CNN:
Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday signed a bill into law that makes performing an abortion illegal in the state, with an exception only in the case of a medical emergency.
“As governor, I represent all 4 million Oklahomans and they overwhelmingly support protecting life in the state of Oklahoma. We want Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state in the country. We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma,” the governor said.
The state is on the verge of having legal recreational marijuana.
Right now there are two state questions that aim to make the legalization of recreational marijuana happen: State Question 820 and State Question 819.
State Question 820 would be a statutory amendment and it’s already been passed by the state supreme court.
And then there’s State Question 819 a constitutional amendment currently being held-up by the state supreme court.
Both of the groups behind these state questions want recreational marijuana but can’t agree on how to do it.
“We believe that peoples right and freedoms are not rights and freedoms unless they’re guaranteed in the constitution,” said Jed Green, the Director of Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA).
Rights are inalienable and their existence does not depend upon their codification. However, it would be nice if the Oklahoma constitution respected our right to consume a flower that God made.
Lawmakers in Oklahoma on Tuesday approved a near-total ban on abortion, making it the latest Republican-led state to forge ahead with stringent abortion legislation as the Supreme Court weighs a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade later this year.
The measure, Senate Bill 612, would make performing an abortion “except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency” a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $100,000.
The Oklahoma House voted 70 to 14 to send the bill, which passed the Senate last year, to Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican whose office responded by noting that Mr. Stitt vowed in September to sign “every piece of pro-life legislation” that came to his desk.
If Mr. Stitt signs the bill, it would take effect on Aug. 26, according to the Senate clerk’s office.
CNN:
Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed legislation banning transgender women and girls from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender at public schools, public charter schools and public colleges in the state.
Oklahoma and Arizona, which enacted its own law later Wednesday, join three other GOP-led states that have established similar bans this year.
KCBY:
One day after the Oklahoma House passed its version of the Save Women’s Sports Act, a bill that would require student-athletes play on teams that match their biological sex at birth, the state Senate resurrected a similar bill from 2021.
SB 2, also known as the Save Women’s Sports Act, passed with its 2021 house amendments first thing Thursday morning by a vote of 37-7. It now goes to the governor’s desk for signature.
The bill, which would incentivize private citizens to sue anyone suspected of helping a person get an abortion, would surpass Texas’ six-week abortion ban to become the most restrictive in the nation.
KRMG:
The bill was reintroduced in 2021 by Oklahoma’s U.S. Senators James Lankford and Jim Inhofe along with other Republican and Democrat senators.
“This is one issue that I have been chipping away at for a few years, and an issue I have consistently heard from Oklahomans—they are ready to lock the clock,” said Lankford. “Today Oklahomans, parents, dog owners, and lovers of daylight are one step closer to not having to deal with springing forward or falling back,” said Lankford.
KSWO:
An abortion bill in Oklahoma that mimics one in Texas has passed through the Oklahoma Senate.
The bill would ban abortions after a heartbeat is detected. The enforcement of the bill would exclusively fall on the shoulders of private citizens.
Civil lawsuits could then be filed against abortion doctors and anyone who “knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise.”
If a person who files a lawsuit wins in court, they would be entitled to a minimum of $10,000 in civil damages for each abortion performed, induced or abetted.
The bill now moves to the House floor for consideration.
The Oklahoma Senate approved a bill that would honor America’s military by not taxing their retirement pay.
Senate Bill (SB) 401 would have Oklahoma joining 33 other states who don’t tax veterans retirement pay. SB 401 is authored by Air Force Veteran, Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, and Sen. Brenda Stanley, R- Midwest City, vice chair of the Senate Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.
“This is just one more way to support our veterans who have sacrificed so much for our nation. I’ve been working on this legislation for five years, and I’m very excited that the governor, along with my Senate and House colleagues, have pledged their support to get it across the finish line this session,” Pugh said. “I want Oklahoma to be the top destination for America’s heroes. These are highly trained professionals, typically in their forties looking to start a second career, with numerous skills that are desperately needed in our workforce. They can help fill the gap in critical industries like aviation and engineering, which will be an incredible boon for our economy.”
A 2021 poll found that of the 82 percent of Oklahoma voters who had some awareness of critical race theory, 58 percent were opposed to teaching the concepts in public schools.
Dozens of new bills at the Oklahoma Legislature aim to place more restrictions on school curriculum and library standards in the state. Some of the bills contain language lifted from model legislation crafted by national conservative and libertarian think-tanks.
KOCO:
A bill that would keep Planned Parenthood programs out of Oklahoma schools is moving forward at the state Capitol.
Senate Bill 1544 would prevent any public, charter or virtual school in Oklahoma from partnering with entities that perform or provide abortions. The measure would allow schools to partner with a hospital, though, only if the procedure is done under a medical emergency to save the mother’s life.
State Sen. Roland Pederson, R-Burlington, said in a news release that the bill would prevent organizations like Planned Parenthood from instituting curriculum and normalizing sexual activities, behavior and abortion in Oklahoma’s public-school systems.
The bill now moves over to the full House for a vote.
KFOR:
The Oklahoma House of Representatives Republican Caucus addressed the media Monday afternoon stating how they plan to address the ongoing issues within the state’s medical marijuana industry.
“When the citizens of the state of Oklahoma voted for 788, they voted for a legal medical marijuana free market program. The black market is not the free market,” said House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City.
Rep. Echols, referencing the state’s largest ever drug bust that happened on February 22, 2022. More than 150,000 marijuana plants were seized- law enforcement agents estimated the bust to total over $500 million in assets.
“We have seen black market elements competing with legitimate Oklahoma businesses. They are putting our citizens at risk. They’re doing things in an illegal, unethical manner,” said Rep. Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City. Lawmakers react to largest single-day drug bust in Oklahoma history
Based of the 2020 Census, Oklahoma’s representation in the United States House of Representatives is supposed to remain unchanged at five. However, there’s a chance the state could soon have an additional representative, based on an agreement more than 180 years old.
In the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, which removed the Cherokee Nation from its ancestral home in Georgia, the United States made several promises to the tribe, including representation in Congress.
“The treaty language is very plain,” said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. in an interview, “it says the Cherokee Nation shall have the right to a delegate in the House of Representatives, when Congress shall make provision for the same. It didn’t say that Cherokee Nation might have a delegate, but it shall have a delegate.”
Chief Hoskin said the time has come for Congress to make that provision.
A House committee in Oklahoma on Wednesday approved an abortion ban that would implement an enforcement mechanism similar to a new Texas law considered to be the nation’s most restrictive abortion law in decades.
The House Public Health Committee passed the measure by a party-line vote and sent it to the full House, where it’s likely to pass.
The bill prohibits physicians from performing abortions and allows private citizens to pursue civil actions of up to $10,000 against doctors and others who aid a woman in obtaining an abortion.
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.
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.
In a surprise move last week, the chairman of the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee shucked House Bill 4138, which had already been shucked once, and inserted new legislation that would allow concealed firearms at the Oklahoma and Tulsa state fairs.
Firearms are currently illegal at both events.
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.
KOCO:
Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, said he’s trying to protect people who want to work but don’t want to be forced into getting the vaccine.
“The individual right is always paramount or at least it should be in our system of government. Whether you’re looking at the Declaration (of Independence) or the Constitution, individual rights are paramount,” Dahm said.
Senate Bill 1157 passed out of committee on Thursday, with eight votes in favor and four against. The bill, which now makes its way to the Senate floor, allows a person to collect unemployment benefits after they’re fired or placed on unpaid leave because of a vaccine mandate.
Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, was one of two Republicans on the committee to vote against the bill.
“I do not agree with private businesses mandating vaccines, but I also don’t agree with state government telling businesses how to operate. Businesses are free to have bad decisions, to make bad decisions,” he said.
