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Tulsa Classical Academy hiring teachers
Tulsa Classical Academy, Oklahoma's first classical charter school, will open its doors to students from kindergarten to 8th grade this August for the 2023-2024 school year. TCA will add a grade a year in subsequent school years, becoming a full K-12 school with our first graduating class in 2028. Tulsa...
National Popular Vote continues to fund junkets for Oklahoma legislators
You'd think they'd give up, at long last, but advocates of the National Popular Vote compact continue to lobby Oklahoma legislators to agree to enslave our electoral vote to that of higher-population states on the coasts. Jamison Faught, the Muskogee Politico, recently dug through the legislators' financial disclosure statements for...
2018 Oklahoma governor primary: Process of elimination
Can you tell I'm not excited about the race to succeed Mary Fallin? It's taken a long time to make up my mind, and it's still not as firm a decision as I'd like. As with many of the judical races, my current inclination to vote for Dan Fisher in...
SQ 640 and raising taxes in Oklahoma
Last week the Oklahoma House approved HJR 1050 by a bare majority of 51 votes, pushed by the Chambercrat House Leadership, voting to erode the constitutional protection against tax increases without approval of the voting public. These 51 representatives, including two, Leslie Osborn and Glen Mulready, who are seeking higher...
Kevin Calvey: "Tax Increases Just Cover Up Corruption"
Yesterday, a proposal intended to increase taxes on beer, cigarettes, and gasoline and to increase the gross production tax on the oil industry to fill Oklahoma's budget gap failed to get the three-quarters majority in the State House required to put the taxes into effect without a vote of the...
Rick Steves needs to tour his own country "through the back door"
For many Americans, Rick Steves is the guru of European travel, specifically of an approach to travel he calls "through the back door" -- skipping the high-priced hotels, chain restaurants, and tourist traps which insulate you in an American bubble, and instead encountering authentic local culture, staying at B&Bs, hostels,...
Oklahoma SQ 779: Boren sales tax for schools and colleges
Oklahoma State Question 779, an initiative petition promoted by University of Oklahoma President (and former Oklahoma governor and senator) David Boren, would amend the Oklahoma Constitution, establishing a permanent 1 cent on the dollar sales tax (a permanent increase in the state sales tax rate from 4.5 cents per dollar...
Betrayal: Oklahoma Senate passes National Popular Vote bill
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. If you thought you could relax because the Republicans are in charge at the State Capitol and Oklahoma Republicans have a conservative party platform, remember that there are lobbyists giving our friends at the Capitol one side of the story. We in the...
Ron Peters, Money Belt candidate for Tulsa County Commissioner
Former House District 70 representative Ron Peters has announced his candidacy for the Tulsa County Commission District 3 seat being vacated by retiring Commissioner Fred Perry. In 2003, Peters was one of six Republicans to support a state lottery, breaking ranks with the vast majority of the GOP caucus. Had...
Oklahoma primary eve political notebook
People keep sending me stuff. Here's a sampler, with a few thoughts of my own: Pat McGuigan of CapitolBeatOK has a story about State Rep. George Faught's late surge in the 2nd Congressional District. The story notes the Faught campaign's strong cash position going into the home stretch and his...
Oklahoma State Questions: some background
This is the first in a planned series on the 11 state questions on the November 2, 2010, Oklahoma general election ballot. In Oklahoma, a state question can be either the result of an initiative petition obtaining the required number of signatures or the legislature referring a matter for the...
Classical Core Knowledge
Via Jeff Lindsay on Twitter, I learned about Classical School in Appleton, Wisconsin, a charter Pre-K - 8 school of 450 students that follows a classical curriculum. The school follows E. D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge curriculum. Hirsch is the author of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. From...
"Out of the night, when the full moon is bright..."
BatesLine reader Jimmy Hamilton has noticed something strange in the list of Oklahoma lottery winners: I normally don't care much about what goes on with the lottery, but found it interesting that a trust had claimed the most recent jackpot: Specifically, the Zorro Trust. That name rang a bell, so...
Michael DelGiorno departs KFAQ
An edited version of this column was published in the April 26 - May 2, 2007, issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly. The published version is available on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Here is my initial post on Michael DelGiorno's departure from KFAQ to WWTN, and here is the blog...
A pro-life win in Washington; a setback in OKC
Usually it's the other way around. Since Republicans gained control of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, several significant bills have been passed and signed into law which advance the cause of the sanctity of human life. In 2006, a bill providing for informed consent passed both houses by a wide...
Oklahoma City downtown hotel has "character"
Doug Loudenback has a nearly comprehensive history of downtown Oklahoma City hotels from the beginning to the present day, illustrated with postcards, vintage photos, and present day photos. The fate of each hotel is described. One of the more interesting "whatever happened to" stories involves the Holiday Inn (built in...
Day-before-election roundup
MeeCiteeWurkor went to the Tulsa County Election Board website, printed out the ballot for his precinct, and is circling his picks, which he shares with us. (And I agree with Mee that the Barnett ad jingle is cheesy. There's a man we trust in Oklahoma. Howard (beat) Barneh-ett. B-A-R-N-E-T-T Howard...
People who need beating (at the ballot box)
An edited version of this piece was published on May 31, 2006, in Urban Tulsa Weekly. The archived version is no longer online. Posted on the web, with hyperlinks to related articles, on August 18, 2010. "No man's property is safe while the legislature is in session." So goes the...
Fair Tax, Bernest Cain, DelGiorno in a fat suit
I had the pleasure of being Gwen Freeman's sidekick this morning on 1170 KFAQ. Michael DelGiorno was at home, part of a reality TV segment that will run on NBC's Today later this month -- his pregnant wife is being pampered at a hotel, while Michael wears a pregnancy prosthesis...
State questions 705, 706, 712
A lot of people have been asking me about the state questions. Here are three more -- the gambling questions. I'm voting NO on all three. Gambling won't grow the economy, and won't provide any significant money for education. In fact, gambling will take money out of the local economy...
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