In John Steinbeck’s classic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family finally reaches the end of its rope. Setback after setback, loss of their livelihood, and finally, loss of their land force the ...

We are currently looking at the best budget numbers in the entire history of our state. Last month, the Board of Equalization certified that the Legislature would have more than $10.4 billion availabl...

With all the craziness in our current world, you better be getting your daily dose of laughter just to survive. Whether it’s laughing at a comedian or laughing at yourself, laughing in general is bene...

During Brain Awareness Week, I want to shed light on the millions of Americans who suffer traumatic brain injuries and offer encouragement to the patients and families who are currently going through ...

With next week’s deadline to pass House bills off the House floor, we spent many hours hearing and debating legislation. I want to highlight a few important bills I supported this week. House Bill 236...

When state voters approved legalizing medical marijuana in 2018, it was left to the Legislature to create regulations around the new industry to safeguard the public. Since the question passed, we’ve ...

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day and also Spring Break week to all those students out there needing a break to decompress from their schoolwork. I always enjoyed that little bit of time off during my academi...

After last week’s deadline to pass bills out of committees, we spent many long days on the House floor hearing and voting on those bills. This week, the House heard House Bill 3351, which allows paren...

Dear Editor, This may seem trivial with all that’s going on in the world, but I think it’s a sign of attitude from the top down. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t gas up once or twice a week. Don’t thi...

St. Patrick’s Day, which I prefer to call St. Patty’s Day, is here again. St. Patrick’s Day was originally a celebration held in Ireland to honor one of Ireland’s patron saints. The celebration includ...

Growing up in the 70s and 80s in America, my generation was on the tail-end of those drills for preparing for bombs to drop should there be a nuclear war. We also were continually reminded of what war...

With mail-in voting becoming such an important political issue today, it is worth the time to examine similar issues in history. I have written on this before, but with the blocking of the John Lewis ...

We’ve known for a long time that access to high-speed internet is helpful in a number of ways, but the issue became particularly pronounced during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when schools ...

If there was one thing Elouise (Strickland) Tarbet brought into my life, it would be the smiles over the miles. Though we lived 269 miles away from each other, she seemed to have a knack for making m...

This year’s State of the Union address was an opportunity for President Biden to unite the nation during a time of heightened tension and unrest. All eyes were on our president to finally project stre...

Thursday was the deadline to pass bills out of House committees. Many committees this week had very lengthy agendas due to the winter weather last week that cancelled many meetings. The House Common ...

As I awoke this past week to hear that Russia had indeed attacked Ukraine in the middle of the night my first response was fear. Fear of how America would need to respond, fear of our unknown future a...

As I watched the news last night of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it scared me as it probably has scared many of you wondering what is going to happen next. Not that this helps the larger picture, but...

Living life and loving people is messy, but I’ve also learned it’s worth it. Not very long ago my husband and I went to enjoy the lights at the Tulsa Botanical Gardens. It was cold that evening so we ...

I want to take the chance this week to say thank you to the hardworking nurses in Oklahoma who work around the clock taking care of our loved ones. The way you have stepped up during the pandemic is n...