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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 Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit to stop the State Department of Health from discontinuing the organization’s WIC services at the end of the year. OK Policy previously found that the Health Department’s stated rationales for for cutting Planned Parenthood from the WIC program do not appear to be accurate. Pressure is mounting on Governor Fallin from constituencies lobbying for a decision on the new health care law. NewsOK wrote that Gov. Fallin needs to act, and the Tulsa World wrote that joining the Medicaid expansion would improve many state problems.
Officials of a foundation holding about $10 million in funds remaining from donations to survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing said dividing the money among survivors would be a mistake. One of SandRidge Energy Inc’s top shareholders called for the oil and gas company to consider selling itself and for Chief Executive Tom Ward to step down. Two fired DHS child welfare workers pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of suppressing evidence in the Serenity Deal case. Oklahoma’s vote to replace the DHS commission may open the door to further changes down the road, including splitting up the agency.
The Tulsa World examined why Tulsa County voters rejected the Vision2 sales tax proposal. About 64,000 more Republicans than Democrats voted a straight-party ticket in the recent election, compared to nearly 100,000 more Republicans than Democrats who voted a straight-party ticket in 2010. The Number of the Day is the number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in Oklahoma’s labor force. In today’s Policy Note, The Crime Report presents a post-election justice reform agenda to stop our overreliance on mass incarceration.
In The News
Planned Parenthood sues to retain WIC services in Oklahoma
Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit Friday to stop the State Department of Health from discontinuing the organization’s WIC services at the end of the year. In late September, the State Department of Health decided not to renew its WIC contract with Planned Parenthood. The CEO of the Planned Parenthood said then that she thought the decision was politically motivated, which the Department of Health denies. The Women, Infant and Children program provides supplemental nutrition assistance to low-income women who are pregnant or have recently given birth, as well as to children younger than 5.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Previously: What really happened with WIC? from the OK Policy Blog
Pressure mounts on Oklahoma governor as constituencies lobby for decision on health care law
Looming decisions for Gov. Mary Fallin on how Oklahoma will respond to the sweeping federal health care law are prompting an energetic, behind-the-scenes lobbying effort by hospitals, insurance companies, business and industry groups, and other constituencies that will be affected by provisions of the law. Fallin is expected to announce within the next week her position on whether the state will move ahead with setting up a state-based online health insurance marketplace, or exchange, required under the law. Oklahoma policymakers also must decide whether the state will expand its Medicaid eligibility to provide coverage to thousands of low-income, uninsured citizens.
Read more from the Associated Press.
See also: Gov. Fallin needs to act on long-lingering Medicaid, health exchange issues from NewsOK; Medicaid expansion would improve many state problems from the Tulsa World
Officials overseeing Oklahoma City bombing fund say critics mistaken
Officials of a foundation holding about $10 million in funds remaining from donations to survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing say they believe dividing the money among survivors, as some critics of the foundation have called for, would be a mistake. “No. 1, I do not think it would be legal. No. 2, I do not think it would be in the best interest of the people,” said Nancy Anthony, president of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, a nonprofit umbrella organization that oversees the Disaster Relief Fund, commonly known as the bombing fund, and other nonprofit funds. For the past 17 years, the fund has provided assistance for medical expenses, mental health counseling, living expenses and scholarships survivors and family members of the 168 people killed or hundreds injured in the April 19, 1995, bombing.
Read more from the Associated Press.
Sandridge investor seeks sale of company, ouster of CEO
One of SandRidge Energy Inc’s top shareholders called for the oil and gas company to consider selling itself and for Chief Executive Tom Ward to step down, saying management’s strategy has been “incoherent, unpredictable and volatile.” Hedge fund TPG-Axon, which said it owns more than 4.5 percent of SandRidge and has about $4 billion in assets under management, on Thursday sent the company a letter that also urges a shakeup of the U.S. oil and gas company’s board. The hedge fund repeatedly compared SandRidge to Chesapeake Energy Corp, which has been besieged by a governance crisis and liquidity crunch. Ward co-founded Chesapeake with Aubrey McClendon in 1989.
Two former DHS workers charged in Serenity Deal case
Two fired DHS child welfare workers pleaded no contest Friday to a misdemeanor charge of suppressing evidence in the Serenity Deal case. Jennifer Shawn, 33, and Randy J. Lack, 59, were accused of maliciously keeping evidence from the judge when they recommended that the girl be placed with her father. Serenity, 5, was murdered by her father in June 2011 less than a month after she began living with him full time at his Oklahoma City apartment. She had been in a foster home. The suppressed evidence included a chilling hospital photo of Serenity’s swollen and bruised face and two black eyes, Pottawatomie County District Attorney Richard Smothermon said.
DHS future form up in air after state question approved
Oklahoma’s vote Tuesday to put governance of the Department of Human Services in the hands of the Governor’s Office and to replace the agency’s oversight commission with advisory panels opened the door to further changes down the road. Those changes could include splitting the organization into smaller, specialized pieces, legislative leaders said. State Rep. Jason Nelson, R-Oklahoma City, said the referendum’s outcome allows the Legislature to go in that direction, but it would take several years and legislative sessions to work out the logistics.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Sales tax lesson: Tulsa voters not easy to sway
The only thing surprising about the failure of the Vision2 package was that the margins of defeat for the two propositions were not greater. On second thought, it’s also surprising that some city and county leaders didn’t see this resounding defeat coming. Our readers sure let us know loud and clear they didn’t care for this plan. While the reasons for rushing the Vision2 package onto the ballot may have been understandable, and maybe even justifiable, the defeats make it clear anew that voters just are not going to be sweet-talked, bullied, threatened or pressured into supporting something they don’t feel right about.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Fewer straight-party votes cast in Oklahoma
Anti-Obama fever that swept across Oklahoma didn’t result in voters last week swarming to vote straight-party Republican. Only one in three Oklahomans voted Tuesday for President Barack Obama, and the president again failed to win any of the state’s 77 counties. (He won 33.2 percent of the vote this year, compared with 34.4 percent in 2008.) But the percentage of straight-party Republican voters dropped about 10 percent compared with four years ago, from 41.4 percent in 2008 to 31.4 percent this year, figures from the state Election Board show. About 64,000 more Republicans than Democrats voted a straight-party ticket. But that is far less a margin than during the midterm elections two years ago, when nearly 100,000 more Republicans than Democrats voted a straight-party ticket, which helped GOP candidates record a historic first by winning all eight statewide offices on the 2010 ballot.
Quote of the Day
It’s true there are some unknowns regarding the Medicaid expansion. But we know the system we have now – which is basically no system at all – is unsustainable, inhumane and outrageously costly. And nobody has offered any better alternative.
Number of the Day
35,000
Number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in Oklahoma’s labor force, 3,000 of those veterans are unemployed, 2011
Source: U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
A post-election justice reform agenda
President Barack Obama’s re-election comes with a second-term mandate to further address the increased criminalization of behavior, our nation’s overreliance on mass incarceration, and the lifetime punishment that stems from involvement in the criminal justice system. In our current criminal justice system, 2.3 million people are in prison or jail across the country and nearly 7 million are under state and federal supervision. For too long, prisons and jails have served as the repository for the people who are the products of our failed education, housing, healthcare and economic development policies.
Read more from The Crime Report.
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