Tuesday, February 10, 2026 • Cloudy but cooler. Low-to-mid 60s. ☁️

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By Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
Click here to support their newsroom.

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma state board on Monday rejected a proposal to open a Jewish charter school, likely restarting a legal fight over public funding of religious education.

Members of the Statewide Charter School Board, though complimentary of the school’s academic prowess, said they are obligated to obey an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that rejected the concept of a state-funded religious school. The same board had supported opening a Catholic charter school in recent years, but a deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court allowed the state Court decision against it to stand.

The board and the Jewish charter school’s founders are now preparing for another protracted legal battle. After unanimously rejecting the school, the board voted to seek out private attorneys to handle expected litigation.

“I would be shocked if there’s not a lawsuit filed by Friday,” board Chairperson Brian Shellem said. 

The anticipated case taps into church-state separation concerns that underscored the Catholic charter school dispute.

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

• Expand Energy to move corporate headquarters from Oklahoma City to Houston (News 9)

• Former city attorney alleges 'nefarious' scheme to keep money OKC police seized (The Oklahoman)*

• Fired employees hit OK County jail, trust with whistleblower lawsuit (The Oklahoman)*

• OKC Mayor David Holt discusses his re-election campaign, city infrastructure goals (KOSU)

• Election Preview: Races on the ballot for Feb. 10 in eastern Oklahoma (News On 6)

• Southern Oklahoma Election Day: School bonds, city council races on Tuesday ballots (KXII)

• Data center gets city leaders discussing how sound nuisance violations are assessed (Tulsa World)*

• Bill raising cap on private school tax credits gets House committee's OK (Tulsa World)*

• Senate Energy Committee advances $50 million water infrastructure bill, low-interest loan program (KOSU)

• From the emergency room to your living room: St. Francis launches new at-home care program (Tulsa Flyer)*

• An asylum seeker was thriving in Oklahoma. Then, an ICE detention led him to self-deport. (Oklahoma Voice)

• States, including Oklahoma, move to ban NDAs that silence survivors of child sexual abuse (Oklahoma Voice)

• Tonkawa School staff member accused of slapping a student faces an assault charge (Kay News Cow)

• Tulsa launches website to track progress on ending homelessness as more encampments close (Public Radio Tulsa)

• Bill to protect Oklahoma worship services becomes law (Oklahoma Voice)

• 7-year-old Eufaula girl saves mother’s life after medical emergency on I-40 (News On 6)

• 'Constructive' year ahead for Wagoner development, improvements (2 News Oklahoma)

• 4 people taken into custody after disturbance, standoff in southwest OKC (KOCO)

• Incident at Valero refinery in Ardmore (KTEN)

• Former Caddo Nation employee pleads guilty to embezzling from the tribe (KOSU)

• Lawton man accused of casting first, second stone at the same church (The Lawton Constitution)

• Elgin City Council to consider censuring Mayor Francais (KSWO)

• Oklahoma panel passes measure to ban lab-grown meat (Oklahoma Voice)

• Bumping bass, bucking bulls: A night at Tulsa’s Black rodeo (The Oklahoma Eagle)

By J.C. Hallman, Oklahoma Watch
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Karen Powers lived and breathed State Farm, even as she waged a decades-long battle with cancer.

“She did love State Farm,” said Cody Powers, her son.

Cody Powers said that his mother wore State Farm sweatshirts and T-shirts and entered every promotion the company offered. The family still had two pedal cars that Karen Powers won in a contest, and she purchased many of the diecast model cars that have long been core to the State Farm brand.

“To me, she was State Farm,” Cody Powers said. “Everything they said they stood for, that was her.”

When a storm destroyed the roof of Karen Powers’ Yukon home, her love for State Farm was not enough to prevent the insurance giant from denying the claim. It was one of hundreds of denied roof claims in Oklahoma that have come to light since early December, when Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced an intervention in a claim that has come to represent all of them.

In most of the cases, State Farm denied policyholders who had no connection to the company beyond paying their premiums. In the case of Karen Powers, Oklahoma’s largest writer of homeowners insurance targeted one of their own.

Nevertheless, laid low by cancer and the claim battle, Karen Powers continued on in the job that had provided her with a lifelong sense of meaning and purpose. She worked on the morning of the day of her final hospital admittance.

She died in hospice, a month later.

👉 Click here for the full story.

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