Oklahoma’s prison population has grown 10 percent in the last 10 years. Fifty-three percent of the inmates were convicted of nonviolent crimes. Budget cuts threaten to eliminate 15 percent of the prison work force, and inmates are already sleeping in dining halls and exercise rooms.

What’s Republican Senate Leader Glenn Coffee’s response?

“It’s not a dollars and cents issue with me.”

Watch what you say on Facebook! Your terrible puns will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Lawton man arrested for Facebook jokes
According to the affidavit filed by Det. Ken Parsons, Chaston posted the following online threat: “thinking about shooting up an old folks home … could call it youthenasia ….lol someone has to put them out of their misery.” He then added another comment to the post: “…well thought about doing a drive-by at a daycare, but that didn’t sound as cool …. lol”

My friend Isaiah McCaslin will be a great Representative for Oklahoma, but he needs your help to get there. If you’re sick of what’s going on with our current legislature, this is how you change it! Please donate whatever you can.

Contribute now to Isaiah McCaslin (OK-HD-44)
Join us! So far, 15 supporters have contributed $1,360.

This is why electing judges is a terrible idea. I don’t know the details about this case, but I’m absolutely sure that justice is not well served by a 200 word blog post rousing a bunch of people with similar lack of knowledge to make angry phone calls.

We like to imagine “sex offenders” as irredeemable monsters, but situations like this are far more common than what you see on Law & Order: SVU.

No longer a registered sex offender, but the stigma remains – CNN.com

As a teenager, Ricky Blackman carried an Oklahoma driver’s license with the words “sex offender” stamped in red below his picture. His crime? Having sex with a 13-year-old girl when he was 16. The offense occurred when he lived in Iowa, and the label followed him to Oklahoma.

The article is from 2003, but I would bet not much has changed. The stories of discrimination by OKC bus drivers are especially disturbing.

The Marriage Cure | NewAmerica.net

One July morning last year in Oklahoma City, in a public-housing project named Sooner Haven, twenty-two-year-old Kim Henderson pulled a pair of low-rider jeans over a high-rising gold lamé thong and declared herself ready for church. …

Why does Mike McCarville think writing a letter in support of legal immigrants is a conspiracy? Just because brown people are involved?

Most of my writing these days happens at Voices of Oklahoma.

Some recent articles:

Bokoshe, OK and the true cost of electricity

Being Okie: part one

Local circus enlivens Okie art scene

Kiowa calendar exhibit offers rare perspective on Oklahoma history

With few resources, primate sanctuary struggles to save lives