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The Tulsa Beacon

 

Ray Carter

Center for Independent Journalism

Ray Carter is the director of OCPA’s Center for Independent Journalism.

OK wins court fight to protect minors

Tulsa Beacon

Aligning with a recent decision issued by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has upheld an Oklahoma law that bans the performance of sex-change surgeries on minors or the provision of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to children as a treatment for gender dysphoria. “We recognize the importance…

Lawmaker: Time to dismantle OSSAA

Tulsa Beacon

The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association’s recent decision to prevent four teenage boys from playing basketball for Glencoe High School because they transferred into the district, effectively undermining Oklahoma’s open transfer law, has one lawmaker urging his colleagues to dismantle the association and start anew. “The OSSAA is structured in a way that is unfair…

OSSAA embroiled in controversy & lawsuit … again

Tulsa Beacon

In what has become a recurring pattern, the governing board of the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) has been accused of interfering with student transfers despite state law allowing open transfer between public-school districts and the association’s own rules. As in the past, the OSSAA’s actions have resulted in a lawsuit, and some lawmakers…

OSSBA seeks another billion for schools … for administrators

Tulsa Beacon

Since 2018, Oklahoma public school funding has increased by $3.3 billion, with per-pupil revenue surging 51 percent during that time. But the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA), a lobbyist organization hired by school districts, says Oklahoma schools need $1 billion to $2 billion more. And the head of OSSBA says Oklahomans should not necessarily…

Federal Court ruling buoys new Oklahoma anti-discrimination law

Tulsa Beacon

During this year’s legislative session, Oklahoma lawmakers voted to prevent state officials from discriminating against religious persons who want to serve as foster or adoptive parents. Under Senate Bill 658, by state Sen. Julie Daniels and state Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services cannot require any current or prospective adoptive or…

OK Democrats say no masks for ICE

Tulsa Beacon

Members of the Oklahoma House Democratic caucus are calling for immigration enforcement officials to be readily identifiable, despite a massive increase in violent threats against law enforcement officials who have arrested violent illegal immigrants in recent weeks. In a resolution signed by 20 Democratic members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, the lawmakers stated that…

OK teacher pay ranks higher than many realize

Tulsa Beacon

In a press release issued earlier this year, House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson of Oklahoma City declared that Oklahoma ranks “last in the region for teacher pay.” That statement received a good deal of attention at the Oklahoma state Capitol for one major reason: It wasn’t true. A report issued in April by the National…

NEA commits to fight ‘fascist’ Trump

Tulsa Beacon

At the National Education Association’s national convention this summer, attendees adopted business items that committed the teachers’ union to opposing President Donald Trump’s agenda in general and the deportation of illegal immigrants in particular. Information about the NEA event, which was closed to the public, indicates that union activists focused far more time on left-wing…

OK Supreme Court: McGirt does not extend to Civil and Regulatory Law

Tulsa Beacon

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which held that the pre-statehood reservation of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation was never formally disestablished for purposes of federal criminal law, created vast uncertainty regarding regulatory issues across most of eastern Oklahoma. The multiple “reservations” effectively recreated by McGirt cover nearly half the state and…

‘Big Beautiful Bill’ law requires Medicaid recipients to seek work

Tulsa Beacon

When Congress passed, and President Donald Trump signed, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” work requirements for able-bodied individuals on Medicaid were among the changes enacted. Under the legislation, able-bodied adults who have no children and are between the ages of 19 and 64 are required to complete at least 80 hours per month of…