I think that, on average, I "influence" about twenty-five people a day. Or maybe I just annoy them. I don't know. Most of them don't say anything.

Mr. Bates,

Thanks for the mention. Congrats on the Urban Tulsa piece! Clearly you are an influential Influential. It's wonderful to see the impact of blogs seriously discussed in the local media.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks again,

Matt

I showed "Loyal Apposition" to Mark Easter,
Director of Information Technology. Many thought
G.W. Schulz cover story was very well written.
Mark's picture is on the front page of the Bixby
Bulletin August 3rd issue. He also has a picture
in the newspaper with Mike Melvill, astronaut of
SpaceShipOne where Mike spent time with Mark showing him the great technology.

I see Arena Excitement is on the front page of the Tulsa World. Now what will the placement of the new Arena do to the Tulsa World property value? (Yes, we all know the Lortons are already rich)

Susan, I'd link to that Bixby Bulletin story if it were online. Susan's husband, Mark Easter, was my boss for many years at FlightSafety, and a very good boss he was, too. He was very understanding and supportive of my civic involvement -- for a time he served on the Bixby city council. Susan, tell Mark I said hi!

Mike, the Bixby Bulletin is owned by Neighbor-Newspapers and to my knowledge, it is not on-line. Mark's picture is on the front page of the Bixby Bulletin (see bottom color page "see what honor Mark received") They can be purchased at Neighbor-Newspapers on 4lst (between Memorial and Mingo) or in Bixby at 9lst and Memorial (Walmart) or the convenience store at 111st and Memorial. There are also pictures of Mark with Mike on Page 5. Brittany, our daughter and winner of the top Oklahoma middle school Spirit of Community award is also in a separate picture showing off SpaceShipOne with
Mike Melvill(astronaut)autograph. Mike Melvill and SpaceshipOne is in the background. It's the August 4th Bixby Bulletin if you buy one you should feel free to post it. The photos belong to us. While Downtown Tulsa is getting the Arena, I think there is a lot that can be done in Tulsa County if our leaders in Tulsa can
bring in future businesses with financial incentives given for
research and production of new inventions and new
technology. I worked with Mark on several votes in Bixby that was a success. Mark also wrote
a manual for Bixby that saved the Bixby taxpayers several thousand dollars. Mark is
brilliant and would make a good Governor, Senator, or Congressman for Oklahoma one day. He's got the brains, vision as he was given credit by top people as a
visionary for FlightSafety International. He was also voted as Key Employee by corporate FlightSafety International as one of the key employee players in the Broken Arrow division. He looked inside SpaceShipOne and instantly figured out where the technology was that made it run. Mark is a Director of Computer Information Technology. It's millionaires and
billionaires like Paul Allen that are willing
to invest in our future with unbelievable success. SpaceshipOne will be enshrined in the
Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Insititution. I just happened to be in Washington, DC with Brittany at the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian in May. Brittany
received a national award from COLIN POWELL, advisor to three United States Presidents.
It was interesting to read news in the Washington, DC newspapers and then to fly back a few days later and see the news as "current" news in the Tulsa World.
Ken Neal, Editorial Page Editor of the Tulsa World is supposed to be fair and balanced with
Letters to the Editor. When there was discussion
of the art being displayed at the Tulsa Zoo, one
Sunday he posted all negative reviews. Sunday is their biggest news day. He waited until light
news days during the week to post the positive
comments. Also realize he sees nothing wrong with the religious art that is already on display
at the Tulsa Zoo. The Tulsa Zoo gets generous
amounts of money from Tulsa Zoo Friends and supporters that give at higher levels.

Congratulations to the Media Bloggers Assn. for representing Michael D. Bates. Our son, Chris, that is a member of D.C.I. International learned
about "fair use" in one of his advanced placement classes.

As for District 4, Tulsa World endorsed Tom Baker who has been a big dissapointment. My parents live in District 4 and had a City of Tulsa street renovation in Florence Park. The City did some very bad work and left a few of the neighbors including my parents home with cracked concrete work and cracked driveways from Keystone Concrete. The City of Tulsa hired them and still has not taken care of the problem. Their workers littered constantly throughout the project which was about 12 months long that went on the property of my parents. I picked up hundreds of littering throughout the project because the City of Tulsa supervisors never made the workers they hired pick up their trash they left on my parents property. They used my parents house as a home base where they parked their big equipment. That's why this property was damaged the worst. Each day they would go in and out hitting into the concrete driveway damaging it and tearing out their terrace and even above the terrace. The workers were careless even when I watched them they did not care. There were many workers on this project. I complained to the supervisor that was overseeing the workers the City of Tulsa hired. He looked at the litter, never made his crew pick up their litter and said the workers the City of Tulsa hired only had to pick up their personal trash and the trash from the project when the whole project was done. Now isn't there a fine in Tulsa $100 for littering? Do people get off for littering if they tell the judge I will pick up that litter in 12 months ( you know all the ones that throw their cigarette butts out the car window and as they eat they throw the litter as they are driving. Does that make anyone else upset? I guess what we need is everyone that has a camera phone start taking pictures of the license plates of those that litter and turn them in. My problems with the 1999 Bond project on street renovation in the Florence Park area was the City of Tulsa hired many workers on this project(many did not speak very much english or acting as though they could not understand when you asked them to please pick up their personal trash such as pop bottles, pop cans, wrappers from food they ate, etc. Keystone Concrete had an employee that hit the gas line that went to my parents heating and air unit and it knocked out their unit and completely damaged it. ONG had to bring in special equipment inside my parents house to make sure the air was clear and Keystone Concrete has never paid for the damage and the City of Tulsa did nothing to make Keystone Concrete pay for the damage to the air/heating unit. Keystone Concrete (ONG has this report on file -- February 2004) immediately tore up the sidewalk to fix the gas line but left my parents helpless and no heat on a freezing day. A big snow storm came that night. City of Tulsa left the hole on the sidewalk where their fix and later came and poured concrete to repair the sidewalk but no money was ever paid to my parents for the personal damage they caused to their personal property. My parents and other are far too elderly to get a lawyer to handle the negligence that was done to their personal property. Something else was they poured their driveway in freezing cold weather. It cracked. We called in the problem. City of Tulsa came out to look at the cracks in the driveways of the neighbors where Keystone Concrete poured bad concrete and did shotty work. The cracks have gotten bigger. The complaint was given within the 12 month time where neighbors are to report all problems workers did on the project but the City of Tulsa never fixed it.
The Tulsa World reported there was plenty of money left over from that very bond project. I say PLEASE
BEFORE THE CITY OF TULSA STARTS OTHER STREET RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS, FIX THE UNFINISHED DAMAGES DONE TO THE FLORENCE PARK problems. My
parents terrace that is on personal property, the workers on this project dug into their terrace and left it for months to get washed away of both sod and rich black dirt. The supervisor on this project promised me he would make sure it got put back as it was before the project started. He lied. He stopped answering his City of Tulsa Phone Number we were given to report problems too. Months went by and we asked for sod and dirt. Finally toward the end they threw in CLAY and lots of rocks and broken up concrete into the terrace and put sod
on top making it look like a roller coaster and I showed the supervisor the poor work done with the hundreds of rocks left showing in the dirt and sod. They also put it at the wrong angle.
The list goes on! Other neighbors on the Florence Park Bond project street reconstruction
reported problems to Tom Baker. He never took care of anything for the people he is supposed to be representing. Debbie Johnson is also one of these neighbors.

I also was so disgusted by the problems created by careless workers on this project that I told the BBB about it. Keystone Concrete does a lot of City of Tulsa business. The City of Tulsa should not allow bad faith and bad business practice from workers they hire to do damage and not fix it.