Having recently left the Oklahoman to strike journalistic gold with the Frontier, plucky reporter Briana Bailey has already hit muckraking paydirt by not only uncovering various Oklahoma lawmakers who’ve accepted free hotel stays and travel subsidies from various special interest groups, but the apparent legality of the situation as well.
Yep, in addition to that taxpayer paycheck, free healthcare and cold hard lobbyist cash, these elected officials are vacaying at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa or the Omni Hotel Dallas Park West in Dallas on the fat-cat’s dollar and writing it off as educational outings; think of it as the sleazy political equivalent of attending a timeshare spiel about renting Florida swamp-front property in the off-season, only without the blueberry mini-bagels and pints of Tropicana chilling in a bowl of ice.
Briana uncovered a lot of the questionable "Scholarships" and "Conferences" lawmakers took in her article. Patrick and I did our own research and uncovered even more. Let’s take a look…