Catherine Sweeney
Reporter for StateImpact OklahomaCatherine Sweeney grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and attended Oklahoma State University. She has covered local, state and federal government for outlets in Oklahoma, Colorado and Washington, D.C.
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![Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, picked up in a 2016 New York City drug bust. "Basically, [fentanyl] is so cheap to produce and it's so powerful, that drug dealers began realizing it was a way to increase their profits," <em>Fentanyl, Inc. </em>author Ben Westhoff says. But miscalculations of the amount used can be deadly.](data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxNTZweCIgd2lkdGg9IjI4MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=)
This year, lawmakers passed a bill that ensured fentanyl test strips wouldn’t be considered drug paraphernalia. The effort is meant to curtail the sudden spike in fentanyl-related deaths. -
The governor and the Legislature have been at odds over the state’s Medicaid agency, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. That fight came to a head last week, when lawmakers booted the agency director from his Secretary of Health position.
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Oklahoma state lawmakers unanimously passed two bills ensuring access to opioid antagonists for at-risk communities. But, they joined Gov. Kevin Stitt’s stack of vetoes.
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A bill banning gender-affirming care for minors and criminalizes care is nearing the finish line.
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Police say there was one shooter, one victim, and that the two seem to have known each other.
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The state has been in a nursing shortage for years, and there haven't been enough slots for nursing students. Universities are working to change that.
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Because of an increase in federal funding, Oklahoma’s Medicaid agency is sitting on more than half a billion dollars in extra money. Lawmakers want to spend that on normal Medicaid operations, and it’s looking like they’re going to get their way.
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Lawmakers say they’re planning to give the state’s health department $3-9 million more for the public health laboratory. The funding should cover a final round of renovations as well as advanced biosafety equipment.
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Oklahoma has always offered special coverage during pregnancy, but it used to last 60 days after birth. The state just got permission to extend that coverage to one year.
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Oklahoma State University is adding a bachelor’s of nursing program to its Stillwater campus this fall. The addition will help combat the state’s nursing shortage.
![Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, picked up in a 2016 New York City drug bust. "Basically, [fentanyl] is so cheap to produce and it's so powerful, that drug dealers began realizing it was a way to increase their profits," <em>Fentanyl, Inc. </em>author Ben Westhoff says. But miscalculations of the amount used can be deadly.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d6fb80a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2726x1519+0+7/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2019%2F09%2F03%2Fgettyimages-609942630_wide-583d689f7ba210217b87149c21b55fc3dff596eb.jpg)
