(The Center Square) – Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has issued a policy recommendation that would allow local schools to bypass mandatory quarantine regulations after known COVID-19 exposure.

Stitt feels the current school situation with children learning remotely is damaging, and with the right safety protocols, mandatory quarantine is not needed in all cases.

“Refusing to offer in-person school is jeopardizing our kids’ education; it’s jeopardizing teachers’ careers, and it’s jeopardizing the future of the State of Oklahoma,” he said, according to The Lawton Constitution.

Stitt proposes helping bolster student mental and educational health through measures including mask-wearing, social distancing and good physical hygiene. Schools that require masks will not have to quarantine students who have been exposed to the virus, unless they are showing symptoms.

This policy is limited to classroom learning and does not include mention of after-school activities or sports.

"Gov. Stitt’s proposal to waive the quarantine is based on pieces of a study that were done in conditions that are not comparable to the situation in Oklahoma," Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, told The Center Square. "It does not meet the CDC guidelines for the current rates of high community spread in Oklahoma. Therefore, the OEA (Oklahoma Education Association) believes that it would not keep students nor staff safe, if enforced."

Stitt has not implemented a public mask mandate throughout the state. A requirement for bars to close at 11 p.m. to help slow the spread of the virus was recently enacted.

The governor is leaving the enforcement of this policy, and the option to implement best practices as advised by the CDC, up to the local school districts.

"The best way forward is for our governor to implement every strategy possible to mitigate the spread of COVID 19, including a statewide mask mandate. This is not, should not, be a political issue. It is about the health and safety of our communities," Priest said.

(The Center Square) – A new organization is working to certify Oklahoma beef that was born and bred within the state's borders in an effort to encourage residents to support local businesses and farmers.

"The Oklahoma Certified Beef Act sets a definition and standard of what beef that can qualify as Oklahoma Certified Beef, giving producers an additional marketing opportunity," Morgan Vance, chief of communications at the Oklahoma State Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, told The Center Square. "The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry is excited to see how this program can add value for Oklahoma producers, and meet the growing demand of consumers for locally produced food."

The Oklahoma Certified Beef Act went into effect on Nov. 1. "Oklahoma certified beef" is defined as any bovine product bred, born, raised and slaughtered within the state of Oklahoma.

"The creation of the Oklahoma Certified Beef Association, which was started by American Farmers and Ranchers' Cooperative (AFR), is to legitimize the program by providing affidavits and third-party verification to members, and have a group that can help ranchers market and promote Oklahoma Certified Beef," state Rep.Ty Burns, R-Oklahoma City, told The Center Square.

Beef can be purchased directly from ranchers. In addition, some restaurants and grocery stores will offer Oklahoma Certified Beef in its selection soon.

"I would anticipate that some Oklahoma beef producers who offer direct sales of beef to consumers may want their beef to carry the claim provided their beef meets the definition," Michael Kelsey, executive vice president of Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, told The Center Square. "In these cases, those producers would hopefully realize added value to their beef by providing that information to their consumers."

Producers do not need to be a member of any association to be a part of the OCB program.

"It is important to recognize that producers who participate in claim/label programs should receive increased economic impact for participating in the program," Kelsey said. "While that may not be able to measured on a statewide basis, it can be very significant to those individual producers."

(The Center Square) – A day after the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) reported “system interruptions” led to thousands of out-of-work residents not receiving their weekly unemployment benefits, the agency says the issue has been fixed and most should have received the funds on their cards.

"The payments initiated earlier today have been completed and claimants should now be able to see these funds on their cards this morning," OESC said in a tweet.

Some claimants might still be experiencing a problem, however, and the agency said they should report their issues through its website.

"If you haven't received payments from the Continued Assistance Act or need to report an issue with the payments you received, we encourage you to report these through the Virtual Agent on our site," OESC tweeted.

On Monday, when payments were supposed to be delivered, OESC announced the system interruptions.

“OESC is experiencing payment delays on CAA payments posting to claimants cards and accounts due to system disruptions," it said on its Facebook page. "The team is working to address the issue and we will continue to post updates as new information is available. We know many of you are awaiting CAA payments and appreciate your patience as we work to fix the issue. We are anticipating that payments will still be made today, 1/25.”

The median annual household income in America is just over $60,000. While many of the highest paying jobs tend to concentrate near large population centers, there are also smaller towns that are very prosperous. In most states, the wealthiest town has a median household income that is two or three times higher than the median across the state as a whole.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed the median annual household income in over 2,600 cities, towns, villages, and census designated places to identify the richest town in every state. We only considered areas with populations between 1,000 and 25,000. To ensure accuracy, we only considered places where the margin of error for population and median household income was less than 10%.

Oklahoma: Jenks

> Median household income: $93,364 (state: $51,424)

> Poverty rate: 6.4% (state: 16.0%)

> Median home value: $205,100 (state: $130,900)

> Population: 21,793

Jenks, Oklahoma, is located just south of Tulsa, so residents have access to the many high-paying jobs in the bigger city, in sectors like health care and aerospace engineering. Oklahoma has one of the lower median household incomes among states, at $51,424. The median in Jenks is tens of thousands of dollars higher, at over $93,000. This prosperity has likely attracted many new residents to Jenks -- the population grew by more than 24%, from less than 18,000 in 2013 to over 21,000 in 2018.