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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.
Oklahoma City-based Continental Resources plans to cut spending by 41 percent after the plunge in oil prices, with crude prices falling to a five-year low amid a glut in supply fed in part by the rise of fracking. The state has selected a Kansas City, Mo.-based company to perform up to $25 million in repairs to the exterior of the nearly century-old Oklahoma Capitol. On the OK Policy Blog, Hannibal B. Johnson writes that we must move from angst to action in the wake of so many unarmed black men being killed by police.
A federal judge has rejected a request by Oklahoma death-row inmates to halt executions in the state. The Tulsa World filed a lawsuit against the state of Oklahoma seeking release of records related to the botched execution of Clayton Lockett. The Tulsa World examined what is happening with the third graders who were retained because they didn’t pass a reading test. Oklahoma City Public Schools is moving forward with an alternative to Land Run re-enactments considered culturally insensitive and dishonest by some American Indian parents and students.
Tulsa-area police have partnered with a nonprofit to deliver 60 free computers to low-income families with children. An iconic arch over the Will Rogers Turnpike has been reopened after a $15.8 million renovation. After a nearly two-year-long pregnancy Asha, a 19-year-old Asian elephant, delivered a healthy, 332-pound female calf at the Oklahoma City Zoo. The Number of the Day is the amount budgeted for health care for incarcerated Oklahomans in 2013. In today’s Policy Note, Vox examines how the big plunge in oil prices will affect the US economy.
In The News
Continental Resources to cut spending 41 percent following oil crash
Billionaire Harold Hamm, whose early adoption of shale drilling in North Dakota helped usher in a U.S. energy renaissance, plans to cut spending by 41 percent at his company after the plunge in oil prices. Crude has fallen by almost 50 percent since June to a five-year low as demand forecasts fell amid a glut in supply fed in part by the shale revolution. Spending at Oklahoma City-based Continental will fall to $2.7 billion and the company will increase production by as much as 20 percent next year. That’s a decline from a previous growth forecast of as much as 29 percent, the company yesterday said in a statement.
Inspection report says Oklahoma Capitol’s limestone exterior is anchored poorly
The state has selected a Kansas City, Mo.-based company to perform up to $25 million in repairs to the exterior of the nearly century-old Oklahoma Capitol, including re-mortaring and better anchoring massive limestone blocks that form the building’s facade. JE Dunn Construction, which has experience in renovating state capitols, was selected over two in-state contenders for the project, state Office of Management and Enterprise Services Director Preston Doerflinger said Monday.
We must move from angst to action in the wake of Brown and Garner deaths
The shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri, Police Officer Darren Wilson and the chokehold death of Eric Garner at the hands of the New York City Police Department officers added urgency to already-simmering frustrations over the perceived devaluation of black lives. The subsequent grand jury failures to indict the officers connected to these high-profile killings of unarmed black men by white police officers sparked a firestorm of protests.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Federal judge denies request to halt Oklahoma executions
A federal judge has rejected a request by Oklahoma death-row inmates to halt executions in the state, finding that the state’s protocol does not violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot clears the way for four upcoming executions, though the plaintiffs are expected to take their case to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Tulsa World sues Fallin, DPS over execution records
The Tulsa World has filed a lawsuit against the state of Oklahoma seeking release of records related to the botched execution of Clayton Lockett. The lawsuit was filed by Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on behalf of BH Media Group Inc., which owns the World, and Enterprise Editor Ziva Branstetter.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Retained third-graders making progress
In third-grade classrooms across Tulsa are 603 students who were in the same grade last year. Students like 9-year-old Isiah Hughes, who is one of the 53 percent of Tulsa Public Schools’ 1,128 third-graders who were held back because of a change in state law scrutinizing students who score unsatisfactory on the state reading test. Isiah’s mother, Tracey Degraffenreed, said she had no idea before this year that her second of three children was struggling academically.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma City Public Schools seeks ‘respectful’ alternative to Land Run re-enactments
Oklahoma City Public Schools is moving forward with an alternative to Land Run re-enactments considered culturally insensitive and dishonest by some American Indian parents and students. District officials said they recently discontinued the re-enactments — which had dropped off in recent years — because they don’t tell the whole story behind the 1889 rush to acquire unassigned lands originally set aside for Indian tribes.
Tulsa-area police, local nonprofit deliver 60 computers to at-risk children
Akira Lanham paints, draws and runs around her apartment complex with seemingly boundless energy. In other words, she’s your typical 8-year-old. But she and her 5-year-old brother, Noah, were lacking one thing their mother, Cassandra, said has become necessary to progress in school and to encourage their natural intelligence levels: a computer. That is, until Monday. As part of the 12th annual North Pole Computer Project, where area law enforcement agencies pass out donated computers to families with young children, the Lanhams got what their two children needed.
Read more from the Sand Springs World.
Iconic arch over Will Rogers Turnpike reopens
Its concrete bones crumbling, the 57-year-old arch over the Will Rogers Turnpike had been showing its age for a long time. On Monday, officials unveiled the signature structure’s face-lift. Several hundred people crowded onto the highway bridge for the dedication of the roughly $15.8 million, newly renovated “Will Rogers Archway,” a 27,000-square-foot travel plaza formerly known as “The Glass House.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
It’s a girl! Elephant born at Oklahoma City Zoo
After a nearly two-year-long pregnancy Asha, a 19-year-old Asian elephant, finally can take a load off after delivering a healthy, 332-pound female calf Monday afternoon at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Asha, and her as-yet-unnamed calf, are doing fine, zoo veterinarian Jennifer D’Agostino said. The calf was born about 1:35 p.m.
Quote of the Day
“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)
Number of the Day
$59,114,426
The amount budgeted for health care for incarcerated Oklahomans in 2013
Source: Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Low oil prices are good for 42 states — and bad for the other eight
How will the big plunge in oil prices affect the US economy? Stephen Brown, an economist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, offers a simple map breaking things down. Brown’s calculus is fairly simple. On the one hand, low oil prices mean lower gasoline prices. For people who consume a lot of gasoline — most of the United States, basically — the price plunge is a major boon. But the picture is different for eight states that rely heavily on oil production: namely, Alaska, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma Texas, Wyoming and West Virginia.
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