Those nippy mornings remind us that really cold weather – and with it annoying winter precipitation – are just around the corner. While central Oklahoma is hardly a deep winter place, it can get messy, as we recall from the three big record-setting snowfalls we have experienced in recent years.
Even a moderate dusting of snow or a sudden ice storm can create hazardous winter driving situations. It makes sense to borrow from the Boy Scout motto and be prepared.
Most Oklahomans know that our public agencies don’t have the vast fleets of snowplows and other equipment government invests in in areas like Minnesota, where winter can last six harsh months. But we are prepared, through an excellent system of teamwork arranged in advance each year.
(Editor’s Note: EastWord provided this week’s topic to two local community members that have agreed to participate in our Point/Counterpoint. Their identities will remain anonymous to our readers, but are known by EastWord’s editor. We hope this new feature in the paper encourages our readers to engage in a friendly conversation.)
Discussion is underway in our state about "reforms" that should be made to our state’s system of judicial selection. In fact, a legislative interim study takes place at the state Capitol this week to further delve into those issues. Our current method of choosing judges is the right one for our state, because it is the one best suited for keeping politics out of our courtrooms.
Fifty years ago, when justice was for sale, politicians appointed and confirmed Oklahoma’s appellate Supreme Court justices. There was no check on that authority. The result was a bribery scandal inside our highest state court.
Oklahomans found a new process and it is still working. A Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) was created by constitutional amendment in 1967. Today, the 15 JNC members are appointed in various ways.
The Midwest City Fire Department takes car seat safety very seriously.
I found this out firsthand last week while waiting on my transaction to be complete at the bank for work.
Nina Powell walked into the bank on "official" fire department business but first asked the bank teller if she knew who the driver of a certain vehicle in the parking lot was.
I have read with horror the recent news accounts about Rebecca Sedwick, a 12-year-old Florida girl who killed herself after what authorities said was unrelenting bullying by other girls in her community.
Such high-profile stories have become all too commonplace over the past few years. In Oklahoma, we’ve had our own tragic examples of children bullied to the point of suicide.
It must stop.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month. A proclamation issued earlier this month by Governor Mary Fallin declared the week of Oct. 6-12 as Bullying Prevention Week in Oklahoma, while many of our state lawmakers have worked to strengthen bullying laws.
Each year, thousands of non-custodial parents of Oklahoma children default on the child support payments that courts have ordered them to pay. In many cases this leaves their children in poverty. Now there’s a new way to require that these deadbeat parents meet their legal and moral obligations to support their children.
Most Oklahoma County residents are familiar with the successful SHINE community service program we created in 2010. Judges can sentence low-level non-violent offenders to perform a specific number of hours of community service, and my District Two crew oversees their work.
Offenders sentenced to SHINE work hard trimming brush, picking up trash and even erasing graffiti. SHINE has been honored by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government as a Bright Idea, and at least two other counties in Oklahoma are preparing to launch similar programs that will save money while reminding offenders that there are consequences for their lawbreaking actions.
OKLAHOMA CITY- State Supt. Janet Barresi’s politicized statement last week soft-shoeing the flubbed A-F grade release to state school districts validates the public’s reservations about the whole grading system, said Rep. Jerry McPeak, D-Warner, on Monday, Oct. 21.
"If we’re looking for accountability in our schools, why not start with the State Department of Education?" said McPeak. "The SDE will take all the accolades you want to give them but haven’t taken the blame for anything wrong in three years. I wonder what it’s like to sincerely believe you and your department are perfect?"
"Dr. Barresi released a statement on Friday that said ‘some opponents of school accountability will no doubt seize on the recent delay as yet another reason to postpone, reconfigure, or simply trash the A-F report cards,’" said McPeak. "In common vernacular from my community, ‘you’ve got that right!’ Barresi’s words validate what I’ve already said. There are those in this state who are determined to continue A-F, regardless of how horribly it is executed and how much it hurts our children in public schools."
In one week’s time, all of our Oklahoma schools reportedly received seven versions of their A-F scores and as of Tuesday afternoon, the results were embargoed until further notice.
No matter what side of the debate you are on when it comes to A-F scores, you have to admit that this delay makes it very difficult for our school districts to stay on task and to do their jobs. And speaking of the results, how are school administrators supposed to trust the results they received when preliminary results showed massive errors, reportedly due to the testing company.
Originally, school districts were supposed to receive the data in August and then have 30 days to review test scores. Then from there, they would receive their report cards and have another 10 days of review before the Oct. state board of education meeting when they would be approved.
I would like to compliment Midwest City on their recycling program. They have made it extremely easy for people to do the right thing and recycle. Midwest City residents seem to be using this service as witnessed by the large number of recycling carts put out on recycling day. Kudos to you guys!
Here is the problem: Midwest City’s Recycling Program does not include businesses. I work at a small business in MWC. I do all the recycling for the companies in our building.
A federal court jury recently made the final ruling in a lawsuit that had been filed against Oklahoma County.
The jury heard evidence for several days and concluded in a unanimous verdict that a group of former county employees had not been fired or forced to retire unjustly.
That decision not only made a statement for what is right, it protected the taxpayers from a potentially costly judgment that could have amounted to millions and caused property taxes to rise.
The case originated in an issue I discovered soon after I took office in 2009.
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04) released the following statement after the Senate’s failure to engage in budget negotiations with the House in order to avert a government shutdown.
Due to Senate inaction, many government agencies closed on October 1.
"Today is an unfair day for America and one that could have been avoided," Cole said. "While the House has worked tirelessly to propose fair solutions, the Senate has refused to consider a compromise in any form.
The situation at Midwest Regional Medical Center is not what it was six months ago.
Or at least it appears that way.
This past weekend, I was invited to attend a special event hosted by the hospital for associates and their families. The event’s atmosphere was nice, despite the slight chill in the air, and proved to me administrators are making progress on their promise to the community MRMC would get better.
While at the event, I judged more than 15 different types of chilis, six kinds of barbecue ribs and so many homemade pies I felt like I needed to be rolled out to my car.
In short, I was impressed by the showing of camaraderie at the event and I hope it was a sign of the progress MRMC is making not only for its associates and physicians but its patients as well.
Hospital associates are facing quite the uncertain future at the moment.
Apparently unbeknownst to me there is some proxy war being waged between science and religion. In the same manner as being a Democrat or Republican, atheist or theist or rich or poor, we have allowed ourselves to be duped into believing that we must be all of a thing or nothing of a thing. This binary way of thinking is what leads us to political camps and religious or secular trenches.
The reality is that nearly all of us are a little bit of all of these things. As it pertains to science and religion, I am not agreeable to angry secularist telling me I must choose between the two.
I am under no moral or philosophical obligation to do so.
I instead choose to attempt when possible to reconcile competing ideologies.
In doing so, it allows me to understand the limits of what I believe and, when necessary, to push those limits.
I don’t know who’s in charge of the advertising for Midwest Regional in the newspaper, but I’m thinking another background would have been a wiser choice.
Other than a circus (fair-Ferris wheel), having experienced for myself, and certain members of my family, the “goings on” in the ER and other floors (except 7th floor) was like a circus “happening.”
