KFOR:
Gorgeous weather this week and then the weather pattern changes again as the Jet Stream takes a dip southward over the southern plains.
Not one, not two, but three weather disturbances are predicted to track across Oklahoma starting Friday Night and ending by next Thursday.
KTUL:
The cross-country effort to protest mask and vaccine mandates made its way out of Oklahoma on Monday.
The People’s Convoy, comprised of hundreds of truckers and supporters of the cause, left Big Cabin to head to the nation’s Capitol.
Monday’s Oklahoma Covid-19 case count:
New Cases Today: 224
Sunday: 1,004
Saturday: 878
TOTAL SINCE FRIDAY: 2,1067 Day Rolling Average: 867
Active Statewide Cases: 4,806
New Reported Deaths: 71
A group of truckers calling itself “The People’s Convoy” protested pandemic-era mandates Sunday as the group made its way through Oklahoma and past supporters waving American flags on overpasses and from the side of the road.
The convoy launched Feb. 23 in Southern California and plans to drive the nation’s Capital Beltway by March 5 after passing through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Capital Beltway is a 64-mile roadway through Virginia and Maryland that circles the District of Columbia.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) said it’s ready for the arrival of a transcontinental convoy in our state on Sunday.
The movement is made of hundreds of truckers and other travelers who believe officials should end states of emergency and mandates related to the pandemic.
The OHP said the convoy will move along I-40, the Kilpatrick, Turner, Creek and Will Rogers Turnpikes.
Troopers will be positioned along the route to make sure traffic flows normally.
The traveling protestors plan to reach Washington D.C. ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.
While morning temperatures were slightly warmer Saturday, most of Green Country still woke up near the freezing mark.
Another welcome, slight change: the blustery north winds which made wind chill temperatures dip near single digits the last two mornings.
While Tulsa and surrounding areas will have afternoon highs in the upper 30s and low 40s, but the lower temperatures on the roads can still provide for slick spots if you decide to go out Saturday.
Tulsa appears to be clear Saturday night, but some in southeast Oklahoma near McAlester and Stigler could see a wintry mix of precipitation. Areas like Idabel will likely have some rain pass through.
KFOR:
On Friday, data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health shows that the state has had 1,019,489 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March of 2020.
That’s an increase of 1,161 cases.
At this point, officials believe there are 6,385 active cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oklahoma has seen 14,541 deaths as of Friday. That’s an increase of 4 deaths since Thursday’s numbers.
The “People’s Convoy,” one of several planned U.S. trucker convoys modeled after Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” protesting vaccine and mask mandates, is planning two stops in Oklahoma over the weekend and will drive through Tulsa on its way to the Washington, D.C., area, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
The People’s Convoy plans to enter Oklahoma from Texas on Interstate 40 and stop in Elk City Saturday evening for the night. Then it will travel east through western Oklahoma on Interstate 40 on Sunday before turning northeast on Interstate 44.
It will then travel on the Turner Turnpike to Tulsa and through the Tulsa area on the Creek Turnpike before taking the Will Rogers Turnpike to Vinita, where it will stop for the night Sunday and make its way out of Oklahoma on Monday, the OHP reported. The convoy’s official website lists the rest stops and dates of travel.
KFOR:
On Thursday, data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health shows that the state has had 1,018,328 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March of 2020.
That’s an increase of 1,383 cases.
At this point, officials believe there are 7,083 active cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oklahoma has seen 14,537 deaths as of Thursday. That’s an increase of 49 deaths since Wednesday’s numbers.
Officials say there were 772 Oklahomans hospitalized with COVID-19 on average over the past three days. Authorities also noted that there were 46 pediatric hospitalizations for COVID-19 included in that number.
KFOR:
On Wednesday, data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health shows that the state has had 1,016,945 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March of 2020.
That’s an increase of 1,010 cases.
At this point, officials believe there are 7,674 active cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oklahoma has seen 14,488 deaths as of Wednesday. That’s an increase of 63 deaths since Tuesday’s numbers.
Officials say there were 766 Oklahomans hospitalized with COVID-19 on average over the past three days. Authorities also noted that there were 47 pediatric hospitalizations for COVID-19 included in that number.
KRMG:
It’s an incentive to bring manufactures to the Sooner State.
The bill’s first draft would have gotten rid of the sales tax for guns and ammunition. The author, Sen. David Bullard of Durant, said it would have been too expensive. So, he made some changes.
Sen. [Bullard] says the bill would exempt gun manufactures from state income tax for the first five years they are in Oklahoma. Sen. Bullard also believes that the gunsmithing program at Murray State in Tishomingo would help encourage companies to move here.
KFOR:
The U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed that its limits to state jurisdiction over crimes committed on tribal reservations by or against tribal citizens aren’t retroactive.
In its ruling Tuesday, the court also again rejected Oklahoma’s request to overturn what is known as the McGirt decision.
Here are the latest figures from the state. Because of the President’s Day holiday no numbers were released over the weekend or on Monday:
New Cases Tuesday: 409
Monday: 232
Sunday: 906
Saturday: 1,523
TOTAL: 3.070
7-Day Average: 918
Active Cases: 9112
Tulsa County Hospitalizations: 296 with 56 in ICU
New Deaths Since Friday: 202
KFOR:
Waves of freezing rain and sleet are expected Wednesday into Thursday across Oklahoma. This storm system arrives with bitter cold temperatures as well!
So all this precipitation is falling into very cold air and will create a frozen mixture of ice and sleet across much of central and eastern Oklahoma.
The storm impacts with this system will be high to extreme including hazardous travel, potential power outages, closures and dangerous wind chill with strong north winds.
A bill circulating through the Oklahoma Capitol would create a trade office in Taipei, the largest city on the island of Taiwan.
House Bill 3166 is sponsored by Republican lawmakers Rep. Judd Strom and Sen. Roland Pederson.
The bill would establish the office to “promote Oklahoma business and establishing business-to-business trading activity within the southeast Asia region,” according to a bill amendment written by Rep. Logan Phillips, the original author of the bill.
The countries of interest included in the bill are Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.
KOCO:
The Oklahoma City metro and areas to the south and east have a slight risk for severe storms. A strip of the state north and west of the metro has a marginal risk.
The biggest threat is for ping-pong-ball-sized hail, but a tornado risk exists.
The omicron variant brought new daily cases of COVID-19 to all time highs in the United States. Though omicron appears to have peaked, the virus is still spreading.
Since the first known COVID-19 case was identified in the U.S. on Jan. 21, 2020, there have been a total of about 77,413,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States — or 23,662 for every 100,000 people.
In Oklahoma, the infection rate is far higher than the national average. Since the first known case of COVID-19 was reported in Oklahoma on Mar. 6, 2020, there have been 1,010,554 total infections in the state — or 25,629 for every 100,000 people. Of all 50 states and Washington D.C., Oklahoma ranks No. 19 by cumulative COVID-19 cases, adjusted for population.
Just as COVID-19 infections are more concentrated in Oklahoma, so too are deaths. So far, there have been 12,767 COVID-19 related deaths in Oklahoma, or 324 for every 100,000 people. Meanwhile, the national COVID-19 death rate stands at 281 per 100,000 Americans.
KFOR:
House Bill 3414 is striving to save the lives of veterans suffering with PTSD by allowing Oklahoma research centers to study the therapeutic effects of psilocybin, which is the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms.”
“It’s a game changer,” said Rep. Logan Philips of district 24, and a coauthor of the bill. “We’re talking waking up going to bed with ideas of wanting to kill yourself, waking up with them being gone. It is a light switch.”
The bill would allow Oklahoma universities to conduct clinical trials on the drug, and would “provide certain exemptions from criminal and civil penalties.”
Rep. Phillips said the bill is of the “utmost importance” because according to him, the suicide rate in Oklahoma’s veteran community is “astronomical.”
He believes psilocybin could be the answer to significantly decreasing that rate. A veteran himself, Rep. Phillips said he can relate to the struggles veterans face and wants to do all he can to help them.
This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the first shift by a state to an “endemic” approach to the coronavirus pandemic.
Other states are now following suit, prioritizing prevention and quick reactions to outbreaks.
As case counts in Oklahoma drop, NewsChannel 8 looked into the state’s plan to move forward with an endemic state of mind.
When we reached out to Governor Stitt’s office, spokesperson Charlie Hannema provided the following statement:
“Other states are waking up to what Governor Stitt and Oklahomans have known for months: government mandates don’t stop a virus. Thanks to our focus on common sense and personal responsibility, Oklahoma has the third-lowest unemployment rate in the nation and tens of thousands of freedom-loving Americans have moved here from other states since April 2020.”
In House Bill 2969, a bipartisan legislation, Rep. Collin Walke, (D)-Oklahoma City and Rep. Josh West, (R)-Grove, are taking on companies that profit from selling consumer’s data.
“If you have more than $15M in gross annual income, this bill applies to you,” Rep. Walke said. “If you sell off information on more than 15,000 consumers, this bill applies to you. If you receive income to the tune of more than 25% from the selling of personal data, this bill applies to you.”
The bill would restrict companies from storing data in tactics such as cookies on websites or cross-app tracking.
“Before they can track or collect or sell your data, you have to give explicit permission to say that’s okay,” Rep. Walke said.
Under the bill, Oklahomans could deny a company from taking their personal information, ask what information is storing and even delete the data on file.
The bill covers all Oklahomans from companies that may not be based in Oklahoma, such as Google, Facebook or Amazon.
