​Tulsa Health Department officials confirm a Tulsa County resident has died due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Media reports indicate that the man was only diagnosed yesterday. Nothing about the man's health background is public, as of yet.
KOTV News reports:

• Officials say a man in his 50s who tested positive for COVID-19 on March 17 passed away due to complications on March 18. Officials say an epidemiological investigation is ongoing.

  “It is with great sadness that I confirm that a Tulsa County resident has passed away due to COVID-19,” said Tulsa Health Department Executive Director Dr. Bruce Dart. “This is a tragedy for our community. In these unprecedented times, everyone feels the weight of this loss. COVID-19 has impacted our community on a monumental level, but today I ask you to take a moment to pause and recognize that a family has lost their loved one. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
KOTV also notes;

• The Health Department is not revealing the name of the man at this time. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt released a statement about the death sending his prayers to the family.​

 Former 8-year Oklahoma Republican Senator, Don Rubottom weighed in on yesterday's historic move of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, declaring an emergency and authorizing proxy voting.
  The SoonerPolitics Facebook group is a social media site devoted to a discussion of news & issues printed in the SP media site.
  Don Rubottom's initial reaction to the legislature's unprecedented proxy rule was met with an engagement by members of the House leadership. The primary engagement came from the powerful Majority Floor Leader, Jon Echols, followed by Judiciary Chair, Chris Kannady.

  Some raw data is beginning to be published, about the survivability of the Covid19 strain of Corona Virus. Sadly, it tells us some big discoveries about what we need to survive on a very national scale.
  Yes, we've learned that lung issues and aging are factors deeply impacting our prognosis, once the virus is infecting us. Other immune issues and serious health matters are obviously going to also determine our odds of beating the infection.
  But Italy is a huge case study for the whole world to observe (and pray for). The virus hit the northern parts of Italy, first. they share a border with Germany, but the contrast is extreme.  In Italy, 1 in every 13 patients with Covid19 have died. But in Germany that ratio is 1 in every 386 patients.
   In the weeks to come, we will see better details of what the patient experience is like in the various nations. But it underscores why the US is seeking to slow down the spread, so that hospitals are not overrun. Governments at all levels are scrambling to set up contingencies for a very tough few weeks ahead.

  The Oklahoma House passed HR 1033, today. It declares an emergency & adds a House Rule 15 mid session. Rule 15 allows proxy voting for a scenario where the safety of members substantially impacts the ability to have a constitutional quorum for conducting lawmaking business.
  Majority Floor Leader, Jon Echols, said; "It takes a minimum of 250 people here at the capitol, to go into session. We have 10 [Covid19] cases in Oklahoma. If it stays at 10, we'll see you in 6 days, it'll be great, it'll be business as usual". he later added; "If we have 400 cases, a week from now, it would not be a good idea.."
​ "We sincerely hope to return next Monday, but passing this measure and invoking an emergency, allows a "Rule 15" scenario whereby proxy voting will be allowed."
​  A multilayers security system will authenticate each legislative proxy. Voting will take more time, and be cast by the representative present and serving as proxy for the member not present.
  Only emergency bills will be passed via the emergency rules. One such bill was a funding of the judicial branch.

​  The legislature passed two very important bills today. One provided funding for the Courts and one allowed public bodies to meet online until this emergency is over or until Nov. 15, whichever comes first.
  After that we adjoined to a call of the chair. We will analyze the situation and make a call regarding session next week at a later time.
  Please practice good hygiene and stay safe. I will keep giving updates as I have them.

  SCR8 was passed. It extends legislative Committee deadlines for passage of bills, this session. It required & received the 2/3 support of the body.
  Reps. Denise Crosswhite Hader, Tom Gann, Tommy Hardin, & Kevin West were present and voted against the resolution HR1033.
  The House also passed a bill to amend the state's open meetings act. It allows for telephonic technologies to hold open meetings.

  There's a growing public 'push back' against heavy-handed attempts to usurp special powers during this flu season.  The added new & novel Covid19 influenza strain has much of the world terrified and demanding that others behave in ways that abate the frantic anxieties of those who watch too much cable news.
  Some are angry that schools are closed. Others are angry that shops are still open. The common factor seems to be that people are willing to applaud the forced actions upon 'those other people'.

• This morning the supreme ruler of New York State (Andrew Cuomo) demands that a universal & nationwide closure of all taverns & restaurants be immediately imposed. But he demands that schools be left open just for the children of healthcare workers and no other children.
• In Nashville,  Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N' Roll Steakhouse says it's unconstitutional for a mayor to selectively impose closures in certain parts of one city.  they are not complying.
• Acts of kindness and compassion are happening as 'a thousand points of light' and no one is hearing about those things which really do elevate our society.

  Oklahoma's social scene has become an oxymoron. Not only have major sporting events been postponed or cancelled, entire seasons for spectator sports have been put in mothballs, in an effort to slow the spread of a unique virus which has it's first human infection origins in central China, just 3 months ago.
  The Mayor of Tulsa is cancelling many city rental contracts & event permits for groups of 250 or more.  School administrators are spending this convenient week of Spring Break to assess the best policies and strategies to keep as many children away from disease, while retaining as much of the normalcy  of weekly routine.

  So how do we replace the activities that are now more harmful?  May we suggest the great outdoors of Oklahoma, and destinations as diverse as some whole nations wish they possessed.
  When you're sick and tired (metaphorically) of sitting on the sofa. When you've watched every Netflix series rerun from the past 3 decades; How about joining Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell's family, and getting to know the character of Oklahoma a little bit better?
  It's a great time to go camping. It's a wonderful time to watch the state enter springtime bloom. The great landmarks, historical venues, museums, natural wonders, and unique human creations await you.
​  If you want to avoid people, the very act of self-reliance that camping or trekking will be a great option. Whether it's a scenic highway or an underground cave exploration, you have options for a day trip or a week-long adventure. You might start with the Route 66 pilgrimage, but Hopefully you'll be back for  the real jewels off in the four corners of the state.

  The Oklahoma legislature is giving themselves a long weekend, followed by another week of vacation. It's generally a sort of halftime for the annual session.
  The ageless wisdom of Oklahoma's native son, Will Rogers, was never more true.  His skepticism of government is well founded and very well deserved. Liberty is perpetually under assault from the ruling class, when they meet at the building we bought and keep paying for, on Oklahoma City's Lincoln Blvd.
  Yesterday, the two lawmaking bodies passed several edicts upon the hard working people. they will add even more burdens upon us when the budget crunch blossoms.
  Oil is our premier state economic driver. In the past two years out lawmakers have straddled them with a huge increase in taxes on what they draw up from holes the state didn't help drill.  This led to a slow down, and now the energy market is in a global collapse.
​  But fiscal policy is just one part of the destructive power of govt. The cultural and moral harms of the lawmakers are even more devastating.

• On Wednesday the House voted to further undermine the authority of parents to make important decisions in the best interests of their teenage children.
• Our unborn children are being murdered at an increasing rate, yet the Oklahoma Senate does nothing, even as the federal courts signal a willingness to reconsider the barbaric Roe v. Wade. It's going to be up to other conservative and life-defending states like Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and others; to do what Oklahoma's Republican politicians all ran for office on.

  It's Monday morning at 8:38am. The New York Stock Exchange has just shut itself down temporarily, in what is referred to as a 'circuit breaker'. It's a pause for floor traders to 'catch their breath' while frantic transactions are swamping the system.  In reality, the computers do most of the buying & selling.
  Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business News says that investors are now seeking a larger liquid portfolio ratio. In other works, they want more cash on hand and they sell the stocks which can be sold most quickly.  She adds that Russia is trying to crush the Shale Oil boom in the US.  She says that Russia is pushing for a Saudi price war.

TULSA, Okla. --The state of Oklahoma now has a confirmed case of the COVID-19 coronavirus, Gov. Kevin Stitt and health officials announced Friday during a news conference in Tulsa County.
  The case was reported in Tulsa County, and the patient is a man in his 50s who recently traveled to Italy. He returned through Tulsa International Airport on Feb. 23. He started showing symptoms Feb. 29, at which time the state Health Department became involved.
  "The man currently is being quarantined at home," Stitt said, "and public health officials are closely monitoring suspected cases.".
According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, there are currently four people under investigation for possible coronavirus, pending test results. 
  Stitt emphasized the state’s preparedness in dealing with the virus and noted that far more people have died from the flu this year than the coronavirus.
“First and foremost, I want to stress that our public health system is working,” Stitt said.
“At this time, there’s no evidence of community spread, and the risk to the general public remains low,” he said.
  "The state now has the capability to conduct coronavirus tests rather than sending samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," Stitt said.

  The Company which provides management services to Epic Virtual Charter Schools is aggressively fighting a 'fishing trip' initiated by the State Auditor's office. Although the innovative organization has come out clean in every audit conducted over the past 9 years, Auditor Cindy Byrd is now auditing the companies which provide various support services.
  Byrd (sworn in to her first term just 15 months ago) appears to be claiming that she has the authority to investigate any bank account and corporate ledger of any shop or service provider who even unwittingly receives a public dollar. The position they are taking is that if a dollar starts as a public dollar, it remains a public dollar even after being paid to a private company for goods or services and as such is subject to State Audit. This makes every employee's personal and household finances essentially an open record, as well.
  A couple media outlets inaccurately claimed that Governor Stitt called for yet another new audit of the Epic Charter Schools. But the actual language of the order was directing Byrd to review all her previous Epic audits to see if there was anything missed.
​  It appears that Byrd is now deciding that the most efficient school district in the state (Epic's budget commits 80% of funding to direct 'classroom instruction') is needing another round of audits.  In contrast, Tulsa Public Schools has not been thoroughly audited in ages, yet only commits about 50% of funding to direct classroom instruction. And Tulsa Public Schools are now more than $20 million in budget shortfall. Evidently Byrd can't see any problem there?

  Half the debate stage just changed their minds from what they said a week ago. Bloomberg, Kobluchar, & Buttigieg are all now celebrating the solid leadership of a man whom their own campaigns were scoffing at, just days ago.

Alexandra Petri has a funny sarcastic column in the Washington Post:
 “I just remembered Joe Biden is fine.” She writes:
"Please don’t show me any footage of Joe Biden saying or doing things. Or of me saying or doing things about Joe Biden, pointing out what I erroneously thought were major and obvious flaws in his candidacy. I forgot: They were not."

Kyle Smith, of National Review, said this:

  This sets up an immediate scenario where the 25 Amendment is possible evoked even before an inauguration.  Section 4 of the constitutional text deals with a scenario where the president must be forcibly removed from office by his own executive branch principals. 

  CBC News medical contributor and family physician Dr. Peter Lin breaks down the facts about what it is, where it came from, how it spreads and what you can do to protect yourself.  

•  It's been a virus for years, but only impacted animals. Now it's made the leap into the realm of human-to-human transfer.
•  It hits the lungs and damages them. Lack of oxygen is at the core of why death can occur.
•   Our own antibodies are the only known form of effective weapon to defeat the virus in our own bodies. No vaccine or drug treatment is able to kill the virus.

  Johns Hopkins University medical schools have combined research data and produced a graphic summary of the status of a new virus. The progressive spread of this virus is being studied by public health institutions all over the world.
  As best we know, the virus first spread to communities in Communist China. But that nation is very guarded and secretive about how it existed prior to this outbreak.
  Italy & Iran are the next two nations most impacted by the virus.  Most conventional wisdom attributes air travel among the nations as the primary mode of the virus's spread so quickly.
  But one man in the Pacific northwest of the USA contracted the virus without any detectable contact with anyone who has shown symptoms? That man did not travel, nor did anyone else in his social circles report any symptoms.
  The virus does not seem to especially hit any genetic subset of humanity. All ethnicities are so far seen as equally capable of contracting the virus.
​   And no, the Mexican Beer brand is not in any way connected with the virus, nor a preventative treatment to avoid the illness.

  HJR1027  would direct the election board to add a STATE QUESTION to our next general election ballot. The effect would be to ask the voters to give up more of their constitutional rights and lawmaking powers.
  It would require signature gatherers to get support from people who never vote or who have died, or moved to another state while retaining their Oklahoma voting status.
  It would force tougher thresholds for citizens to gather signatures sufficient to put a state question on future ballots.  Signature gatherers would have to spread out to all congressional districts to get at least 8% of the voters (and registered non-voters like Kevin Stitt), in order to put a proposal on the ballot.
  The idea is said to be an effort by Gov. Stitt, to consolidate more power to his office and away from the grassroots. The argument is that out of state money is driving so many recent initiative petitions. The talking point is that this will block outside influences.
  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  With this change, only big money agendas will succeed in hiring the needed professionals to get signatures.

  The elder ranking member of House leadership, Harold Wright; used a procedural tactic to get his draconian smoke ban bill out of an 'unfriendly' Rules Committee, and make a deal with the House Judiciary Committee Chair; to get the proposal to the House floor for a full vote.
  Using the pretext of protecting an employee from a workplace where a patient might utilize cannabis, the new law would allow agencies to assess fines between $100 to $1000, perhaps several times per year.

  Our initial comprehension of the text of the Oklahoma Workplace Clean Air Act is that it would allow just one employee to force the owner of a business to change the premises to a fully smoke-free environment regardless of the circumstances. The only exception would be a Veterans center.
No longer can a business owner make a policy for the enterprise he created. Even private clubs are subjected to the ban, by just one employee declaration.
  The House Rules Committee has been dominated by lawmakers who largely support the medical use of cannabis under physician oversight. Most of last year's Medical Marijuana reform legislation sailed though this committee and received overwhelming bipartisan support in both houses.
  Harold Wright is the ceremonial Speaker Pro Temp and represents a rural district from western Oklahoma. His home of Weatherford has perhaps the toughest ordinances to hamper patients' access to cannabis medicines.