SUMMARY: As the 2024 presidential election approaches, early voting in Oklahoma has seen significant turnout. Many voters, including first-time voter Zachary Jarman, waited hours to cast their ballots on the last day of early voting, expressing the importance of participating in local elections. Voter Freddie Hagan criticized the limited polling locations, calling the lengthy wait times “inhumane.” Senator Adam Hugues acknowledged the need for more voting sites and highlighted efforts to increase pay for election workers. Despite frustrations, many voters felt their efforts were worthwhile, with a reminder to those unable to vote early to go to the polls on Election Day.
Oklahomans wait in hours-long lines for last day of early voting
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SUMMARY: Meteorologist Joseph Neubauer forecasts a chilly Sunday with rain and snow expected in central and western Oklahoma, but minimal roadway issues. Temperatures will rise to the upper 40s and lower 50s, with any precipitation melting quickly. Tonight, expect temperatures to drop to around or below freezing, prompting a freeze watch from 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. Monday. Residents are advised to protect plants and pets. However, warmer weather is on the horizon, with highs in the 60s and 70s expected for Monday and Tuesday. Meteorologist Sabrina Bates will provide updates on potential rain and severe weather later.
Meteorologist Joseph Neubauer says snowfall out west melts fast. We’re still chilly today. Freeze alerts out for tonight. Warmer during the week ahead.
The state prisons board on Thursday approved sending out a request for general contractors to submit proposals to build a new prison in Franklin County.
According to documents provided to the board, the Department of Corrections will begin advertising the request on April 8, with a deadline for submitting proposals on April 22.
The department is aiming to receive approval from the Division of Building Authority in June. Also in June, the department plans to bring the project to the Arkansas Legislative Council for review.
Early sitework is proposed to start in September, with the start of construction for the planned 3,000-bed prison in January 2026.
The board also voted to appoint an executive committee to review the proposals and oversee the overall design process for the prison.
The executive committee will have “approval and decision-making authority” in the interest of making decisions about the proposed prison “expeditiously,” according to documents provided by the board.
“These decisions will not carry cost impacts until we have designed to the approved budget,” a document about the committee read. Department of Corrections spokesperson Rand Champion said committee members would be selected later.
The committee will submit the designs for each design phase to the Board of Corrections for approval. Once the budget is finalized, any changes that would impact the cost by more than $250,000 would require additional approval from the board, something that board chair Benny Magness expressed satisfaction with.
“That’s more than adequate to me,” Magness told officials from Vanir Construction Management Inc., which the board retained to oversee the firm selected to build the prison.
The board did not spend long discussing the prison, but briefly talked about utilities — specifically, how drinking water and wastewater service would be established for the prison, which is proposed for a rural part of Franklin County. Opponents of the prison site have criticized its selection for a lack of adequate infrastructure.
Vanir officials discussed potentially building pipelines to bring in drinking water from Fort Smith; a wastewater pipeline is receiving similar consideration. Meetings with the city of Fort Smith about the matter would be happening on Friday, said Mike Beaber, the regional director for Vanir. Being able to pipe wastewater to Fort Smith instead of building a treatment facility on-site would allow builders to “put that money back into” the prison.
“Nothing is off the table,” Beaber said.
A $750 million appropriation bill needed to fund the prison’s construction failed to pass the state Senate for the third consecutive day Thursday.
In addition to the Franklin County prison, the board also raised the budget of a bed expansion at a work-release unit in Mississippi County by $4 million, which brought it up to $6.3 million. It had originally approved a $2.3 million budget in 2022, but multiple changes in the design have led to delays. The original budget called for adding 50 beds; the project now calls for 100 beds.
“We’ve still done nothing?” Magness asked. A department official confirmed that was the case.
Now, the estimated cost of the planned expansion is $5.6 million.
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Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Thérèse Boudreaux | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 16:20:00
(The Center Square) – Many older individuals and primary caretakers receiving food stamps could face work requirements if recently introduced Republican legislation becomes law.
Currently, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) does not impose work requirements on able-bodied adults with no dependents over the age of 54. It also exempts able-bodied adults who are primary caretakers of a dependent child from work requirements.
But theSNAP Reform and Upward Mobility Act, reintroduced by U.S. Rep. John Brecheen, R-Okla., with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, would change that. Brecheen said the SNAP status quo “has created a culture of dependency instead of opportunity,” necessitating reform.
“For decades, the federal government has grossly mismanaged SNAP, loosening eligibility requirements, allowing more recipients to be totally exempt from work requirements, and overseeing massive fraud and abuse,” the lawmaker said. “It’s time to return to commonsense policies that promote our American values of hard work and individual responsibility.”
The bill would change the work requirement age from 54 to 64 and require able-bodied primary caretakers to work once one or more of the dependent children turns seven years old. For married couples with a dependent over the age of six, the work requirement hours can be fulfilled jointly.
It would also amend how U.S. poverty levels are determined, require participating states to increasingly match federal SNAP funds, and crack down on fraud, including by permanently disqualifying food stamp recipients from future benefits if they commit fraud.
In 2024, the federal government spent $93.6 million in taxpayer dollars on SNAP benefits. More than 42 million individuals received these benefits in September 2024, averaging $189.55 a month,according to datafrom the United States Department of Agriculture, which runs the program.
