A new target for Hunter
U.S. drug makers and distributors could be forgiven if they ever ask “What if?” as it relates to Oklahoma's 2018 election for attorney general.
That year, Mike Hunter, who had been appointed to the position in 2017, sought election to a four-year term. Two other Republicans did the same.
Hunter won 44.5% of the vote in the primary, falling short of the 50% plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff with first-time candidate Gentner Drummond, who received 38.5% support.
After a bare-knuckle campaign ahead of the runoff election, Hunter emerged with 148,419 votes to Drummond's 148,148 — a difference of 271 votes out of 296,567 cast. Hunter then defeated a Democrat easily in the general election.
Hunter had filed suit against several drug companies in 2017. He won a $465 million nonjury verdict last year against Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries; three other opioid manufacturers have entered into settlement agreements totaling roughly $260 million.
This week, Hunter sued three large opioid distributors, saying their practices helped fuel the state's opioid crisis. These companies, Hunter contends, “carefully tracked distribution and prescription data and knew about suspicious orders and prescribers” but ignored those warning signs.
We don't know if Drummond would have taken the same approach to this issue, but many Oklahomans are grateful that Hunter has made it the centerpiece of his tenure.
Quite a gift for Oklahoma State
Kayleen and Larry Ferguson have big goals — and they want their alma mater, Oklahoma State University, to help reach them. “We want to be able to impact people throughout the world and help feed the world,” Larry Ferguson said Wednesday. “I really believe that Oklahoma State can be a center point, can be a light in feeding the people of the world.” The Fergusons, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, donated $50 million to OSU's agricultural college. The university has plans for a $100 million Ferguson College of Agriculture, a state-of-the art site that will help make the college “a leader nationally and internationally,” as Dean Tom Coon put it. The donation is one of the largest in OSU's history. Kayleen Ferguson told those gathered that the building may bear the Ferguson name, but, “We'd like you to join us in this venture for the future, inspiring others, furthering research.” Kudos.
This wasn't a very solemn event
Speaker Nancy Pelosi came under criticism this week, understandably so, for the production she made out of sending the House's articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate. Pelosi has said the impeachment is a “solemn” event, yet Wednesday, she doled out commemorative pens — with her name on them — while signing the resolution to send the articles to the other chamber. More than two dozen pens had been laid out on trays for the occasion. Pelosi was surrounded by House prosecutors and committee chairs who worked on the impeachment. She smiled at times while signing the documents. At a news conference to announce the impeachment managers, Pelosi repeated that Trump's presidency would be marked by an asterisk because “he's been impeached forever. They can never erase that.” Some will argue that's been the Democrats' goal all along.
Author's pitch for putting quality first
The Oscar nominations always provoke some criticism. This year, some in Hollywood were upset that no females made the cut in the category of best director. Greta Gerwig, who directed “Little Women,” was prominently mentioned as having been “snubbed.” Author Stephen King took to Twitter with a sensible rebuttal. “As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay,” King wrote. “For me, the diversity issue — as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway, did not come up. That said … I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.” Gee, what a concept.
Interesting choice to assess FBI response
After Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz criticized the FBI's tactics in getting approval to spy on a Trump campaign adviser in 2016, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said it would assess the FBI's response to the report. The person appointed to handle that job is David Kris, a former assistant attorney general for the DOJ's National Security Division under the Obama administration. As Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist notes, Kris recently said the IG report vindicated the FBI. He also said concerns raised in 2018 by California Rep. Devin Nunes about potential FBI abuses were incorrect and that Nunes should be punished. He has appeared on several left-leaning cable news outlets to defend the FBI. The appointment of Kris, Hemingway writes, “signals that the court isn't particularly concerned about the civil liberty violations” cited by Horowitz. She makes a valid point.
New NAFTA fails Dems' climate test
The Democratic presidential debate Tuesday included a question about trade policy, which led naturally to … climate change. Sen. Bernie Sanders noted that the new trade agreement involving the United States, Canada and Mexico “does not even have the phrase `climate change' in it” and thus he will vote against it. Former Vice President Joe Biden said, “There will be no trade agreements signed in my administration without environmentalists and labor at the table.” Tom Steyer, who has made climate change his top issue, said he would not sign the new deal “because if climate is your No. 1 priority, you can't sign a deal – even if it's marginally better for working people — until climate is also taken into consideration.” It's another example of the interesting times that await if the White House changes hands in November.