Dahm & Moore Set The high marks for the two houses of the Oklahoma Legislature. 
  In our inaugural publication of legislative commitment to preserving & advancing individual freedom in Oklahoma, This year's 57th Oklahoma Legislature celebrates a very robust year of commitment to constitutional rights.
  We look at hundreds of bills to find a good sampling of floor votes which represent a broad spectrum of freedoms and we evaluate how each lawlaker weighed & cast their votes. We also looked at how leaders of committees conducted themselves and the vast power they hold.
  We added bonus points for legislators who took the time to draft and promote bills which are essential to protecting & advancing constitutional liberty.

What is the Freedom Index? 
  The Freedom Index seeks to identify how diligent a lawmaker is, to protecting individual freedom for the people of Oklahoma. We gathered a set of various bills which indicate many forms of freedom. Free Speech, Self Defense, Free Association, Vocational Freedom Economic Freedom, Parental authority, Healthcare access and options. Travel and Privacy.

  More than a year after a heroic mother was arrested for discharging her personal firearm, Mary Hill was successful in convincing a local district court to vacate her previous plea bargain and have all charges removed from her records.
  If ever there was a case for why the 2nd Amendment is essential to public safety, this narrative illustrates why.
   Hill was picking up her teen child at a metro area theater when she saw what she describes as a young woman being beaten by two men.  She decided to intervene with her handgun and order the men to disperse. They initially complied but then challenged whether her weapon was real, and then resumed their assault. That's when she fired upward, into the air. It worked as intended and the men fled.
  But the woman fled also, and when peace officers arrived everyone was gone. Yet they decided to pursue Mrs. Hill and arrest her for not having a permit for her firearm. They also cited her for a felony because she discharged her weapon.
  According to the laws at the time, she would not have been charged if she had shot the assailants.  Rep. Bobby Cleveland had that law changed last year.  It's no longer a crime to miss or warn a criminal, in defense of innocent human life.

  The Sooner State's most notorious & deadly county jail is now being taken away from the county sheriff and will be under the oversight of a new Jail Trust. Commissioner Kevin Calvey is part of that new trust board. 
  In this live civic breakfast event he discusses the reasons why this change is happening. He explains that 80% of those housed in the jail are not (yet) deemed guilty of any crime.
  Many of them are only in jail for not having  paid previous fines or currently assigned bonds. It's become a debtor's prison and a death trap for way too many.

 This video was provided by Adrian Otap, at ​https://www.facebook.com/OTAPji/videos/10158481395678272/?notif_id=1559222007710120&notif_t=live_video

  Several local, state, and federal agencies are working together to plan a solution to the current and eminent dangers that face Oklahoma, and Green Country, in particular.  
 Until the upstream precipitation diminishes, the Army will not slow the flow.
  Other stream conditions may help abate the downstream problems at Muskogee and Ft. Smith, but the Arkansas River remains a big problem to the West of Tulsa.
  The National Weather Service prepares its forecasts and other services in collaboration with agencies like the US Geological Survey, US Bureau of Reclamation, US Army Corps of Engineers, Natural Resource Conservation Service, National Park Service, ALERT Users Group, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and many state and local emergency managers across the country. â€‹

On Sunday night, The Sooner Tea Party Newsletter published a shocking revelation which, if substantiated; implicates the current leadership in some capacity of at least indifference & slow-walking a claim... and maybe even a coverup?
  Al Gerhart published his  own account to contacting members of leadership along with the individual making a sexual misconduct claim.  Here's how Gerhart explains it..

  Damage is significant & widespread, especially across South Tulsa and Sapulpa. But the rotation continues as we post this bulletin. Mayes County is still in it's path.
​We'll have more news as it comes in. Power is out for much of Tulsa.

​  We're posting a very preliminary map of where our radar sources and other media outlets say that damage has been sustained.

  While The Flash Flooding problems have abated, the River Flooding only increases. Weekend Rain in the Arkansas River Watershed add more bad news.
  The Muskogee County problems are the most widespread and intense. It's where the Neosho and Verdigris Rivers join the Main Arkansas River.  Each of these rivers have their own flood waters.  The Army Corps of Engineers published this update & map, overnight.
  Seven major lakes are in the Northeastern Oklahoma watershed that dump into the Muskogee area. All of them are far above flood stage and are currently rising. This means that the potential exists for even more volume of water being released into the rivers downstream of the dams.
  Forecasts call for significant rain in the next 24 hours. While we don't expect conditions to generate tornadoes, we will have flash flood concerns. When the soil is perpetually soaked and the water table rises underground, we can't count on much of the precipitation to be absorbed into the soil, like we normally can.
  Bixby & Broken Arrow have evacuations and major flooding. Ft. Gibson  and further downstream at Webber's Falls are also evacuating.
The convergence of rivers makes this area particular vulnerable.

  In 2016, The Creek Nation boasted their excellence in avoiding the perils of the 1986 flooding when they built the newest additions to the River Spirit Casino. 
KOTV's chief weather forecaster, Travis Meyer, wrote an excellent article for KOTV's News on 6 website, to talk about what dangers the Tulsa area may face (and is now suffering) because we build in so many risky low level properties which were very much underwater, in the 1986 flood, which was the result of massive emergency releases of Keystone Dam waters.
  INCOG is the govt agency tasked with community planning and zoning research. Their maps clearly show that

• the resort's brand new hotel, club, and concert auditorium are built in the floodway. (blue)
• The casino is built in the 100 year flood plain. (green)
• the entire square mile is in the 500 year flood plain.

  Meyer interviewed the property management leaders for Creek Nation's River Spirit Resort & Casino. Here's what they claimed.
  River Spirit is now processing many refunds on reservations, according to their social media posts.

  This is a day when no news media outlet can fathom nor sufficiently report all that has transpired. Yet the resilient people of Oklahoma have kept their calm and resolve to help each other through whatever may come.
  Congratulations Okies!  You're going to make it after all.

SB252 was presented for final passage in the Oklahoma House, today. The language is the product of a conference committee comprised of both senators and Representatives. 
  The vote totals were 45-49, with enough absent lawmakers to possibly change the outcome, had everyone actually voted.

​  The bill would essentially kill the bail bonds industry and replace it with a computer algorithm of deciding who will be released on their own recognisance.
  Democrats supported this bill and voted overwhelmingly for it. Most rural Republicans opposed it.

  The Keystone Dam is now releasing 200,000 cubic feet of water every second. That's close to the record rates they were releasing in October of 1986, when the the levies in Jenks were barely high enough, at 620 feet above sea level.
  But the Tulsa metro area has changed greatly in the past 35 years. River Development has been all the rage and Jenks has led the way by encouraging new ventures outside the levies. 
  The water being dumped into the Arkansas River is beyond comprehension, so let's create a mental picture... A College Football field (including the endzones & sidelines) would be under 3 feet of water every second; as a result of this kind of water release.
In 1986, I was part of the effort to save Jenks from the floods. At that time there was one old limestone house where the Riverwalk Crossing now stands. The water was near the roofline of that home.
The entry to the Oklahoma Aquarium is at 614'  above sea level.  The Riverwalk is about 615'.  The River Spirit Casino Hotel in Tulsa is at 613'.

  HB1269 takes the criminal justice reforms of SQ780 (passed by the voters in 2016) and allows the state Pardon & Parole Board to apply the sentencing guidelines to individuals who were serving or charged with a felony possession during that time.
  The Joint Conference Committee amended the original language so that district courts would not be involved, but rather, the parole board would hear the cases and make final recommendations to the governor.
  This would not apply to those who either committed a violent crime or were involved in distribution of controlled substances.
  This is a huge victory for patients who were treated with cannabis medicines for chronic conditions before the state authorized the medical option.

  There were a few more than a dozen who opposed this reform. And certainly the District Attorneys are very vocal in opposition.  Several of those who voted 'nay' were also staunch opponents of SQ788 and any current program to allow patients to utilize cannabis medicines for their very serious health conditions.
​  The Senate is expected to approve this final language and send it to the governor within the next few days.
 the bill is a collaborative work of Democrat Rep. Jason Dunnington & Majority Floor Leader Rep. Jon Echols.

  The Oklahoma media was enamored by the hot mic incident at the capitol Blue Room, yesterday. While the House Republican Caucus was awaiting the governor to join them for a prominent press event, the news crew of News9 KWTV had already set up their live feed for the newsroom, back at the station. Recently several news media outlets have begun capturing the events on facebook and other social media. This time they decided to let the feed run live on their website and social media acct. pages.
  Then Rep Fetgatter was asked by Rep. Mark McBride about the rumors surrounding a sexual misconduct investigation. In McBrides dry humor style, he posed a loaded question which had drawn the ire of Fetgatter, mostly because Fetgatter says he's been asked the same line of questions for several days.
  Fetgatter then responded sarcastically, clarifying the scenario which Sooner Tea Party had published. He said, " ..I allowed it to happen."
  This incited even more dry sarcasm from McBride. He then upped the level of bad taste with a remark suggesting beastiality might be what really happened.
  The entire press event that Speaker McCall & Governor Stitt had organized, was then overshadowed in the press. 

  Jim Gallogly surprised the state's academic world by emerging from an executive session of the board of regents and submitting his resignation.
  In his written statement, he reviewed the fiscal austerity plan he implemented and it's accomplishments.
  Gallogly openly refuted rumors that the current sex scandals being investigated were instigated as part of a perceived rift between him and Boren.
  Gallogly characterized his candidacy for president was not so much a pitch of his own personal advancement, but rather a pitch to reform the administrative course for the whole OU institution.
  Gallogly says he was retired when he agreed to take the office of OU President, and he plans to resume his retirement when a replacement is named and his skills are no longer needed.
  The regents met in a very long executive meeting with very little hint of what topics were discussed and what divisions might be apparent within the group of participants in that room.

​The written statement was distributed to some media outlets. Here's the text of what SoonerPolitics was able to get ahold of.