For the 10th year in a row, SELF Magazine set out to determine the healthiest cities in America for women to live. Sara Austin, Features Director at SELF, announces this year’s winner and shares how other cities across the country measure up.For the 10th year in a row, SELF Magazine set out to determine the healthiest cities... more
A new law to take effect in will require doctors provide detailed information about women who have abortions, information to be published on a public web site.
The controversial measure comes into effect on November 1 and will cost $281,285 to implement, $256,285 each subsequent year to maintain.
Abortion rights groups say the new law is intended to intimidate women because, although it does not require them to reveal their names, other information to be made public will sometimes be enough to identify them.
The move comes after a judge struck down a law that would have forced women to undergo an ultrasound and to listen to a doctor's description of the embryo or foetus before a termination.
Abortion rights groups have filed a lawsuit to try to block the new law. The Center For Reproductive Rights, former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton (D-Okla.), and Oklahoma resident Lora Joyce David have filed a lawsuit to prevent this contentious abortion bill from going into effect, on the grounds that it violates the state's constitution.
The law requires women seeking abortions to provide doctors with answers to 34 questions. Doctors are obliged to pass the information on to the Oklahoma health department, which will post it on a public website.
Oklahoma women undergoing abortion procedures will be legally forced to reveal:
1) Date of abortion
2) County in which abortion is performed
3) Age of mother
4) Marital status of mother
5) Race of mother
6) Years of education of mother
7) State or foreign country of residence of mother
8) Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
9) Relationship with the father
10) Reason for the abortion
About 10% of pregnancies in Oklahoma end in induced abortions.A new law to take effect in will require doctors provide detailed information about... more
Only one in every four high school students in Oklahoma can name of the first president of the United States, according to a recent survey commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. YO!'s Amanze Emenike and Roland Ballard hit the streets to find out if young people in San Francisco knew the first five presidents of the U.S. YO!'s Torriano Melancon wrote about why he thinks young people don't know a lot about American history.
America: land of the free and home of the brave. A nation oozing with pride. A nation which has spewed forth some of the greatest intellects and most courageous leaders. This very country was founded by some of these great thinkers.
read the rest of this article at www.youthoutlook.orgOnly one in every four high school students in Oklahoma can name of the first... more
On Nov. 1, a law in Oklahoma will go into effect that will collect personal details about every single abortion performed in the state and post them on a public website. Implementing the measure will “cost $281,285 the first year and $256,285 each subsequent year.” Here are the first eight questions that women will have to reveal:
1. Date of abortion
2. County in which abortion performed
3. Age of mother
4. Marital status of mother
(married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)
5. Race of mother
6. Years of education of mother
(specify highest year completed)
7. State or foreign country of residence of mother
8. Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
Live Births
Miscarriages
Induced Abortions
Although the questionnaire does not ask for name, address, or “any information specifically identifying the patient,” as Feminists for Choice points out, these eight questions could easily be used to identify a woman in a small community. “They’re really just trying to frighten women out of having abortions,” Keri Parks, director of external affairs at Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma, said. The Center for Reproductive Rights is challenging the law, arguing that “it violates the Oklahoma Constitution because it ‘covers more than one subject’ — a challenge that previously worked to strike down an abortion ultrasound law.On Nov. 1, a law in Oklahoma will go into effect that will collect personal details... more
A new Oklahoma law will require the details of every abortion to be posted on a public website. Proponents say this will prevent abortion — apparently by shaming and burdening women and doctors.
The law, HR 1595, mandates that a 34-item questionnaire be filled out by abortion providers for each procedure. The questionnaire doesn't include the woman's name or "any information specifically identifying the patient," but it does ask for age, race, level of education, marital status, number of previous pregnancies, and the county in which the abortion was performed, information which opponents of the bill argue would be enough to identify a woman in a small town. The questionnaire also asks about the mother's reason for the abortion, her method of payment, and even what type of insurance she has, as well as whether the fetus received anaesthetic and whether there was "an infant born alive as a result of the abortion."
Just-released videotapes and exclusively obtained witness accounts raise new questions about whether Timothy McVeigh had a secret helper for history’s worst homegrown terror attack.
Last week, the FBI released previously secret videotapes of the moments immediately before the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The Bureau produced 26 of 244 security tapes in its possession. All those made public were recorded from private buildings near the bomb site, and while they all have some periodic blank spots, four of the best-positioned are missing sections in the minutes before the blast.
I found these blank periods, revealed courtesy of a Salt Lake City attorney’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, suspicious. In the spring of 1997, I traveled through Oklahoma and rural Kansas pursuing the question of whether others helped Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the two convicted of the bombing. I conducted dozens of interviews, at a time when people’s recollections were still fresh. Prompted by the release of last week’s tapes, I revisited whether the FBI might be hiding something. I gained access to sealed grand jury testimony as well as FBI field reports, written by agents in the earliest stages of the investigation. Those never-before-released FBI files, with my interviews, and the blank portions of the surveillance tapes, raise new questions about whether at least one accomplice is still at large in the greatest American-on-American act of terrorism.
More @ linkJust-released videotapes and exclusively obtained witness accounts raise new questions... more
On last night's Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow took viewers through what she called a "magic map trick," in which she crunched the numbers on a handful of health-care statistics, such as teenage pregnancy rates, infant birth weight, premature births and infant mortality.
Her findings? At the tail end of all of these quality-of-life measures are various Southern states. And the worst among them? Mississippi and South Carolina! And hey, speaking of South Carolina, isn't that where some of America's Next Top Health Care Reform Obstructionists come from? Why, yes!On last night's Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow took viewers through what she called a... more
It turns out that in eight states, plus the District of Columbia, getting beaten up by your spouse is a pre-existing condition.
Under the cold logic of the insurance industry, it makes perfect sense: If you are in a marriage with someone who has beaten you in the past, you're more likely to get beaten again than the average person and are therefore more expensive to insure.
In human terms, it's a second punishment for a victim of domestic violence.
In 2006, Democrats tried to end the practice. An amendment introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), now a member of leadership, split the Health Education Labor & Pensions Committee 10-10. The tie meant that the measure failed.
All ten no votes were Republicans, including Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), a member of the "Gang of Six" on the Finance Committee who are hashing out a bipartisan bill. A spokesman for Enzi didn't immediately return a call from Huffington Post.
The eight states that still allow it are Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming, according to a report by the National Women's Law Center.It turns out that in eight states, plus the District of Columbia, getting beaten up by... more
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Only one in four Oklahoma public high school students can name the first President of the United States, according to a survey released today.
The survey was commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs in observance of Constitution Day on Thursday.
Brandon Dutcher is with the conservative think tank and said the group wanted to find out how much civic knowledge Oklahoma high school students know.
The Oklahoma City-based think tank enlisted national research firm, Strategic Vision, to access students' basic civic knowledge.
"They're questions taken from the actual exam that you have to take to become a U.S. citizen," Dutcher said.
A thousand students were given 10 questions drawn from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services item bank. Candidates for U.S. citizenship must answer six questions correctly in order to become citizens.
About 92 percent of the people who take the citizenship test pass on their first try, according to immigration service data. However, Oklahoma students did not fare as well. Only about 3 percent of the students surveyed would have passed the citizenship test.
Dutcher said this is not just a problem in Oklahoma. He said Arizona had similar results, which left him concerned for the entire country.
"Jefferson later said that a nation can't expect to be ignorant and free," Dutcher said. "It points to a real serious problem. We're not going to remain ignorant and free."OKLAHOMA CITY -- Only one in four Oklahoma public high school students can name the... more
A lot of great things are happening for freedom right now and I wanted to pass some info about them on to you.
Randy Brogdon’s money bomb is tomorrow Friday September 18th 2009.
Randy Brogdon who is running for Governor of Oklahoma and his race could have major impact on the direction of this country. As the leader of the 10th Amendment Sovereignty movement Randy promises to cut all ties with Washington by saying no to all programs that are not authorized by the constitution.Randy Brogdon’s Money Bomb! 09.18.09
by Trevor Lyman
A lot of great things are... more
Are you smarter about American history than a recent immigrant? Most of the students in Oklahoma’s public high schools aren’t. A conservative think tank asked thousands of high school kids to answer 10 questions drawn from the citizenship test given to recent immigrants. Would-be citizens have to answer six correctly, and 92% do so on their first try. By contrast, only 3% of the Oklahoma students would have.
A whopping 77% couldn’t name the first president, and 90% didn’t know how many justices are on the Supreme Court. (The question most knew—61%—involved naming the ocean on the East Coast.) The problem is not just an issue for Oklahoma; a study in Arizona yielded similar results. “It points to a real serious problem,” says one think tank member. “Jefferson said that a nation can’t expect to be ignorant and free.”
* * * * * Does this surprise you? What do you think are the main causes for this?Are you smarter about American history than a recent immigrant? Most of the students... more
Not if you go to high school in Oklahoma, apparently. Oklahoma high school students were administered a test consisting of questions taken from the U.S. citizenship exam (passing rate: 92 percent). Only 3 percent of the students passed. A full 75 percent of the students could not name our first president. Only one in 10 knew how many justices were on the Supreme Court. The question most got right: What ocean is on the east coast of the United States.Not if you go to high school in Oklahoma, apparently. Oklahoma high school students... more
Will Foster became a poster boy for drug law reform more than a decade ago, when he was sentenced by an Oklahoma court to a nightmarish 93 years in prison for growing marijuana plants to treat his rheumatoid arthritis. National publicity -- indirectly gained for Foster by StoptheDrugWar.org, publisher of this newsletter -- helped get his sentence reduced to 20 years, and in 2001, he was paroled to California. Now he is back in prison in Oklahoma, charged with violating the terms of his parole, and is likely to remain there until either 2011 or 2015 -- depending on whose interpretation of the state's arcane sentencing laws is followed.Will Foster became a poster boy for drug law reform more than a decade ago, when he... more
Medical marijuana patient Will Foster is en route to prison in Oklahoma after being picked up Friday by Oklahoma law enforcement officials. He had been held at the Sonoma County Jail in Santa Rosa, California, for the past 15 months as he fought bogus marijuana cultivation charges there--he was a registered patient with a legal grow--and, after the California charges were dropped, on a parole violation warrant from the Sooner State.Medical marijuana patient Will Foster is en route to prison in Oklahoma after being... more
A judge today ruled unconstitutional a state law that requires doctors to give women seeking an abortion an ultrasound before the procedure.
The law requires a doctor to describe to the pregnant woman what she is seeing in the ultrasound.
Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson ruled the law violated a constitutional provision that legislation must deal with a single subject. She noted the law was a compilation of five bills.A judge today ruled unconstitutional a state law that requires doctors to give women... more
Founded in September 1953, the Navajo Lutheran Mission in Rock Point, Arizona (Tsé Nitsaa Deezʼáhí) located in the heart of the Navajo Nation (Diné Bikéyah).
In April 2009, Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard became the executive director.
Rev. Deborah Haffner Hubbard is a Presbyterian pastor was named the pastor of the Lutheran Mission House of Prayer.
This 2005 video by Drach Meinel Enterprises has been updated:
The weather over most of the United States this week was mostly sunny, summer. It is hot, the first signs of the end of the season with longer nights and nascent buds. The summer sun is still strong, beating down on sun-bleached land. It is a wonderful time of the year.
This is a time of year when I am normally pretty upbeat, optimistic, fun-loving- but there is a personal consideration that hangs on my shoulders like leaden drapes. Will Foster, my friend for more than 15 years, has been in Sonoma County, CA jail awaiting extradition to Oklahoma for more than 18 months, a year and a half.
His crime was growing a 25 square foot (5’ x 5’) medical garden in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was originally sentenced to 93 years, more than the maximum that the law called for. This was later reduced to only 20 years. He was paroled after 4.5 years and exiled from Oklahoma to serve his probation in California. After 3 years of probation, California declared him rehabilitated, but Oklahoma disagreed and wanted back. Not content with one pound of flesh, they want two. Will’s extradition hearing is on August 18, 2009 at 1:30pm at the Sonoma County Courthouse, 600 Administration Drive, Santa Rosa, CA.
It is important that the courtroom is filled, and if you are able, it is important that you are there, not just as a form of moral support for Will but to show the court that you are not satisfied with this kind of injustice, you think that everyone counts in the United States, no judge should enforce cruel and unusual punishment That he knows he is wrong to sentence an innocent person no matter what the law says.The weather over most of the United States this week was mostly sunny, summer. It is... more
Police are looking for more victims in a small town sex ring uncovered this week in Beggs. They suspect that other underage boys were seduced by two women who are behind bars now in the Okmulgee County Jail.
Friday revealed details about a small town sex ring. Beggs Police say two women confessed to seducing as many as 10 teenage boys, plying them with drugs and alcohol. "She said that it brought her back to her teenage years. And that she got 'that look,'" said Beggs Police Chief James Poulin.Police are looking for more victims in a small town sex ring uncovered this week in... more
Due to a lack of evidence, the prosecution accepted a plea deal which involved 19 years suspended of a 20 year sentence. Since the man has already served 9 months, he will be released in September.
As an Oklahoman with 3 young daughters, I think my rifle and I will be hanging out in McAlester this fall.Due to a lack of evidence, the prosecution accepted a plea deal which involved 19... more
