Time to do a little house cleaning here – Here are several crashes that we’ve shot but haven’t shown you yet.Supporters of changing how justices are elected to the Ohio Supreme Court were buoyed today by the results of a survey showing support for reforms.
Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, Ohio State Bar Association President Barbara J. Howard and League of Women Voters President Meg G. Flack [...]
Handing Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Columbus, a major victory, the federal government today reversed course and decided to allow state and local governments to use homeland security grants to maintain emergency equipment.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the decision just days after a House committee approved a bill [...]
The idea may not be as fanciful as this one, but state rail officials are eyeing some innovation with their plan to extend passenger rail service through Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati.
The Ohio Rail Development Commission yesterday passed a motion expressing its preference for Diesel [...]
As expected GOP Sen. George V. Voinovich is blasting the Senate's Democrat-authored health care bill.
The Ohio Republican won't be in the chamber Saturday if a procedural vote known as cloture is taken. Sixty-votes are needed to prevent a filibuster - Republicans are nearly unanimously opposed to the bill' [...]
Dispatch political reporters Darrel Rowland and Jim Siegel discuss the latest proposals for dealing with the state budget shortfall.
[...]Attorney General Richard Cordray's office insists that only courts -- not it -- can decide whether slot-like Sweepstakes machines are legal in Ohio. But at least two courts already have decided.
Anyone following Ohio's topsy-turvy debate over gambling probably can guess the outcome: The courts came to opposite [...]
The conservative activist who led the fight against casinos in Ohio in the 1990s and this decade isn't letting his fellow conservatives off the hook over the passage of a casino issue this month.
David P. Zanotti, head of the Ohio Roundtable, was unsparing in his criticism of' [...]
What credentials and experience does it take to become superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol?
A screening committee has started interviewing candidates to help select a man or woman to lead the patrol's "gray shirts."
Compare the candidates by checking out each of the 26 applicants. Links to their applications [...]
Anthony Gutierrez will serve 45 days in jail and pay nearly $7,000 as his sentence for crimes he committed while serving as former Attorney General Marc Dann's right-hand man. But there is good news for Gutierrez: He no longer faces a lawsuit from his former boss.
Dann dropped [...]
Both of Ohio's U.S. senators are sticking to their anticipated positions on the Senate's $849 billion health care bill unveiled last night - Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is a yes and GOP Sen. George V. Voinovich is a no.
That means that neither is an impact vote when it [...]
Gov. Ted Strickland says it is "unseemly" that Senate Republicans don't plan to return until December after failing yesterday to reach an agreement on how to fill a $851.5 million hole in the state budget.
Strickland said yesterday, before the Senate went home, that he thinks the legislature' [...]
Elyria – A late night fire with the threat of exploding propane tanks had Elyria Firefighters battling the fire defensively with their newest weapon – Tower 8.Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Urbana wants Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to look into allegations that the advocacy group ACORN had an at least preliminary plan to boost Democrats' political prospects in 2008 in key congressional races in Ohio.
Jordan is citing as his evidence a document' [...]
Seeking to address a looming federal employees brain drain, Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, has co-authored a bipartisan bill that would give undergraduate and graduate students tuition assistance and stipends in exchange for the students working for three to five years after graduation for a federal agency in a [...]
Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio today introduced, along with Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, a bill allowing emergency first responders in places such as Franklin County to use federal grant money to maintain equipment, not just buy new equipment.
The Senate bill mirrors a House proposal [...]
The Ohio House passed a bill today over Republican objections to make sweeping changes to how elections are run in Ohio, including expanding the number of sites a county can offer for early-absentee voting.
House Bill 260 passed the Democrat-controlled House 52-46 with a straight party-line vote, and the [...]
Stephen D. Steinour, the chief executive officer of Huntington National Bank, joined Sen. Sherrod Brown today in Washington for a roundtable chat on ways to help small businesses obtain financing
The forum took place at the U.S. Department of the Treasury Department included members of Congress, bankers, small business owners [...]
Ohio's public pension systems appear to be making major strides in pulling out investments from companies tied to terrorist-sponsoring regimes in Iran and Sudan.
Three of the five state pension systems this morning reported that they have cut half or more of their investments in companies that do business [...]
His sentence may be relatively mild, but Anthony Gutierrez will spend Christmas and New Year's away from his family.
Gutierrez, a former lieutenant to then-Attorney General Marc Dann, inked a plea agreement with Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien in which Gutierrez agreed to spend 45 days in jail' [...]
Senate Republicans are going home until December without fixing the $851 million state budget shortfall.
With only five or six Republicans willing to support it, a GOP-crafted plan to fill the budget hole through a partial income tax cut delay, casino licensing fees and raiding money designed to help [...]
Sen. George V. Voinovich is using the fact that the national debt now stands at $12 trillion to again call for legislation establishing a base-closing-like commission to cut federal entitlement spending and revamp the tax code.
Voinovich's proposal would establish a bipartisan commission whose recommendations for cutting spending, [...]
The bell tolled at 6 p.m. and Senate Republicans emerged from their long, closed-door caucus meeting. But according to some, a budget deal was still nowhere in sight.
Republicans plan to continue meeting into the night to try to hammer out an agreement amongst themselves over how to fill [...]
A member of Gov. Ted Strickland's cabinet was chosen today as a regional Health and Human Services director for President Obama.
Cristal A. Thomas, executive director of Ohios Executive Medicaid Management Administration, will head the region that includes Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Cristal Thomas brings [...]
While Senate Republicans continue looking for alternatives, yet another business group has joined the chorus calling for them to pass Gov. Ted Stricklands income tax plan.
Shortly after Ohio Republicans canceled a scheduled Senate Finance Committee meeting, ending any public discussion of filling the budget shortfall for today, the [...]
The House Homeland Security Committee today approved a bill co-sponsored by Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy that would allow state and local governments to use federal homeland security grants to maintain first responders emergency equipment instead of just buying new equipment.
The Columbus Democrat co-authored the bill with Rep. [...]
The divided Senate Republican caucus wont be rolling out its plan to fill the budget shortfall today.
The 21 Republican members are meeting right now behind closed doors trying to figure out which plan will generate enough votes, and enough money, to fill the $851 million budget hole. The [...]
Anthony Gutierrez, the former state administrator whose misbehavior led to the undoing of his boss, former Attorney General Marc Dann, is appealing a decision by a Bureau of Workers' Compensation panel that he cheated the workers' compensation fund.
Gutierrez contends that the three-person adjudicatory panel incorrectly concluded that [...]
He lost by 20 points to Rep. Zack Space in 2008 and now faces a potentially crowded GOP primary field for 2010 that includes a sitting state senator apparently preferred by many in his party for the general election - but Fred Dailey is making it clear he intends [...]
The federal stimulus package so far has given Ohio State University's research work an $82.5 million boost, says Caroline Whitacre, OSU's vice president for research, who will talk about that today at an event in Washington with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Whitacre and other members of the Association of [...]
TMC NEWS PHOTOS / BRIAN WOODS
Columbia Township – A suspicious fire destroyed an old clubhouse at the now vacant Riverside Golf Club on East River Road in Columbia Station.Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray should withdraw from representing three ex-state bureaucrats who got into trouble for improperly accessing information on a figure from the 2008 presidential campaign, Cordray rival Dave Yost said today.
Yost, the Delaware County prosecutor and one of two Republicans seeking to take on Cordray, [...]
State officials today supplied information identifying the remaining six applicants for superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
The Daily Briefing published a list of 24 applicants on Friday, but was unable to verify the backgrounds of six candidates until today.
The six candidates are:
-- Lavell Craven, a police [...]
Elyria – The Elyria Police Department notified 5 Officers today by phone that they will receive layoff notices.
Two Republicans are getting into what could be one of the most competitive Ohio House races in the state in November 2010.
Bill Todd, who made an unsuccessful run for Columbus mayor and fought against a Columbus income tax hike that voters approved in August is eyeing the 20th [...]
Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer has been elected to the Ohio Supreme Court four times. That's at least two times too many, he figures.
Moyer, who now is closing out his final term, is leading a quest to de-politicize the state's highest court by replacing competitive elections [...]
It was a party-building Monday out of state for Gov. Ted Strickland.
The governor flew to New York City yesterday afternoon and plans to return to the state tonight, according to the Ohio Democratic Party, speaking for Strickland.
The governor has taken numerous trips out of state this year so [...]
Democratic National Committee has launched radio commercials against Rep. Pat Tiberi of Genoa Township and 31 other House Republicans for voting against a House bill earlier this month aimed at overhauling the nations health care system.
"Congressman Tiberi joined Republicans in Washington and voted against real reform,'' the" [...]
Senate Republicans still dont know how theyre going to fix the $851 million budget shortfall, but they do know the pay cut portion of the bill will be jettisoned into separate legislation.
Sen. John A. Carey Jr., R-Wellston, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the 5-percent pay cut [...]
An underdog for the Republican nomination in a central Ohio congressional district says someone is trying to sabotage him by sending counterfeit checks drawn on his campaign account.
John Adams, an Upper Arlington conservative challenging former state Sen. Steve Stivers for the GOP slot to run against [...]
TMC NEWS PHOTOS / KYLE WORKHAPPENING NOW
South Amherst – Firefighters from South Amherst are battling a fully involved barn fire on Gifford Road just south of Route 113.
The fire broke out just after 10 a.m. this morning at 11645 Gifford Road. Workers at [...]
When Ohioans approved four casinos in the Nov. 3 election, they just may have given the push that Kentucky needed to get into the gambling game.
Kentucky is the only Ohio neighbor without Las Vegas-style gambling. Like Ohio, Kentucky has wrestled over the years with proposals to put slot [...]
Proposed new standards for social studies and science are now available for public review and comment.
As required under state law, the Ohio Board of Education by June must update the grade-by-grade curriculum guidelines for social studies, science, math and English/language arts.
The Department of Education today posted http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?Page=3&TopicRelationID=1696&Content=76764drafts of [...]
DEVELOPING
Elyria – The halls and Auditorium of Elyria High School were filled with young and old Saturday as the Theatre Alumni came together to celebrate the Theatre’s 60th birthday.
Sheffield Township – A two-car crash on Cooper Foster & North Ridge Road Friday afternoon left one man injured after a Ford Focus struck his Ford Expedition.A Franklin County judge this afternoon temporarily blocked releasing to the Ohio Republican Party the names, addresses, phone numbers and other information about Ohio teachers, administrators and staff.
Common Pleas Judge Laurel Beatty granted the temporary restraining order at the request of the Ohio Education Association, the states [...]
Westerville Mayor Anne Gonzales has jumped into the 19th Ohio House District race, one of the primary targets for House Republicans in 2010.
Gonzales, a Republican, wants to challenge incumbent Rep. Marian Harris, D-Columbus, who won a narrow victory in the GOP-leaning district in 2008. Her win and others [...]
Traci Saliba, the chief deputy clerk for Delaware Municipal Court, says she is running for the 2nd Ohio House District.
The 46-year-old Powell resident looks to replace Rep. Kris Jordan, who is running for the Senate. The district, which covers all of Delaware County, is solidly Republican, and Saliba [...]
Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks has hired Patrick Brown to manager her 2010 campaign for the 12th Congressional District against incumbent Republican Rep. Pat Tiberi of Genoa Township.
Brown, 26, grew up in northeastern Massachusetts and most recently was campaign director for the Democratic caucus of the Michigan Senate. [...]
There is no shortage of applicants who want to wear the colonels eagle insignia as the new superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Twenty-four people had thrown their names in the hat as interviews were scheduled to begin today with a screening committee appointed by Public Safety Director Cathy [...]
TMC NEWS PHOTOS / BRIAN WOODSPerhaps this was inevitable: Politics will play a role in deciding which states get federal stimulus money to build high-speed railroads.
So says the editor of Railway Age, who notes that the Federal Railroad Administration's ostensibly "merit-based" selection process will inevitably include political considerations.
States have submitted $100 billion [...]
Dave Yost is claiming another victory in his insurgent campaign to become the Republican candidate for attorney general next year.
Yost, the Delaware County prosecutor, said this morning that he has secured endorsements from the Butler County Republican Central and Executive Committee.
He faces the better-known Mike DeWine, a former [...]
Lawmakers who voted against the House health care bill have received more campaign cash over the years from health insurance companies' political action committees and other industry sources than supporters of the legislation, which narrowly passed 220-215, a study finds.
The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance' [...]
An insurance brokerage will pay Ohio pension funds and the Bureau of Workers Compensation $400 million for an alleged price-fixing scheme, Attorney General Richard Cordray announced today.
Cordray said he and his counterpart in New Jersey negotiated a settlement with Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., which was [...]
One veteran lawmaker says he worries that if new lawmakers get used to the current pace of legislating, the Ohio General Assembly is on its way to becoming a part-time body.
The 128th General Assembly has passed far fewer bills through this point of the year than any other [...]
Senate Republicans hope to pass the budget fix next week - but senators aren't saying what the fix will look like.
Sen. John A. Carey Jr., a Wellston Republican and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he hopes to accept a substitute bill on Tuesday with a' [...]
Eaton Township – Troopers say that a mixture of alcohol and a frosted window were contributing factors in a crash that sent a woman to the hospital after an early morning crash on Route 82.MoveOn.org, the progressive organization that champions health care reform, is sending out a plea for $150,000 to help re-elect Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Columbus.
Kilroy was among 220 House members last Saturday to vote for a bill that would extend health insurance to about 36 million people while raising [...]
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray was in Washington today to attend a workshop on energy and competition in the marketplace, an event organized by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and the National Association of Attorneys General.
Cordray was in Washington for just the day. [...]
Like all but one House Republican, Rep. Pat Tiberi of Genoa Township voted against the Democrat-authored health care bill approved 220-215. But now Tiberi is being targeted, by the group Organizing for America, as one of 32 House GOP members whose districts were won last year by Barack Obama.
[...]
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Sobering column from Froma Harrop in the Dispatch. It sums up my problems with Issue 3 very well: unlikely to lead to economic development and yet has huge social cost. Voters in Cleveland and Cincinnati where swayed by [...]
State Rep. Jennifer Garrison is calling for new legislation that would crack down on fraud in the process of circulating petitions to place issues on Ohio's statewide ballot.
Garrison, D-Marietta and a candidate for secretary of state next year, unveiled the "Ballot Integrity Act" at a Statehouse press conference [...]
Dispatch political reporters Alan Johnson, Jim Siegel and Catherine Candisky discuss the options legislators are looking into to balance the state budget.
[...]Ohio's state budget may look like a slow-motion disaster to some, but it could be worse.
The state ranks somewhere in the middle of the 50 when it comes to the severity of its fiscal crisis, according to a new study out today.
The Pew Center on [...]
Could Ohio be experiencing a gambling boom three years before its casinos are scheduled to open?
The state appears poised for a flood of Sweepstakes machines that are a hybrid between slot machines and Internet computers. The Beulah Park racetrack has 30 of them, and the Spinners [...]
US Senate candidate Tom Ganley’s campaign manager Jeff Longstreth is confused:
Longstreth said that he views the primary as similar to the special election earlier this month in New York’s 23rd congressional district, where a moderate Republican dropped from the race under pressure from conservatives. Since Portman has the “backing [...]
Is the GOP primary to replace Senator Voinovich about to being in earnest? It seems that at least an opening salvo is:
Republican Tom Ganley, a Cleveland area car dealer, launched a statewide television ad campaign in his bid to upset GOP favorite Rob Portman for the Ohio Republican Party [...]
Republican Senate candidate Tom Ganley, the car dealer from Cleveland who has said he will put up millions of dollars in his own money on the race, is on the air statewide with an ad that aims to highlight his ability to create jobs, according to his campaign.
Ganley [...]
House Republicans got a hearing yesterday on a government consolidation bill that they were once touting as a fix to the budget shortfall. It may be the last.
I am hopeful that today marks the beginning to many more discussions on this proposal, and I regret that we did [...]
Now that full-scale casinos are on their way to Ohio after the passage of Issue 3 last week, Gov. Ted Strickland is pledging not to take campaign contributions from casino owners, but his Republican opponent next year is not.
The governor also is maintaining his previous promise not [...]
South Amherst – A man was flown to Metro early Wednesday morning after he rolled his pick up truck on Route 58 in South Amherst.Callers are posing as representatives of Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray's office and demanding personal information, Cordray's office said today.
Cordray's office said the calls aren't legitimate and people should not disclose information such as their Social Security numbers to unknown callers.
"We know that these scam artists are" [...]
Five years after Ohioans voted to place a gay marriage ban in the Ohio Constitution, a House Democrat is proposing a new vote to take it out.
Rep. Tyrone K. Yates, D-Cincinnati, introduced a resolution today that would eliminate Section 11, Article 15 of the Constitution, an amendment [...]
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will sign copies of her new book, "Going Rogue," in Columbus on Nov. 20.
A spokeswoman for HarperCollins Publishers said Palin will appear at the Borders bookstore on Sawmill Rd. from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. to sign her book.
Returning to Ohio will be [...]
Sen. Sherrod Brown says he has come up with a legislative way to ease the long wait times many veterans are encountering trying to win Social Security disability benefits.
The Ohio Democrat today unveiled a bill that would allow veterans already judged to be disabled by the federal Veterans [...]
Reps. Zack Space of Dover and Steve Driehaus of Cincinnati have been officially added to the list of "thank yous' issued by liberal groups to Democrats who voted in favor of the House health care reform bill that was approved Saturday 220-215.
The first Ohio Democrat to get the'" [...]
A bill to make sweeping changes to how elections are run in Ohio passed a House committee by a straight party-line vote today and is expected to be taken up by the full House next week.
Among other things, Substitute House Bill 260 would expand the number of [...]
Saying that nobodys ever said it would be easy, Sen. Sherrod Brown predicted that a final health care bill will be on President Obamas desk by Jan. 10 at the latest but possibly yet this year.
With abortion coverage restrictions part of the House bill and some Senate centrists [...]
Sen. George V. Voinovich today urged a Senate committee to create a bipartisan commission that would devise a long-term plan to end the federal governments growing budget deficit.
Testifying before the Senate Budget Committee, the Ohio Republican said, our federal spending is out of control, and as a result, [...]
Lorain – Two people that were struck by a drunk driver early Saturday morning had to be taken by ambulance to Elyria Memorial Hospital while Police searched for the driver that hit them.U.S. Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner today assailed moderate U.S. House Democrats for including an anti-abortion plank in a bill narrowly approved Saturday that would overhaul the nations health care system.
Brunner, the Ohio secretary of state and a candidate for next years Democratic nomination for the Senate, took dead [...]
Rep. Zack Space, D-Dover, defended his vote Saturday for the House version of the health care bill, saying from his perspective, its the right thing to do.
In a conference call with reporters today, Space said the federal subsidies in the bill will make it easier for as many [...]
A survey of Ohio voters shows broad support for the concepts of tackling global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and switching to clean energy sources, says the Pew Environment Group.
The group is using the survey to try to persuade the Senate to move forward with a climate [...]
The group Health Care for America Now is running a television ad in the Columbus area thanking Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy for voting in favor of the health care reform bill in the House.
The Columbus Democrat is one of some 20 lawmakers around the two country being thanked [...]
In its first report to Wall Street since Ohioans approved four casinos last week, the developer of two of the casinos did not predict that it would get rich quick as a result of the passage.
Penn National Gaming Inc., which will own and operate casinos in Columbus and [...]
Republican secretary of state candidate Jon Husted has released a list of chairmen in each Ohio county for his 2010 campaign, including four individuals in Franklin County.
Husted, a state senator from Kettering, is expected to face former Ashtabula County auditor Sandra O'Brien in the May GOP primary.' [...]
