First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma's film incentive program has generated more than $531 million in economic impact since 2021, but employment and wages have fallen sharply since a peak that year. State officials and local fil...

Filming spiked with new incentives in 2021, but it didn't last. Now, even California is offering incentives. Can Oklahoma compete? That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch A retired federal administrative law judge in Edmond found himself caught in State Farm's alleged hail claim scheme after the insurer denied his roof claim, refused to share the adjuster's report and ...

State Farm declined to share the report on a retired judge's roof claim. He lawyered up. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma's Landlord-Tenant Act has changed just twice in nearly 50 years, and both times only modestly. A bill by Rep. Daniel Pae would give tenants the right to sue landlords who fail to make health ...

The Landlord-Tenant Act has barely changed in 50 years. That's been good for landlords, not so good for tenants. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch The IRS has identified potential excess benefit transactions between Epic Charter Schools and its founders' for-profit management company, even as it allowed the school to keep its nonprofit tax statu...

Embezzlement charges, racketeering charges, now the IRS too. Oh, my. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Residents near Inola pressed Oklahoma Primary Aluminum for answers about pollution, livestock health and drinking water at a March open house, and left largely unsatisfied. The proposed smelter, major...

There are many questions about the planned smelter in Inola. Answers are scarce. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt voted to award a multibillion-dollar investment advisory contract to a firm run by his former chief of staff and one-time business partner, without any board discussion of th...

When Invest in Oklahoma needed to hire an investment advisor, Gov. Stitt helped choose his former chief of staff and business associate. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma's 21 Child Advocacy Centers are straining under sharply rising caseloads of child sexual abuse, driven by increased reporting and the proliferation of online predatory contact. One Tulsa-area prosecutor now sees as many cases in a week as he once saw in a month, while rural counties face geographic and staffing barriers.

Oklahoma's child advocacy centers don't have enough money to keep up with the rise in demand, which the Tulsa district attorney estimates as a fourfold increase in child sexual abuse cases. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch A Kansas lawsuit by a former business partner accuses Vesta Realty CEO Marc Kulick of using company funds as a personal piggy bank while concealing financial distress from investors. Multiple former employees confirmed the allegations and described a cult-like workplace culture as tenants across Oklahoma continue living in properties many call uninhabitable.

Big-time Oklahoma landlord has big-time problems. And his tenants are getting the short end of the stick. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a case that could have exempted tribal citizens from Oklahoma state income taxes, leaving in place an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling against Muscogee Nati...

The law says Native Americans who work and live on reservation land don't have to pay income taxes. Not so fast, said Oklahoma. The U.S. Supreme Court let the state's decision stand. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch More than a year after the March 2025 wildfires killed four Oklahomans and burned 170,000 acres, federal mitigation funding remains unapproved — an unprecedented delay that Oklahoma emergency official...

Oklahomans have been waiting more than a year for wildfire mitigation grants. That and more you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

Republicans Push State Questions to Low-Turnout August Ballot Oklahoma Republicans are steering several high-stakes state questions to an August primary runoff ballot in a move critics say is designed to reshape voter-approved policies with minimal public partic...

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First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma's small-town newspapers are stretched thin by shrinking staffs and economic pressures, even as vigilante journalists and social media groups rush to fill the void. Interviews with 26 editors ...

How small-town newspapers are holding the line. That and more stuff you should know in today's FIrst Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch An Edmond family was evicted after withholding rent from a national real estate investment company that failed for months to repair fire hazards, water damage and a missing carbon monoxide detector in...

How constructive evictions leave tenants untethered. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Joe Martin, a 41-year-old father evicted from a Talala trailer park after a Utah investor bought the property and hiked rent 40%, spent months in hotels and couch-surfing with his children while never...

Evictions leave families homeless, uncounted. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma's Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday over State Farm's effort to block document production in the Hursh hail claim case, now the centerpiece of more than 900 lawsuits alleging a com...

The Oklahoma Supreme Court heard why State Farm should reveal homeowners insurance documents and why State Farm thinks they should remain secret. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch A 95-year-old Tulsa philanthropist is spending nearly $1 million on a statewide ad campaign urging parents to pressure lawmakers to strengthen Oklahoma's reading laws. John Brock, a retired oil and ga...

Who's behind that literacy ad blitz? That answer and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma lawmakers are struggling to reach a deal on modernizing tobacco and nicotine excise taxes, even as a bill cutting taxes on heated cigarettes passed the House this week. A broader agreement co...

Tobacco. Vapes. Heated cigarettes. Taxes. That plus more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

Introducing: Free Time “Free Time isn’t just a new product—it’s a total wellness optimization platform. It’s not an app but rather a mind-blowing vessel of unstructured time where ...

Introducing: Free Time www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/int...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma is violating a federal consent decree by leaving hundreds of defendants with serious mental illness waiting in county jails for months without competency restoration treatment. A federal judg...

Hundreds of thousands paid to consultants but ODMHSAS is still in violation as sick detainees languish in jails. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Duncan police have arrested at least 11 people on drug and other charges following bicycle stops based on a city ordinance superseded by state law in 2021. Oklahoma's Idaho stop law allows cyclists to...

Duncan bicycle stops violated state law, but that didn't stop the arrests. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter: oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma has more than 220,000 vacant housing units, yet faces a shortage of 80,000 rental homes affordable to its lowest-income residents. Rising construction costs, aging housing stock and a broken ...

Oklahoma's housing paradox: Plenty of vacancies but nowhere to live. That and more stuff you should know in today's FIrst Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma's Department of Corrections began selling e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches to prisoners in March, ending a decades-long tobacco ban. Officials say the products will reduce violence and contr...

Here's why state prisons brought back vapes, pouches. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

From Promise to Patchwork: How Oklahoma's Domestic Violence Sentencing Law is Failing in Practice - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma's Survivors' Act allows abuse victims to seek sentence reductions, but implementation has been chaotic. Most petitions fail due to missing records, lack of legal help, and inconsistent county...

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First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma's guardianship system is failing the vulnerable people it is meant to protect, marked by sealed records, compressed hearings, undisclosed conflicts of interest and judges without adequate tra...

Oklahoma’s guardianship system is failing the vulnerable people it is meant to protect. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter (which you can get sent to your inbox free if you subscribe! What a deal!) oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma's seven congressional delegates entered office wealthy and have grown wealthier, according to a NOTUS analysis of annual financial disclosures. Kevin Hern leads the delegation with a median n...

What's your senator worth? That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. Go ahead -- subscribe. It's free and it comes to your inbox without an algorithm! oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch The executive director of Oklahoma's science and technology startup funding agency resigned suddenly in late February, one day after being summoned to a meeting with the state commerce secretary and c...

OCAST's director was forced out after a meeting with the governor's COO. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. Subscribe to that, why dontcha? oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma children whose families face eviction filings are 35% more likely to be chronically absent from school and score dramatically lower on standardized tests than peers with stable housing. A bil...

Eviction filings push Oklahoma children into academic crisis. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. Do you subscribe to that? You should. It's free. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch WalletHub ranked Oklahoma 50th in education, a number that sparked policy conversations statewide. But data experts say the methodology has significant flaws, including a metric that penalizes states ...

Oklahoma’s 50th-Place Education Ranking Is Flawed. It’s Also Mostly Accurate. That and more stuff you should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Residents near Inola are pushing back against plans to build the largest aluminum smelter in the country a mile from their homes. A local chemical engineer found the facility's proposed hydrogen fluor...

Inola residents don't want to share their town with the country's largest aluminum smelter and they think they can stop it. That and more stuff you s should know in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...

First Watch: Stuff You Should Know - Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern appears to have filed at least 10 stock trade disclosures late, covering between $4.2 million and $17.6 million in transactions, potentially violating the STOCK Act. Hern's of...

Kevin Hern traded millions in stocks. Did he report those trades correctly? That and more you shoul dknow in today's First Watch newsletter. oklahomawatch.org/newsletter/f...