Quotes of the Day

“Big, aesthetically pleasing health care facilities are only as good as the equipment and staff inside. By increasing funding for staff and earmarking money for medical equipment, the Cherokee Nation is making it known the tribe is committed to the health of its citizens.”

-Cherokee Tribal Councilor Janelle Fullbright, speaking about the tribe’s move to increase its budget by nearly $10 million to add staff at Cherokee Nation health facilities (Source: http://bit.ly/1CBtOrE)

“I just don’t see any financial reason to pass a measure predicated on future revenue growth when they could have waited to preserve flexibility for challenges like the ones we are facing today with a $300 million budget hole.”

– State Treasurer Ken Miller, speaking about an automatic trigger that will bring another cut to Oklahoma’s top income tax rate in 2016 (Source: bit.ly/1CqCXDf)

“Conservatives can argue that Colorado’s marijuana laws inflict greater harm on Nebraska than, say, Virginia’s gun laws inflict on Maryland. The claim that the possible benefits of drug prohibition outweigh the enormous costs of imprisoning large numbers of people and bolstering organized crime by creating black markets is itself dubious. But even if it is true, the proposition that marijuana legalization is more dangerous than gun legalization is unlikely to persuade liberal federal judges, or even many moderate ones.”

-Ilya Somin, a Professor of Law at George Mason University, writing in the Washington Post that Oklahoma and Nebraska’s legal challenge to marijuana legalization in Colorado could set a dangerous precedent that conservatives are likely to regret in other areas (Source: http://wapo.st/1wW5AVA)

“There were calls from the Governor’s Office. We would get word from the Attorney General’s Office that we better hurry up and do something.”

– Michael Oakley, former general counsel for state Department of Corrections, testifying in federal court on Thursday about the rush to locate execution drugs before a botched execution in April. (Source: bit.ly/1C6mx2K)

“The current and hopefully short-term price of oil, and the ongoing drought that continues to impact the agriculture sector of our economy, are reminders to us that the additional funds typically used to supplement the general revenue fund may not always be there at the levels seen in recent years.”

-House Speaker Jeff Hickman, warning that Oklahoma should expect further budget cuts to state services next year (Source: bit.ly/1zyjlt7)

“It’s definitely an amazing feeling. I’m going to be able to actually provide for my family, which is huge. I also feel that I can give back for once. CAP helped me so much, and now I can go out and help others the way they did for me.”

– Amber Sanchez, a participant of Community Action Project Tulsa’s CareerAdvance program, which provides education and job opportunities to parents of children enrolled in CAP Tulsa’s early childhood programs, Educare or TANF (Source: bit.ly/1vXQbiq)

“Laws like that are keeping people in prison when they may actually be simply in need of help.”

-Adam Luck, a Harvard graduate fellow employed by Governor Fallin’s office, on a law that has sent many Oklahoma women to prison for failing to stop child abuse by their spouse/partner, even though the women were often being abused by their partner at the same time (Source: http://bzfd.it/1zjwgAy)

“We’re not a wealthy enough state to lock everybody we’re mad at, and still have the money to lock up the people we’re afraid of. And that’s what we’re down to now. We’re having to decide how we’re going to operate this because we’re running out of beds to put people that we’re afraid of.”

– House Speaker Jeff Hickman, who said the federal government could take over Oklahoma’s corrections system if the state doesn’t address dire overcrowding and understaffing in prisons (Source: http://bit.ly/136l6SK)

“Public controversy about fracking will continue unless companies can prove that they are actively working to reduce toxic chemical use, water consumption, methane leakage and the other negative impacts of fracking that damage the environment and local communities.”

-Lucia von Reusner, shareholder advocate for Green Century Capital Management, speaking about a new report which found that oil and gas companies across the industry, including major firms in Oklahoma, are relying on sweeping statements that fracking is safe while still failing to provide the data to demonstrate improved practices (Source: http://bit.ly/1AqxibN)

“We have recognized the violent speech on our campus is not disconnected from the violence we were protesting.”

– Ayah Abo-Bashi, an Oklahoma State student and member of Students in Solidarity, an anti-racist activist group whose members have received death threats following recent protests at OSU (Source: bit.ly/1wAIBkx)