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In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.
Today you should know that a University of Oklahoma seismologist’s research provides further evidence that Oklahoma’s largest-recorded earthquake was triggered by injection wells used by the oil and gas industry. A bill that would allow horse slaughter in Oklahoma was approved by the Legislature and sent to Gov. Fallin, who is leaning toward signing it. Oklahoma agriculture officials are looking into reports of horses being transported to slaughterhouses with fraudulent health forms.
State Labor Commissioner Mark Costello blamed federal budget cuts caused by sequestration for the pending closure of the state Labor Department’s Tulsa office. The OK Policy Blog shared a video of civil rights attorney Michelle Alexander’s powerful presentation at the University of Tulsa about mass incarceration and social injustice. An op-ed in the Oklahoma Gazette makes the case for why Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections employees deserve a pay raise.
Legislation requiring Oklahoma public schools to conduct drills to prepare students and teachers for possible intruders was approved by a House committee. OK Policy Analyst Tiece Dempsey has an op-ed in the Tulsa World on why Oklahoma can’t afford to turn down federal dollars to extend Medicaid coverage for the working poor. See more resources about Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act here.
The Number of the Day is the number of low-income households without public housing/rental assistance who pay more than half of their income each month in gross rent. In today’s Policy Note, Wonkblog shares 21 graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous.
In The News
Oklahoma earthquake was largest linked to injection wells, new study suggests
A University of Oklahoma seismologist’s research, released today, provides further evidence that Oklahoma’s largest-recorded earthquake was triggered by injection wells used by the oil and gas industry. Katie Keranen’s findings, published today in the geoscience journal Geology, adds to a growing chorus of scientific evidence suggesting that injection and disposal wells are likely causing an uptick of earthquakes in the continental United States. The analysis suggests that injection-induced earthquakes could be larger than previously thought, and that they could occur on much longer timescales.
Read more from StateImpact Oklahoma.
Horse slaughter bill goes to governor
A bill that would allow horse slaughter in Oklahoma is in the hands of Gov. Mary Fallin, who is leaning toward signing it. Even if House Bill 1999 is signed into law, it could be three years before a horse processing plant could be operating in the state, said Sen. Eddie Fields, the Senate sponsor of the measure. The state Senate on Tuesday voted 32-14 to pass HB 1999, which would allow horse slaughter but would continue the existing ban on the sale of horse meat for consumption in the state. Seven of the 12 Senate Democrats voted for it; five voted against. Nine of the 36 Republicans voted against it; two GOP senators didn’t vote. Gov. Mary Fallin indicated earlier she would sign the bill, which would overturn a 50-year-old ban on horse slaughter.
Oklahoma looking into horses transported with fraudulent health forms
Oklahoma agriculture officials confirmed Tuesday they are aware of allegations that some involved in the transport of horses to the state were using fraudulent veterinary health forms. Agriculture Secretary Jim Reese said officials with the state Agriculture, Food and Forestry Department have not responded publicly sooner because the matter is being investigated by the state’s multicounty grand jury. Last year, a PETA undercover investigator rode along with a “kill buyer,” someone who buys horses and transports them to slaughterhouses or feedlots, the group said. PETA said the kill buyer was caught on tape admitting that the test forms he carried “certifying” that the horses in his trailer were free of equine infectious anemia were those of other horses.
Oklahoma Labor Department will close Tulsa office
State Labor Commissioner Mark Costello on Tuesday blamed federal budget cuts caused by sequestration for the pending closure of the state Labor Department’s Tulsa office. About 20 percent of the Labor Department’s annual budget comes from federal funds, Costello said. The agency, with about 78 full-time employees, oversees areas from locksmiths to workers’ compensation enforcement and child labor laws. Its federal funding will be cut by about $481,000 next year due to sequestration, he said. The department will shut the office at the end of May and has offered 11 workers there the option of taking a buyout or relocating to Oklahoma City.
Watch This: Michelle Alexander on the ‘New Jim Crow’
New York Times bestselling author and civil rights attorney Michelle Alexander spoke this year as the John W. Hager Distinguished Lecture in Law guest speaker at The University of Tulsa College of Law on March 6. In this hour long video, Alexander delivers a powerful, thought-provoking message on mass incarceration and social injustice – the topic of her landmark book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
Watch the video on the OK Policy Blog.
Correction needed for correctional officers
Are you willing to supervise as many as 200 inmates by yourself? To assess and react appropriately to extremely violent situations such as rapes, suicides and stabbings? To work with inmates who have communicable diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis or hepatitis? If you answered yes to all of these application questions, you may qualify to become a correctional officer for the state of Oklahoma. For your valuable service, the state will pay you $11.83 an hour to start, less than most of your local convenience store clerks and less than any other state corrections officer in the country, save perhaps Mississippi.
Read more from the Oklahoma Gazette.
House panel passes school intruder bill
Legislation requiring Oklahoma public schools to conduct drills to prepare students and teachers for possible intruders was approved by a state House committee Tuesday. The measure, passed by the House Education Committee 16-0, is among recommendations submitted to lawmakers earlier this month by the Oklahoma Commission on School Security, a task force created after last year’s deadly shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. The commission’s chairman, Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb, said the task force’s recommendations have received overwhelming support in the Legislature.
Read more from the Enid News & Eagle.
We can’t afford to reject federal dollars for health care
Gov. Mary Fallin continues to repeat her opposition to accepting federal dollars to provide coverage to uninsured Oklahomans through Medicaid, as provided under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). She claims that extending Medicaid would impose unaffordable costs on the state. The governor’s argument is not convincing. The study cited by the governor when she said extending Medicaid would be unaffordable makes clear that the state cost would in fact be quite modest and would yield tremendous benefits.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act Resources and Information from Oklahoma Policy Institute
Quote of the Day
You’re released from prison, can’t get a job, you’re barred from housing. Even food stamps may be off limits to you. What do we expect them to do? Well apparently what we expect them to do is pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, fines, court costs, accumulated back child support, which continues to accrue while you’re in prison, and then in a growing number of states you’re actually expected to pay back the costs of your imprisonment. And paying back all these fees, fines, and court costs can be a condition of your probation or parole. And then, if you’re actually one of the lucky few, the very few who manages to get a job right out of prison, up to 100 percent of your wages can be garnished to pay back all these fees, fines, court costs, accumulated back child support. When you step back and take a look at the system as a whole… it seems designed to send folks right back to prison.
–Michelle Alexander, speaking at the University of Tulsa about the topic of her landmark book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
Number of the Day
45,002
Number of low-income households without public housing/rental assistance who pay more than half of their income each month in gross rent, 10 percent of Oklahoma’s renters in 2011
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
21 graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous
Every year, the International Federation of Health Plans — a global insurance trade association that includes more than 100 insurers in 25 countries — releases survey data showing the prices that insurers are actually paying for different drugs, devices, and medical services in different countries. And every year, the data is shocking. The IFHP just released the data for 2012. And yes, once again, the numbers are shocking. This is the fundamental fact of American health care: We pay much, much more than other countries do for the exact same things.
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I believe the study made plain that the earthquake was related to a wastewater injection well which is NOT fracking.