Here are a few Okie-related news stories you may have missed this week. Feel free to tell us about any other interesting reads in the comments below.
- The Wall Street Journal today wrote about “a novel—and increasingly controversial—money raiser” in Oklahoma: district attorney-run probation programs that allow “prosecutors to recommend that instead of going to jail or prison, offenders receive special supervision by district attorneys’ offices, which collect a $40 monthly fee from offenders.” WSJ says these “DA supervision” programs are now larger than the state’s traditional probation programs, but their level of supervision has come under scrutiny.
- Despite any qualms about the process’s connection to recent Midwestern earthquakes, the market for hydraulic fracturing is expected to grow 19 percent this year, according to a Tulsa-based consultant firm and as reported by Bloomberg this week. “In North America, which accounted for 87 percent of the fracking market last year, spending on the technique used to extract oil and gas from shale will top $30 billion in 2012…” Bloomberg reported. Earlier this month, This Land Press published a comprehensive report on fracking written by Ginger Strand.
- The Huffington Post published an interview with Brian Schodorf, director of The Wayman Tisdale Story, a documentary released last month, which received a premier in Tulsa. Schodorf said he was a fan of both Tisdale’s basketball and jazz careers, but he didn’t meet the man until he’d been diagnosed with bone cancer. “I came along towards the end of all of this and heard about Wayman’s story and was amazed at how happy he was,” Schodorf said. “He had just had his leg amputated and he was still happy cheerful and in a good mood – he was encouraging other people and his spirits were high. I thought that this was a story that needed to be told, and documentaries are what I do for a living.”
- Earlier this week, former Oklahoma City educator John Thompson wrote an opinion column for HuffPo, criticizing a new state law, which will take effect in the spring, that requires students to pass four end-of-year exams in order to graduate high school. “A blue ribbon panel of the National Research Council concluded that graduation tests have reduced their states’ graduation rates by around 2%, while not improving student achievement,” Thompson wrote. “…(W)e risk both the sacrifice of students who will be denied a diploma in order to atone for the alleged sins of the educational ‘status quo,’ and learning the wrong lessons.”
Photo by Brett Deering, courtesy Governing.com.
- Yesterday, NPR’s Morning Edition hosts interviewed Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett about how his city has avoided some of the economic pitfalls that have entrapped other places. He also talked about how presidential hopefuls and Washington legislators aren’t addressing issues that affect cities.
- An Oklahoma lion has found a new home at the Philadelphia Zoo, according to an article published in the Gloucester County Times. “Makini is joining us from the Tulsa Zoo in Oklahoma where he was one of two brothers who were born there after 16 years of having no births,” Tammy Schmidt, “curator of carnivores,” told the paper. “We are excited to start our new pride journey with Makini.”
- According to The Oklahoman, Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, the same lawmaker who last week proposed reinstating “don’t ask, don’t tell” for the Oklahoma National Guard, has introduced a “personhood” amendment to the Oklahoma constitution, “similar to a proposal that was rejected by Mississippi voters last year.” The Oklahoman reported: “If approved by the Legislature, Reynolds’ bill would place a question on the November ballot asking voters to ‘expand the class of human beings that currently enjoy the inherent right to life under the Oklahoma Constitution to include every human being.’”
—Holly Wall, News Editor
