Rick Stubblefield, Adair County representative of the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission wrote a letter to the Tahlequah Daily Press, in which he explains that the claims made by the private attorney’s Oklahoma Drew Edmondson has hired to represent Oklahoma against the Poultry industry, are “a joke,” to the farmers in the Illinois Watershed area:

…[T}here is just not enough poultry litter being produced to satisfy demand. Despite the exaggerated claims of Drew Edmondson, a chicken house only produces about 120 tons of poultry litter a year – and state agency records and assessor records show there are about 1,650 poultry houses in the Illinois River watershed. That gives the farming community about 200,000 total tons of poultry litter to use every year. Farmers outside the watershed use manure transfer program tax breaks to pay more than farmers in the watershed can afford to pay. The end result? There is not much left to use as fertilizer on fields in the Illinois River watershed.

He credits the Oklahoma Poultry Litter Transfer Program, for the shortage in the watershed area, explaining:

Farmers outside the watershed use manure transfer program tax breaks to pay more than farmers in the watershed can afford to pay. The end result? There is not much left to use as fertilizer on fields in the Illinois River watershed…. (more)

To learn more about Oklahoma’s Poultry Litter Transfer Program, see:

• Oklahoma’s Poultry Litter Transfer Program - Slideshow by OSU’s Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service
• Poultry Litter Manure Transfer Incentives Through The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
• Incentives to Buy and Sell Poultry Litter
• Natural Resources Conservation Service: Oklahoma Bulletin No. OK-190-7-1
• Div. of Agriculture Sciences and Natural Recources: New Incentives to Buy and Sell Poultry Litter by Donald Stotts

The Consortium for Entrepeneurship Education is celebrating it’s second National Entrepeneurship Week this week, February 23 - March 1. To honor the event, Oklahoma’s capitol celebrated it’s first Entrepreneurship Day, where it was noted that Oklahoma’s entrepeneurs have been honored by the Kauffman Foundation and by Entrepeneur Magazine.

According to a press release on the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, website, Oklahoma’s Advantage, Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins and Oklahoma’s Secretary of Commerce and Tourism Natalie Shirley were on hand for festivities.

Lt. Governor Jari Askins said:

The state recognizes the sense of urgency and importance in creating a culture of entrepreneurship in Oklahoma. Oklahoma’s entrepreneurs will provide the innovation, creativity, and leadership needed to take us successfully into our next 100 years.

And Natalie Shirley added:

Entrepreneurs are the future of Oklahoma’s economy. In order to grow Oklahoma’s economy and compete in the global marketplace, we must support the development of entrepreneurs in Oklahoma.

The 2nd Century Entrepreneurship Center located within Oklahoma Commerce, provides an opportunity to improve and increase Oklahoma’s efforts of supporting entrepreneurs. For more information about the 2nd Century Entrepreneurship Center, visit http://www.okcommerce.gov/smallbiz.

Shelli Todd was recently named Director of the 2nd Century Entrepreneurship Center. Todd’s responsibilities will include working with the statewide network of entrepreneurship programs and services, helping build capacity for technology-based entrepreneurs, and advocating for entrepreneurship education.

Oklahoma Commerce has a strong history of supporting entrepreneurs. There are extensive resources at http://www.okcommerce.gov/, including the business licensing database and Capital Review, a resource on financing for small businesses. The Website also provides business planning resources and frequently asked questions regarding starting a business. Commerce is also responsible for the certification of business incubators and has an extensive network of statewide partners that serve entrepreneurs.

By Senator Jay Paul Gumm, D-Durant

Hello again, everybody! The first major deadline of the 2008 session is passed, and now our focus is on bills and resolutions on the Senate floor.

Senate committees completed their work on Senate bills last week. Now, all those bills approved by the committees are awaiting consideration by the full Senate.

Already, we have seen history in the Senate as we consider those bills and resolutions. The first tie vote in recent memory occurred in the Senate, meaning the lieutenant governor finally got to exercise her constitutional duty to make a “casting” vote.

The measure was Senate Bill 1550. The bill is designed to close a loophole in our child support laws by requiring the reporting of income earned by independent contractors.

Oddly, this was not a straight party-line vote. Many folks thought the lieutenant governor would be casting many tie-breaking votes because of the Senate’s even split of 24 Democrats and 24 Republicans.

On this bill, however, as many Republicans voted for the bill as Democrats voted against it. Lt. Gov. Jari Askins voted “yes,” giving the measure the necessary 25 votes for passage.

I supported the measure, which is in preliminary form, because I believe parents have a responsibility to support their children, regardless of whether a divorce has occurred. That is certainly the case when the court has ordered support be paid. There should be no loopholes when it comes to taking care of children.

While the bill was held in the Senate on a parliamentary move, its next stop – barring something unusual happening – will be a committee in the House of Representatives.

An issue many of you have asked me about is the move in the House of Representatives to investigate State Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan. The auditor and his wife were indicted by a federal grand jury on a host of charges.

We in the Senate have a unique role in the impeachment process. Right now, the activity is in the House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House appointed an investigative committee charged with determining whether there is sufficient evidence to impeach the auditor.

If the committee believes there is enough evidence, they will recommend the House approve articles of impeachment. If approved by the House of Representatives, the articles become an indictment.

Then, the Senate becomes a Court of Impeachment. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would preside, and a select group of House members would prosecute the auditor, who will be able to defend himself.

As a member of the Court of Impeachment, my colleagues and I would be judges and jurors, so I really cannot discuss the case. We in the Senate would take an oath to try the case impartially. If the House impeaches the auditor, we in the Senate owe both the people of Oklahoma and the auditor nothing less.

Thanks again for reading the “Senate Minute,” have a great week and may God bless you all.

From Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council:

As if parents did not have enough to contend with in protecting their children from the evils for pornography, they now have to face government-funded projects. Unfortunately, that’s the “net” effect of Planned Parenthood’s online venture, teenwire.com. The site, which is so offensive that FRC’s Internet filter blocked it, was supposedly created as a resource for kids seeking “medically accurate” information. According to the nation’s biggest abortion merchant, that information now includes normalizing pornography. Although Planned Parenthood is careful to state that it’s illegal to ply children under 18 with sexually explicit images, that doesn’t stop its “advice columnists” from telling kids that “many people use pornography as part of sex play.”

On the “Ask the Experts” page, one young visitor says, “I look at porno sites… but people say looking at those sites affects your school work… Should I stop it? If I should, how?”

An “expert” responds, “There is no correlation between using pornography and getting bad grades in school.”

Among other things, kids are encouraged to play games about issues from bisexuality to birth control. Another page gives teens the lowdown on having an abortion without their parents’ consent. To teens struggling with homosexuality, Planned Parenthood says, “Having sex with girls and boys is normal and healthy.” With over $300 million in taxpayer funds, the organization has the U.S. government to thank for helping to promote these messages. Contact your leaders and urge them to support Rep. Mike Pence and Sen. David Vitter’s bills to zero out funding for groups like Planned Parenthood–else Title X programs may soon mean triple X!

Perkins isn’t exaggerating. The pictures on the site are all drawings and graphics - not photographs, but some are very explicit, and, in my opinion, the material is not appropriate for unsupervised young teens. Much of the information provided is quite objectionable, like that warning about the “dangers” to homosexual and transgender students which are supposedly promoted by “abstinence only” programs, the “dangers” to students of parental notification laws in some states, requiring parents of young girls to be notified prior to their daughter getting an abortion.

Masturbation is encouraged, and tips are given for arousal. An enormous amount of information is provided for exploring whether or not a student is homosexual…students are told that if they’re thinking about it, they might be “questioning,” as opposed to being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.

All of this “information” and more is easily surfable to anyone who can locate the site - regardless of age. According to their “Terms of Use” page, users “registering as a member of teenwire.com to use certain features like Talk Back and Ask the Experts, sending an e-mail question, joining an e-mail mailing list, or submitting an article or a story” may be asked for information including “your sex, your age, and your city/state or part of the world you are from.”

Cybercast News Service quotes Cris Clapp, congressional liaison for Enough is Enough, a nonprofit group that works to protect children and families from online pornography:

Although teenwire.com does make the point that pornography is illegal in the United States for people under 18, and although the editors mention that some may struggle with compulsive access to this content, overall teenwire.com has painted a picture that pornography is harmless fun…Unfortunately, parents are outsourcing their responsibility to talk to their kids about healthy sexuality to teachers, the culture and sites like teenwire.com, without any understanding about the sort of misguided messages that our children are hearing.

Also on Ft. Hard Knox

I hope you received my survey and legislative update in the mail this week. The House of Representatives allows us to send out two of these mailings each year to our constituents and I wanted to take the chance to update you on my bills that will be considered and also give you a bit more information about happenings at the State Capitol than room will provide in this column. If you did not receive a copy, the State Election Board has your address incorrect and you will need to re-register at the post office, tag agent or local school and they will get it fixed. The mailing addresses have experienced problems due to changes to the E-911 system.

I had the chance to visit with the Chickasha High School Young Democrats last week and feed them lunch. It’s great to see our younger citizens taking part in the political process and learning about our government. We need to do what we can to encourage people to vote and be aware of the issues so they can help change the government to reflect the idealism that many feel has been lost due to scandal and corruption.

On Tuesday, we took up House Bill 3122, which increases the school year hours of instruction by roughly three days. I voted against this legislation but it still passed the House. I do not feel it is right to add on extra hours or days and create an unfunded mandate on our schools. I also do not feel we are maximizing the current time required by students to be in the classroom. There are many other ways to improve student learning rather than simply requiring more time in the classroom.

We have also had many visitors up to the Capitol. I had the great pleasure of seeing FFA groups from Elgin, Fletcher and Cement visit the Capitol. I also was able to see friends from Farm Bureau and the Conservation Districts at their annual dinners this past week. Higher Education Day is this week, so I know I will have friends from Cameron and USAO, as well as students from the district attending other schools drop by my office. It’s great to see people from back home stop by and visit.

It is an honor to represent your views at the State Capitol. If you wish to contact me and discuss one of these or another issue, I can be reached at my office in Oklahoma City toll-free at 1-800-522-8502, or directly at 1-405-557-7305. My home number for work is 1-580-476-2626. My e-mail address is joedorman@okhouse.gov at work. My mailing address is PO Box 559, Rush Springs, OK 73082 and my website is www.joedorman.com on the Internet. Thank you for taking time to read this column and I look forward to seeing you soon.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8673.html
Superdelegates use power for good, not evil
By: Edward Espinoza
February 25, 2008 04:19 PM EST

There is a lot of talk about us Democratic “superdelegates” and the notion that we will secretly convene to decide the party’s nominee, and in fact, the fate of the world. We’ve been branded as backroom deal makers, “Washington insiders” and moneyed elites. Stephen Colbert questioned whether we have “supermutant powers,” such as the ability to fly.
This heightened attention on Democratic National Committee members — driven by the closeness of the nomination fight between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama — illustrates a perception that fails to approximate reality. Our roles are more akin to that of caretakers, addressing the more mundane needs of conducting party business, rather than that of all-powerful determinants of the Democratic nominee for president.
For the record: I will participate in the nomination process and will fully support the eventual nominee. But it is not my desire to be the sole decider in this process, nor do I think that I will be. Let’s start with a few facts to dispel some popular misconceptions:No presidential candidate currently holds a majority of the 796 superdelegates.
Fewer than 10 percent of the superdelegates are appointed. There are elected officials in the group, but the majority of supers are Democratic activists elected by state Democratic parties.
Most superdelegates are average people with everyday jobs, such as teachers, salespeople, IT professionals and retirees.
We attend DNC meetings twice a year, paying our own hotel and airfare costs (further demonstrating that we do not posses the superhuman ability of flight).
My life is the antithesis of a Washington insider: I earn less than six figures, I went to a state university, I rent. I was elected by the California Democratic Party to represent the voters of my state. I started as a political activist, later serving as president of the California Young Democrats and eventually moving on to work in political campaigns.
But we are now a popular topic on cable TV, in coffee shops and on blogs. Even we DNC members regularly talk about our role and how we should be involved.
Admittedly, life is more interesting these days: We have personal phone calls from former President Bill Clinton, former senators calling on behalf of Barack Obama and sit-downs with the candidates. It is flattering and quite a contrast to the normal routine work of writing campaign plans and party resolutions, conducting constituency outreach and working on the Democratic presidential nominating calendar (I was an active advocate in a two-year effort to move Nevada up in the process).
But while these phone calls and meetings are nice, they are not what ultimately will sway us. We are keenly aware of the responsibility we carry, and we take this role seriously. We listen to voters and are mindful that both majority and dissenting views deserve a voice in the Democratic Party.
We are not unified behind any campaign, and it is highly unlikely that we will fall in lock step behind any one candidate to make a difference in the race.
It is more likely that, if the race remains close, we could cast our votes for a candidate who may otherwise have a narrow delegate lead, in order to create a more decisive nomination. Such a move won’t change the outcome of the race, but it can serve to unify the party and change the momentum and perception of the nominee coming out of the convention.
Or we could be the players on the floor of a brokered convention, helping the states steer through convention rules while avoiding the kind of intramural fights that can rip a party apart, similar to those at the 1968 convention.
No one can say exactly how our roles will play out, but I am firmly convinced that our role will not, and should not, be one that ultimately picks our nominee.
Only a candidate with the support of a unified party can carry Democrats to victory in the fall. And as a superdelegate, I prefer that our role remains part of a cumulative process in which the eventual nominee garners strength from all aspects of the party.
That is to say, in the larger scheme of things, our place is to build unity, discourage any major bloodletting and help the nomination process in a role that is fair, inclusive and, above all, transparent.
Wait — is transparency considered a super mutant power?
Edward Espinoza, a public relations and political strategist from Los Angeles, most recently served as a field director for presidential candidate Bill Richardson. He is currently an uncommitted superdelegate serving in his fourth year on the DNC.

Teach for America (TFA) is an organization which, according to its website, seeks to rectify, “Our nation’s greatest injustice.” What is that injustice?

In America today, educational inequity persists along socioeconomic and racial lines…These disparities severely limit the life prospects of the 13 million children growing up in poverty today. And, because African-American and Latino/Hispanic children are three times as likely to grow up in a low-income area…

In a section of the website entitled, “Why we prioritize the recruitment and development of African-Americans and Latino/Hispanics and people of low-income family backgrounds,” TFA explains:

At the same time that we value each individual who commits to our cause, we also place a particular focus on attracting and fostering the leadership of individuals who share the racial and/or socioeconomic backgrounds of the students underserved by public schools, many of whom are African-American and Latino/Hispanic children living in low-income communities. We emphasize racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity to enhance our impact…

According to a press release from the OK House of Representatives yesterday, House Bill 3124, authored by House Education Committee Chairman Rep. Tad Jones, allows for the Teach for America Program to come to Oklahoma.

The bill will get talented teachers into our most needy classrooms, said Jones (R-Claremore):

Right now, this successful program cannot expand to Oklahoma because of barriers in our laws. Teach for America has proven results in low-income, underperforming schools where we need talented teachers the most. Even with approval of this bill, each district would be able to choose to participate or not. This is a chance to get some of the best, brightest and most ambitious teachers in the country here in Oklahoma.

Rep. Earl Sears (R-Bartlesville), a former teacher and principal, praised the Teach for America program as one of the best in the country for training teachers:

There is no question this state does a great job training our teachers, and no one is trying to take anything away from the procedure we have here in the state for our teachers, but as a principal, I would not have any hesitation in hiring a teacher from this program.

The bill passed the House with a vote of 91-10 and will now go to the Senate

KOCO5 in Oklahoma City is reporting:

Gov. Brad Henry is telling a national audience that Oklahoma’s future is in biofuels…the grass takes less work to grow than corn does. Corn has to be farmed every year.

Another benefit of swithgrass over corn is that it is not consumed by humans, and may not have a similar detrimental impact on third-world nations. Former U.S. Representative (R-OK) Ernest Istook wrote in WorldNetDaily this weekend:

Drought. War. Poverty.

These are leading causes of hunger, according to the United Nations. Soon we may add another.

Ethanol.

Across the globe, people are discovering it’s a new contributor to world hunger. Led by the United States, governments are paying companies billions to make ethanol from corn and other crops. The result: these crops are diverted from the food supply, creating artificial shortages and higher prices.

Even record harvests haven’t suppressed food prices. Instead, prices are soaring to all-time highs…(more)

Not all scientists are convinced that the use of biofuels is good for the environment. In Minneapolis, the StarTribune is reporting:

A pair of agriculture groups has temporarily suspended about $1.5 million in grants to the University of Minnesota to protest a controversial study by U scientists earlier this month about biofuels and global warming.

[…]

The study, by University of Minnesota ecologist David Tilman and others, said that dedicating huge amounts of land to grow corn, soybeans, sugarcane and other food crops for fuel could drastically change the landscape and worsen global warming. Farmers in the U.S., Brazil, Indonesia and other countries will need to clear forests, grasslands and peat lands on a massive scale to grow more of those crops, according to the research, unleashing far more carbon dioxide from natural vegetation than is saved by the lower emissions of the biofuels.

Ethanol industry officials criticized the study as a simplistic analysis that doesn’t include the economic benefits for those who grow biofuel crops or the environmental cost of continuing to rely on petroleum.

A couple of years ago, scientists at the University of Berekely also were reported by Science Daily to have found that in terms of energy output compared with energy input for ethanol production:

• corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced;
• switch grass requires 45 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced; and
• wood biomass requires 57 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced…(more)

But Governor Henry points out that switchgrass is native to Oklahoma, and:

Congress is considering a bill that would provide incentives for growing switchgrass.

UPDATE, from Military.com:

An airman reportedly killed his two children and then himself after arguing with his ex-wife Feb. 25 at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

[…]

None of the victims or the airman have been identified, pending notification of family members.

The Oklahoman quotes Oklahoma County John Whetsel:

A member of the military and his ex-spouse had an altercation. The ex-spouse left the residence. She had heard gunshots upon her departure from the residence…[The mother, who has been informed of the deaths] is not responding well, as you might expect.

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FoxNews is reporting live from Tinker Air Force Base on Shepard Smith’s show, that a police standoff has ended. In what is allegedly a domestic disturbance gone horrifically wrong, a man and his two children are dead, with a woman in the hospital for observation:

A male member of the military and ex-spouse had an altercation, officials said.

She heard two gunshots when she left, officials said at a news conference.

Officials said the names of the victims were withheld pending notification next of kin.

Thanks to the attentive readers who brought to my attention that yesterday this story was posted with factual mistakes. As they unanimously pointed out, I had two ongoing stories confused. Please accept my sincere apology. The incorrect information has been corrected, in the title and in the first paragraph below.

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As OKPNS previously reported, The Oklahoma House of Representatives voted 100-0 to begin an investigation, which could potentially lead to the impeachment of State Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan, who, along with his wife, Lori, are facing charges of bribery, mail fraud, and conspiracy at the federal level. Eight members of the OK House of Representatives have been assigned to decide whether State Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan should be impeached.

The Democrat Co-Chair of the eight-member impeachment-hearing panel is now reported to have tried to purchase an abstract company from McMahan, but was unsuccessful, because McMahan “declined to deny a permit request for a competing company.”

According to the Oklahoman, David Braddock is denying that the previous interaction between the two men, and his current seat as co-chair of the panel present an ethics issue.