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Early voting will get underway soon in two municipal elections in Seminole County.
Read moreMembers of the Democratic Senate and House Caucuses have announced a legislative slate called Oklahoma’s Commitment – a multi-year plan to improve reading skills for Oklahoma children, and support and retain highly-trained professional educators.
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District Attorney Erik Johnson announced Thursday that Derrick Ray Caldwell, 46, of Seminole, entered a plea prior to trial for Assault and Battery by Means Likely to Produce Death and Violation of a Protective Order.
Read moreThey say money can’t buy love. But every February 14, we scramble to buy the most expensive gift or plan the grandest show of affection. And that’s all fine . . . until money’s tight. Then it just feels stressful.
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(StatePoint) Early experiences during the prenatal period and first three years after birth shape brain development and the development of all other systems in the body — with substantial effects on learning, behavior, and physical and mental health. Unfortunately, there is a great discrepancy between the rising costs of raising young children and the level of federal government investment in them. An annual analysis from the bipartisan nonprofit First Focus on Children reveals that in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, only 1.59% of all federal spending went toward supporting children under 3. The report also makes clear that underfunding is part of a years-long trend: From FY 2021 to FY 2025, the share of federal spending on babies fell nearly 20% — from 1.98% of the federal budget to just 1.59%. This decline was driven by the expiration of important child-centered programs, such as the fully refundable Child Tax Credit, the expanded Child Care and Development Block Grant, and the Child Care Stabilization Fund. The year ahead does not promise to turn things around. President Trump’s FY 2026 budget proposal would cut discretionary spending on babies by an additional 17% adjusted for inflation, and the reconciliation package passed by Congress this summer slashes more than $60 billion from babies’ Medicaid health care services over the next decade and more than $13 billion from their share of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which feeds roughly 16 million children. Together, Medicaid and SNAP account for nearly half of all federal spending on infants, babies and toddlers, so these historic cuts disproportionately impact them.
Read moreThe Oklahoma Association of Environmental Education (OKAEE) will host the 2026 Oklahoma Environmental Education Expo (eeExpo) on Thursday-Friday, February 5-6, 2026, at the Nigh University Center, University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) in Edmond.
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