Page Two
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Muskogee Phoenix
‘It’s inevitable that we will see it on the beaches’ Continued from Page 1A sighted offshore consist-
“We are doing what we can do, but we cannot change what has happened,” said John Dosh, emergency director for Escambia County, which includes Pensacola. Since the biggest oil spill in U.S. history began to unfold April 20 with an explosion that killed 11 workers aboard an offshore drilling rig, crude has fouled some 125 miles of Louisiana coastline and washed up in Alabama and Mississippi as well. Over the past six weeks, the well has leaked anywhere from 21 million to 45 million gallons by the government’s estimate. The latest attempt to control the leak is considered risky because slicing away a section of the 20-inch-wide riser could remove kinks in the pipe and temporarily increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent. The cap could be placed over the spill as early as Wednesday. If the strategy fails — like every other attempt to control the leak 5,000 feet underwater — the best hope is probably a relief well, which is at least two months from completion. As the oil drifted closer to Florida, beachgoers in Pensacola waded into the gentle waves, cast fishing lines and sunbathed, even as a twoman crew took water samples. One of the men said they were hired by BP to collect samples to be analyzed for tar and other pollutants. A few feet away, Martha Feinstein, 65, of Milton, Fla., pondered the fate of the beach she has been visiting for years. “You sit on the edge of your seat and you wonder where it’s going,” she said. “It’s the saddest thing.” Officials said the slick
ed in part of “tar mats” about 500 feet by 2,000 feet in size. County officials set up the booms to block oil from reaching inland waterways but planned to leave beaches unprotected because they are too difficult to defend against the action of the waves and because they are easier to clean up. “It’s inevitable that we will see it on the beaches,” said Keith Wilkins, deputy chief of neighborhood and community services for Escambia County. Florida’s beaches play a crucial role in the state’s tourism industry. At least 60 percent of vacation spending in the state during 2008 was in beachfront cities. Worried that reports of oil would scare tourists away, state officials are promoting interactive Web maps and Twitter feeds to show travelers — particularly those from overseas — how large the state is and how distant their destinations may be from the spill. In other developments: • Investors ran from BP’s stock for a second day, fearful of the potential cleanup costs, lawsuits, penalties and damage to the company’s reputation. • President Barack Obama said it is time to roll back billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies and use the money for clean energy research and development. • A pair of Democratic senators pressed BP to delay plans to pay shareholder dividends worth $10 billion or more. They called it “unfathomable” that BP would pay out a dividend before the total cost of the cleanup is known. BP had no comment.
Section A, Page 2
Court rejects Lawton teachers’ lawsuit over withheld pay OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Schoolteachers in Lawton have lost another round in their legal fight to recover $234,015 that was mistakenly withheld from their paychecks when a state appeals court ruled the school district is not financially responsible for the error. A three-judge panel of the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals has unanimously backed a Comanche County judge who overruled a class-action lawsuit teachers filed against Lawton Public Schools to collect payroll taxes withheld from nontaxable state retirement contributions. A teacher who filed the lawsuit in 2005 said Wednesday that she was disappointed by the decision. “It is a shame,” said Cynthia Nunn, a kindergarten teacher at Pioneer Park Elementary School who is among about 2,500 teachers affected by the payroll error. “It’s disappointing that they’re not stepping
up and trying to help out more.” In an eight-page decision handed down May 26, the appellate court ruled the district doesn’t have to compensate teachers because its contract with them doesn’t obligate the district to perform errorfree salary computations. “Here, there is not even a vague promise of an error-free wage computation because there is no promise at all,” according to the ruling written by appellate Judge Keith Rapp of Tulsa. Officials estimated that the most senior teachers were owed $408 due to the payroll deductions and the least senior teacher was owed $50. Nunn said school officials blamed the error on a computer glitch. “There was clearly a mistake,” said the teachers’ attorney, O. Christopher Meyers. “They clearly didn’t receive as much as they were supposed to.” Meyers said no decision had been made whether to
appeal the case to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. “I, too, thought that their cause was right,” Meyers said. “It may yet be determined to be that way.” The error occurred in the 1997-1998 school year, when the state began making contributions to teachers’ retirement accounts. The district withheld payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security from the contributions, according to the appellate court’s decision. The Internal Revenue Service directed the district in 1998 to stop withholding because the contributions were not taxable. But the withholding continued until October 2005 when a staff member questioned deductions on her paycheck. The district stopped withholding and took steps to obtain payroll tax refunds from the federal government. Refunds were issued for the years 2002 through 2005, but a federal statute of limitations
prevented refunds for prior years. District Judge Allen McCall ruled last year that the teachers’ contract did not obligate the district to compute and withhold the correct amount of payroll taxes. McCall rejected the teachers’ argument that there was an implied contractual obligation that the district breached. The school district’s attorney, Chuck Wade, said the district still managed to secure more than $500,000 in refunds for teachers for payroll taxes mistakenly withheld between 2002 and 2005. “We did everything we could to recover as much as we could for our teachers,” Wade said. “We did that at our expense.” But no one had thought to include language in the teachers’ contract requiring the district to correctly calculate withholding from payroll checks, Wade said. “We intended to make the calculations correctly,” he said. “We weren’t contractually responsible.”
less rate at 9.9 percent. All three counties were above 10 percent in March. Oklahoma’s statewide unemployment rate in April held steady at 6.6 percent, still well the national rate of 9.9 Southeast counties top behind percent. Three Northwest Oklahoma unemployment rate counties had the lowest unemOKLAHOMA CITY — ployment rates — Beaver (3.2 Southeast Oklahoma once again has the highest rates of percent), Harper (3.6 percent) and Dewey (3.7 percent). unemployment in the state, April’s rate was 6.1 percent but for the first time since December 2008, the jobless rate in Oklahoma County and 6.8 percent in Tulsa County. of all Oklahoma counties dipped below 10 percent last month. Authorities According to statistics reinvestigating fatal fire leased Wednesday by the Oklahoma Employment SecuJET — Alfalfa County aurity Commission, Hughes, La- thorities are investigating a timer and McCurtain counties house fire in Jet that killed shared the state’s highest job- two people.
Sheriff Charlie Tucker says Marchaleen Radig and 7year-old Gabriel Luna died in Monday night’s blaze. Tucker says Radig’s husband, Donald, her 22-year-old son, Austin, and a neighbor were hurt. Tucker says the state fire marshal’s hasn’t determined what the caused the blaze, which was reported at 11:38 p.m. He says when the Radigs were awakened by the fire, Donald Radig kicked the air conditioner out of the window to escape. Tucker says when Radig noticed his wife hadn’t followed him, he used a ladder to climb back up but couldn’t re-enter the bedroom. Luna also was sleeping in the bedroom.
Digest The Associated Press
Sinkhole closes down I-44 in south Tulsa
TULSA — Police are diverting traffic from Interstate 44 in south Tulsa after a sinkhole opened up that eventually reached across both eastbound and westbound lanes of traffic. Authorities say the hole first opened up about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, and steadily expanded. Oklahoma Department of Transportation crews planned to work overnight on repairing the gap, but officials said it could be Thursday afternoon before the highway reopens. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. George Brown said rush-
hour traffic would be affected Thursday morning, and urged motorists who normally use I44 between Peoria and Lewis avenues to find other routes.
‘We have a neurologist on site 92 percent of the time’ Continued from Page 1A
tervene more,” he said. “When a code stroke is called, the patient is taken based patient care. “Care is more organized to the CT scanner to deterbecause of our ability to in- mine if the patient re-
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quires clot-busting medication. A protocol is in place to move the patient more rapidly.” Emergency room director Misty Campbell said nurses have had more education in stroke recovery. “We have a neurologist on site 92 percent of the time,” Liggin said. “And
with Air Evac, we have a transfer agreement with St. John Stroke Center.” The St. John Stroke Center has a 22-bed neurotrauma intensive care unit and a 25-bed telemetry unit. Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding @muskogeephoenix.com.
How to prevent a stroke
Stroke warning signs
Simple lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of a stroke: • Eliminate tobacco use. • Eat a diet low in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol. • Engage in a more active lifestyle. • Avoid high blood pressure. • If you drink, do so in moderation.
• Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body. • Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding. • Trouble seeing in one or both eyes. • Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination. • Sudden severe headache with no known cause.
Source: St. John Stroke Center.
Source: American Stroke Association.
Guess Who’s Retiring Today From the VA Regional Office Central Area -They call her OJ The rest of us call her Jean!
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