Tuesday January 14, Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced a $474 million lawsuit against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Director Peter Flores. The lawsuit seeks compensation for the severe financial and operational strain that their failed border policies have placed on Oklahoma’s public schools.
Op/Ed: Leftist media in Tulsa are so predictable it gets boring. In print, broadcast and online, the local socialist/communist scribes continue to attack Republican officials to ridicule and diminish faith and constitutional governance. Recently our new Mayor Monroe Nichols reportedly said that “Tulsa’s focus should remain on ensuring public safety for all residents, regardless of immigration status. Nichols emphasized that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility and indicated his intention to prioritize trust and cooperation within Tulsa’s diverse communities.”
This writer is scheduled to interview Mayor Nichols before the end of the month on this and many other topics but, in advance, we just have to ask: What rights remain that are exclusively held by citizens? Abundant costs of citizenship are obvious, but what benefits remain exclusively for citizens?
The Sooner State in 2024 rose 30 spots from its 2023 ranking, according to U-Haul® Growth Index data analyzing one-way customer transactions during the past year. It was the most gained by any state. Prior to 2024, the last time Oklahoma was a net-gain state (with more arrivals than departures) was 2020.
In a release today, the data shows U-Haul customers coming to Oklahoma accounted for 50.4% of all one-way traffic in and out of the state (49.6% departures) last year. Looking at year-over-year changes, U-Haul arrivals into Oklahoma rose 2% while departures fell 2% in 2024.
One of the lower-key victories of the 2024 Oklahoma legislative session was passage of Senate Bill 362, which stated that Oklahoma public-school teachers “shall be prohibited from using the three-cueing system model of teaching students to read” starting in the 2025-2026 school year.
Under the three-cueing method, students are encouraged to guess words based on associated pictures and context, and to memorize entire words, rather than learn to sound them out phonetically.
APMreports has noted “that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked” three-cueing, while ExcelinEd in Action noted the three-cueing system “can be boiled down to this: Teachers using this method instruct students to guess.”
Political parties will be required to honor the will of their electorate or bear the cost when House Bill 1010, filed this week by Rep. Molly Jenkins, R-Coyle, becomes law.
Jenkins filed HB1010 in response to actions by a small group of elite National Democrat Party power brokers after they removed the candidate chosen in the March Oklahoma Democrat presidential preferential primary from the ballot.
Jenkins’ proposal would require political parties to honor the will of their voters or reimburse taxpayers for the cost of the election. An Oklahoma law requiring political accountability.
