Tag Archives: Oklahoma

Joining Nationwide Teacher Rebellion, Tens of Thousands Rally for Education in Oklahoma

The $50 million in school funding that was included in a bill last week “will buy less than one textbook per student,” said the head of the state teacher’s union

By Julia Conley, staff writer for CommonDreams. Published 4-2-2018

An estimated 30,000 Oklahoma teachers rallied at the State Capitol on Monday, demanding far more funding for education than what was included in the legislature’s last-minute effort to avoid a strike last week. (Photo: @cora/Twitter)

A weeks-long mobilization in Oklahoma resulted in teachers striking across the state on Monday, with tens of thousands of educators and supporters rallying at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City to demand more funding for schools and higher wages for teachers.

Organizers planned to speak with state lawmakers about how decades of funding cuts have affected their schools—and why a bill passed in the legislature last week that would raise taxes on oil and gas production to give teachers a $6,100 raise and allot $50 million for school funding was not enough to stop the protest. Continue reading

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Stunning Critics, Oklahoma Turns to ‘Experimental’ Use of Nitrogen Gas to Kill People

“The suggestion by authorities that this new method is ‘more humane’…ignores the unavoidable truth that there is no humane way to kill a conscious, thinking human being, and that the entire apparatus of capital punishment is deeply flawed and deeply wounding to us all.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for CommonDreams. Published 3-15-2018

Anti-capital punishment advocates on Thursday condemned an announcement by Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter this week that the state would begin using nitrogen gas to execute death row inmates, after being unable to secure lethal injection drugs.

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Groups to Probe Why Pruitt Put ”Pesticide Industry Profits Ahead of Children’s Health”

‘Americans have a right to know who influenced the EPA to suddenly reverse course’

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 4-12-2017

“Americans have a right to know who influenced the EPA to suddenly reverse course and put pesticide industry profits ahead of children’s health,” said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight. (Photo: Austin Valley/flickr/cc)

How is it that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt came to the decision to reject his own agency’s science and reject a ban the insecticide chlorpyrifos?

Watchdog group American Oversight and advocacy organization Environmental Working Group (EWG) want to know, and are ready to sue to get to the bottom of the matter.

Pruitt’s March 29 decision to deny a 10-year-old petition brought forth by Pesticide Action Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council sparked outrage from public health advocates and environmentalists who say the move—which is what the chemical’s maker, Dow, had wanted—was unacceptable in the face of studies linking the nerve agent to numerous adverse effects, from contaminating water to harming children’s brain development. Continue reading

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Oklahoma Senate Passes Bill to Slap Abortion Providers With Felony

‘By creating an effective ban on abortion, Senate Bill 1552 is one of the most extreme anti-choice measures imaginable.’

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-19-2016

SB 1552 effectively bans abortion in Oklahoma, reproductive rights group said. (Photo: @TrustWomen/Twitter)

SB 1552 effectively bans abortion in Oklahoma, reproductive rights group said. (Photo: @TrustWomen/Twitter)

The Oklahoma Senate on Thursday passed one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws, which would make it a felony to perform the procedure and restrict any physician who does so from obtaining or renewing a medical license in the state.

The measure would effectively ban abortion altogether in Oklahoma, the state’s ACLU chapter said. The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) noted that the bill, Senate Bill (SB) 1552, was the first of its kind in the nation. Continue reading

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