Despite having worked her way to the most powerful Democratic position in the state House, Emily Virgin still deals with offhanded and sexist remarks from men.
Hamilton: Senate must deal with dirty laundry By: Arnold Hamilton Guest Columnist April 29, 2021
Arnold Hamilton
Legislative sessions’ final weeks can be fraught with political land mines. Budget haggling intensifies. Pet bills get torpedoed. Sizable egos are bruised.
For House speakers and Senate presidents, it’s part of the sausage-making rhythm. Less than appetizing, of course, but hardly unexpected.
What does get under leadership’s skin, though, is a senator or representative whose bad behavior takes center stage, unnecessarily diverting time and attention from serious, last-minute matters of state.
One of those steaming cow patties splattered onto Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat’s desk last week, courtesy of Broken Arrow Sen. Nathan Dahm, a term-limited, back-bencher whose mug shot belongs in the dictionary next to the phrase “loose cannon.”
(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 it’s too hot to sleep and time is running away.
It was a bad week for comprehending stuff out there in our state legislatures. Poor souls were wandering lost in a haze of half-baked theories and half-heard OAN newscasts. Take Don Wagner, a Republican on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. He’s just, y’know, asking the question. From the
“In the vaccine, we heard about an injection of the tracking device,” Supervisor Don P. Wagner (R) said. “Is that being done anywhere in Orange County?”
Lawmakers: Managed care plan complicates Medicaid funding By: Trevor Brown Oklahoma Watch February 22, 2021
With Oklahoma’s 2021 legislative session underway, lawmakers and the governor will need to simultaneously weigh funding options for an expanding state Medicaid program along with pros and cons of revamping the system that lower-income Oklahomans depend on for health care coverage. (Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash)
More than half a year after voters approved a state question that will require Oklahoma to offer health care coverage to more than 200,000 low-income adults, state officials are still unsure how they’ll pay for it.
The passage of State Question 802 last June started a countdown for the state to start enrolling newly eligible Oklahomans in the state’s Medicaid program, known as SoonerCare, by July 1.