Gun Purchases Soared On 'Black Friday'

FBI stats show the number of background checks done on Black Friday three years ago pales in comparison to the number done this year — a 32-percent jump. ~ CBS Sacramento

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Judge: Release Trentadue Death Report

Salt Lake City (AP) ~ A federal judge in Utah has set a May 1 deadline for the government to release a report on a man who died while in custody in Oklahoma.

Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue (pictured) claims his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, died during an interrogation by investigators, four months after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

The government has denied the allegation and insisted that Trentadue committed suicide.
During a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart gave the government three weeks to release the report to Jesse Trentadue or face contempt of court action.

Kenneth Trentadue, 44, a convicted bank robber, was picked up on a parole violation in California in 1995 and transported to Oklahoma City for further proceedings.

During that time, the FBI was investigating the bombing of the Murrah federal building, which killed 168 people.

Trentadue's survivors filed a lawsuit claiming they suffered emotional distress because the government had not told them how he died or that an autopsy had been performed.
They said they opened his casket and found Trentadue's throat had been slashed with a toothpaste tube and he had been hanged with a braided bedsheet.

After a 2001 trial, a federal judge in Oklahoma City ordered the government to pay $1.1 million, saying the government's conduct was outrageous and caused the family severe emotional distress.
But the judge said Trentadue had committed suicide and that allegations of a conspiracy by prison officials to cover up a murder were just speculation.

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FBI Probes College Housing Project Financing; Morgan Got Thousands, Oklahoman Reports

The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to know why some Oklahoma colleges used non-traditional private financing to build housing projects and why Senate Co-President Pro Tem Mike Morgan (pictured) was paid $230,000 as a result, The Oklahoman reports.

The newspaper's exhaustive study of records shows that Morgan, a Stillwater attorney, was paid huge sums as the attorney on some of the projects. Reporters Tony Thornton and Randy Ellis also report that huge sums were paid to a title company co-owned by former State Senator Gene Stipe, target of an exisiting FBI probe into alleged corruption in southeastern Oklahoma. Stipe's partners in the title company are businessman Larry Witt and Steve Phipps, both mentioned prominently in the FBI investigation into straw donations made to political campaigns. The three have been partners in an abstract company empire that includes title and abstract companies.

The Oklahoman's stories can be accessed at www.newsok.com (registration required) or by purchsing a copy of the Sunday edition.

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FBI 'Smoking Gun' Affidavit Revealed By Oklahoman; Boren, McMahan Got Alleged Illegal Donations Via Stipe, Phipps, Associates

In what can be described as a "smoking gun" affidavit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleges that former State Senator Gene Stipe and others conspired to make illegal donations to Congressman Dan Boren, Auditor & Inspector Jeff McMahan, and possibly others. Boren, the document indicates, probably was not aware of the illegal donation. Boren confirmed that and said any money given to his campaign illegally will be donated to charity.

The Oklahoman's investigative reporting team revealed the document today; the document claims Stipe engaged in illegal activity even while under house arrest for arranging illegal donations to an earlier federal campaign.

The affidavit seems to reinforce allegations made last year by Republican auditor and inspector candidate Gary Jones, who questioned fundraising in McMahan's campaigns of 2002 and 2006. The affidavit claims that at least one person gave McMahan $3,200 in 2002 and was reimbursed in a scheme involving McMahan friend Steve Phipps, Stipe's business partner in the abstracting company empire they own. The affidavit also alleges that Tim Arbaugh, the head of McMahan's abstracting division, himself was the conduit for an illegal donation. McMahan said today that Arbaugh denies the allegation.

The affidavit is the latest "smoking gun" development in the scandals that have swirled around Stipe and his associates in recent years. This investigation is providing information to a federal grand jury now empaneled in Muskogee. The FBI affidavits are filed as part of that proceeding.

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