State Sen. Jim Reynolds is urging Oklahomans to mail or email petitions to U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe to help secure an appropriate location for a U.S.S. Oklahoma Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Sen. Inhofe, who supports the project, said the more public support he receives, the better the chance he’ll have of convincing fellow members to get behind the project.
read more.

The full Senate has given approval to a measure that would create the Oklahoma School of the Arts. Senator Mark Snyder is author of Senate Bill 1501 and said the school would be similar to the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM.)
read more.

The State Senate has given its unanimous approval to a measure requiring out-of-state sex offenders to register with local law enforcement if they have a spouse who lives in Oklahoma. The bill would also shorten the amount of time convicted sex offenders have to register with the Department of Corrections and local police from three to two days.
read more.

Senator Jay Paul Gumm has won support for a measure aimed at keeping jobs in Oklahoma. Senate Bill 1247 targets businesses that accept state incentive dollars then leave within 7 to 10 years of accepting the money.

“Economic development experts across the country have proclaimed Oklahoma’s business incentives to be among the best in the nation. We’re saying if you are a business that accepts those incentives and then decides to leave our state in just a few years, you’re going to have to pay back that money,” said Gumm, a Democrat from Durant.
read more.

The Senate Republican leader praised Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin today for showing leadership in offering an alternative to Gov. Brad Henry’s proposed tobacco tax hike.

State Senator Richard Lerblance (D-Hartshorne) held a meeting today with the Oklahoma Rural Water Association and the Oklahoma Municipal League in an effort to address water rights issues.

The meeting was a result of a bill that Senator Lerblance filed at the beginning of the legislative session. There have been long-term problems between rural water districts and municipalities as to who has the water rights when expansion is necessary.

For the second time in as many weeks, the Senate’s Republican Leader implored Gov. Brad Henry in a letter to get off the sidelines and help line up the votes needed to withdraw the marriage protection constitutional amendment from a Senate committee.

“The deadline to withdraw SJR 38 from committee for consideration on the Senate floor is Thursday, March 11, 2004. Without your immediate help, this bill will die,” wrote Senate GOP Leader James A. Williamson, R-Tulsa. “All I ask is that you devote as much time to protecting marriage as you have to expanding gambling in our state.”

Senate Appropriations Chairman Mike Morgan Tuesday announced a plan to give state employees a long-overdue, two-phase pay raise.

Morgan said the Senate measure would give state workers a 5-percent pay raise beginning January 1, 2005, and then an additional 3-percent raise beginning July 1, 2005.

State employees last received a pay increase in 2000.
read more.

The State Senate passed a bill today renaming a portion of Interstate 240 in Oklahoma City in honor of the late Senator Keith Leftwich, according to Senate President Pro Tempore Cal Hobson (D-Lexington) and President Pro Tempore Emeritus Stratton Taylor (D-Claremore), authors of the bill. Under the provisions of SB 969, I-240 between the intersections of I-35 and I-44 in South Oklahoma City will be known as the “Keith Leftwich Memorial Loop.”
read more.

Legislators recently announced International Student Awareness Day at the Oklahoma State Capitol on March 24th. The annual event gives international students from high schools, colleges and universities from around the state the opportunity to learn more about Oklahoma and to celebrate the state's cultural diversity.
read more.