Author Archives: Admin

Hobby Lobby sues over mandate

Staff Report

Today, Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a privately held retail chain with more than 500 arts and crafts stores in 41 states, filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, opposing the Health and Human Services “preventive services” mandate, which forces the Christian-owned-and-operated business to provide, without co-pay, the “morning after pill” and “week after pill” in their health insurance plan, or face crippling fines up to 1.3 million dollars per day.

“By being required to make a choice between sacrificing our faith or paying millions of dollars in fines, we essentially must choose which poison pill to swallow,” said David Green, Hobby Lobby CEO and founder. “We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”
 
Hobby Lobby is the largest and only non-Catholic-owned business to file a lawsuit against the HHS mandate, focusing sharp criticism on the administration’s regulation that forces all companies, regardless of religious conviction, to cover abortion-inducing drugs.
 
“Washington politicians cannot force families to abandon their faith just to earn a living,” said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.  “Every American, including family business owners like the Greens, should be free to live and do business according to their religious beliefs.”
 
Founded in an Oklahoma City garage in 1972, the Green family has grown Hobby Lobby from one 300-square-foot retail space into more than 500 stores in 41 states.
 
“It is by God’s grace and provision that Hobby Lobby has endured,” said Green.  “Therefore we seek to honor God by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles. The conflict for me is that our family is being forced to choose between following the laws of the country that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported our family and thousands of our employees and their families.”
 
The business’s lawsuit acts to preserve its right to carry out its mission free from government coercion.
 
There are now 27 separate lawsuits challenging the HHS mandate, which is a regulation under the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”). These HHS challenges were not affected by the Supreme Court’s June 28th ruling on the constitutionality of the “individual mandate.”
 
The Becket Fund led the charge against the unconstitutional HHS mandate, and along with Hobby Lobby represents: Wheaton College, Belmont Abbey College, Colorado Christian University, the Eternal Word Television Network, and Ave Maria University.
 
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a non-profit, public-interest legal and educational institute that protects the free expression of all faiths. The Becket Fund exists to vindicate a simple but frequently negated principle:  that because the religious impulse is natural to human beings, religious expressional is natural to human culture. 

OK cotton and oilseed forecast down

Staff Report

Production prospects increased for corn during the past month, while the production of cotton, soybeans, and peanuts are down from the August 1 forecast according to the September Crop Production report issued today by the USDA-NASS Oklahoma Field Office.

Production of corn for grain is forecast at 36.3 million bushels, up 10 percent from last month and 112 percent above 2011. An average yield of 110 bushels is expected from 330,000 harvested acres.

Production of all cotton is forecast at 170,000 bales, down 23 percent from the August 1 forecast but 95 percent above 2011. An average yield of 466 pounds is expected from 175,000 harvested acres.

Production of grain sorghum is forecast at 5.04 million bushels, unchanged from last month but 200 percent above 2011. An average yield of 28 bushels is expected from 180,000 harvested acres.

Peanut production is forecast at 77.0 million pounds, down 15 percent from a month ago but 30 percent above 2011. An average yield of 3,500 pounds is expected from 22,000 harvested acres.

Soybean production is forecast at 4.64 million bushels, down 20 percent from August 1 but 35 percent above last year. An average yield 16 bushels is expected from 290,000 harvested acres.

The entire Oklahoma report can be view online at: www.nass.usda.gov/ok under Recent Reports. The national database, Quick Stats, and all USDA-NASS reports are available on the agency’s web site www.nass.usda.gov. For more information on NASS surveys and reports, call the USDA-NASS Oklahoma Field Office at 800-525-9226.

State tax savings touted

Staff Report

Oklahoma taxpayers are set to realize savings through the implementation of a plan to modernize the way state government assigns the state’s fleet of several thousand vehicles.

Officials with the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) told House Government Modernization committee members today that 2012 legislation authored by state Rep. David Brumbaugh (R-Broken Arrow) and signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin will allow them to better analyze and track how state employees use state cars.

Brumbaugh’s legislation closed down loopholes that had exempted some state agencies from having to report vehicle-related data  to centralized fleet officials.

“With increased tracking of these vehicles, and with the closure of these loopholes state officials can plan on the wise disbursement of fleet resources so as the maximize savings on behalf of the taxpayer,” said Brumbaugh.

Speaking on behalf of the OMES, John Morrison told committee members that his agency plans to deploy a variety of technologies to allow multiple agencies to access state fleet cars. The should allow OMES to ensure each car services more agency customers and could allow the fleet to downsize.

Committee members also received testimony from Oklahoma Energy Secretary Michael Ming regarding Governor Fallin’s plan to convert the fleet to vehicles capable of using CNG. Oklahoma continues to lead negotiations with auto manufacturers to drive down the cost of CNG vehicles so that a cost savings could be realized as soon as the second year following the deploying of each CNG vehicle.

Government Modernization Committee Chairman Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, said the committee’s study of the state fleet would likely be a precursor to aggressive fleet reform legislation during the upcoming legislative session.

The committee will return on Thursday to explore additional ideas for cost savings and efficiency. 

Inhofe condemns embassy attacks

Staff Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) today responded to the embassy attacks in Cairo and Benghazi that resulted in the death of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya:

“We mourn the tragic murder of Ambassador John Christopher Stevens, a friend whom I met with in February of this year, and the three others.  These individuals lost their lives in service to their country, and Ambassador Stevens was a brave American who was acting to protect his fellow citizens.  Kay and I offer our prayers to their families.

“These attacks, the murder of our ambassador, and the disgraceful treatment of his body must have consequences.  The timing of this on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11 is more than just coincidence.  Sadly, America has suffered as a result of President Obama’s failure to lead and his failed foreign policy of appeasement and apology.  The world must know beyond doubt that America will not allow these types of attacks on our people.  Obama’s failed leadership is in direct contrast with the Ambassador Stevens brave leadership and effort to protect Americans at the consulate.

“There are many disturbing facts about these attacks that raise many troubling questions.  For this reason, today I am calling on Chairmen Levin and Kerry to hold hearings immediately on the lack of intelligence, security, and appropriate response.  We must have answers to these questions to prevent similar attacks in the future.”

Democrats omitted much more

Staff Report

TheBlaze is reporting that the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and GOP supporters are slamming the Democratic Party for omitting strong language against Hamas and the Palestinian “right of return” from its 2012 platform, language that was part of the 2008 Democratic platform.

This is yet another significant omission — and it was not later fixed — contrary to the party’s reinstating language referring to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

In 2008, the Democratic platform included the statement that Hamas – the group that rules Gaza and which the State Department defines as a terrorist group – must renounce terrorism. The platform then stated: "The United States and its Quartet partners should continue to isolate Hamas until it renounces terrorism, recognizes Israel’s right to exist, and abides by past agreements."
 
That language is now gone. In fact, the word “Hamas” doesn’t appear at all in the 2012 platform.
 
Also in 2008, the Democratic platform stated: "The creation of a Palestinian state through final status negotiations, together with an international compensation mechanism, should resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees by allowing them to settle there, rather than in Israel."
 
The Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas are demanding what they call a “right of return” for Palestinian refugees and all their descendants, that is, a whopping five million people moving into the territory that is today the State of Israel; however, less than 1% — only 30,000 Arabs — actually ever lived in Palestine before 1948 and are still alive today. If five million Palestinians move to Israel, the question is: Where are the Israelis expected to go? The “right of return” implicitly means a destruction of the Jewish state through demography. In 2008, the Democratic platform said the refugees should be settled in a Palestinian state, not in Israel. The 2012 platform is silent on this major point.

Click here for more with video from The Blaze.