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Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is making noises about a settlement in the poultry lawsuits. Taking a menacing tone, Edmondson says the companies may go broke if they lose to him in federal court. The trial is scheduled to go before a jury in September of 2009.There was no mention of how much his buddy Mike Turpen will receive for doing nothing, but Turpen will need more cash as he is exhausting the proceeds from his share of doing nothing for the phony tobacco settlement to buy his way into polite Oklahoma City society. From LegalNewsline.com:
Tyson Foods has made yet another publicity miscalculation, but this time it has nothing to do with Oklahoma. As the Tyson v. Edmondson trial date draws near, here is yet another public blemish on Tyson’s reputation: Tyson has canceled Labor Day and added a Muslim holiday! Then, a week later Tyson says ‘OOPS!’, and recants the holiday replacement.
Tyson Foods is represented in Oklahoma by the Schnake-Turnbo-Frank PR firm. One observer of the Oklahoma case says STF’s botched handling of the publicity is a major roadblock in getting a favorable ruling by a jury. “Drew Edmondson’s publicity team has overwhelmed the Tyson PR firm, mostly because they’re a standard PR company in over their head when it comes to litigation support. Why in the world Tyson has let this go on I’ll never understand because the lawyers and their trial consultants know this botched aspect of the case is going to be very difficult to overcome,” she says.
Picture courtesy of Conium
The website www.oklittermarket.org has been deactivated. Why is this important you ask? This is the website which promotes animal manure transfer programs and puts buyers and sellers of poultry litter together to move poultry litter out of nutrient-threatened watersheds. More strong arming from W.A.D.?
Related:
FLASHBACK: The Means Justifies the Ends Mr. Attorney General?
Hat tip: Norman Transcript
“Anyone who votes Republican in a national race and who is a member of organized labor, or a friend of organized labor, well, that’s like a chicken voting for Col. Sanders.”- W.A.D. Edmondson
No word yet if this was a joke or threat from the over aggressive Attorney General!
Courtesy of Conium
“…82% of the (Oklahoma) streams tested statewide did not meet the (bacteria) standards for primary body contact…EPA is investigating to see if it is a criteria issue or if there is actually a public health risk.” – Bill Cauthron, Oklahoma Water Resources Board, June 20, 2006.
Almost two years have passed since Mr. Cauthron made those comments to the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission. In 2007 The Water Resources Board had bacteria sampling stations at 102 locations on 44 streams across the state of Oklahoma. Only 11 of those stations reported bacteria levels appropriate for primary body contact for people recreating in Oklahoma streams. Anecdotal reports suggest Oklahoma’s lakes may be just as bad, if not worse.
Ed Fite of the Scenic Rivers Commission has initiated a bacteria sampling program for the Illinois River for this summer with samples being taken from 8 locations twice weekly – a truly comprehensive effort.
Some of those samples have shown normal bacteria levels. Some of those samples have shown higher levels.
The higher bacteria samples from last week were trumpeted by the press, and the result was predictable – the coverage caused visitors to cancel reservations to float on the Illinois River. Those tourists probably recreated on other streams and lakes – streams and lakes we know 8 out of 10 times also exceed the bacteria levels for primary body contact.
To focus only on the Illinois River appears to be an act of economic terrorism against the small business community of the Illinois River watershed. Those businesses should not be asked to shoulder the burden of what is without question a statewide problem – periodic high levels of bacteria in our lakes and streams.
On the one hand, Ed Fite should be commended for having the initiative to build a weekly data base for bacteria levels this summer on the Illinois for future study and analysis. On the other hand, the selective use of that information as a weapon to hurt small family business is reprehensible. Hopefully this incident will prompt the State Chamber of Commerce to begin work now with state water quality agencies to develop a public information system based on knowledge, not hysteria.
The Illinois River may be our state’s most discussed stream, but it is only one stream of many that people use for recreation. Water quality is a statewide issue that demands statewide focus and resources.
The 2007 Oklahoma Water Resources Board Beneficial Use Monitoring Program can be viewed on their website, www.owrb.ok.gov – the 177-page document is listed under the water quality section.
Rick Stubblefield
Adair County Representative
Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission
Hearing that Edmondson and Turpen were again using a once-respected public affairs show to dissemble on the Oklahoma public reminds us of the fat (no pun intended) payout Turpen received as the result of his alliance with the attorney general.
Oklahoma will eventually receive $2.6 billion dollars in the national tobacco settlement. Edmondson appointed several law firms to walk off with the lottery earnings while the firms pretended to litigate on behalf of the citizens of the state. The hard working lawyers, who according to most reports spent no time in the courtroom, got $268 million in fees for their “strategic contribution.”
Six national law firms, including movie-lawyer-turned-criminal defendant Richard Scruggs, shared the winnings with among others, Riggs Abney of Tulsa. The law firms attempted to charge the taxpayers a rate of $6000 per hour, but gave the citizens a break since they are such good guys.
Scruggs has been busy these days, but Edmondson was able to bring Scruggs’ buddy Ron Motley into the poultry suit, which we’re sure he’s doing for the children and not in hopes of another obscene profit safari.
Related:
FreePaulJacob.com: Edmondson helps block term limits on himself
Courtesy of one of our “Capitol reporters”
Drew Edmondson and his entourage filed into the House gallery on Thursday of last week to personally hear the debate and watch the vote on the state-wide elected official term limits bill (SB 1987). Edmondson was seen hastily walking out of the chamber in disgust of passage of the measure. Reportedly, Edmondson spent the rest of the morning arguing with fellow Democrat and lobbyist Pat Hall about this legislation passing the Senate and going to a vote of the people.
Edmondson is targeting Sen. Nancy Riley and Sen. Susan Paddack to change their orginal YES vote for term limits to a NO vote in the coming weeks. Seems Drew doesn’t want to leave his office anytime soon…
From freepauljacob.com:
Yes, it’s true. Drew Edmondson, the four-time incumbent attorney general of Oklahoma, notorious for abusing the power of his office to prosecute honest supporters of Oklahomans’ citizen initiative rights, has publicly stated his opposition to a bill that would limit his tenure as well as that of other state officials. Read more…
GetRightOK.com: The fight of the session: Term Limits v. Entrenched Incumbent
Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, and private attorneys have recently asked the court for an injunction against the poultry companies as part of a 2005 lawsuit, to stop the spreading of poultry litter near the Illinois River Watershed area before the “Spring Rains,” arrive.
Spring, however, arrived March 21, this year, and we’ve already had a lot of that Spring rain. Meanwhile, Attorney General Edmondson has asked the court for a four-month extension to produce expert witness reports. Spring 2008 will be a non-issue by then, of course. The court has granted a 45 day extension.
In three years of negotiations, these attorneys have not had time to gather the needed expert witness reports? Perhaps they meant Spring 2009?
So do “pigs, sheep, wild birds, deer, leaky septic tanks and city sewer plants.” This seems to be the argument from the poulty industry in response to Drew Edmondson’s arguments for stopping the disposal of chicken litter near the Illinois watershed, according to a report in the Arkansas Democrat and Gazette.
Edmondson, according to the report wasn’t impressed, and wondered if this all they’ve got:
That’s not a denial of the role they play. They’ve been saying there are other contributors. We’ve said ‘Yes, that’s true, but you are the biggest contributor.’ What separates the impact of poultry litter from cattle manure is timing. [Explaining that cow manurem for example is deposited by the cows year round, whereas poultry farmers saturate the ground with it in the Spring, at the beginning of the growing season, just as the weather is warming up and people start going to the river for recreational purposes].
People don’t canoe in those other rivers. We are willing to go where the evidence takes us. The evidence points at the poultry industry, not the cattle industry. We could be more active in fencing cattle away from streams and having setbacks from rivers, but if we want to get into the pollution of the Illinois River, the answer is in poultry.
Previously, OKPNS reported that the Poultry Industry called into question the use of private law firms on a contigency-fee basis for the state of Oklahoma in Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s case against several Arkansas poultry companies, which may not be in the best interest of Oklahomans
A motion was filed last year by Tyson foods, saying, such a practice “violates both the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions:”
The Contingency Fee Contract transgresses due process under both the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions because it inextricably commingles use of the State’s power by private attorneys with an executory obligation on the part of the State to provide these attorneys with massive private profit that varies depending on the results of the litigation.
[...]
Moreover, because the Contract commits a large percentage of any damages the State may recover to the State Contingency Lawyers in the absence of a specific legislative authorization, the Attorney General has violated the separation-of-powers provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution…
Also, we reported that there is a trend nationwide and in Oklahoma, for private law firms to financially support the campaigns of only Democrat Attorney’s General.
Now, Legal Newsline has discovered that the major law firm on Drew Edmondson’s lawsuit against the poultry industry, Riggs Abney, has been one of Drew Edmondson’s “most faithful [campaign] contributors:”
The Tulsa firm’s first public connection with Edmondson, who has been Oklahoma’s AG since 1992, appeared in the late 1990s. Riggs Abney was one of several Oklahoma firms that worked with Edmondson on the state’s tobacco settlement, which landed Oklahoma’s private attorneys $250 million from the final settlement – and Riggs Abney $30 million.
In the years since then, AG Edmondson and the Oklahoma Democratic Party have counted Riggs Abney as amongst their most faithful contributors. In the years 2001-2004, one researcher discovered, 15 attorneys at Riggs Abney donated almost $50,000 to Edmondson’s re-election campaigns.
Partners M. David Riggs and Mike Turpen were Edmondson’s largest individual donors within the firm, giving $8,600 and $8,100 respectively.