Author Archives: Admin

Navy SEAL on lessons learned from Aurora

Brandon Webb

As I continue to read about the terrible tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, I can’t help but think there’s some lessons from my time as a Navy SEAL that I can pass on to the average citizen. So here goes…

Don’t Make Yourself an Easy Target
 
When at sporting events, concerts, and the movies, choose seats that give you a tactical advantage always.  What do I mean? 

Choose seats that allow good and east vantage points and a hasty exit point.  Always stack the odds in your favor. It’s the reason I still combat park (back in to a space) and sit with my back to the wall when I’m eating.
 
Active Shooter Scenario Advice
 
Take cover and not concealment.  Concealment hides, cover hides AND protects.  It’s the difference between hiding behind a movie seat or a concrete wall.
 
Don’t lie there with your eyes closed and get shot. Think and move.  A good decision executed quickly is better than a great one never executed. Violence of action, as we call it in the Spec Ops community, will often change the odds in your favor.
 
For close quarter combat drills we’d draw a gun with someone over 20 feet away running at us.  In most cases you can be on someone before they can draw and take a shot.  I’m not advocating running straight at someone but if you have the tactical advantage (jam, re-loading, distraction or the shooter isn’t paying attention) then take the shooter down or get the hell out of there.  Deal with the situation with your eyes wide open.
 
In Aurora, the shooter was severely weighted down with armor and his helmet would have also limited his vision. You can use all this to your advantage.
 
Flashlight anyone?  I have one for daily carry and take it everywhere with me.  It’s become another extension of me and has diffused at least two potentially violent confrontations in a non-lethal way. I recommend 200+ lumens.
 
How to use it in this situation?
 
I would have pulled my high lumens pocket flashlight and blinded this guy. The high powered beam would have taken away his vision for 3-4 seconds, which is an eternity and enough time to flight or fight. There’s also no shame in surviving and getting you and your loved ones out of harm – especially little ones. Be a Hero to your kids and family for surviving, nobody can expect more of you than that. Like we say in Survival Escape Evasion Resistance (SERE) school, “Survive with Honor.”

To read more click here.  
 

The good, bad and ugly of Federal Job Training

Staff Report

Updated:  U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) released an oversight report Tuesday on job training programs in Oklahoma entitled, “What Works (and What Doesn’t): The Good, Bad and Ugly of Federal Job Training in Oklahoma.”  This report was the result of an exhaustive year-long review of job training programs in Oklahoma that included 70 field interviews and meetings with officials. 

The report follows last year’s groundbreaking study from the Government Accountability Office that found taxpayers are spending $18 billion on 47 duplicative job training across 9 federal agencies. 

GAO could not find evidence that any of the job training programs were working.  Since GAO released its report 18 months ago, the Senate has failed to consolidate, streamline or improve job training programs.  

“This study confirms what GAO discovered: Taxpayers are spending billions of dollars employing people in job training programs instead of training unemployed workers for jobs.  Taxpayers should be appalled Congress has done nothing to reform these programs for more than 18 months,” Dr. Coburn said.

“The report also shows that states are vastly more capable of managing job training programs than the federal government,” Dr. Coburn added.  “In Oklahoma, and across America, program administrators and job-seekers are trapped in a system that simply does not work.  Sadly, Washington politicians have been more concerned about protecting their own jobs – and promoting their commitment to job-training programs – rather than providing those in need the actual training necessary to achieve meaningful employment.”

“While programs in Oklahoma were, by and large, hampered by Washington-directed duplication, there are Oklahomans who are defying the odds through their hard-work, ingenuity and compassion.  For instance, Jason Price, the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services Program Manager, recognized that, in many cases, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries had the potential to enter the workforce despite their disabilities.  Price had the compassion and common sense to create incentives for disabled Oklahomans to work up to their potential and developed a program that has helped as many as 3,000 disabled Oklahomans to find work each year – 100 of whom leave the disability program entirely.  Price’s work has honored the dignity of disabled Oklahoma and represents the best values of our nation,” Dr. Coburn said.    

Key findings of the report:

States know what works better than career politicians in Washington (see pg. 32 of report)

Oklahoma’s jobseekers, workers and employers should not have to send their tax dollars to Washington, only to have bureaucrats send the dollars back in the form of regulations and programs that do not successfully serve Oklahoma’s workforce and job training needs. The Sooner State is introducing the most severely disabled Oklahomans (SSDI recipients) back onto the private payroll – through efforts championed by an Oklahoman – not by Washington bureaucrats and politicians.

Duplication and overlap among federal job training programs is rampant and creates problems for the States administering the programs. (see pg. 12 of report)

In Oklahoma there are 40 different job training programs, operated by at least 45 groups, organizations, tribes, state agencies, educational institutions, and quasi-government contractors, across 180 locations with an annual cost of $164 million working separately to develop Oklahoma’s workforce.  One rural Oklahoma town, Ada, has 17 different job training programs serving a population of 16,810.

Administrative costs sometimes consume the bulk of federal job training dollars. (see pg. 22 of report)

In August of 2011, Oklahoma’s Southeast Workforce Investment Board (SEWIB) passed a multi-million dollar budget which allocated only 14 cents of every dollar for actual job training services. The SEWIB’s budget allocated more for “administrative travel” than “dislocated worker services.”

Federal job training dollars are spent on questionable items and activities which do not lead to sustainable employment. (see pg. 15 of report)

Job Corp, Oklahoma’s largest recipient of federal training dollars, spent over $36,000, during a 6 month timeframe, on flowers and billboards. Job Corps also pays students based on length of time in the program—offering higher stipends for longer enrollment. Additionally, Job Corps takes students for weekly bowling trips and other recreational activities.

In another case, Job Corp spent around $76,000 per person to help youth obtain minimum wage jobs.

Individuals, who receive job training, often do not enter related fields of employment. (see pg.18 of report)

Culinary students at Job Corps have been placed as pest-control workers, funeral attendants, baggage porters, concierges, tour guides and telemarketers among other things. Nurse assistant and pharmacy technician students at Job Corps were placed as telephone operators and tax preparers.

Performance metrics for job training programs are severely lacking.(see pg. 21 of report)

Training-related employment is rarely tracked among job training programs. However, federal law prohibits the Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration (ETA) from establishing new performance measures apart from what is required in Section 136 of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA).

Too often job training programs are segregated based on race, gender, background, and other demographics instead of being designed to meet labor market demands. (see pg. 12 of report)

Of Oklahoma’s 40 training job training programs there are 8 different programs targeting Native Americans that must be navigated by jobseekers and 7 different programs serving Veterans – some of which require veterans to pursue training for “green skills,” not because of a labor market analysis but because politicians in Washington are imposing ideological agendas on states. 

Click here to read the report.

 

Update: Late Tuesday, CareerTech released a statement on Coburn’s report headlined: CareerTech helps Oklahomans succeed

Referencing the report and noting it is the result of a year-long review of job training programs in Oklahoma that included 70 field interviews and meetings with officials.

The Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, however, the report states, illustrates what Oklahomans can do when they “localize efforts for workforce needs.” They noted Coburn also credits the Governor’s Council on Workforce and Economic Development, of which CareerTech is a part, and the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services with helping Oklahomans find work.

Coburn cites the local base of CareerTech’s technology centers as a large part of the reason for its success.

"Oklahoma’s CareerTech system works with companies throughout the state to provide the customized training they need," said State Director Phil Berkenbile. One such example is at Western Technology Center in Burns Flat.

Through the training and assistance provided by the technology center, Superior Fabrication of Elk City has been able to add 36 welders to its payroll during the past two years. These jobs represent an increase in the local payroll of more than $1 million per year.

Terry Mores, Superior’s CEO, recognizes Western Tech as the company’s "training partner of choice." The expansion of Superior’s workforce has allowed the company to increase productivity by taking on more contracts. Its primary customers are energy sector companies

“Oklahoma CareerTech’s integration with the school system and local workforce allows for community influence in the training process; such factors have not gone unnoticed by Oklahoma’s employers,” Coburn states in his report.

He also quotes a report from the Governor’s Council on Workforce and Economic Development that said Oklahoma employers believe CareerTech has a “finger on the pulse of Oklahoma’s businesses.”

CareerTech offers education and training for high school students and adults at its 29 technology centers with 57 campuses. High school juniors and seniors living in a technology center’s district attend for free and learn skills that help them move successfully into Oklahoma’s workforce or continue their education at a college or university.

CareerTech offers help to workers moving from one field to another, workers who lost jobs because of layoffs or other reasons and veterans moving from the military to private industry.

Through its 16 skills centers, CareerTech also helps inmates in Oklahoma’s correctional facilities receive training that will help them obtain jobs after release.

In addition, CareerTech works with Oklahoma companies – both new and existing – to give workers the skills they need so they and the companies can be a successful part of Oklahoma’s economy.

“It is interesting that Oklahoma’s major employers find Career Tech is better connected with their needs, considering Career Tech operates nearly autonomously from the federal government – funded predominantly through state and local tax dollars,” Coburn writes in his report.

Inhofe praises passage of Pilot’s ‘Bill of Rights’

Staff Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate General Aviation Caucus and certified flight instructor with more than 10,000 flight hours, yesterday hailed U.S. House passage of his bill, the Pilot’s Bill of Rights (S.1335). Inhofe has worked to pass the legislation for the past year.  In the Senate where the bill enjoyed co-sponsorship by 65 other Senators, the measure passed by unanimous consent in June.
 
Last October, the bill garnered the endorsement of pilot and actor Harrison Ford.  The next month, the bill crossed an important milestone gaining its 60thco-sponsor in the Senate.

House passage of the Pilot’s Bill of Rights means the measure now goes to the President’s desk to become law.
 
“This is the biggest news for General Aviation pilots in recent years,” said Inhofe.  “I am grateful that the House has seen the merits of the Pilot’s Bill of Rights.  Now that it has passed both the House and the Senate, I look forward to this becoming law with the President’s signature.  I am most appreciative of the House leadership and Rep. Sam Graves for their hard work in passing this in the House.
 
“Thanks to the efforts of so many pilots, and organizations like AOPA and EAA, we are just one step away from this becoming law.  Over the course of my years in Congress, I have helped an untold number of pilots facing the pressure of dealing with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This bill remedies many of the most serious deficiencies in the relationship between general aviation and the FAA, and ensures that pilots are, like everyone else, treated in a fair and equitable manner by the justice system.”
 
When the bill passed the Senate, Rod Hightower, Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) President/CEO said,“This is a very important win for GA and protecting aviators’ rights.  We especially appreciate the bipartisan support in the Senate for the measure and Sen. Inhofe’s dedicated efforts to move this bill forward.”
 
On Senate passage, Craig Fuller, Aircraft Owners Pilots Association (AOPA) President said, “A year ago, Sen. Inhofe made a bold decision to introduce legislation in support of pilots’ rights when general aviation seemed to be under attack in Washington, D.C. His willingness to take a stand on behalf of pilots, and his success in bringing this measure through the Senate at a time when so much legislation is at a standstill, are powerful testaments to his commitment to protecting the freedom to fly. We applaud Sen. Inhofe’s ongoing work on behalf of general aviation so it can continue to play an important role in fostering economic development, providing personal and business transportation, and delivering services to millions of Americans.” 
 
DETAILS ABOUT THE PILOT’S BILL OF RIGHTS

Makes FAA Enforcement Proceedings and NTSB Review Fair for Pilots

  •   Requires NTSB review of FAA enforcement actions to conform, to the extent practicable, with the Federal Rules of Evidence and Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
  •   Requires the FAA to provide timely notice to a pilot who is the subject of an investigation, and that any response by the pilot can be used as evidence against him.
  •   Requires that in an FAA enforcement action against a pilot, the FAA must grant the pilot all relevant evidence 30 days prior to a decision to proceed with an enforcement action. This is currently not done and often leaves the pilot grossly uninformed of his violation and recourse.
  •   Makes contractor-run flight service station and contract tower communications available to airmen. Currently, if a request is made for flight service station information under FOIA, it is denied to the requestor because the contractor is not the government, per se. However, the contractor is performing an inherently governmental function and this information should be available to pilots who need it to defend themselves in an enforcement proceeding.
  •   Removes the special statutory deference as it relates to National Transportation Safety Board reviews of FAA actions. Too often the NTSB rubber stamps a decision of the FAA, giving wide latitude to the FAA and making the appeals process meaningless. This returns NTSB’s deference to the FAA to general administrative law principles, just like every other government agency.
  •   Allows for Federal district court review of appeals from the NTSB, at the election of the appellant. This is important because a review by the Federal district court is de novo, meaning the pilot gets a new trial with the ability to introduce evidence and a new review of the facts. 

 
NOTAM Improvement Program

  •   Requires that the FAA undertake a NOTAM Improvement Program, requiring simplification and archival of NOTAMs in a central location. The process by which Notices to Airmen are provided by the FAA has long needed revision. This will ensure that the most relevant information reaches the pilot. Currently, FAA makes pilots responsible for knowledge of pre-flight conditions. Non-profit general aviation groups will make up an advisory panel.

 
Medical Certification Review

  •   The FAA’s medical certification process has long been known to present a multitude of problems for pilots seeking an airman certificate. The bill requires a GAO review of the FAA’s medical certification process and forms, with the goal of demonstrating how the FAA can provide greater clarity in the questions and reduce the instances of misinterpretation that have, in the past, lead to allegations of intentional falsification against pilots. Non-profit general aviation groups will make up an advisory panel, which will give advice to the FAA on how the medical certification process can be improved. The FAA is required to take appropriate action on the GAO recommendations within one year.  

Harry Reid’s ‘Dog Catcher’ standard

Staff Report

The mainstream media has been repeating–without any criticism, context, or opposing view–Sen. Harry Reid’s claim that Mitt Romney could not be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve in the Cabinet–or even to serve as "dog catcher"–because he has only released his most recent tax returns, not his entire tax history. The story currently leads major news websites, including National Public Radio’s hourly news update. So it seems appropriate to do what the media will not: apply Reid’s "dog catcher" standard to Barack Obama.

Let us first take the question of whether Barack Obama would have been confirmed by the Senate for any position, Cabinet or otherwise. If his lack of experience was not a sufficient obstacle, his past history of serious drug use–which is even worse than the admissions in his memoir, Dreams from My Father–would have barred his nomination. So, too, would his radical past, including his associations with Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khalidi, Derrick Bell, and a host of extremists with whom he made common cause.
 
On the tax issue, it is worth reminding Sen. Reid (and the media) that several of President Obama’s nominees for the Cabinet did, in fact, have very serious tax problems–and were confirmed anyway (though at least one, with a sense of humility lacking in her colleagues, withdrew). The most notorious is "TurboTax" Tim Geithner, who outrageously blamed a computer program for his failure to pay self-employment taxes while he was working for the International Monetary Fund. He was confirmed anyway, under considerable pressure from the mainstream media (and after an inexcusable capitulation by Senate Republicans), which painted Geithner as the only person who could possibly be qualified to run the U.S. Treasury in crisis.
 
It is also worth noting that Sen. Reid’s best hope for maintaining his job is to see Elizabeth Warren unseat Republican Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts. But Warren’s candidacy is only possible because she could not receive confirmation from the U.S. Senate for the leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to which Obama desperately wanted to appoint her–not just because Republicans oppose the agency’s powers, but because of her own radicalism. Now that she has been revealed to have lied, apparently about her Native American heritage, there is no possible way she could be confirmed for a Cabinet position, or any other requiring the approval of Congress. Yet Reid and Obama are counting on her.
 
So the "dog catcher" standard that Sen. Harry Reid has sought to apply to Romney–and which he has, with the mainstream media’s help, succeeded in applying to Romney–would have prevented Obama and his own nominees from taking office. But the media has not applied Reid’s standard to Obama, because the media almost always applies a double standard to Democrats and Republicans–especially so with Barack Obama. (Update: And would a man who confessed to eating dog meat be made dog catcher? I think not.)
 
To take only one of hundreds of examples of that double standard, in the 2000 campaign, Republican Sen. John McCain released thousands of pages of his medical records; he did so again (albeit only for a few hours) in 2008. But then-Senator Obama released a single page–the equivalent of an elementary school "doctor’s note"–and the media meekly accepted his release gratefully.
 
Case closed–and a man who had never held any position of serious responsibility in the public or private sector–neither dog catcher nor anything else–went on to win.

Click here for the original report from Breitbart.com. 

Documenting hail damage crucial after storms

Staff Report

Oklahoman’s know a lot about storm damage.  If you grew up in Oklahoma, you know how destructive Oklahoma storms can be.  And they can hit in a moment’s notice.  Storms can be devastating to a business.  And the financial loss as a result of that damage depends on how you respond immediately following the storm.

There are many factors to take into consideration when filing a storm damage claim with your insurance company.  There are no industry standards, and a lot depends on the roofing materials used and the severity of the storm/size of the hail.  And without proper documentation and a thorough damage analysis provided by a reliable commercial roofing company, most insurance companies overlook a lot of these factors.  

“Not only do you need to report damage in a timely manner, you also need to know what you are reporting,” said Denver Green, President of Saratoga Roofing & Construction.  Green said, “There are so many things to take into consideration, the age and condition of your roof, as well as the size and impact of the hail.  These are all things that can be identified and documented by a roofing company who specializes in commercial roofing systems.”

According to RICOWI, Inc. (Roofing Industry Committee on Weather Issues, Inc.), one thing to look for is hailstone size (and reluctant impact energy).  That is more critical than hailstone quantity in determining if a roof is damaged.  The effects of hail impact are normally distinguishable from normal weathering.  Impact-caused fractures in roofing materials will sometimes have appearances that are distinct from cracking or other indications of long-term weathering.  Through proper investigation, including in-depth damage analysis reports, a contractor can compile the necessary data needed to substantiate their findings and present it to your insurance company.

Times have changed.  It’s no longer the standard to file a storm damage claim on your business and expect to be reimbursed at fair market value for your loss.  You need a qualified commercial roofing expert to assist your insurance company in properly investigating and educating them on the various types of roofing systems and how different size hail and high winds impact those systems.

Green said, “My advice to all business owners, make sure you respond quickly and have a qualified local commercial roofing company, with significant experience in large scale commercial application, that you trust there to help investigate and document storm damage.  The better you know your roof (age, installation method, condition of your roof) the better chance you will have recovering any financial loss and getting your business back up and running.  Make sure that your contractor can and will provide a detailed written analysis.”