by Casey Holcomb

Norman is a growing city. In the past 20 years the population has increased more than 30 percent, to about 106 thousand people today. This growth potentially brings many benefits to Norman. When handled wisely, an expanding labor market and higher demands for goods and services can contribute to the prosperity of all of us…

• Juvenile detention agency may have furloughs
• Mint excludes Survivor Tree from Oklahoma quarter
• Oklahoma County officials defend staff raises
• Oklahoma bankruptcies up almost 30 percent from last year
• Mercury Marine will pay back Oklahoma tax incentives
• Edmond preacher gets rich mixing faith and financial advice
• Over $100k in fines to Oklahoma Ethics Commission going unpaid
• [Video] Oklahoma’s second ‘Gold Standard’ green home nearing completion

• OK Policy Blog: Taking on tax incentives
• The Lost Ogle: Sally Kern and politics in the classroom
• Okie Funk: Why we need economic diversity
• An Elegy for the Factory Job: Mr. Nguyen
• BatesLine: Running for mayor — The $50 meal ticket
• A Downtown on the Range: Oklahoma River master plan…a must see video
• Dustbury: Resizing the House

From The Journal Record:

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has joined the attorneys general of 23 other states to support creation of a federal consumer financial protection agency.

Edmondson said the new entity should oversee large financial institutions, not local banks.

“Local Oklahoma banks did not cause the financial collapse and should not be subjected to the additional burdens imposed on the institutions who played with fire and ended up getting burned,” the attorney general said.

Read the rest.

From NewsOK:

Oklahoma’s relatively healthy economy and resilient housing market landed it in the No. 2 spot among the states for home value appreciation in the second quarter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported Tuesday.

The Sooner State saw home values tick up 0.94 percent, between June 2008 and June 2009, the agency reported in its Purchase-Only House Price Index. Only North Dakota homes saw greater appreciation during the period, 2.82 percent, the agency reported.

Read the rest.

From NewsOK:

Oklahoma’s jobless rate continued to inch up in July, rising to 6.5 from 6.4 percent for the month of June, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission reported Friday.

Compared with July 2008, the state’s seasonally adjusted rate rose by 2.6 percentage points, the commission said. Seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment grew by 6,400 jobs during the month, although since July of last year, the state lost 33,700 jobs.

Read the rest.