Tag: Oklahoma

Pro-Life States Claim Feds Are Starving Them by Usurping Congress, Ask Supreme Court to Intervene

Just the News
Xavier Becerra

As the second Trump administration prepares to commandeer the regulatory apparatus, blue states may be hoping the Supreme Court strikes down Biden administration demands on red states to protect them from the same treatment under President Trump.

More than 20 states, nearly as many federal lawmakers and dozens of conservative, pro-life and religious groups asked SCOTUS to overturn a ruling that refused to block the Department of Health and Human Services from cutting off Oklahoma’s Title X family planning funds for not giving women information about abortion.

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Commentary: Classical v. Unclassical Curricula

American Greatness
Teacher and Student

Chad Aldeman, a Virginia-based researcher who focuses on education-related issues, recently detailed the educational experience of his daughter, who completed sixth grade in June. He writes that her teachers didn’t use textbooks, assign homework, or expect kids to study at home for tests, didn’t teach kids to sound out words, and didn’t drill times tables. He also mentions that there were no spelling tests, students didn’t practice handwriting of any kind, cursive or otherwise, and didn’t learn the 50 states and their capitals, let alone world geography.

Aldeman is very concerned by this shift, arguing that her educational experience has “reduced instructional time devoted to science and social studies and emphasized isolated skills such as critical thinking or reading comprehension over teaching students a coherent body of knowledge and facts.”

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Non-Citizens and Duplicate Ballots Discovered in a Dozen States Including D.C. Ahead of November Elections

Just the News
Processing Ballots

With the November election fewer than six weeks away, states and localities are cleaning up voter rolls and sending out ballots to voters. However, multiple jurisdictions are experiencing issues in preparation for Election Day.

As voters in some states have already begun the early and absentee voting process, several jurisdictions have recently found problems in the administrative process, such as non-citizens on voter rolls and duplicate ballots sent out to voters.

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Oklahoma Governor Announces State Has Dropped 450,000 Voters from Voter Rolls Since 2021

Just the News
Voter

Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday revealed that more than 450,000 voter registrations have been dropped from the state’s voter rolls since 2021. 

The purge was part of state’s mandatory routine voter list maintenance, which removes ineligible voters such as those who have moved out of state, are now convicted felons, or who passed away.

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Commentary: Cancel Culture Backfires on Its Leftist Makers After Trump Assassination Attempt Remarks

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Donald Trump

by David Huber   In a perfect world, people like Alison Scott, a teacher in the Oklahoma-based Ardmore City Schools district would have the self-control not to post stupid stuff on social media after a U.S. presidential candidate is almost assassinated. The high school music teacher responded to a Facebook user’s post saying they were going to donate $500 to would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks for “tryin’ to save us,” according to a screenshot obtained by Libs of TikTok. “Same!” wrote the teacher. “Wish they had a better scope” — followed by an “oh well” emoji. Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters subsequently posted on X that the teacher’s comments were “unacceptable” and added: “We will not allow teachers to cheer on violence” against President Trump. Later the same day Walters posted “I have investigated it enough. I will be taking [the teacher’s] teaching certificate. She will no longer be teaching in Oklahoma.” As of Friday, the Ardmore school district website had a pop-window notice of a district news release which stated officials had started a “thorough and swift” investigation, and that the district “strongly condemns acts of physical violence and any words that seek to encourage it.” According to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, the Ardmore staff “Master…

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Oklahoma Becomes Latest State in Court over Illegal Immigration, Arguing It’s a State Issue

Just the News
Oklahoma Atty Gen. Gentner Drummond

Oklahoma is the most recent state facing a legal battle with the Biden administration on the issue of illegal immigration, with a federal judge blocking legislation that would make entering the country illegally a state crime. 

Oklahoma’s House Bill 4156 makes it a crime to be in Oklahoma without legal status. The legislation was signed into law on April 30, but was blocked by a federal judge in June after the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against the state. 

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Oklahoma Supreme Court Rules Against First Publicly-Funded Religious Charter School

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Gentner Drummond

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the approval of what would have been the nation’s first publicly-funded religious school was unconstitutional, according to court records.

Oklahoma’s Virtual Charter School Board voted to approve an application for a virtual religious charter school in June 2023, prompting state Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond to file a lawsuit in October to block the funding, calling it “an irreparable violation of our individual religious liberty” and “an unthinkable waste of our tax dollars.” The Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately sided with Drummond on Tuesday, finding that “under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school” and that “as such, a charter school must be nonsectarian,” per court filings.

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Illegal Immigrant Charged with Rape and Murder of Maryland Mother of Five

Just the News
Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador was charged in connection to the murder of Maryland mother of five Rachel Morin, police announced.

The illegal immigrant, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, 23, was arrested Friday evening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for a crime spree that he started in El Salvador and continued in multiple cities across the United States, police said Saturday.

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Biden and Red States Are on Immigration Collision Course Heading for Supreme Court

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President Joe Biden in front of the Supreme Court building (composite image)

The Biden administration is currently waging a legal campaign against Republican-led states, arguing their laws that effectively restrict illegal immigration are unconstitutional.

The Department of Justice has so far filed lawsuits against three different states for enacting laws that largely empower police to enforce immigration rules. However, these state leaders, in the backdrop of an unprecedented border crisis, say they have no choice but to take up the issue themselves because the Biden administration won’t — and other Republican states may soon follow suit.

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Commentary: States Lead a Happy Title IX Revolt

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Our Bodies Our Sports rally

American federalism is alive and well after all. On April 19, the Biden Education Department announced its disastrous new Title IX rule that guts due process and imposes gender ideology in educational institutions. Within days, however, officials from eight states publicly instructed their schools to ignore it. Then, within a week, 16 states sued the administration alongside nonprofit groups such as Parents Defending Education and several Louisiana school districts. Since then, the number of states suing has climbed to 26—more than half the states in the nation. Their court filings say the rule violates not only the United States Constitution and the federal Administrative Procedures Act but also Title IX itself. Game on!

While feminists weaponized Title IX to their hearts’ content in the Obama years, alleging a phony campus rape crisis to rationalize their kangaroo courts and to silence those questioning their power, the world is a different place under Biden. Feminists have met their match in American parents and and in red states—especially their education officials.

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Oklahoma Just Became the Latest State to Take Immigration Enforcement Into Its Own Hands

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Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt

Oklahoma’s Republican governor signed a sweeping immigration enforcement bill into law, making the Sooner State the latest to confront the border crisis through legislative action.

Gov. Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 4156 into law on Tuesday, one week after the Republican-controlled legislature sent it to his desk. The law, which is set to take effect on July 1, makes it illegal to reside in Oklahoma without legal authorization to be in the U.S.

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States File Suit to Block Biden’s Student Debt Forgiveness Plan

The Center Square
President Joe Biden

A coalition of states has filed a legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s latest executive effort to forgive a portion of Americans’ student loan debt.

The lawsuit comes after Biden on Monday announced the plan, which the states in question say is an overreach of executive authority. The White House claims that Biden has so far canceled at least some of the debt for 4 million Americans, totalling $146 billion so far.

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Commentary: The Plague That Besets Our Schools Is Extensive

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Students in classroom

The year, now a quarter old, reveals that the country’s rapid slide into educational purgatory is moving apace. Leading off the grossness parade is a school in Oklahoma where students lick and suck the armpits and toes of their fellow students in the name of charity. (This may garner a shrug in San Francisco, but Oklahoma?!)

While no district personnel were directly involved, video footage from Deer Creek High School in Edmond, OK, showed mid-teens participating in and watching the disgusting events unfold.

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Oklahoma Superintendent to Propose Rules to Ban Drag Queens and Diversity Programs from Classrooms

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Ryan Walters

Oklahoma’s top education official proposed rules on Thursday that will eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, prevent drag queen performers from becoming teachers and will protect religious liberty in schools.

Republican Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters will be proposing the new rules at Thursday’s Oklahoma Board of Education meeting. One proposed rule allows for the dismissal of teachers who have “engaged in sexual acts” in front of children, the second rule would eliminate funding for DEI programs in K-12 schools and the final proposed rule would ensure that students are allowed to participate in voluntary prayer.

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Blue State Residents Are Paying Much More for Energy than Red States, New Report Shows

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Residents of blue states with aggressive climate policies are paying significantly more for electricity and fuel than red states, according to a new report by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York and New Jersey are seven of the top eight continental states in terms of highest average retail electricity prices in 2023, according to ALEC’s report. Each of these states have some sort of green energy mandate, which the ALEC report refers to as a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), or participates in a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, or both.

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Oklahoma Approves Contract for America’s First Religious Charter School

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The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved a contract Monday for the country’s first religious charter school, according to The Washington Post.

The charter for the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was approved by the board in June, but a lawsuit was filed in July in an attempt to block the state from allowing religious groups to use taxpayer funding for schools. The board, however, went ahead with approving a contract this week in a 3 to 2 vote, putting the school one step closer to opening enrollment for the fall of 2024, according to the Post.

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Nearly Half of U.S. States Now Have Measures Limiting Transgender Surgery for Minors, but Lawsuits Abound

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At least 20 states have either restricted or banned transgender procedures for minors, with many of them facing lawsuits and temporary blocks by courts as a result, while future litigation is possible in states considering adopting such laws. 

The states that have enacted legislation against such procedures are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia – essentially all conservative-leaning.

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Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt Endorses Ron DeSantis for President

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Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the Republican presidential nomination on Saturday.

The two-term governor threw his support behind DeSantis during a speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma, following the endorsement from 20 of the state’s legislators and former Oklahoma Congressman and Trump-appointee Jim Bridenstine, according to a campaign press release. Stitt said he endorsed DeSantis because he’s a “strong conservative and principled leader.”

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Florida and Iowa Among the Handful of States Enacting New, Sweeping School Choice Legislation

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So far in 2023, six states signed school choice legislation into law, giving millions of families and their children education options, including access to taxpayer-funded vouchers.

Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Utah, South Carolina and Oklahoma all signed legislation into law that makes at least some, if not all students within the states, eligible for taxpayer funded vouchers or a tax credit that can be used on education expenses such as private school tuition, textbooks and transportation. Under the legislation enacted in 2023, millions of students across the country are now able to attend schools outside their designated zip code or apply to receive funding in order to seek a private or a homeschool education.

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Oklahoma State Superintendent Cites Teachers’ Unions as ‘Marxist’ and ‘Terrorist’ Organizations

Susan Berry, PhD

Oklahoma state superintendent of schools Ryan Walters repeated Saturday that teachers’ unions are “Marxist” and “terrorist” organizations that are not advocating for students or teachers, but seeking power and financial gain for their leaders.

“Unions, including those in Oklahoma, have single-handedly destroyed the classroom,” Walters tweeted and linked to his interview with Fox News. “It is time to take our kids education back and put parents in charge.”

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Republican States Weigh Rejecting Federal Education Funds to Block Federal Interference

Susan Berry, PhD

Republican states are beginning to consider rejecting federal funding for K-12 education in order to keep out federal interference in the form of the strings attached to the monies.

In February, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said he had introduced a bill to create a task force to weigh the idea of the state rejecting the roughly $1.8 billion of federal monies it receives for K-12 education.

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Oklahoma Supreme Court Allows ‘Life of Mother’ Exception to State Law Prohibiting Most Abortions

Susan Berry, PhD

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has upheld part of the state’s ban on most abortions from the time of fertilization, ruling the state Constitution protects only a “limited right to terminate a pregnancy” in the case of saving the life of the mother.

The state Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, held on Tuesday “the Oklahoma Constitution creates an inherent right of a pregnant woman to terminate a pregnancy when necessary to preserve her life.”

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Oklahoma Set to Debut a First-of-It’s-Kind School Choice Program

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by Reagan Reese   While conventional school choice programs typically involve vouchers administered by the state, Oklahoma is set to create a tax credit-based initiative to fund education outside the public school system. The state’s school choice program, which would create a refundable tax credit program for all families that can be used on homeschooling and private education expenses, is tied to legislation that would increase funding for public schools and give teachers a pay raise and create a refundable tax credit, Oklahoma officials told the DCNF. The bills passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Wednesday in 75 to 25 and 78 to 23 votes, sending the legislation to the state Senate where it is expected to pass. “What we did was we give a $5,000 tax credit, but it’s refundable,” Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In other words, you can get $5,000 to move and go to a school of your choice. That’s the great thing about it is now we’re funding students, not necessarily the system or the zip code where you happen to live. It’s gonna allow you to be more flexible with where the kids go and have the dollars follow the…

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Red State Plans to Strip Accreditation from Schools That Allow ‘Pornography’ in Classroom

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Oklahoma is planning to strip accreditation from schools that allow “pornographic” materials in its libraries, according to the state superintendent.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced a new rule on Friday that would lower the accreditation status of any school districts if “pornographic materials or sexualized content” is available to minors through its libraries. Under the rule, school districts must list, either on an online catalog or to the Oklahoma Department of Education, all books and materials available in their libraries.

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‘Trans Lives Matter’ Activists Occupy Oklahoma Capitol Building to Protest Protecting Minor Children from Life-Altering Transgender Drugs and Surgeries

Susan Berry, PhD

About 150 transgender rights activists occupied the Oklahoma Capitol building Monday to protest Republican-led proposed legislation that would protect minor children and teens from life-altering hormone drugs and surgeries, the consequences of which they may not fully comprehend until they are adults.

The protesters, many from LGBTQ activist groups Oklahomans for Equality and Freedom Oklahoma, descended upon the Capitol building and into the rotunda where they proceeded to chant loudly.

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New Oklahoma Legislation Seeks to Ban Health Care Providers from Administering Sex Change Procedures to Patients Under 26

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A Republican senator introduced a bill Wednesday aimed at blocking health care providers from administering or recommending medical transitions to patients under age 26.

The legislation, pre-filed ahead of Oklahoma’s 59 legislature, would ban gender transition procedures including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries, while also imposing felony conviction and revocation of medical license, should the law be broken, according to the legislation. The legislation would also ban public funding from being used to fund any services related to gender transitions for people under 26.

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Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia Among 18 States Banning Social Media App TikTok from State Devices

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Following South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem’s lead, nearly half of U.S. states have put restrictions on or banned the use of Chinese-based social media app TikTok.

At least 19 states have banned TikTok on government-issued devices – Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utha, Virginia and West Virginia.

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Oklahoma Bill Proposes Forcing Drunk Drivers Who Kill Parents to Pay Child Support

The Center Square

Oklahoma could become the latest state to saddle a drunk driver who kills a child’s parents with the financial responsibility for the orphaned youth.

Rep Jim Olsen, R-Roland, says that House Bill 1003 could create a harsher reality for those who chose to get behind the wheel while intoxicated and cause the death of a parent in a DUI-related crash in the Sooner State.

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Man Attacks Catholic Cathedral with Fire and a Sword

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A man used fire and a sword to attack an Oklahoma Catholic cathedral while school was in session on Wednesday, the school told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Daniel Edwards, carrying a large ice chest, attempted to break into the cathedral of Holy Family Cathedral School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, while students were outside taking school pictures, the school told the DCNF. Edwards then threw a flaming object into the side of the building and used a sword to attack the school’s front desk attendant when he confronted Edwards.

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‘Anarchist’ Middle School English Teacher Admits to Indoctrinating Children: ‘F**k the Parents’

Susan Berry, PhD

Project Veritas (PV) released a new video from its Secret Curriculum series Monday, exposing a middle school English teacher from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who claims to be an “anarchist” who indoctrinates children against their parents with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the American system of government.

Tyler Wrynn is an eighth grade English teacher at Will Rogers Middle School. In the video, Wrynn is heard describing himself to the undercover PV journalist as “an anarchist.”

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Tennessee’s Skrmetti Among the GOP Attorneys General Pressing NAAG to Return $280 Million

RealClearWire

A dozen Republican state attorneys general are fed up with what they view as the leftward drift and self-dealing of their nonpartisan national association and are asking the organization to change its ways and return roughly $280 million in assets to the states.

The National Association of Attorneys General was created in 1907 as a bipartisan forum for all state and territory attorneys general. Over the last year, several of the group’s Republican members have asserted that NAAG has become a partisan litigation machine that improperly benefits from the many tort settlements it helps to engineer.

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‘Find Another Job’: Oklahoma Officials Respond to Teacher Quitting over CRT Ban

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Oklahoma officials are calling for teachers pushing Critical Race Theory (CRT) to leave the classroom after an Oklahoma teacher spoke out against the states’ education law following her resignation.

Summer Boismier quit her high school teaching position at Norman Public Schools in Norman, Oklahoma, after she shared a QR code in her classroom linking students to “Books Unbanned,” a program through Brooklyn Public Library, that allowed students to access books prohibited from being taught by a state law. The law, HB 1775, prohibits teaching that one race or sex is superior to another, with the intent to prevent the teaching of CRT and certain elements of gender ideology.

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Oklahoma Education Board Disciplines School Districts for Allegedly Teaching Critical Race Theory

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The Oklahoma State Board of Education disciplined both Tulsa Public Schools and Mustang Public Schools last week for reportedly violating a law preventing Critical Race Theory from being taught in public schools.

The state board determined at a meeting on Thursday that the two school districts violated HB 1775, which broadly prohibits race- or sex-based discrimination.

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Georgia Among the 20 States Freed from Federal Transgender Sports, Bathroom Guidance

The Center Square

A federal judge in Tennessee ruled in favor of Tennessee, Georgia, and 18 other states in their effort to block federal guidelines on transgender athletes and school locker rooms.

The lawsuit, brought by Tennessee, challenged guidance from the United States Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that would allow athletes who were marked as males on their birth certificates to compete in girls and women’s sports. The federal guidance also would have prohibited student shower and locker room access from being determined by birth gender and provided guidance on required pronoun use.

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Tennessee Joins Arizona and 10 Other AGs in Lawsuit Aimed to Cleanse Federal Regulations Hampering Washing Machines, Dishwashers

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Twelve attorneys general filed an opening brief Friday in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for changes made this year to energy and water efficiency standards for dishwashers and washing machines.

“These arbitrary washing machine regulations are unlawful, ineffective, and absolutely ridiculous,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, co-leader of a suit in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals against the DOE and Secretary Jennifer Granholm, said in a statement. “They should be hung out to dry as soon as possible.”

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SCOTUS Returns Oklahoma’s Right to Prosecute Crimes on Native American Land

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The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state of Oklahoma Wednesday in a case that weighed whether a state can prosecute crimes committed by non-Native Americans against Native Americans on reservation land.

Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta involved a non-Native American defendant Victor Manuel Castro-Huerta, who admitted to “severely” under nourishing his 5 year-old stepdaughter, a Cherokee citizen. The state charged Castro-Huerta and his wife for child neglect. Castro-Huerta’s sentence was 35 years in prison with a possibility of parole.

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Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt Signs Bill Banning Nearly All Abortions

Susan Berry, PhD

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) signed a bill into law Wednesday that bans nearly all abortions in the state and allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” a woman seeking an abortion.

According to HB4327, abortions are prohibited in Oklahoma unless it is “necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency,” or the pregnancy “is the result of rape, sexual assault, or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.”

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States Take a Stand on Value of Human Life: Oklahoma Protects Unborn Babies from Abortion, Colorado Dismisses Their Humanity

Susan Berry, PhD

In just the span of about a week, legislation concerning ending the lives of unborn babies in two states starkly reveals that while many state lawmakers are standing up to protect human life, some appear to be underscoring the extremity with which they are prepared to go to dismiss it.

The states continue to take their respective stands in advance of the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, now awaiting a decision at the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is considered to present the most significant challenge to the Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973.

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