This week in Okie news: A depressed woman flees to McAlester from Broken Arrow to save her paralyzed pet kangaroo; Republican lawmakers’ agendas include legislating against gays, poor people, and Muslims; and out-of-state investors buy up rural farmland.
Oh, and there’s some good journalism in there, too.
Image courtesy Gawker.
The latest Okie news to go viral is the strange story of Christie Carr and her pet kangaroo, Irwin, who fled their Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, home for the safety of McAlester, two hours south, because Carr worried BA officials would take Irwin from her—even though they’ve made no move to do so, a BA spokeswoman told the Associated Press. In fact, BA officials seem to have gone out of their way to allow Carr to keep her therapeutic pet, creating an exemption in their city’s ordinance and delivering, multiple times, the required paperwork for Carr to fill out. Carr hasn’t completed the paperwork—she said she never received it—and has decide to move to McAlester where she can “protect him.” Media outlets across the country have picked up Irwin’s story, including Gawker, which is requesting McAlester residents who spot the kangaroo around town to send them photos, so that they may “properly respect this natty formerly paralyzed kangaroo.”
State Senator Andrew Rice, D-Oklahoma City, wrote a farewell letter to Oklahoma, published this week in the Oklahoma Gazette. Last October, Rice announced that he and his family would be moving out of state in order for his wife to pursue a new career opportunity. In his letter, Rice addressed Republicans, Democrats, public education reformers, and future legislators, among others. Rice’s resignation is effective Jan. 15, and the special election to replace him will be Feb. 14.
With Rice out, OKC’s most prominent representatives are Sally Kern and Mike Reynolds, both conservative Republicans who have been nationally criticized for their political gaffs. Earlier this week, Reynolds introduced a bill into the state’s legislature that would reinstate “don’t ask, don’t tell” for the Oklahoma National Guard. We reported on this Tuesday, but The Equality Network did a nice job of organizing public and media response to the news in a Storify template. We were also happy to read this editorial in yesterday’s Tulsa World.
The other Oklahoma story making national headlines this week was a federal court’s injunction on State Question 755, a voter-approved measure that would prevent international and Islamic law from being considered in Oklahoma courts. “The amendment would require Oklahoma courts to ‘rely on federal and state law when deciding cases’ and ‘forbids courts from considering or using’ either international law or Islamic religious law, known as Sharia, which the amendment defined as being based on the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed,” CNN reported. The Council of American-Islamic Relations sued to nullify the law, arguing that “the amendment violates the establishment and free-exercise clauses of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom.” The Atlantic wrote something on the subject this week as well: “State Question 755 looks to be headed toward the scrap heap of legal history, along with other dubious laws and measures that sought to solve problems that didn’t exist by unlawfully classifying citizens by their religious or political beliefs. Sharia law bans may still be a big hit on the campaign trail. But in court they are getting trounced.”
Last month, the Oklahoma Policy Institute alerted citizens to new legislation that prevented babies up to 1 year old from being covered by the child-only individual health insurance market. This week, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that state Democrats have filed legislation “that would require health insurers in the state to offer child-only insurance policies that covers anyone under age 18 — including newborns — not covered by family plans or Medicaid.”
OK Policy has also worked to keep folks aware of the implications of state Republicans’ attempts to reduce (and, eventually, eliminate) the state income tax by cutting other tax breaks—many of which are utilized by the elderly and low-income families. “A proposal by the legislature’s tax reform task force would raise taxes for most Oklahomans, with the worst impact on low-income seniors and families with children, according to a new fact sheet from the Oklahoma Policy Institute,” the organization blogged this week. “Among all households, the top 1 percent (those making $357,400 or more) would receive by far the largest benefit, with an average tax break of $2,833. The bottom 60 percent would see an average tax increase of $107.”
NPR’s StateImpact Oklahoma published a sympathetic and revealing look at one of Oklahoma’s poorest places, Choctaw County, where “the situation is desperate” and “four live in poverty out of every 10 residents under age 18.” Logan Layden offers a written narrative, as well as an audio report, to tell the story.
KOSU, Oklahoma State University’s public radio station, offered a short but interesting story about out-of-state investors buying up Oklahoma farmland. “If you’re looking for a safe investment with healthy returns, the plains of Oklahoma are the new proverbial X on the map for agricultural investors,” Ben Allen reported. “Despite severe drought, farmland values in the state have been on the rise for the better part of the past two years, making productive land a gold mine for local and out of state farmers.” Allen goes on to explain why values have risen and why they show no signs of falling.
—Holly Wall, News Editor
