Oklahoma

Largest Sentence Commutation In US History: Nearly 500 Inmates Walk Free After Oklahoma Voters Demand Reform

November 5, 2019 By Julia Conley, Commondreams.org Create! Electoral Politics, Mass Incarceration, Oklahoma, Reform

Oklahoma voters' approval of a referendum in 2016 allowed for nearly 500 inmates to walk free on Monday from the state's massive prison system—the largest single-day commutation in U.S. history. Four hundred and sixty-two people had their sentences commuted as a result of Question 780, which asked voters if they approved of recategorizing many felonies, including drug possession and minor property crimes, as misdemeanors. The referendum passed by a 16 percent margin.

Addressing Food Insecurity In Northeast Oklahoma

October 14, 2019 By Chuck Hoskin, Jr., Nativenewsonline.net Educate! Food Security, Oklahoma

Many of us are lucky enough that we do not have to worry about where our next meal will come from. Unfortunately, not everyone is so blessed. That is why Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma food banks and other organizations across the state are building partnerships to address this problem. October marks the beginning of the annual Feeding Oklahoma Drive, a month-long campaign to support the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. Cherokee Nation Businesses is a lead sponsor of this campaign.

Oklahoma’s Working Class WoodyFest2019: Second Wave Of The Sixties

August 2, 2019 Mark Maxey, AmericanHighways.org. Organize! Music, Oklahoma, Socialism, Woody Guthrie

(Okemah, Okla.) The hot humid days of July annually in Okemah rallies around their hometown socialist, Woody Guthrie. Okemah, a rural town of about 3000 citizens in northeastern Oklahoma. July 10-14, 2019 the 22nd Woody Fest[1]celebrated, remembered, cried, and rallied behind the songs of the working class. Songs were written over 80 years ago of the working class, unions, and immigration is just as relevant today as it was then. Woodrow Wilson (Woody) Guthrie[2]was born to Charley and Nora Belle Guthrie in Okemah, Oklahoma on July 14, 1912. Woody’s parents, who were staunch Democrats, named their son after the man who had been elected President that year. In the 1930s, Woody joined thousands of others who migrated to California during the Dust Bowl Era, becoming known as the Dust Bowl Troubadour.

Will Oklahoma Rein In Epic Charter Failure?

April 3, 2019 John Thompson, Livingindialogue.com Resist! Charter Schools, Education, Oklahoma

As the Network for Public Education documents a billion dollars wasted on failed charter schools, the national news is full of the latest charter financial scandals stretching from New Jersey to California. We can’t forget, however, that virtual charters, like Oklahoma’s Epic for-profit charters, have the potential of producing even more harm to our poorest students. The millions of dollars invested in Epic allow adults to pretend that thousands of students have not been abandoned, merely because they have enrolled in the online school.

Immigrant Students In Oklahoma Tell Their Stories

June 25, 2018 John Thompson, Livingindialogue.com Educate! Immigration, Oklahoma, Students, Undocumented

Numerous stories began in Mexico and Central America. Anonymous explained in “Gunshots” that his mom had been a “coyote,” passing immigrants from Central America to the U.S. She “never got caught by la migra, … she was caught by the sicarios in the frontera,” and that was more dangerous. It was only after she became pregnant that 5 minutes of consecutive gunfire in the plaza convinced the family to migrate and “the fear of losing our most beautiful thing that finally made us leave.” Dahila didn’t want to leave Mexico but her family “set her by force because things in Mexico were very dangerous.” She had papers but the officer said, “You are not from the United States … you are like those Indians, who are lying around.” Dahila was intimidated by the process but it caused a delay that made her Grandma happy. By the time they were approved, the scanners were turned off so they got through with the tamales in their bags that she brought from Mexico.

Hundreds Of Oklahoma Teachers Angry At Union

April 14, 2018 By Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox.com Resist! Class Struggle, Oklahoma, Teachers, Unions

On Thursday afternoon, Oklahoma’s largest educators association announced an end to the nine-day walkout, saying lawmakers “won’t budge an inch.” The group said that it would take the $479 million in extra school funding educators got from lawmakers before the strike — a fraction of the $3.3 billion they had demanded — and that members would return to work. “I call on our community members to continue supporting these educators as they walk back into the classroom. We want as much support from them after the walkout as they received during the walkout,” Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, said during a press conference. The OEA framed the walkout as a victory that ended with millions of dollars more in school funding. Priest said that most of OEA’s members wanted to resume classes.

How Free Lunch And Daycare Are Bolstering The Oklahoma Teachers’ Walkout

April 11, 2018 Max Zahn, Wagingnonviolence.org Resist! Education, Oklahoma, Teachers

Oklahoma City elementary school teacher Madeline Scott told her students about the statewide teacher walkout on the last day of classes before it began on April 2. Their reaction surprised her. “The students were weirdly supportive, even though they are 10 years old,” Scott recalled. “They said, ‘We do need glue sticks.’” She said one student, Miguel, was anxious. “What am I going to eat?” he asked. Miguel, a fourth grader at Adams Elementary, depends on school for free breakfast and lunch. Scott said his four siblings do, too. (Scott declined to give Miguel’s last name.) “Will there be food for all of us?” he asked. Scott assured him there would. Since Monday last week, thousands of Oklahoma teachers in at least 50 school districts have refused to work until the Oklahoma Legislature gives them a $10,000 raise, a $5,000 raise for support staff and $200 million in additional education funding.

Oklahoma Teachers Begin 110-Mile March To Protest Education Funding

April 5, 2018 Sebastian Murdock, Huffingtonpost.com Resist! Education, Funding, Oklahoma, Protests, Teachers

Educators in Oklahoma are making it clear they aren’t giving up in their fight for increased public school funding. On Wednesday, more than 100 people set out from Webster High School in Tulsa on a seven-day trek to the state Capitol in Oklahoma City to demand bigger education budgets. “We are willing to walk 100 miles for our students,” Patti Ferguson-Palmer, president of the Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association, told The Tulsa World. “What is the Oklahoma Legislature willing to do? We are not all young and fit.” Wednesday marked the third day straight that Oklahoma teachers and their supporters have protested years of deep cuts and salary slashes for educators. On Monday, teachers across the state staged a massive revolt when they walked out of schools, with many swarming the Capitol building in Oklahoma City. “Why are we walking?” Alicia Priest, Oklahoma Education Association president, asked on Monday.

Thousands Of Teachers And Staff On Strike Across Oklahoma And Kentucky, Arizona Might Be Next

April 4, 2018 By Ashley Curtin, Nationofchange.org Resist! Arizona, Class Struggle, Kentucky, Labor, Oklahoma, Strikes, Teachers, Unions

Schools shut down on Monday as thousands of teachers and staff in Oklahoma walked out to protest the low wages, benefit cuts and lack of school funding. Leading up to the planned strike, Oklahoma educators gave lawmakers an opportunity to pass a bill that met their demands, but could only come up with a $447 million compromise to the $3.3 billion requested by the teachers, Vox reported. The bill, which would have given teachers a $6,100 raise, support staff a $1,250 raise and $50 million in education funding, was going to come in part from raising taxes on oil production, diesel fuel and cigarettes, but the deal was rejected by the Oklahoma Education Associate, the group negotiating on the educators behalf.

Joining Nationwide Teacher Rebellion, Tens Of Thousands Rally For Education In Oklahoma

April 3, 2018 By Julia Conley, Commondreams.org Resist! Class Struggle, Education, Oklahoma, Rebellion, Teachers, Unions

The $50 million in school funding that was included in a bill last week "will buy less than one textbook per student," said the head of the state teacher's union. A weeks-long mobilization in Oklahoma resulted in teachers striking across the state on Monday, with tens of thousands of educators and supporters rallying at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City to demand more funding for schools and higher wages for teachers. Organizers planned to speak with state lawmakers about how decades of funding cuts have affected their schools—and why a bill passed in the legislature last week that would raise taxes on oil and gas production to give teachers a $6,100 raise and allot $50 million for school funding was not enough to stop the protest. An NBC News aerial video of the scene at the demonstration showed an estimated crowd of 30,000 people gathered outside the Capitol.

Oklahoma School Funding Paves The Way To A Teacher Walkout

March 17, 2018 John Thompson, Livingindialogue.com Organize! Education, Oklahoma, Protests, Teachers

Oklahoma is one of the states heading for a teachers walkout. Because of a complicated set of reasons, the political challenge facing Oklahoma educators is more formidable than the problems faced in many or most states, so we will mostly be talking about what it will take to head off a disaster. But – like the rest of the nation – we should also ask what it would take to bring all of our kids to the national average in terms of student performance. The Rutgers Graduate School of Education and Education Law Center just published a blockbuster report which shows that our state spends $7,228 per student for students in the lowest quintile of poverty or $299 per student more than how much funding it would take for those kids to reach the national average in student outcomes.

Oklahoma Teachers Planning A Statewide Strike

March 5, 2018 Burt Mummolo, Ktul.com Resist! Oklahoma, Strikes, Teachers

MOORE, Okla. (KTUL) — Oklahoma teachers are fed up with state lawmakers. A public school teacher in Stillwater created the Facebook group "Oklahoma Teacher Walkout - The Time is Now!" two days ago, and it has already gained more than 20,000 members. Today, teachers gathered in Moore to discuss the possible statewide strike. "Frustration levels are high, so a strike is not a touchy word anymore," said Molly Jaynes, a teacher in Oklahoma City. "'Strike' is a big word, but I think it's necessary for Oklahoma," said Chloe Prochaska, a teacher in Mustang. "We are to the point where we have no other option," said Heather Reed, a teacher in Oklahoma City. Fed up with a legislature seemingly mired in quicksand, teachers from Oklahoma City, Mustang and Tulsa, just to name a few, are laying the groundwork for a statewide strike.

Oklahoma’s Largest Earthquake Linked To Oil And Gas Industry Actions 3 Years Earlier

May 3, 2017 Zahra Hirji, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Earthquakes, Oil & Gas, Oklahoma

By Zahra Hirji for Inside Climate News - The strongest earthquake in Oklahoma's history likely was caused by oil and gas operators injecting vastly increased amounts of toxic wastewater underground three years before it struck, a new study suggests. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed injection data from the most active disposal wells in the area where the 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit last September. They found that there had been a sudden and dramatic increase in the amount of wastewater injected in the first half of 2013 at some of the wells. That contributed "a fair amount of stress on the fault and would have accelerated the natural faulting process significantly," said Andrew Barbour, a USGS geophysicist who led the study. The research was published Tuesday in a special edition of the journal Seismological Research Letters that focused on the earthquake, which struck the town of Pawnee on Sept. 3, damaging dozens of buildings. The findings expand on the growing consensus among scientists that the earthquake spike rattling America's midsection is linked to the oil and gas drilling boom.

Oklahoma Tribe Sues Oil Companies In Tribal Court Over Earthquake

March 7, 2017 Shaun Murphy, www.globalnews.ca Resist! Earthquakes, Indigenous Peoples, Lawsuit, Oil, Oklahoma

By Shaun Murphy for Global News - OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma-based Native American tribe filed a lawsuit in its own tribal court system Friday accusing several oil companies of triggering the state’s largest earthquake that caused extensive damage to some near-century-old tribal buildings. The Pawnee Nation alleges in the suit that wastewater injected into wells operated by the defendants caused the 5.8-magnitude quake in September and is seeking physical damages to real and personal property, market value losses, as well as punitive damages. The case will be heard in the tribe’s district court with a jury composed of Pawnee Nation members.

Emails From Oklahoma Office Of Trump EPA Administrator Published

February 23, 2017 Steve Horn, www.desmogblog.com Educate! Donald Trump, EPA, Oklahoma

By Steve Horn for Desmog Blog - The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has published thousands of emails obtained from the office of former Oklahoma Attorney General, Scott Pruitt, who was recently sworn in as the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the Trump Administration. Housed online in searchable form by CMD, the emails cover Pruitt's time spent as the Sooner State's lead legal advocate, and in particular show a “close and friendly relationship between Scott Pruitt’s office and the fossil fuel industry,” CMD said in a press release. CMD was forced to go to court in Oklahoma to secure the release of the emails, which had sat in a queue for two years after the organization had filed an open records request. Among other things, the emails show extensive communication with hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) giant Devon Energy, with Pruitt's office not only involved in discussions with Devon about energy-related issues like proposed U.S. Bureau of Land Management fracking rules...

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