OKSDE Criticized For Holding Meetings In Small Space
The State Department of Education is getting criticism for holding its often jam-packed board meetings in a small-capacity room. The department received letters from two advocacy groups claiming it violates the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act.
The groups Defense of Democracy and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press sent letters to the department, decrying the regular board meeting space for its small size — it has a max capacity of 49. The Open Meeting Act requires meetings to be held at places convenient and open to the public.
Meeting-goers often line up outside the building hours before the meeting. Over the last several months, media members have been required to RSVP for their spots with a link only sent to those on the department’s mailing list. Oklahoma City TV news station KFOR was inexplicably left off that list last month and was not allowed into the meeting.
Often, after the press, board and other officials are seated, there are a handful of seats left for the public in the room, and some of the overflow audience sits in the hallway. Meetings are live-streamed on Facebook, but without a way for virtual audience members to participate in public comment. A spokesperson for the department responded to KFOR, saying the department is in compliance with the law “despite the fever dreams of left-wing activists.”
Oklahoma AG Takes Stand Against Massachusetts' Pig Welfare Law
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is taking action against a new pig welfare law in Massachusetts. He says it would have negative impacts on the state’s pork producers. The law bans other states from selling or shipping pork to the state if they do not meet Massachusetts hog-housing requirements.
The Massachusetts law requires most uncooked pork sold in the state to come from pigs raised in enough space to lay down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely.
Oklahoma is part of a 13-state coalition arguing the new law is unconstitutional. In a court filing, Drummond says it would have negative impacts on the pork industry and raise pork prices.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, the state is ranked ninth in the nation for hog production.
The move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Proposition 12, a similar pig welfare law in California earlier this year.
Lawmakers Seeking Solutions For Declining Groundwater Levels
State lawmakers met this week to discuss the declining ground-water levels and explore possible solutions.
Oklahoma State University geology professor Todd Halihan says he’d like producers, tech developers and lawmakers to figure out a framework for injecting water back into Oklahoma’s aquifers.
Getting all the regulatory hurdles so that if somebody calls up and says, I want to put my water in the ground, it's not. Well, that's an interesting idea. It's hey, here's what you got to do. We're going to have to do this paperwork and do these tests and go,” Halihan told lawmakers during the interim study.
Other experts presented groundwater metering, smart irrigation and voluntary conservation programs as possible solutions.
Western Oklahoma Republican State Representative Carl Newton says he authored this interim study because Oklahomans need to be better stewards of the state’s water.
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