Declarations

Very Bad News

“America’s job-creators pay attention to the Judicial Hellholes report. This is very bad news for Oklahoma, and it is the latest in a long list of damaging publicity Gov. Henry created for our state with his veto.”

—State Senate Co-President Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, commenting on the “dishonorable mention” given to Oklahoma by the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) in the annual “Judicial Hellholes” list. Coffee blamed Gov. Brad Henry’s veto of bipartisan lawsuit reform legislation during the 2007 session for keeping Oklahoma in the dishonorable mention category for the fourth consecutive year.

Cooperating Fully

“We have cooperated totally with the board and staff in the context of the investigation and will continue to cooperate.”

—Rob Reiger, attorney for former Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Robert Wooley, responded to ethics charges against his client that were made public Jan. 2. Wooley, Deputy Insurance Commissioner Chad Brown and insurance consultant Chris Faser III, of Baton Rouge, face state ethics charges related to hunting and fishing trips taken while Wooley was in office. AP.

It Could Be Overwhelming

“With so many different types of attractions and events, it can be overwhelming to know where to go or what to see. … These tools can help spark ideas for creating and planning memorable family experiences.”

—Abby Cash, director of Oklahoma agritourism. Oklahoma’s largest industries, agriculture and tourism, have developed a new program to give local tourist destinations a new level of exposure. The Oklahoma Agritourism initiative, a partnership between the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Division, recently released an agritourism map and introduced a Web site to give travelers an easy reference to the different attractions across the state. Agritourism attraction owners said the new initiative is a benefit to them as well as the state. AP.

Every Season Unique

“By only focusing on the 2004 and 2005 seasons, it is easy to forget that every hurricane season is unique and actual landfall activity is a function of complex interactions between a range of environmental factors.”

—Dr. Peter Dailey, director of research in atmospheric science at AIR Worldwide Corp. The company says new research on the link between the formation of hurricanes in the Atlantic basin and U.S. landfall activity suggests that using Atlantic basin hurricane activity as a proxy for landfall activity can lead to erroneous estimates of both landfall risk and potential insured losses. Researchers found that a higher number of tropical storms in the Atlantic basin does not translate to an equivalent increase in hurricanes or landfalling hurricanes.

Topics Agribusiness Hurricane Oklahoma