Lisa Robins’ kitchen is a lively scene of flour, mixing bowls and her toddlers’ art projects. But the mother of two wouldn’t have it any other way at her home in Edmond north of Oklahoma City.

That’s because Robins and her friend, Kari Clifford, are hard at work filling gourmet cookie orders. The duo launched the enterprise, Baked Cookie Co., a few years ago after noticing the lack of quality cookies available in their hometown.

“Our friends would always ask us to bring our cookies to their special events,” Robins says. “So at a ladies’ night one night, we thought, ‘Why don’t we just make our cookies accessible to everyone on their special days?’” The next Valentine’s Day, they started selling four popular varieties: chocolate peanut butter, s’mores, chocolate chip with oatmeal, and chocolate chip with sea salt.

Until recently, the business would have been impossible in Oklahoma. All food sold for profit had to be produced in a commercial kitchen. That changed in 2013 with the passage of the Oklahoma Home Bakery Act.

The law allows for the sale of certain home-baked goods, commonly referred to as “cottage foods,” in certain venues. Unfortunately, the law includes some onerous rules and red tape. For example, cottage food businesses may generate no more than $20,000 in annual gross sales before being regulated as a commercial operation. With the cost of ingredients and supplies, this leaves little room for profit.

“We don’t use Crisco,” Robins says. “Our recipes include specialty chocolate and other high-end ingredients.” The partners also take pride in their packaging, using bakery boxes topped with beautiful ribbon.

The current law is also vague, inviting different interpretations from county to county. For some home bakers, this means buttercream icing is legal in some jurisdictions but not others. Such haphazard rules create confusion and limit entrepreneurs’ ability to scale up their businesses.

State Rep. Gary Mize, a Republican from Guthrie, has a solution that would help. House Bill 1032, which received unanimous support in the House Business and Commerce Committee on Feb. 24, would expand the types of homemade foods that can be sold and raise the annual sales cap to $125,000. At the same time, the bill would preserve basic requirements to protect public health and safety.

The proposal is one of at least eight food freedom bills moving through state legislatures nationwide, as part of a movement that has produced reforms in 19 states and Washington, D.C., since 2015. Research from the nonprofit Institute for Justice shows that women in low-income, rural communities benefit the most from these reforms.

Now in the wake of a global pandemic, which has left millions unemployed and working from home, the creation of flexible home-based businesses like home bakeries would provide a valuable source of income for Oklahomans.

As full-time moms to young kids, Robins and Clifford want to continue their operation as a fun, creative way to make money in their spare time. With the help of HB 1032, the possibilities for their cookie business would be even sweeter.

With lawmakers across the nation introducing legislation to change the practices of tech companies, the battle over social media and online speech has come to the states. Though they often have slight differences, the basis of the various state proposals is forcing companies to keep up user accounts and content while minimizing the use of artificial intelligence to display or remove content. Prominent examples include legislation introduced in Oklahoma and Kentucky that would fine companies that censor political or religious speech to the tune of $75,000 per deletion.

Such legislation has not typically been the prerogative of conservative lawmakers. These proposals put government directly in the center of how certain businesses must be run rather than letting consumers decide what platforms they want to spend their time on.

These bills also violate another tenant of conservative principles – federalism. This principle is often misunderstood as the lowest level of government addressing a problem. Correctly understood, it’s the proper level of government addressing a specific issue. Local governments shouldn’t be in charge of national defense, for example. For issues involving internet companies that are interstate, the federal government is often the proper level to address them. Otherwise, states like California end up passing laws that affect consumers in all 50 states.

Adding to the problems is the important fact that all of these proposals likely violate the First Amendment since they involve government dictating to private entities what speech they are forced to carry. If the same standards in these bills applied to news websites, it becomes immediately obvious that First Amendment protections are likely violated.

But even putting aside long=standing conservative principles and constitutional issues, if the legislation was enacted, would it actually solve the problem lawmakers are trying to address?

While legislators no doubt have companies like Twitter in mind when writing this legislation, their definition of what constitutes a social media company is far more engrossing. Platforms like Twitch, which hosts streams of people playing video games and allowing viewers to interact in a live chat section, would also be affected. The same goes for Reddit, a website that allows for “subreddits,” or communities based around a single subject.

These websites function by empowering those hosting the subreddit or stream to moderate the content as they deem fit. Run the New Orleans Saints subreddit and want to ban annoying Atlanta Falcons fans? Not a problem. Want to stop a commenter from spamming “Vermin Supreme 2024” while you are streaming Fortnite? Your stream, your rules.

But many of these proposals would force every channel operator or part-time moderator to determine if any one of their moderating decisions would run afoul of a state law and potentially incur large fines. Websites that host user-generated content, the very thing that makes the internet the powerful tool it is today, would be forced into two terrible choices.

They could either stop creators and moderators from having control over their own space, allowing spam and speech containing profanity and racial slurs to explode. Or, they could only allow far fewer content creators on websites, limiting the very kind diverse content and interaction people go online to enjoy.

Herein lies the heart of the proposals to rein in tech platforms in the defense of free speech. Speech flourishes online when private organizations and groups can set the rules for discussion. Forcing websites into an all-or-nothing approach will silence the very kind of voices and discourse they set out to promote.

Lawmakers may be rightly worried about a free speech culture and the ability of certain companies to silence voices, but government intervention fails to solve the problem. These state legislative proposals not only violate important conservative principles of co-opting private businesses for political expediency, but they also fail in what they aim to achieve. The internet that allows for so many people to reach an audience and express themselves will either cease as we know it today, or it will be quickly overrun by spam and other vile content.

If the point of these bills is to try to punish or scare Silicon Valley, they might succeed. But if lawmakers are interested in having an open internet where users can actually hear conservative voices, this approach will certainly fail.

(The Center Square) – A Oklahoma County District Court dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit filed last year by Paycom, the payroll software company located in Oklahoma City, against the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

In legal terms, a case that is dismissed with prejudice means it is permanently over and cannot be brought back to court.

“Since 1993, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs has been a voice for free enterprise, limited government, individual initiative and personal responsibility,” OCPA President Jonathan Small said in a statement. “We have never shied away from advocating for those values and the working families of Oklahoma, and we never will – even if it angers a $22 billion tech company and they try to cancel our voice and the right to free speech enjoyed by the thousands of Oklahomans we represent.”

The issue began last March when Paycom CEO Chad Richison sent a letter to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt with suggestions on what the state should do to combat the growing coronavirus pandemic.

Among Richison’s suggestions was banning non-essential airport travel, limiting grocery stores to drive-through pick up or delivery services and temporarily suspending personal care services such as hair salons, nail salons, spas and massage parlors.

The following day, Ray Carter, director of the Center for Independent Journalism at OCPA, mentioned Richison’s letter in a post about Stitt’s response to the virus.

“Some individuals have called for Stitt to order most businesses to close and have the government control how others operate,” Carter wrote. “Chad Richison, CEO of Paycom, is among those who have advocated such actions.”

Paycom’s lawsuit said OCPA “continues to harbor animosity and malice” toward the company and said the think tank’s actions led to a loss of revenue for Paycom and accused OCPA of “tortious interference,” which is a legal term that implies an individual or group intentionally damages another’s business relationships with a third party.

Court documents show that Paycom claimed it paid nearly $14,600 to a public relations firm in “mitigation expenses to address or respond to the actions of OCPA,” and suffered a loss of $645,613 in annualized revenue.

“Paycom has not identified the loss of any specific clients, existing or prospective, and/or that it suffered the breach of any identified contract due to the publication by OCPA,” the presiding judge wrote in his opinion.

“This is an important victory for all Oklahomans, for the First Amendment rights of free speech and a free press, and a crucial victory against ‘cancel culture’ in Oklahoma,” Small said in his statement.

(The Center Square) – Oklahoma is among the worst states in the U.S. for women, ranking 47th in a new study by personal finance website Wallethub.

"Oklahoma is the fifth worst state for women," Wallethub analyst Jill Gonzalez told The Center Square. "17% of the women in the state are living in poverty, and more than 18% of them cannot afford a doctor's visit – the fifth largest percentage in the country. In addition, less than 58% of women voted in the 2016 presidential election."

To come up with its rankings, Wallethub compared the 50 states and Washington D.C. across 26 metrics that measure living standards for women, including median earnings for female workers, women’s preventive health care and the female homicide rate.

One category where Oklahoma "ranks particularly low is the female uninsured rate, which is the second highest in the US at over 13%. ... 77.5% of women in Oklahoma report being in good health, and the state ranks low for women's preventive health care. Other areas where Oklahoma scored poorly include the second lowest share of physically active women – over 64%, and consequently a large percentage of women who are obese, more than 37%. To top it all off, the state has high depression and suicide rates for women, a high female homicide rate, a high prevalence of rape victimization among women, and women's life expectancy at birth is the sixth lowest."

Minnesota ranked as the top state for women, followed by Maine and Vermont.

At the bottom of the rankings is Mississippi, followed by Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

(The Center Square) – Oklahoma is working to ensure its Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund stays over a certain threshold to avoid tax increases on businesses after jobless claims surged throughout the state, creating payouts in 2020 that were more than the previous 10 years combined.

“Going forward, the agency has a few focuses that come to mind, the first being making sure the fund stays above the $25 million threshold,” Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) Director Shelley Zumwalt told The Center Square. “This past year has been extremely difficult for the business community everywhere and we are doing everything we can to limit impact on our employers.”

Oklahoma mandates that if the UI Trust Fund is projected to fall below $25 million for an upcoming quarter, the OESC must enact up to a 33.3% surcharge for employers on top of regular contributions, Zumwalt said.

“The agency has made multiple contingency plans to avoid this scenario as it would be devastating to the state business community,” Zumwalt said. “Making sure the fund stays above this threshold is one of our top priorities.”

While 22 other states have exhausted their UI Trust Funds and have taken out federal loans, Zumwalt said that is not forecast for Oklahoma.

Before the pandemic, Oklahoma’s UI fund was more than $1 billion, but is now below $100 million.

“Making sure Oklahoma manages our fund in a fiscally responsible manner is a constant at the agency,” Zumwalt said. “The agency collects employer contributions each quarter to replenish the fund. The first payment for this calendar year will be due April 1st, and at present, we do not anticipate funds will fall below the $25 million threshold between now and March 31, and it is monitored daily. I always offer the caveat that everything I am mentioning is based on current conditions, given the unprecedented year the state and nation has had, if a significant issue arose that dramatically affected claims volumes that projection could change.”

The UI Trust Fund has paid out nearly $4.3 billion in benefits since March 1, 2020.

“For perspective, that amount dwarfs the amount paid out in the decade preceding (2010-2019) which was $3 billion,” Zumwalt said. “For another snapshot, in February of 2020 [before the pandemic] the agency paid out $23 million in the entire month. In one week in June, we paid out $230 million.”

While the agency has been getting benefits to an unprecedented number of unemployed workers, it is also undergoing a $45 million digital transformation that will include upgrading a 40-year-old mainframe.

“It absolutely cripples the agency's ability to operate in a digital environment,” Zumwalt said. “Moving off that mainframe could not come fast enough and is scheduled to be complete by the end of this calendar year.”

Other improvements have resulted in reducing call wait times from five hours to less than 30 minutes, Zumwalt said, adding that when she arrived, first call resolution numbers were below 5% and are now 75%.

Significant changes also have been implemented to stop fraud and recover funds paid out on fraudulent claims, Zumwalt said.

“Every time an issue has come up that negatively impacts claimants, we have figured out the root cause and executed on changes that will positively impact OESC's claimants,” Zumwalt said.

(The Center Square) – A group of Republican governors sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Monday asking him to rescind an executive order that halts new leases for oil and gas development on federal land, arguing that it will have a negative impact on their economies and will cost consumers.

Biden signed the lease moratorium Jan. 27 as part of a broader series of executive actions seeking to curb climate change. The executive order, which applies to offshore leases, does not apply to existing leases for development on federal lands or leases on tribal land.

The letter, which was led by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, was co-signed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

Biden’s executive order “has a negative economic effect upon western states with large tracts of federal land and upon Gulf Coast states, chasing away capital investment for long-term economic growth and undermining public services, public conservation, public safety, public education, and more,” the letter states. “Beyond directly impacted states, the Order is estimated to spike American residential energy costs by $1.7 billion per year.”

The Wyoming Legislature commissioned a report last year that estimated a federal lease moratorium would result in a $639.7 billion hit to gross domestic product (GDP) in Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, California, and Alaska by 2040. Over 48% of Wyoming’s land is federally owned, according to Ballotpedia.

The letter also argues the executive order “jeopardizes our national security interests and strips away the opportunity for Americans to be energy independent.”

“The Order inevitably shifts development away from U.S. federal lands and offshore waters to other countries with far less stringent emission controls, exacerbating concerns over greenhouse gas emissions worldwide,” the letter continues.

Most oil and gas development on federal land is overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), with states receiving roughly half of the revenue from royalties and fees.

Biden has nominated U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M. for secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees BLM. Her Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

(The Center Square) – Oklahoma small businesses continue to navigate the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and two Senate bills have been put forth to offer a wide spectrum of tax relief.

Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, filed SB 727, which would eliminate Oklahoma's corporate income tax and franchise tax starting in 2022.

“This is a big deal for small business owners, who are already struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic,” Jerrod Shouse, Oklahoma state director with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), told The Center Square by email. “Regulations and taxes are issues that our small business owners here in Oklahoma struggle with. In fact, according to a recent survey of small business owners, taxes and regulations ranked number 4, 6, 7, and 8 as the biggest problems they faced.”

Small business survival is crucial to Oklahoma’s economic recovery, and many have closed or face permanent closure because of the pandemic’s economic impact, Shouse said.

“We need our mom and pop shops here in Oklahoma. Not only do they support the economy, they give back to their local communities,” Shouse said. “Oklahoma cannot survive without our small business owners, who are working tirelessly to protect their employees and customers during this unprecedented time.”

Dahm also filed SB 920, which would provide 10-year tax relief to any business that moves to Oklahoma from a foreign country.

“As we’ve seen in the news, Joe Biden’s recent executive orders will cost our nation tens of thousands of jobs,” Dahm told KFOR. “It appears he’s putting China first by repealing a previous order prohibiting them from working on America’s electric grid, so it’s imperative that we work to put Oklahoma first. While those in Washington D.C. seek to destroy jobs and raise taxes, Oklahomans have the opportunity to follow conservative principles to lower taxes for the creation of jobs in our state. It’s time we step up and put our people and our businesses first.”

(The Center Square) – Oklahoma’s film production sector, which the state has designated an essential business, has continued building on growth that has some industry watchers comparing it to Atlanta as a top U.S. filming destination.

“Our state has been investing in and incentivizing this sector for many years, and we have built a solid foundation and cultivated an industry that only has room to grow,” Tava Maloy Sofsky, director of Tourism & Recreation at the Oklahoma Film + Music Office, told The Center Square by email.

“In the last five years, the number of film and television productions (utilizing the state’s rebate program) has grown from an average of four movies per year to an average of three per month,” Maloy Sofsky said.

Production budgets are also increasing, translating to hundreds of jobs on any single movie or TV series, and positive economic impact on communities around the state.

While the Oklahoma Film + Music Office has helped talent and businesses to thrive, the private sector has invested in the development of workforce and permanent infrastructure. This has been done with new training programs and sound stages being built to meet the needs of the industry, Maloy Sofsky said.

While other production centers across the country were closed down amid the current pandemic, last June, Oklahoma became one of the first states to reopen its economy. In July, Gov. Kevin Stitt deemed the motion picture and recording industries essential businesses, helping avert potential shutdowns in that sector.

Maloy Sofsky said she is often asked whether Oklahoma could be the next Atlanta in terms of film production.

“We are uniquely Oklahoma, and proud of the diverse assets only our state can offer,” Maloy Sofsky said. “Oklahoma is currently evidencing industry developments similar to Georgia, as many stakeholders collaboratively work toward the same well-balanced (three-legged stool) success model.”

Georgia’s film industry generates $9 billion annually, Maloy Sofsky said, enhanced by their film tax credit program and response by the private sector. Tyler Perry Studios is among many to build permanent infrastructure with new sound stages. The Georgia Film Academy also offers industry-standard training courses, adding thousands of new jobs to the local workforce each year.

Among the hundreds of projects to film in Oklahoma over the years includes “The Outsiders,” based on the novel by Tulsa native S.E. Hinton, the television pilot “Reservation Dogs,” and the upcoming “The Killers of the Flower Moon.” MovieMaker Magazine also has ranked Oklahoma City and Tulsa among its Best Places to Live and Work for a filmmaker in 2021.

“Oklahoma offers a high quality of life for visitors and residents, and we are a destination where creativity and innovation in business can thrive,” said Maloy Sofsky, an Oklahoma, Cherokee native who recently returned to work in the burgeoning film industry.

“Whether someone is an accountant, a lawyer, a health care worker, an electrician, a caterer, seamstress, truck driver, event planner, teacher, painter or carpenter, a musician or composer, the entertainment sector offers well-paying jobs and business opportunities that can greatly diversify our state’s economy year-round,” Maloy Sofsky said.

Primaries for school board elections were held in Oklahoma on February 9. Ballotpedia is covering elections for 35 seats across 27 Oklahoma school boards in 2021. These 27 school districts served a combined total of 261,543 students during the 2016-2017 school year.

Seventeen seats were won outright by unopposed candidates. There were 13 seats where two candidates automatically advanced from the primary to the general election on April 6. The remaining five seats held primaries between three or more candidates. Elections can be won outright in the primary if a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.

In the Edmond Public School District, Margaret Best and incumbent Lee Ann Kuhlman advanced to the general election for the District 1 seat. Best and Kuhlman earned 34% and 27% of the vote, respectively.

In the Oklahoma City Public School District, Charles Henry and incumbent Paula Lewis advanced to the general election for the chairperson seat. Henry and Lewis earned 48% and 44% of the vote, respectively.

In the Owasso Public School District, Stephanie Ruttman and Rick Lang advanced to the general election for the Ward 1 seat. Ruttman and Lang earned 31% and 24% of the vote, respectively.

In the Putnam City Public School District, Judy Mullen Hopper won outright in the primary for Seat 3. Hopper earned 66% of the vote against two other candidates including incumbent Sky Collins.

In the Tulsa Public School District, Judith Barba won outright in the primary for Seat 2. Barba earned 53% of the vote against two other candidates.