We reported Sunday that Calvey’s brother, Michael, has helped funnel at least $270,000 into his brother’s campaign. Michael Calvey also gave to President Obama’s campaign in 2008. Federal Election Commission records show Michael Calvey, a wealthy international investor who has been wildly successful in Russia, has made political donations in the past to Obama For America, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, Forward Together PAC, Club For Growth PAC, the Democratic National Committee, the Ohio Democratic Party and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Asked last week about the irony of donating to his brother’s decidedly anti-Obama campaign, Michael Calvey said:  “Obama is the first and maybe the last Democrat to whom I make a contribution.”

Asked if he and his brother share political views, Michael Calvey said: “Kevin is a very strong-minded person. I wish I could say he listens to me, but I’m afraid that he doesn’t. We clearly don’t share the views on a lot of issues, but I completely agree with his issues on business and the economy, which are the most important, and I also, of course, have a huge respect for him and his integrity and obviously his military service.”

Senate Bill 1753 passed 44-0. There was no discussion. The bill, authored by Sen. Debbe Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City, now goes to the House for consideration. It does not have a title, which is needed to become law.

Open government advocates oppose the bill. Public employee groups support it.

Without dates of birth, it is nearly impossible to conduct accurate background checks of employees who are paid by taxpayer dollars.

We wrote a story about the issue last month showing why it’s impossible to tell whether more than 250 public workers in the Oklahoma City area are sex offenders because local governments won’t release their dates of birth despite state law and a recent attorney general opinion calling for the release of the information. Read the story here.

Public employee birth dates are currently open under the state Open Records Act, and are an open record in many other states.

Sounds like at least one state representative read Carrie’s stuff. Rep. Anastasia Pittman, D-Oklahoma City, has authored three bills that aim to fix the problem by providing better educational opportunities to the state’s blind students. Pittman recently won support for the bills from stakeholders in the state’s visually impaired community – many of the same people Carrie interviewed for her stories.

House Bill 3327 requires public schools to help pay for a blind student to attend a private school if the public school can’t provide adequate education for the student.

House Bill 3328 would allow the Department of Corrections of offer up inmate labor to help companies make Braille textbooks.

House Bill 3331 seeks to better prepare educators to accommodate the needs of blind students.

The bills have yet to be heard by committees.

Here’s a press release from Pittman’s office:

Visually Impaired Community Seeks Increased Education Choices

OKLAHOMA CITY – State Rep. Anastasia Pittman recently spoke to advocates and members of the visually impaired community about legislation to expand their educational options, increase their access to Braille materials and improve on their testing accomodations.

Crissleen Fowler is the parent of a 5-year-old child with no eyes that attends Tulsa public schools as a transfer student. Fowler said that despite the fact that she notified the school district long before her child entered it, they have never made accomodations. She sent her child to the Oklahoma School for the Blind for a while, but is trying to look for more options.

“I’m looking into putting her into a private school next year, depending on if I can get her adequate services,” Fowler said.

House Bill 3327, by Pittman, would require public schools to provide a scholarship at the parent’s requeest for a student to attend a private school if they could not provide proper education for a visually impaired student.

Fowler said she supports the legislation and thinks it would help visually impaired students in the Tulsa Union school district.

“Union is one of the biggest school districts and they are the ones that choose not to provide any services,” Fowler said. “I’m just hoping that the children in the district can get what they need.”

Logan Steen, an 11th grade student at the Oklahoma School for the Blind, said for many years she didn’t know she was legally blind, but couldn’t see to read. She’s been attending the school for the blind for two years and is pleased with the opportunities offered by the school. Steen is learning to pay bills, live independently and balance a checkbook in addition to her academic school curriculum.

“They (Oklahoma School for the Blind) basically tell us we can do anything,” Steen said. “I think what’s important is that kids be able to make up their mind on what they want to do and that people show that they want to help them.”

Steen said that she too supports House Bill 3327.

“I think that private schools could be a good options to help,” Steen said. “It just depends on what they do to provide services.”

Koby Cox, a visually impaired high school student and employee of Nano Pac, Inc., said he thinks accessible textbooks, graphs and charts are also important.

House Bill 3328, by Pittman, would authorize the Department of Corrections to enter into a contract for services of prisoners to translate and produce Braille books and materials for blind and visually impaired Oklahomans. Vicki Golightly of the Oklahoma Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped said they have been partnering with the North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, Oklahoma and would love to see an expansion of such partnerships throughout the state.

“It has been a very successful partnership, but it is a partnership that needs to be expanded,” Golightly said.

A third bill by Pittman would specify that the evaluation of visual impairment for students be conducted by a multidisciplinary team that would include a visual impairment certified teacher or certified orientation and mobility specialist. House Bill 3331 would also require the state Department of Education to offer training for school staff who work with visually impaired or blind students. Lastly, it would require special testing accomodations for visually impaired or blind students that could include special lighting, printout of the assessment in large print or Braille, an oral assessment or the use of assistive devices such as a magnifier, color overlays, an abacus or a Brailler.

Linda Raleigh, teacher of the visually impaired for Jenks public schools, noted that some students need to have their reading tests read aloud and that she is working with Pittman to amend the bill in committee.

“Although several accomodations are already provided, such as special lighting, printing of the assessment in large print or Braille, an oral assessment or the use of assistive devices such as a magnifier, color overlays, an abacus or a Brailler, there is no allowance for a reading test to actually be read aloud to a student,” Raleigh said. “Those students unable to read print or Braille due to physical restrictions, have no way of participating fully and equally in a reading assessment.”

“School budgets are tight and unfortunately school districts sometimes do not make the extra effort to accomodate visually impaired or blind students,” Pittman, D-Oklahoma City, said. “I want to try to address some of the challenges these students face and offer some support to the school through the Oklahoma Department of Education. It would be a real tragedy if this legislation did not get a hearing and these folks didn’t get a chance to lend their voice to the discussion.”

New View Oklahoma Director of Rehabilitation Cathy Holden said her organization is looking to support legislation to help the blind and visually impaired students of Oklahoma. She said while New View Oklahoma supports the Oklahoma School for the Blind they also want to help students who opt to remain in public schools.

“We are trying to get the services in the public schools so those individuals who choose to stay in the public schools can do so,” Holden said.

Mark Everhart speaking on behalf of the state Department of Education and Oklahoma Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Director Paul Adams were also present to address questions from parents and other members of the visually impaired community.

- A candidate for a state House seat dropped out of the race the day before a court appearance on a driving under the influence charge. Read the story.

- Repeat sex offenders who rape a child younger than six years old could be sentenced to death under House Bill 2965, which passed the House Judiciary Committee on Monday. The bill’s author, Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, said the bill helps Oklahoma get in line with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Duncan also authored another bill that passed the judiciary committee Monday; House Bill 2297 would increase the penalty to life in prison for adults who serve minors alcohol or drugs at a party that results in the death of a minor attending the party. Read the story.

- Some lawmakers want the power to remove judges and change their sentences. Said one prominent defense attorney: “Oh my gosh!” Read the story.

As Bryan Dean reported here yesterday, one option under consideration is declaring most of the land between downtown and the Oklahoma River an urban renewal area, which would make it easier for the city to use eminent domain to acquire land it needs for MAPS 3 projects. The area under consideration for urban renewal is commonly referred to as the Core to Shore area. Core to Shore was an in-depth planning process city leaders used a few years ago to decide how to connect downtown to the river and revitalize the downtrodden area in between.

Business writer and downtown guru Steve Lackmeyer had an article in today’s paper setting up the council’s discussion, which will likely span a few weeks. It’s sure to be a fiery talk – eminent domain is never without controversy, and MAPS 3 hasn’t been controversy-free, either.

The meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall and is open to the public. You can also watch it on Cox cable channel 20. The meeting agenda is online here; item VI-G is the urban renewal item.

U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, said he expects to see Tea Party supporters recruit candidates to run Republican congressional and state races. In November, they are more likely to support Republicans.

“If I were a Democrat, I would be very worried,” Cole said. “Republicans will deal with this probably mostly in the context of their primaries.

“The reality is it’s going to be pretty much in November an anti-Washington, anti-political establishment movement. It will just wrap itself overwhelmingly in favor of Republican candidates,” Cole said.

Cole’s comments came the same day that Tea Party leaders announced the formation of a political action committee that will raise money on behalf of about 15 to 20 Congressional candidates this year. Should be interesting to see if this new Tea Party PAC donates to any candidates in Oklahoma, which is already among the reddest of the red states.

Tea Party activists made their national arrival this summer during the now-infamous health care reform town hall meetings. The aggressive, vocal activism displayed in those meetings won them many fervent followers, but caused others to deride Tea Party activists as rude, immature and disrespectful.

Tea Party leaders have acknowledged lately that such a perception could harm their long-term goals, so they used used last week’s first-ever National Tea Party Convention to craft a more grown-up image as a well-organized and legitimate political movement. It’s no coincidence that the convention was used to unveil the new PAC, a move that shows the Tea Party folks are committed to putting money behind their message.

In politics, money talks.

Now it’s your turn to talk: How will Tea Party activism and its new PAC impact Oklahoma elections in 2010? Leave your thoughts as a comment. And please be nice.

From The Denver Post:

COLORADO SPRINGS — This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric.

More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.

Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won’t pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.

“I guess we’re going to find out what the tolerance level is for people,” said businessman Chuck Fowler, who is helping lead a private task force brainstorming for city budget fixes. “It’s a new day.”

Administration officials estimate the loss of those subsidies could cost the oil and gas industry as much as $40 billion over the next decade. Other parts of the president’s budget plan could harm the industry as well.

That loss could be especially noticeable in Oklahoma, Oklahoma City University economist Steve Agee said, because the state is so reliant to tax income generated by the oil and gas industry.

The industry accounts for nearly $14 billion in payroll and 98,000 jobs in Oklahoma, according to 2007 study by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

That equals about 5 percent of the state’s labor force.

Read the story.