By Andy and Renie Bowman Comments to: andybowman839@gmail.com Coffeetimecolumn.com Some years, and quite a few Coffeetime Columns ago, we wrote an article called Hellion Alert. It was about Andy recounting a true incident of eating lunch in a restaurant where a small, undisciplined child was wreaking havoc while the mother ignored it all.

Even in the midst of national press scandals and more political (and agency) corruption than American citizens can get their arms around, America’s future is still bright and can be the city on a hill that so much of the world seeks to relish.

I wanted to inform District 19 on one of the latest controversies that I find myself in. I have been receiving negative news coverage over my role in Senate Bill 2. I managed to get an education bill placed in the committee I chair, which is Criminal Justice and Corrections. We substituted language in the bill to require the state to use the sex reported on the original birth certificate to determine male or female gender, for sports participation. Simply put: biological males will play biological males on male sports teams, and biological females will play on female teams. I have been questioned why this bill was allowed in Criminal Justice and Corrections. I have explained that this issue directly affects corrections, as presently it is my understanding that another state has 21 cases of men who are claiming transgender status and are requesting to be moved to a female prison. Anyone with logic should see this a recipe for disaster.

This past week the Dogwood have made their presence known in Southeast Oklahoma, and when we see the muscadine break bud, we know the chances of a late frost grow less probable. It’s a pretty time of the year and the perfect antidote for one of the worst cases of cabin fever most have had to endure for decades...

We’ve finally reached the final committee deadline of this legislative session. It’s been fast and furious, but April 8 was the deadline to hear House bills that were approved in their chamber in our Senate committees. They sent about 400 bills to our chamber, and we approved just over 300 of them. We’ll now turn our focus on hearing these bills on the Senate floor. We must finish this work by April 22.

Senate Bill 3, which was sponsored in the House by State Representative Justin Humphrey, proposes to give law enforcement officers access to telemedicine so they can seek an online professional assessment of individuals who may be going through a mental health crissis. The bill also supports the transfer of the individual to a mental health care center when appropriate.

How many times do you need for someone to look you straight in the eye and lie to you before you come to the conclusions that not only can they not be believed, but that they have some major character issues?