Navigating life after prison with a suspended driver’s license proved difficult for Joseph Brantley. 

Brantley, a recruiting director for M-D Building Products and a member of the Board of Corrections, said he rode a bike to work for months after his January 2021 release from prison. After saving enough to buy a used car, Service Oklahoma told him he would have to wait at least three years and pay $3,500 to have his license reinstated. 

As professional and personal opportunities emerged, including the chance to finish his bachelor’s degree at the University of Central Oklahoma, Brantley said he faced the dilemma of driving on a suspended license.

“I took that risk, and by the grace of God it paid off for me and I’ve been reinstated,” he said. “I won’t ever do anything again to lose my license, but under the old law, that’s kind of the box I was put into.” 

Oklahoma has tried to help people involved in the justice system find and keep jobs to reduce recidivism rates and boost workforce participation. A major reform came in 2021, when Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a law requiring the Department of Corrections to ensure inmates have essential documents before they’re released.

Reform advocates said Oklahoma should stop suspending driver’s licenses over unpaid court fines and fees. Lawmakers examined the issue during an interim study at the state capitol on Oct. 13.

District and municipal judges can direct Service Oklahoma to suspend a person’s driver’s license if they miss payments or fail to appear in court. Enforcement varies across counties, with debt-related suspensions more common in rural areas.

Michael Olson, policy counsel for Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, said approximately 180,000 Oklahomans have a debt-related driver’s license suspension. The average suspension lasts 38 months, according to Service Oklahoma. 

Olson said Oklahoma’s workforce participation rate would plummet if people strictly adhered to the suspensions. 

“People continue to drive because you have to survive,” Olson said. “But I don’t think the consequences of disincentivizing people to drive are fully thought through.” 

At least 25 states and the District of Columbia have passed some form of driver’s license suspension reform since 2017, according to the Free to Drive campaign. Advocates said ending debt-related suspensions does not reduce court collections and encourages more people to enter the workforce. 

In California, which stopped suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid fines and fees in 2017, on-time collection rates for non-delinquent accounts rose 8.9%. Researchers in Tennessee examined 10 years of data, from 2011 through 2021, and found that license revocations did not improve collection rates.

Sarah Couture, a regional director at the Fines and Fees Justice Center, said Oklahoma could generate tens of millions in new tax revenue if it stops suspending driver’s licenses for court debt. 

“Debt-based driver’s license suspensions cost people their livelihoods,” Couture said during the hearing. “It cuts economic growth, it undermines public safety and it does not compel payments.”

Several lawmakers expressed interest in the policy change, which stalled last session after it did not receive a committee hearing. 

Sen. Casey Murdock, R-Felt, said he began examining the issue after one of his employees was arrested for driving on a suspended license and spent the weekend in jail. He said Oklahoma needs to ensure that people without a dangerous driving record can at least drive to and from work.

“The state is basically putting these people in timeout,” Murdock said. “You’re in timeout. You didn’t pay for whatever reason, and you have to stay here for however long.” 

Sen. Spencer Kern, R-Duncan, said he recognizes the economic effect of driver’s license suspensions, but fears that eliminating debt-related suspensions could send the wrong message. 

“If we remove these fines and suspensions, are we perhaps opening Pandora’s box on there are no consequences for your actions?” Kern asked during the hearing. 

Lawmakers approved a 2021 bill allowing people with suspended licenses to file a hardship exception and request a provisional license. The provisional license permits unrestricted driving access from 6 a.m. to 11:59 p.m., or to and from work or school after hours. 

Provisional licenses could be a solution, but eligibility is narrow and the application process is arduous, court debt attorney Ed Wunch said. 

Though his driver’s license was restored in October 2024, Brantley said the suspension often comes up in his job as a recruiter. In his testimony to lawmakers, he recalled an employee being arrested for driving on a suspended license on a Friday night and having to spend the weekend in jail. 

In an interview, Brantley said the Legislature should consider driver’s license suspension reform next year. He said fines and fees are often exacerbated by other financial pressures, including paying for auto insurance, rent and groceries. 

“It’s such a vicious cycle and a vicious thing to get out of,” he said.

Keaton Ross covers democracy and criminal justice for Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at (405) 831-9753 or Kross@Oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter at @_KeatonRoss.

The post Driver’s License Suspensions for Court Debt Draw Scrutiny appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

A citizens’ petition effort to remove longtime Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler from office revisits many of the same concerns his challenger raised in this year’s Republican primary, setting up questions about whether the effort is driven by accountability concerns or political grievances.

But leaders insist their effort isn’t political revenge or an attempt to use the judicial system to undermine the will of voters, who reelected Kunzweiler to a fourth term with nearly 60 percent of the vote in June’s GOP primary. 

“The petitioners are concerned citizens that have compiled these stories over time,” said Shar Agosto, attorney for the petitioners, Grand Jury Justice. “I think bringing up 11 categories will make people take it more serious – we could have put more. There are more stories. This isn’t just one group of people who are mad at him because they didn’t get their way in an election.”

In its petition, Grand Jury Justice seeks an investigation into 11 areas of concern involving both Kunzweiler and the Tulsa County DA’s office as a whole, including the handling of a few specific criminal cases, legal guidance to Tulsa County commissioners in two instances, potential conflicts of interest, public-records access and whether taxpayer-funded resources were used during his 2026 reelection campaign.

Their target said the timing smacks of political grievance.

“The overwhelming majority of the issues raised in the grand jury petition were raised and debated during the campaign,” Kunzweiler said. “It seems to me that the proponents may have political motivations. With that being said, the constitution guarantees citizens the right to seek and impanel a grand jury, and I’m supportive of that process.”

As for attorney Colleen McCarty, who unsuccessfully sought to unseat Kunzweiler in the Republican primary, no record shows she directed or organized the grand jury petition, and she adamantly denies any involvement. 

When asked about the overlap of issues she and her supporters raised during the campaign and those in the petition, McCarty said it made sense that people would support both her campaign and the citizens’ grand jury petition, and she believes she could be called to testify.

Moments later, she took to Facebook and issued a lengthy public statement on what role she might play in the process.

“Because I may be called as a witness concerning matters referenced in the petition, I believe the responsible course for me is to avoid publicly commenting on the merits of those allegations,” she wrote.

“I am not counsel for the petitioners, and I do not intend to publicly litigate the factual allegations contained in the petition,” McCarty said in the post. “I have no role with the petitioners, and neither does my former organization, Oklahoma Appleseed.”

McCarty went on to clarify why she wants to distance herself from the petition.

“I ran against Steve Kunzweiler for District Attorney earlier this year,” McCarty wrote. “Anything I say about a matter involving his office can understandably be viewed through the lens of that election. That makes it even more important to me to separate any role I may have as a witness from political commentary or conclusions about matters that have not yet been investigated.”

Agosto describes herself as a close, personal friend of McCarty’s for the last decade and said she voted for McCarty this year, as well as for another candidate who ran against Kunzweiler in a past election. 

She pointed out that a few of the specific cases cited in the petition predate this election cycle, and said the citizens of Grand Jury Justice have been working together for about a year and intend to file new petitions targeting other public officials. 

“I do believe the campaign unearthed it,” Agosto said. “The petitioners had been gathering this information and the campaign just added to it, because Mr. Kunzweiler ran an eight-month campaign and, during working hours, there were people in his office on Facebook campaigning, using county resources for his political benefit.”

District attorneys are not subject to impeachment under state law.

But Oklahoma is one of only a half dozen states that allow citizens to petition to convene a grand jury investigation into suspected wrongdoing by DAs and other public officials. 

After clearing judicial review, supporters have 45 days to gather the required number of valid signatures, 5,000 in Tulsa County, before a grand jury can convene to examine the allegations, interview witnesses, compel evidence, and decide whether to issue an indictment for removal from office.

State law allows removal for habitual or willful neglect of duty, gross partiality, oppression or corruption in office, extortion, or willful maladministration.

Citizen grand jury petitions are relatively rare. 

A petition seeking a grand jury investigation of former Payne County District Attorney Laura Thomas this year and a 2024 petition in Tulsa County targeting Oklahoma Human Services both failed to obtain the necessary number of signatures.

As it races to gather signatures, Grand Jury Justice is also fighting the entry of attorneys representing Kunzweiler in court, who seek to stop signature circulation and collection. 

They argue that the citizens’ grand jury petition process doesn’t require the target to be a respondent or to have any intervention or participatory rights at this early stage.

Kunzweiler said he finds it ironic that citizens exercising their right to seek a grand jury would oppose his rights to due process and legal representation. 

“The people are challenging my ability to do what any American citizen has a right to do and expect,” he said of the opposition to his attorneys.

Andrea Eger covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at aeger@oklahomawatch.org.

The post Tulsa DA Just Won Reelection. Now a Citizens’ Group Wants a Grand Jury to Investigate Him.  appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Although major national organizations such as the American Medical Association consider participation in capital punishment a violation of ethical principles, their guidelines are not legally binding.

Professional organization membership is voluntary and does not affect professionals’ ability to work, except for anesthesiologists.

Twenty-seven states, including Oklahoma, have the death penalty. Though state medical boards could, in theory, revoke licenses for violating ethics rules, state laws generally enjoin such discipline because medical boards are arms of the state, and no doctor has been disciplined to date.

Oklahoma law explicitly protects medical professionals who participate in capital punishment, both their professional licenses and their identities.

Oklahoma, which constitutionalized the death penalty and protected it from being ruled cruel and unusual in 2016, has had 127 executions from 1976 to 2024 – the most per capita of any state.

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• AMA – Code of Ethics Capital Punishment
• iKnowledge Board certification and maintenance of certification
• Death Penalty Information Center Details by State
• UC Berkley law Doctors can and do participate in executions
• Justia U.S. Law 2025 Oklahoma Statutes Title 22. Criminal Procedure §22-1015.
• Justia U.S. Law 2025 Oklahoma Statutes Title 59. Professions and Occupations §59-4001.
• Death Penalty Information Center State Execution Rates (through 2024)

The post Are medical professionals in Oklahoma prohibited from participating in lethal injections? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Oklahoma lawmakers from both parties want to tighten up state campaign finance rules over personal loans to campaigns. 

Rep. Jared Deck, D-Norman, and Rep. Jonathan Wilk, R-Goldsby, want the state Ethics Commission to review gaps in state law on how much information candidates must provide when they loan money to their campaign committees. 

The lawmakers separately contacted the Ethics Commission about the issue. Deck held a press conference on Thursday to outline his concerns about Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei’s $11 million in loans to his campaign. Wilk wants the Ethics Commission to review loans to campaign committees above a $100,000 threshold. His proposal is supported by the commission’s House and Senate working groups for new rules. 

Deck said he sent letters Thursday to federal and state banking regulators and the Ethics Commission, asking them to confidentially review a loan Mazzei took out in January. Mazzei pledged shares of his financial advisory firm, Trinity Wealth Advisors Inc., to secure the loan from Regent Bank, according to a financing statement filed in Oklahoma County. 

Mazzei loaned his gubernatorial campaign $3 million in 2025 and another $8 million through August, according to state campaign filings. Mazzei and his wife, Noel, provided those loans interest-free. The loans make up almost 90% of the money Mazzei’s campaign has raised. He faces Democrat Cyndi Munson and three independent candidates in the Nov. 3 general election. 

Candidates in Oklahoma can repay personal loans to their campaigns without limit, although they can’t use later contributions to retire any interest accrued on the loans. Ten states, including Texas and California, limit how much candidates can repay personal loans from campaign donations. 

Deck said he has no evidence the same money Regent Bank loaned Mazzei in January ended up as loans to the Mazzei campaign. But he said constituents have called him with their concerns about large candidate loans. 

“I have no problem with someone betting on themselves, risking their own money to take a chance and run for office,” Deck said. “However, whenever you’re underwriting that money personally, that’s a risk for yourself. Whenever you don’t have to risk that money yourself and a bank’s underwriting it for you, then that money should be reported as such.” 

Deck said Mazzei’s Regent Bank loan raises questions about repayment terms and how the bank valued Mazzei’s shares in the firm he put up as collateral. Those concerns were relayed in letters Deck sent to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Oklahoma State Banking Department and the Ethics Commission. 

Deck said he’s willing to introduce legislation in the next session to address gaps in campaign finance reporting.  

“We’ve got our wires crossed between banking regulations and campaign ethics regulations, and they don’t align,” Deck said. “That’s something that we need to address as a legislature, and the Ethics Commission does as well.” 

In a written statement, Mazzei’s campaign spokesman Jahan Wilcox said Democrats were pulling false fire alarms in the weeks before the general election. 

“The truth is: there is no legislative investigation, no FDIC review and no Ethics Commission probe,” Wilcox said Thursday.

Sean Kouplen, Regent Bank’s chairman and CEO, served in Gov. Kevin Stitt’s cabinet alongside Mazzei during Stitt’s first term. Kouplen served as secretary of commerce and workforce development, while Mazzei served as budget secretary. 

Kouplen could not be reached for comment Thursday. 

Wilk presented his rules proposal before an Ethics Commission meeting in May. He wants the commission to review candidate loans or gifts to their campaign committee over $100,000. Commissioners voted to add it to their rulemaking agenda. 

“Representative Wilk advised that the concern arises when candidates contribute very large sums – such as $400,000 – to campaigns for offices with comparatively low salaries, prompting scrutiny about whether the funds are genuinely personal,” according to the commission’s May 14 meeting minutes. 

Wilk could not be reached for comment Thursday. 

Wilk’s proposed rule could be on track for public comment and Ethics Commission adoption this year. Any adopted rules would then go before the Legislature and the governor for final approval.

Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or pmonies@oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies. 

The post Oklahoma Lawmakers Want More Scrutiny of Campaign Loans  appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

A researcher at the University of Oklahoma says that as more data centers are planned across the state, emissions from those coal-burning plants will only increase.

Brenna Witchey’s story, More Data Centers, More Coal Emissions — and an OU Researcher Watching Atlantic Storms can be read here.

The post Eye on Oklahoma: Data Center Pollution appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

The private contractor behind a reported nationwide deployment of nearly 1,000 armed guards to U.S. Postal Service offices holds contracts to guard Oklahoma campuses and monitor security around the Oklahoma County courthouse, public records show.

Prosegur Services Group’s Oklahoma business includes a statewide purchasing agreement for armed security services, a county security arrangement capped at $336,286.88 this fiscal year, and a contract supplying armed guards to Metro Technology Centers campuses in Oklahoma City.

The company’s local footprint comes into focus after Raw Story reported Tuesday that Prosegur is sending nearly 1,000 armed security officers to at least 55 U.S. Postal Service facilities.

The figures come from Frank Albergo, executive director of the Postal Police Officers Association, whose union receives notice when facilities approve additional contract guards.

It’s unclear whether any Prosegur guards will appear at postal sites in Oklahoma.

Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado asked Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale in an October 5 letter to disclose how many armed and unarmed guards have been deployed nationwide, where they are stationed, and what authority they have, including whether they may demand identification, inspect ballots, or restrict public access.

Pettersen also sought information on any White House, Justice Department, or Department of Homeland Security involvement and safeguards against voter intimidation, and requested a response by October 16.

A memo distributed to American Postal Workers Union members – first reported by Colorado Public Radio – said guards are authorized to monitor entrances, verify IDs, patrol, and respond to emergencies, and expressly said guards will not make arrests, portray themselves as police officers, investigate, handle mail, or supervise postal employees.

Postal unions have questioned the guards’ training, supervision, and authority. The Postal Service said the guards protect workers and the mail and disputes suggestions that their deployment is tied to the upcoming November mid-term elections.

Cathy K. Purcell, a Postal Service spokeswoman, told The New Republic that the introduction of armed guards “has absolutely nothing to do with elections” and that deployments have been underway since last year.

The public records reviewed for this story do not establish whether Oklahoma postal facilities are part of the expansion. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Postal Service’s law enforcement arm, told Raw Story it does not disclose specific deployment locations for security reasons.

In Oklahoma County, commissioners approved a renewal on July 1 of a Prosegur contract covering after-hours security monitoring and roving perimeter security at the courthouse complex through June 30, 2027.

The county’s Public Buildings Authority approved its portion the same day, covering roving security in the Metro 1 and Metro 2 parking garages and after-hours camera monitoring.

The records identify a combined ceiling of $336,286.88, with $109,457.92 allocated to the commissioners’ portion and $226,828.96 to the authority’s portion. Those figures reflect the approved spending limit, not money already paid.

The county agenda descriptions do not identify those services as armed guard deployments.

At Metro Technology Centers, the arrangement explicitly calls for armed guards. The district’s board approved continuing Prosegur’s campus security contract June 23 for fiscal year 2027.

Board records describe it as the fourth year of a five-year arrangement awarded through competitive bidding. The renewal item does not state a dollar amount.

Prosegur also has a broader route into Oklahoma government work through the state’s armed security purchasing program.

A state contract summary lists Prosegur’s agreement under statewide contract SW0117, beginning April 23, 2024, and extending through March 26, 2029. The executed agreement provides an initial one-year term with four annual renewal options.

State agencies and other eligible public entities can order services under the agreement as needed. It is nonmandatory and nonexclusive, and it does not establish a single total award value.

Its availability alone does not show how many guards Oklahoma agencies have hired or where they work.

Prosegur’s connection to that purchasing program predates the current agreement. A September 2021 state addendum assigned an earlier armed security contract held by Superior Security and Investigations of Shawnee to Prosegur.

The company’s postal work also has a substantial history.

A Postal Service inspector general audit published in August 2022, examining fiscal year 2021, described Prosegur security guards at approximately 57 locations nationwide.

Auditors found that 35 of 115 guards reviewed lacked the contract-required background investigation approval.

The Postal Inspection Service changed its requirement to a less stringent investigation in March 2021 but did not update the contract.

The audit also could not verify that selected guards had completed required training. It found inconsistent contractor performance assessments and missing guard hour records at three sites, preventing officials from verifying the accuracy of billed hours.

The inspector general’s website now lists all six recommendations as closed. The findings describe past contract oversight problems and do not show the same deficiencies in today’s deployments or Oklahoma’s separate agreements.

Raw Story reported allegations by postal workers and union officials that Prosegur guards assaulted and harassed employees at Charlotte, North Carolina-area facilities.

Prosegur spokesman Fernando Geijo told Raw Story the company could not find the incidents or complaints described in its inquiry and could not discuss its postal account for confidentiality reasons.

Oklahoma’s statewide agreement requires Prosegur to submit quarterly usage reports identifying each purchasing entity, the service location, the type of service, quantities, and prices charged.

Anthony Kimery is an Oklahoma City-based journalist. He can be reached at anthony@inteliscopx.com

The post Firm Supplying Armed Guards at US Postal Facilities Holds Oklahoma Security Contracts appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Jake Ramsey explores the fallout after Oklahoma’s voter registration portal crashed on deadline day, leaving prospective voters stranded. Brenna Witchey breaks down a landmark lawsuit filed by an Oklahoma mother over the state’s abortion ban a legal challenge echoing across the nation. Keaton Ross examines State Question 847, a proposed measure to reduce assessment caps for property tax purposes. Catch these stories and more on the latest Long Story Short with Shaun Witt.

The post Portal Meltdowns, Abortion Lawsuits, and State Question 847 appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Air quality alerts that popped up on Oklahomans’ phones over the weekend reflected Professor Xiao-Ming Hu’s research findings in real time. 

Hu is an air quality researcher at the National Weather Center at the University of Oklahoma. His work focuses on ozone pollutants from fossil fuel-burning power plants and how tropical storms in the Atlantic can push those pollutants across the state. 

Tropical cyclone Isaias hit the East Coast Friday, Oct. 9, and while Oklahomans weren’t directly affected by torrential rain, they were hit with a blast of invisible pollutants. Winds moving inland carried coal emissions from northeast power plants into Oklahoma City. 

Hu said that as more data centers are planned across the state, emissions from those coal-burning plants will only increase. Data centers require immense amounts of electricity and water to operate around the clock, straining electrical grids and water resources.

But those intensive heating and cooling processes are on the cusp of dramatic change. Moving from water cooling to refrigerant could shrink data centers and eliminate the heat island effect.

In June, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded the Grand River Dam Authority $28.5 million to upgrade its coal-fired plant. And only a fraction of data centers use refrigerant-based cooling. 

Hu said building new data centers reliant on those power plants will create a vicious cycle. The data centers will require more energy, so more coal will be burned, contributing to ozone pollution that can not only directly harm people living in the surrounding area, but also contribute to climate change, intensifying the effects of those tropical storms. 

Cooling a Data Center 

The Pryor Creek Google data center withdrew 1,397 million gallons of water in 2025 and consumed 1,081 million gallons, about 3 million gallons per day. The data center discharged the other 316 million gallons back into the Neosho River after filtering it through its on-site water filtration system. 

The data center uses evaporative cooling towers to cool its computer servers. The towers work as the server’s sweat glands, moving water through the building, extracting the heat and carrying it away. In this instance, “consumed” means evaporated. 

Ardeshir Moftakhari, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Oklahoma State University, said data centers used to rely on air cooling, but that’s not good enough anymore. 

He said that artificial intelligence in particular has higher computational demands and takes much more energy out of CPUs and GPUs, which creates more heat and necessitates more efficient cooling. 

The next step was liquid cooling: water mixed with chemicals to prevent degradation moves through the system and evaporates. Both air cooling and liquid cooling use water and can put communities in a tight spot if they’re already in a drought. Another concern is ensuring evaporation and discharge are free of pollutants. 

Data centers in Oklahoma are closely monitored by the Department of Environmental Quality. They test the Pryor center yearly for chlorination level. They also test for residual oxidants and pH weekly and continually monitor the amount of water passing through the system. 

From September 2024 to September 2025, the Pryor Google data center discharged almost no chlorine; the water’s pH ranged from 6 to 9, which is safe and drinkable. 

While the discharged water is clean, it represents only a fraction of the water lost to evaporation during the cooling process. 

Suzie Shin, manager of Google’s data center sustainability programs, said the evaporation from the cooling towers contains no pollutants. Only water is lost and the chemicals left behind ensure nothing grows in the plumbing. The system continuously cycles water to keep the chemicals from becoming too concentrated. 

Shin said once the heat is removed from the servers, it needs somewhere to go. So a common setup in Google data centers is an internal closed-loop system in the data center and an external evaporative system. Closed-loop systems recycle the same water continuously, lessening the strain on local resources.

Moftakhari’s research focuses on using refrigerant as a direct cooling medium, which he says would eliminate data centers’ heat island effect. Refrigerant cooling systems can also make data centers smaller because they use smaller tubes. His research also aims to reduce the likelihood of a cooling failure. This would prevent the use of backup generators, which most recently in Virginia forced residents out of their homes after running for 24 hours straight. 

The emissions from those backup generators are particularly harmful and can cause increased heart disease, stroke, respiratory illness, asthma exacerbation and premature death, according to a Harvard study. 

Pros and Cons

Last summer, the Mayes Emergency Services Trust Authority in Pryor received a call from the data center. A security guard had been exposed to refrigerant and was found barely conscious. Shortly after dispatching a team, the operator received more calls from the data center. 

Fourteen people were exposed to R-410A through an accidental HVAC leak for an unknown amount of time. 

The guards’ symptoms included fainting, difficulty breathing, headaches, dizziness, nausea, and numbness in the lower extremities. 

The Pryor Fire Department, MESTA and Mayes County Emergency Management worked with Google’s onsite medical team to treat the guard.

Erik Dickover, MESTA’s executive director, said such instances happen. 

“This was definitely a learning experience for all of us regarding initial contact, control, notifications, ongoing communications, and treatment,” Dickover said. “We held an after-action review to address what went wrong, what could have been better, and what went right.”

Google declined to comment on the event due to litigation.

One Mayes County Commissioner, Steve Grossman, even said he’d welcome more data centers. Just a few months ago, Google invested $500,000 in Mayes County schools and nonprofits. 

Grossman said data centers create thousands of jobs when they’re being built, restaurant and hotel patronage increases and there are a few hundred job openings when the systems are up and running. 

He offered personal, anecdotal evidence of the data center’s safety, saying his cows are near a data center and are fine, and that a pack of feral hogs has been highly active, rooting around the runway lights at the nearby airport and in the area around Google’s Pryor Creek facility. 

“They’re multiplying like crazy,” he said. 

David Stewart, the chief administrative officer for the MidAmerica Industrial Park, said the hogs are a problem. The Google Pryor center is in the MidAmerica Industrial Park, where they plan to build another data center. 

Stewart said their on-site water filtration system is big enough to handle another data center. Google receives electricity from the Grand River Dam Authority’s energy center that has both coal- and gas-fired units. Stewart said the new data center would do the same, since it doesn’t have an on-campus power plant.

So What 

Moftakhari said that as data centers increase, they are leaning more often toward on-site power plants. New data center models require so much energy that it’s more feasible to build their own power plants instead of drawing from an existing source. 

Xiao-Ming Hu said that will make his job more difficult. He and his fellow researchers already struggle to receive adequate funding for data-collection instruments. If data centers start building their own power plants scattered across the state, it would be harder to map pollutant movement. 

“We need more data to measure both pollutants and also quantify their health impact,” Hu said. 

Rep. Mark Chapman, R-Broken Arrow, who recently led an interim study on the pros and cons of data centers, said Oklahoma should explore alternatives for backup generation. Other industrial sites also have backup generators, he said, and they don’t use them often. 

In the interim study, Chapman said Oklahoma should hold off on statewide legislation on data centers. Instead, municipalities should consider their unique situations when deciding whether to welcome a data center. 

“We support the oil and gas industry and they haven’t been perfect,” Chapman said. “But that doesn’t mean we strangle the industry.” 

Moftakhari said some groups at Oklahoma State University are working to give residents and legislators as much information as possible when considering whether to accept a data center in their communities. 

“If data centers are bringing something good like a tax incentive, they’re welcomed,” Moftakhari said. “But it has to be done carefully.”

Brenna Witchey is a reporting intern at Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at bwitchey@oklahomawatch.org.

The post More Data Centers, More Coal Emissions — and an OU Researcher Watching Atlantic Storms appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

For the second time, the state board overseeing charter schools rejected the Ben Gamla Jewish online charter school. 

Proponents hoped it would be a winning test case for publicly funded religious education before the U.S. Supreme Court. But Monday’s vote closes that door, at least for now. 

Even though a majority voted to approve, the 4-3 decision fell one vote short of the five needed for the Statewide Charter School Board to authorize the school. One member was absent and one seat is vacant. 

Ben Gamla can submit a revised application to the Statewide Charter School Board if they choose to restart the process. 

The school planned to teach Judaism alongside traditional, secular school subjects.  

Charter schools are public schools operated by private organizations, and state statute requires them to be nonsectarian. 

Those issues faced a legal challenge with a proposed Catholic school, St. Isidore of Seville. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the proposal unconstitutional, and a divided U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 last year, allowing the state ruling to stand. 

On Sept. 24, an Oklahoma City federal judge, in a legal challenge over Ben Gamla, upended the nonsectarian provision and blocked the state from excluding a charter school solely because of its religious character. In light of the judge’s order, the board opted to reconsider the school’s application at its October meeting. 

“Welcome to the roller-coaster ride,” Chairman Brian Shellem, an Edmond businessman and gubernatorial appointee who voted for the school, said after the vote. “Unfortunately, that’s where we stand.” 

Before the vote, the board met with legal counsel in executive session. When they reconvened, they didn’t discuss the school’s application.

Shellem and the board’s attorney, A.J. Ferate, said Monday’s rejection of Ben Gamla could place the board in contempt of court. But opponents of the school have highlighted weaknesses in the application that could justify denial, such as a lack of community support. 

Ben Gamla founder Peter Deutsch recently told a Tulsa rabbi in an email that his goal is to enroll just 10 students in the school’s first year—far fewer than the 400-student goal in the school’s application. 

The 10-student goal suggests the school isn’t financially or operationally viable and lacks community support, multiple national legal organizations, including Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Education Law Center, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Oklahoma Appleseed, wrote in a letter Thursday. The groups represent Oklahomans suing to block the Jewish charter school. 

Deutsch emailed Tulsa Rabbi Dan Kaiman to ask for his help recruiting a principal for Oklahoma’s Ben Gamla school, even though Kaiman is part of a group of Oklahomans suing to stop the school from opening. 

Attorney General Gentner Drummond is also suing Ben Gamla, arguing the Statewide Charter School Board ignored flaws in the school’s application and focused its rejection solely on the religious aspects to create a cleaner path to federal court.   

Deutsch, a former Democratic congressman, founded several brick-and-mortar charter schools in Florida under the Ben Gamla name. Those schools teach Hebrew but aren’t explicitly religious to comply with Florida law.

In Deutsch’s email, he wrote that the school is preparing to open in September 2027 and is part of a larger goal to expand free, Jewish religious charter schools nationwide. 

“We envision that the vast majority of these future schools will be traditional brick-and-mortar schools, providing both an outstanding secular education and a serious Jewish education, without charging tuition,” Deutsch wrote.

Fewer than 9,000 Oklahoma residents are Jewish, about 0.21% of the state’s population. The Jewish Federations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa oppose the school.

Jennifer Palmer has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2016 and covers education. Contact her at (405) 761-0093 or jpalmer@oklahomawatch.org. Follow her on Twitter @jpalmerOKC.

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A second company is challenging a new state law that regulates proxy advisers when they oppose public company management on shareholder resolutions. 

Glass, Lewis & Co. LLC, one of the two main proxy advisory firms, wants a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction against House Bill 4429, the Proxy Advisor Transparency Act. Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. filed a lawsuit against the law in August. 

The law, which takes effect Nov. 1, is a model bill that four other states passed this year. Republican lawmakers in those states said the bill was meant to address shareholder resolutions advocating for environmental, social and governance goals. 

Oklahoma’s pension systems and trust funds for the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust and the Commissioners of the Land Office collectively own millions of shares in publicly traded companies. That gives them the right to vote on shareholder resolutions at annual meetings. The volume of votes gave rise to proxy advisory firms like Glass Lewis that provide research and voting recommendations to large institutional investors such as pension funds. 

In a hearing Thursday, attorneys for Glass Lewis and ISS told U.S. District Judge Patrick Wyrick that HB 4429 infringed on the companies’ free speech rights. They said the law imposed additional burdens on proxy advisory firms that other entities involved in shareholder votes, including company boards, shareholders, and nonprofits, do not face. 

“This law regulates and burdens our speech,” said Bruce Oaley, an attorney for ISS. “It is designed to stifle dissent from company management.” 

Oakley said the law constitutes classic government viewpoint discrimination and deserves strict scrutiny, a legal standard that applies when fundamental constitutional rights are at stake. 

He said the law requires proxy advisory firms to perform a financial analysis of their position only if they disagree with company management on a particular shareholder resolution. Nothing happens if the proxy advisory firms agree with management. 

“If the law is viewpoint discrimination, then strict scrutiny applies,” Oakley said. “Viewpoint restrictions are a particularly egregious restraint.”

To survive strict scrutiny, the law has to be narrowly tailored to address a specific problem. Oakley said many of the legislative deliberations referenced broad objections to ESG practices or goals. 

Mallory Shamoon, an assistant attorney general, said HB 4429 didn’t take any position on the content of resolutions supported by company management. Instead, the law required proxy advisors to tell clients whether they conducted a financial analysis in opposition to management. She said such disclosures were common in the securities industry and were consistent with securities regulation. 

“The advice they give can have an impact on the value of a stock,” Shamoon said of firms like Glass Lewis or ISS. 

Grant Martinez, an attorney for Glass Lewis, said proxy advisory firms were several steps removed from stock trading. Clients can always ignore their recommendations, he said. 

Proxy advisory firms provide voting advice to a variety of clients, including custom policies for religious beliefs, labor unions, and environmental issues. Among ISS’ newest offerings is a proxy voting policy for those skeptical of ESG issues. That policy uses a framework developed by Bowyer Research, already used by the investment board of the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Consumers Defense, a Virginia-based nonprofit that said it fights ESG principles and so-called woke capitalism, pushed the model legislation for HB 4429. 

Federal judges in Texas, Indiana and Kansas have temporarily blocked enforcement of similar laws regulating proxy advisory firms. Another federal case filed by ISS and Glass Lewis in Kentucky remains pending. 

The federal judges who have issued preliminary injunctions so far were appointed by presidents from both parties. President Trump nominated Wyrick, a former justice on the Oklahoma Supreme Court, in 2019. 

Wyrick assured all parties at Thursday’s hearing he would issue a decision on the preliminary injunction before the Nov. 1 effective date of HB 4429.

Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or pmonies@oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies. 

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