First Round Of Opioid Grants Totals $23 Million
Oklahoma’s attorney general has received 101 applications for an initial round of grants local groups can use to counteract the impacts of the opioid epidemic.
This first round totals $23 million.
The groups who applied from December through March include Oklahoma counties, municipalities, school districts and public trusts.
The funding they’re vying for is a portion of the nearly $1 billion Oklahoma received from lawsuits against opioid distributors, manufacturers and retailers.
The grants are overseen by the state’s Opioid Abatement Board and can be used for things like treatment and recovery programs, and opioid abuse education and prevention.
There were nearly 800 opioid-related deaths in Oklahoma in 2022, according to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond says he’s pleased groups from across the state are seeking funding to combat the crisis and help people facing addiction.
Court Rules Osage Nation Was Disestablished
Oklahoma’s Court of Criminal Appeals says the Osage Nation’s reservation was disestablished by Congress around the time Oklahoma became a state.
Essentially, the appeals court says McGirt doesn’t apply to the Osage Nation.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s McGirt decision re-affirmed Muscogee Nation and has set a precedent around the state, re-affirming several reservations including the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations.
Those tribal nations all have criminal jurisdiction, meaning tribal citizens charged there will be tried in tribal or federal courts. Tribal leaders argue that’s a key component of tribal sovereignty.
Because of McGirt, Osage citizen Dakoda McCauley argued he should be tried in federal court for the 2018 death of an acquaintance in Barnsdall, for which he was convicted of manslaughter.
The appeals court judges disagreed and declined to move his case.
It’s anticipated the case could be appealed all the way up to the US Supreme Court.
Bartlesville Voters Reject Changes To City Charter
In Bartlesville, just north of Tulsa, voters gave mixed results on ten proposed changes to the city’s charter this week.
The most significant proposed change was Proposition One - to move city council elections from November to April and extend councilors terms from two years to three.
More than 60-percent of voters rejected that proposal.
Bartlesville Mayor Dale Copeland supported Proposition One, and said the question now is how to move forward.
“How do we communicate? How do we reach out to people? Which can be really difficult in a general election in November when people are receiving so much information about national offices, state offices, perhaps state questions,” Copeland said.
Some changes -were- approved by voters, including Proposition Six, which would disqualify city councilors who do not live in the ward they represent.
“If you were to move out of that, you could perhaps still do a great job, but you’re not there with those streets and those services so that, when someone three blocks over, whatever, has an issue, that you have a connection and identity with that,” Copeland said.
Fewer than twenty-five-hundred people turned out for Bartlesville’s April 2nd election, that’s roughly 10 percent of eligible voters.
Rep. Turner Not Seeking Relection
State Rep. Mauree Turner says they are not seeking reelection this year.
Turner made the initial announcement via a campaign email. The decision to step down from office, they say, is after a recent medical diagnosis and the need to care for their physical and mental health.
"I've got some health issues that I'd like to focus on right now. I got a diagnosis at the beginning of the year I think it just kind of made the decision a lot easier, to take a step back," Turner said.
Looking ahead, Turner is endorsing their legislative aide Nicole Maldonado as the next representative for House District 88.
Maldonado, 24, is a self-described queer woman who says that like Turner, she will continue representing the intersectionality of identities in the heart of the state's capital city.
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