What’s happening, Oklahoma? Here’s your ‘Opening Act’ this morning:

1. Thousands gathered to pay tribute to Charlie Kirk.
Here’s a link to re-watch the service.
2. Severe weather is possible tonight.
3. There was travel chaos this weekend. Here’s the cause.
4. Sooners beat Auburn 24-17 but not without controversy.
5. OU moves all the way up to No. 7 in the polls.
6. Oklahoma State fell to Tulsa on Friday night, 19-12.
7. Is Mike Gundy done in Stillwater? Here’s his buyout situation.
8. Stock futures unchanged as of Sunday night.
9. Farmers say trade war could lead to “grim consequences.”
10. Oklahoma weekly events calendar from ‘Oklahoma Today.’
11. Season 3 of ‘Tulsa King’ has been released.

Be sure to follow ‘Oklahoma Memo’ on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. There is also a YouTube channel — and it’s all growing day by day.

You can message me anytime at [email protected].

Weather Update 🌩️

We’re getting into our fall severe weather season, and tonight’s threat could include tornadoes — especially in western, northern and parts of central Oklahoma.

🌡️ Monday's high in OKC 87°
🌡️ Monday’s high in Tulsa 84°

Oklahoma marijuana farms pose a threat to national security, officials tell Congress

By Garrett Yalch, The Frontier
Click here to read the story
Donate to The Frontier

The head of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs told a congressional subcommittee Thursday that illicit marijuana farms run by Chinese organized crime have overrun the state and pose risks to U.S. military installations. 

Director Donnie Anderson said the scale of the problem is unlike anything he’s seen in his 34-year career. He testified that the value of Oklahoma’s illicit marijuana exports was around $153 billion last year, a figure derived from state data. Oklahoma also accounted for 66% of the DEA’s nationwide marijuana seizures in 2024, compared to just 15% in California, 3% in Maine, and smaller shares in other states, according to a recent report. 

Anderson added that investigators have found foreign-run farms worryingly close to critical infrastructure. He said the Department of Defense is investigating “suspicious activity” at a marijuana farm run by Chinese nationals near a U.S. military ammunition plant in McAlester that manufactures advanced weapons and houses about one-third of the nation’s ammunition stockpile. 

The rampant exploitation of immigrant workers in the industry was another theme in his testimony.

At the hearing, witnesses and Democratic and Republican lawmakers called for the federal government to take stronger action against illicit marijuana farms — operations that have spread nationwide and have been found in large numbers in Oklahoma. 

The two-hour session was led by Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Oklahoma, who chairs the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

“We are holding this hearing today because we’ve enabled these foreign organizations with potential links to the Chinese government to build up a sophisticated network throughout the United States,” Brecheen said at the hearing. The groups operate “at scale and with sophistication, crossing state and national lines, beyond the normal capabilities state and local law enforcement can combat,” he said.

Several witnesses and lawmakers cited reporting last year by The Frontier and ProPublica that revealed how Chinese criminal groups took advantage of weak laws in Oklahoma to dominate the global black market for marijuana. The reporting also documented the groups’ use of forced labor and their ties to the Chinese state.

Click here to finish the story

Oklahoma treasurer pushes values test for tobacco endowment managers 

By Paul Monies, Oklahoma Watch
Click here to read the story
Donate to Oklahoma Watch

A new investment consultant for the trust managing Oklahoma’s tobacco settlement is using the corporate ratings of a private, conservative nonprofit to determine if the $2 billion trust’s investments conform to Oklahoma values. 

The TSET Board of Investors hired Colorado-based Innovest this year, dumping longtime investment manager NEPC after a request for proposals. Board Chairman and Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ directed Innovest to review each of the trust’s 20 investment managers in what it’s calling an Oklahoma Values Alignment Assessment. 

Russ said he doesn’t want the TSET trust paying fees to investment managers who don’t align with the Oklahoma economy or the state’s values. The effort goes beyond what TSET board investors have typically looked at when evaluating the effectiveness of investment managers for the trust fund. It’s another example of Russ bringing so-called culture-war issues into investment decisions on behalf of the state. 

Innovest said it was using the corporate ratings of the conservative nonprofit 1792 Exchange to evaluate the TSET investment managers in the values report. Innovest presented preliminary findings at an Aug. 20 board meeting and said it would complete the review when the board next meets in November. 

The 1792 Exchange formed in 2021 and said it partners with “leaders and organizations countering ‘woke capitalism’ and with organizations vulnerable to corporations using their size and influence to stifle speech or deny services.” Daniel Cameron, a former Kentucky Republican attorney general who is now running for U.S. Senate, leads the nonprofit. 

The nonprofit developed several databases of corporate policies. It grades companies and their boards based on whether it thinks the policies go beyond typical financial metrics. Its Corporate Bias Ratings database has more than two dozen companies based in Oklahoma.  

Click here to finish the story

Would you like to be here? 💰

If you’d like to advertise in the Oklahoma Memo newsletter daily, reach out to me at [email protected]. I’d be happy to send you a rate card with all sorts of options.

There will be 3 spots available for ads in the newsletter:

• A top-of-the-newsletter ad. Primo real estate. Banner image, 2-3 sentences with a call-to-action and a link.

• This space here. One photo or image, one paragraph, a call-to-action and a link.

• A bottom of the newsletter ad. This one is for bargain hunters. Banner image, 2-3 sentences with a call-to action and a link.

I will also offer one-time story placement, branded clearly as sponsored content. Keep it to 250 words or thereabouts with an image and a call-to-action. There are also opportunities on other platforms for us to work together.

Monthly contracts available, and I can be super flexible to make the partnership meet your business needs.

The Oklahoma Rundown 📰

A hand-curated list of the best journalism from across the state:

• Brett James, Oklahoma songwriter of massive country hits, dies in plane crash at 57 (KOSU)

• OKC is getting a new $220M pediatric heart center. Here's what to know. (The Oklahoman)

• Presbyterian Health Foundation donates $20 million toward new Oklahoma Children's OU Health Heart Center (KGOU)

• 'I need her, her son needs her': Woman loses limbs after Okmulgee dog attack (News On 6)

• Muscogee Nation election results: Freeman defeated, return to in-district voting approved (NonDoc)

• An associate of 'Tiger King' Joe Exotic dies in tiger 'accident': Here's what we know (The Oklahoman)

• State lawmakers ask Trump administration to end its review of state regs (Oklahoma Voice)

• Board recommends 17.58% pay hike for Oklahoma judges (Oklahoma Voice)

• Guthrie Public Schools students and staff injured in head-On collision returning from OSU game (Guthrie News Page)

• Matthew McConaughey debuts new book at Tulsa event with Zach Bryan (Tulsa World)

• Kristin Chenoweth speaks out after Charlie Kirk comments spark outrage (The Oklahoman)

• Dickson Police release new details about gun found on campus, rumored threats (KXII)

• Cherokee vets take part in ‘healing’ trip to D.C. (Cherokee Phoenix)

• Southern Oklahoma hospital opens temporary emergency room more than a year after tornado (KOSU)

• Original 'Your Vote Counts' Panelist and former Rep. Richard Morrissette passes away at 69 (News 9)

• Bill Haisten: As OSU hits rock bottom, issues include Gundy's plan (Tulsa World)

• Midtown OKC gains restaurants and a bakery, but loses new country bar (The Oklahoman)

• Philbrook Museum in bloom with show by iconic Tulsa painter (Public Radio Tulsa)

• Elk City legislator elected leader of international energy group (OK Energy Today)

• First Americans Museum debuts 'pop-up-book' kid-friendly center in Oklahoma City (KOSU)

Encore: We can’t end ‘cancel culture’ by creating more ‘cancel culture’

This isn’t about Jimmy Kimmel or Charlie Kirk per se.

This is about an era that needs to come to an end once and for all, and the mentality that accompanies it.

We can’t fight ‘cancel culture’ by creating more ‘cancel culture,’ and we especially cannot allow it to happen at the influence of the federal government, something called jawboning.

Yes, speech can have consequences, but there is a massive difference between citizens making that decision organically and the government having any influence over it as they did over Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension — a move (depending on what becomes of Kimmel’s ultimate corporate fate) that could absolutely result in Sinclair, Nexstar and Disney at the back end of a $1 billion-plus lawsuit, which they will likely lose because of the careless words of FCC chairman Brendan Carr.

Sen. Ted Cruz voiced the obvious concern: what the federal government under President Trump is doing can and may be done under a future Democrat president. Sen. Rand Paul argued on ‘Meet The Press’ this week that President Biden jawboned Facebook and other social platforms into censoring themselves during the pandemic under threat of protection removal.

But I’m talking about a broader mentality, the idea that when somebody says something we don’t like that they need to lose their livelihood. There’s something about that idea that strikes me as unAmerican and, frankly, a little gross.

No, I’m not talking about the Dixie Chicks. They didn’t lose their livelihood. They lost country radio airplay for a big chunk of time at the insistence of a really angry country music public.

But Joe or Jane Average?

That can’t be what this becomes.

I’m not so sure some enterprising union organizer shouldn’t be fighting for legal protections for employee speech, especially political speech outside of work. Your employer can fire you for saying anything they don’t like so long as what you’re saying couldn’t be considered a criticism of the business such as working conditions or wages.

That’s a sucker’s deal for workers, especially in an era when — as Charlie Kirk would have asserted — we need more political speech, not less.

And we can’t navigate a world in which there isn’t allowed any gray area in the form of context. The pushback against Oklahoma legend Kristin Chenoweth is especially upsetting, in my opinion, given the way she’s lived her life as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.

We’re allowed to have complicated opinions without fear of repercussion, or maybe we should just exist in a world where none of us ever expresses them.

Also, we have some responsibility to ourselves to protect our mentals from provocation.

One of my favorite new responses to anybody trying to pick an argument with me is, “I don’t have an opinion about that.”

I’ve made it a point over the past couple of months to hide or unfollow (but not ‘unfriend’ or otherwise publicly rebuke or reject) folks on all platforms who share takes that I find either offensive or borderline. To be clear, much of what Kirk said publicly, on the record, wasn’t just political opinion.

It was offensive.

That should be an opinion I can express safely while at the same time also saying that what happened to him was beyond awful, and that I have deep sympathy for his wife and kiddos.

We’re smarter than this.

We’re better than this.

Regular folks can get together and decide to boycott whoever they’d like. That’s the American way.

But the minute that government and this new corporate oligarchy is leading the ‘cancel culture’ charge, it becomes a massive, potentially existential problem for this nation.

Message ‘Oklahoma Memo’ at [email protected].

Oklahoma Memo’s Mission

The ‘Oklahoma Memo’ mission is simple: Reignite the daily news habit by connecting Oklahomans and those who love Oklahoma to quality sources of news and vetted information.

✅ Save you time.
✅ Make you smarter.
✅ Protect Democracy.