Sports: TU’s new football staff is introduced. B1
Business: Meat prices fatten up. E1
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January 22, 2011
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Avis Budget, Ameron adding jobs • Avis Budget plans to add 60 jobs at its Tulsa call center by March 1. BY D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
Avis Budget Group Inc., which is seeking to acquire Tulsa-based Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc., is adding 60 jobs at its reservations and customer service center in Tulsa. The expanded employment at Avis Budget will provide a $10.7 million economic impact to the local economy, city officials said. Avis Budget executives said
the company is hiring customer service representatives and specialty reservations representatives by March 1 to work at its 115,000-square-foot worldwide reservations center at 4500 S. 129th East Ave. The facility now employs 550 people. “We’re adding to our customer service workforce in Tulsa, which is our contact center for our consumer, small business SEE AVIS A4
• A second Ameron steel pole plant should be open in about two years and create 50 jobs. BY KYLE ARNOLD
World Staff Writer
Ameron International Corp. already produces steel traffic signal poles and arms in Tulsa. A second facility will allow Ameron to continue its expansion to all 50 states. Courtesy
Ameron International Corp. said it will build a steel pole factory in north Tulsa that will create as many as 50 welding and engineering jobs. Ameron announced plans for the 75,000-square-foot plant Friday. Its products will be used for highway lighting, traffic control, light rail and smart grid structures.
The plant, located near 66th Street North and Whirlpool Drive, should be completed in about two years, said John Szabo, the company’s division president for pole structures. The project is estimated to cost $35 million. “These will be good-paying jobs for engineers and welders,” Szabo said. “These won’t be store clerk wages.” SEE POLES A4
LESS TIME IN THE CAR: MORE TIME FOR FUN
DEFENDER Scott Pruitt: “Oklahoma voters made clear their belief that the federal government, in this instance, has overreached its power and authority.”
Oklahoma files lawsuit over healthcare law BY BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma joined the attack on national health-care reform Friday as Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed a promised lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Muskogee. Pruitt’s suit challenges the socalled “individual mandate” to purchase health insurance and attempts to have the entire federal health-care law invalidated if any part of it is found unconstitutional. Voters on Nov. 2 passed State Question 756, which added a provision to the state’s Constitution that Oklahomans can’t be forced to participate in a health-care system. The suit raises the issue of whether Congress can require OklahoSEE CARE A10
Mayor’s pick for city auditor likely GOP BY P.J. LASSEK
World Staff Writer
Whomever Mayor Dewey Bartlett recommends to fill the unexpired city auditor’s term must be either a CPA or certified internal auditor and will likely be a Republican. A City Charter amendment approved by voters in 2009 mandates the accounting qualifications, which went into effect in early 2010. Mayoral Chief of Staff Terry Simonson said Friday that selecting a Republican for the post is likely because “that’s who the voters approved when they elected Preston Doerflinger.” The auditor seat is being vacated by Doerflinger, who is joining Gov. Mary Fallin’s Cabinet as secretary SEE PICK A10
Laurie Tomlinson and her husband moved to south Tulsa from Broken Arrow to shorten their commutes. STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World
Tulsa’s traffic not so bad
It ranks 75th out of 101 cities for delays
BY CARY ASPINWALL World Staff Writer
Laurie Tomlinson grew so tired of commuting nearly an hour each way every workday, she and her husband packed up and moved. After relocating to south Tulsa from Broken Arrow, the commute
to her marketing job at CityPlex Towers shrank to five minutes. “The commute was definitely a huge factor,” she said. “We’re just closer to everything in Tulsa in general.” If Tulsans have little tolerance for traffic congestion, it’s likely because residents don’t sit in traf-
Tulsa World now available on Kindle The Tulsa World’s daily newspaper is now available on the Amazon Kindle. The Tulsa World Kindle Edition contains most of the content in the newspaper’s print edition each day and is wirelessly delivered to 3G-enabled Kindle e-reader models. The Wi-Fi-only Kindles will need access to a Wi-Fi Internet connection to receive issues wirelessly. Features on the Kindle edition include changing the type size
used in each article for easier reading, searching an issue for articles of interest and archiving issues for later reading. The edition is designed specifically for the Kindle’s highly readable paper-like display, which can be easily read in bright sunlight. “The Kindle is a very popular e-reader, and we want readers who enjoy it to have access to the Tulsa World. This is another platform for our readers to receive our local content,” said
Robert E. Lorton III, publisher and CEO of World Publishing Co. A free 14-day trial is available. The Tulsa World Kindle Edition costs $8.99 a month or 99 cents per issue. The World’s Kindle Edition is also available with color images on the Kindle Reading Apps for Android devices. Learn more at tulsaworld.
com/kindle.
fic nearly as long as commuters in other cities, according to the 2010 Urban Mobility Report, published by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. On average, Tulsa commuters spend an extra 18 hours per year in SEE TIME A4
Inside today’s Tulsa World Animal House D2 Ask Amy ......... D4 Bridge............... D4 Comics .........D4,5 Crosswords .... D4 Editorial .........A20
Horoscope ......C11 Letters ...........A20 Movies............. D2 Religion...........A13 Obituaries......A16 Stocks ........... E3-5
Today High 44, Low 31 Increasing clouds. More weather on B8 BREAKING NEWS AT TULSAWORLD.COM
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St. John Broken Arrow iS now open.
A tradition of medical excellence,
To learn more, visit stjohnbrokenarrow.com or call PulseLine at (918) 744-0123.
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St. John Broken Arrow is located near the BA Expressway and Elm.
St. John Broken Arrow is managed by St. John Health System.
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