Special session: The Oklahoma Legislature will resume its special session from earlier this session on Wednesday.
Originally convened in May, concurrent with the regular session, the special — or, more properly, extraordinary — session is to address the distribution of $1.8 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Last week, a joint special committee completed its job of recommending how the money is to be spent, and indications are that the House and Senate would come back on Wednesday, hustle the legislation through and adjourn on Friday.
The special session will also take up the dispensing of $250 million set aside during the spring for rural economic development.
Highly rated: Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony kept up his barrage against his two fellow commissioners and the agreement that has caused utility rates to rise to pay off the huge fuel bills of electricity suppliers during the 2021 deep freeze.
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In a written statement, Anthony bemoaned “an appalling failure to protect ratepayers at every level of state government.”
He said the principal and interest for the ratepayer-backed bonds issued to cover the utilities’ costs will total at least $4.7 billion, or $1 billion more than the original estimate.
Anthony issued a 74-page “report card” on which he gives the Oklahoma Legislature a “D” and everyone else an “F” for their state’s handling of the matter.
Campaigns and elections: Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Kendra Horn said she’s been endorsed by Enid attorney Stephen Jones, a longtime Republican stalwart and state party chairman who challenged the legality of the special election in which Horn is a candidate.
Horn is up against Republican 2nd District Congressman Markwayne Mullin and two others in the Nov. 8 general election.
Jones argued unsuccessfully that Oklahoma could not hold a special election to replace U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, who is retiring midterm at the end of the year, until Inhofe actually leaves office. In a short video, Jones said Horn is a moderate and “a workhorse, not a show horse.”
Horn also announced an endorsement from Steven Agee, another Republican and dean emeritus of the Meidners School of Business at Oklahoma City University and former chairman of the Oklahoma City Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
Gov. Kevin Stitt’s reelection campaign released an advertisement touting his handling of COVID-19.
“Gov. Stitt’s COVID policies helped 100,000 Oklahomans get back to work and resulted in the third-lowest unemployment rate in the nation. Today, Oklahoma continues to experience its lowest unemployment rate in state history and its greatest workforce participation rate in state history,” said the spot’s narrator.
The Commonwealth Fund, which measured states’ responses to COVID-19 by such things as adult vaccination rates, intensive care unit use, hospital admissions and COVID-related deaths, ranked Oklahoma’s 50th, ahead of only Mississippi.
Online: The Osage Nation has received a $13.9 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to provide 831 people, including 18 businesses and 128 farms, with high speed internet.
Also receiving federal broadband funds were Southern Plains Cable, an $8.1 million loan to provide service in south central Oklahoma, and Valliant Telephone Co., an $883,904 grant for service in Choctaw and McCurtain Counties.
LEO grants: Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor announced $2 million in state grants to 50 law enforcement agencies.
Recipients include: Bixby Police Department, $15,000; Broken Arrow PD, $30,000; Tulsa County District Attorney, $24,805; Mannford PD, $20,000; Osage County Sheriff’s Office, $15,863; Owasso PD, $20,000; Rogers County Sheriff’s Office, $20,000; Sapulpa PD, $20,000; Skiatook PD, $20,000; and Tulsa PD, $400,000.
Medicare: The Oklahoma Insurance Department’s annual Medicare webinars will be held at 10 a.m. every Tuesday in October, beginning Oct. 4.
Each webinar will cover a different Medicare topic.
See oid.ok.gov/2023-moep/ for information and registration.
Meetings and events: The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office and Oklahoma Press Association are holding a series of Open Records Act and Open Meetings Act seminars across the state, including one at 1 p.m. Oct. 4 at OSU-Tulsa.
The seminars are geared for local public officials.
Speakers will be Julie Pittman and Thomas Schneider of the attorney general’s office.
See okpress.com/seminars for more information.
Bottom lines: The Biden administration made federal disaster funds available for the Muscogee Nation for expenses occurred during the storms of May 2-8. … O’Connor joined 23 other attorneys general warning major credit card companies not to track firearm sales with distinct category codes.
— Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa World
Oklahoma was among the first states to implement universal pre-K, programs for 4-year-olds offered by public schools. Only eight states fund pre-K for all children. Ginnie Graham and Bob Doucette talk about the positive impacts of this program and more.
