The Oklahoma School for the Deaf in Sulphur, Oklahoma, one of the agencies requesting a budget increase for FY16 by the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services.
The trend in requesting budget increases continued into the second day of budget hearings presented to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services.
All four agencies presenting Tuesday requested significant increases to their fiscal year 2016 budgets.
The Oklahoma State University Medical Authority requested a $4.9 million increase, $4 million of which would be a one-time appropriation to replenish funds for the Rural Residency Expansion Act.
Gay rights supporters say Oklahoma is at the forefront of a wave of anti-gay legislation that is unfairly discriminatory and they plan to launch a campaign in the state to oppose more than a dozen bills introduced for the session that begins next week.
Some measures would give broad authority to businesses and corporations to discriminate against gay people. Others would ensure court clerks would not have to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.
Another would allow for so-called conversion therapy to help gay children end "unwanted sexual attraction."
Noted author and death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean is urging Oklahomans to reconsider the death penalty while the Supreme Court decides whether the state's lethal injection method is constitutional.
The Roman Catholic nun and author of the book "Dead Man Walking" joined a group of death penalty opponents Monday calling on Oklahomans to consider joining the 18 states that have abolished it. The group also delivered more than 30,000 online petition signatures to Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin's office.
This 2007 photo provided by Shell Exploration & Production Company shows the Frontier Discoverer drilling rig as it sits in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. (Shell Exploration & Production via AP)
Originally published on Tue January 27, 2015 3:26 pm
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The Obama Administration today is proposing opening up parts of the Eastern seaboard to offshore drilling, while at the same time proposing a ban on drilling along some parts of Alaska’s Arctic coast.
Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson talks with Phil Flynn, an energy market analyst with Price Futures Group, and Bob Deans of the Natural Resources Defense Council, about the proposal — a win and a loss each for environmentalists and the oil industry
Originally published on Tue January 27, 2015 1:39 pm
President Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia today to meet newly crowned King Salman and said in an interview that the U.S. needs to balance its concerns about Saudi human rights with "immediate concerns" such as counterterrorism and regional stability.
The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission says the state's unemployment rate declined by two-tenths of a percentage point in December, from 4.4 percent in November to 4.2 percent.
State officials said Tuesday that five of the state's nine seasonally adjusted business sectors added jobs in December. Professional and business services led the way with an over-the-month increase of 2,000 jobs. The construction, educational and health services and government sectors also posted sizeable gains for the month.
Originally published on Tue January 27, 2015 12:07 pm
Holocaust survivors gathered along with several world leaders today to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation by the Soviet Red Army of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in Poland where more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed.
Originally published on Tue January 27, 2015 10:27 am
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Laws intended to protect children from abuse and neglect are not being properly enforced, and the federal government is to blame. That's according to a study by the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law, which says children are suffering as a result.
The numbers are grim. Almost 680,000 children in the United States were the victims of abuse and neglect in 2013. More than 1,500 of them died.
A North Texas teenager says she's thankful for the life she has after surviving a more than 3,000-foot fall last year in an Oklahoma skydiving accident.
Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of 17-year-old Makenzie Wethington's skydiving mishap in which her parachute became tangled and she said she blacked out during the descent.
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services heard from four agencies during budget hearings Monday, three of which asked for budget increases.
Subcommittee Chair Sen. Kimberly David said the decrease in the state’s budget would impact the appropriated funds to the agencies.
“The ongoing conversation that we’re going to have is the fact that we have a budget deficit this year. I would be surprised if there were any increases and wouldn’t be surprised if there were any decreases,” she said.
