Another police officer faces several serious charges stemming from a violent outburst. This time it;s the Police Chief of Webber's Falls, Oklahoma.  His arraignment and mugshot is being handled like that of any suspected common criminal charged with a violent crime.
 Last year the Police Chief of Mannford, Oklahoma was brutally beaten to death by one of his top detectives, while at a training conference.
In all likelihood, Webber's Falls is now seeking a new police chief. One veteran peace officer told me that he was asked and he declined the request to apply.
​ An Oklahoma comedian quipped on social media; "It wouldn't have happened if he'd just complied with the policeman's orders."

Fox23 was one of the first to break the story. their report includes..

• The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation arrested the Webbers Falls Chief of Police Wednesday after they say he assaulted one of his officers.
• OSBI agents arrested Chief Matthew Crittenden the day after they say he assaulted the officer.
• OSBI says another officer in the department called OSBI to investigate the situation.
• Crittenden is facing charges for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and OSBI says he will likely face additional charges.
• Crittenden bonded out of the county jail.

  Oklahoma's Libertarians have had several big successes in recent years, but many more false starts. Conservatives in the legislature restored some sanity to our ballot access laws. That allowed Libertarians a sustained presence in our political menu choices to order from... even though they've not provided us any broadly appealing candidates.
  In 2016, Republicans selected Ted Cruz, and really had some difficulty with Donald Trump as the nominee. Had the Libertarians nominated Austin Petersen or some other prolife candidate without the 'social justice warrior' rabid agenda; A significant number of Okies would have had an easy time not only voting Libertarian, but actually migrating to a libertarian platform & message. It could have put Oklahoma in play for Hillary Clinton, by creating a rift which leftists would certainly have exploited.

  Last 'go around' William Weld joined his former Republican-turned-Libertarian, Gary Johnson, on the Libertarian presidential ticket. While the two were former governors, neither were strong apologists for libertarian philosophy in govt. public policy. ​

The Oklahoma Libertarians postponed their state convention, several weeks ago. Perhaps that's a blessing, given today's news in the presidential race.

While the census is being tabulated, politicos are already scheming for the best political advantages and rectification of injustices.  The political boundaries will be redrawn, but we don't yet know what the lines will follow, or who will receive the benefit.

  Our constitution requires a reset of the districts every 10 years. the 14th Amendment says we must all have equal representation, equal justice, and equal voting powers. It didn't used to be that way.  Oklahoma's original design was for each county (regardless of population) will have one House Rep. Only if the population reached a high threshold would a county get a 2nd Representative.  That led to unequal influence in lawmaking, and eventually the law was changed.
  House & Senate districts are now fluid and adjusts to the flow of population changes.  Counties no longer play as important a role in equal protection of citizen rights and protections.

  Political factions have plenty of opportunity to draw district lines to give their sect extra seats in the legislature. The 2010 redistricting helped Senate Republicans go from a 24-24 tie in 2007, to a 42-6 supermajority in 2017.
  Sadly, this happens at the expense of community cohesion. A medium-sized city may get split up and put into multiple rural districts.  This makes it harder for the community or region to have a lawmaker's full devotion and efforts. 

For a variety of factors, the Oklahoma legislature has a massively high turnover rate. In the next month, our capitol will officially say 'good bye' to just 5 of the senior legislators. Perhaps this is a testament to the visionary efforts of Lloyd Noble II, the principle citizen activist who shepherded the nation's first term limits citizen initiative, back in 1990. This self-proclaimed 'arch conservative' told a C-span forum that he largely bankrolled the signature gathering and campaign messaging, as a way of reforming how Oklahoma does legislative business.
  What Noble did, hastened the republican revolution of the next 20 years. Beginning in 2002, several lawmakers who'd spent decades in office, had to let go of political power. Characters like Gene Stipe of McAlester had a difficult time with that. He died in a prison medical facility when he illegally manipulated the election laws, in an attempt to both pick the new lawmakers, and steer lucrative public funds to corporations and associates.
 The Oklahoma Senate will say good bye to Senator Gary Stanislawski, of Jenks.  The House will say farewell to Harold Wright, Mike Sanders, Charles Ortega, and Lewis Moore.
    But there are principled constitutional arguments on the other side of the debate. We currently have a House membership which is ab0out 50% freshmen. ​

  Earlier this week, the leaders of the city of Vinita scaled back their mandates & restrictions on public mobility. This came after a sweeping constitutional challenge was filed by an Oklahoma attorney.
  Today, Attorney Frank Urbanic announced a federal lawsuit against the city of Guthrie, filed in federal courts, in the western district of Oklahoma. Urbanic was previously instrumental in exposing an abuse of state emergency powers when he exposed Governor Stitt's declaration of civil unrest (a state of riot), to concentrate emergency powers to his office, rather than the state's health director.  That revelation precipitated a new health emergency declaration and a proper set of statutory procedures.
​  Here's some of Urbanic's press statement, today.

  The State Election Board once again set new protocols on process in emergency public health conditions. The number of candidates contending for legislative seats is at a modern day low, this cycle. That number dropped even further with about a dozen challenges filed.
  The 3-member state board tribunal held a marathon session yesterday by 'skype' video conference technology.  Election Board Secretary, Paul Ziriax made sure the public had access to the process, but at least one of the 'judges' (Paul Maulden)  did not appear on camera, so we had to simply assume that we were hearing the input of this judge.
  In typical fashion, a small portion of the candidates chose not to defend their eligibility when challenged. These challenges cost a candidate $250 to file or defend, but if they prevail, the fee is returned to them. They also have a very short window of time to have the challenge officially served to the disputed candidate, by the county sheriff.

  For 50 years, cable tv providers have been picking the winners & losers amongst media companies.  The internet has helped level the field in favor of independent startups. And those startups are starting to flourish.

  Cable & Satellite companies are already shifting their billing models so that internet data services now costs consumers more than the basic TV channel packages.  They could see this day coming for nearly 20 years.  But several customers are getting gouged to the tune of $150/mo. or more; because they're paying for delux internet and TV packages.

  About 10 years ago,  I used to spend about $1400/yr on cable tv & internet.  The Internet portion was less than $500. As I weaned off the tv package, my internet fees rose to about $750/yr. 
  2 years ago I installed a powered digital tv antenna high atop my roof. Who knew that there are 44 over-the-air tv channels powerful enough to reach my home near the Arkansas River, in south Tulsa? And I'm not even counting the foreign language and shopping channels). If I use the motorized rotator on my new antenna, I can pick up another 10 channels!

  Just minutes after the protesters ended their circled auto-rally to Get Oklahoma Back to Work, the Governor entered the Capitol Blue Room to hold a live webcast press briefing. Governor Stitt did not reference the 400+ vehicles circling the capitol complex in his remarks.
  But almost immediately into the press questions, he was asked to respond to the concerns of the rally.
  He said; All of the executive orders applicable to the pandemic expire on April 30th, with the exception of the most vulnerable populations, which have a shelter in place order thru May 6th.
  Gov. Stitt also announced the restored elective medical procedure order will expire 9 days from now.
  He went on to say that he met with the Oklahoma restaurant Association regarding their concerns and hearing from them about ways to safely restore operations.
  What seems to be a sticking point will be any added new executive orders.   

  Databases are starting to give us some very detailed numbers on the impact of the novel virus Covid-19. 
  This allows us to begin investigating any correlations between public policy, cultural impact, and other factors which may contribute to the widely varying death rates.
  It's important to note that these numbers are listed 'per million' population, rather than raw numbers of state statistical data.  

(click on a state to see their data)

  At 5pm on Friday, the Oklahoma Election Board released a spreadsheet of candidate filings for the 2021 Oklahoma legislature. The list has some amazing narratives of both matchups and lack thereof.
   One of the most notable developments from this filing process is the return of several conservative Republicans who've truly earned the label.  George Faught has left the legislature twice in the past 10 years.  He's now seeking his '3rd tour of duty'. Rick West, Mike Christian, and Former Democrat House Leader, Steve Kouplen are also seeking their old seats.
  Still others are helping a spouse seek public office. Chuck Strom is helping his wife, Angela, seek the office he held until 2 years ago. Sen. Cari Hicks is helping her husband, Spencer (a former Brad Henry staffer), win a Democrat majority on the Oklahoma County Commission (challenging Brian Maughan).
  Just 2 years ago, a 'bloodletting' within the House Republican Caucus resulted in the defeat of several incumbents who had refused to pass the largest tax increase in Oklahoma history. These lawmakers held a March press conference with Tom Coburn, at the state capitol. Their 'line in the sand' was a written pledge to oppose even higher taxes. The first signer of that pledge was Kevin Stitt, followed the next day by the known members of the House Platform Caucus, and some Senate members.
  Conservative advocates now say that despite the unorganized state of a conservative caucus, there is a growing coalition who largely votes in step with the disbanded group.

   The very surreal filing process of the 2020 state election board has completed, as of 5pm, today.  It was the lowest turnout in decades.
  This week was nothing like the very heated primary contesting that took place in 2018, when several members of the House republican leadership recruited & funded challengers to run against fiscal conservatives who resisted the largest tax increases in Oklahoma history.
  This was the day we found out if the brokered truce within the Republican House Caucus is going to be honored. By all accounts that agreement will hold up. the remaining members of the 2018 Platform Caucus (Sean Roberts, Kevin West, Tom Gann, & Tommy Hardin) were unopposed in both the primary and general elections. Today was their election day!
  Likewise, Josh West, who helped orchestrate the 2018 primary fights, was also unopposed, this week; as was Speaker Charles McCall.

• 36 House Republicans are re-elected
• 3 House Democrats are re-elected
• 7 Senate Republicans are re-elected
• 1 senate Democrat is re-elected.
• 4 additional Senate Seats will remain Republican, but be determined in the primary elections.
• 17 additional House Seats will remain Republican, but be determined by the primary elections.

  In the most unusual candidate filing event of modern Oklahoma history, the State election board went 'drive thru'  to accommodate the constitutional duties of an open public filing.
  Today is just the first day and 215 forms were accepted at the state capitol location. Many others filed for municipal and county office at their county election boards. This first day is down about 15% from previous first day filing totals.
​
 "We are pleased that our “drive-through” filing process allowed for social distancing to protect both election workers and candidates. Also, many candidates took our advice and submitted by mail or delivery service." said Paul Ziriax.

  SoonerPolitics is providing data on the filings, which are public record and viewable on the state election board website.

  The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, out of Seattle Washington; just completed a Sunday night update of their pandemic forecast for each state in the U.S.. The numbers look much better for Oklahoma.
  The data has an important disclaimer; "COVID-19 projections assuming full social distancing through May 2020". The study indicates that a lax compliance could skew the outcome in a very detrimental and unplanned direction. The results so far confirm that  Social Distancing work s.
  Where the Saturday version said more that 700 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) were likely to be needed, update posted just hours ago now says that Our hospital and other clinical resources are more than ample to provide for the care needed.
  The previous report said that about 5000 hospital beds, and nearly 500 ICUs would be utilized in the care of the infected & suspected.  The new projection says less than 1500 beds will likely be used at any one time. More importantly, where we were projected to have a 300 ICU shortfall, we're now projected to need less than 300 units at any one time.

Fatalities are also significantly dropped to well under 1000 Oklahomans.  That rate of increase will peak in the last part of April, and level off in mid May, according to projections.

  Oklahoma public health officials haven't told us all the bad news, but we have about 16 days to change the projections.  University studies appear to concur on the Oklahoma impact of Covid-19. They think we're  two weeks away from the worst of the pandemic's stress on medical facilities.
  Two of the three factors they posted seem manageable. 

1. We have the hospital capacity, but logistics will become a factor. Some parts of the state will be underserved while other parts will have empty beds. 
2. We'll need more than 600 ICU ventilator units in reliable working condition. We haven't seen the number currently in operation, but we expect that answer promptly, from the governor.
3. We are desperately lacking current ICU bed capacity (in current operational state).  It's likely that the governor's team has been working on that, but real numbers will now be asked of them.

  This will take a great deal of finesse and even better 'people skills. transportation will need bolstering, and trained & competent clinicians will be crucial to success in saving every patient who has a chance.