TOPIC BEAT
Oklahoma-wide issues and trends.
Advisories run through 7 p.m. tonight after a week of 106-degree highs. Where the alerts stand, where the cool air is, and the signs that mean call 911.
Fifteen counties have shut down outdoor burning as OKC firefighters log roughly 75 wildfire runs this month. How bans work and what violating one costs.
Early voting in the Franklin-Taylor superintendent runoff starts Aug. 20. Every remaining date, deadline and rule, in one place.
Expansion adults will renew SoonerCare twice a year starting Dec. 31, with 80-hour work rules behind it in January. The paperwork prep window is now.
The one-year experiment ended in May: HB 1276 makes bell-to-bell phone bans permanent statewide. What your district's back-to-school packet can still change.
The Oklahoma City run was 2,800 head against 5,525 a year ago. The sell-down years are showing up as empty pens — and record money for what is left.
Treasurer Todd Russ's monthly report shows collections up 2.6 percent over last July, with gross production taxes up 8.3 percent on the year.
PSO's rate case settled at about $2.45 a month, pending OCC approval. The fights over who pays for smelters and data centers are still very much alive.
OG&E's large-load tariff would put 75-megawatt customers behind 15-year contracts and their own hookup costs. The Corporation Commission decides Nov. 3.
Thursday's Drought Monitor caught a flash drought at full sprint — nearly 96 percent of the state is now dry. Here is the law that turns maps into burn bans.
No party opened its 2026 runoffs to independents, but SQ 844 and SQ 846 go to everyone. Absentee requests are due Aug. 10; early voting starts Aug. 20.
New allocation data show high-income families claiming a growing share of the $250 million program while low- and middle-income enrollment slips.
Drummond and Mazzei met on statewide TV Monday night. The Inola smelter, health care and taxes drew the clearest lines before the Aug. 25 runoff.
Since 1985, the state has made schools and counties whole when new factories skip property taxes. SQ 844 would let the Legislature decide how much to pay.
Oklahoma has required ID at the polls since 2011. SQ 846 would lock the rule into the constitution — and let the Legislature define what counts.
A 2025 law covered state agencies. HB 3419 extends it down to counties, municipalities, and school boards.
Franklin 22.6, Taylor 19.7, and a seven-candidate field that split almost evenly. The runoff is August 25.
Six-month renewals for the expansion population, then 80 hours a month — with about 126,000 working-age Oklahomans in the middle of it.
48.9 million bushels against 101.1 last year, at 23.93 bushels an acre. The cattle side is where it compounds.
A pledge is a commitment a company makes. A tariff is a term a regulator enforces. Only one of them is in front of the Corporation Commission.
Nine candidates, two survivors, and a runoff decided by whoever still turns out on the 25th.
The state banned the phones. Your school board decides what happens when one comes out.
The two pieces of the 2026 session lawmakers point to — and the recurring bill both create.
Two higher-education laws took effect July 1 that will be argued about for years.
Stroble stands: McGirt reshaped who prosecutes, not who collects income tax.
A $1,200 fine, a zero-tolerance stretch across 43 counties, and a process built for a slower fire season.
Renewals start in December. Work requirements follow in January. Roughly 1.1 million Oklahomans are in the system.
The law is real, the eligibility is real, and the system that was supposed to do it automatically is not running yet.
A $29 million gas increase, a challenge over who gets to object, and billions already in the pipeline.
About twenty-five dollars a month on the average PSO bill — and a filing window that closed April 1.