Oklahoma Watch
Oklahoma Watch is a non-profit organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on important public-policy issues facing the state. Oklahoma Watch is non-partisan and strives to be balanced, fair, accurate and comprehensive. The reporting project collaborates on occasion with other news outlets. Topics of particular interest include poverty, education, health care, the young and the old, and the disadvantaged.
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Oklahoma State Auditor Cyndi Byrd’s report for fiscal year 2024, released Monday afternoon, questioned costs totaling nearly $25 million in federal funds. -
Oklahoma prison inmates are working in call centers placing political calls and insurance telemarketing on behalf of outside companies, earning $2 an hour while a Virginia super PAC paid nearly $600,000 to the vendor for calls supporting conservative candidates — including calls made during Oklahoma's primary election season. -
Oklahoma Watch, Aug. 19, 2026 -
Oklahoma's attorney general is offering school districts a free, evidence-based drug prevention curriculum through a new initiative funded by opioid abatement grants. -
After months of refusing to speak on the record about Oklahoma’s ongoing roof claim saga, attorneys representing policyholders in bad faith claims against insurance giants State Farm and Allstate are speaking out about the contents of secret documents at the heart of alleged schemes to rob Oklahomans of millions of dollars. -
Oklahomans are reporting sticker shock at the mailbox when opening their electric bills this summer. While artificial intelligence and the data centers needed to support them have become major subjects of public discourse, state lawmakers and regulators say they are only one part of a much larger explanation. -
Oklahoma City Public Schools opened a $116 million Capitol Hill High School on the city's south side Tuesday, replacing a 1920s building that lacked modern amenities and efficient air conditioning. The new campus serves a predominantly Latino community where 99% of students are economically disadvantaged and half are English-language learners. -
Two Vesta Realty tenants, one without air conditioning for 18 months, another without electricity and hot water illustrate how little recourse Oklahoma law gives renters when landlords fail to provide essential services. -
Oklahoma Watch, Aug. 12, 2026 -
Vesta Realty's collapse has left Tulsa tenants confused about who manages their apartments and who to pay rent, as competing bankruptcy proceedings in two states, a court-ordered management transfer and a cast of characters including a former arms dealer have created what one attorney called the most complicated landlord-tenant situation she has ever seen.
