Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Radley Balko, at the Huffington Post, writing about a new study on the effects of Oregon requiring prescriptions for pseudophedrine tablets:
The national results have been similar to what has happened in Oregon: a steep drop in meth lab incidents and seizures, but no real decline in the drug’s availability. The laws largely put an end to homemade meth labs, but opened market space for the superlabs and international cartels. It also may have created new black markets and a new class of criminals. The Associated Press reported last year that the law has dramatically increased the black market value of cold medication. College students, homeless people and others interested in quick and easy money have become “pill brokers,” selling medication that retails for six or seven dollars per box to the meth cooks for $40 or $50.
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association funded the report by the Cascade Policy Institute but the results aren’t exactly shocking news. Anyone who wants meth can still get it, while people with allergies have to go out of their way to get medicine.
Here in Oklahoma, one bill to restrict the drug failed in a senate committee last week, but other versions are still alive and DAs, including Tulsa County’s Tim Harris, continue to lobby for the measure.
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
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They’re going to make them filthy rich.
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Rand Paul had some trouble getting on a flight in Nashville because he didn’t want his junk checked:
The T.S.A. said that Mr. Paul had been screened by a version of its millimeter-wave body imaging device that uses a generic image of a passenger and, if it detects any anomaly, puts a yellow box on the body area that requires greater scrutiny. An alarm was triggered when he was in the machine, which – under administration procedures – required a “targeted pat-down” to see what caused it. But Mr. Paul refused to submit to the pat-down, the agency said.
Last time I flew, on Christmas Day, nearly everyone who went through the body scanners in Tulsa had to get additional screening, including me. I don’t know why everyone else was stopped, but the buttons on my jeans did me in. After the screener was done frisking me, I wished him a Merry Christmas and thanked him for protecting us from jean buttons. He didn’t like that very much.
ProPublica with more on the numerous false positives from the machines.
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012
There are three types of the genus vagrant: the hobo, the tramp, and the bum. The hobo works and wanders, the tramp dreams and wanders and the bum drinks and wanders.
-Ben Reitman in Hoboes: Bindlestiffs, Fruit Tramps, and the Harvesting of the West by Mark Wyman.
Monday, January 16th, 2012
“It’s a complicated issue of jurisdiction over a Muscogee Creek allotment and procedures to obtain gaming on that allotment while maintaining a good working relationship with our Oklahoma neighbors,” Tiger said.
Video of the whole statement:
Essentially Tiger is opposed to the casino currently because the Kialegees have not applied for or been granted the authority to open a casino on the property under Creek Nation laws. However, he doesn’t have an opinion for or against the casino should it comply with all the regulations.
The Tulsa World story includes this humorous bit on Tiger’s meeting with John Sullivan:
U.S. Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla., has been publicly opposed to the casino project. Tiger said that a conversation with Sullivan on the topic was like “Indian 101″.
Tiger indicated he did not mean to sound “insulting” but said he talked through several tribal issues with Sullivan, who left the conversation more educated.
Friday, January 13th, 2012
From last night’s meeting to oppose the Kialegee casino in Broken Arrow:
In the long-term, Sullivan said, he is considering drafting legislation. “We want to make sure we don’t allow casinos to be built next to neighborhoods, churches and schools,” he said. “We have to fight, fight, fight – get everyone involved – because if we don’t, it will set a precedent” for expanded gaming.
“There’s allotted land all over our community,” he said. “It’s going to open a Pandora’s box all across our great community, all across our great state.”
Doesn’t this attack on the casino ignore basic principles of supply and demand? The Tulsa market already has three major casinos in the immediate area and others within reasonable driving distance, so what benefit would tribes have to opening more casinos in the Tulsa area? If it’s the Creeks, Osages, or Cherokees, any new casinos would only draw people away from the casinos they already operate, and any new tribe that wants to get into the business will have a hard time entering a full market.
Fox 23 asked the Creek Nation about the groundless rumors to build a casino on the site of an Indian smoke shop and the tribal Chief of Staff flatly denies the rumors saying the tribe plans to focus on their RiverSpirit Casino at 81st and Riverside.
Nevertheless Lakin continues to peddle fear about the site while denying it’s fear mongering:
When asked if the rumors circulating earlier this week about a casino being built here was fear mongering, Lakin said, “I don’t know if you can call it fear mongering because what we have in Broken Arrow is something that is actually happening.”
Like the fight in Broken Arrow, Lakin doesn’t think this is the last we’ll hear about possible casino development plans on that eight acre plot of land.
“Oh. I don’t think it’s over.”
The land is now zoned residential and could go to the highest bidder according to Lakin.
“It’s almost casino shopping where a landowner is going out and trying to get a different tribe, a smaller tribe, to put something on a piece of property that’s not even zoned commercial.”
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
The one thing that’s annoyed me more than anything about the growing controversy over the planned casino by the Kialegee tribe in Broken Arrow is the completely unfounded rumors about casinos spreading across Tulsa once the Kialegees open theirs. The theory goes that once the Kialegees open their casino–which would be on individually held Creek land leased to the tribe–anyone with allotment land will be able to put a casino on the land. The theory is pretty far-fetched and stupid, but the rumors have been flying around Tulsa in the last two weeks and no one’s done more to fuel the rumors than new city councilor Phil Lakin.
Last week, Lakin said he was receiving calls from constituents about a property in South Tulsa that currently hosts an Indian smoke shop. At that time Lakin argued that
“It’s just scary to think that the zoning laws we have in place, and the way the public has set out their neighborhoods, that what they think they’re building their homes and businesses next to is not necessarily what it’s going to be.”
The Tulsa World called the smoke shop and the clerk said there were no plans for a casino on the property. Yesterday, Lakin stepped up his statements, arguing that there were “solid rumors” circulating around South Tulsa about the property, while at the same time admitting he hasn’t talked to the property owners. Later that day Lakin told KOTV’s Emory Bryan that the rumors were coming from a variety of sources–a land owner, an attorney associated with an unnamed LLC, and another unnamed source. The story, which is one of the most hideous pieces of “reporting” I’ve seen in a while, includes a comment by an area resident that she “can’t believe they would allow a casino to be built around an elementary school because when you have a casino you have everything that goes with it like the drinking and the crime.”
The rumors hold about as much credibility as the rumors that other groundwork in Broken Arrow was for a casino. That groundwork turned out to be for a new fire station. It’s sad to see the rumors flying around Tulsa, but it’s even worse that a city councilor is willing to peddle unfounded and stupid rumors.
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
Sensibility from Dannel:
…Malloy added, Connecticut is not close to landing an NHL franchise. “I don’t lie awake at night wondering how that’s going to happen,” Malloy said. “Because, it’s not going to happen in the short run.”
I attended a game over Christmas break and the crowd was a decent size, but the team is averaging less than 4,500 fans a game. Hartford needs a new arena, but the NHL isn’t going to be part of it.
Sunday, January 8th, 2012
Someone finally answers why Tulsa has such a big problem with meth “labs:”
Woodward attributed the low number of meth labs found there to a steady supply of methamphetamine from Mexico and elsewhere into Oklahoma City. The meth manufacturers in Tulsa know the process for one-pot labs, making the cheap drug even cheaper for them, he said.
Without combatting the underlying reasons for why people use meth, who thinks drug gangs will simply replace the shake-and-bakers populating Tulsa at the moment?
New Principal Chief George Phillip Tiger on the proposed Kialegee casino in Broken Arrow:
He told members of the media that there is “a lot of misinformation out there.”
The Nation is currently conducting a study on the proposed casino and won’t discuss the issue until that study is finished, Tiger said.
Sounds like the new administration may take a softer line than the previous administration of A.D. Ellis, who vocally opposed the casino before he left office at the end of last year, arguing that the casino would harm the Creek’s RiverSpirit Casino.
The Kialegees are a federally recognized tribe, but also hold citizenship in the Creek Nation.
Dewey makes it into a war:
“What they are attempting to establish in Broken Arrow is a beachhead and we will not stand by and allow developments of this type to happen in our city and across our state,” he said. “Should we have to deal with a similar situation in Tulsa, I believe we would agree this is not a good thing for the city and its respective citizens.”
To make matters worse people are getting paranoid:
Rumors of other potential casinos in south Tulsa and Broken Arrow were plentiful Friday, though none of them could be confirmed.
Tulsa’s meth problem isn’t getting any better:
Nearly half of the 843 meth labs reported to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in 2011 were found within the Tulsa city limits, officials said.
The number of discarded or active labs located by law enforcement set new records for both the city and the state.
The answer to the problem is of course “more tools” (read: prescriptions) and not trying to answer why Tulsa has such a bad problem in the first place.
Friday, January 6th, 2012
The opposition to a proposed casino in Broken Arrow has been kicked up a notch:
The company working on the property on which the Kialegee tribe wishes to build the casino says someone cut the fuel truck locks and poured some kind of liquid into the tanks.
The issues surrounding the casino are pretty complex, but a lot of the protests boil down to standard NIMBYism
Thursday, January 5th, 2012
Maybe:
The delay in refinancing fiscal 2012 maturities is among conditions that “raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern,” the Uncasville, Connecticut-based casino operator said today in a regulatory filing. Mohegan said it received a default waiver from its bank lenders yesterday.
Foxwoods also has substantial amounts of debt and the introduction of casinos to Massachusetts isn’t making things any better.
Link via Indian Country Today
