State Senator Roger Ballenger, D-Okmulgee, was recently named the 2008 Legislator of the Year by the Oklahoma State Troopers Association for his support and dedication to Oklahoma law enforcement.

Roy Rogers, president of the Oklahoma State Troopers Association and Captain Rusty Rhoades, legislative liaison with the Department of Public Safety presented the award to Ballenger at the State Capitol.

The United States is in the midst of what well may be the worst economic crisis since the 1929 crash on Wall Street which forced millions of Americans into poverty, hunger and despair. The home lending debacle has been snowballing for months, and the domino effect is devastating economies throughout the nation.

Lt. Gov. Jari Askins and Tom Price, Chesapeake Energy’s senior vice-president for investor and government relations, will be the keynote speakers at the inaugural Green Country Alternative Expo to be held Oct. 2-4 at the Muskogee County Fairgrounds, which is bringing together experts from all across the state to discuss alternative fuel, energy research and options.

Members of the Oklahoma State Senate are scheduling visits to local schools in their districts. It’s part of “America’s Legislators Back to School,” a program sponsored by the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) aimed at helping children and teens learn more about government and representative democracy.

State Senator Earl Garrison, D-Muskogee, is hosting the inaugural Green Country Alternative Energy Expo at the Muskogee County Fairgrounds Oct. 2-4 bringing together experts from all across the state to discuss alternative fuel, energy research and options.

State Sen. Kathleen Wilcoxson announced Wednesday that she has retired from her seat in the upper chamber and is returning to her first callingeducation. Wilcoxson has accepted a position as a Title I elementary teacher in the Western Heights School District located in southwest Oklahoma City.

State Senator Don Barrington, the author of Oklahoma’s back-to-school sales tax holiday, said an increase in sales tax revenues for the month of August show that the tax holiday was a huge success for the second year in a row.

Barrington, R-Lawton, praised the sales tax holiday for providing savings to Oklahoma families, and for giving a boost to Oklahoma’s economy that helped increase overall sales tax revenues.

Hello again, everybody! Few have been as critical as I have of decisions made by House Speaker Chris Benge. He got that criticism the old-fashioned way: he earned it.

His decision to deny even a vote to the autism insurance bill will go down as one of the most ill-advised and unfortunate decisions ever made by any Speaker of the House. That decision hurt families struggling to care for autistic children.

Hello again, everybody! The biggest battle in the Legislature last session was our fight to require health insurance to cover autism.

Now that campaign season is fully underway, that fight is being played out in campaigns across the state. Dozens of candidates for the Legislature – of both political parties – are announcing their full-throated support for “Nick’s Law,” while those who oppose it are desperately scrambling for any political cover they can find.

State Sen. Debbe Leftwich said a new law to help curtail attacks on women marks a significant change in how Oklahoma deals with domestic violence. Leftwich was present when Gov. Brad Henry conducted a ceremonial bill signing of SB 2163 at the State Capitol on Wednesday. Leftwich said the statute will take advantage of Global Positioning System Technology (GPS) to better protect domestic abuse victims.