Every few months, Oklahoma finds itself having the same conversation.
Should we keep funding the Heartland Flyer?
Should Oklahoma City continue operating the streetcar?
Should central Oklahoma invest in commuter rail?
It is rare that I am truly mad about something (I mostly halfheartedly grumble), and I hardly ever discuss state and federal politics publicly.
However, I cannot pretend like the Oklahoma governor’s ignorant and insensitive comments are truthful or OK. There are hungry people in this state.
Oklahoma is the fifth hungriest state in the nation.
When Angie and I moved to Oklahoma, one of the first things we noticed was what wasn’t here.
Back in Iowa and Missouri, enormous fields of corn and soybeans stretched to the horizon. Every summer, the countryside seemed to disappear behind walls of green.
Here, agriculture looked different.
I am a husband, a father of six, and a proud Kiowa. My family means everything to me. They have been my motivation to keep going during some of the darkest moments of my life.
To the Editor:
I am writing as a concerned parent and community member regarding the direction of our school system and the standards being set for both our students and staff.
My purpose is not simply to criticize, but to ask difficult questions that many parents may also be asking and to advocate for meaningful change.
One question I believe deserves serious consideration is this: Why are our teachers and staff not consistently held to the same, or even higher, standards that are expected of our students?
“We won't be signing off until the world ends,” Ted Turner said in 1980, just before the launch of his latest media venture.
“We’ll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event.”
Turner died on May 6 at 87. The world hasn’t ended yet, nor has his project, Cable News Network, but the latter changed the former in a big way.
How high is too high for the state’s minimum wage?
State Question 832 is more than just a raise to $15 per hour. It goes up every year and never stops. Very quickly the rate becomes unsustainable, and employers will lay off workers or close completely.
Last year, I was one of the few people who ventured to a theater to see Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson’s mid-century mafia movie, The Alto Knights.
What drew me to the picture was not Levinson’s gimmick of having Robert De Niro portray both Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, the rival mob bosses at the center of the plot.
State Question 832 proposes to raise Oklahoma’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2029, while tying annual increases to the cost of living in expensive urban areas such as San Francisco and New York City. These sorts of proposals have been tried in other states with disastrous results for young workers and small businesses.
