Oklahoma Watch (https://oklahomawatch.org/author/paulmonies/)
In advocating on state policies, Oklahoma’s 27 district attorneys operate on two fronts: the District Attorneys Council, a state agency, and the District Attorneys Association, a private group that contracts with lobbyists. Advocacy groups say the setup stacks the deck against criminal justice reforms. (Use our slider image to compare attendees at both groups’ meetings.)
Glenn Coffee has withdrawn as an outside attorney in the state’s ongoing opioid trial, saying his work on pretrial strategy and settlement discussions with drug companies had come to a close.
Vaccination has become a dirty word at the Oklahoma Capitol. As Oklahoma joins 25 other states in the worst measles outbreak in a generation, vaccination policies have become so politically toxic that few lawmakers want to take a recorded vote on the issue.
Vaccines flared briefly as an issue in the 2018 gubernatorial campaign when a news outlet discovered an online video in which then-candidate Kevin Stitt said not all of his children were vaccinated. Stitt later dismissed the report, saying his and Sarah Stitt’s six children, who attended a school with high vaccine-exemption rates, had received various vaccines.
Oklahoma lawmakers closed out the 2019 session Thursday after nearly four months of debate on hundreds of bills that could impact the state for years to come. Here’s what the Legislature did, and didn’t do, this year, from the $8.1 billion spending bill to criminal justice reform.
The state this week confirmed its first measles case of the year, which occurred as the nation is experiencing its largest number of measles cases in a quarter century. Here are answers to some common questions about the measles outbreaks, the first confirmed Oklahoma case and the state’s vaccination policies.
This year’s criminal justice reform measures include changing bail bonds, making State Question 780 retroactive and giving greater clarity to prosecutors on when to charge drug possession with intent to distribute. Here are five questions surrounding the bills.
Attorneys in Oklahoma’s opioid lawsuit have bragged that they slept on cots in their offices and went through millions of pages of evidence. But one private attorney in the case, a former legislative leader, stands to make $5.6 million in the recent settlement against a drugmaker despite having no obvious role documented in court filings.
A strategic plan laying out one-year and four-year goals for Gov. Kevin Stitt’s administration, obtained by Oklahoma Watch, includes securing gubernatorial control of all state agencies and boards, changing the educational system and launching an initiative aimed at social issues.
Native American tribes across the country were left out of a major part of a new federal tax incentive for opportunity zones, with their governments unable to pool investments to support projects in some of the nation’s poorest areas.