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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.

Weekly News Headlines and Commentary – Week of 2.3.25

This week’s headlines include lists of legislation posted to the site to watch for this year’s legislative session. More items will be posted this week.

New Feature: Weekly News Headlines And Commentary – Week of 12.30.24

Every week for our newsletter, I compile a list of news articles and add a bit of commentary. Because I just need another thing to do in the week, I’m going to begin posting those here on the website as well. Hopefully, this posting will make it easier for readers to share!

PS: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Are state report cards too good to be true?

KTUL Tulsa – A really good story about how Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters has allowed school report cards to be changed to show students performing MUCH better than they are in reality. This is truly awful and yet, not only has it happened, but even after the public has been notified, nothing appears to be in the works to restore transparency and solve the problem.

The New House Committee System of Consolidated Power: A Death Blow To Real Wind Turbine Reform?

Jason Murphey – Recently, our new speaker-elect, Kyle Hilbert, chose to make sweeping changes in the way committees in the House are constructed. Murphey explains the problem with the new system – basically that the people will be locked out (which is what Representative Tom Gann warned when he ran against him for Speaker). Please read and share.

Gann Proposes Sweeping Reforms To Restore Transparency To House Of Representatives

Oklahoma House Media – Tom Gann essentially explains what he would have done if he were speaker and what SHOULD be done now that speaker-elect Hilbert will take the reins of the House (unless there is a mutiny and the House members turn on Hilbert and vote for Gann – I suggest we all get on our knees and pray for that outcome). Again, please read and share. Knowledge can translate to power if it is used correctly.

Oklahoma To Obtain Drone Monitoring Systems After Mysterious Sightings In Other States

Oklahoma Voice – From the article: “Drones and unmanned aerial systems are an exciting new industry here in Oklahoma,” Stitt said. “We want to make sure that industry has room to thrive.”

Because the technology is new, the state doesn’t have all the measures in place to ensure protection from those who wish to cause harm, Stitt said.

“The activity happening in New Jersey and across the country is unsettling,” Tipton said in a statement. “While we’ve only had a few reports of drone activity in Oklahoma, we want to be ready in case the need arises.”

If you don’t see how absolutely RIDICULOUS the nonsense in yellow is, I’m not sure what to do to help you. Drones are absolutely the WORST for breaching personal liberty/privacy and here is our Governor using unknown tax dollars for unknown surveillance purposes. FILE UNDER REALLY BAD FOR OKLAHOMAN’S PERSONAL LIBERTY AND PRIVACY.

‘Godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton Warns of Existential Threat to Humanity Within A Decade

Breitbart – If you’ve not seen the movie Terminator (and if you haven’t, where have you been?) you’ll not really understand the horror AI can become. Once Skynet became aware, it declared war on humanity, creating robots with titanium skeletons covered in human skin, to seek out and destroy any humans who had survived the nuclear war it started to remove them from the earth.

I get it. It was a movie. But I would like to draw attention to one thing – a person actually – George Orwell. If Orwell could so accurately predict the hell of authoritarian government that today we’re able to describe many government programs as ‘Orwellian’, let’s not be so quick to overlook Cameron and Gayle Hurd’s tale of computer programming gone awry.

Not only that, but AI is a HUGE energy hog and will require “even more energy than we thought“. Where will that come from? Wind turbines? Solar installations? Toxic lithium batteries? Oklahoma legislators must get a handle on this NOW and we must make sure they do.

Osage Tribe Wins Again, Federal Judge Orders “Ejectment” Of 84 Wind Turbines By Next December

Robert Bryce; Substack – While this is certainly a win for the Osage tribe, who have been fighting this fight for years apparently, this is also a spectacular win against WIND ENERGY if for no other reason than this; Enel (the Italian wind energy company responsible for the turbines) has said it will take 300 million dollars to remove 84 turbines. That’s 3.6 million dollars per turbine.

Now think…you are a landowner who signs a contract for a wind turbine on your property. Are you going to be required to come up with 3.6 million dollars to remove that turbine once it’s broken beyond repair? Food for thought, huh?r

Blue Whale Materials Bartlesville expansion moving forward

FOX 23 News – So THIS is why Governor Stitt was in South Korea recently – to sign yet ANOTHER OUT OF STATE company to come here. So glad Oklahoma is “open for business”, Governor Stitt. Thanks to the dispersal of MORE tax dollars to new, private businesses – this time by the DOE in the amount of 100 million dollars – Blue Whale Materials can come into Bartlesville and recycle lithium batteries. Lithium is toxic to humans and the environment and has been the cause of numerous fires from solar installations to airplanes. Why do we keep chasing the GREEN AGENDA and putting Oklahomans at risk? I’m gonna guess dollars, because Blue Whale is – at best – only going to employ 100 people. But then, isn’t that what Canoo said, only to leave Oklahoma high and dry on every one of its promises?

What Homeschoolers Need To Know About the “Make Homeschool Safe Act”

HSLDA – Representative Amanda Swope and former Representative Joe Dorman of the Oklahoma Institute For Child Advocacy (I won’t help them out by providing a link to their organization), spent an entire interim study warning legislators about the hidden dangers of homeschooling, more than likely in preparation for legislation to curtail the practice in order to ‘make Oklahoma children safe’. Of course this is nonsense. Oklahoma is the only state in the union that promises unfettered homeschooling by way of its constitution and if you don’t believe me, visit our friends at the Constitutional Home Educators Alliance. Homeschoolers aren’t the ones in the news on a continual basis facing allegations of sexual – and other – misconduct with students. We need to watch out for this kind of legislation that would stifle the liberty Oklahoma homeschool students are famous for. Amanda Swope has since left the legislature, but OICA will not rest until the practice of schooling our own children has been hamstrung in the name of…wait for it…’safety’. Please continue to follow us for updates.

Recent Studies Freeze Climate Alarmist Claims

PJ Media – Just another reason why Governor Stitt should abandon his whole, “more of everything” approach to energy in Oklahoma. CO2 is good. Climate changes on a regular basis. End of discussion.

Seifried files bill empowering schools to adopt ‘bell to bell’ cell phone policies

Oklahoma Senate Media – Legislators to anyone asking them for public school legislation that would stop Common Core, or SEL, “We believe in LOCAL CONTROL. That’s for the school board to decide.” Oh, okay, WELL WHAT ABOUT THIS THEN? Massive overreach. Individual school boards should decide cell phone policy. What a giant bunch of baloney! Let’s make sure to tell Ms. Seifried that school boards decide school policy and that she should quit meddling in school board business.

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