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Governor Kevin Stitt (R-OK) said Friday on CNN’s “The Lead” that he agreed with Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) defying the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that federal agents may remove razor wire at the southern border. Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Twenty-five Republican governors from across the country have signed a joint statement supporting the Texas governor as he thumbs his nose at the highest court in the land.”

The gatekeepers opened the gate and divided Western nationsThe Hill reported, “Republican governors are backing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in his standoff against the federal government over border authority.“On Tuesday, the Texas National Guard appeared to ignore a Supreme Court decision and continued building razor wire barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, preventing the federal Border Patrol from doing their jobs.“In a statement Wednesday, Abbott justified the actions by claiming his authority to combat an invasion of the state supersedes federal law. “GOP Govs. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Glenn Youngkin of...

The Osage Nation won a massive ruling in Tulsa federal court on Wednesday that requires Enel to dismantle a 150-megawatt wind project it built in Osage County despite the tribe’s repeated objections. The tribe’s fight against Rome-based Enel began in 2011 and is the longest-running legal battle over wind energy in American history. As reported by Curtis Killman in the Tulsa World on Thursday, the ruling grants the United States, the Osage Nation, and Osage Minerals Council permanent injunctive relief via “ejectment of the wind turbine farm for continuing trespass.” The decision by U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer...

Oklahoma state Rep. Justin Humphrey (R-Lane) sent a letter to the Oklahoma Attorney General, the Sheriff of Pushmataha County, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and “All Oklahoma judicial authorities and other law enforcement entities,” requesting an investigation into ATF’s SWAT team raid at the home of his constituent, Russell Fincher. According to a press release, Humphrey said he was contacted by Fincher after a dozen ATF SWAT team members bearing “automatic weapons” raided Fincher’s home, handcuffed him on his porch in front of his 13-year-old son and coerced him into relinquishing his Federal Firearm License. “If this report is true, and...

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for president on Saturday, touting the Florida governor’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as one of reasons why he is “confident” DeSantis will win the presidency. “Governor DeSantis is a strong conservative and principled leader, and I am proud to endorse him for president,” Stitt said in a press release. “As fellow Governors during COVID, DeSantis did not surrender states’ rights and individual liberties over to groupthink.” ... “In this election cycle, Oklahomans will remember that DeSantis was one of the few who never backed down in the face of...

Performing trans surgery on children, as well as prescribing a child with puberty blockers, is now a felony offence in the state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed into law measures forbidding the use of medical transgender interventions on children, with it now being a felony offence in the state to perform trans surgery on a child or prescribe them puberty blockers. The move has prompted outrage from U.S. progressives, with a number of non-profit organisations vowing to take the state to court over the law change. According to a report by Fox News, Stitt signed SB 613...

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt indicated Friday that he would continue vetoing unrelated bills until the House and Senate agree on school choice and tax cuts. Stitt vetoed 20 unrelated Senate bills this week, all with the same message. "Until we get tax cuts, until we get parent choice done, we are not going to do all this other stuff for lobbyists and special interest groups," Stitt said at his weekly news conference. "Let's get those things done and then we will be happy to talk about some other things in the budget." The House and Senate have passed two versions...

More than 100 chanting 'Trans Lives Matter' protesters descended on Oklahoma's State Capitol building yesterday, occupying the interior rotunda, to protest against a new bill that would ban gender affirming surgery for anyone under 21. The protesters from Oklahomans For Equality and Freedom Oklahoma started their demonstration outside the building, then moved indoors. While it remains unclear whether their entry to the building was peaceful, videos show them inside.... Their protest was against a new bill championed by Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, that bans anyone under the age of 21 from undergoing gender reassignment surgery....

Former Republican Rep. J.C. Watts has bucked the party to endorse Democrat Joy Hofmeister in her challenge to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R). "I was a Republican then, and I'm a Republican now, and , friends, I'm voting for Joy Hofmeister," Watts says in a new ad. "All this scandal and corruption is just too much. Joy is a woman of faith and integrity. She'll always put Oklahoma first. I know Joy personally, and I trust her, and you can too," the former Oklahoma congressman said....

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has signed a bill that effectively bans gender- reassignment drugs from being prescribed to minors at the state's main children's hospital. The Republican is withholding Covid relief funds from Oklahoma Children's Hospital at OU Health until it stops providing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to under-18s. The state allocated $108 million to the University of Oklahoma-linked health system as part of the federal American Rescue Plan Act passed in 2021 to help struggling businesses and hospitals.

Oklahoma has officially enacted the United States' strictest abortion law, which bans terminations from the moment of conception. The state's GOP Governor Kevin Stitt, 49, signed the new legislation on Tuesday, which allows Oklahomans to sue anyone who helps a woman get an abortion. 'I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign every piece of pro-life legislation that came across my desk and I am proud to keep that promise today,' Stitt said in a statement.

Bowing to intense political pressure, Oklahoma's Kevin Stitt, the Republican governor of one of the nation's reddest states, commuted on Thursday the death sentence of convicted murderer Julius Jones. Stitt's commutation of Jones, who was convicted for a first-degree carjacking murder in one of the most reliably pro-death penalty states, is but the latest troubling data pointing toward the possible ultimate abolition of the death penalty in America. In 2020, former President Donald Trump directed then-Attorney General William Barr to resume federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. From July 2020 through January 2021, the Trump-led Department of Justice oversaw 13...

U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth this week warned members of the National Guard that they may be barred from "continued service" if they refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “I have determined that all soldiers who refuse the mandatory vaccination order will be flagged,” Wormuth wrote in a memo, according to The New York Times. This action would prevent soldiers from receiving promotions, awards and bonuses. If members persist in declining vaccination without an approved exemption, she added, they will not be allowed to "continue service."...

The Pentagon can require Oklahoma National Guard members to get the COVID-19 vaccine, despite the state’s highest-ranking military official insisting he will not mandate that members be inoculated, the Defense Department’s top spokesman said Monday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “has the authorities he needs to require this vaccine across the force, including the National Guard,” press secretary John Kirby told reporters. “It is a lawful order for National Guardsmen to receive the COVID vaccine. It is a lawful order,” Kirby later said. “Refusing to do that, absent an approved exemption, puts them in the same potential [for punishment] as active-duty...

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed an executive order on Monday halting the state from issuing nonbinary birth certificates. The order mandates the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) to “cease amending birth certificates” in any way that is inconsistent with state law, and to “remove from its website any reference to amending birth certificates” that doesn’t align with state law. Stitt further urged the Oklahoma state legislature to “immediately pass legislation that will clarify, to the extent necessary, that changes in sex or gender on a birth certificate, or a designation of non-binary is contrary to Oklahoma law.”

A top White House adviser has escalated the war of words between the Biden administration and Republican governors over the vaccine-or-test mandate for businesses with at least 100 employees — promising that the president would “run over” anyone who opposed the new rule. Cedric Richmond, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and a former Louisiana congressman, told CNN’s “Don Lemon Tonight” Thursday that it was “unfortunate that we have so many governors that are using vaccinations and mask requirements as a political gain.” “But our purpose is to save lives, and we will do anything and everything...

An Oklahoma County judge granted a preliminary injunction filed against Gov. Kevin Stitt, ordering him to reinstate the extension on the weekly $300 CARES Act federal unemployment benefits that he ended. Oklahoma County District Judge Anthony Bonner Jr. made the decision Friday in response to a lawsuit filed by Oklahomans against the state for ending the federal unemployment benefits early. Brendan McHugh, co-council for the petitioners, argued that some 74,000 Oklahomans are still relying on the extra $300 a week. Stitt said in May the added federal benefits were disincentivizing people from working. He announced federal benefits would end three...

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a bill naming a stretch of highway in the state after former President Donald Trump, KTUL reported over the weekend. According to the legislation, which was one of 41 other bills Stitt signed and which will take effect on November 1, the section of State Highway 287 that starts in Boise City, extends 20 miles along the panhandle, and finishes on the southeast Oklahoma-Texas border, will be named after the former president. Republican legislators slipped the Trump highway proposal into the state legislature's annual omnibus bill naming bridges and highways, which is usually uncontroversial,...

The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office has been tasked with attempting to return a $2 million stockpile of a malaria drug once touted by former President Donald Trump as a way to treat the coronavirus. In April, Gov. Kevin Stitt, who ordered the hydroxychloroquine purchase, defended it by saying that while it may not be a useful treatment for the coronavirus, the drug had multiple other uses and “that money will not have gone to waste in any respect.”

As some states begin loosening coronavirus lockdowns, all eyes are on Texas to see if a phased reopening can be done safely. In what could be the beginning of America’s resurgence from the coronavirus pandemic, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday he will let the state’s stay-at-home order expire at the end of the month and allow some businesses to reopen Friday, with restrictions. It marks the boldest loosening of pandemic restrictions since states began issuing lockdown orders last month, and could mark a path ahead for reopening the rest of the country. Retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and malls...