State Sen. Cliff Aldridge, R-Midwest City, said the decision by the Oklahoma Lottery Commission’s oversight board – which was appointed by Gov. Brad Henry – to allow lottery ticket sales at pawn shops, check-cashing businesses, and payday loan companies amounts to profiting from Oklahoma’s neediest citizens.

Statement from Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso
State Senator Dist 34

“More than two thirds of Oklahoma taxpayers approve of holding the growth of state government to a reasonable level. Unfortunately the other third, the big spenders, are trying to stifle very good legislation by portraying a dishonest view of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights initiative (TABOR).

State Capitol, Oklahoma City – State Sen. Jim Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, said Friday that Gov. Brad Henry should consider asking his appointees to the Oklahoma Lottery Commission’s board to resign.

“We should start over with a new board that isn’t bent on taking advantage of Oklahoma’s poor in an effort to meet Gov. Henry’s lofty projections for lottery revenues,” Reynolds stated.

The Senate Finance Committee chair echoed the sentiments of Senator Daisy Lawler and called on the Lottery Commission to reverse their decision to allow lottery tickets to be sold at pawn shops and payday loan companies.

“Senator Lawler is right on the money to ask the lottery commission to reverse this decision, and I join her in that call,” Gumm, an Assistant Majority Leader in the Senate, said. “This was a bad decision made by good people that needs to be reversed as soon as possible.”

Although the Oklahoma Lottery Commission reversed its decision made last week to allow pawn shops and payday loan centers to sell lottery tickets, State Senator Daisy Lawler said she still intends to file legislation to statutorily ban the sale of tickets at these places permanently.

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.