By:
Steve Lewis
March 16, 2020 // Updated: March 16, 2020
Public safety and personal health must take priority, but hopefully the legislature will find a way to finish its work without leaving too much undone.
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By:
Steve Lewis
March 9, 2020 // Updated: March 9, 2020
If the goal is confusion, it has been attained. Shortly after taking office, Gov. Stitt announced that he is working with a wide range of Oklahomans to develop an Oklahoma plan for better health care.
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By:
Steve Lewis
March 2, 2020 // Updated: March 2, 2020
Last Thursday, Speaker McCall dropped a committee substitute for HB 4064 in the House Rules Committee that eliminates the Board of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and consolidates the agency with the Oklahoma Healthcare Authority.
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By:
Steve Lewis
February 17, 2020 // Updated: February 17, 2020
After 19 years of advocacy for mental health services, Steve Buck came to the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs with a strong commitment to serving youth, tempered with an eye toward the most efficient expenditure of taxpayer money. His primary goal was prevention, always seeking to follow the data and make services available to troubled youth as early as possible. He insisted the best chance of success in a young person's life, at the least cost to taxpayers, is early intervention with evidence-based or evidence-informed services.
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By:
Steve Lewis
February 10, 2020 // Updated: February 10, 2020
There is an issue flying under the radar that may surface sometime during the Legislative session. This is the placing of a statutory cap on what are called "non-economic" damages in personal injury cases.
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By:
Steve Lewis
February 3, 2020 // Updated: February 4, 2020
In the run-up to the Legislative session beginning this week, two things happened that could affect mental health services for thousands of Oklahomans.
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During comments in Washington D.C. on Thursday, Gov. Stitt laid out the tenets for his health care plan to counter Medicaid expansion efforts. The plan includes elements that will inevitably draw lawsuits from health care organizations and advocates who fight to protect the rights and coverage of low-income residents.
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By:
Steve Lewis
January 28, 2020 // Updated: January 28, 2020
Most educators will tell you suspension doesn't work for the children. They act out, get suspended then return to school, behind in their work and either embarrassed or pleased by their suspension. Often nothing is offered to the child during suspension but days off from school. Suspension becomes a feeder for the criminal justice system.
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By:
Steve Lewis
January 20, 2020 // Updated: January 31, 2020
The Office of Juvenile Affairs leadership has announced plans to push through amendments to Youthful Offender Act (YOA) in the upcoming session.
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By:
Steve Lewis
January 6, 2020 // Updated: January 6, 2020
When they want to, prosecutors will agree that a harsh sentence is not always necessary to achieve justice. The goal of criminal justice reform is to get them to want to more often.
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