Gov. Mary Fallin says the state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 should be the Legislature's top priority, and she wants lawmakers to closely examine tax credits and other policies that drain available revenue.
Fallin made the comments Wednesday during a speech to reporters and editors at The Associated Press' annual legislative forum.
Fallin also gave some hints on policies she would endorse for the session that begins on Monday, including a ban on texting while driving in Oklahoma.
Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine has been named to serve on the House Armed Services Subcommittees on Strategic Forces and Seapower and Projection Forces.
The Oklahoma lawmaker's office in Washington made the announcement on Wednesday.
Strategic Forces oversees the country's nuclear arsenal, missile defense and space programs. Seapower and Projection Forces cover Navy and Marine Corps purchasing and research and development programs.Â
The HASC authorizes funding for national security and sets Department of Defense policy.Â
Tankers are berthed beside the Fawley oil refinery on Jan. 7, in Southampton, England. With low oil prices, some traders are buying oil and storing it in tankers, hoping the price will rise soon so they can sell it at a profit.
Originally published on Wed January 28, 2015 7:57 pm
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There's a term traders use when the price of a commodity like oil has fallen because of oversupply but seems guaranteed to rise again.
It's a market that's "in contango," says Brenda Shaffer, an energy specialist at Georgetown University. "It almost sounds like a sort of great oil dance or something."
And Shaffer says that some oil speculators see an oil market that is in contango in a major way.
Oklahoma has authorized four different lethal injection protocols: a single, lethal dose of either pentobarbital or sodium pentothal, a two-drug procedure using midazolam and hydromorphone, or the same three-drug method used in Florida.
The Supreme Court has ordered Oklahoma to postpone lethal injections executions using a controversial sedative until the court rules in a challenge involving the drug.
The court's order Wednesday came as little surprise after both the state and the lawyers for three inmates who faced execution between now and March requested the temporary halt. The justices agreed on Friday to take up the challenge to the use of the sedative midazolam, which has been used in problematic executions in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma.
The case will be argued in April and decided by late June.
New Jersey-based National Weather Service meteorologist Gary Szatkowski apologized for not getting the forecast right for the snow storm this week. (Twitter)
Originally published on Wed January 28, 2015 2:17 pm
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Meteorologists have apologized for getting yesterday’s snow totals so wrong in New Jersey, where only about 3 inches fell instead of the 24 that was predicted.
But other weather experts say the forecasts were not all that wrong because due to last-minute changes in the air, the storm simply tracked about 75 miles farther east than expected, and dropped 30 inches of snow on Long Island.
Five members of the Friendship Nine — Willie Thomas Massey (from left), Willie McCleod, James Wells, Clarence Graham and David Williamson Jr. — sit at the counter of the Five & Dine restaurant in Rock Hill, S.C., on Dec. 17. A judge in South Carolina has thrown out the convictions of the nine black men who integrated a whites-only lunch counter in 1961.
Originally published on Wed January 28, 2015 6:56 pm
Updated at 2:28 p.m. ET
A judge in South Carolina has thrown out the convictions of the Friendship Nine, nine black men who integrated a whites-only lunch counter in 1961, at the peak of the civil rights movement.
"We cannot rewrite history, but we can right history," Judge John C. Hayes III said before signing the order that vacated their trespassing convictions. (Hayes is the nephew of the judge who handed down the original sentence.) The prosecutor apologized to the eight surviving members of the Friendship Nine who were in the courtroom.
Two nurses tend to wounded inside an ambulance-train ward, France, during World War I. Ambulance trains were used in the main to transport large groups of soldiers to the French coast so that they could return to England for treatment.
The demands of two world wars and changing gender roles opened the way for women to gain more rights as citizens in the United States and Britain.
Before the 20th century, women in the United States and Britain couldn’t vote in national elections and generally weren’t seen as key players in war efforts. With the professionalization of military nursing during the Crimean War, women’s participation in war efforts grew and paved the way for women’s heavy involvement between 1914 and 1918.
Originally published on Wed January 28, 2015 6:11 am
A day after a monstrous winter storm spun its way across the Northeast, life is slowly getting back to normal.
Some residents of Massachusetts are digging out of almost 3 feet of snow. The AP reports that a travel ban has been lifted and Boston's highways are filling up with traffic.
Originally published on Wed January 28, 2015 3:32 pm
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Ask Americans if someone in their family served in the military, and the answer is probably no. After all, fewer than 1 percent of Americans serve these days.
But ask if one of their grandfathers served, and you'll likely get a different answer. Between World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam, millions of men were drafted into service — and both men and women volunteered.
The Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training said Tuesday during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety and Judiciary that its training track is in desperate need for repair.
CLEET requested $3,809,401 in appropriations for FY2016. In FY2015 they were given $3,554,474.
Director Steven Emmons said their 1.8 mile training track is plagued by deep, hazardous ditches that have formed along the side of the road as a result of soil erosion that is a problem for the area they are located.
