Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has told her legislature that the Sooner State will face high economic hurdles in the future if it is an income-tax sandwich between Texas and Kansas.

WSJ: Laffer and Moore: The Red-State Path to Prosperity

Their crime: trying to curb the spending excesses of Sooner State politicians.

FORBES: Has North Korea Annexed Oklahoma?

"I hope that we resolve this issue sooner rather than later because the state of Illinois has some tremendous financial problems to deal with, which in my view is where we should be concentrating our focus and our time, " he said.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

What will be interesting to see now is whether Perlmutter's and colleagues' Nobel triumph provides the impetus to find the money to build WFirst sooner (one should state that Perlmutter's colleagues included many collaborators, including Europeans).

BBC: Dark discussion ahead for Europe and US

When that day comes, sooner or later, competent managers of the state will need to be found.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Reform must happen, and the sooner the better, says Ellen Hanak of the non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California, because the state's problems will only get worse with climate change.

ECONOMIST: Water in California