Oklahoma state agencies have high turnover after some new elected officials take over
BY PAUL MONIES Database Editor pmonies(at)opubco.com Scores of state employees have left agencies after new leaders took office earlier this year, saving the state some money but at the cost of experience and knowledge in many specialized jobs. Leading the way is the state Education Department, which has seen 61 employees leave since state schools [...]
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Should life without parole still be a sentence for multiple drug convictions?
From today’s story, which is generating a few comments online. I’ve also posted a few related letters to Gov. Mary Fallin at the bottom. One is from the District Attorneys Council. The other is from The Sentencing Project. BY PAUL MONIES Database Editor pmonies(at)opubco.com Published: August 18, 2011 The Pardon and Parole Board recommended [...]
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Correcting the legislative record on the public employee DOB case
First off, let’s get some disclosures out of the way: My birth date is 6/27/75. I’m a board member for FOI Oklahoma Inc. I signed several sworn affidavits in the court case pursued by The Oklahoman and other media outlets on gaining access to the birth dates and employee ID numbers of state employees for [...]
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Oklahoma Supreme Court rules state employee birth dates, employee ID numbers should be confidential
In a case that stretched almost 18 months, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled today in favor of several state employee groups on the birth date issue. For background stories by The Oklahoman, check our continuing coverage page. Also, I blogged about this issue at the end of last year. We’ll have more on this, but [...]
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Some Oklahoma ex-officials making six-figure pensions
Re-posting Sunday’s story: BY PAUL MONIES Database Editor pmonies(at)opubco.com More than 60 state retirees, including former statewide elected officials, district attorneys and judges, are receiving annual pensions of more than $100,000. In many cases, those annual pensions exceed the retiree’s highest annual salary and dwarf the amount the retiree contributed during his or her years [...]
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The case of the missing Oklahoma plutonium
You can file this as Exhibit A in how not to test your website. I stumbled across this while searching for state contracting regulations at the Oklahoma Department of Central Service’s website. (Click the image for a larger version.) Wow. The state’s buying depleted plutonium. Sounds like a great story, right? Well, after clicking on [...]
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Oklahoma lawmakers: Social media being used more
Several legislators who use social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter say they are effective ways to communicate with constituents.
Some said they were apprehensive when U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., said last week that his Twitter account had been hacked and someone sent a lewd photograph of himself to a woman. Weiner admitted Monday that he had sent the picture.
In Oklahoma, several officials or their staff frequently change passwords and monitor the accounts to delete any inappropriate …
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Transparency: New Sunspot map highlights Oklahoma open records, open meetings complaints
Dr. Joey Senat, associate professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University, has compiled some recent violations of the state’s Open Meetings/Open Records Acts in Oklahoma. Read more at the FOI Oklahoma blog. –Paul (Full disclosure: I’m among the board members at FOI Oklahoma.)
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As tuition increases loom, some Oklahoma Higher Education funds flush with cash
Re-posting Sunday’s print story below. Check out the latest financial snapshots for college and university revolving funds BY PAUL MONIES Database Editor pmonies(at)opubco.com Some revolving funds for colleges and universities are flush with cash as higher education leaders warn of impending tuition increases from budget cuts. The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center’s three revolving [...]
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Saturday sneak peak: Oklahoma Higher Education revolving funds
I’ll have more on this in Sunday’s paper, but you can get a sneak peak of the financial snapshots of Oklahoma colleges and universities below. These are the balances in the revolving funds for Higher Ed for December 2009, March 2010, December 2010 and March 2011. I obtained this information through an open records request [...]
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