State Senator Debbe Leftwich has been named the new Secretary of North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to developing the world’s first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade Corridor.

The corridor, which extends from Mexico to Canada, runs through Oklahoma along Interstate 35 to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America.

Chairman Johnnie Crutchfield called Friday for a special fact-finding meeting of the full Senate Appropriations Committee to consider methods by which the state can augment the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program next.

As events are held across the nation to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, thousands of Oklahoma women are taking advantage of legislation giving them access to life-saving breast and cervical cancer treatment. That’s according to State Sen. Debbe Leftwich, author of a 2004 measure to provide funding for uninsured and underinsured women in need of treatment. As a result, the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program went into effect on January 1, 2005.

Senate Energy and Environment Committee Chairman Richard Lerblance has asked Governor Brad Henry to convene a statewide energy summit to discuss ways to help working families in Oklahoma deal with expected increases in the cost of heating their homes this winter.

The fears of Senate Democrats were realized last night when the crisis facing Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) went beyond prison walls as a convicted murderer and serial rapist escaped from the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington. According to news reports, the pair kidnapped an innocent woman and stole a vehicle to make their escape.

The Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee said Monday that she intends to fight a plan by the leadership in Washington that would create a tremendous hardship on Oklahoma family farmers by closing nearly 30 percent of the Farm Service Agency offices in the state.

“Oklahoma family farmers have endured all kinds of natural disasters – ice storms in the winter, tornadoes in the spring and drought and insects in the summer,” said Senator Daisy Lawler, D-Comanche. “And now Washington is trying to wipe them out with a man-made disaster.”

The Chair of the Senate Committee on Education said the organizational meeting of an interim study to determine inequities within the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System was a success.

Senator Susan Paddack, a Democrat from Ada, said she is hopeful that the study will result in legislation that will keep experienced teachers in Oklahoma.

Senate Republican Leader Glenn Coffee said Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Poteau, is seeking to politicize a prison escape – while ignoring his own party’s responsibility for the current state of Oklahoma’s prisons.

* Senate Democrats get failing grade on job creation

A newly released legislative scorecard from the Research Institute for Economic Development, or RIED, shows that Republicans in the Oklahoma State Senate strongly support issues and legislation that help attract businesses and jobs to the state.

RIED evaluated legislators’ votes and positions during the 2005 legislative session on dozens of bills that affect economic growth and job creation in the state – such as tax relief, lawsuit reform, workers’ compensation reform, and small business issues.

“Senate Democrats were instrumental in passing an historic workers’ compensation measure that was given an “A” rating by the State Chamber of Commerce-an obvious pro business group in the state of Oklahoma.

“The Research Institute for Economic Development (RIED) report is so arbitrarily put together that when we contacted a RIED board member, we were unable to get the formula that determines the rankings given to legislators.