Oklahoma Appraisal Management Company (AMC) Regulation Act Awaits Oklahoma Governor’s Signature
According to a recent (6/6/10) legislative recap by the Oklahoma Association of REALTORS® Government Affairs Committee:
Legislative RecapHB2772, by Rep. Weldon Watson, R-Tulsa and Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid, creates the Oklahoma Appraisal Management Company (AMC) Regulation Act. This legislation, supported by OAR, allows the Oklahoma Real Estate Appraisal Board oversight of AMCs, who will now be subject to the same regulations as Oklahoma’s licensed appraisers. This will address a big problem in Oklahoma, as AMCs may no longer assign appraisers to any location regardless of geographic competency. This bill successfully passed both the House and Senate and is awaiting approval on the governor’s desk. With the governor’s signature, this bill will address many problems caused by the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), making the appraisal process more efficient for Oklahoma REALTORS®.
Volunteers Are Needed to Count Butterflies at the Oxley Nature Center
March 28th, 2010Volunteers are Needed to Count Butterflies at the Oxley Nature Center
The Oxley Nature Center at Mohawk Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma has posted the following on their website:
Calling All Citizen Scientists!
Annual Early Spring Butterfly Count
Join us on Thursday, April 15 for a spring day in the great outdoors in pursuit of butterflies. No experience is necessary. You will be placed in a group with an experienced guide to spot, count, tally, and/or identify butterflies in a specific count area.
Information gathered on the spring count is used to supplement the North American Butterfly Association (NABA) Summer Butterfly count held annually in July. We will be meeting from 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m. and you are welcome to participate in all or part of the count. Bring a lunch, water and binoculars if you have them. Meet at the picnic shelter at Oxley Nature Center. Please call and register in advance so groups can be assembled! Drop-ins are welcome but should bring $3 to cover their count fee.
Change to Clean Water Act Not Likely in 2010
March 19th, 2010Change to Clean Water Act Not Likely in 2010
According to a recap by the REALTORS® Land Institute (RLI) in today’s Washington Update:
By all accounts, Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) will face an uphill battle this year if he tries to move a controversial bill to amend the Clean Water Act. Oberstar has yet to introduce his bill, which he says would restore the original intent of the 1972 Clean Water Act after two major Supreme Court decisions last decade. After insisting that he intended to move the bill in 2009, Oberstar now acknowledges it still has far to go.By deleting the phrase “navigable” from the Clean Water Act, the bill would seek to broaden the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act. In 2001 and 2006 the Supreme Court, in the the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Rapanos-Carabell rulings, determined largely was limited to navigable waters and did not encompass many wetlands and waters that long had been subject to the law. These rulings have spawned a regulatory muddle, with federal, state and local enforcers struggling to interpret which waters are now protected.
Bill opponents, including farm, building and industry groups, including NAR and RLI, say striking the word “navigable” from the law would greatly broaden its scope and leave everything from ditches to backyard fishing holes vulnerable to federal regulation.
Oberstar has introduced a version of the legislation in every Congress since 2002, where it repeatedly has stalled in committee. But with Democrats in control of Capitol Hill and the White House, supporters had hoped this Congress would be its time to shine.
S. 787, the Senate version of the bill, advanced further than ever before when it cleared the Environment and Public Works Committee in 2009. The measure passed along party lines after Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) added language to protect existing exemptions for farms on converted wetlands. Oberstar is already facing pushback from moderate and conservative members of his own party, many of whom hail from farm or mining districts. A spokesperson for Oberstar said there currently is no target timeline for introducing the bill.