we are hopeful, yet cautious, about the future. Surely that is an ordinary reaction.
On Jan. 1, we Catholics honored Mary, the Mother of Jesus. At Epiphany, we recalled the moment when Our Lord’s Kingship was manifested in the adoration of the Magi. Then, at the Baptism of the Lord in January, the Church remembered how the pure and sinless One insisted on the same Baptism required for the Salvation of we poor sinners.
In such days, contemplation of human dignity and awe over Divine purpose naturally blend in the minds of believers.
Then, came “ordinary time,” those weeks before what the Orthodox and Eastern rite Catholics call “the Great Lent,” a time of conscious repentance, of turning back to the One who made us.
At last came, even in Pandemic Time, Easter and the Sundays of Easter and the Feasts of spring – St. Catherine of Siena, and the Ascension of the Lord.
In the midst of this terrible virus, on Ascension Sunday many Catholics hereabouts attended Holy Mass for the first time since March.
Still to come is Pentecost, Holy Trinity, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Then, it will be back to “Ordinary Time” in the Church Calendar.
But what is “ordinary?” In “Parish Priest,” the masterful biography of the life of Father Michael J. McGivney, what stands out is how “ordinary” the founder of the Knights of Columbus really was.
This gentle historical biography, by Douglas Brinkley and Julie M. Fenster, was published in 2006. It tells McGivney’s life story in simple, ordinary words that build to something ... more.
Michael McGivney came from a large Irish Catholic family, a quite ordinary thing in Nineteenth Century America, and was animated by passionate devotion to the Holy Family.
After ordination, he was a devoted priest, most notably at St. Mary's parish in New Haven, Connecticut. He gave ordinary sermons emphasizing core teachings of the Catholic faith. Few remembered him for soaring rhetoric or dramatic presentation. But as time passed, he drew lay people and brother priests alike toward him.
In the desperately poor immigrants who comprised his congregants, he saw needs for practical and direct support to uplift the health and welfare of widows and children of ordinary Catholic men, fellows who had a habit of working themselves to death. After years of gentle encouragement, he led a group of laymen to establish the Knights of Columbus.
McGivney served as the first Chaplain of the group, intended “to unite the men of our Faith ..., that we may thereby gain strength to aid each other in time of sickness; to provide for decent burial, and to render pecuniary assistance to the families of deceased members.”
Although a man at peace with God and the Church, Father McGivney lived only to the age of 38. He died from apparent overwork – at the back end of an awful Pandemic some called the Russian Flu. It was the last such outbreak in the Nineteenth Century.
That “overwork” description was a very ordinary thing in McGivney’s time, when the shortage of priests was a near-crisis. Contemporary American Catholics, especially faithful priests, can understand.
What was not ordinary for New Haven in that time was the huge crowd, and the many Protestants, who came to his funeral.
From a tiny acorn McGivney placed in the soil of Connecticut -- at an ordinary parish with ordinary debt and ordinary people -- grew the largest fraternal organization in human history, with today 1.9 million members in the U.S., Canada, the Phillipines, Mexico, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Guatemala, Saipan and Poland.
The Knights’ insurance program today has around $100 billion worth of policies in force providing, as that ordinary priest envisioned, “pecuniary assistance to the families of deceased members.”
My father was one of those deceased members. Bruce Frederick McGuigan joined his beloved wife, my mother Bonnie, in Heaven, at 9:59 a.m. on Thursday, February 19, 2009. He died in his room at Bellevue Center in Oklahoma City, where they had lived their last few years.
Over all the 54 years I knew him, my Dad rarely spoke simply of “God” – his normal reference in conversations at the dinner table or anywhere else was to “Almighty God.”
He was an ordinary guy, in many ways. As a young man, he studied for the priesthood for three years, and always had a tremendous appreciation for priests.
He maintained contact all his life with two seminary classmates who went on to become members of the Maryknoll order. They spent most of their lives serving the Catholic people of Taiwan. I was blessed to visit one of them on a trip to that beautiful island Republic years ago.
My Daddy had a finely tuned sense of justice, informed by faith. He attended Oklahoma City University law school in the same years I studied at McGuinness. He joined the only fraternity which, at that time, admitted people of all races and creeds.
He coached my third grade baseball team in the YMCA League (“The Orioles”) mostly boys from Bishop John Carroll School. Later, he was softball coach for my sister Bonnie Kathleen’s seventh grade softball squad.
He coached because no one else would, and it allowed us to field a team. He was an ordinary Dad who did those ordinary things that such men do.
At the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City, he was active in the Men's Club, working at the Christmas Tree lot every year for decades, on the Parish Finance Board, and more. He and my mother were named Parishioners of the Year in 1997. As a boy, and briefly as a grown man, I was able to work with him at the old Christmas Tree Lot next to the church on N. Lake Street.
Daddy was a member of Knights of Columbus Oklahoma Council No. 1038 for as long as I can remember. The rites for his passage from this life were laced with Knights, and members of our parish.
Presiding at Dad’s evening prayer service and wake was Deacon Paul Lewis, Brother Knight and friend from Boy Scouting days. My sister Bonnie and my wife Pam led a Rosary for Dad.
Preparing his obituary, we came across a photo of Dad and I together at an “exemplification” for the Chief Justice Kane Assembly, Fourth Degree Knights. For his funeral Mass, Sir Knights formed an honor guard, as priest friends gathered to concelebrate.
Pastor (and K.C. council chaplain) Father Ed Weisenburger (now a Bishop) was joined by former pastor (and 1038 member) Father Tom Boyer, as well as Father Thanh Van Nguyen and Holy Angels’ pastor Mike Chapman.
Daddy’s grandchildren served as pallbearers, and friends Robert Sine and D.W. Hearn, both members of Council 1038 and fellow parishioners, were Eucharistic Ministers.
Bob Sine went ahead to heaven, some years after my father.
D.W. is now one of our cherished deacons at the Cathedral.
At Resurrection Cemetery after the Mass, a bagpiper named “Robert Bruce” played “Scotland the Brave” as the grandchildren carried Dad’s casket across the red soil to his place of rest beside Bonnie’s grave.
Two young sailors in dress whites – one black and female, the other Latino and male -- afforded military honors for the departed U.S. Navy veteran.
When the young man knelt at my feet to present the flag of our nation, and began, “On behalf of the president of the United States and a grateful nation …” the tears flowed. For years, I wept every time I remembered.
After Father Ed’s final prayer graveside, the ’piper played one more tune: Amazing Grace, which has marked weddings, anniversaries and now funerals at McGuigan family gatherings since my childhood.
“When we’ve been there, 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun. We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we’d first begun.”
Daddy was an ordinary man, I guess.
Like Father McGivney.
In the 1980s, I witnessed a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. by Lech Walesa, the heroic anti-communist who eventually became president of his native land, Poland.
In response to a reporter’s question about personal heroes, he pointed to Pope John Paul II and other Polish patriots, but told the crowd of journalists that he considered “the real heroes” to be “the ordinary people.”
Walesa said he admired the simplicity and decency of those who work hard, pay their bills, raise good children, live as good neighbors, and do what is right when no one is looking.
What Walesa was really saying is that the ordinary becomes something else if it's done over and over.
Virtues of service, unity, charity, fraternity and patriotism, in time, become extraordinary.
News came this week (late May 2020), that Father McGivney is now under consideration for canonization -- recognizing formally what millions around the world already believe:
That he worships every day, at the throne of grace, in Heaven.
How extraordinary.
Blessed Michael McGivney, pray for us.
Make us ordinary men, like you.
NOTE: This is adapted from a tribute delivered at a 2009 dinner honoring the service of Oklahoma’s Catholic priests. The author, Pat McGuigan, founder of CapitolBeatOK (an online news service) and publisher of The City Sentinel newspaper, is past Grand Knight for the Knights of Columbus Oklahoma Council No. 1038; and Past Faithful Navigator for the Chief Justice Matthew John Kane Assembly (fourth degree) Knights of Columbus based in Oklahoma City. (The Assembly, part of the patriotic order of the Knights, is named for a Roman Catholic who served on the state Supreme Court early in state history. His descendant, Matthew John Kane IV, now serves on same court.) This week, Pope Francis announced, from Rome, that a miracle has been attributed to McGivney’s intercession in Heaven, by which an unborn child was healed (in utero) of a life-threatening condition. The pope’s announcement paves the way for “beatification” of Father McGivney – the last step in the process of canonization. That is the Catholic Church’s formal recognition of what many among the faithful already believe: That McGivney resides, for all eternity, at the throne of Grace. In Heaven.
Commentary: Ordinary men, and ordinary time Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
Oklahoma is on its way to having its own Imagination Library — a literacy program providing free books to encourage children to read.
Sen. John Haste, R-Broken Arrow, and Rep Tammy Townley, R-Ardmore, are principal authors of Senate Bill 1803, creating the framework for Oklahoma’s Imagination Library, modeled after a program founded by entertainer Dolly Parton in her home state of Tennessee. Governor Kevin Stitt signed the measure into law last Thursday (May 21).
“The Imagination Library is a public/private partnership that will mail every single child in Oklahoma one high-quality, age appropriate book a month from birth through age five, with no restrictions or financial limits for families to participate,” Haste said, in a press release sent to The City Sentinel and other news organizations.
“This program has been proven to increase reading time, increase kindergarten readiness and is credited with helping children score higher on reading tests.”
S.B. 1803 creates a revolving fund for Oklahoma’s Imagination Library and places administration under the State Department of Education. Haste said the first book mailed to each Oklahoma child will be “The Little Engine that Could.”
Haste said he was inspired to begin an Imagination Library after attending a meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Tennessee in 2019, which included a presentation with Parton.
She founded the Imagination Library in 1995 for the children in Sevier County, Tennessee, with the program later expanding throughout the entire state. Today, Parton’s Imagination Library has partners in communities throughout the country, with statewide programs in North Carolina, Ohio, Arkansas and Delaware and has been adopted in Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
“Reading is the basis for all learning,” Townley said, in her statement.
“Inspiring a love of reading in children at an early age will help better prepare them to become life-long learners and give them a leg up when they start school. I’m thankful to have worked with Senator Haste to bring this program to Oklahoma and I look forward to seeing the impact this will have on our school-age children.”
Thanking Sen. Haste and Rep. Townley for their work on the issue was state Sen. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma City, who has been active in support of education improvements and funding during her tenure at the state Capitol.
In an after-session discussion review of the 2020 legislative session, Sen. Bice told The City Sentinel: “As Oklahoma develops the workforce of the future, parents, teachers, care-providers and all who love children will remain focused on both the practical development of skills and the blessings of imagination. Oklahomans think we can – and we will.”
On final passage, S.B. 1803 cleared the Senate 32-14, and prevailed 60-25 in the House.
NOTE: Patrick B. McGuigan, founder of CapitolBeatOK and publisher of The City Sentinel newspaper, contributed to this report.
Imagination Library literacy program enacted into state law Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
Oklahoma City – Like the rest of Oklahoma, the Santa Fe Family Life Center is carefully returning to regular operations as spring transitions into summer.
The facility closed when the governor of the state and mayor of Oklahoma City asked for publicly-accessible facilities to shutter for a time.
After a carefully-structured and limited reopening during the month of May, the facility anticipates a more robust June and July.
In an interview with CapitolBeatOK during the phased reopening, executive director James Timberlake said he was happy with the multi-week plan that began in early May.
Each day members were asked to choose a particular workout or court time, to assure limited numbers in each part of the facility. Requirements for advanced online “sign-ins” were phased out this past week with a return to come-and-go activity for members and guests.
Timberlake said, in a May 24 interview, “Social distancing requirements and reduced capacity rules are still in place. We will continue to monitor recommendations from city and state health officials and adjust operations accordingly.”
He expressed thanks “to all members, guests, patrons, and staff for helping to ensure a safe and successful reopening” over a two-week period.
Timberlake continued, “We’re doing everything we can to assure a safe environment. We have a good plan in place. I am confident about keeping staff and patrons safe, and minimizing any chances of getting or transferring the virus.”
The tempo of basketball will pick up from June 1 on, and summer pool memberships are available for a June 1 opening.
Timberlake said, “We feel like this restart has gone well. We have had good responses from our members, and people say they are excited to be back for their workouts and routines. There is always some risk in managing a fitness center. But May has gone well, and we are happy to be back at our work. We hope soon to safely resume more and more of our charitable programs and youth sports programs. It has been nice for the staff, for all of us, to see our members and patrons.
“The people who are coming in are excited, and we all know it’s going to take awhile for some people to get used to getting out.”
Keeping Busy During the Closure
Santa Fe staff stayed busy throughout the temporary closing. To benefit (and in partnership with) Saint Anthony Hospital, the staff converted the basketball courts into a small-scale assembly operation.
Timberlake told supporters and members about the project in a memorandum, saying the fitness center staff deiced to focus on “the shortage of personal protective equipment for medical workers. … Continuing our partnership with SSM-St. Anthony’s Hospital, we turned a couple of our basketball courts into a factory for face shields and masks. The space that would normally be occupied by wheelchair and adaptive sports, after school programs, and youth basketball provides plenty of room to make the protective equipment.
“This project has provided a positive program amid all the chaos, and valuable protective equipment to our doctors and nurses who put themselves at risk to keep us safe.”
(https://ift.tt/36qje9Z)
(https://ift.tt/3d2HCkf)
Ultimately, Santa Fe staff cranked out 6,000 of the face shields, and a lesser number of masks.
Looking for Support to Sustain Programs
The temporary closure, expanded protective measures and steps to get back in the fitness cycle required with the reopening have made donor support for the Santa Fe Family Life Center “more important than ever,” Timberlake said.
The SFFLC's 2020 fundraising campaign launched in May, with regular contributors told that the annual fundraising event would be delayed until 2021.
Meanwhile, supporters are asked to renew support for SFFLC’s charitable programs, including adaptive sports, disadvantaged youth sports and scholarship memberships.
Individual donations are, for a limited time, being matched at 100%, doubling the impact of each contribution.
Donation can be completed at sfflc.com/donate, on SFFLC's Facebook page under Fundraisers or by mailing a check to SFFLC, Attn: James Timberlake, 6300 N. Santa Fe Ave, OKC, OK 73118.
www.City-Sentinel.com
Santa Fe Family Life Center eases into summer after slow pace reopening in May Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
Oklahoma City (May 22) -- The Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribe said in a joint press release Friday (May 22) their compacts are legal, are similar to many other previously-approved gaming compacts and assert their tribal sovereignty in a way that will benefit their people and the state.
The tribes released to CapitolBeatOK.com and other news organizations a legal memo in response to recent tribal opposition letters. In the letter, which was sent to Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, both tribal Chairmen counter the arguments recently released by the Chickasaw Nation, the Quapaw Nation and the Wichita & Affiliated Tribes.
The memo also calls attention to the fact that each feature of the agreements has been part of previously approved compacts over the last several decades.
“The complaints from our fellow tribes have no legitimate legal basis, as the compacts are legal, were negotiated in good faith and should be approved,” said Otoe-Missouria Tribe Chairman John R. Shotton. “These compacts are the product of the most fundamental aspects of tribal sovereignty.”
In the memo, the Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribe outline the reasons the compacts are legal and should be approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The compacts were validly formed
As noted in an earlier memo responding to the attorney general’s opinion, the governor of Oklahoma has the authority to enter into these tribal gaming agreements without approval from the other branches of government. According to the new memo, the Chickasaw letter to Sec. Bernhardt places undue emphasis on the role of the legislative branch and attorney general in the tribal-state compact approval process. Regardless of former processes in Oklahoma, this new compact was formed validly under the authority that rests with the governor.
In fact, the memo states, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma has explicitly recognized that the governor “has been and continues to be the party responsible for negotiating compacts with the sovereign nations of this state.”
The compacts include the meaningful concessions from the state required for federal approval
When determining compact approval, the Department takes into consideration whether an agreement provides the tribe with substantial economic benefits, as well as if the state offers a meaningful concession for the sharing of revenue. Opposition currently claims the Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria compacts allow for unlawful taxation on the basis there is no meaningful concession in exchange.
In reality, the compacts reduce the revenue-share payments both tribes would make to the state, while continuing to offer everything it offered in the previous compact. When comparing the tribes’ current revenue-sharing payments to the amount they would pay under the compacts, the memo says the savings for the tribes are significant, allowing them to put additional funds toward important tribal programs.
The compacts do not erode tribal sovereignty
In its letter, the Quapaw Nation listed several features of the compacts that, in their view, “erode tribal sovereignty.” However, the memo outlines that in addition to the compacts not eroding tribal sovereignty in the slightest, all of the features have either been approved in prior compacts or do not affect any change in the tribes’ existing obligations.
“Every sovereign tribe has the right to enter into intergovernmental negotiations with the State, and every sovereign tribe has the right to choose what is best for its tribal members,” the memo reads. “We were faced with a fairly simple decision: (A) continue litigation against the state and thus remain in our current compacts; or (B) engage in good-faith negotiations with the state in an attempt to secure better opportunities to improve the well-being of our tribal members. We chose the latter option.”
The concurrence given in the compacts is lawful and follows precedent
Through Section 20 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, there is a two-part process for tribes to have new lands taken into trust for gaming eligibility. The compacts include a concurrence from the governor that lands in six counties (three for each tribe) can be taken into trust pursuant to this process. The two-part determination would also require approval at the federal level.
The Chickasaw, Wichita and Quapaw all take particular grievance with this section of the agreement but, according to the memo, this two-part determination process is entirely separate from the compact approval. That is, federal approval of the compacts does not automatically result in new lands becoming eligible for gaming. This aspect of the compacts should therefore not be a consideration in the legality of the compacts. Furthermore, similar compacts including such provisions have been approved by the Department of the Interior.
Approval of the compacts would not be a breach of the trust responsibility
Finally, the Chickasaw Nation argues the approval of the compacts would be a breach of the Department’s trust responsibility, as other tribes may have lands in the development counties.
However, the memo outlines both the Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribe also have deep historical connection with these lands, and again reassures that the compacts alone do not make lands in those counties eligible for gaming. The tribes will need to follow the Section 20 process to obtain final approval of any planned land acquisitions.
“Our compact is legal and we look forward to approval from the Department of the Interior,” said Comanche Nation Chairman William Nelson, Sr.
The Department of the Interior has 45 days to review and approve both the Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribe compacts and is expected to make a ruling on or before June 8.
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.
www.CapitolBeatOK.com
Comanche Nation, Otoe-Missouria Tribe respond to tribal opposition letters Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
Legislation was signed into law Thursday (May 22) to hold physicians who perform fraudulent abortions solely liable for the wrongful death. Senate Bill 1728, by Sen. David Bullard, creates the Unborn Person Wrongful Death Act and modifies provisions related to awarding damages resulting from such wrongful deaths.
The Durant Republican said, in a Senate press release sent to CapitolBeatOK and other news organizations, the bill will allow parents and grandparents of unborn children to seek damages against a physician if consent is gained through fraudulent means. If the woman is coerced, inebriated, given falsified information, or if the physician does not disclose the physical and/or psychological harms that will be caused by the abortion, the physician may be sued.
“An overwhelming amount of data indicates these are the tactics used by the abortion industry. Once these fraudulent schemes are exposed and no longer available, thousands of unborn babies will be saved every year,” Bullard said. “When women and families choose to use this power to make Oklahoma an abortion desert, countless innocent lives will be saved.”
The Senate press release said “the bill specifies that physicians cannot waive liability prior to performing an abortion. Recoverable damages may not include the cost of the abortion. The bill also removes the exclusion of legal abortions and acts committed during diagnostic testing or treatment from deaths, which may constitute recoverable damages.
“In addition, the bill also protects physicians who choose life over an abortion. Doctors who do everything a reasonably prudent doctor would do to save the life of the mother and child will be protected from civil liabilities.”
Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, served as House author of the measure, which will become law November 1, 2020.
“We’ve gotten to the point in this country where a woman is only believed if her voice lines up with a specific political ideology,” said Gann. “This legislation restores the voice of millions of women and gives them the right to fight back against an industry that brutalizes them for profit.”
According to the Justice Foundation, up to 69 percent of abortions in the U.S. are performed without legal consent and are coerced. Their analysis found, the Senate staff release summarized, “that mothers are persuaded to go through with abortions through illegal coercion including being lied to about the age or health of their babies or about the safety of the actual procedure. Many women are drugged prior to actually agreeing to the procedure thinking they are only getting examined, but wake up to realize the procedure is complete.”
The CDC’s latest statistics show that there were more than 623,000 abortions performed in 2016, or nearly 200 abortions for every 1,000 live births.
Before heading to the governor for his signature, S.B. 1728 cleared the Senate on a 37-9 vote, and passed the House 76-20.
Anthony Lauinger, chairman of Oklahomans for Life, applauded passage of S.B. 1728 and the governor’s signature on the new law.
Lauinger noted: “Employing Oklahoma's Wrongful-Death law, S.B. 1728 provides enhanced legal rights to women who have been misled into having an abortion by increasing the civil liability of abortionists who have deceived such women. The bill also provides legal recourse for women in circumstances where an abortionist has failed to comply with all applicable Oklahoma laws.”
Unborn Person Wrongful Death Act, Oklahoma Senate Bill 1728, signed into law Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
Legislation raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21 has been signed into law. Sen. Greg McCortney, R-Ada, was principal author of Senate Bill 1423, signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday (May 19).
McCortney, chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, said the legislation ensures Oklahoma’s statutes now align with the federal Tobacco-Free Youth Act, which was signed by President Donald Trump last December. That law prohibited the sale of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.
“Enforcing tobacco product age limits actually takes place at the state and local level, so even though the federal government had already raised the age to 21, we needed to make sure state law mirrored that so there was no confusion or ambiguity for the public, businesses or law enforcement,” McCortney said. “Just as importantly, health care professionals have long advocated raising the minimum age for tobacco to reduce smoking numbers and that will help us achieve better health outcomes.”
Rep. Kevin Wallace, R-Wellston, served as House principal author of S.B. 1423.
“This important legislation will protect our youth from the negative health effects of tobacco use by increasing the age when they are eligible to make such purchases,” said Wallace said. “This will align us with federal statute, and that compliance puts ABLE in line for grant funding of more than $18 million that can be used for tobacco cessation programs. I was grateful to work with Senator McCortney on the passage of this legislation and for the support it received.”
The measure gained 28-19 passage in the Senate, and 79-20 approval in the lower chamber.
Through new Oklahoma law, legal age increased for purchase of tobacco products Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles Thompson and Wallace guide measure to passage easing curbside sales and delivery of liquor5/22/2020
A convenience to Oklahoma consumers born out of the pandemic will be allowed to remain in place. The measure, by Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, and Rep. Kevin Wallace, R-Wellston, allows curbside sales or home deliveries of beer, wine and spirits to continue. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 1928 into law Thursday (May 20).
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission (ABLE) allowed restaurants, grocery and liquor stores to serve customers through curbside service and delivery. I’ve talked to many citizens who really appreciated the convenience and didn’t want to see it end. This measure will allow that service to continue,” Thompson said.
“It’s another important step in continuing to modernize Oklahoma’s liquor laws, offering more choices to consumers.”
In final Senate consideration, the new law garnered a 39-6 bipartisan majority. On the House side, the final passage came through a 74-17 affirmative vote.
In a statement to The City Sentinel newspaper, Sen. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma City, praised her colleagues, saying:
"I appreciate the diligence Sen. Thompson and Rep. Wallace showed in working this measure through the process in a session where, at times, it was hard to get enough attention paid to sensible and incremental reforms. This new law, signed by our governor, is another sign that even in difficult times members of the Legislature can find ways to advance the public interest."
Under S.B. 1928, delivery or curbside service of beer, wine or spirits would have to be provided by the establishment holding the license — third party companies cannot deliver those products. Restaurants, grocery and convenience stores can only provide curbside sales or home delivery of beer or wine. Liquor stores can provide that service for beer, wine and spirits.
“We found during the COVID-19 pandemic that this practice worked well and posed no additional public safety problems for law enforcement or anyone else in the general public,” Wallace said. “This will allow this ease of commerce to continue in the future, and it’s a welcome addition to the services we allow consumers and our small business owners.”
NOTE: Pat McGuigan, publisher of The City Sentinel newspaper, contributed to this report.
www.City-Sentinel.com
Thompson and Wallace guide measure to passage easing curbside sales and delivery of liquor Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles
OKLAHOMA CITY – A bill requiring dyslexia screening for early elementary students not reading on grade level was signed into law by the governor on Tuesday (May 19)..
House Bill 2804, authored by House Majority Leader Mike Sanders, R-Kingfisher, and Sen. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma City, requires screening for dyslexia for students in kindergarten through third grade who are not reading on grade level beginning in the 2022-23 school year.
“I’m thankful to the governor for signing this legislation that will be life-changing for these children,” Sanders said. “Too many of our children with dyslexia have been left behind in learning, and getting them the help they need is as simple as properly identifying this disorder. When these kids catch up with their peers in reading and other subjects it not only leads to a happier school experience but a better life.”
Bice said the issue was personal because her godson was dyslexic. She thanked the governor and fellow legislators for supporting the legislation.
“With proper screening, we can get dyslexic children the help they need to become stronger readers, giving them the tools to be successful in school and in life,” said Bice. “This is going to make a positive difference in the education outcomes of countless Oklahoma children.”
H.B. 2804 requires the State Board of Education to develop policies for dyslexia screening, and to adopt a list of approved qualified dyslexia screening tools. The bill also requires school districts to provide the State Department of Education with data about dyslexia, including the number of students screened for dyslexia each year, the number of students identified, and the process used to evaluate students.
“Our student advocates have given a face to dyslexia in Oklahoma. They have struggled to learn to read, but have been determined not to see others have the same fate. As their parents and educators, we have advocated for H.B. 2804. Alongside the State Department of Education, the Dyslexia and Education Task Force, and members of the Legislature, we have worked to improve reading outcomes for struggling readers, including students with dyslexia,” said Michelle Keiper and Tiffany Jenkins of Decoding Dyslexia Oklahoma.
“Change in education is never easy, but OSDE is providing the leadership needed in the Reading Sufficiency and Special Education departments. Together we are making great improvements in Oklahoma.”
Last year, Sanders secured passage of House Bill 1228, which provides professional development for teachers across Oklahoma to help them better recognize signs of dyslexia in their students. Adding screening through H.B. 2804 was the logical next step, he said.
Sanders also authored legislation this year to add the Dyslexia Handbook to the list of tools available to teachers, parents and school administrators at no cost through the State Department of Education. Sanders said all of the legislation was a recommendation by the Dyslexia and Education Task Force and the SDE as well as Decoding Dyslexia Oklahoma. All of the bills represent several years’ worth of work on this issue.
NOTE: Sanders represents District 59 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which includes Dewey and parts of Blaine, Kingfisher and Woodward counties. Bice is senator in District 22, northwest Oklahoma City.
Stitt signs Sanders, Bice Dyslexia Screen bill Click on the headline to read the full article at Site Articles |
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