Oklahoma County Commissioners Vote To Drop Jail Lawsuit Against Oklahoma City
Oklahoma County is dropping its lawsuit against Oklahoma City over the future site of the county jail.
The city and county have been battling over the future site of a new detention center for months.
The county wants to put the new jail on a site near Del City, which critics point out is close to local schools and homes, but miles from the county courthouse and post-judicial services.
The city had tried to use zoning to block the county from using the site. So county commissioners sued last year.
In late December, State Attorney General Gentner Drummond issued an opinion stating it wasn’t necessary. Though county commissioners aren’t a “superior sovereign,” the county has immunity from OKC’s zoning powers concerning the jail site.
Oklahoma County commissioners unanimously agreed Monday to drop the suit following the ruling, and they plan to proceed with jail construction.
When asked for comment by The Oklahoman, city officials said they had nothing to say for now.
Funding for the project remains an issue. Voters had approved $260 million, but projections show construction will likely cost double that figure.
Despite that, commissioners have moved forward with a plan for a new Behavioral Care Center at the site.
New Data Centers To Be Built In Oklahoma
An investor from the United Arab Emirates is pouring $20 billion into data centers in the U.S.
Incoming President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that some of those centers will be in Oklahoma.
“The investment will support massive new data centers across the Midwest, the Sun Belt area. And also to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence,” Trump said at a news conference.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates data centers use 10 to 50 times more electricity than other commercial buildings of similar size.
They’re expected to contribute to an increase in energy demand across the country, including in Oklahoma, over the next decade.
Gov. Kevin Stitt thanked Trump on social media for bringing this investment to Oklahoma.
Stitt's comments came an hour after he posted in opposition of a canceled federal project to develop energy transmission lines in the state.
Stitt’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Judge Rules State Board of Education Decision On Gender Markers Was Unconstitutional
A judge has ruled a State Board of Education decision involving a transgender student in Moore was unconstitutional.
The board last year denied the student's request to change the gender marker on their school records.
Cleveland County judge Michael Tupper ruled a transgender Moore Public Schools student’s rights under the state constitution were violated when the Oklahoma Board of Education voted to deny their request to have the gender marker on their school records changed without holding a formal hearing.
Since the student was not given due process, Tupper ruled the Board’s vote was null and void.
This ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by the student’s family in December of 2023 in response to the Board’s decision in October of that year.
The lawsuit also questioned the validity of an emergency rule approved by the Board requiring school districts to notify the Board before modifying a student’s records.
Tupper found the rule to be valid and enforceable.
Kiowa Tribe Remembers Iconic Elder
A prominent Kiowa elder died last week and is being remembered by those who loved him.
Many will remember Dr. Phil Joe Fish DuPoint as the principal singer for the Kiowa Blackleggings Warrior Society. .
“I still can sing, and as long as I can do that, well I'll do that,” DuPoint said in a video recording.
The Southwest Oklahoma icon’s singing lives on in a video produced by Red Buffalo Images and his legacy of preserving the tribe’s cultural knowledge from its capital and his home city of Carnegie.
“The names on that teepee, they paid the supreme sacrifice. And I'm thankful for that, that I can do what I do and I live the way that I live, that I am, I'm doing now,” DuPoint said.
Chairman Lawerence SpottedBird remembered DuPoint in a statement, saying, “He touched the hearts of all his Kiowa People and countless Native People nationwide.”
DuPoint was 70 years old.
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