[debbie at bouontiful]

Anyone see the lovely sign going into McAlester. Finally, I guess they are taking down that big welcome sign put up by "friends of gene stipe". Someone vandalized it and it has come down. I am very glad it is down, I certainly didn't approve of the vandalization of any sign but happy to get that sign down. Maybe, we can now move forward in McAlester area after almost "all" the politicians are in jail.
Sorry, but that has been the ugly side of McAlester for me. I've never seen corruption as has been in that town and have lived in many small towns in different States before coming to this area.

[peggydavis]

Back in the early 70s I worked on workman's compensation claims for an insurance company. Stipe to us was a known crook then. Every one of his plaintiffs was a fake injury, but no one would listen to us. He is a big cause of loss of industry in our state over the years.

I hate vandalism too, but look what he did to the whole state of Oklahoma, just so he and his brother & other cronies could be rich.

I hope McAlester can overcome this and move forward. It is a really pretty town, close to lakes and recreation areas.

[debbie at bouontiful]

I agree whole heartedly!!!!!!!!

[Synopsis]

Gene Stipe. I remember that name growing up. Man, what a fraud he is. Is he in jail now? He's been to court so many times but always seemed to beat the system.

[peggydavis]

He is supposed to go to a federal hospital prison on May 23, but I doubt if he really will. He has been judged incompetent though, so he can't do much more damage.

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by peggydavis

Back in the early 70s I worked on workman's compensation claims for an insurance company. Stipe to us was a known crook then. Every one of his plaintiffs was a fake injury, but no one would listen to us. He is a big cause of loss of industry in our state over the years.

Then why didn't the voters vote out Stipe? An important civic responsibility behind being a citizen and a voter is to hold dishonest politicians responsible for their misdeeds by voting them out. To refuse to do so is to be guilty of committing civic irresponsibility and promoting bad government.

[debbie at bouontiful]

Would you beleive they still love him here. I think if he could run again they would vote for him. I have a friend that worked at the hospital and she told me many times when people would want pain medicationl and the doctor said no, they said they would call Stipe and make the doctor give them.

This is the nuttiest place I've ever live near (16 miles west of) in my life and with my husband's job we have lived in many small town across America. None as nuts as this place.

I think I would like McAlester if the politcal scene wasn't so one sided and I mean they a cruel. I think they would burn a cross on your front yard if they thought you were voting against one of the "Good Old Boys".

[peggydavis]

Originally Posted by StillwaterTownie

Then why didn't the voters vote out Stipe? An important civic responsibility behind being a citizen and a voter is to hold dishonest politicians responsible for their misdeeds by voting them out. To refuse to do so is to be guilty of committing civic irresponsibility and promoting bad government.

Only the people in his district could vote for or against him. The rest of the people in Oklahoma had to suffer because of him.

I've heard people from there say, "Gene Stipe built that road over the mountain" like he did it with his bare hands. He was also known for giving a $20 bill to anyone who went into his office with a sad story.

[debbie at bouontiful]

I am sure there are more politician and business people that will be indited too. Hopefully, all the good old boys will be behind bars and let this town recover. The lack of education and of course the brainwashing has been the problem. All the young kids that moved on to say OSU, OU never came back. (both my daughers live now in Stillwater) The young kids that stayed cannot make a living. This is a beautiful part of OK, very sad to me. We were transplants, transferred here 10 years ago from Northwestern border of IL. Other than the DAC that my husband belongs too, the Plant there are no decent jobs unless your a Doctor at the hospital!!!!!!!Like everyone can!!!!!

[katfromhouston]

Originally Posted by peggydavis

Only the people in his district could vote for or against him. The rest of the people in Oklahoma had to suffer because of him.

I've heard people from there say, "Gene Stipe built that road over the mountain" like he did it with his bare hands. He was also known for giving a $20 bill to anyone who went into his office with a sad story.

Peggy, you seem to know a lot about McAlester, how long have you lived there? My husband took the job and we rented a tiny place {1/1} at an a high price for us, almost as much as our mortgage pmt. here in Houston. He will be living there alone until we get our home sold here what advice would you give him, being a newby and all. I think we will try to get a home on the outskirts of town when we sell here, which side is away from railroad tracks, the dump and the ammunition plant??? One more question, was there a gene stipe road and is it now electric avenue?
Real estate is at a premium right now with all the new transplants, I've never felt as much stress just trying to rent a place. By the way to all of those who may be moving here, take my advice, if you get a paper to look for places to rent, call asap, they are taken quick. Also if that doesn't work you can call real estate companies they seem to have cornered the market on buying up properties and putting them up for rent at prolly quadruple the price they are making on a mortgage payment, but hey they can do that, supply and demand! Just be prepared to pay! I hope we will be happy there, it will be out of the rat race of Houston. We all have gripes about our cities, so here are mine, if ya'll think you have it bad....our mayor was caught sending sexy emails to his secretary and racial emails to his buddies, now he is in court for deleting those emails from his government computer, when they interviewed him on the news, he was up there looking smug, like it's okay to do those things, then they asked him to step down because our 'racial tension' people picketed the court house! Then our county sheriff is being brought up on charges of "slavery" because he was using our inmates at the county jail as labor to build his nice new fence at his private ranch. That's one thing about Houston, we have media like you wouldn't believe, they report it all. We saw a story last night about a school superintendent that owes $300K in taxes and when they went to ask him about it at a public school board meeting the "school police" threatened to throw the reporter in jail, "just because he could". We have a whole "school police" system here, I sure don't know what happened to detention and suspension!! Ya'll have a great week!!