Public- and private-sector leaders joined the campaign to publicize its unsustainable structure and potential harm to core services. Voters overwhelmingly rejected it. Oklahoma lawmakers now face a similar scenario. The Affordable Care Act provides for a massive expansion of Medicaid, allowing states to expand Medicaid to include many individuals below 133 percent of the federal […]
politics
Posted inArts & Culture
The Campaign
After helming two fact-based political dramas for HBO in Recount and Game Change, director Jay Roach must have found the opportunity to poke fun at the circus irresistible. I’m glad he did. In North Carolina’s 14th congressional district, the four-time incumbent is Cam Brady (Will Ferrell, Casa de Mi Padre), a shoo-in for a fifth […]
Posted inNews
Mitt’s no everyday folk
Romney has hundreds of millions of dollars in offshore tax shelters, allowing him to dodge his real fair share. This is the true American way: capitalism, profit for profit’s sake. Hiding his millions in the Cayman Islands in special accounts set up for Mitt by Bain Capital is not against the law. It should be, […]
Posted inNews
A chilling effect
But the threat of new taxes on intangible property could have a chilling effect on home builders and homeowners. When the state Supreme Court ruled that all intangible property could be taxed, we realized that this could impose new taxes on our designs, architectural drawings, computer software, and even the awards we’ve won for our […]
Posted inNews
Info on informants
The battered and bruised body of Kenneth Trentadue raised the suspicions of his family. And the journalists might not be alone. FBI informants might also be found on the White House staff, in the offices of U.S. congressmen, in the courts and among the clergy. The allegations stem from Trentadue’s ongoing legal battle with the […]
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Lest ye be judged
Credit: Brad Gregg The rankings came from the Oklahoma Civil Justice Council, a partnership between the State Chamber, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce and other organizations. The State Chamber has said in the past that it planned to rank judges, who are re-elected on retention ballots, and […]
Posted inNews
Mick NYC
Credit: Brad Gregg In the Oct. 22 Bloomberg Businessweek, Mayor Mick was one of five city experts interviewed about urban planning. Asked what his favorite city is aside from OKC, Cornett let his little-town blues melt away. “The public transit is astonishing,” he said of New York City. “The diversity available — in all senses […]
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Mitt Romney and the demise of Anthony’s
Credit: Brad Gregg Mitt Romney does, or at least he might, as detailed in a recent Newsweek story by David Stockman, former budget director in the Reagan administration. As reported in the article, Romney’s private equity firm, Bain Capital, began buying up big-box retailers in the late 1980s and early ’90s that were failing amid […]
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Black helicopter alert!
Credit: Brad Gregg Well, except for Alabama (and that’s still a maybe). Oh, and Oklahoma, too. It appears Alabama lawmakers, unsatisfied with just the mind-control-device-blocking power of the tinfoil hat, decided in their wisdom to pass a measure prohibiting state and local governments from participating in the implementation of United Nations initiative Agenda 21. For […]
Posted inNews
A taxing question
Fred Mogran Credit: Shannon Cornman A coalition of business groups headed by the State Chamber of Oklahoma support passage of SQ 766, which is on ballot Tuesday, asserting that its failure could spur a vast expansion of state taxes on items as varied as retirement benefits, professional licenses, hunting leases, and even copyrighted song lyrics […]