Opinion

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the tornado sirens have sounded, and the bugs have started wreaking havoc on my garden and flower beds. Spring is here and that means my household has lost all sense of normalcy.

One of the highlights of serving as your state representative is welcoming groups from House District 33 to their State Capitol. I especially love getting to visit with students, and I hosted Lisa Sadler's sixth-grade class from Ripley just a few weeks ago!

Recently, Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that I gladly coauthored to help Oklahoma's 4-H students.

What do kids think adults do all day? I had a conversation with my nephew a few days ago where he said he couldn’t wait to be a grown up because he just wanted to play video games all day. And of course, when you’re an adult that’s what you get to do right? My nephew is seven, and he and I had a very in-depth conversation about all the things he thinks adults either get, or have to do.

On Tuesday, the governor signed Senate Bill 941 into law. For the past four years, we have been working on this piece of legislation during my tenure as Chairman of the Wildlife Committee.

After our mid-March deadline to pass House bills through the House chamber, we've officially swapped bills with the Senate. This is done through a process called 'engrossing,' and it's the formal steps taken to officially move a bill between chambers.

Judging by Sunday’s severe weather predictions from the Oklahoma TV weather fear mongers, I’d have thought a breadand-toilet-paper-shelf-clearing weather event was coming to our part of the state, complete with papaya-sized hailstones falling out of the sky accompanied by a swarm of F-5 tornadoes flinging around radioactive tigers and a couple sharks.

Taxation without representation is one of the main reasons why the U.S. colonists rose up against Great Britain’s rule, starting the Revolutionary War.

When I was young, dumb, and broke I never considered the importance of hobbies — I didn’t have the patience or resources for them anyway. After several years I am no longer considered young and I have grown a new found appreciation for the little things we do beyond our given responsibilities to keep ourselves from going insane. However, I am still limited on patience and resources and as an added bonus of adulthood I am also limited on time. So, my dilemma and my new adventure is to find a hobby that is reasonably priced (free is also acceptable), not time-sensitive allowing me to dedicate anywhere from 10 minutes to the remainder of my days to, and is not going to cause ANOTHER never-ending mess that reminds me of doing dishes and laundry — the two most dreaded task on my chore wheel.

Our last day to pass bills through their chamber of origin, also known as our third reading deadline, was on March 14, and I passed three more of my bills through the House ahead of this deadline. House Bill 3752 enables the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board in Oklahoma to access vital records from the Department of Corrections (DOC), facilitating a more comprehensive understanding of factors contributing to domestic violence fatalities.