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Want to know more about what’s on the ballot Nov. 4? Check out OK Policy’s 2014 Oklahoma Elections page, with information on voting times, state questions, judicial elections, and more.
The Tulsa City Council voted 8-0 to approve a resolution that the city will not pay two of the three fees approved by Tulsa County for holding city inmates in the Tulsa Jail. Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett has denied an Open Records Act request for ethics complaints filed against him regarding a decision to remove a planned sidewalk near a new city park. Gov. Mary Fallin’s general counsel is among the applicants for a seat the governor will appoint to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. The judge who ruled against a Norman doctor challenging a state law restricting abortions authored more than a dozen pieces of anti-abortion legislation when he was a state legislator, and he has written that abortion caused more carnage than Nazi Germany. The Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to issue an emergency stay of the judge’s order.
Under a bill being considered by a legislative interim study, Oklahomans could be left in the dark about life insurance payments owed to them. A judge has thrown out a lawsuit over an earthquake that injured a woman, finding that the case should instead be heard by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. An Oklahoma County court divorce judge ruled that records in the divorce trial of billionaire oilman Harold Hamm will remain sealed from the public. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted to increase a fee on land lines that is used to fund internet service for rural hospitals and schools. The Corporation Commission had previously voted down the fee increase, causing phone companies to go unreimbursed, because they wanted to send a message to the Legislature about reforming the program.
The Oklahoma Department of Human Services will host a panel discussion on teen pregnancy on Thursday, November 6 in Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma State Department of Health is concerned about reports that Oklahomans who have traveled to Africa are facing exclusion from work, school, or community activities upon their return due to fear of Ebola, even when they have not been in countries affected by the disease. In the Journal Record, Arnold Hamilton discussed how Oklahoma’s restrictive ballot initiative laws keep good ideas off the ballot.
The Number of the Day is the graduation success rate of Oklahoma State University men’s basketball players who enrolled in 2007, the lowest in the Big 12. In today’s Policy Note, the New York Times shared county-level data showing how the Affordable Care has affected the uninsured rate across the nation. The Affordable Care Act has cut the uninsured rate nearly in half in several eastern Oklahoma counties where previously more than 1 in 4 residents were uninsured.
In The News
Tulsa City Council votes not to pay new jail fees
City councilors this evening voted 8-0 to approve a resolution stating that the city of Tulsa will not pay two of the three fees approved by Tulsa County for holding city inmates in the Tulsa Jail. The vote comes just one day before the existing city/county agreement is set to expire. County commissioners recently approved new fees for the city that will take effect Saturday. They include a $118 per-inmate booking fee and a daily housing fee of $52.02 for state inmates until such time as they are formally charged.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Tulsa mayor’s office denies open records request for ethics complaints
Mayor Dewey Bartlett has denied an Open Records Act request for ethics complaints filed against him regarding a decision to remove a sidewalk from road plans near A Gathering Place for Tulsa. The mayor recently nixed a planned sidewalk along the east side of Riverside Drive that would connect downtown to the park after neighbors, including one who has personal business ties to the mayor, met with Bartlett. The residents of the area had voiced concerns about pedestrian safety and decreasing property values.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Fallin’s general counsel wants her to appoint him to Court of Criminal Appeals
Gov. Mary Fallin’s general counsel is among the applicants for a seat the governor will fill on the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. General Counsel Steven K. Mullins is one of 11 applicants who will be considered by the Judicial Nominating Commission. The panel will forward three names to the governor. A vacancy on the five-member court was created with the retirement of longtime Judge Charles Johnson. The Court of Criminal Appeals is the state’s highest court for criminal matters.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
State judge in abortion ruling has activist past
The judge who ruled against a Norman doctor challenging a state law restricting abortions authored more than a dozen pieces of anti-abortion legislation when he was a state representative, legislative records show. In 2001, when he was a Republican state legislator in northwest Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County District Judge Bill Graves wrote that abortion caused more carnage than Nazi Germany. Last week, Graves ruled against a challenge to a new state law that required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
See also: Coalition requests emergency stay from the Journal Record
Bill could leave Oklahomans in the dark about insurance payments owed to them
Sherry Sanders was pleasantly surprised when she saw her name on an unclaimed property list published in The Oklahoman. The unemployed, 50-year-old Oklahoma City woman discovered she was in line for $22,000 from her late husband’s long-forgotten life insurance policy. Under a bill considered last legislative session, people like her would be left in the dark about money owed to them. Lawmakers met Wednesday to take testimony about fine-tuning and re-introducing that bill.
Judge throws out earthquake lawsuit
A Lincoln County district judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming water disposal well operators caused a 2011 earthquake that injured a Prague woman. Judge Cynthia Ferrell Ashwood said the district court does not have jurisdiction, and that the case should instead be handled by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. “The court further finds that this court would be required to decide issues that are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission,” Ashwood wrote. “As a result, this court finds that it does not have jurisdiction to hear this case.” Attorney Scott E. Poynter said he plans to appeal the ruling.
Judge rules to keep Harold Hamm divorce records sealed
An Oklahoma County court divorce judge ruled Thursday that his order closing the divorce trial of billionaire oilman Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources will apply for documents and transcripts sealed in the past few months of testimony, and that Reuters news agency cannot have access to them. “Harold Hamm and Sue Ann Hamm are no different than anybody else,” said Judge Harold Haralson in making his ruling, “however because Continental Resources is a third party affected by the divorce, the motion by Reuters to intervene is denied.” His ruling came after about 30 minutes of arguments as 10 attorneys stood before him in the small courtroom, packed with others waiting to proceed with their divorces.
Read more from OK Energy Today.
Oklahoma phone bill fee for Internet in schools, hospitals to go up
A fee tacked on to phone bills in Oklahoma will go up, prompted by higher demand to provide subsidized Internet access for schools and hospitals. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted 3-0 Thursday to raise the contribution factor for the Oklahoma Universal Service Fund. The increase came as the fund — which needs an estimated $50 million this year — risked facing a shortfall after November. For the average residential telephone customer, the increase would add 30 cents per month to the Oklahoma Universal Service Fund fees that appear at the end of a customer’s landline or wireless bill.
Lecture looks at state’s high teen birth rate
Oklahoma’s teen birth rates are among the highest in the nation. Investing in teen pregnancy prevention makes good sense and pays big dividends for our state’s workforce and economic prosperity. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) explores the issue and hosts a panel discussion on teen pregnancy in the next installment of the 2014 Fall Lecture Series. It will be held Thursday, November 6 from noon to 1 p.m. at the Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive in Oklahoma City.
Read more from the Norman Transcript.
Oklahoma Health Department getting excessive Ebola calls
The Oklahoma State Department of Health is concerned about the number of reports received concerning Oklahomans who have traveled to various countries in Africa for work-related reasons, participation in mission trips, or just for recreation who later faced exclusion from work, school, or community activities upon their return due to fear of Ebola. The OSDH wants to communicate that persons are not considered to be at risk of contracting Ebola unless they have cared for someone with Ebola virus disease, or traveled to Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone in the past 21 days.
Hamilton: Good ideas don’t survive the grinder
Three up, three down. Three times this year Oklahomans stepped to the plate, hoping to gather enough signatures to force statewide votes – one on school shelter funding, two on marijuana legalization. Three times they whiffed, unable to collect the 155,216 required signatures. Such failure is hardly unusual. In the last 16 years, only three initiative petitions qualified for the statewide ballot. Every other state question reached the ballot via action by the state’s elected powers that be – the Legislature.
Read more from the Journal Record.
Quote of the Day
“In the last 16 years, only three initiative petitions qualified for the statewide ballot. Every other state question reached the ballot via action by the state’s elected powers that be – the Legislature. This begs the question: Is it too difficult – nigh on impossible, really – for rank-and-file Oklahomans to take matters into their own hands when they can’t get lawmakers to act?”
-Journal Record columnist Arnold Hamilton (Source: http://bit.ly/1wNeNyQ)
Number of the Day
22%
Graduation success rate of Oklahoma State University men’s basketball players who enrolled in 2007, the lowest in the Big 12.
Source: NCAA
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
New data set provides a clearer picture of which people gained health insurance under the Affordable Care Act
We know that about 10 million more people have insurance coverage this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act. But until now it has been difficult to say much about who was getting that coverage — where they live, their age, their income and other such details. Now a large set of data — from Enroll America, the group trying to sign up people for the program, and from the data firm Civis Analytics — is allowing a much clearer picture. The data shows that the law has done something rather unusual in the American economy this century: It has pushed back against inequality, essentially redistributing income — in the form of health insurance or insurance subsidies — to many of the groups that have fared poorly over the last few decades.
Read more from the New York Times.
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