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In The Know is your daily briefing on Oklahoma policy-related news. OK Policy encourages the support of Oklahoma’s state and local media, which are vital to an informed citizenry. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. Some stories included here are behind paywall or require subscription. Subscribe to In The Know and see past editions.
Oklahoma News
As Opposition Grows, Oklahoma Organizers Share How They Halted an ICE Warehouse: Community organizers and officials in Oklahoma City recount their collective organizing to thwart an ICE warehouse conversion proposal earlier this year. Although initially seen as a longshot, grassroots mobilizations were successful in not only stopping this proposal but also connecting people’s outrage to long-haul organizing for immigration justice in Oklahoma and beyond. [Truthout]
Residents begin clean up efforts after multiple tornadoes hit Oklahoma: Residents in Enid and other Oklahoma communities on Friday were picking through rubble after at least six tornadoes swept through parts of the state. [Oklahoma Voice]
Nitrate contaminates the drinking water of Oklahomans, study finds: The report found that 64% of all water systems that recorded nitrate levels at or above the legal limit were in just five states: California, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. [Oklahoma Voice]
State Government News
Oklahoma Senate leader hits the brakes on immigration checks for welfare recipients: Two bills requiring immigration checks when applying for various welfare programs will not advance in the Oklahoma Senate amid concerns they could negatively impact pregnant women. Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said he agreed with the concept of the legislation to ensure taxpayer dollars benefit U.S. citizens, but was concerned with the details of the bills. [Oklahoma Voice]
- OK Senate blocks efforts to report undocumented immigrants applying for financial assistance [KFOR]
- From OK Policy: Immigration policy, session update
Literacy, numeracy, recess and teacher pay among #oklaed initiatives moving forward:With an appetite for reform high around the state following reports that Oklahoma education outcomes rank near the bottom nationally, lawmakers enter the home stretch of the 2026 regular session still considering a variety of education bills that offer sweeping changes and small tweaks alike. [NonDoc]
- New law doubles elementary recess time in Oklahoma schools [Oklahoma Voice]
Legislative Roundup
- Capitol Insider: State questions proliferate during legislative session [KGOU]
- A Meeting Across the Rotunda [Monday Minute / NonDoc]
- Opinion, This Week in Oklahoma Politics: Sports betting bill fails, Hoskin banned from House floor, literacy reform law and more (podcast) [KOSU]
Opinion: Banning the Cherokee Nation’s principal chief makes the Oklahoma House look like Disney characters: Our thin-skinned legislators have gotten their panties in a wad over the prognosticizing of Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., who is vowing to protect Medicaid expansion from their meddling. Hoskin rightfully used his platform to make sure the state House and Senate heard the inconvenient truth that messing around with Medicaid expansion will harm his tribe and others who live in his region. Rather than thanking him, House lawmakers decided to blacklist Hoskin. That means they banned him from ever speaking to their full chamber again. [Janelle Stecklein / Oklahoma Voice]
Federal Government News
Trump’s budget would gut local libraries and museums. Congress is not on board: President Donald Trump is looking to eliminate funding in fiscal 2027 for the agency that serves as the primary federal funding source for libraries and museums nationwide. [Oklahoma Voice]
How Trump’s order on mail ballots threatens Postal Service independence: President Trump’s executive order on mail voting would shatter decades of U.S. Postal Service independence intended to shield it from partisan politics, postal experts and attorneys say. [Oklahoma Voice]
Tribal Nations News
Caddo Nation to open new center addressing Oklahoma’s rural child care shortage: The Caddo Nation hopes to address Oklahoma’s child care shortage with a new child care center in Hinton. The new child care center will fill a service gap in the area. [KOSU]
Mankiller-Soap Water Survey receives numerous replies: Officials for the Cherokee Nation are reporting that more than 1,000 Cherokee households responded to the most recent Mankiller-Soap Water Survey during a window of nearly three months, giving the CN additional data to guide efforts to bring clean water and reliable service to thousands of families across the reservation. [Cherokee Phoenix]
Education News
Oklahoma Legislature approves $40 million for OSU agronomy research center: Oklahoma lawmakers allocated $40 million to build Oklahoma State University’s Agronomy Discovery Center.
The center will be at OSU’s Agronomy Research Station in Stillwater, which is home to historic buildings and agriculture research programs, including crop breeding, soil fertility and forage. [KOSU]
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library offers ‘statewide impact’: With literacy efforts taking center stage at the Oklahoma State Capitol, legislators earmarked $840,000 in their Fiscal Year 2027 budget deal to expand Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program across the state. [NonDoc]
Justice System News
‘Exposed to feces, urine’: 10th Circuit revives civil rights case against Mack Alford Correctional Center: State prisoner Joseph Womble’s civil rights case against former Mack Alford Correctional Center leaders is headed back to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma after the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled April 21 that his claim about exposure to “other inmates’ urine and feces” should not have been dismissed. [NonDoc]
“Don’t Believe Anything the Sheriff’s Office Tells You”: A Family’s Search for Answers: Beyond the question of whether Lt. Bob Stewart was an impulsive suicide or the victim of something more nefarious, members of the family he left behind have been haunted by unanswered questions resulting from an abbreviated investigation, and by the toxic fallout that descends on law enforcement officers who call out corruption among their own ranks. [Oklahoma Watch]
Oklahoma County jail teeters on weak support, funding according to study: A trio of critical financial and staffing supports necessary for running a stable detention facility are lacking at the Oklahoma County jail, a study shows. [The Oklahoman]
Serial killer William Lewis Reece is getting monthly VA benefits: William Lewis Reece, 66, has convictions for one murder in Oklahoma and three in Texas. He disclosed in an appeal of his death sentence that he is getting payments from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. [The Oklahoman]
Community News
Opinion: We need more sermons on ‘women’s issues,’ not fewer: I once had a colleague who warned me (repeatedly) that addressing “women’s issues” too often from the pulpit would box me in as a preacher. Ostensibly, he was worried about my career trajectory, although he should have been more concerned about the impact of further suppressing female voices, experiences and stories, given the headlines these days. [The Rev. Lori Allen Walke / The Oklahoman]
Opinion: Oklahomans tired of seeing faith turned into political props: In a time when religion is too often wielded as a political weapon, I am reminded of the recent words of Pope Leo XIV: “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” Whether spoken centuries ago or echoed in our present moment, that warning feels urgently relevant here in Oklahoma today. [Tim Atkins / The Oklahoman]
Local Headlines
- A new director for Tulsa’s children and youth may be headed for city hall [Tulsa Flyer]
Quote of the Day
“How do we organize people to think about safety from a completely different formulation? Policies that don’t criminalize trans and queer people, unhoused people, not criminalizing access to resources. Because that brings more safety for undocumented people. As an immigrant living in Oklahoma, I know we have a big task ahead. We cannot lose local politics, and we cannot lose the narrative about what safety is — to help people reimagine something different.”
-CJ Garcia, an Oklahoma community leader working on combatting detention and deportation at both local and federal levels, speaking about local efforts to halt construction of a federal immigration detention center in Oklahoma City. [Truthout]
Number of the Day
3
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lists three immigration facilities in Oklahoma: Cimarron Correction Facility in Cushing, Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, and the Kay County Detention Center in Newkirk. [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement]
Policy Note
Q&A: The Making of the Immigrant Detention Business in Rural America: Historian Brianna Nofil shares her research on how immigrant detention infrastructure has impacted small towns across America. Her historical mission is to uncover how America built the infrastructure it uses to jail people, and who has profited along the way. Nofil’s research focuses on migration, incarceration, and law in the modern United States. Her 2024 book “The Migrant’s Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration” chronicles a century of coevolution between America’s immigration and criminal justice systems. She talked about her research in an episode of NPR’s Throughline podcast about the business of migrant detention. [The Daily Yonder]
- From OK Policy: Private immigration detention facilities exploit taxpayers and incarcerated people to rake in profits
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