Oklahoma lawmakers will have more than 2,000 bills and resolutions to consider when they convene next month.

Thursday afternoon was the deadline for filing bills to be considered by the 2015 Oklahoma Legislature. Legislative officials say 1,219 bills and 26 joint resolutions were filed in the House. A total of 815 bills and 32 joint resolutions were filed in the state Senate by the deadline.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt says his office will defend the constitutionality of the state's method for executing death row inmates as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge by three death row inmates.

Pruitt says Oklahoma's method has been deemed constitutional by two federal courts and has been successfully implemented in the state as well as in Florida.

Pruitt says his office will work to preserve the Department of Corrections' ability to proceed with death sentences given to each inmate by a jury of their peers.

The state of Oklahoma wants to become a bigger tourist destination, but its plans to attract visitors with a major museum of Native American culture have remains incomplete because of financial issues.

But Gov. Mary Fallin and project supporters are pushing to salvage the museum, which is projected to draw 225,000 visitors annually.  

After nearly 10 years and $90 million spent, the museum is unfinished and the Legislature is balking at providing another $40 million for the project.

Arrest warrants have been issued following a yearlong methamphetamine trafficking investigation by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Spokesman Mark Woodward says agents and officers from several departments fanned out early Friday with 18 arrest warrants for defendants accused of trafficking crystal methamphetamine into Ponca City.

The Supreme Court is stepping into the issue of lethal injection executions for the first time since 2008 in an appeal filed by death row inmates in Oklahoma.

The justices agreed Friday to review whether the sedative midazolam can be used in executions because of concerns that it does not produce a deep, comalike unconsciousness and ensure that a prisoner does not experience intense and needless pain when other drugs are injected to kill him.

Oklahoma uses midazolam as one of three drugs in lethal injection executions.

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Strong crowds showed up for anti-Islam rallies in the German cities of Dresden, Leipzig, and Duisburg throughout the month as part of weekly rallies organized by a group called Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA.

Protesters have been wearing black ribbons to show their solidarity with the victims last week's terror attacks in Paris.

President Obama spent very little time on foreign policy and foreign affairs during Tuesday night's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.

But he did call on lawmakers to pass a resolution authorizing the use of force against self-proclaimed Islamic State militants.