Category Archives: Local

Nailing Normal and New Narratives

By David Arnett

Americans by public vote and overwhelming Electoral College result, reestablished normal for the world in 2024 despite recurring voter fraud. The outcome was “too big to rig.” Moving forward; righteousness rules, normal returns, and demonstrable facts are confirmed. Of course there will be those that disagree, but some people can’t be fixed.

Meeting recently with Jason Collington, Executive Editor of The Tulsa World, for lunch and robust conversation, I mentioned the reset of normal and he immediately asked for my definition. This question came after he asserted that the daily newspaper is not a leftist publication – a point on which we disagree.

Helicopter View of Downtown Tulsa
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Tulsa County BOCC Begins 2025

By David Arnett

Updated: The Tulsa County Board of County Commissioners meeting today began with the swearing in of new Commissioner (District 2) Lonnie Sims and returning officials County Clerk Michael Wills, Court Clerk Donald Newberry and Sheriff Vic Regalado. It then proceeded to an impactful proclamation.

County Commissioners Stan Sallee, Lonnie Sims, and Kelly Dunkerley
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Bad Instruction Prompts Lawsuit

By Jonathan Small

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.”

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Commissioner-Elect Picks Deputy

By David Arnett

Tulsa County Commissioner-elect Lonnie Sims has appointed State Representative Mark Vancuren as Deputy Commissioner, a key leadership role as Sims prepares to take office on January 1, 2025.

Sims and Vancuren, both elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2018, served during a very transformative six-year period for the state, addressing revenue shortfalls, eliminating budget deficits, and building a record $4 billion in savings. During their tenure, legislative outcomes also included historic education reforms, tax cuts to combat inflation for everyday Oklahomans, and the establishment of the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) to ensure greater accountability and transparency in state government.

Mark Vancuren
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Legacy of Senator Jim Inhofe Honored

By David Arnett

The Senate and House passed a bill introduced by Senator James Lankford (R-OK), Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), and Representative Kevin Hern (R-OK) to name the new Veterans Health Administration (VA) 75,000-square-foot, 58-bed medical-surgical hospital in Tulsa the James Mountain Inhofe VA Medical Center in honor of the life and legacy of the late-Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, who tirelessly served our military, veterans, and their families for his entire public service career. The release issued today by Lankford’s office, detailed help to ensure the hospital received funding to commence construction in 2020 and to ensure the skyrocketing Biden/Harris inflation of the last three years did not interrupt the construction schedule with additional unforeseen costs. This legislation was supported by the entire Oklahoma congressional delegation and now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law. 

James Mountain Inhofe
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