Articles

The Oklahoma legislature passed a straightforward law legalizing brewers to sell their own beer on their own premises. They could already give out samples, and wineries were earlier freed to sell their own wine and host wine tastings. With the brewery law set to take effect on August 26 of this year, everyone was happy. Everyone except Keith Burt.

It was a free speech forum, of all places. This month at the University of Missouri, CNN commentator Sally Kohn declared herself “happy” if people she disagrees with feel “under assault” for expressing their beliefs. “If they feel like they can no longer speak … good.”

The White House Council of Economic Advisors recently released a report claiming the Dodd-Frank financial services law of 2010 is not harming community banks. Not so, say the bankers, the General Accountability Office, and the clear numbers.

Congress threatened to stop it, a federal judge delayed it, but, in the end, it was local leaders in Oklahoma and neighboring states who stopped the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from listing the lesser prairie chicken as endangered.

“Raise a glass to freedom,” the hit musical Hamilton recommends. Many Oklahomans did just that last Friday in celebration of Senate Bill 424. Of course, implementing the law to allow beer sales at breweries almost didn’t happen. Last-minute hijinks at the Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission threatened to nullify the legislation that had passed easily through the Legislature with bipartisan support.

The tragic deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, and then the horrific ambush murders of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, drew the usual statements from President Barack Obama. Yes, it was awful, he allowed, but then he engaged in divisive rhetoric about gun control and race.

Great levels of scrutiny have been placed on the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust’s recent attempt to hire an additional administrator at a salary of $250,000 a year. At a time when nearly 20,000 Oklahomans have lost their jobs due to the price declines in the oil and gas industry and state spending is being cut, TSET’s decision has been met with outrage. But Oklahoman’s should be aware that TSET’s recent decision is by no means the most egregious and TSET is not the only governmental entity in Oklahoma that creates positions for the politically connected.

The predictions were dire. Nursing homes and hospitals would close. Pregnant women in labor wouldn’t receive care. Thus the story told by state agency officials and lobbyists for big hospital corporations. The only way to prevent catastrophe was to raise taxes and massively expand Medicaid to able-bodied adults.

The Obama administration’s recent decree – which would, among other things, allow boys into girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms and showers – has generated predictable outrage and pushback. Oklahoma lawmakers are reportedly considering legislation that would protect students’ privacy.

We usually reserve the title “statesman” for those who achieve elected office. But Webster provides another definition, “a wise, skillful and respected political leader.” This describes Lew Ward perfectly, and his death this week, at the wise age of 85, deprived our state of one of its truest and most loyal statesmen.