… cannabis operators Deep Roots Harvest in Nevada and WholesomeCo Cannabis in Utah, all through a series of all-stock transactions worth a combined …
Tag: Southwest
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Extended Studies at UNR expands cannabis education offerings with nine-week, workforce …
Extended Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno is excited to announce the expansion of its partnership with Green Flower, the leader in …
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Anti-doping watchdog urges U.S. authorities to shut down planned drug-fueled event in Las Vegas
Marijuana plants · Nevada Athletic Commission rules that marijuana possession and use will not disqualify fighters. July 7th, 2021. Show 0 Comments …
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Nevada Requires Cannabis Tax Permit for Cannabis Sellers – Daily Tax Report ®
The Nevada Governor signed a law concerning taxation. The law includes: 1) requiring sellers of cannabis or cannabis products to obtain a cannabis …
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Body and Mind Completes Nevada Cannabis Operations Divestment | BMMJ Stock News
Body and Mind concludes strategic divestment of Nevada Medical Group subsidiary, marking significant portfolio restructuring.
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Texas Voters Oppose State’s Attempt to Ban Hemp THC
The majority of Texans, regardless of political party, reject Senate Bill 3’s ban on hemp-based products, fearing it will empower drug cartels.
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End Double Duty Drawback Tax Loophole
Analysis: Oklahoma’s vast plains are home to a proud farming tradition that goes back to before the state officially joined the union, and that includes the production of tobacco. Tobacco growers and manufacturers like Xcaliber that are based in the state provide critical jobs and help strengthen our economy.
That’s why Congress needs to immediately end the double duty drawback tax loophole that’s benefiting our overseas competitors in the tobacco industry.
The double duty drawback impacts how foreign tobacco companies pay excise taxes. Normally those taxes are paid on imported goods, but the loophole has unintentionally enabled those companies to claim refunds without ever having paid the taxes in the first place. This costs taxpayers and the government about $2.2 billion per year, and in the next decade it’s estimated to cost billions more in the next decade.
It’s no surprise closing this loophole was a focus of President Trump during his first term before courts determined it would take an act of Congress to do so. Keeping it open is an insult to every Oklahoman – and American – who works hard to pay their taxes and wants to put America first.
U.S. tobacco production has decreased significantly for the last three decades. From approximately 180,000 farms devoted to tobacco growing in the 1980s, the number of farms has decreased to about 10,000 in 2012. Despite the significant decrease, the U.S. is still the fourth largest producer of tobacco leaves in the world, churning out 345,837 metric tons each year.
President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill now waits in the Senate and includes language that would finally close the double duty drawback loophole. Sens. James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin should ensure the language remains in the final bill and then vote to get it to President Trump’s desk. Oklahoma’s taxpayers have subsidized foreign companies long enough and we need our representatives in Washington to do something about it.
About the association: The Oklahoma Rural Association is dedicated to the development and advancement of policies that promote and protect the rural quality of life through enhancing rural Oklahoma communities in the areas of economic growth and development, energy, education, health and other issues impacting business and residents in communities across Oklahoma.
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Does Sup. Walters Deserve Election?
For reelection as State Superintendent of Education or as Oklahoma Governor, has Ryan Walters earned reelection or promotion? This is a critical question Oklahoma voters decide in 2026.
Ryan Walters is in a unique candidate position, specifically, running for re-election as state superintendent of instruction or candidate for governor. This begs the question, does Ryan Walters merit a second term as state superintendent of education? Does Ryan Walters deserve to become the next governor of Oklahoma? I say absolutely not!
Ryan Walters campaigned on conservative reform in Oklahoma’s public education system and says he is strongly aligned with conservative principles and emphasizes parental rights, traditional values, and a focus on core academics. On some of that, he delivers, but there is a specific issue he fails miserably.
After Ryan Walters took his Oath as state superintendent of Instruction, he selectively addressed issues he considered politically safe while willfully ignoring the most crucial issue, the illegal expansion of school-based service into K-12 Medicaid primary healthcare clinics for all students, AKA school-based health clinics (SBHC). Worse, he deliberately ignored the voices of parents, taxpayers, and the grassroots.
The groundwork for the illegal expansion of school-based services into K–12 SBHCs was established by Joy Hoffmeister, the predecessor of Superintendent Walters. This agenda was completed by Superintendent Walters in June 2025. This serves as the foundation for my belief that Ryan Walters is underserving of being elected governor or re-elected as the state superintendent of instruction.
School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs), as federally funded entities, aim to supplant the role of primary healthcare providers by implementing pre-consent protocols, which grant expansive authority to school-based medical providers to make healthcare decisions, administer treatments, and conduct testing in the absence of parental presence or immediate oversight. This practice undermines parental rights, contravenes established medical ethics, and creates a power imbalance between medical professionals and minors.
Our future workplaces, parental rights, parental authority, health, and education are all significantly harmed by SBHCs. For more information read:
The Difference Between School-Based Services and K-12 School-Based Health Centers
What Is INFORMED Parental Consent?
OK Senator Dusty Deevers on school-based health centers and legislative action
Expanding school-based health centers (SBHCs) in Oklahoma is unlawful because it conflicts with the federal law, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), violates the Oklahoma State Constitution, and Oklahoma statute Title 210. Education.
The I.D.E.A. explicitly restricts school-based services to educationally necessary related services for special education students, facilitating their access to classroom instruction and compliance with the mandate of Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), and does not extend to the provision of medical services beyond the Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
SBHCs violate the State of Oklahoma which conveys the primary purpose of public schools as being academic instruction, expressly excluding healthcare services from their purview. The inclusion of state-funded healthcare clinics on K-12 public school campuses is incongruent with this constitutional directive and constitutes an overreach beyond the intended scope of public education; and Title 210, Chapter 1, Subchapter 1 of the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s foundational values explicitly states, “academics are the primary purpose of public schools,” thereby affirming the obligation of K-12 institutions to prioritize educational objectives over ancillary functions.
The Oklahoma State Department of Education further asserts, “The ultimate responsibility of children’s education rests firmly upon the shoulders of their parents. All responsibilities of an educator and servant of public education are responsibilities delegated from these parents and guardians, and such responsibilities are to be taken with full sobriety and respect as is befitting the care and training of all children.”1 Any expansion of school-based healthcare represents a deviation from this principle and poses a potential encroachment upon the fundamental rights and responsibilities of parents.
As 2026, federal funds appropriated for the establishment of SBHCs expire, leaving financial sustainability on the state and local communities. Currently, Oklahoma is financially strained due to three Medicaid programs, specifically, the Oklahoma School Based Medicaid funds; SoonerCare, and SoonerSelect.
Let me close by stating that the reason I vehemently oppose and will campaign against Superintendent Walters running for a second term or becoming governor is because Walters has prioritized his political goals over conservative ideals, parental rights, traditional values, and academic advancement, specifically on SBHCs.
About the author: Deborah Campbell is a dedicated advocate, independent researcher, and the founder of No School-Based Health Services and Love My Liberties.
Based in Duncan, Oklahoma, Deborah is a wife, a mother of two adult children who received special education services, and a proud grandparent of six with a professional background in civil rights and special education law, Deborah has worked at the federal level with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, investigating cases of non-compliance in special education. In the private sector, she has served as a litigating paralegal in administrative hearings involving the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Additionally, she has worked as an independent contractor, assisting parents of children with disabilities in navigating special education law.
Her advocacy extends into grassroots activism, having organized multiple movements across Maryland, Florida, and Oklahoma focused on education, social, and political issues. As a special education consultant for ARC of Northern Virginia, she provided non-attorney advocacy services, educational file reviews, and professional resources for parents. Deborah’s volunteer experience includes CASA, the Oklahoma County Juvenile Bureau, and the Oklahoma City Red Cross Disaster Assessment Team. She has also served in emergency response roles, including as an EMT for the Glen Rock Fire and Ambulance in Pennsylvania and in the emergency room at Duncan Regional Hospital.
Deborah Campbell may be reached by email at [email protected] and more of her work is published on Substack here.
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How Curacao Meets Hispanic Customers’ Many Retail Needs, From Financing to Streamlined Export
Curacao is a big box-style retailer specializing in serving Hispanic consumers in California and the Southwest, but it’s more than that — mucho more. For example, the company offers credit to a population that’s often underserved by banks and other financial institutions, helping these customers build their credit history (sometimes from scratch).
Additionally, because many Curacao customers want to send products to family or friends in their home countries, the retailer has streamlined this process by stocking warehouses in several Latin American countries with furniture, appliances and even motorcycles to support fast delivery to recipients outside of the U.S.
Teylez Perez, the company’s SVP of Marketing, revealed how Curacao’s understanding of Hispanic-American culture and the specific needs of its customers has helped the retailer thrive for 45 years.
Retail TouchPoints (RTP): How does Curacao’s proprietary credit offering differentiate it from other retailers serving the Hispanic community?
Teylez Perez: That’s related to our overall goal, which is to offer access to products to improve the quality of life for families that are working really hard, encompassing home furnishings, appliances, electronics, apparel and gaming. And because we do our own credit underwriting, we can be very flexible, with different plans for different customers.
It also helps these customers build their credit — some of them haven’t had any sort of credit history — which makes them aspire to [potentially purchase] other brands from other retailers, even to buy their own homes or cars.
Offering credit grew out of when Curacao was starting out as a small operation [in the early 1980s]. Those executives understood that the customers they were attracting needed credit, so from day one Curacao was systematically learning how customers were behaving with credit. We developed this internal knowledge, which has led to an incredible database that has 10 million customers and supports our safe underwriting.
We’ve processed over 3 million credit applications and issued more than 2.3 million Curacao Credit Cards, and now we’re giving cash loans to customers [as opposed to credit for purchasing items in-store]. That’s almost unbelievable to me, that we’re saying, “Take our cash and use it for whatever you want.” But our data shows this is what our customers need.
RTP: How else has Curacao met customer needs over the years?
Perez: I’m very proud of the services we offer — for example money transfers. These are very common today, but they weren’t in the early 1980s, but, again, our people understood that it was important for the customers, so we developed our own money transfer organization, establishing relationships with a lot of banks. And we allow customers to send money using our credit card.
Curacao execs understood as well that [the customers] maintain connections with families in different places, which is why we have a whole department called “Export.” Customers can purchase furniture, appliances, even motorcycles here, and they are then delivered to friends and family in their home countries. We have products in warehouses there, so sometimes the products can be delivered the same day. It’s another service customized to the needs of our customers.
RTP: How does the in-store experience reflect Curacao’s mission?
Perez: The experience of our customers in stores goes beyond [speaking the customer’s language, literally]. It’s having an understanding of their culture, values and needs, and how they want to be treated. Many of these people are underserved, not just in retail but in many aspects of their lives, such as their jobs. We want to treat them the way they want to be treated, with care, compassion and respect, and so we give them an experience that they’re often surprised to get, along with products and services that they don’t get anywhere else. It’s also a celebration and a shared experience of who they are, because the Curacao brand is part of the community.
RTP: How does Curacao measure success?
Perez: Our company started as a small operation, and now we have 13 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada. We’ve recently opened a store in Chula Vista, Calif., which is a brand-new market for us, and a second store in Tucson, Ariz. That’s still [a small footprint] compared to big brands, but we discovered something — that shopping with us is not necessarily about convenience and nearness to consumers. We have data that our customers sometimes travel 30, 40 or 50 miles to do business with us, so we don’t need to open 100 stores in a market. We’re a destination, and it’s worth it to go all the way to [one of our stores].
RTP: What have been some of your biggest challenges in your time at Curacao?
Perez: I’ve been with the company for 15 years, and it took me a long time to change my mindset about [the products we offer]. If you look at our customers’ average household income, which can be low, how do you sell a $2,000 Apple computer to them? They don’t have the means to get it at the Apple store, and that’s a disproportional purchase for this household. Another issue is that it’s common for [companies like Apple] to assume that [Curacao] customers don’t crave their brands, but we carry the Apple products, and with the credit we offer [they’re accessible to our customers].
Another example is Tiffany. For Mother’s Day we introduced a line of Tiffany perfumes [at relatively low price points], because our customers want the best. They love the [luxury and technology] brands, and they embrace them, and they appreciate us as their way to access them. And once we give them this experience, they tell all their family and friends.
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Trump’s Federal Budget Cuts Could Boost Marijuana Legalization Efforts As States Seek …
… Nevada’s gaming and cannabis industries. The congresswoman acknowledged that the gaming sector did initially oppose the push to legalize marijuana …