Oklahoma News Report

A trio of Webster High School business students are competing in a national contest sponsored by Junior Achievement.

The students act as CEO’s of a large corporation. They compete against teams from across the country. Each team tries to make the best business decisions possible to make their company the most profitable. Along the way the students are learning that each decision has consequences.

The top three teams will win cash prizes. The grand prize is $1,500.

Even as debate was underway in the Oklahoma House over naming the state’s official rock song, social media sites like Twitter and Facebook were buzzing with fans of the Flaming Lips who were upset with how the resolution was going.

Soon after, blogs like The Lost Ogle.com and OklahomaRock.com got in on the act talking about how House members voted down the song “Do You Realize?", and how Governor Brad Henry stepped in issuing an executive order counteracting the House.

The debate came as a surprise to the owner and operator of OklahomaRock.com, Ryan LaCroix.

“I was actually busy at work, and all of a sudden I started getting some text messages and phone calls. I checked my e-mail, and I had e-mails all over the place asking me what was going on. It’s just kind of a bizarre three hours,” said LaCroix, who was a member of the panel which narrowed down the song choices to ten picks.

The response also surprised Representative Joe Dorman, who came up with the idea naming an official state rock song.

“Whenever the debate was finished, and I got on to my Facebook page, saw all of the comments, and then got on Twitter and saw the reaction from a lot of people, I was impressed with how many people were paying attention and realized the scope of what’s going on and how this made Oklahoma look to a lot of people by not fulfilling the vote of the people,” said Dorman.

Even the L.A. Times website got into the act with a blog titled. Flaming Lips: Are They Too Communist for Oklahoma?

LaCroix says that his post about what happened with Senate Joint Resolution 24 has received a lot of attention over the past 24 hours, since the House’s rejection of the resolution.

“The post today, just alone today had almost a thousand hits, just on that post alone. And it’s stirred up a lot of talk, and there’s a lot of other blogs out there that you can tell really have been fired up by all the shinanigans that went on yesterday,” LaCroix said.

Representative Dorman says the event at the Oklahoma History Center with the governor and the Flaming Lips will now be opened to the public, as a show of appreciation to the Oklahomans who reacted to the House’s action.

“Originally, this was going to be a small ceremony with the elected officials to commemorate the band, have interviews by the media that would be present. And now, I think it’s turned into so much more. And you never can tell what’s going to happen, especially when it’s this band,” Dorman said.

The ceremony will take place at the Oklahoma History Center on Tuesday, April 27th at 2pm, with the Flaming Lips on hand as Governor Henry declares “Do You Realize?” as the state’s official rock n’ roll song.

Mother nature certainly coorperated with Wednesday’s Earth Day celebration in downtown Tulsa. The Metropolitan Environmental Trust hosted this year’s annual Earth Day event. Michael Patton with the M.e.t. said the focus was on downtown workers.
“We’d like to make the white collar crowd a green collar crowd,” Patton said.

The event offered free information on different ways of going green. Patton said they wanted to bring together both public and private organizations into one green team. The celebration was sponsored by Abitibi, Covanta Energy, AEP/PSO, Lafarge North America and Downtown Tulsa Unlimited.

Wednesday was the second of three days for the “Healing Field” demonstration to raise awareness of child abuse in Oklahoma. While around 4,000 “tea baggers” were on the capitol steps protesting high taxes and spending, the scene was remarkably different a few hundred yards farther south.

This was the area where the Exchange Club and Colonial Flag Foundation posted 1,530 American flags to symbolize the 1,530 children who died in the U.S. in 2008 due to abuse and neglect. Thirty-two Oklahoma flags joined them, to represent the 32 Oklahoma children who died because of abuse last year in the state.

About 250 people attended the child abuse prevention rally the day before. An Exchange Club staffer estimated that 100 people had stopped by on Wednesday before the Tea Party began. During the Tea Party, the volunteers at the Exchange Club tent stood a lonely vigil, with child abuse prevention flyers waiting on the table.

In addition to the 32 Oklahoma children killed by abuse or neglect in 2008, the Exchange Club says there were 61,327 reports of abuse, 11,714 confirmed cases of child abuse, and 78% of children killed by maltreatment were under two years of age. Oklahoma has the highest child abuse death rate of any state in the nation.

They came from all over, sporting heart-felt convictions and colorful signs. They numbered upwards of 4,000, spilling over around the edges of the south steps of the State Capitol and gobbling up parking spaces for blocks around. They were the “tea baggers” who attended Wednesday’s tax day “Tea Party” at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City.

Speakers talked about what they consider to be excessive government spending and the perils of high taxation. But the real show was the event itself - the people, the signs and the atmosphere. While most of the crowd appeared to be “conservative” and much of the sign sentiment was directed at President Obama, but this was more about ideology than raw politics. There seemed to be a degree of bipartisan disgust with politicians from both parties, especially those in Congress.

To be sure, however, this event was not just about taxes and spending. A survey of the signs showed the “tea baggers” were also protesting immigration laws, abortion, socialism, gun restrictions, Brad Henry, government economic intervention, the “nanny state,” reconciliation with European countries, ACORN, bailouts, national health care, and “one world government.” They appeared to be supportive of the “fair tax,” more oil drilling ("drill here, drill now"), nuclear power, voter ID, English-only, impeaching Congress, border enforcement, 2nd Amendment, border security, term limits, and the Texas revolution.

These pictures give you some sense of the day.