Oklahoma

Oklahoma Changes Criteria for Bible Bids

Published

1 year ago

October 13, 2024

Oklahoma Changes Criteria for Bible Bids

This article was originally published in Oklahoma Voice.

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma State Department of Education’s request for bids from Bible suppliers, which many speculated would result in the purchase of Bibles affiliated with former president Donald Trump, has been changed at the urging of another state agency.

The Education Department’s original request for 55,000 King James Version Bibles to place in Oklahoma classrooms would have accepted only products bound in leather or a leather-like material that also contain the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution.

The agency announced Tuesday it amended its request for proposal, called an RFP, to allow the extra documents to be bound separately from the Bible when provided to schools. The new RFP also adds “price” to the evaluation criteria.

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The Office of Management and Enterprise Services, which oversees RFPs and state contracts, requested the changes. The Education Department and its head, state Superintendent Ryan Walters, said they are “pleased to make” the amendments. OMES did not return a request for comment.

Ryan Walters: How a Beloved Teacher Became Oklahoma’s Top Culture Warrior

Reporting by Oklahoma Watch found few Bibles would have met the original RFP requirements, but two products matched the criteria — both of which are Bibles endorsed by the Trump family.

Trump has earned a name, image and likeness fee for his endorsement of Lee Greenwood’s $60 God Bless the USA Bible. A similar $90 product, called the We the People Bible, has been endorsed by Donald Trump Jr.

Walters has endorsed the former president for reelection.

He ordered all public school districts in Oklahoma to keep a copy of the Bible in classrooms as a historical reference and to incorporate the Christian text into their lesson plans, especially for history courses.

Walters said the bid process wasn’t targeted at any particular vendor. Doing so would be illegal.

“There are numerous Bible vendors in this country that have the capacity to fulfill this request,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “The purpose of the RFP process is to find a vendor that can provide the product we need, of reasonable quality, at the best value. There are numerous state employees engaged and committed to a process to determine who that best vendor will be, and I have no involvement in that process, as it should be.”

Vendors have until Oct. 21 to submit bids under the amended RFP. The winning bidder will be awarded a one-year contract to ship 55,000 copies of the Bible to Oklahoma schools two weeks after receiving the contract.

Walters said his agency set aside $3 million to pay for the Bibles and will request another $3 million from the state Legislature next year. A spokesperson for Walters said the agency is using money saved from administrative and personnel costs. Rep. Mark McBride greets state Superintendent Ryan Walters before a House education budget hearing Jan. 10 at the state Capitol. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)

Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, requested an opinion from Attorney General Gentner Drummond about whether the Education Department can move funds from one budget category to another without legislative approval. McBride, who leads a House committee on education funding, also asked whether this expense would require approval from OMES and the governor’s secretary of education.

The amended RFP requests the extra founding documents to be bound in durable material when provided separately from the Bible. The Bible is not allowed to contain study guides nor additional commentary, according to the RFP documents.

“My number one goal is to ensure that our classrooms have copies of the Bible so that it can be utilized as an appropriate tool to properly and accurately teach Oklahoma students of its important influence in the history of our country and its secular value. Period,” Walters said.

However, several district leaders have said they have no plans to incorporate the Bible into their school curricula beyond what is required in Oklahoma Academic Standards.

The academic standards already mandate that schools teach about world religions and the role of religion in the establishment of American colonial governments. Oklahoma law allows districts to decide how they teach state standards.

Oklahoma’s Catholic Charter School Asks U.S. Supreme Court for Review

A school-focused law firm in Oklahoma City, The Center for Education Law, predicted Walters’ Bible mandate is “likely” to end up in court. A coalition of civil rights organizations, including church-state separation advocates and the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, has requested public records explaining the $3 million budget and the Bible mandate.

“Diverting millions of taxpayer dollars to purchase Bibles is nothing more than a blatant attempt to divide Oklahomans along religious lines and undermine the public-school system,” said Dan Mach, director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.

Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on Facebook and X.

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Oklahoma

Severe weather threat increasing for Oklahoma tonight

Published

3 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Severe weather threat increasing for Oklahoma tonight

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Severe weather is still expected tonight across much of our area. In fact, the threats have increased since this morning due to more clearing skies in western Oklahoma. More sunshine means more instability to work with.

SPC Severe Weather Outlook. (KOKH)

Due to this, the Storm Prediction Center has increased all hazards for our part of Oklahoma. The strongest storms could produce winds up to 80 mph, baseball size hail, and a few tornadoes. This would be from essentially now until early Wednesday morning.

SPC Tornado Outlook. (KOKH)

The tornadic potential has increased across much of the area generally along and east of I-44/I-35.

The general thinking is that discrete supercells will form in western North Texas in the 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM window and begin to make their way towards southwest Oklahoma. These storms will then quickly go from being individual cells to more clusters of storms. This would increase the wind potential and make it possible for brief spinup tornadoes to form. These QLCS (quasi-linear convective systems) tornadoes can form and develop quickly.

Once the storms are generally east of I-35, there won’t be any more cells anymore and we’d be looking at a larger squall line. Check out the below model images for a look at the evolution of the storms tonight:

There is also the potential for very heavy rain with these storms too.

A cold front will sweep the storms away to the east tonight. After the front, strong northerly winds are possible. Due to this, there is a Wind Advisory Wednesday for parts of our area.

Wednesday Wind Gusts. (KOKH)

These strong winds will increase the fire danger Wednesday afternoon.

To stay up to date with the latest forecast, be sure to download the Fox 25 Weather App.

Download the Fox 25 First Warning Weather App. (KOKH)

Stay with Fox 25, we’ve got your back.

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Oklahoma

‘I cannot stay silent’ Oklahoma City moves to dismiss former attorneys claims seized cash

Published

15 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

‘I cannot stay silent’ Oklahoma City moves to dismiss former attorneys claims seized cash

A legal fight is escalating between former Oklahoma City municipal attorney Orval Jones and the city over how the Oklahoma City Police Department handled cash seized during arrests.

The city has filed a motion asking a judge to strike Jones’ claims, arguing he has no legal standing and calling the criminal-case process a “restitution scheme.”

Jones says he spent eight years “cleaning up” the OKCPD property return process from 2017 to March 2025 until he resigned “due to duress” in September.

He filed an affidavit claiming OKCPD seized more than $400,000 in cash from arrests and deposited it into the city’s bank account.

In his audit, Jones made lists of seized cash amounts, including amounts under $250, from $250 up to $500, and more than $500.

In its motion, the city argues Jones is no longer an attorney for the city or the district attorney’s office, is not an owner of any of the property “properly disposed of,” and has not suffered an injury.

The city also alleges Jones filed his motion with “half-truths” and without support or proof.

Jones responded in a rebuttal affidavit that the issue involves injury to the state, the county, other counties, crime victims, and property owners who received no notice. Jones said, “I had a professional duty to tell the court that these filings were legally defective and potentially fraudulent. I cannot stay silent.”

In an email in April 2025, OKCPD Chief Ron Bacy said the department had 288,000 overdue property and currency claims needing a disposition update, and that many investigators assigned to those cases are no longer employed with the department. Bacy said the department developed programs to assist the Property Management Unit.

Court documents show more than 350,000 pieces of property held in the Property Management Unit, more than $2.5 million in the unit’s bank account, and that 80% of the property and money are due for disposition.

If a judge agrees with Jones, the funds may be returned to the owners.

If the judge agrees with the city, the case will be dropped.

The city and OKCPD had not responded to open records requests submitted Feb. 10.

When asked whether the city conducted or requested an internal review into the allegations, the city said it does not comment on pending litigation.

A hearing has been set later this month.

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Oklahoma

Oklahoma AG Drummond backs Trump EPA bid to rescind 2009 greenhouse gas finding

Published

1 day ago

March 9, 2026

Press Room

Oklahoma AG Drummond backs Trump EPA bid to rescind 2009 greenhouse gas finding

OKLA. — Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is seeking to join a federal court fight over the Environmental Protection Agency’s move to roll back a key climate change finding that has underpinned vehicle emissions regulations for more than a decade.

Drummond filed a motion to intervene with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on March 9, 2026, backing the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate what his office called “radical regulations of carbon emissions.”

The dispute centers on the EPA’s decision to rescind the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding.

In a Final Rule issued earlier this year, the EPA concluded it lacked statutory authority to establish the Endangerment Finding, which had been used to justify vehicle emission restrictions under the Clean Air Act.

Drummond joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general seeking to support the EPA after “a gaggle of special-interest groups” petitioned the D.C. Circuit to review the Final Rule.

“Thankfully, the Trump Administration is correcting the outrageous overreach that was the hallmark of the Obama-Biden Administration,” Drummond said. “Oklahoma’s energy industry, and that of our nation, should not be hobbled by unnecessary regulations born from a radical climate agenda. A panoply of would-be vehicle emission standards would be disastrous for a robust oil and gas industry, adversely impact our economy, hurt the reliability of our electrical grids and undermine national security.”

Drummond’s office said that since taking office he has filed more than 25 legal actions opposing environmental regulations, including tailpipe emission standards and efforts aimed at eliminating gas-powered vehicles.

In addition to Oklahoma, the states joining the motion to intervene are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

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