Oklahoma Watchdog, editor

andrew@oklahomawatchdog.org

OKLAHOMA CITY — State Rep. Charles Key (R-Oklahoma City) sent out a press release late last week noting that he had been misquoted in an April 12 Associated Press article.

As Key wrote in a piece headlined “Keep the power in hands of people,”  published by The Tennessean newspaper, Nashville, the AP got it wrong about Key’s desire to file legislation next year which would lead to the creation of a state-sanctioned militia.

Key wrote, “I had made it clear several times in the interview that I had no intention to file, knew of no other legislator who was planning to file such legislation, and hadn’t discussed the possibility with anyone. Two days later, in a meeting with the reporter (Sean Murphy) and his supervisor (Kelly Kissel) it was revealed that the AP had decided to write a story on the militia.”

Key continues, “They were determined to find a connection to the Tea Parties, conservative legislators and other grassroots Constitutional organizations one way or another. The story not only attributed false statements to me and others but also went national to a willing press who repeated the false information over and over.”

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By Steven Allen Adams 

West Virginia Republican Executive Committee Chairman Doug McKinney is causing more controversy, this time in regards to a member of the Executive Committee currently under investigation for prescription fraud.

According to the Associated Press, Dr. Diane Shafer – a member of the West Virginia Republican State Executive Committee since 2006 – is facing a number of prescription fraud-related charges in relation to her Williamson clinic. FBI agents over the last few months have seized hundreds of thousands of dollars, pre-written prescription pads, and netted over $1.36 million in criminal activities. Shafer also has had controversial dealing with medical licensing boards in both W.Va. and Kentucky.

From a press release from US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia concerning Lisa Baisden, an employee of Shafer’s who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain controlled substances by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge:

“From at least 2004 to 2009, Baisden worked for Dr. Diane Shafer in Williamson, WV. In 2009, Baisden provided several individuals with prescriptions which had been pre-signed by Dr. Shafer. Baisden would remove pre-signed prescriptions from patients charts and give them to individuals in return for a portion of the pills for her own use.”

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“When times are tough, you tighten your belts,” the president said. “You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”

But that’s just good advice for you and me. As for the President, a weekend spending binge in Vegas is just the thing.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – President Barack Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.

Obama’s move, detailed by aides in advance of his town hall here Friday, is the latest by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession. The downturn is taking an election-year toll on Obama’s party as voter frustration builds.

Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.

While Massachusetts recipients of federal stimulus money collectively report 12,374 jobs saved or created, a Globe review shows that number is wildly exaggerated. Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started.

The review saw some agencies that had reported creating dozens of jobs created recant their stories.

“There were no jobs created. It was just shuffling around of the funds,’’ said Susan Kelly, director of property management for Boston Land Co., which reported retaining 26 jobs with $2.7 million in rental subsidies for its affordable housing developments in Waltham. “It’s hard to figure out if you did the paperwork right. We never asked for this.’’

Massachusetts has received about $4 billion dollars from the $787 billion stimulus package and has another $1 billion on the way. But the Globe reports that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to discern whether or not the cash influx is stimulating anything other than exaggeration.

The federal stimulus report for Massachusetts has so many errors, missing data, or estimates instead of actual job counts that it may be impossible to accurately tally how many people have been employed by the massive infusion of federal money.

The situation in Massachusetts is not unique. Reports have been filed from other media sources outlining misleading job numbers and some outright storytelling. An AP report about the White House claims last month that the stimulus was responsible for 30,000 jobs, showed that that was not at all the case:

“The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.”

The study highlighted some of the more egregious errors in the White House report:

- A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced.

- A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs with recovery money, but none was created from stimulus spending.

- A Florida child care center said its stimulus money saved 129 jobs but used the money on raises for existing employees.

After these reports were first filed, Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged that the claims were not “100 percent accurate.” The vice president went on to pledge that “further updates and corrections are going to be needed.” A timetable for such corrections has not yet been established.