Fifth annual Wildlife Expo draws tens of thousands

 Fifth annual Wildlife Expo draws tens of thousands

            An estimated 42,000 visitors to the fifth annual Oklahoma Wildlife Expo Sept. 25-27 show that Oklahomans love the outdoors, and officials with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation are calling the huge event an equally huge success.
            The Expo's visitors included 16,000 who attended the event Friday, which was also School Day when students across the state took field trips with their schools to the event, held at the Lazy E Arena, just north of Oklahoma City. The event also drew families, friends and individuals with all levels of outdoor experience.
            “It was a huge effort that resulted in getting our message out to so many people,” said Richard Hatcher, director of the Wildlife Department.
            Additionally, guests enjoyed their time spent at the Expo, many of whom came for the first time.
            “Preliminary survey results showed 95 percent of attendees rated their overall Expo experience as good to excellent,” Hatcher said. “It is also great to see that 55 percent of those surveyed on Saturday and Sunday reported that it was their first time attending the Expo.”
            Hatcher also noted that it is obvious that the Wildlife Department and its partners in the Expo are making a difference in the lives of thousands of Oklahomans through the event.
            Visitors tried outdoor activities ranging from shooting sports to kayaking and received hands-on instruction from volunteers at each activity. More than 5,000 shooters participated in shotgun shooting, firing off more than 25,000 rounds of shotgun shells. Additionally, more than 73,000 pellets were fired at the air rifle range set up for Expo guest.
            The Expo also offered fishing opportunities at a stocked pond on the Expo grounds, where nearly 17,000 hooks were baited with worms so that guests could catch their own fish.
            Additionally, thousands of arrows were shot at the Expo's archery area, and visitors consumed just as many pounds of wild game meat at the popular “Taste of the Wild” booth. Dutch oven demonstrators also served samples of camp-style food and provided seminars on the basics of Dutch oven cooking.
            Other activities at the Expo included ATV rides, birdwatching and more in addition to booths and seminars about dog training, game and fish management, wild game cooking, mountain biking camping, backpacking, furbearer trapping and calling and more. Additionally, visitors were able to shop at the Expo's Outdoor Marketplace, a large area where vendors provided outdoor gear and services ranging from small gifts to all terrain utility vehicles and chainsaw carvings.
            Held at the Lazy E Arena, just north of Oklahoma City, the free Oklahoma Wildlife Expo is hosted by the Wildlife Department in partnership with a range of organizations, other state agencies, individuals and outdoor-related companies. The event is designed to perpetuate an interest in the outdoors and conservation through hands-on education and learning opportunities and to promote and develop appreciation for Oklahoma's wildlife and natural resources.
            Wildlife Department officials say plans are already underway for the sixth annual Oklahoma Wildlife Expo, slated for Sept. 24-26, 2010.

love him or hate him... this is an amazing story.. Ann and I have seen Wynn in a different interview.. he is amazing!

Steve Wynn Schools Jennifer Granholm on How to Create Jobs

October 12, 2009

Listen To It!  WMP | RealPlayer   Audio clips available for Rush 24/7 members only -- Join Now! BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Steve Wynn on Fox News Sunday was interviewed by Chris Wallace. He's the CEO of Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas.  He's also on with Jennifer Granholm, the governor of Michigan.  And Chris Wallace says, "Unemployment in Nevada is 13.2%.  That's the second highest in the nation.  Your company, Wynn Resorts, has more than 20,000 employees.  Do you see any turnaround yet?" WYNN:  No, in the sense that I think that the priorities of the administration should have been more directly focused on job creation. From the day of the inauguration forward, the priority should have been job creation.  And the most powerful weapon and the tool that the government has for that is its tax policy.  If the government had used its power to restrain its tax collection they would have given everybody who runs small businesses, large businesses, a chance to hire more people and that could have been done an entirely different way.  With eight or $900 billion we could have created four or five million jobs, which would have made a big difference. RUSH:  That's what you call stimulus! That's what you call stimulus.  That's what I have been saying. That's what anybody with even a modicum of Econ 101 understands.  You have to invest and you have to create the investment. You have to incentivize growth, and this administration is penalizing it! This administration is punishing growth. This administration is doing everything it can to prevent growth.  This is all done on purpose.  And now, my friends, I finally am joined in my previous one-man crusade: Steve Wynn on board, Charles Krauthammer with a speech he gave on board saying the decline is purposeful. Chris Wallace said, "So where do you draw the line between the proper role of government in all this and the proper role of the private sector?" WYNN:  Government has never increased the standard of living of one single human being in civilization's history.  For some reason that simple truth has evaded everybody.  The only thing that creates an increased standard of living is giving someone a job, the demand for their labor -- whether it's you and I, Chris, or anybody else.  The people that are paying the price for this juggernaut of federal spending are the middle class and the working class of America. RUSH:  Right. WYNN:  And soaring rhetoric and great speeches with or without a teleprompter aren't going to change the truth, and the truth is: The biggest enemy, the biggest obstacle that working middle-class America has is government spending. RUSH:  Steve Wynn, Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas.  He is right on the money. "People who are paying the price for this juggernaut of federal spending are the middle class and the working class of America," i.e., these poor people in Detroit.  They are in those lines because they have no choice because that's where this administration wants them.  "Soaring rhetoric, great speeches with or without a teleprompter isn't going to change the truth."  So Jennifer Granholm has gotta get in on this.  Wallace says, "Let me bring in the governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm.  Looks like she wants to come out of her seat at this."

GRANHOLM:  It's just so simplistic to say that! With all due respect, I mean, to say that government has never created a job or increased the standard of living.  You know, I mean there -- there are a lot of people who are grateful that in this country we have a minimum wage. There are a lot of people who are grateful that they have access to Medicare and Medicaid.  And I hope that we get access further to additional health care for those who are un- -- right now uninsured. I mean, there is a balance here.  To say that government is all evil... This is a democracy. It's the greatest country in the world. RUSH:  Now, this is the government of the state of Michigan where people in the tens of thousands are lining up for pittance -- a pittance handout from the federal government.  The state of Michigan is broke.  The City of Detroit, many people who live there, is in recession.  She thinks the minimum wage has raised standard of living.  The minimum wage is part of the reason unemployment is rising and the fact that Democrats authored an increase of it.  Folks, they are just dunces.  They're economic dunces.  It is just breathtaking.  Now, here she is. She's talking to a man and calling him "simplistic."  We'll hear in just a second Steve Wynn describe how many health care policies he provides for people and how many employees he has.  And not just in Las Vegas, he's been in Atlantic City. In Macau. He was working on an operation there.  But he wanted to respond to this "simplistic" business, and this is the exchange that they had. WYNN:  I didn't say that at all.  I'm saying that the source of government revenue, the source of well-being in this country is employment.  That allows companies to pay taxes, employees to pay taxes.  That's the source here and it's gotten out of focus. GRANHOLM:  I... I agree. WYNN:  There's no -- GRANHOLM:  I agree with you. WYNN:  Okay.  That's my point, Governor.  I'm not making any other point.  And, believe me, ma'am, I've got 20,000 employees. I've had as many as 150,000 families that I've been self-insuring.  There's nothing "simplistic" about my approach to this problem. RUSH:  And, see, in this series of three sound bites, we have the perfect illustration of the problem.  We have a man in the private sector who actually works, who creates jobs, jobs that are really well paying. He has health insurance for all of them, as many as 150,000 -- and a government official is telling him he doesn't know what he's talking about, cites the minimum wage to him! He doesn't have any clue in her mind.  And this is where we are.  These kind of people, with this kind of thinking as expressed here by Governor Granholm are exactly the kind of people running the whole show now, be it in Washington, be it in Michigan or wherever there is a Democrat governor.  This is what they believe.  And it takes me back to my opening monologue. For what?  For what?  It certainly can't... Do you realize, folks, it is... I don't know what the word is!  But to sit here and not be outraged over the economic plight of the working class and poor people in this country, to go out and be playing basketball with your staff and then go play golf after you try another church on Sunday, and then to be talking about a second stimulus, and to pile more misery on top of this with two more disastrous plans: health care reform and cap and trade.  Both of which are going to create even longer unemployment lines, will create even more destitution and poverty.  There's no way to conclude other than that it must be on purpose.  It's just shocking.  But this is a great series of sound bites here for people to actually learn who it is in this country that are the smart people, but more importantly, who it is that make this country work.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH:  So here's the test, folks.  The real test is this.  How many private sector jobs has Jennifer Granholm created?  Just last week, we had the most amazing story.  It was a two-page story that took me 30 minutes to fully digest and react to.  Do you remember it?  In her two terms of governor, which will expire next year, I believe, the state of Michigan has lost 630,000 jobs.  In the next 14 months it is expected that the state of Michigan will lose another 370,000 jobs for a grand total of one million jobs lost under Jennifer Granholm's governorship.  The story was in the Washington Post, and it was a puff piece pushing the obviously false premise that she has created hundreds of thousands of jobs.  But the green jobs are to come, and then she's going to really fix the state because she's gonna convert the state into an all-green technology sector jobs state.  And get this.  By 2020, 40,000 new jobs will be created.  We ought to be creating 40,000 jobs a day in this country.  And in Michigan she is bragging in the Washington Post about 40,000 new jobs in 11 years. I needed the vapors because the Washington Post was heralding this, as tremendous, great progress.  Here's the way to look at this.  In 14 months, 370,000 more jobs projected to be lost in Michigan.  That's a little over a year and yet on the other side of that in the next 11 years, 40,000 green jobs will be created.  I know she went to have lunch with laid-off employees, she went home to her husband, "Oh, my God, what can I do for these people?"  The real question here is how many private sector jobs has Jennifer Granholm created, how many has Steve Wynn created?  That little side by side answer is the difference between statism and capitalism.  So here we have a failed governor with a state in a near depression, holding firm to her policies, learning nothing from a man who created a multibillion-dollar enterprise that hires tens of thousands of people and could hire more but for government tax-and-spend policies and whose own city is in the tank right now because the president of the United States, inasmuch has told people the days of getting on your jet and going to Las Vegas are over.  Have you forgotten that? That was early on when he was beating up the Wall Street guys back when the automobile guys had the audacity to fly from Michigan to Washington in their corporate jets to be grilled by members of Congress over why they needed bailout money.  So they had to come back with their revised plan some months later and they had to drive, and the president said the days of getting on your jet and going to Las Vegas are over.  Guess what's happened to the hospitality business?  I'm telling you, this administration has taken a fire hose to the US economy.  It's mind-boggling here.  Steve Wynn, multibillion-dollar enterprise, hires tens of thousands of people, could hire more and would love to be able to hire more, but because of government tax-and-spend policies, he can't.  And on the other side, a failed governor, who's telling him that he's simplistic.

END TRANSCRIPT - some background added by me... Steven Alan Wynn (born January 27, 1942 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American casino resort/real-estate developer who has been credited with spearheading the dramatic resurgence and expansion of the Las Vegas Strip in the 1990s. His companies refurbished or built some of the most currently widely recognized resorts in Las Vegas such as the Golden Nugget, The Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn, and Encore. As of 2009, Wynn is the 468th richest man in the world (down from 277th) with a net worth of $1.5 billion (down from $3.9 billion).[1] He made his debut in the Forbes 400 at #377 with a net worth of $650 million in September 2003, but was reported to be worth $1.1 billion only six months later in Forbes' list of world billionaires published in March 2004.