Oklahoma's newly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction is unveiling a new five-year plan to give Oklahoma teachers a $5,000 pay raise over the next five years, along with an additional five days of instruction to the school year, also added over five years.

Republican Joy Hofmeister announced the plan on Monday, saying increased teacher pay is critically important in addressing a significant teacher shortage in Oklahoma. The first year of the proposal would cost the state about $150 million.

Two of Oklahoma’s most prominent lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups announced Monday they are merging to form a united voice to fight what they called a number of “hate-filled” measures pre-filed for the 2015 session.

“The LGBT community of Oklahoma is under attack and we’re here to tell you we plan on fighting back, Troy Stevenson, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, said during a Capitol press conference Monday.

Freedom Oklahoma brings together The Equality Network, a Tulsa-based LGBT political advocacy organization, and the Cimarron Alliance Foundation, the Oklahoma City-based LGBT public education organization.

Stevenson said the group will hold town hall meetings across the state and deploy citizen lobbyists to address issues of concern. “We will be here. We will be present. We will make sure legislators that know: If you’re going to legislative against our rights, you are going to have to do it while you look us in the eye,” Stevenson said.

“A handful of vitriolic Oklahoma legislators, which do not represent the entire Legislature and they do not represent the state of Oklahoma, have put 10 hate-filled bills before this body,” said Stevenson.

The executive director of the Oklahoma Democratic Party has stepped down from the post he'd held for more than three years.

Party officials announced Monday that Trav Robertson has taken a "leave of absence to explore another opportunity."

The party's Central Committee voted unanimously to promote David Scott of Ada to the position of interim executive director. Scott has worked for the last few years as the party's director of information technology.

The U.S. Drought Monitor says more than 1.8 million Oklahomans are being affected by an ongoing, deepening drought.

The Oklahoma Water Resources Board says that in the past month, the percentage of Oklahoma classified as being in exceptional drought has decreased slightly, but more than 60% of the state still remains classified in moderate drought or worse.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded more than $7.8 million in grants to 72 homeless housing and service programs in Oklahoma.

The funding announced Monday is an increase of $356,155 over the previous year. HUD's Continuum of Care grants help agencies provide housing and support services to people and families experiencing homelessness.

Local programs receiving the grants offer a variety of services including street outreach, client assessment, and direct housing assistance. Nationally, HUD awarded $1.8 billion.

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Oklahoma's request to join a challenge to the federal health care law.

In a one-sentence order on Monday, the nation's high court denied Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt's writ of certiorari.

Pruitt wanted the court to review Oklahoma's lawsuit that challenges the tax subsidies offered under the Affordable Care Act, arguing it was important to consider state sovereignty implications.

Authorities in Blackwell say a gas leak in a school gymnasium has sent 35 students and three faculty members to the hospital.

Officials say the leak occurred in the high school practice gymnasium in the Kay County community about 9 a.m. as the middle school boys basketball team and varsity cheer squad were practicing. Some students began to feel sick and a couple of students passed out in the shower area.

The students and faculty members were taken to Blackwell Regional Hospital and administered oxygen. All are expected to recover.

The cowboy is an American icon. The Hollywood image of the cowboys is lone, rugged and white, but in reality the old west was very diverse, and many of the cowboys were African-American or Hispanic.

Every year, culturally diverse cowboys from all over the country come to the Cowboys of Color Rodeo in Oklahoma City.