February 2025

Republican Governor Stitt Sides With Democrats To Keep The Education Status Quo By Firing State Education Board Members Engaged In Protecting Oklahoma Kids

(edited after publication)

So interesting today to see that Governor Stitt has fired three members of the state school board because, “…it’s clear that our education infrastructure has fallen prey to needless political drama.”

Political drama. What does that actually mean? But then the Governor loves to use catch phrases – you know – like political animal – the term he used when he was out in Chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, Representative Kevin Wallace’s district, trying to get him re-elected over the grassroots, common family man the people preferred, Jim Shaw?

Seriously. What political drama? Literally. What exactly was the DRAMA the Board was engaging in?

I never saw a one of them talking about their jobs outside the Board in a way that invoked DRAMA. None of them were going before a camera to talk about their jobs or to condemn the Superintendent or the Governor or creating MAGA videos in their cars. SO WHAT DRAMA?

I think he means the DRAMA of removing the teaching certificates of taxpayer-supported public school employees who were preying upon children. THAT drama!

Seriously, does anyone realize that we’ve had a drag queen principal with a drunk driving and child pornography charge – who only went away because of outside pressure by local media outlet V1SUT – and a Superintendent in Shawnee and a coach in Shawnee and incidents in Kingfisher and Ninnekah and Salina and Perry and Wewoka where districts are being sued because NO ONE WOULD PROTECT STUDENTS FROM EMPLOYEES WHO WERE HURTING CHILDREN? THAT kind of drama Mr. Stitt?

Kendra Wesson – one of the removed Board members – is one of the most transparent, hard-working, smart, committed women I know. She was always prepared for a meeting and truly had a heart for kids – a not-so-surprising-fact when you find out that she has eight of her own. Her removal is absolute NONSENSE. She wasn’t engaged in any kind of political drama in any way. All she was trying to do in her position was go over and above to help Oklahoma kids.

WHO IN THE HELL FIRES SOMEONE LIKE KENDRA WESSON????

She and this Board were actively involved in attempting to remove teachers and other public school personnel who were a danger to children – and now all of them but two – Governor Stitt’s attorney at Gateway Mortgage, Sarah LePak – and Zach Archer – who, like Governor Stitt, works in the financial industry – are left. What do they know about education? Apparently, they know how to be an attorney and a financial analyst – but, dang it – that is the kind of person our Governor admires!

So what about these new Board members?

Michael Tinney is the husband of Ginger Tinney of Professional Oklahoma Educators. Mr. Tinney is an oil and gas attorney with Ames, Ashabranner, Taylor, Lawrence, Laudick & Morgan in Oklahoma City. I guess we should be happy that he’s at least CONNECTED to someone who knows about education, ‘cuz at this point, we’re 0-2 there.

Ryan Deathridge is a small business owner and the Kingfisher County 911 Director. He has a double major in Agriculture and Finance.

If he is from Kingfisher, he is resident of the Kingfisher Public School system where the district was slapped with a $5 million dollar lawsuit over charges of abuse by Kingfisher Football Coach Jeff Myers. Myers, who was banned from any further activity with the team and whose contract was not to be renewed by the Board, was still employed as of December, when Kingfisher had to let go 22 positions to pay the settlement from the suit after the Kingfisher County Excise Board refused to pass the settlement cost on to tax payers.

And then we found this:

Apparently, in the 20-teens Deathridge was associated with the electric ‘car’ tax credit craze. And yes, there were federal income tax subsidies taken for the vehicles.

What an interesting choice for the State School Board. He has no education experience either.

And then there’s Chris VanDenhende who is listed in the Governor’s press release as being from Tulsa. According to VanDenhende’s LinkdIn page, he is from Stroud, Oklahoma, in Lincoln County, where he is Chief Financial Officer at Southwest Fuel Systems, LLC. and Mint Turbines.

Interesting choice Mr. VanDenhende. Apparently, he is friendly with Mr. Stitt’s friend, Kevin Wallace.

In a Lincoln County News Herald “Report From Kevin Wallace” on April 6, 2022, Mr. Wallace says, “I was fortunate to be invited to dinner on the eve of this event with many representatives from the industries. Chris VanDenhende, chief financial officer and chief strategy officer for Southwest Fuel Systems and Mint Turbines in Stroud, also attended. VanDenhende spoke recently at the Stroud Chamber banquet. It was a pleasure to get to see him again and to discuss his company’s growth in our House district.”

But, that’s not all (I feel like Monty Hall). Mint Turbines has been collecting Oklahoma Quality Jobs Incentive Payments since 2020. In 2024, his company got a ‘shout out’ from the Oklahoma Commerce Department, that included the following text:

Strategic Public/Private Partnerships and Industry Engagement

With nearly 72,000 square feet of factory and warehouse space, Mint Turbines is one of the few certified MRO facilities in North America. Known for its commitment to quality and customer service, the company serves both commercial and military sectors, ensuring top-tier turbine engine performance and reliability. Mint Turbines has partnered with ACES at numerous trade shows to boost their visibility within the aerospace industry and showcase their capabilities to key industry leaders.

They also received about $100,000 in training reimbursements from Department of Career and Technology Education and a 2 MILLION DOLLAR Federal Loan from the Export Bank.

So, no one on the State School Board has ANY EDUCATION EXPERIENCE at all and only attorney Mike Tinney is involved with someone who does. I’m sure that will be SUPER helpful to Oklahoma’s kids and will put us well on the way to improving our NAEP scores.

What’s even more interesting, is that Senator Julia Kirk put out THIS press release shortly after the “shake up” occurred.

Followed shortly by Senator Mark Mann.

Well thank God the DEMOCRATS are happy! That’s certainly why we elected another Republican Governor – to make Democrats happy!

The only other thing that sounds SUPER FISHY here, is that the Governor would decide TODAY, the day that Auditor Cindy Byrd was to make her audit of Tulsa Public Schools public, to make this School Board ‘shake up’ announcement based on the stupid premise of “political drama”. The Governor just had Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller stand with him for his state of the state address – touting the equally stupid cell phone bill (even funnier…Supt. Miller created his district’s policy without a law, yet the Governor pointed to him for support of the bill) and, as we all know, the Governor is from Tulsa.

Interestingly (I know, I keep using that word), Auditor Byrd was unable to release the findings because a truckload of lawyers working for TPS invoked an obscure law to halt its release. At her press conference she said the findings are significant and that she wasn’t allowed to provide the results to the public because of a law that no one had ever used in her 28 years as an auditor.

People, this state is in trouble. The people who run it do NOT HAVE OUR BEST INTERESTS AT HEART.

In fact, did you know that Governor Stitt still had financial interest in Gateway Financial Services and other Gateway entities as of 2019? Did you know that Oklahoma has given Gateway First – the fusion of Gateway Mortgage and Farmers Exchange Bank of Cherokee – hundreds of thousands of dollars in Quality Jobs Incentive Payments since 2019?

This State Board of Education ‘shake up’ was WRONG. Dead WRONG. It won’t help our NAEP scores, but I guarantee it’ll help score political points with someone somewhere – and that has to be what ALL of this is about. So, make no mistake, none of this was about helping Oklahoma kids!

February 12, 2025 1

Weekly News Headlines and Commentary – Week of 2.10.25

I sort of fitzed out on the headlines from the week I’m sorry to say, but we’ll cover as many as we can from last week today.

ROPE2.org

Oklahoma Taxpayers Get Soaked By Canoo – And Other Taxpayer-Financed Violations Of The Free Market

Gov. Stitt’s Commerce Department Gives Multiple MILLIONS Of Taxpayer Dollars To Paycom And Love’s Through Quality Jobs Incentives

Law Enforcement Use Of ‘FLOCK’ Camera Surveillance in Oklahoma Does Not Protect Our Constitutional Rights

Senator Jett, Rep. Jim Shaw and Oklahoma Donkey Dairy Farmer, Saundra Traywick – Why Dumping Human Waste On Farmland Needs To Stop

Lots Of Dark Money and PACs Fueling Barbara Peck’s Ward 3 Oklahoma City Council Campaign

LEGISLATION

Community Schools Are The Marxist Solution For Oklahoma Schools – Vote NO on HB1467 by West

Usurping Local Control – Cell Phone Restrictions In Oklahoma – NO on SB1389 and HB1276

Election Bills To Support And Oppose

Legislation To Support And Oppose Affecting Farms and Ranches – Including Energy, Property Rights, Farming and Food

PikeOffOTA (aka Citizens for Responsible Transportation) Request Bills For 2025

Oklahoma Legislation Affecting Homeschool Or Education Autonomy To Support Or Oppose

OKLAHOMA SUBSTACK AUTHORS

How to Hold Your State Representative Responsible for Allowing Biden’s Green Assault on Oklahoma to Continue

Jason Murphy – Oklahoma State Capitol

OK House Reps Sterling & Lowe (both R) Push to UNPROTECT Students from Ed Predators

‘Mary’ – V1SUT Vantage; FILE THIS UNDER BAD!

Progressives Protest POTUS & More in America’s Reddest State: Misinformation & Left-Wing Conspiracy Theories Abound

‘Mary’ – V1SUT Vantage

Unpacking Oklahoma’s Constitutional Mandates on Public Education: A Closer Look at Minimum Requirements

Marven Goodman – The Sooner Sentinel

Guthrie City Council Officials Silent on ATF’s Access to Guthrie’s Controversial Warrantless Tracking System

Marven Goodman – The Sooner Sentinel

LOCAL AND NATIONAL MEDIA

War on Farmers & Your Health: How to Fight Back

Alex Newman – The Liberty Sentinel

What’s Wrong With Free Money?

Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution – one of our own Oklahoma independent film makers and homeschoolers answering the questions, “Why do homeschoolers need a tax break” (short answer – they don’t and neither does anyone else).

Oklahoma Republicans Are Helping Green Energy Cronies Scam Taxpayers Out Of Billions

Jenni White – The Federalist; our legislature and our governor is killing us with tax incentives.

Oklahoma legislative leaders hesitant to cut income tax

The Oklahoma Voice – Our legislators want us to believe we can’t afford a tax cut. Meanwhile, the biggest proponent of paying people to bring their businesses to the state – our Governor Kevin Stitt – is saying he’s going to open an Oklahoma DOGE office inside of OMES – the place where Oklahoma taxpayer dollars go to be redistributed. Truly, so many of our legislature has no idea why they’re there. They think it’s to ‘make laws’, or ‘help bring business’ to the state, but very few seem to understand that GIVING AWAY THE GAINS OF THE INDUSTRY OF OKLAHOMANS ISN’T IT!

Governor’s Oklahoma budget calls for $1.4 billion less spending, removal of education funding cap

The Oklahoma Voice – So we’re going to cut spending while increasing the cap on the ‘school choice’ tax credit. So, again, we’re going to be funding TWO KINDS OF EDUCATION IN OKLAHOMA – PRIVATE AND PUBLIC WITH TAX DOLLARS. I suggest you watch one of our podcasts on the ‘tax credit’ to get a better idea of what a bad idea this is.

Could ‘School Choice’ End School Choice?

Alex Newman – Liberty Sentinel – This is one you should probably read after you watch the video and think about what it means for the Governor to want to reduce taxes while increasing the cap on a tax incentive program…

Nation’s Report Card shows Oklahoma academic results are stagnant

The Oklahoma Voice – So, we’re going to increase teacher salaries. Look, I know there are some good teachers out there, but they should be paid by THEIR SCHOOL BOARD! If a teacher is doing great, the school board should vote to give them a raise!!! Yet very few that I’ve ever heard of do that! Instead, we’ll allow the legislature to create a BLANKET RAISE FOR EVERYONE EVEN THOUGH WE’RE 49TH IN EDUCATION AND HAVEN’T IMPROVED SINCE COVID! Please don’t re-elect the people who work at Lincoln and 23rd who vote for this nonsense.

Garfield Co. Conservation Coalition’s Response To Gov. Stitt’s State Of The State – Stand With Us; Stand With Trump

The Garfield County Conservation Coalition – this is the group that’s fighting a huge solar installation north of Enid. They have a point. Governor Stitt should stand with Trump as a Republican and QUIT SHOVING THE GREEN AGENDA DOWN OUR THROATS.

Trump’s Education Department Ends Biden’s Harmful Title IX Social Experiment On Children

The Federalist – I would say that maybe this would end the fights between parents and administration over things like boys in girl’s bathrooms, but since so many schools are staffed with progressive ideologues today, the chances of this kind of thing will probably not go down as much as we’d like. Still and all, don’t let schools push you around parents! Trump has wiped out of existence all the progressive BS.

February 11, 2025 0

Usurping Local Control – Cell Phone Restrictions In Oklahoma – NO on SB1389 and HB1276

Here is the cell phone bill, by Senate Education Committee Vice-Chair, Ally Seifried; SB139. There is also a companion bill run by Representative Chad Caldwell in the House, HB1276 which has already passed its first Committee hurdle.

According to a press release sent out by Senate Media, the bill, “empower[s] schools to adopt ‘bell to bell’ cell phone policies”, yet the bill summary says, “An Act relating to schools; requiring school district boards of education to adopt a policy prohibiting use of cell phones while on campus during certain time period”. Requiring and ’empowering’ do not have the same meaning – the first includes force.

In fact, the bill goes on to say that it will require schools to set discipline policies for students who break the school’s required policy on cell phone use (the force part). Originally, it had allotted up to 2 million taxpayer dollars (“if available”, whatever that means) to be granted to middle and high schools so they can buy something to STORE cell phones during the day. Because a basket can’t hold cell phones in a classroom and we need a cabinet (or something) for THE SCHOOL to hold EVERY STUDENT’S cell phone.

Problems With The Bill

What is the point of a school board? According to state law, individual local school boards have the right and ability to set policy – including policy over cell phones. This bill actively usurps local school board authority by forcing them to create a policy. On one hand, we expect parents to execute control over their minor children, yet so much of what the state does actually removes parental executive control in favor of a government policy, rule or law. How can a parent execute parental control if we keep removing their executive function?
This is NEW LAW. How many laws do Oklahomans need to restrain them – or, in this case, their children? What about schools? Could an argument be made that part of the reason public schools in Oklahoma are failing is that they are constrained by state laws that may not have been needed at the local level? How many laws does Oklahoma actually need – especially when this one has no teeth, making it a suggestion.
This law forces schools to create disciplinary actions to be meted out when students break cell phone policy. What happens if a school DOESN’T create a cell phone policy? What happens if they don’t create a discipline policy? How many times has state law required schools to create a policy, but then never forced the school to write the policy when they don’t? Tulsa attorney Maria Seidler has told us numerous times, for example, that public schools don’t adhere to all of Oklahoma’s Parental Rights law, but there isn’t an enforcement mechanism in the law to make them, forcing parents to use their own money to sue schools while schools use taxpayer dollars to fight them. How many times has the state forced schools to follow the policies they DO create – about bathrooms, free speech, bullying, or student safety, for example? This law, then, would be meaningless, just like so many others our legislature creates, because there isn’t a mechanism of enforcement.
Our state has real problems with school employees who misuse and abuse children in their care. We have only to look at the number of multi-million dollar lawsuits being settled by schools in the last several years like Kingfisher and Ninnekah and Salina and Perry and Shawnee and Wewoka… Yet, parents who suggest CCTV for classrooms are confronted with an uproar like a tsunami from certain teachers and administrators against such a thing. Now, we want to remove the only way students have to ‘catch’ a school employee doing something they shouldn’t be doing. Just this thought should be concerning.
So much learning is now done on computers but somehow the kid’s cell phones are causing distraction? How does that work? Countless studies have shown that computer learning isn’t the best thing for students, but not only do we still do it, there are real problems with students accessing porn and other sites, as former Oklahoma resident Denise Roberts told us during an interview on our podcast – but cell phones are the problem?
This is a national movement. Why? Why we are attempting to do what so many other states are doing? Why do we play Follow The Leader so often in Oklahoma when we’re an individual state. What about, “I don’t care what the other kids do”. What about being an “laboratories of Democracy“?
Each and every teacher could create their own class rules about cell phones, but we’re not letting them – “Put the phones in the basket on my desk until the end of class everyone”. We’re telling teachers that we don’t trust them with a policy over a cell phone, but you trust them to educate the kids in their class? How much sense does that make? This is all talk out of both sides of the mouth of the legislature – here, have more money teachers – but you can’t manage your own classroom.

Bottom line. This is a bill in search of a problem that already has a solution. This isn’t even a bandaid for the horrible educational results we have in this state. This bill is vanity, not good governance.

Contact the Senate Education Committee and ask them to say NO to SB1389.

adam.pugh@oksenate.gov, ally.seifried@oksenate.gov, dusty.deevers@oksenate.gov, joanna.dossett@oksenate.gov, carri.hicks@oksenate.gov, kelly.hines@oksenate.gov, mark.mann@oksenate.gov, roland.pederson@oksenate.gov, dave.rader@oksenate.gov, aaron.reinhardt@oksenate.gov, kendal.sacchieri@oksenate.gov

February 10, 2025 0

Community Schools Are The Marxist Solution For Oklahoma Schools – Vote NO on HB1467 by West

Wednesday of this week (2.12.25) Representative Tammy West’s bill to “authorizing the State Board of Education to assist in establishing Community School pilot projects” is once again being heard in the Common Education Committee.

This is a national move to create schools that are all things to all parents – they would include everything from health care to psychological counseling. Here is a screenshot from the front page of their website.

Below is a one-pager I wrote when this bill first came up in 2022. In fact, that should say something in and of itself. Representative West keeps introducing this bill and it keeps getting voted down. Is it because our schools are already socially Marxist? Why does she keep bringing this up?

But then what do we know? When we wrote to the Common Education Committee members to ask them to vote against the bill, Former Senate author for West (and no longer in the senate) Dewayne Pemberton, assured members that he had been to a Community School in Tulsa (which made one of our points by the way) and that he hadn’t seen Karl Marx hiding behind the shrubs.

What Are Some Concerns With Community Schools?

HB3374 – Tammy West and Pemberton (Senate) – Community schools; authorizing the State Board of Education to assist in establishing community school pilot projects

(2025 BILL IS HB1647)

1. President Obama placed Full Service Community Schools into the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2016. They are called “full service” schools because they provide every need for a child that a family/parent would including education, counseling services, healthcare and nutrition. (https://www2.ed.gov/programs/communityschools/index.html)

2. The Biden Administration provided grants for Full Service Community Schools programs (https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-discretionary-grants-support-services/school-choice-improvement-programs/full-service-community-schools-program-fscs/) through President Obama’s reauthorization of ESEA – the Every Student Succeeds Act.

3. There are two national organizations which help support the Community Schools model – Community Schools (communityschools.org) and the National Center For Community Schools (nccs.org)

a. Community Schools have an agenda called “Policy by The People” the tenets for which they are lobbying Congress (https://www.communityschools.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/01/2021-01-13_IEL_PolicybythePeopleagenda_FINAL.pdf). Here are a few points from their agenda which essentially involves expanding government programming and funding of every service involving children:

– Prioritization of populations that have historically experienced systemic racism, discrimination, and/or disinvestment

– End the school to prison pipeline/school pushout crisis through stronger enforcement of civil rights protections and incentives for a restorative approach including restorative justice, trauma-informed practices, and hiring additional school counselors, social workers, and psychologists

– Raise the minimum wage to $15/hour and/or establish a universal basic income

b. National Center For Community Schools follow three principles: Transformation, Equity and Excellence. The ‘Equity’ portion of the website says the following: Strong community schools counter systemic racism, increase opportunity, and move society toward equity and justice. Too many children are expected to overcome structures designed to diminish them. Schools should model anti-racism, not perpetuate systems that divide us and limit opportunity. We want students to feel not just welcomed, but valued for their race, religion, identification, origin, family, and community.

4. Community Schools follow the model proposed by John Dewey (a socialist with Marxist views often considered the father of modern education) of a ‘democratic school-based social center’ where the school provided every possible need for students. An article in the AFT’s American Educator Magazine in Summer of 2009 – “The Enduring Appeal of Community Schools” – provides a quote from Dewey’s 1902 address, “The School as Social Centre”, “The conception of the school as a social centre is born of our entire democratic movement. Everywhere we see signs of the growing recognition that the community owes to each one of its members the fullest opportunity for development.” This, a quote which can’t help comparison to the quote of Marx, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”.

5. Enshrining a Community Schools pilot program in law while allowing the OSDE to create rules for that program is a recipe for creating further progressive, leftist inroads into the education of our children.

6. Oklahoma communities HAVE BEEN creating their own Community Schools independent of state law. The only reason to pass a state law, then, would be to allow the growth of the Community Schools movement throughout Oklahoma and provide the necessary validation for the Federal Government to provide tax dollars for these schools. Federal/State tax dollars should NOT be provided for socialist, progressive education efforts in this country, let alone this state.

Please write the members of the Common Education Committee and ask for their NO vote on HB1467 by West. Just copy and paste the block of addresses and put them into your ‘to’ field.

dick.lowe@okhouse.gov, danny.sterling@okhouse.gov, chris.banning@okhouse.gov, chad.caldwell@okhouse.gov, rob.hall@okhouse.gov, molly.jenkins@okhouse.gov, ronny.johns@okhouse.gov, cody.maynard@okhouse.gov, ellen.pogemiller@okhouse.gov, jacob.rosecrants@okhouse.gov, mark.tedford@okhouse.gov

February 10, 2025 1

Oklahoma Taxpayers Get Soaked By Canoo – And Other Taxpayer-Financed Violations Of The Free Market

In case you missed it, The Federalist ran an article I authored last week, “Oklahoma Republicans Are Helping Green Energy Cronies Scam Taxpayers Out Of Billions“. Check it out. I know both the Federalist and I would love that – but so will you. You may not know exactly how much of your hard-earned dollars are being GIVEN to PRIVATE companies in Oklahoma – but then, maybe you do and you’re just glad that Governor Stitt and his hand-picked Commerce Department staff is making sure that your kids have somewhere to work in Oklahoma so they can stay here after graduating college.

But wait. Is that really a reason for Republicans who love to use the expression ‘free market’ in their campaign literature, to GIFT private companies tax dollars.

Last Friday (2.7.25), in a special ROPE Report podcast at 1pm, Oklahoma Representative Jay Steagall was with me to talk about the ‘free market’ and Oklahoma tax incentives. Below is a clip in which Rep. Steagall and I make sure that everyone watching understands the concept of FREE MARKET ECONOMICS. What is that exactly? Watch below and find out.

So, is it appropriate for the legislature to appropriate your tax dollars, give it to another business which has the ability to make dollars on their own in the free market and then tell you that they’re doing it to create jobs? NO NO NO NO NO. I think you might get the idea.

In fact, last week, I wrote another article – this time for just the website – titled, “Gov. Stitt’s Commerce Department Gives Multiple MILLIONS Of Taxpayer Dollars To Paycom And Love’s Through Quality Jobs Incentives“. I think this should be required reading for EVERY TAXPAYER IN OKLAHOMA – and not just because I wrote it – because every taxpayer should know that their taxdollars are going to prop up private companies that can pay for their own cost of doing business.

We get our property taken from us and sold at auction if we don’t pay our property taxes. If we don’t pay our income taxes, the government seizes our bank accounts, fines us, or throws us in jail until we do.

And yet, MULTI-BILLION dollar privately held companies can use our hard-earned dollars to make more money whether we like it or not.

And here’s more about the Canoo debacle that you might not know.

Wow! How do you like THEM apples? Not only did Canoo soak Oklahoma tax payers for tax dollars as incentives to help them start a business that WAS NEVER GOING TO GET OFF THE GROUND, employees that more than likely didn’t even live in Oklahoma and were hired just in time to get state and local (Oklahoma City) incentives, got paid Oklahoma unemployment. I’m imagining that Canoo never funded their portion of their employees unemployment, but I don’t know for a fact.

Rep. Steagall has a bill to reduce Income Tax this year on a trajectory to complete removal. Governor Stitt has also said that he wants to remove Income Tax. Yet here’s the headline screaming from an article in the Oklahoma Voice last week, “Oklahoma legislative leaders hesitant to cut income tax“. WHAT? WHAT? Our ‘legislative leaders’ are Republican. Whatever happened to the Republican concept of smaller government and minimal taxation as tenets of the Republican platform? What about the other tenet of the platform – FREE ENTERPRISE!??

Please, contact your Representative AND Senator. Tell them you expect them to lower the state Income Tax with a plan in place to phase it out – THIS SESSION. And you might mention that one of the things they could do to afford it, was to QUIT GIVING BILLIONAIRES AND PRIVATE GREEN ENERGY COMPANIES our tax dollars – FOR A START!

February 10, 2025 1

Law Enforcement Use Of ‘FLOCK’ Camera Surveillance in Oklahoma Does Not Protect Our Constitutional Rights

Friday morning at 9am on the regular ROPE Report podcast, Michael and I welcomed Oklahoma Representative Tom Gann and former Logan County Commissioner, Marven Goodman, to talk about law enforcement surveillance of Oklahoma citizens through Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs). This is a HUGE topic, as there are two bills in the legislature this session that need to be stopped – SB857 and HB1626.

During October of last year, Gann and Goodman discussed the problems with Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs – of which the brand Flock Safety – is probably the best known) at an Interim Study which Michael and I and our friend, Whitney Mullica from PikeOffOTA discussed via podcast, which you can find here. During that Interim Study, the video below was included. I am including it here, because so many people say things like, “If I’m not doing anything wrong, what does it matter?” They don’t realize exactly what can happen to them if they’re surveilled. Well, this man, who was simply traveling through Oklahoma did nothing wrong and yet he was pulled over and subjected to questioning and even a warrantless search by the law enforcement officer (LEO) that conducted the stop.

Hopefully, after that short – but painful – video, you now understand the reason why ALPRs are not a viable way of policing if citizens are to keep their Constitutional rights intact.

But it’s more than that. In Oklahoma, the use of ALPRs followed the genesis of a state law that required Oklahomans to buy uninsured motorist insurance. Rep. Gann and I discuss this fact in the clip below.

So why were Oklahomans required to buy ‘uninsured’ motorist protection? We’re 28th in Oklahoma in uninsured motorist coverage EVEN WITH the cameras, so what’s the point? Maybe a revenue stream for the Oklahoma District Attorney Council (ODAC)? According to Rep. Gann, the ODAC got ‘tired’ of coming before the legislature to seek funding and utilizing ALPRs to catch people without uninsured motorist coverage provided funding outside the legislative appropriation process – a process that also provides transparency for Oklahoma taxpayers that this group now DOESN’T HAVE.

But it gets worse – LEOs aren’t even legally allowed to use ALPR data the way it was used in the traffic stop above. How is it that a law enforcement agency is using technology illegally? Kind of smarts the sensibilities a bit, doesn’t it?

In the final video clip I’m going to add here, Rep. Gann points out that he’s asked how LEOs can be using this data illegally, but he gets no answer. In addition, even if a LEO does find a crime using this technology, NO PART OF THE DATA CAN BE USED IN COURT because we don’t have laws in Oklahoma that allow LEOs to collect the data in the first place. In fact, the man in the first video, sued Oklahoma and won because of that reason.

Rep. Gann and Michael talk about the Carpenter case – where cell phone data was collected by LEOs on a citizen and used against him. He then sued the government and won in the Supreme Court because this kind of tracking via technology is a violation of so many of our Constitutional rights to privacy.

This technology is also used to capture data that is then provided to OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT entities other than the one by which it was collected. So, for example, the City of Edmond collects data from ALPRs and stores the data, which can the be used by the ATF, or another state, or the FBI or the CIA – it’s ridiculous how many agencies can be allowed to see/use the data when it’s not even lawful to collect that data on residents in the state! Often, law enforcement entities – like Edmond – refuse to release the lists of law enforcement agencies using their ALPR data to the citizens they are surveilling!

Please contact your legislators – both Senators and Representatives – and ask them to VOTE NO on both SB857 and HB1626, which seek to put ‘guardrails’ (as explained to me by House author Representative John George) around the way in which law enforcement uses ALPR cameras.

Here is some suggested wording:

Dear ___________,

Please vote not on both SB857 and HB1626, seeking to put regulations around the use of ALPR (Flock Safety) cameras for law enforcement personnel in the state.

These cameras are only authorized for one use – to determine whether residents have uninsured motorist insurance. Oklahoma is 28th in the nation in uninsured motorist coverage. Clearly, the cameras aren’t solving that problem.

In addition, it’s a violation of my right to be forced to buy insurance I can choose to buy on my own.

The legislation allowing the use of ALPR cameras must be – at least – studied and completely revised, and – at most – completely repealed from law.

Protecting the individual rights of Oklahomans is the only reason you are elected by The People. Please protect my rights by working to stop the illegal surveillance of Oklahoma citizens via ALPR cameras.

Thank you,

February 10, 2025 0

Senator Jett, Rep. Jim Shaw and Oklahoma Donkey Dairy Farmer, Saundra Traywick – Why Dumping Human Waste On Farmland Needs To Stop

Wednesday, February 7th, Michael and I were joined on the ROPE Report podcast by Senator Shane Jett, Representative Jim Shaw and Saundra Traywick to talk about efforts in the Oklahoma legislature to ban ‘biosolids’ – aka humanure, aka biosludge – from use on Oklahoma farmland. You can find the full LIVE broadcast on both our YouTube and Rumble channels.

For many years, Saundra has been sounding the alarm about this stuff that has such an horrific scent that you can smell it for miles and, up close, almost has a feel it’s so strong.

For many years, few have wanted to entertain Saundra’s concerns about what was in it to cause such an odor. Even after stories came to light in the media about towns in Maine and Texas where animals exposed to the sludge were dying and treated farmland lay in ruins from exposure to PFAs, or forever chemicals, found in industrial coating processes and things like firefighting foam.

Her Senator, Shane Jett, got it though. In 2023, he wrote a bill attempting to curtail the dumping of this toxic substance on Oklahoma farmland, but it didn’t even get a hearing. In 2024, SB874 was re-introduced, made it all the way through the Senate and then died on its way to the House.

Last August, Ben Felder with Investigate Midwest came to Luther and wrote a very long and complete article about the issues surrounding the use of human sewage waste on farmland and its link to Maine and Texas farms polluted with PFAs.

In this clip, we talk about how farmers who use this sludge get it for free from a private company who works with the government (the City of Oklahoma City) to remove their sewage waste while they’re assuring the farmers taking the sludge that it’s safe and effective (sort of like a vaccine we’ve heard about). As with so many things, the application of toxic wastewater to farmland apparently has everything to do with money and very little to do with the safety of the farmers using it and the people eating whatever comes off it.

During another part of the video Representative Jim Shaw spent some time talking about how, without regulation, companies tend to do whatever benefits them – whether it’s spraying farmland with human poop, or putting in a carbon capture facility because, well, tax incentives.

As Rep. Shaw says, Oklahoma has to do better at protecting its citizens and that’s what we have to do this year.

Saundra has created a list of legislation to support and oppose. Check the list out and be familiar with some of the issues. These are the bills that MUST be dealt with this year to help solve the problem of toxic sludge dumping. Make sure to contact your Representatives and Senators and let them know how you expect them to vote should they make it to the floor this session. This practice of biosludge dumping may happen in the rural areas of our state, but depending on what is then grown in that soil, it could absolutely affect you and your health as well.

SUPPORT

HB 1726 – prohibiting land application, spreading, sale, and distribution of biosolids

SB 268 – preventing the spread and application of biosolids for farmland

SB 620 – forces those who use biosolids to have to disclose that they have used it

OPPOSE

SB 271 – Exempts cities and wastewater companies from liability for contaminating rural communities, and allows other states to dump their toxic biosludge on Oklahoma as long as it’s within our negligent (currently non-existent) PFAS regulations!

SB 3 – a temporary fix for biosolid application

February 9, 2025 0

Lots Of Dark Money and PACs Fueling Barbara Peck’s Ward 3 Oklahoma City Council Campaign

The Ward 3 City Council race is beginning to blow up as it heads into the stretch for the finish line with voters going to the polls on Tuesday, February 11th.

Two candidates are vying for the Ward 3 seat, the incumbent, Barbara Peck and her challenger, Katrina Avers.

Ward 3 contains the City of Mustang and the Will Rogers International Airport.

NonDoc hosted a candidate forum with both candidates. The area including Ward 3 is growing at a very fast pace. Annexation from Oklahoma City and a large $100 million dollar amphitheater has concerned residents of the Ward.

Candidate positions aside, when former ROPE Board Member Julia Seay sent me the direct mail piece published at the top of the article, it felt important to look into exactly who was funding both candidates.

The address of the direct mail piece is 6608 N. Western Avenue #1392, Oklahoma City, OK 73116. There is a phone number listed as 405-534-4870, but it is clearly a Google number with a generic “leave a message” voice note. The card says it is “authorized and paid for by The Revitalization Project”.

The address goes to the Nichols Hills Pack-n-Ship. If you’ve read any of my articles on Dark Money in Oklahoma, you’ll know that this is an often-used address in the Dark Money world. It was used to knock out Ronda Peterson in Edmond’s HD39 election. In addition, it was also used for numerous other PACS during the 2022 election cycle.

Consequently, I looked up The Revitalization Project. Here’s what I found:

There is no listed entity for them as an Oklahoma registered PAC in the Guardian System on the Oklahoma Ethics Commission website.
There is no listing for them as a PAC on the FEC website (Federal Election Commission).
There is, however, an organization that I found with the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool.

Consequently, we know that The Revitalization Project is NOT A PAC, it is a 501C-4 organization that is OPERATING AS A PAC.

The Revitalization Project was begun with a Dayton, Ohio address and in 2010. This is the year the Citizens United court case opened the door for dark money funding of political campaigns. I am going to paste a copy of the Dark Money flow chart I made in 2022 below for reference.

For the first several years, there were no expenditures and post cards were filed as the organization had less than $50k in filings. The organization has changed it’s structure several times over the past decade, but in 2017 and 2018, Demetria Gill was identified as the President, Norma Church was the Secretary and Evan Handy the Treasurer.

Evan Handy is the manager of South Creek Group (SCG), a political consulting group linked with numerous Dark Money PACS/501C-4’s in my 2022 research – as with the Advance Oklahoma and Build and Protect PACs above. In 2020, only Alex Mendez was listed as Director, with no one else associated with the organization and in 2022 the address for The Revitalization Project changed from Dayton, to Springfield, Virginia.

Looking through the organizations 990’s, several names identified with Dark Money PACs in 2022 were listed. In 2020, the C4 received $160k from America’s Values First. In 2021 they received money from the Commonwealth Conservative Fund and in 2022, they donated to Americans United for Values ($100k), Affordable Energy PAC ($155k), A Public Voice ($72k) and $750k to the American Exceptionalism Institute to name a few.

Why in the world, is an organization like this involved in an Oklahoma City Council Race?

This got me more curious, so I went to the City of Oklahoma City ethics filings for Ward 3.

This was fascinating.

BARBARA PECK

Up to now, Barbara Peck has spent a little over $47 thousand dollars.

She’s received money from the Oklahoma Realtor’s PAC ($2500), OMCA PAC (Oklahoma Municipal Contractors $2500) and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber PAC ($4000), Oklahoma Firefighters Association PAC ($5000)
In individual contributions, she’s had $2500 contributed by Terry Zerby (a developer), PB Odom – a developer – $1000 and a bit over $1000 by Xavier Neira – a Norman developer – and 2 donations from Tyler Media for $800. There are other $500 from developers and contractors as well

Then, there’s this rather large donation:

KATRINA AVERS

Dr. Avers has, up to now, spent a bit over $7600.

Her largest donations have been individuals: Dr. Warren G. Low ($3300) and his wife Peggy ($3300). The second highest have been 2, $1000 donations from Randy and Lana Elliott Construction Unlimited.

The rest of her donations have been under $500.

CLOSING

Look, I understand that Peck is the incumbent in an Oklahoma City Ward with a lot of growth and growth potential, but there is an ENORMOUS difference in these two candidates in terms of their fund raising. It is apparent that Peck’s supporters are hoping (nay, expecting) to see quite a bit of work in the Ward.

Is that all that good governance is about? Creating growth and jobs? In this Ward – after the million dollars worth of amphitheater was voted down by residents – I don’t think so.

February 6, 2025 0

Garfield Co. Conservation Coalition’s Response To Gov. Stitt’s State Of The State – Stand With Us; Stand With Trump

LETTER TO GOVERNOR STITT CONCERNING CONTRARY VIEWS FROM TRUMP ENERGY POLICIES

February 4, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dear Governor Stitt,

We are writing to you today to ask why you are contrary to President Trump’s stance on so called “green energy?” President Trump has made it clear that he opposes wind turbines, solar complexes, and even new long-range transmission lines. President Trump has stated that not one wind turbine would be built under his administration, he has also said that no one wants the solar complexes that cover miles and miles with solar panels made in China. President Trump’s National Emergency Energy Order has frozen the funds for the Biden Administration’s so called Inflation Reduction Act, aka, the Green New Deal as we understand.

Why are you still supporting the Green New Deal in Oklahoma? You commented in your State of the State Address today that, “Americans are moving away from the extremes and turning back to the values that have always defined our success: personal responsibility, resilience, family values, and hard work. …Not extreme gender ideology, Green New Deals, or open borders.” Will you commit to a moratorium on the green new deal in Oklahoma?

You also spoke about the fact that, “Here in Oklahoma, we have business friendly policies and the most affordable, reliable energy anywhere thanks to limited government, common sense, and clean burning natural gas.” Oklahomans have seen an increase of 35% on electricity bills and thousands of Oklahomans are standing up against the encroachment of these “green energy” corporations in their communities and near their homes. But the people of Oklahoma are not able to protect their non-participating land because our state lacks any site planning, coordination, approvals, oversight, or permitting for these projects! These corporations like to stay in the shadows and enjoy no oversight while bulldozing over the citizens’ rights surrounding the projects.

This is not an occurrence that should be boasted about by the Governor that swore an oath to protect the citizens of his state. These projects are financed with federal and state subsidies, and the “green energy” corporations are targeting Oklahoma to fill their pockets with these subsidies BECAUSE there is a lack of regulations and oversight to protect the people. The people of Oklahoma receive very little back for their sacrifice.

If you are serious when you say you want to “protect the Oklahoma way of life” then you must implement an immediate and emergency moratorium on industrial solar complexes, wind turbine complexes, and merchant private transmission lines currently under construction or in the proposal process to preserve the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of acres of productive Oklahoma farmland targeted for these projects.

Oklahoma farmers and ranchers are doing everything they can to defend the conversion of agricultural land into industrial solar complexes, wind turbine complexes, and transmission corridors, we are asking you as Governor to stand with us!

NeAnne Clinton, President

Lea Smith, Vice President

Suzanne Hunter, Secretary

Laura Hofferber, Treasurer

February 4, 2025 1

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