Opinion

This Election Season, Let’s Choose Productive Public Discourse

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It’s time. Super Tuesday is over, and America is deep into an election season faced with two very familiar candidates. It’s time to take stock of our collective values and decide how we plan to support those beliefs in our actions. I’m not just talking about how you plan to vote;I’m talking about how you plan to live every day as a member of this community.

Dear Annie

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Dear Annie: Sixteen years ago, I separated from my wife, as we were headed toward a divorce. Her father, “Bob,” just lost it; he was so angry over the divorce. He swore to me that he would do everything he could and spend his last dime to take my sons away from me. He did his best to ruin my career, to no avail. However, through paying for cruises (seven to date), much money spent and careful manipulation, he has been able to take my sons away from me.

Lawmakers messed up Oklahoma’s open records law, allowing bad actors to hide. It’s time to fix it.

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Every so often lawmakers decide to monkey around with the state’s open records laws and make changes that adversely affect the public’s right to know. So in honor of our nation’s Sunshine Week, this seems a fitting time to point out how one of the Legislature’s bright ideas to “improve” our Open Records Act has backfired spectacularly.

Dear Annie

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Dear Annie: I have a longtime friend who has serious trouble with gifts. It is very difficult to give her anything because she insists on “evening the score” by responding with a gift back to the giver. For instance, we comfortably exchanged token holiday gifts at my place, but my husband learned she liked a certain special candy we had on hand, so he gave her a box. She tried to turn down this gift and even checked on her phone to see what it had cost.

After 17 Years, the Feds Stop Trying to Imprison a Licensed Medical Marijuana Provider

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Charlie Lynch’s Ordeal Is a Vivid Reminder of a Senseless Prohibition Policy That Persists Thanks to Political Inertia Seventeen years ago, the federal government raided Charlie Lynch’s medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California, and charged him with five drug felonies. Lynch, whose business complied with state and local regulations, has been fighting to stay out of prison ever since, and last month he finally won that battle.
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Capitol Conversations

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The first month of this legislative session is complete, and we’ve cleared our first deadline of the year. Senate committees approved hundreds of bills, many of which will now be voted on by the full chamber. Hundreds of other bills never received a committee hearing by a Feb. 29 deadline, which dramatically reduced the amount of legislation continuing through the legislative process.
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Remembering Akira Toriyama, the most influential mangaka of all time

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I originally had a different idea for today’s column. I was planning to talk about how Rooster Teeth, a company that had an impact on me growing up, had announced that it would be shutting down, and I felt compelled to write something look back on the history of the company.