Tornadoes and Thunder Storms Heavily Damage Three Oklahoma State Parks

There are no injuries being reported after tornadoes and thunder storms heavily damaged three Oklahoma State Parks Monday.

The parks that received the most damage are Lake Thunderbird State Park near Norman, Tenkiller State Park near Gore and Greenleaf State Park near Braggs.

Park rangers and personnel were able to warn campers and evacuate visitors before the weather intensified, enabling everyone to take shelter. However, many privately-owned recreational vehicles, cars and boats were flipped or damaged by falling trees and debris.

Lt. Governor Jari Askins and Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Executive Director Hardy Watkins toured damaged areas with Thunderbird park staff earlier today to help assess the situation and direct clean up and repair efforts.

"I'm grateful that park personnel moved people to places of safety," Lt. Governor Askins, Chairman of the Oklahoma Tourism Commission said. "Other state agencies are now working in partnership with parks staff to secure remaining facilities and clean up debris."

No official damage estimates are available yet from the storm.

Lake Thunderbird State Park is reporting the most severe damage. All nine access points to the lake have been closed and Oklahoma Lake Patrol crews have been dispatched to patrol the water to prevent people from going on the lake that is littered with debris.

Several areas at the park will be closed indefinitely. The Little River Marina, camping facilities, comfort stations and lake huts at the Little Axe Campground and Fisherman's Point were heavily damaged or destroyed.

The Clear Bay area and access to the South Dam at Lake Thunderbird are closed until power and water can be restored. All facilities on the north side of the lake will be closed until at least May 17 so work crews can finish damage assessments and clean up debris.

Damage assessment is ongoing at Tenkiller and Greenleaf State Parks. Staff members are being reassigned from other areas to assist with those efforts.

"Those northeast parks have sustained substantial damage," said Director Watkins. "The Pine Cove Marina has extensive damage and we're seeing structural damage to several buildings and cabins, lots of trees down and power problems. Some of these facilities will be closed for quite some time."

Lake Thunderbird State Park is one of the most heavily used in the park system. Nearly 789,500 people visited the park in the last 12 months. Tenkiller also is heavily used, with 482,200 guests and Greenleaf with 244,000 visitors in the same time period.

Edmond Community Chorale Announces Spring Concert

EDMOND- A free concert celebrating American life will be performed May 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Santa Fe High School Auditorium, 1901 W. 15th Street, Edmond.

Under the direction of Dr. Karl Nelson, artistic director, the Edmond Community Chorale and University of Central Oklahoma's Concert Chorale and Cantilena will perform a masterworks concert titled "Choral Music of Americana" featuring Lukas Foss’ The Prairie with poetry by Carl Sandburg.

The spring concert is free to the public followed by a reception. ECC is sponsored in part by Edmond Women's Club, Oklahoma Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts.

The Edmond Community Chorale is a choral organization formed with the clear understanding that through music, one can reach the hearts of others. As the group improves many areas of life through music, it provides an opportunity for people who wish to be part of a choral group an opportunity to sing with the best. Created to rehearse and perform quality major works well, the ensemble is dedicated to the vocal health of all its singers, young and old, and to providing Edmond and the surrounding area with high quality choral performances. For more information visit www.edmondcommunitychorale.org or call Dr. Nelson at (405) 974-5755.

Magdalena Movement

By Lonnie Moore

Follow your Easter Resurrection celebration with a powerful new tool that provides a wonderful way to give back to your community, particularly to women and women's ministries. Oklahoma City has been chosen by The JESUS Film Project® to participate in the U.S. launch of the Magdalena Movement, with the film Magdalena: Through Her Eyes. This film looks at the life of Jesus from Mary Magdalene's perspective and relates what she might have experienced as she walked with Him in His public ministry. Mary Magdalene narrates the film, showing how He changed her life and we watch Him as He interacts with other women. Oklahoma Woman talked to Jenny Steinbach, Magdalena Strategy Coordinator.

"No matter what people have experienced in their past, we wanted a fresh perspective on God's love with a good depiction of Jesus for women, to communicate to the hearts of women," said Jenny.

"One of the things we feel really touches the heart is how Jesus reaches out to people in the midst of their struggles; these women haven't gotten their lives straightened out before coming to Him; He reaches out to them in time of their difficulties and sins, whatever that may be. We're hoping that as women watch the film they will have a visual picture of God's love and forgiveness and see how to begin a relationship with Christ. We hope that in Oklahoma City women will get a picture of women reaching out to other women, of being like Christ in that. Women have responded wonderfully and really resonate emotionally with the film", she added.

Mary Magdalene was a frequent companion of Jesus; she and other women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases followed him and the in the area around Judea. She and other devoted women in his following supported his ministry, giving of their own possessions. Luke 8:1-3.

Mary Magdalene was present at the foot of the cross with Jesus' mother Mary and the apostle John. Mary was mentioned first among women at the crucifixion. Matthew 27:56, Mark 15:40, John 19:25, was present at Jesus' burial at the tomb, and witnessed the stone being rolled to seal its entrance. Matthew 27:61

Mary Magdalene was first to appear at the tomb the next morning, to witness the stone had rolled away. Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1, Luke 24:10, John 20:1. At the tomb, she is the first one mentioned in all four gospels, and the only one mentioned in the gospel of John. Mary Magdalene was the first to witness the risen Christ, in fact, the first to preach the resurrection, to the apostles themselves. Mark 16:9, Luke 24:10, John 20:10-18

"The film premiered at the United Nations in March, 2007, having been produced originally for women in countries where women are oppressed and who knew nothing about Christianity.

For information about how your church or community organization can get involved with the Magdalena Movement, visit www.MagdalenaToday.com, call (405) 604-0728 or (800) 432-1997, or email ajdelk@yahoo.com.

Economists Warn Another Financial Crisis On the Way

http://abcnews.go.com/

Even as many Americans still struggle to recover from the country's worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, another crisis - one that will be even worse than the current one - is looming, according to a new report from a group of leading economists, financiers, and former federal regulators.

In the report, the panel, that includes Rob Johnson of the United Nations Commission of Experts on Finance and bailout watchdog Elizabeth Warren, warns that financial regulatory reform measures proposed by the Obama administration and Congress must be beefed up to prevent banks from continuing to engage in high risk investing that precipitated the near collapse of the U.S. economy in 2008.

The report warns that the country is now immersed in a "doomsday cycle" wherein banks use borrowed money to take massive risks in an attempt to pay big dividends to shareholders and big bonuses to management - and when the risks go wrong, the banks receive taxpayer bailouts from the government.

"Risk-taking at banks," the report cautions, "will soon be larger than ever."

Without more stringent reforms, "another crisis - a bigger crisis that weakens both our financial sector and our larger economy - is more than predictable, it is inevitable," Johnson says in the report, commissioned by the nonpartisan Roosevelt Institute.

The institute's chief economist, Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz, calls the report "an important point of departure for a debate on where we are on the road to regulatory reform."

The report blasts some of Washington's key players. Johnson writes, "Our government leaders have shown little capacity to fix the flaws in our market system." Two other panelists, Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT, and Peter Boone of the Centre for Economic Performance, voiced similar criticisms.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner "oversaw policy as the bubble was inflating," write Johnson and Boone, and "these same men are now designing our 'rescue.'"

The study says that "In 2008-09, we came remarkably close to another Great Depression. Next time we may not be so 'lucky.' The threat of the doomsday cycle remains strong and growing," they say. "What will happen when the next shock hits? We may be nearing the stage where the answer will be - just as it was in the Great Depression - a calamitous global collapse."

The panelists call for major banks to maintain liquid capital of at least 15 to 25 percent of their assets, the enactment of stiffer consequences for executives of bailout recipients and for government officials to start breaking up firms that grow too big.

In the report, Elizabeth Warren, who was chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, reiterates her calls for an independent agency to protect consumers from abusive Wall Street practices.

"While manufacturers have developed iPods and flat-screen televisions, the financial industry has perfected the art of offering mortgages, credit cards and check overdrafts laden with hidden terms that obscure price and risk," Warren writes. "Good products are mixed with dangerous products, and consumers are left on their own to try to sort out which is which. The consequences can be disastrous."

Frank Partnoy, a panelist from the University of San Diego, claims that "the balance sheets of most Wall Street banks are fiction." Another panelist, Raj Date of the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy, argues that government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become "needlessly complex and irretrievably flawed" and should be eliminated. The report also calls for greater competition among credit rating agencies and increased regulation of the derivatives market, including requiring that credit-default swaps be traded on regulated exchanges.

With the Senate Banking Committee, led by Chris Dodd, D-Conn., poised to unveil its financial regulatory reform proposal sometime in the next week, the report calls on Congress to enact reforms strong enough to prevent another meltdown.

"Sen. Dick Durbin once said the banks 'owned' the Senate," says Johnson. "The next few weeks will determine whether or not that statement is true."

Casting women 25-45 for design show!

(Hugo/Antlers/Durant)

Do you have an event coming up and have nothing to wear? Is it your 30th Birthday and you want to feel 21 again or is it your 20th high school reunion and you want to impress an old boyfriend? ? If you have an event that justifies a new designer outfit, then we need to hear from you!

We are currently casting for a new cable network television program featuring two top designers. They will be traveling the country, designing one-of-a-kind outfits for women who need something extraordinary to wear to an important event in their lives. Why look through your closet to wear the same dress you wore 2 months ago, when you could have something made especially for you, and especially for the event. Some would say this type of outfit would be very expensive, but in actuality it is priceless!

If you are interested in this once-in-a-lifetime experience, please send the following in an email to Alexshaw13@aol.com

1) Contact information, email, phone, and address

2) Describe yourself, personality, date of birth, and photo

3) Tell us about your style-likes, dislikes!

4) Tell us about the event, date, who will be there, any special things to know... high school reunion and want to impress an ex, daughters wedding, just lost 50 lbs. What’s the story?

If this is not you but know someone else that may be interested please forward the above information!

Casting Directors Erika Dobrin and Alex Shaw will be coming to Hugo and surrounding towns Feb 18th-28th to interview. The crew will be back again at the end of March to film the TV show. Women with BIG personalities are encouraged to apply!

Our design team will make a one of a kind outfit for her special day. (Hair and makeup included) ***The event MUST fall on March 26th or 27th ***

Email or call Alex Shaw 310-490-4014 for any additional information!

A|X posters are appalling

OMM typically focuses on issues that air on television, but there is one other issue we cannot ignore any longer: fashion designers using scantily dressed models in advertisements who have recently put their focus on threesomes or same-sex couples. This is not okay!

Malls, where teens hang out, have retailers whose window displays poison our children with 10-foot posters that are nothing but soft porn. In particular, Armani Exchange has recently displayed Valentine's posters with partially dressed "couples" holding one another. These couples consist of two men, a man and woman, and two women. The women are scantily dressed while it is questionable if the men have any clothes on at all. Two of these models are used a couple of times to represent bisexuals. If it could get any worse the text written is "SHARE THE LOVE."

Not every local mall has an Armani Exchange, but we need to take a stand since A|X is one of the fashion leaders and this is becoming a popular trend. You may view these on their website at www.armaniexchange.com WARNING! Pictures are offensive.

Moms, you may think this is a long shot, but remember, just last summer complaints to Calvin Klein concerning a foursome billboard was removed from New York City Soho District. We must let retailers and designers know that we do not approve, so imitators will not be encouraged and make this a norm.

TAKE ACTION

Please send Armani Exchange an email letter urging them to remove these posters from their store locations and website immediately.

Take it one step further by calling your local mall that has an A|X and request they have these disgusting posters removed.

Send Your Letter Now!

Thank you for caring enough to get involved. If you find our efforts worth supporting, would you consider making a small tax-deductible donation to help us continue?

Sincerely,

Monica Cole, Director
OneMillionMoms.com

P.S. Please forward this to your family and friends! Become a fan of OneMillionMoms on Facebook!

Iran's Leader: Feb. 11 To Be 'Demise' of 'Capitalist System'

By Matt Cover - www.cnsnews.com

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Feb. 11 would mark the demise of "the liberal capitalist system," adding that its champion, America, was on the decline and that Iran and its Islamic Revolution were on the rise.

According to a Jan. 28 translation from BBC Monitoring Middle East, Ahmadinejad spoke on official Iranian television, saying that this year's "Ten Days of Dawn" celebration, marking the anniversary of the country's Islamic Revolution, would see the "demise" of the American system.

"I believe that 22 Bahman [ February 11 in the Persian calendar] this year marks the demise of the liberal capitalist system." Ahmadinejad said.

The controversial Iranian president explained that, 30 years ago, Iran was merely trying to consolidate its newly minted revolution. Today, however, the country was quickly moving to overtake what he claimed was a declining United States.

"Maybe in 1359-60 [1980-81] our presence was only an announcement of our existence and strength," he said. "It was to consolidate the revolution. Where have we got now? We have got to a point that the hegemony of arrogance [reference to the United States] has been undermined. Nations do not trust it anymore. Its principles are under question. Its efficiency is close to zero. Its power curve is dropping quickly."

Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran was an "inspiring" and "justice-seeking" country, which was just being "introduced to the world."

"On the other hand, the Iranian nation is being introduced around the world as an inspiring, idealistic, revolutionary, God-seeking, justice-seeking, pure and humane nation."

Ahmadinejad continued the narrative of America's impending doom in a speech Saturday, Jan. 30, claiming that the Iranian revolution was the final step in God's plan for the world.

"God created mankind to reach a point that it could have control over the world of creation and days and nights," Ahmadinejad said. "It is clear to all of us that the Islamic Revolution today is a giant stride toward the implementation of this great goal. The Islamic Revolution is in the direction, and of the same nature of, the great prophet's move. It is guided by God."

Ahmadinejad further said that the West, particularly the United States, had been the "biggest historical impediment" to the Islamic Revolution.

"The arrogant and hegemonic powers, which mankind experienced in the past 300 years and past 60 years in particular have been the biggest historical impediment in the face of fulfillment of this goal," he said, according to the BBC.

Ahmadinejad went on to declare that the "materialistic and hegemonic system" was dead and "slogans" about "freedom," "human rights," and "democracy" had misled the world.

"It is clear that the materialistic and hegemonic system has reached the end of the road, both theoretically and practically," he said. "Forty years ago when someone mentioned the name of America, many would drool. In the minds of many, America had a mythical and invincible power."

"Slogans of freedom, human rights, democracy, and the right to decide your own fate, were so attractive that [they] misled many," he continued. "Today, they have no thoughts or means other than the use of arms to prove themselves."

The fiery Iranian leader predicted the "end" of American "civilization."

"This means the end of a civilization, the end of a thought, and the end of a system," said Ahmadinejad.