Oklahoma's 2024 Legislative Session Concludes
The 2024 regular legislative session is over.
Despite a rushed budget process that bled into the final days of the regular legislative session, Oklahoma lawmakers managed to finish their work and adjourn “sine die,” Thursday evening.
Sine Die translates to “without day,” in Latin. In legalese, it means indefinitely.
House Speaker Charles McCall says he would’ve liked to have seen an income tax cut pass into law this year, but acknowledged some highlights for the House.
"A lot of things have been accomplished this session. Law enforcement pay raises - glad that those got across," said McCall. "Yesterday I saw the women's Bill of Rights legislation that completed its journey and is on the governor's desk. Grocery tax was the largest accomplishment of this session from a tax standpoint."
Now, some lawmakers are shifting focus from legislating to running for reelection.
Controversial Poultry Waste Bill Heads to Gov. Stitt Amid Environmental Concerns
A bill protecting poultry operations from pollution lawsuits is on its way to Gov. Kevin Stitt. Opponents say threatens water quality in Northeast Oklahoma
House Bill 4118 aimed to make poultry farms immune from lawsuits if they followed a state-approved plan for disposing of poultry waste.
Conservation groups and the state’s five largest tribal nations pushed back and the measure seemed to fizzle out. But lawmakers rolled its language into Senate Bill 1424, which also increases fines for bad-acting poultry operations.
Rep. Meloyde Blancett, a Tulsa Democrat Tulsa, says the bill will mostly help large corporations like Tyson.
"What this does is allow these poultry integrators - that are not based in Oklahoma, by the way - to use our state as a disposal site for their poop," said Blancett.
Its fate now rests with Stitt after passing both chambers.
Progress in Identifying Tulsa Race Massacre Victims
Forensic scientists are making progress in identifying the remains of unknown people who possibly died in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
Experts at Intermountain Forensics updated the media on the latest from their investigation.
Alison Wilde says her genealogy team uncovered new family names and compiled new DNA profiles that may be tied to victims.
“We’ve been able to refine our placement of where the unknown burials could fit into the family trees of their living DNA relatives," said Wilde.
Experts are using large DNA databases from consumer tests to track down potential family members.
Wilde says all of the families contacted so far have been surprised by the revelation they may have ancestors tied to Tulsa.
“For the most part, they have no memory of a family story about Tulsa. We haven’t encountered anybody yet that says ‘yes, my grandma told me a story about her cousin that was in Tulsa.’ We haven’t heard that from any of the families yet, so they’re left to ponder over the possibilities," said Wilde.
The team also says many have contacted them by seeing their family names in local news because of the search.
The city of Tulsa and the forensics team are encouraging those with possible ties to massacre victims to reach out.
Women's College World Series Opener
The Women’s College World Series got underway in Oklahoma City Thursday.
For the Oklahoma Sooners, it was much of the same. They extended their win streak to 19 games, with a 9 to 1 run-rule victory over the Duke Blue Devils.
The win by the back-to-back-to-back national titleholders was highlighted by home runs from Kinzie Hansen, Alynah Torres and Cydney Sanders, but it was a diving outfield catch by senior Jayda Coleman in the fourth inning that helped save two Duke runs, and stop a building momentum.
OU now moves on in the winners bracket, where they’ll face the UCLA Bruins on Saturday afternoon.
In the late game yesterday, Katie Kistler hit a solo shot to break-up Lexi Kilfoyl’s no-hitter in the fifth inning, as Florida defeated the Oklahoma State Cowgirls by a score of 1 to nothing.
OSU now faces an elimination game against the Stanford Cardinal tonight at 8:30.
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