(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)
Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what’s goin’ down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin’ gets done, and where the sun comes rising over that little Minnesota town.
We begin in the Commonwealth (God save it!), where the Boston Police Department suddenly is revealed to have more in common with the Archdiocese of Boston than employing a lot of its parishioners. From the
Janey’s announcement followed a Globe investigation that revealed the department determined in 1995 that Patrick M. Rose Sr., the onetime president of the city’s powerful patrolmen’s union, had more than likely molested a 12-year-old child. The department had repeatedly refused to release the case files or discuss why Rose, who is now charged with sexually abusing five additional children, continued as a patrolman and had access to children…
State Bill 172, which provides federal funding to address missing and murdered Native Americans, passed in the Oklahoma House on Tuesday and is now eligible for Gov. Kevin Stitt to sign into law, according to an Oklahoma House of Representatives release.
According to the release, the bill, also known as Idaâs Law, provides federal funding to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to help with the investigation of cases involving Native American communities.
Named after Ida Beard â a Native American woman from El Reno, Oklahoma, who went missing in 2015 â the bill will create the Office of Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons in the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, alongside a database of missing persons reports, according to the release.
Rep. Mauree Turner is comfortable with being uncomfortable in Oklahoma s Legislature Carmen Forman, Oklahoman
Replay Video
Rep. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, may never feel totally comfortable within the Oklahoma state Capitol.
No doubt Turner, 28, stands out among the majority of mostly white Republican men who control Oklahoma s Legislature.
But standing out isn t always advantageous, especially for Turner, who is probably the most progressive elected Democrat in a state ruled by conservatives. Republican state legislators outnumber Democrats by more than 4:1.
And some days, trying to fend off anti-LGBTQ legislation proposed by legislative Republicans takes a deeply personal toll on the freshman lawmaker.
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.