Here are the highlights from this week’s Oklahoma-related news.
- The Oklahoma Senate, voting 34-8, passed legislation that aims to override Roe v. Wade in the state by declaring life (or “personhood”) begins at conception. “The measure now goes to the state House where pro-life Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than a 2-1 margin,” Reuters reported. Though the bill’s backers say it won’t “hamper access to contraception or prevent stem cell research,” opponents say it has “dire consequences.”
- The Lost Ogle reported that “Sen. Constance Johnson is at it again” after the Oklahoma City legislator, who last week submitted a tongue-in-cheek amendment to the legislation that would have declared “any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child,” offered a new amendment to the Personhood Act that would “force rapists who impregnate their victims to receive a vasectomy and be financially responsible for the offspring until the age of 21.” The full amendment reads:
In the spirit of shared responsibility in issues of reproduction, if a woman declares that she is pregnant non-consensually, the sperm donor shall be required to undergo a statutorily mandated vasectomy, shall be fined Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00), and shall also be financially responsible for the offspring of such pregnancy until the age of twenty-one (21).
- Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s attorney general, Scott Pruitt, was one of 10 who threatened legal opposition to President Obama’s contraception compromise. “The 10 attorneys general say the requirement that health insurers of religious organizations’ employees cover contraception when the employer’s group policy does not represents ‘unprecedented coercion’ to violate religious beliefs,” the Tulsa World reported. Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, offered a smart, thoughtful opinion on the national birth control controversy, pointing out that “the cost of birth control is one reason poor women are more than three times as likely to end up pregnant unintentionally as middle-class women.” Obama wants women to have free access to birth control, paid for by their employers if it’s not covered by their health insurance.
- The New York Times published a story, along with an interactive map, illustrating American families’ growing dependence on government. “The share of Americans’ income that comes from government benefit programs, like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, more than doubled over the last four decades, rising from 8 percent in 1969 to 18 percent in 2009,” the paper reported. The map allows viewers to hover over any county in the U.S. and see what percentage of county income comes from government programs. In Oklahoma, percentages range from 15 to 38.
- NPR’s StateImpact Oklahoma offered “four ways Obama’s budget impacts Oklahoma’s economy,” specifically the aerospace, agriculture, energy, and military industries.
- Oklahoma Policy Institute summed up the state’s 2012 legislative session, noting “prospects look better for immigrants, worse for the poor, loaded for gun enthusiasts.” Though fewer than 10 immigration-related bills were introduced this year (as opposed to two dozen last year), “at least nine bills have been filed to require drug testing of applicants for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance program,” and almost 50 gun-related bills were introduced.
A page from Guthrie’s notebook from 1947, when he lived in New York City. Bradly Brown/Woody Guthrie Archives
- The Christian Science Monitor wrote about Woody Guthrie this week, contending that, in “an age of Occupy… Woody would be in his prime.” “There is irony in the fact that Guthrie’s music is suddenly relevant due, in part, to the protests of the “Occupy” movement and the antigovernment outcry of the tea party,” Mark Guarino wrote in an wrticle that highlighted the Woody Guthrie Centennial events, as well as the artist’s archives being relocated to Tulsa. “Both threads circle back to Guthrie themes of corruptive, concentrated power by the powerful minority that is economically and socially oppressive to a marginalized majority.”
- Entertainment Weekly reported that Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts have been contracted to play roles in the film version of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer prize- and Tony award-winning play August: Osage County. John Wells will direct. “Streep and Roberts will play mother and daughter in the film, taking on the roles of pill-popping matriarch Violet and complicated, headstrong daughter Barbara, respectively,” the magazine reported. August: Osage County opened on Broadway in 2007 and toured the country, stopping off in Tulsa, in 2010. Film production is set to begin in the fall.
- Yesterday, the Oklahoma Rock Blog recognized the funeral date of Soul Train’s creator Don Cornelius, who committed suicide late last month, by recognizing the Oklahoma musicians who benefited from appearances on the show. The post included videos of The Gap Band’s appearance on the show, one of which is embedded above.
- The Oklahoman has been publishing a series of stories on Oklahoma’s “endangered black history.” This week, part four focused on Guthrie, offering insight into the city’s history, a picture of it today, and recommendations for sights to see while there.
Anthony Shadid in Cairo. Photo courtesy anthonyshadid.com.
- Sadly, late last night, The New York Times and other national media outlets began reporting the death of Anthony Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who hailed from Oklahoma City and who was, at the time of his death, a Syrian correspondent for NYT. He was 43 and died of an apparent asthma attack. In his obituary, NYT wrote: “Mr. Shadid’s hiring by The Times at the end of 2009 was widely considered a coup for the newspaper, for he had been esteemed throughout his career as an intrepid reporter, a keen observer, an insightful analyst and a lyrical stylist. Much of his work centered on ordinary people who had been forced to pay an extraordinary price for living in the region — or belonging to the religion, ethnic group or social class — that they did.” He was widely respected for his “clear-eyed” coverage of the Arab Spring—the Times nominated him for a 2012 Pulitzer in international reporting; the award will be announced in April—and he survived a shooting in Ramallah in 2002 and a kidnapping and repeated beatings last year in Syria. The Times also offered excerpts of his work, and Mother Jones reposted an interview conducted with Shadid in January about, among other things, growing up Lebanese in Oklahoma and his third book, House of Stone, which is due out in March. Also, the Columbia Journalism Review reminded us of their in-depth interview with the man, which was published in the magazine’s November/December 2011 issue.
—Holly Wall, News Editor
