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Posted: 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010

KRMG Morning News "Stack of Stuff" and Notes 12/07/2010 

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By Joe Kelley, Host of the KRMG Morning News

  1. KRMG - Organizers of the McNellie's Parade of Lights unveil this year's poster but refrain from unveiling their feelings over the controversy surrounding the lack of Christmas in the name.  Parade Chairman Larry Fox did make some references to the flap during the Monday afternoon unveiling. The Tulsa City Council is set to consider the parade's application during a special meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday.  Councilors Maria Barnes, Bill Christiansen and Chris Trail all say they'll vote to approve the permit even though they do wish Christmas was part of the name.
  2. KOTV - BIXBY, Oklahoma -- A Bixby school is temporarily closed because of mold. Students at Brassfield 5th and 6th Grade Center have been relocated to other buildings on campus. Air quality tests are underway right now. Superintendent Dr. Kyle Wood notified parents of a possible mold scare on November 12th.  "We have been looking at Brassfield for air quality issues for a couple of months now and have utilized environmental hygienists," said Dr. Wood. What that industrial hygienist found was elevated levels of mold spores, including penicillin and aspergillus.
  3. KOTV - ROGERS COUNTY, Oklahoma -- The Oklahoma Department of Transportation says due to concerns about the deteriorating conditions of the westbound State Highway 66 Bridge over Bird Creek in Rogers County, east and westbound traffic will be detoured to the eastbound highway bridge. The Oklahoma Transportation Commission approved an emergency $733,000 bid Monday morning to build detour lanes around the bridge. That will shift traffic onto the adjacent bridge.
  4. KTUL - You can easily pick them out in the city hall parking lot, the cars and trucks with a Tulsa logo, and not much else. "Literally a white vehicle with nothing on it," said Tulsa city councilor GT Bynum. Imagine if you will, a tailgate sponsored by Best Buy, a hood with Lowes splashed on it, or a side panel with Target's bulls eye. "We shouldn't just be reliant on taxing people to bring in revenue," he said. Councilors Bynum and Trail are looking for marketing companies to point out potential opportunities.
  5. FOX23 - Sand Springs School District Superintendent Lloyd Snow says the Oklahoma Lottery has failed to live up to its education funding promise. He says the Lottery's payouts to education have been lower than predicted each of the past five years. "We've lost money in our base funding," Snow says. "And the lottery has not generated near the kind of revenue they were hoping for. So it's been another big disappointment." According to Snow, lottery funds were supposed to be a bonus on top of regular state funding. Instead, he says, state lawmakers diverted some of the funds that used to go to schools, expecting the lottery funds to make up the difference. But lottery numbers haven't been as high as expected.
  6. TULSA WORLD - Tulsa crews are slowly replacing many of the city's street signs with versions that are easier to read to comply with new federal Highway Administration regulations. Bumping up the size of the letters from 4 inches to 6 inches on roads with speed limits more than 25 mph, even more for other signs, and disallowing the use of all-capital letters are among the new rules included in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. It's part of an effort by the federal government to prepare municipal street systems for the aging motorist population. And for Tulsa, this means switching out tens of thousands of signs.
  7. TULSA WORLD - A group called Save Our Tulsa delivered six boxes full of petitions to City Hall on Monday bearing what it said were 84,000 signatures seeking a change in the city's form of government. "We're 120 percent sure that we've collected enough valid signatures needed to get the issues on the general election," said Tulsa businessman John Brock, who is leading the nonprofit group. The group circulated three separate initiative petition questions. It has until Jan. 4 to collect 16,709 valid signatures for each petition. The group began circulating the petitions Oct. 6, he said.
  8. Americans are getting a sour holiday surprise at the gas pump, where prices are the highest they've been in over two years. They may even hit a national average of $3 a gallon by January. Although supplies remain plentiful and gasoline demand has diminished since September, retail gas prices are rising because oil prices are at the highest levels since October 2008. The two-week advance continued on Monday as benchmark oil for January delivery rose 19 cents to settle at $88.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. A stronger dollar kept prices in check for most of the session. Since oil and other commodities are priced in dollars, a stronger dollar makes them more expensive for buyers who use other currencies.
  9. WSJ - President Barack Obama reached agreement Monday with Republican leaders in Congress on a broad tax package that would extend the Bush-era income tax cuts for two years, reduce worker payroll taxes for one year and give more favorable treatment to business investments. Other elements of the deal include a temporary reinstatement of the estate tax at 35%--the level favored by most Republican lawmakers--as well as an extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. White House officials will now try to persuade Democrats to back the agreement, but anger on the left suggests that Mr. Obama might need to rely heavily on Republican support to move legislation through Congress. Mr. Obama acknowledged that the agreement marked a significant reversal for him, as he has long argued that income tax cuts for couples earning more than $250,000 should expire. If the political stalemate continued and led to a broad tax increase, Mr. Obama said, "that could cost our economy well over a million jobs.''
  10. Facebook on Sunday began to roll out revamped profile pages that integrate more images and reorganize personal information - and, as with nearly every major change by the social network to date, users immediately began to complain. Many users, however, immediately began posting complaints about the new look and features. "This new layout is just confusing and makes us more like a set of numbers and links than an actual human with that 'profile' feel," wrote one. "Can you please stop 'updating' the aesthetics of Facebook as we once knew it to make it into a social media nightmare?" Another pointed out that his comments now note his employer. "Why is my job showing up next to my name on this post!? It's never happened before, & I did not authorize it!"
  11. The future of the space travel will undergo a crucial test Tuesday when the first privately owned spaceship attempts a launch into orbit. If it succeeds, SpaceX's Dragon capsule will then try to reenter the atmosphere - also a first for a nongovernment-owned spacecraft. The outcome of the launch will play a vital role in determining the direction of U.S. space travel as NASA looks to private companies to fill in the gap as the space shuttle program is put into mothballs next year. SpaceX - founded by PayPal guru Elon Musk - signed a $1.6 billion contract with NASA in December 2008 to conduct 12 resupply missions to the International Space Station. A second rocket-building company, Orbital Sciences Corp., has a similar $1.9 billion deal with NASA. Todays's test launch from Cape Canaveral will attempt to put the gumdrop-shaped Dragon capsule into orbit atop an 18-story Falcon 9 rocket. If it makes it back, it's hoped the capsule will land in the Pacific off California.
  12. WashTimes - Members of Congress on Monday called on President Obama to issue a public correction after he incorrectly labeled E pluribus unum the U.S.'s motto in a speech last month, rather than "In God We Trust." The lawmakers, members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, also said the president was making "a pattern" of dropping the word "Creator" when he recites the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence. Last month, while speaking at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Mr. Obama was trying to stress the similarity of the U.S. and Indonesia and said "it is a story written into our national mottos." "In the United States, our motto is E pluribus unum -- out of many, one," he said, then compared it to the Indonesian motto, "Bhennika Tunggal Ika -- unity in diversity." The official motto of the U.S., designated by a 1956 law, is "In God We Trust." E pluribus unum is the motto on the Great Seal of the United States, and appears on the ribbon held in the beak of the eagle that dominates the obverse side of the seal.
  13. A federal judge Monday rejected Wesley Snipes's "emergency" plea to forestall his prison surrender until after the holidays, noting that the actor has had more than two years to "place his affairs in order" and prepare family members for his incarceration. In a motion filed Friday in U.S. District Court, Snipes noted that he has "four minor children ranging in age from 4 years old to 9 years old" and that he was scheduled to surrender "in the middle of the holiday season." This argument did not sway Judge William Terrell Hodges, who today issued an order denying Snipes's motion. "The natural and inevitable consequence of any substantial sentence or imprisonment," Hodges ruled, "is to separate Defendant from his family during holidays and at all other times of significance to a particular family unit--birthdays, weddings, and the like."
  14. SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a fiscal emergency and is asking lawmakers to meet in a special session to save the state $9.9 billion over the next two years. Schwarzenegger on Monday unveiled a plan that relies largely on cuts to health care and social services for the poor. About $7.4 billion of his proposal would come from cuts, include reducing cash assistance to needy families by 15.7 percent in April, then eliminating the entire welfare-to-work program in July. He is proposing to eliminate vision coverage and increasing monthly premiums for Healthy Families, a program that provides health coverage for children of low-income families. The governor also is asking the state to limit prescriptions and cap physician visits to 10 a year for Medi-Cal recipients.
  15. Washington State Gov. Chris Gregoire today called for Washington to hold its own emergency legislative session and said the state faces a budget shortfall of $1.1 billion, the Seattle Times reported. Like in California, the long-term picture is equally troubling, with a projected $6 billion deficit projected over the next three years. Washington's answer? It may involve cutting health care benefits, raising taxes and closing tax loopholes, the Northwest News Network reported.
  16. ABC - Elizabeth Edwards, recently released from the hospital where she was admitted over Thanksgiving, has stopped all cancer treatment, her family announced today. Edwards, 61, who is estranged from her husband and one-time presidential hopeful John Edwards, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. "Elizabeth has been advised by her doctors that further treatment of her cancer would be unproductive," said a statement released by Edwards' family. "She is resting at home with family and friends." A close friend of the Edwards family told ABC News that John Edwards is among those who are at her side. The friend described the environment at the house as warm and peaceful. The mood was sad, but also full of warm feelings too.
  17. George W. Bush's job approval rating as president has spiked to 47 percent, according to a Gallup poll released Monday. That's 1 point higher than President Barack Obama's job approval rating in a poll taken the same week. This is the first time Gallup asked Americans to retrospectively rate Bush's job performance. And it was a stunning turnaround from his low point of 25 percent in November 2008. The 47 percent number is 13 points higher than the last Gallup poll taken before Bush left office in 2009 and the highest rating for him since before Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
  18. FEDERALTIMES.COM - President Obama spoke of the need for sacrifice last week when he announced a two-year pay freeze for federal employees. But feds won't be too terribly deprived in 2011 and 2012. Despite the freeze, some 1.1 million employees will receive more than $2.5 billion in raises during that period. Congress is expected to approve Obama's proposal, which cancels only cost-of-living adjustments for two years. Regularly scheduled step increases for the 1.4 million General Schedule employees -- who make up two-thirds of the civilian work force -- will continue. The size of those increases ranges from 2.6 percent to 3.3 percent and by law kick in every one, two or three years, depending on an employee's time in grade. John Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called Obama's plan "wrongheaded" and driven by politics. But he said the news that step increases will not be affected takes some of the sting out of the decision.
  19. Nurses groups are criticizing Dr. Mehmet Oz, the host TV's The Dr. Oz Show, for an episode last month about weight loss that showed six women dressed as sexy nurses, wearing caps and white dresses with red lingerie showing, who danced briefly with Oz and the audience. The nonprofit group The Truth About Nursing called the segment demoralizing and demeaning to nurses, and the American Nurses Association also slammed it, with spokeswoman Joan Hurwitz saying, "It's disappointing in terms of a show like 'Dr. Oz' using that kind of sexist caricature of nursing." The show apologized in a statement Monday (December 6th) that said, "Any attempt at humor should never call into question Dr. Oz's utmost respect for the nurses with whom he works and has lauded in other shows." Sandy Summers, the executive director of The Truth About Nursing, responded by calling for an on-air apology.
  20. PROBLEM WITH PRINTING $100 BILLS: Because of a problem with their printing presses, the federal government has shut down production of its new $100 bills, and has quarantined more than one billion of them, which amounts to more than 10 percent of all existing U.S. cash, according to CNBC. The new bills were touted as having high-tech security features, including a 3-D security strip and a color-shifting image of a bell, designed to foil counterfeiters. But it turns out the bills are so high-tech that the presses can't handle the printing job.
  21. KATIE COURIC WILL DANCE ON 'GLEE': Katie Couric will be dancing on Glee. Jane Lynch revealed details of the CBS Evening News anchor's upcoming cameo, telling Access Hollywood, "She's also doing a dance with [Matthew Morrison]. She'll be doing 'Tea for Two.'" Couric will appear on the show's post-Super Bowl episode on February 6th.
  22. DOG BITES TWO ON PLANE HEADED TO PHOENIX: A dog that was on board a US Airways flight to Phoenix bit a passenger and a flight attendant yesterday (Monday, December 5th), prompting the pilot to make an emergency landing in Pittsburgh. A spokesperson for the airline said the dog was a 12-pound Manchester terrier named Mandy whose 89-year-old owner let her out of the cage. When the dog's "sedatives began wearing off" a man sitting next to the elderly woman tried to calm the animal and was bitten. The dog got loose and "ran up and down the aisle of the plane barking." A flight attendant who grabbed the dog was bitten as well. Both bites were minor but the spokesperson said, "The captain felt in the interest of safety, it was better to land and have them looked at than continue on."
  23. IOWA PRISONERS TO ROLL THEIR OWN TP: An Iowa state prison is trying to cut costs by having their inmates make their own toilet paper. The state's inmates, who already make dozens of products ranging from janitorial chemicals to office furniture and clothing, use about 900,000 rolls of TP every year. Having the inmates at Fort Dodge roll their own paper would reportedly save the state $100,000. Iowa Prison Industries Director Roger Baysden said, "Our challenge is to seek out new things that we can do, and, well, toilet tissue is a high-consumption item."
  24. Google jumped into the online book war yesterday, launching Google eBooks with hundreds of thousands of titles for sale and millions more available for free. Users will access the titles in their eBooks "bookshelf" through their Google accounts. The books will be stored in the cloud, and they'll be accessible on computers, tablets, phones, and e-readers. Google has already unveiled apps for the iPhone, iPad, iTouch, and Droid.
  25. So, who is responsible for you finally being able to download BEATLES music on i-Tunes? Why, HEATHER MILLS, of course! Sir PAUL McCARTNEY's ex-wife told the UK's Daily Mail that the deal only happened because she personally set it all up with Apple boss STEVE JOBS. But, Heather said she won't be taking any legal action for her cut because her days in court are long over. She got close to 40-million dollars in her divorce from Paul.
  26. A coffee shop in Canada is serving up coffee made from cat poop. The Calgary Sun reports the Bean Stop coffee shop is now serving Kopi Luwak --also known as cat poop coffee. Cafe owner KEN CUTLER says the special blend of java will appeal to both connoisseurs and people who will try it just to say they did. The coffee originates from Thailand. It's made when the tree-dwelling palm civet cat eats coffee beans. Harvesters simply wait for the beans to come out the other end. Shop-owner Cutler says the cat poop coffee is one of the most unique blends of java you can find. He claims, "It's very smooth. It's got both a fruity and an earthiness, it's almost got a natural sweetness to it which is very unusual."
  27. MONDAY, Dec. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Long-term use of a daily low-dose aspirin dramatically cuts the risk of dying from a wide array of cancers, a new investigation reveals. Specifically, a British research team unearthed evidence that a low-dose aspirin (75 milligrams) taken daily for at least five years brings about a 10 percent to 60 percent drop in fatalities depending on the type of cancer. The finding stems from a fresh analysis of eight studies involving more than 25,500 patients, which had originally been conducted to examine the protective potential of a low-dose aspirin regimen on cardiovascular disease. The current observations follow prior research conducted by the same study team, which reported in October that a long-term regimen of low-dose aspirin appears to shave the risk of dying from colorectal cancer by a third.
  28. There was spirited celebration on the San Diego waterfront Monday morning after the vessel Vagabond returned from a long-range fishing trip into Mexican waters and offloaded the heaviest yellowfin tuna ever caught by an angler. The behemoth, landed by Mike Livingston of Sunland, Calif., weighed 405.2 pounds; it's girth was 61 inches and it measured nearly 86 inches from nose to tail. The catch, made on 100-pound-test line after nearly a three-hour fight, will be submitted to the International Game Fish Assn. for approval as an all-tackle world record. Capt. Mike Lackey said IGFA rules were followed so the catch likely will replace the current record, a 388-pound 12-ounce specimen, which has stood since 1977.
  29. LONDON (Reuters) - A musician who went into a central London sandwich store to buy something to eat has had a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin worth 1.2 million pounds ($1.9 million) stolen, police said on Monday. British Transport Police have launched a public appeal to get the rare instrument back and the musician's insurer, Lark Insurance Broking Group, has offered a 15,000-pound reward for information leading to its recovery. Detective Inspector Andy Rose said the theft took place on the evening of Monday, November 29, outside Euston train station.
  30. LONDON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks published more details of sites around the globe that the United States considers vital to its interests, prompting strong criticism that the website is helping militants identify sensitive targets for attack. The details are part of 250,000 diplomatic cables obtained and being made public by the website. The list begins with a cobalt mine in Kinshasa, Congo and refers to various locations in Europe where drug companies produce insulin, treatment for snake bites and foot and mouth vaccines. In the Middle East, it notes that Qatar will be the largest source of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 2012 and also refers to the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia, the largest crude oil process and stabilization plant in the world.
  31. LONDON -- Police say WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested on a Swedish warrant. Assange was arrested at 9:30 a.m. (0930 GMT) Tuesday and was due to appear at Westminster Magistrate's Court later in the day. Assange was expected to surrender to British police Tuesday as part of a Swedish sex-crimes investigation - one of a host of international legal, financial, and security challenges closing in on the secret-spilling website. Assange must appear in court before 12:30 p.m. U.K. time (6:30 a.m. Tulsa time) unless a judge extends time. WikiLeaks has no current plans to release encryption code for remaining U.S. cables, sources tell Guardian. WikiLeaks spokesman says Assange's arrest is an attack on media freedom and will not prevent further leaks.
  32. BusInsider - It's war! Earlier today we noted how the Swiss bank Switzerland Post Finance (a bank associated with the Swiss post office) had frozen Julian Assange's bank account for his defense fund. Well, payback. As NYT reports, their site has now been taken offline, and a group calling itself Operation Payback on Twitter claims credit for the DDOS.
 
 

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