Protests over police violence toward Black Americans popped up nationwide last summer, including in Tulsa.
Credit Black Wall Street Times
The Oklahoma Senate on Wednesday sent the governor two bills to clamp down on protests.
House Bill 1674 grants drivers who hit protesters in the road immunity if they feared they’d be hurt or killed, even if a protester dies. Sen. Rob Standridge (R-Norman) repeatedly cited an incident in Tulsa last summer where a man drove through a crowd on the Inner Dispersal Loop protesting police violence against Black Americans. One man fell off the overpass and was paralyzed.
Standridge was reminded the driver was not charged in that case.
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Credit drug free.org
Oklahoma lawmakers took the first step in setting up a fund to pay for ongoing costs of abating Oklahoma’s opioid epidemic.
Senate Bill 610 would establish the Opioid Settlement and Judgement Revolving Fund. Sen. Greg McCortney (R-Ada) had his legislation passed out of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee he chairs on Wednesday.
Any future awards from lawsuits against companies that made, distributed or marketed the powerful, addictive painkillers would go into it. The fund will be invested by the state treasurer; 4% of that fund will be appropriated or, will be eligible to be appropriated by the legislature each year in perpetuity, McCortney said.
Further limiting access to abortion appears to be a top priority among Oklahoma Republican lawmakers.
Six out of 16 bills considered by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee during its first meeting Wednesday sought to make abortions harder to get. Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat reintroduced Senate Bill 918, which would install into state law triggers for the repeal of virtually all of Oklahoma’s abortion regulations. In the event that
Planned Parenthood v. Casey and
Roe v. Wade is overturned, our attorney general could certify that and it would make valid again our prohibition that’s currently in statute that makes it a felony to perform abortion, Treat told the committee.
The fight over outsourcing management of Oklahoma’s expanding Medicaid program looms large over the upcoming legislative session. During a budget hearing