Oklahomans looking to hire a household moving company and those offering moving services in the state should carefully note changes in the law that give the consumer more information and protection, and require companies to get the necessary authority for the protection of both the company and its customers according to a news release today from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.  

“The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) regulates all intrastate transportation of household goods,” explains OCC Transportation Division Director Marchi McCartney. “We want to be sure all consumers and the moving companies themselves are aware that state law has new requirements aimed at consumer protection.”

Among the items of note in the new regulations:

•   All household goods movers must provide the consumer with a written estimate
•   All household goods movers must provide the consumer with the Commission’s “Moving in Oklahoma” brochure
•   All advertising must include the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) number of the company
•   Intra-city moves are now included in the regulations
•   All household goods movers must get a certificate from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission

Household goods movers who need to obtain a certificate or need more information can call (405) 521-2251 or contact the OCC’s Transportation Division through the web site: www.occeweb.com.  

A listing of all authorized household goods movers in Oklahoma is also available through the through the OCC web site: www.occeweb.com, and clicking on “Household goods movers” link under “Hot Topics.”

If you believe a carrier is operating unlawfully or is advertising services it is not authorized to perform, please contact the Transportation Division at (405) 521-2965 or file a complaint at  www.occeweb.com and clicking on the “Complaint” tab.

After nearly two and a half years of investigations and millions of dollars worth  of property seizures, Thomas A. Bowdoin, 76, founder and operator of a Gadsden County-based company has been indicted.  

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C indicted Bowdoin on wire fraud, securities fraud and other federal charges in connection with his business AdSurf Daily (ASD), a reported Ponzi scheme. Published reports by Tulsa Today resulted in the group canceling a planned sales rally in Tulsa just prior to a raid in Flordia by the U.S. Secret Service.

If convicted, Bowdoin faces a maximum sentence of 125 years in prison and fines of up to $6.2 million.

He was arrested at his home in Zellwood, Florida  and appeared in federal court in Tampa on December 2.

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned.

ASD was based in Quincy until federal agents seized all of its assets in 2008.

The Department of Justice’s  press release concerning the indictment stated  that the Internet-based fraud scheme had generated more than $110 million from thousands of people across the United States and other countries.

In an explanation of the indictment the press release stated: “The indictment alleges that Bowdoin ran a Ponzi scheme disguised as an online advertising company that drew in large numbers of investors by promising huge returns on their monies.”

It further states, because ASD was creating no significant new wealth by selling advertising to purchasers outside of its investor-members, the only wealth gained by any participant and Bowdoin was wealth lost by other (new) participants.

Bowdoin operated ASD from September of 2006 until August of 2008.

It was noted in the indictment that the goal of the scheme was for Bowdoin to obtain, by fraud, money from  ASD members for his own benefit and to avoid securities regulators.

ASD operated on the Internet at various websites. The indictment states that although Bowdoin presented ASD as an online advertising company, in reality he was running an investment Ponzi scheme.

Bowdoin claimed ASD was an “income opportunity,” the indictment stated.

Bowdoin also referred to himself as a “money magnet,” and encouraged prospective ASD members to refer to themselves that way as well, and stated that it was his “goal” to make 100,000 millionaires in three years.”

In order to avoid regulatory scrutiny, the indictment stated Bowdoin referred to ASD’s investors as “members,” and referred to the investor’s money, payment and investment principle as “ad packages.”

He  referred to the return on the member’s investment that ASD promised and paid as “rebates.”

Under the program, Bowdoin, through ASD, agreed to pay a return of 125% (initially 150%) on each dollar each member provided to ASD, as long as each member agreed to view a couple of websites themselves for a couple of minutes each day.

Bowdoin also promised to pay commissions to members who referred others to join ASD.  In addition, the indictment stated Bowdoin raised more than $110 million from thousands of its “members.”

In reference to how the money was used, the indictment stated that more than $31 million of that revenue was used to make payments to early members, more than $8 million to operate ASD and promote ASD to subsequent members and more than $1 million for his own personal benefit or the benefit of his family.

The money Bowdoin spent was not coming from actual revenues. Of the $31 million that Bowdoin paid to these early members, more than 98% came from monies paid to ASD by other members, the indictment stated.

It was reported back in 2008 in Tulsa Today. 

Growing up in suburban Broken Arrow, I never really had the chance to grow an interest in weapons.  To my Dad, who had three guns above the bed most of my teenage years, I never showed enough interest to warrant all the fees and licenses.  Also, I was a bit of a pseudo hippie-stoner more interested in skateboarding, science or other creative and intellectual pursuits; than the rough and tumble “manly-man” things of the world.  Your basic teenage lump, I never shot a gun until well into my twenties.

However, now I am a family man.  I am conservative and a strong believer in the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.  To be fair, I was always that way; just not as motivated.  So, I asked a friend knowledgeable in weapons if he would be my Sherpa on the first trek to purchase my first gun.

The plan was to buy something for less than $500.00 functional in home defense, hunting, and that could be used by my spouse.  In my mind, that added up to one thing, a shotgun.  Last Saturday November 13, we journeyed to the QT Event Center at Expo Square in Tulsa to attend Wanenmacher’s Tulsa Arms Show, the world’s largest gun show.

Arriving at 9:15 am, I figured we would have plenty of time and space to park.  After 20 minutes of circling the main parking lot, we gave up and drove out past the race track; taking the shuttle to the door.  The line was brief and the entrance fee was reasonable at $10 per person.  Then the real walking began.

The massive 11 acre building filled wall to wall with vendors selling their wares.  Each row was marked by a huge sign with a number on it and each column had a letter, so no matter where you were you could locate the table you wanted to find again.  After just a few feet, I was very glad for my navigator in the jungle of choices.

The vendors weren’t the only ones selling; many people were walking around with signs in the ends of barrels or over their chest listing the weapons they literally carried to sell.

A dizzying array of handguns, assault rifles, explosives, grenades, knives, swords, and non-lethal weapons were spread out over the entire floor of the center.  The crowd was more varied than I had imagined.  The ages ranged from children in strollers to the elderly in wheelchairs.  There was a larger population of women than I expected.  Many vendors even catered specifically to women offering pink weapons, handguns, stunners, crossbows, clothing – even rifles in pink.

Of course, the majority population was male in mostly hunting or cowboy dress with several dead-ringers for Wyatt Earp.  Mixed in were those of various ethnicities, Hispanic, Asian, Middle-Eastern, and African-American.  

Aside from the many weapons and accessories, there were many historical artifacts.  American war relics, such as helmets from WWII, rifles from Civil War through Vietnam, and even some meteorites were for sale.  As I imagined, there were also a few booths with Nazi artifacts, knives, flags, emblems, etc.  I ignored those purveyors; as I find it in the most appalling taste to sell something used during one of mankind’s blackest moments.  There were also several Imperial Japanese swords labeled “Guadalcanal” etc.  I had the same contempt for them.

The people there were the most polite I have ever witnessed in such a large venue with so little walking room.  I remember hearing “I’m sorry” or “Excuse me” for just the slightest brush while passing more times than I could count.  Mrs. Manners would have been proud.  The rest areas were clean, and litter was almost non-existent.  Men differed to let women pass, and women for the most part were dressed modestly.  In fact, the Tulsa State Fair last month was much more dirty, crowded, and uncouth.

I had a good time, and will return next year better prepared for several hours of walking.  I did finally make a purchase and I am satisfied with the price of $485 for a normally $700-800 item.  Leaving the gun show, I have a new found appreciation for the vast variety of people who enjoy them and for the amount of knowledge those who know this stuff must have. 

Aside from a very few, this is a well-mannered, kind, and polite crowd.  I guess the old saying “An armed society, is a polite society” is never more true than at a gun show.

About the author:
Aaron Sheppard is a long time believer in smaller government and responsible use of tax dollars.  As a former City of Tulsa employee who worked in the Finance Department assisting in production of the Annual City Budget from 2001 to 2004, he experienced first hand the differences in what happens behind the scenes and what makes the news. You can read more from this author at www.theperegrinfalcon.com.

In an unprecedented collaboration between two federal agencies, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently jointly awarded $878,000 to help stimulate a new generation of sustainable and livable communities in Oklahoma, connect housing, employment and economic development with transportation and other infrastructure improvements.  The joint HUD-DOT funding will support 62 local and regional partnerships seeking to create a more holistic and integrated approach to connecting affordable housing, job opportunities and transportation corridors.  

“Today two federal agencies come together to produce a win-win for local communities around the country,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.  “We’re helping local and regional planners connect all the dots in their efforts to make their communities more sustainable and livable.  These grants will help communities to hit on all cylinders, producing more affordable housing near good jobs and commercial centers which will help to reduce our energy consumption and increase competitiveness.”  
 
DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said, “With the investments HUD and DOT are making today, we are strengthening neighborhoods by connecting housing with affordable and sustainable transportation choices.  This is a win-win for people who live in these communities because they will have travel options to better serve them.”
 
HUD is awarding $40 million in new Sustainable Community Challenge Grants to help support local planning designed to integrate affordable housing, good jobs and public transportation.  Meanwhile, DOT is awarding nearly $28 million in TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) II Planning Grants to implement localized plans that ultimately lead to projects that integrate transportation, housing and economic development.
 
HUD is awarding the following grant to Oklahoma:
 
Oklahoma City will be awarded $500,000 to develop "planokc" – a comprehensive plan to address its unsustainable development pattern of the past 30 years.  Planokc will outline strategies to strengthen the city’s economy, striving to reverse the recent trend of manufacturing employment out-migration, identify critical needs and opportunities, and provide guidance for efforts related to land assembly, infrastructure improvements, and recruitment.
 
It will also preserve the city’s history and character and enhance community appearance by promoting high quality design in development, strengthening special districts and neighborhoods.  The Plan will contain a future land use plan intended to direct the location, type, intensity and form of various types of development patterns that respect the characteristics of a particular geographic area, with the goal of achieving efficient and sustainable growth.  Oklahoma City will engage the public and integrate their input into a draft plan.
 
HUD’s Sustainable Communities Challenge Grants will foster reform and reduce barriers to achieving affordable, economically vital and sustainable communities.  These funds will be used by communities, large and small, to address local challenges to integrating transportation and housing. When these activities are done in conjunction with transportation projects, they can greatly increase the efficiency and access of local transportation while encouraging mixed-use or transit-oriented development. Such efforts may include amending or updating local master plans, zoning codes, and building codes to support private sector investment in mixed-use development, affordable housing and the re-use of older buildings. Other local efforts may include retrofitting main streets to provide safer routes for children and seniors, or preserving affordable housing and local businesses near new transit stations.
 
TIGER II Planning Grants will prepare or design surface transportation projects that would be eligible for funding under the TIGER II Discretionary Grant program.  These projects include highways, bridges, transit, railways, ports or bicycle and pedestrian facilities.
 
Rather than require applicants to navigate two separate grant application procedures that might be on different timelines and with different requirements, HUD and DOT joined their two new discretionary planning programs to create one point of entry to federal resources for local, innovative sustainable community planning projects.
 
The Community Challenge grants compliment the 45 Sustainable Communities Regional Grants announced last week by HUD. The Challenge Grants help to support local communities seeking to integrate housing, transportation, and environmental strategies that will enhance local economic development, provide greater housing and transportation choices, and develop long-range visions for how they want their community to grow.
           
The new HUD-DOT program also builds on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an innovative new interagency collaboration, launched by President Obama in June 2009, between the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  Guided by six Livability Principles, the Partnership is designed to remove the traditional federal government silos that exist between departments and strategically target the agencies’ transportation, land use, environmental, housing and community development resources to provide communities the resources they need to build more livable, sustainable communities. 

HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and  transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.

U.S. Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) and John McCain (R-AZ) today released a new oversight report: “Summertime Blues: 100 Stimulus Projects that Give Taxpayers the Blues.”  The report, a third in a series, highlights questionable stimulus projects that are wasteful, mismanaged, and overall unsuccessful in creating jobs. 

The projects featured in the report cannot be considered as an
investment in long-term priorities to create and sustain economic growth
that the Stimulus was designed to do. 

Coburn and McCain write in the report:

“Eighteen months since the passage of the stimulus bill, millions of jobs are still gone and the economy is as uncertain as ever.  The only thing getting a boost is our national debt.  The stimulus has helped push it 23 percent higher, to $13.2 trillion, a new record.”

“We owe it to all Americans that are paying taxes and struggling to find jobs, to rebuild our economy without doing additional harm, and to do it in a way that expands opportunities for future generations.  Too many stimulus projects are failing to meet that goal.”

“Washington should focus on re-igniting the unmatched power of the American entrepreneurial spirit by sweeping away government red tape, expanding markets for U.S. goods, making it easier for small businesses to obtain credit, and reducing our national debt by eliminating wasteful Washington spending.”

“We owe it to every American to rebuild our economy without doing additional harm and in a manner that expands opportunities for future generations of Americans. Job creation should be a national priority, but torrential, misdirected government spending is not the way to do it.”

Examples of wasteful projects include:

•   $554,763 for the Forest Service to replace windows in a closed visitor center at Mount St. Helens
•   $762,372 to create “Dance Draw” interactive dance software
•   $62 million for a tunnel to nowhere in Pittsburg, PA that even Governor, Ed Rendell called “a tragic mistake”
•   $1.9 million for international ant research
•   $1.8 million for a road project that is threatening a pastor’s home
•   $308 million for a joint clean energy venture with…BP
•   $89,298 to replace a new sidewalk that leads to a ditch in Boynton, OK
•   $3.8 million for a “streetscaping” project that has reduced traffic and caused a business to fire two employees
•   $16 million to help Boeing to clean up an environmental mess it created in 2007
•   $200,000 to help Siberian communities lobby Russian policy makers
•   $39.7 million to upgrade the statehouse and political offices in Topeka, Kansas
•   $760,000 to Georgia Tech to study improvised music
•   $700,000 to study why monkeys respond negatively to inequity
•   $193,956 to study voter perceptions of the economic stimulus
•   $363,760 to help NIH promote the positive impacts of stimulus projects
•   $456,663 to study the circulation of Neptune’s atmosphere
•   $529,648 to study the effects of local populations on the environment…in the Himalayas

The Hill.com is reporting that Jared Bernstein, Biden’s chief economic adviser, said McCain and Coburn’s report was an "inaccurate and misleading attack on programs that are putting Americans to work across the nation."

"[I]t’s very unfortunate that, once again, instead of trying to help create the conditions for stronger growth, to help build on the momentum of the Recovery Act, McCain and Coburn spend their valuable time cooking up phony critiques and, with their Republican colleagues, blocking votes of even bipartisan measures to help small businesses," Bernstein wrote on the White House blog.

The new report is the third in a series of reports by Coburn and McCain on the stimulus, which Republicans of all stripes have attacked as a spending boondoggle that’s done little to create jobs — despite administration claims otherwise. 

To read the entire report from Senators Coburn and McCain, click here.