From okdemocrat.com
Lisa Pryor will resign as the ODP chair
Between now and the general election Lisa Pryor will resign as the ODP chair.
As I have repeatedly posted here she was in the state chair position to maneuver into an elected office. She used the party and it’s contributors to better her efforts to get into an elected office.
Can’t wait for Mac Miller to say this isn’t so.
Developing…
By OMER GILLHAM
World Staff Writer
PICHER — Sam Freeman is either in trouble or one of the shrewdest men in town.
Freeman, 61, is the mayor of Picher, a small mining town at the center of the Tar Creek Superfund site in Ottawa County. He is being investigated by the state auditor and inspector for purchasing devalued land that could be sold to the government as part of a federal buyout in Tar Creek.
State Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan wants to know whether Freeman used his position as the mayor to buy Superfund land cheap in hope of selling it for a profit.
Freeman and dozens of other Tar Creek residents benefited from the authority’s sale of about 400 lots of abandoned mining land, primarily in Picher, records show. The average lot is 25 feet by 120 feet with a sale price of 3 cents a square foot, or $90 per lot.
Freeman’s son, Harold G. Freeman, bought three lots from the development authority, records show. Read more…
By OMER GILLHAM
World Staff Writer
PICHER — Sam Freeman is either in trouble or one of the shrewdest men in town.
Freeman, 61, is the mayor of Picher, a small mining town at the center of the Tar Creek Superfund site in Ottawa County. He is being investigated by the state auditor and inspector for purchasing devalued land that could be sold to the government as part of a federal buyout in Tar Creek.
State Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan wants to know whether Freeman used his position as the mayor to buy Superfund land cheap in hope of selling it for a profit.
Freeman and dozens of other Tar Creek residents benefited from the authority’s sale of about 400 lots of abandoned mining land, primarily in Picher, records show. The average lot is 25 feet by 120 feet with a sale price of 3 cents a square foot, or $90 per lot.
Freeman’s son, Harold G. Freeman, bought three lots from the development authority, records show. Read more…
From Chris Medlock’s blog Medblogged:
If a picture says a thousand words, then this photograph I took Thursday, pretty much sums up the current condition of my elective political career.
The photo is from the Creek County Landfill.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Ground was broken in Oklahoma City today for a new training center for U-S Customs and Border Protection pilots.
A 20 (m) million dollar contract was awarded last month for construction of a permanent hangar to support the National Air Training Center, a flight training and maintenance facility.
The new air training center will be located at Will Rogers World Airport. Republican Congressman Ernest Istook — who’s running for governor — obtained a total of 13 (m) million dollars for the project.
Istook says the new facility will be able to hold enough aircraft and people to meet the growing needs of Customs and Border Patrol.
The 67-thousand-500 square foot facility is scheduled to open in October 2007.
Four trips included OU football games
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Taxpayers paid for six out-of-state trips taken last year by Governor Brad Henry, including one to a Las Vegas convention for an Oklahoma-based legal firm.
The Oklahoman’s investigation of state records indicated that taxpayers spent more than 46-thousand-dollars as Henry traveled to four University of Oklahoma football games, a show in Washington and the convention in October for Ada-based Pre-Paid Legal Services.
Records show Pre-Paid Legal had contributed almost 100-thousand-dollars to Henry’s re-election campaign.
Henry, a Democrat, defended the cost of the trips, saying he was, quote, “going to work.”
He says the trips were in his official capacity as governor of the state.
Henry’s football trips last year were to O-U games against Southern California in the Orange Bowl, Texas, Nebraska and Oregon in the Holiday Bowl.
The four trips cost taxpayers about 31-thousand-dollars.
He says he tries to conduct business when he travels outside Oklahoma for games.
*Out of state travel costs for Gov. Brad Henry between August 2003 to December 2004 totaled $14,702.
From OK Blue Notes (Click image to enlarge)
Veterans Against Steve Gallo are obviously not too pleased with House District 23 candidate Steve Gallo. Maybe this is why:
From okdemocrat.com: 7/24/06
“I hear a police report is being filed at Uniform Division East against Mac-Daddy (Jason McIntosh) for stealing large 2’x4′ Connie Dodson signs. He was spotted in the act last night and later his car was found parked at Steve Gallo’s home with Dodson signs in the outdoor trash bin. Photos were taken of J-Mac’s car in the driveway and the signs in the trash bin and a report was filed with police, channel 2 and the Tulsa County Democratic Party..”
By RANDY KREHBIEL
World Staff Writer
The job had some surprises in store, say first-termers Sen. Brian Crain and Rep. Jeannie McDaniel.
Freshmen in college and freshmen in the Oklahoma Legislature have at least one thing in common.
They find out, and pretty quickly, that they don’t know as much as they thought.
Two first-term Tulsa legislators, Republican Sen. Brian Crain and Democratic Rep. Jeannie McDaniel, talked about their own learning curves Friday during a lunch presentation at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa Schusterman Center.
Rodger Randle, a former Tulsa mayor who served for 17 years in the Legislature, prefaced McDaniel’s and Crain’s remarks by saying, “For everyone who goes to the Legislature, there is some form of culture shock.”
For Crain, the biggest surprise was how few issues broke along party lines. He said he expected all Republicans to agree with him and all Democrats to disagree.
“You can find yourself having opponents in your own party, and you can find you have friends across the aisle,” he said.
“Republicans and Democrats in Oklahoma are not that far apart on day-to-day things. There are issues that will separate people . . . workers comp
reform, tort reform, pro-life issues. Those can be very divisive, but those are very rare.” Read more…
Istook, Barnett slated to speak
TULSA OK — Officials from the National Congress of American Indians will be in Tulsa for a three-day stretch starting on August 30 to discuss the upcoming elections and how to increase the political power of Native Americans.
The series of speeches and discussion groups, taking place at the downtown Doubletree Hotel, will be “the most diverse informative meetings held of tribal leaders in a long time,” according to Osage Nation chief Jim Gray.
Figures from the NCAI say their main goal is to increase voter turnout among Oklahoma tribal members. Training topics will include: voter registration, get out the vote efforts, voting rights and campaign finance. The NCAI is hoping to capitalize on the 2004 elections, which saw the largest voter turnout ever among American Indians and Alaska Natives. Read more…
Oklahoma Political News Service 
