Gov. Stitt – Jim Stafford's BlogOKC

Best of BlogOKC in 2025

Editor’s note: As the curtain closes on 2025, I’ve gone through everything written on BlogOKC for the past year for my annual ‘best of’ column in which I select what I consider to be the best 10 of the year. In looking at the posts, I see a trend in what appeals to me for subject matter: nostalgia. Maybe I look back too often for topics that interest me, but that’s a lot of what I write about. Enjoy the top 10:

Frank Day’s labor of love honors the dying art of quilting

Frank Day works on a hand-stitched quilt, accompanied by one of his favorite pets.

A personal favorite right at the top. I discovered that my long-time friend Frank Day from Roland, OK, has become a prolific quilter. Today Frank is 75 years old and retired after more than two decades as fleet sales manager for Fort Smith’s Randall Ford. I think he can best be described in 2025 as a one-man quilting bee. That’s right. Frank Day began hand-stitching beautiful quilts over two decades ago, and continues his quilting avocation today. Read it here.

Best of the best: Top 10 episodes of the Andy Griffith Show

Andy Griffith and Don Knotts from an episode of The Andy Griffith Show

This post is on its way to becoming one of BlogOKC’s most read posts of all time. Here’s the first few sentences: “If I look at my friend Ed and say ‘how do you do Mrs. Wiley?’ he will know exactly what I am saying. In fact, he might reply with something like ‘I would recognize that accent anywhere. It’s definitely Back Bay Boston.’ Ed and I are true geezers, which means each of us has crossed over the retirement bridge and can indulge in pasttimes as we choose. And one of those is watching the Andy Griffith Show. Read it here.

Breaking News: Grape Nehi lives in 2025!

I discovered this bottle of grape Nehi during a recent visit to an OKC Cracker Barrel store.

So that brings me to August 2025. I discovered Cracker Barrel sells grape Nehi among the many nostalgic candy and soda brands it offers. When we arrived at the store along I-35 in far north OKC, it was filled with customers, and we had about a 35-minute wait for a table. As I sauntered through the store during our wait, I stumbled upon a soda display that had a grape Nehi right in the middle. Grape Nehi lives! Read it here.

Best of Barney: Quoting the greatest sitcom character in television history

Barney consoles Andy with a heart-to-heart talk

My friend Ed Godfrey shared what he considers to be the best 10 Barney Fife lines from the old Andy Griffith show. Here’s how he started the post. “The best sitcom character in the history of television is Barney Fife, played by the great Don Knotts. I’m sorry, if you don’t agree, you’re wrong.” Read it here.

Theodora’s Elegante Wigs thrives amid generational ch-ch-changes

Linda (Faubus) Lewis is surrounded by wig-covered mannequin heads at her Theodora’s Elegante Wigs shop.

Another personal favorite because it reaches way back to my high school days. “When I saw the ‘Theodora’s Wigs” sign as I was driving past in Fort Smith, Ark., this week, it took me back more than 55 years into an earlier life. So, I veered off Towson Ave., into the Phoenix retail center lot and parked outside the wig shop. Read it here

Meet the International Man of Mystery from Stigler, OK

Hershel Prentice at recent OKC Thunder game

If you ask Stigler, OK, native Hershel Prentice where in the world he’s been lately, he’ll gladly tell you. Dubai? Check. Oman? Check? Poland? Check. Austria? Check. Germany? Check, Newfoundland? Check? Labrador? Check. Check. Check. Whew! And that’s just this year. Read it here.

Gov. Stitt, let’s value lives over dollars

I don’t often take a political position in this blog, but when Gov. Stitt vetoed legislation that expands access for women to imaging technology that can detect breast cancer, I had to speak up. I called my legislators urging them to help overturn Gov. Stitt’s veto of legislation that expands access for women to imaging technology that can detect breast cancer. My wife, Paula, a breast cancer survivor, called our legislators, as well. Then I published this post. Read it here.

Customer service, without the ‘service’

More BlogOKC advocacy from a January post: Call me an entitled American, if you like, but there seems to be a wide gulf these days between the words “customer” and “service” in our society. I’m talking about when you call the “customer service” line of a major corporation and have to work through 15 AI bots that can’t help with any of your issues before a human finally comes on the line. Today, I’m ranting about a recent experience with the customer service department at American Airlines. (American fixed the problem after this post was published) Read it here.

Dunning-Kruger Effect: I knew it all until I realized I didn’t

When I graduated high school in 1971 — in the bottom half of my class academically — I plunged into my future thinking I pretty much knew everything I needed to know and could handle anything coming my way. However, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Read it here.

London Homesick Blues puts me back in that place
Some college nostalgia: Back to 2025. I’m not sure how or why, but I began listening to “London Homesick Blues” on replay over the course of the past couple of months. A wave of nostalgia washes over me when I hear it, and it really does take me back to that place — the ACU campus and the people with whom I shared classes and The Optimist newsroom. Read it here.

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Gov. Stitt, let’s value lives over dollars

Gov. Kevin Stitt’s Twitter/X post about his veto.

I took a step this week that I’ve never taken before. I called my legislators urging them to help overturn Gov. Stitt’s veto of legislation that expands access for women to imaging technology that can detect breast cancer.

My wife, Paula, a breast cancer survivor, called our legislators, as well.

Another first.

HB 1389, passed by big margins in both houses, would require insurance plans to cover not only mammograms, but other diagnostics such as “enhanced mammogram, breast MRI, breast ultrasound or molecular breast imaging.”

Paula and I were surprised that Oklahoma’s Governor vetoed legislation that would undoubtedly save lives because, as he said in a statement, it would result in higher health insurance premiums across Oklahoma.

Here’s the Governor’s full statement on the veto:

“I am deeply sympathetic to the women across our state who have bravely fought breast cancer. While early detection and access to care are critical priorities, this legislation imposes new and costly insurance mandates on private health plans that will ultimately raise insurance premiums for working families and small businesses.”

Here’s what I take away from the Governor’s veto:

He values dollars over lives.
He devalues the lives of women.
He demonstrates a complete lack of empathy.
He’s obviously influenced by the insurance industry.

I’m pretty sure that the price of treating an advanced breast cancer would be far more than the cost of early detection.

I’ve seen a lot of outrage on social media at Stitt’s veto, much of it by women whose lives have been upended by breast cancer — thinking of you, Savannah.

In fact, one of the authors of HB 1389, was Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, who is caught up in her own battle with breast cancer. Click here to read a story from the online news service, Oklahoma Voice, that details reactions to Stitt’s veto and efforts to override it.

Republicans and Democrats alike supported the legislation as it advanced through both legislative houses.

Of course, Stitt said on X/Twitter that he anticipates ‘spin’ on his veto. It’s not spin Governor. It’s outrage.

So, I’m urging readers of this post to pick up the phone, call your legislators and urge them support the move to override the veto. Or email. Find your local legislators and contact info through this link.

It will take a supporting vote by two-thirds of state legislators to overturn the veto, so it’s a high bar.

Remind them it’s about valuing lives of Oklahoma’s women over any added expense of diagnosing what often is a fatal disease if not detected early enough.

Take a stand.

Why the unvaccinated are taking a political stand

Unvaxxed

Back in early January of this year, I was pretty excited to snag an appointment to receive the COVID-19 vaccination at Mercy Hospital. Nimble fingers and computer savvy allowed me to find a time on the county health department website and complete the registration form before someone beat me to it.

So, I was able to secure both doses of the Pfizer vaccine before the end of January. Mercy ran the operation incredibly well and only allowed us to enter the facility within 15 minutes of our appointment.

That meant there were virtually no lines. Much appreciated, Mercy.

Similar vaccination sites were set up around the city, including a giant operation at the fairgrounds that could vaccinate hundreds at a time.

Then what happened?

Despite evidence that shows the COVID vaccines are incredibly effective, the numbers of people flocking to vaccine sites quickly dwindled. Health care providers anticipating a crush of people seeking protection from the potentially deadly COVID virus sat idly, waiting for patients who never arrived.

The need for vaccination sites that could handle hundreds at a time evaporated and most closed up shop. Now you can schedule a vaccination at your local Walgreens or CVS and have no trouble finding open time slots.

Oklahoma vaxxed I just peeked at the numbers, and while 46 percent of my fellow Oklahomans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, less than 40 percent of us have been fully vaccinated against COVID.

Those are pretty disappointing numbers, but I’m not surprised.

Just like wearing of masks over the past 15 months or so, getting the vaccine has been turned into a political statement. And we’re a Red state.

When I hear people say they don’t trust the vaccine or how it was developed, that’s not the real message I’m receiving.

To me, there’s no doubt that these are the same people who supported Donald Trump and bought into his BS about the COVID-19 pandemic being a hoax, yada, yada, yada.

Sure, there may be some people who are merely procrastinating. But when you look at maps that show low rates of vaccination, the standout states with low numbers match up pretty well with the Red states that supported Trump.

And we’re watching COVID infections rise dramatically in the Trump hotbed states like Missouri, across the South and in Oklahoma.

So, what are the implications?

Well, we’ll watch our neighbors and our elderly relatives get sick. Some will die. Even those of us who are vaccinated are at risk of infection because of our unvaccinated fellow Oklahomans.

All because of their proud vaccine resistance that has its roots in the Trump insanity.

A story in today’s edition of The Oklahoman reports a new poll that shows that the majority of unvaccinated Americans say they do not plan to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows 56.5% of Americans have gotten at least one dose, and 43.5% have not received one. Of those people, a poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 35% say they probably will not get the vaccine, and 45% say they definitely will not.”

As one who is proudly vaccinated, I reluctantly keep my mask at hand. I fear more disruptions loom in our future. All because of the unwilling who are making a political statement by shunning the vaccine.

So, what’s the point of all of my rambling?

What we’re seeing in the unvaccinated is a collective display of the Ugly American. The me-first. The selfish who would never consider doing something for the greater good.

That’s ‘merica. That’s “freedom,” as defined by Oklahoma Gov. Stitt.

Sadly, the pandemic is far from over. And it’s no fault but our own.

IMMY brings new tools to state fight against Coronavirus

OCAST interview with IMMY about COVID-19 testing from OCAST on Vimeo.

Editor’s note: I recently was invited to a virtual meeting with Sean Bauman, Ph.D., CEO of Norman’s IMMY, and facilitated by Debbie Cox of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST). This is the report I filed after the Zoom interview.

When the Coronavirus pandemic made its way to Oklahoma in March, the state’s ability to test suspected COVID-19 virus infections in Oklahomans was limited by the number of tests available to health care providers.

And when patients were tested, health care providers had to wait days for results to be returned from out-of-state laboratories.

“The turnaround time was just a big problem,” said Sean Bauman, Ph.D., president and CEO of IMMY (Immuno-Mycologics, Inc.), a diagnostic manufacturing company based in Norman. Bauman recently joined OCAST’s governing board, the Oklahoma Science and Technology Research and Development (OSTRaD) Board.

“You have a patient sitting in a hospital, and you are having to don and doff Personal Protection Equipment numerous times a day to care for that patient,” Bauman said. “And to get a COVID negative result three to five days later, you can imagine how much the wasted PPE costs.”

So, IMMY stepped up to develop a solution at its Norman laboratories. It developed and validated a nasal swab-based test known as PCR that allowed laboratories to provide results in a matter of hours.

“We dove in and literally from idea to reporting our first test result was 10 days,” Bauman said. “Crazy fast.”

But not crazy as in sloppy or low quality, Bauman clarified. IMMY was able to quickly develop its own test because it is an FDA and ISO manufacturing facility in a highly regulated industry. Its 85 employees are skilled professionals capable of overcoming challenges to develop a test to FDA standards.

“The other thing that happened, we had an incredible partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Health,” Bauman said. “They were fantastic, helped us get up-and-running as fast as we could. Just a great story of partnership.”

Gov. Stitt visits IMMY labs in Norman (photo from News9 video)

IMMY since has added a blood test for COVID-19 antibodies, which can confirm if a person has had the coronavirus and is potentially immune to further infection.

Bauman was part of Gov. Stitt’s recent press conference announcing the implementation of testing for COVID-19 antibodies. Stitt also toured IMMY’s Norman campus.

“This is actually an important test, in my opinion, because Oklahoma is now in a unique position, with both the antibodies test and the PCR test at our disposal,” he said. “So, two tools in the tool belt.”

IMMY’s tests were part of a random sampling of 1,000 Oklahomans in early April to assess how widespread the virus is across the state. The sampling revealed that approximately 1.4 percent of the Oklahoma population had the virus at that time.

So, what does that mean?

“At that point in time, I think the conclusion from the study was that COVID-19 is just not in the general population to any large extent,” he said.

Bauman recommends random sampling across the state for COVID-19 at weekly intervals.

“Now that we have these two tools at our disposal we can start to ask different questions,” he said. “When is it safe for people to go back to work? When is it safe to relax some of the restrictions on people being out and in the community? Lots of different questions are going to be ask in the coming weeks and days.”