Ted Streuli
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Executive Director, Oklahoma Watch
Articles by Ted Streuli
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Prosegur Services Group is reportedly deploying nearly 1,000 armed guards to at least 55 U.S. Postal Service facilities nationwide. It’s also the company guarding the Oklahoma County courthouse complex and Metro Technology Centers campuses, public records show.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
When a tropical storm hit the East Coast last Friday, Oklahomans who didn’t see a drop of rain still woke up to air quality alerts. OU air quality researcher Xiao-Ming Hu wasn’t surprised — it’s what his research predicts. Hu studies how Atlantic storms push ozone pollutants from northeastern coal-burning power plants across the country and into Oklahoma City. The more coal that burns, the worse the effect.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
A majority of Oklahoma’s Statewide Charter School Board voted Monday to approve the Ben Gamla Jewish online charter school. It didn’t matter — the 4-3 vote fell one short of the five needed for authorization, with one member absent and one seat vacant. Jennifer Palmer reports that the rejection could put the board in contempt of a Sept. 24 federal court order that blocked the state from excluding a charter school solely on religious grounds.
OKLAHOMA WATCH: Voter Portal fails on deadline day, leaving Oklahomans unable to register for November election
Oklahomans who waited until the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election hit a brick wall at the state election board Friday, where the voter portal wasn’t working. That left would-be voters with few options, except downloading and printing a form and getting it to a post office before closing time to meet the deadline with an Oct. 9 postmark.
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Oklahoma's online voter registration portal failed on the last day to register for the November 3 general election, leaving would-be voters scrambling to print forms and reach a post office
Oklahoma’s voter registration portal failed on the last day to register
Politics and Government Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Xcaret Nuñez / OPMX Voters cast their ballots at St. Luke's Methodist Church in Oklahoma City. Oklahomans who waited until the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election hit a brick wall at the state election board Friday, where the voter portal wasn’t working. That left would-be voters with few options, except downloading and printing a form and getting it to a post office before closing time to meet the deadline with an Oct.
Voter portal fails on deadline day, leaving Oklahomans unable to register for November election
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Voter Portal Fails on Deadline Day, Leaving Oklahomans Unable to Register for November Election
OKLAHOMA - Oklahomans who waited until the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election hit a brick wall at the state election board Friday, where the voter portal wasn’t working. That left would-be voters with few options, except downloading and printing a form and getting it to a post office before closing time to meet the deadline with an Oct. 9 postmark. Oklahoma Watch tested the system after the Democratic Party office reported receiving about 20 calls from frustrated Oklahomans.
Ted Streuli, Oklahoma Watch
Ted Streuli, Oklahoma Watch
Voter Portal Fails on Deadline Day, Leaving Oklahomans Unable to Register for November Election
Oklahomans who waited until the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election hit a brick wall at the state election board Friday, where the voter portal wasn’t working. That left would-be voters with few options, except downloading and printing a form and getting it to a post office before closing time to meet the deadline with an Oct. 9 postmark. Oklahoma Watch tested the system after the Democratic Party office reported receiving about 20 calls from frustrated Oklahomans.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Epic Charter Schools Superintendent Shaun Ross described the challenge plainly: it feels like building the airplane while it’s flying. Oklahoma’s largest online school implemented an AI policy this summer allowing students to use AI for brainstorming and editing, but not for comprehension or research. Hundreds of other Oklahoma districts are doing the same, required by state law to have policies in place by next school year.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
In February 2021, natural gas prices at regional trading hubs used by Oklahoma utilities soared to more than $1,200 per thousand cubic feet during Winter Storm Uri — up from less than $3 in the weeks before. Oklahoma ratepayers are still paying the bill, between $5 and $15 per month in storm-related charges for the next two decades. Two recent court decisions have put the lawsuit seeking to recover some of that money back on track.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Sand Springs Fire Marshal Mike Nobles told the owner of Solos Extracts to shut down his marijuana processing booth in January because of an outdated sprinkler system. At 1 a.m. on August 27, the facility exploded and destroyed the building, killing two employees. Nobles had no reason to believe anyone was still operating there.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Mary Baerg’s adoptive parents sent her to New Lifehouse Academy in rural Delaware County after a suicide attempt, believing she would get the mental health support she needed. Baerg said she found something else: rigid discipline, food restriction, physical restraint and a teacher who she says made inappropriate sexual advances that staff dismissed.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
A constituent kept calling Sen. Julia Kirt about the house next door — boarded up for more than a decade, squatters coming and going, police and fire responding repeatedly. Kirt started researching land banks. As Jake Ramsey reported, Kirt held a Senate interim study on September 15 after her land bank bill died in committee this spring without a vote.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Messiah Shanks was watching a movie on his tablet when he heard it — punches echoing through the pod, a man groaning. He moved to the door of his cell on the 12th floor of the Oklahoma County Detention Center and picked up the emergency phone. It was 1:30 a.m. As Jennifer Palmer and Brenna Witchey reported, Shanks called four times over the next 45 minutes while Clinton Pike was beaten to death two cells away.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
In April, a judge ruled sufficient evidence existed to send Epic Charter Schools co-founders David Chaney and Ben Harris to trial. A June arraignment was agreed upon. Then their defense attorneys argued it was scheduled too late under state law. The arraignment hasn’t happened yet.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Only 4% of tenants in the United States are represented by an attorney in eviction proceedings. Eighty-four percent of landlords are. On September 16, Tulsa’s City Council voted unanimously to start closing that gap. As Jake Ramsey reported, the council passed a resolution to develop a right-to-counsel program providing legal representation to low-income tenants and landlords navigating eviction court without attorneys.
Staffing Problems Stall Federal Investigations of Missing and Killed Native People
Peter Martin went missing two years ago from the Fond du Lac reservation in Minnesota. His family hasn’t stopped looking, but they say the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs investigation into Martin’s disappearance has stalled since the agent assigned to the case left the role in early 2025. “They’ve never had a person take his space for this region and yeah, we haven’t heard from them since,” said family friend Kayla Jackson.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
When a student’s address shows up in an eviction court filing, Tulsa Public Schools sends the family an email offering help. It sounds simple. In practice, it is anything but. As Linda Jacobson reported for The 74, Tulsa has one of the highest eviction rates in the country — roughly 13% and rising — with landlords filing eviction cases last school year affecting more than 600 students in the district.
Staffing Problems Stall Federal Investigations of Missing and Killed Native People
Peter Martin went missing two years ago from the Fond du Lac reservation in Minnesota. His family hasn’t stopped looking, but they say the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs investigation into Martin’s disappearance has stalled since the agent assigned to the case left the role in early 2025. “They’ve never had a person take his space for this region and yeah, we haven’t heard from them since,” said family friend Kayla Jackson.
Evicted Students Miss Class and Fall Behind. Tulsa Schools Want to Change That.
With her long, wavy hair pulled back in a ponytail, the young mom sat alone outside courtroom 6 at the Tulsa County Family Center for Juvenile Justice in early May, checking her phone and anxiously waiting for a court official to call her name for an eviction hearing. “I’ve never been through this,” Courtney said. Her two kids, ages 5 and 6, were staying with her mother out of town while she tried to catch up on rent or find another place to live.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Bart Perrier walked into his first day as Osage County sheriff in 2025 and spent the next several months with his mouth open. An audit found 796 unaccounted-for items left behind by his predecessor, including 17 vehicles, 27 guns, 16 Flock cameras and 20 Tasers. The evidence locker had multiple master keys, making it effectively uncontrolled. As Brenna Witchey reported, Osage County is an extreme case, but not an isolated one.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Oklahoma State University President Jim Hess went public Monday with a vision he has been quietly working toward for years: merging Tulsa Community College into OSU to create a single institution where Tulsa students can begin and finish a degree under one roof.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
In early July, Congress passed the largest housing affordability bill in decades with broad bipartisan support. Oklahoma advocates are still waiting to see if it helps the people who need it most. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act includes 59 provisions aimed at increasing the nation’s housing supply and making homeownership more accessible.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Wiley Post near the Capitol (Oklahoma Historical Society) Most public school leaders want nothing to do with vouchers. A new federal program is testing whether that changes when the money is on their side of the table — and whether the infrastructure meant to govern it can be trusted. As Jennifer Palmer reported, the Education Choice for Children Act, part of Trump’s tax bill, authorizes 100% tax credits for donations of up to $1,700 to scholarship-granting organizations beginning in 2027.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Katrina Harris has a doctorate in pharmacy and a six-figure salary. She picks up contract work on the side to afford her student loan payments. When the SAVE plan — until recently the most affordable federal income-driven repayment option — began being phased out, she enrolled in a different income-based plan. After recertifying her income, her monthly payment tripled from $350 to $950.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Oklahoma’s only public liberal arts college is in open conflict with its administration, with USAO faculty voting overwhelmingly to declare no confidence in President Kayla Hale and Vice President for Academic Affairs Makenna Garrison just days before the Board of Regents is set to consider a sweeping set of proposed policy changes. As Andrea Eger reported, the Sept.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Four Enid natives announced plans Tuesday for Project Thunderbird, a proposed data center and power-generation campus that would span about 1,735 acres across four sites in Enid and Garfield County. By afternoon, the community response on social media was running heavily against the project.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Oklahoma’s new law requiring proxy advisory firms to justify recommendations against company management on shareholder votes hasn’t taken effect yet, but it already has a federal lawsuit against it. As Paul Monies reported, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. filed suit over House Bill 4429, which Gov. Kevin Stitt signed in May and takes effect November 1.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
When Stillwater declared Remington Ranch a public nuisance and sued Vesta Realty in February, tenant advocates called it a creative solution and urged other cities to follow suit. Seven months later, the case is at a standstill — frozen by the same competing bankruptcy proceedings that have paralyzed Vesta’s entire portfolio. As Jake Ramsey reported, the legal complexity has left tenants at Remington Ranch stuck in conditions the city has already declared uninhabitable.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Terri Jo Littau, Woodward When East Central University in Ada searched for a computer science faculty member this year, its top candidate said no. The reason was simple: no tenure track. The university hired a second-choice candidate instead. Two other positions in history and criminal justice remain unfilled after higher-than-normal candidate withdrawals. As Andrea Eger reported, the losses at ECU are among the first concrete consequences of Gov.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
On the day Cathy Lamb walked out of Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, she raised her hands toward the sky and thanked God. She was 74, in a wheelchair, and had spent more than three decades in prison for a killing she said was self-defense. Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted her sentence in 2025 after her story re-emerged in the news. As Elizabeth Caldwell reported, freedom was only the beginning of Lamb’s troubles.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
The board that oversees Oklahoma’s $2 billion Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust voted 3-1 in February to adopt a policy rating investment managers on something called the Oklahoma Values Alignment Assessment. Board member John Waldo voted no — and then hired former Attorney General Mike Hunter to determine whether the policy is legal.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Shelli Markcum was almost suicidal when she arrived in Norman. She saw a bus picking people up from the homeless shelter to go work, asked what it was and signed up. A Better Way gave her something productive to do, connected her with services, and helped her find her way to a sober living home and part-time employment. “It literally saved my life,” Markcum said.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Ryan Walters left Oklahoma’s state superintendent office last year weeks after a nude scene from a 1985 Jackie Chan movie played during a school board meeting. He landed at the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a Virginia-based nonprofit he now heads, with the stated mission of building an army of teachers to defeat the teachers’ unions once and for all. Micah Cash, a Tulsa Public Schools teacher, decided to find out what that meant in practice.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Oklahoma State Auditor Cyndi Byrd released her annual federal audit Monday, flagging nearly $25 million in questioned costs — expenditures that do not comply with law, lack documentation or appear unreasonable — across three state agencies. While that is a dramatic decrease from $93 million in fiscal year 2023, the federal government can still demand a refund of every questioned dollar. As Brenna Witchey reported, the Department of Human Services accounts for $14.8 million of the questioned costs.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
When Steve Wilbanks spoke to reporters in late July, it had been six weeks since he stopped working in a prison call center at the James Crabtree Correctional Center in Helena, placing calls on behalf of insurance companies and political campaigns. He had been a producer, he said. He left because the nature of the calls unsettled him.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
New York Times technology reporter Natasha Singer spent years interviewing more than 100 education and tech industry figures and reviewing hundreds of school and corporate documents for her new book, “Coding Kids: Big Tech’s Battle to Remake Public Schools.” Her conclusion: Google, Microsoft, Apple and their peers have used free devices, sponsored teacher training and corporate-funded curricula to shape American public schools in ways that serve industry interests more than students.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
More than $13 million has been spent on Oklahoma’s August 25 runoff since July 1, most of it aimed at the Republican governor’s race between Gentner Drummond and Mike Mazzei. Several of the advertisements making the rounds contain claims worth scrutinizing. As Keaton Ross reported, a Virginia-based super PAC called Put Oklahoma 1st has spent at least $2.6 million on ads claiming Mazzei supported more than $500 million in new taxes.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Fact-Checking the Franklin-Taylor Superintendent Runoff Debate Robert Franklin and James Taylor debated on News 9 and News on 6 on Monday night ahead of the August 25 Republican state superintendent runoff. The candidates sparred over literacy reform, private school vouchers, religion in public schools and their personal records. Oklahoma Watch reviewed the major claims. On the Mississippi Miracle, Taylor said Mississippi simply did what Oklahoma initially started. That overstates it.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Oklahoma’s New Drug Prevention Initiative Is Free. Finding Someone to Teach It Is the Hard Part. High schoolers in the 1980s were told to just say no to drugs. Studies show it didn’t work. Oklahoma’s attorney general is trying something different. Brenna Witchey reports that on July 8, the Office of Attorney General Gentner Drummond invited school districts to participate in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program at no cost through a new initiative called READY, funded by opioid abatement grants.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Your Electric Bill Is Higher. Here’s Why It’s More Complicated Than Data Centers. Oklahomans are opening their electric bills to sticker shock this summer, and the instinct to blame data centers is understandable. But state lawmakers and regulators say the full picture is more complicated. As Andrea Eger reported, a Tulsa town hall Thursday hosted by Rep. Meloyde Blancett drew constituents frustrated with rising bills and looking for answers.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Oklahoma City Opens $116 Million Capitol Hill High School. Students Can’t Believe It’s Theirs. Students walking through Oklahoma City’s new Capitol Hill High School Tuesday were in disbelief, Principal Shari Gateley said. The three-story, 292,000-square-foot campus — funded by a nearly $1 billion school bond voters approved in 2022 — opened to a school where 99% of students are economically disadvantaged and half are English-language learners.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Oklahoma Tenants Living Without AC and Power Have Almost No Legal Recourse Dawn Deschler has lived in her Tulsa apartment for more than a year and a half. The air conditioning has never worked. Anna Little Raven Chaney, 68, had her water cut off in July, then her electricity — taking the air conditioning with it. Now she is without hot water. Her daughter, in the same complex, also has no air conditioning.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Oklahoma Tribe’s Harrah’s Deal Is in Limbo While the Federal Gaming Regulator Sits Empty On opening day at the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma’s new Harrah’s-branded casino in Chandler, the parking lot overflowed. Chairman Jacob Keyes watched customers pack the floor and turned people away. The Harrah’s name was working exactly as planned. The management deal behind it was not.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
The State’s Felony Murder Rule Can Send a 13-Year-Old to Prison for Life. Oklahomans Disagree About Whether That’s Right. Aaron McNulty was a high school student when he brought his mother the oxycodone pills she asked him for, pills he said he got from other kids at school. She died. Oklahoma charged him with felony murder. He spent years facing a potential life sentence before charges were eventually dropped.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Stitt Makes Oklahoma’s Case on Housing, AI and Federalism in NBC Forum Gov. Kevin Stitt took Oklahoma’s policy positions to a national audience this week, joining Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer on NBC’s Common Ground for a wide-ranging conversation on housing affordability, workforce development, artificial intelligence and health care.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Vesta Realty’s Legal Collapse Has Left Tulsa Tenants With No Idea Who to Pay Rent is due, and Tulsa’s Vesta Realty tenants don’t know who to send it to. Jake Ramsey reports that more than 85 tenants packed into a southeast Tulsa community center July 30 for a city council resource session meant to answer basic questions about who manages their apartments after a court order transferred management of 10 complexes from Vesta to a company called YSA Investments 1.
First Watch: Stuff You Should Know
Oklahoma’s Elite State Boarding School Has No Title IX Protections. A Resigning Administrator Called It a Crisis.
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