OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 1100 on Tuesday, approving the first of its kind ban that prohibits nonbinary classifications on state birth certificates. Under the bill, the biological sex designation on Oklahoma birth certificates may only be male or female, outlawing the use of “X” or any other symbol to represent a nonbinary designation.

Oklahoma Lt. Gov.

“A brave new nightmare.” Those words from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich described the threat created by Elon Musk’s bid to restore free speech values by buying Twitter. Yet, despite warnings that censorship is necessary “for democracy to survive,” neither the Tesla CEO and billionaire nor ordinary citizens appear to be sufficiently terrified of free speech.

China recently affirmed its intention to strengthen strategic cooperation with Russia to establish a “new type of international relationship” and other shared goals. Political analysts interpret this as a public notice from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that China and Russia stand united against the Western democratic camp led by the United States.

It is going to be getting warmer through Friday as temperatures climb from 75 degrees on Wednesday to 85 degrees by Friday afternoon There will be a chance of a few pop-up thunderstorms each afternoon from Thursday through Sunday but it is likely the most sever activity would be near Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The weekend is looking partly cloudy with highs in the 80s.

Comments to: andybowman839@gmail.com Coffeetimecolumn.com You can see a lot standing in the checkout line at Walmart. Waiting patiently, your mind occupied while you run through your to-do list for the rest of the day, you are abruptly jolted back into reality by a preschooler.

Comments to: andybowman839@gmail.com Coffeetimecolumn.com Saw a quote recently that needs to be read by more people: “There are only two decent places for dirty laundry; the clothes hamper and the washing machine.” Very accurate. Seems social media is the favorite place for some folks to air their dirty laundry.

Property owners are coming to realize that their ad valorem taxes are continuing to go up basically every year. In many cases, they increase at or near the state’s legal 5% cap. So every 10 years they go up by 50% and every 20 years they will double.

Both parents and school board officials across Oklahoma are continuing to get “mixed signals” concerning school policies that allow students to choose bathrooms based on the student’s self-proclaimed gender identity.

We’ve officially completed the bulk of committee work for this session after the April 14 deadline to hear measures that originated in the House in our Senate committees, and vice versa, the House completed their work on the bills we have approved. The Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget will continue to meet throughout the rest of session to vote on budget bills as we work to finalize the Fiscal Year 2023 budget.