Oklahoma City sales tax revenue near record level oklahoman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from oklahoman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Oklahoma Joe: Coup illustrates democracy’s power, fragility By: Joe Dorman Guest Columnist April 12, 2021
Joe Hight
One photo can make an impact, even taken from far away.
You probably don’t know about Launglon Township, more than 9,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Oklahoma City. You may know little about Myanmar, the southeastern Asian country formerly called Burma.
In the Reuters photo, you see a long line of protesters walking the township’s streets. Among them you see signs that have red backgrounds with these words in bold white lettering:
“We Want Democracy.”
“Anger has swept Myanmar in the past two months over the coup that brought an abrupt end to a brief era of democratic and economic reform and international integration that followed the military’s oppressive 1962-2011 rule. … ,” the story said.
Police were caught off guard when a racial-justice demonstration escalated into an hours-long confrontation in front of police headquarters last year, according to a Police Department review of the r…
A public health official said predictive modeling shows local herd immunity to COVID-19 could be achieved in June.
The announcement came Tuesday as the Oklahoma City Council passed a mask ordinance extension.
Phil Maytubby, the Oklahoma City-County Health Department chief operating officer, said the model shows the new case rate falling to five per 100,000 population in May, a milestone critical to bringing the pandemic under control.
Council advocates for the mask mandate expressed hope this extension, through April 30, would be the last. Still, concerns about new reports of a possible "fourth wave" permeated the hour-long discussion.
The council vote to immediately extend the mask ordinance was 7-2.
Mayor's experience shows
Having a mayor with state legislative experience has its advantages.
Mayor David Holt, a former state senator, said last week that he reached out to the author when he first saw House Bill 2504 several weeks ago.
Holt said the bill as originally written would have ended local health departments, bringing them under state control.
The Oklahoma City-County Health Department has led the metro-area's COVID-19 response.
And results are clear, Holt said Oklahoma City's toll as measured by pandemic metrics such as case counts and deaths have been better than state and national figures.
Legislators amended the bill before passing it out of committee last week.
Still,