StateImpact Oklahoma

The federal government is seeking its slice of Oklahoma's recent $270 million settlement with Purdue Pharmaceuticals, and the bill could be millions of dollars.

Oklahoma has more than 4,700 dams. At least 30 percent of these flood control structures are at the end of their 50-year design life. With climate change expected to bring more heavy precipitation, can they hold up?

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that the Legislature has the authority to block lawsuits against local and state governments operating jails and detention centers. The ruling follows legal actions the spawned after an Oklahoma man was badly beaten in a county jail. 

The first civil trial that could hold a pharmaceutical company accountable for the opioid crisis is in its third week in a Norman courtroom. The state is accusing drug giant Johnson & Johnson of downplaying opioids addiction risk, leading to the deaths of thousands of Oklahomans.

As the state has cut funding for universities, they have responded by raising tuition. Regional universities and the students they serve have been uniquely affected. 

Despite voter support for criminal justice reforms, lawmakers only passed one bill that could affect prison population growth frustrating Department of Corrections employees and agency budgets.

StateImpact Oklahoma reporters followed legislators actions on education, criminal justice reform, Medicaid expansion and abortion. 

A case that could signal the outcome of a flood of litigation against opioid drug manufacturers begins May 28th in Oklahoma.  

Oklahoma lawmakers are facing a deadline to finish their work in the next three weeks. The most important duty before the 2019 legislature ends is crafting a budget for the 2020 fiscal year, which starts on July 1. But, so far, nothing has been released.

The Oklahoma Department of Health and the State Fire Marshal inspect local jails every year. Oklahoma law requires local jails to pass state inspections, but the inspections are only as effective as the rules they’re based on. Just because a jail passes inspection -- doesn’t mean it’s completely safe.  

The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board spends millions on science curriculum focused exclusively on fossil fuels. This year, two retired middle school science teachers created a competing curriculum for renewable energy. 

The anticipated anti-abortion tilt of the U.S. Supreme Court has inspired state lawmakers to move to outlaw abortion entirely if Roe V. Wade ever falls. But the rush to regulate has exposed divisions among lawmakers who consider themselves staunch abortion opponents.

A county sheriff and her staff quit after refusing a judge's order to bring prisoners back to a jail they called unsafe. The move shined a national spotlight on bleak conditions in the Nowata County Jail. The problems can be traced back to low funding -- a problem many Oklahoma sheriffs can are familiar with.

Robert Redfield, the director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention visited one of two federally funded HIV clinics in Oklahoma last week. It’s part of a new federal initiative to stop the spread of HIV in the U.S. within 10 years. Oklahoma is being targeted because it has some the highest rural HIV rates in the country.

April 2 marks one year since the teacher walkout. A new cohort of educators-turned-lawmakers are in office, and teachers continue to lobby for more school funding. Will it make a difference this year?

To get a medical marijuana license in Oklahoma, patients need a recommendation from their doctor — paperwork attesting that, in their medical opinion, a patient would benefit from the drug. But what happens when there's not a doctor in the area willing to sign off?

With a huge freshman class and a promise for less gridlock, Oklahoma lawmakers filed more than 2,800 bills this legislative session. A third of the legislative session is now over - here's fifteen bills you should watch.

Lawmakers are considering House Bill 1269, which would make State Question 780 retroactive and extend its provisions to people convicted before it took effect. However, it’s unclear how many people currently in prison would be affected. Oklahoma Department of Corrections data from late January suggested at least 2,007 people would qualify for shorter sentences. Of that total, 992 people serving pr...

  Health officials and doctors treating patients with HIV in the seven, mainly southern states say any extra funding would be welcome. But they say strategies that work in progressive cities like Seattle won’t necessarily work in rural areas of Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

Oklahoma City is growing, but student enrollment in district schools is on the decline. The distribution isn’t felt evenly, and some schools are overcrowded while other schools are operating at less than half capacity. The district’s superintendent laid out a trio of possible fixes in January. The three plans all consolidate schools but vary in how many schools would close — and how much money wou...

A brief summary of this episode

A state agency is preparing to launch a website to keep tabs on forensic evidence collected after a sexual assault. State officials hope to launch the site in March. The new system and newly proposed legislation could help investigators solve sexual assault cases and give victims more peace of mind.

Scientists are getting better and better data on the earth’s changing climate. Now there's a push to take advantage of the information stream to help us cope with the extremes we know are coming. One leader in this is Oklahoma.

Oklahoma has the third highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation and studies have shown that comprehensive sex education can help. But in Oklahoma, the decision to teach is largely left up to local school boards. Two bills filed in the state legislature could widen the optional curriculum, but won't change sex ed.

A brief summary of this episode