edited by: Lisa Renee Ward,
Ohio Editor
Sheffield Village – A single car crash sent two men to the hospital Sunday afternoon, one in critical condition the other listed as serious at the time of the crash.
BYSTANDERS PITCH IN TO SAVE MAN TMC NEWS PHOTOS / BRIAN WOODS
DEVELOPING
On Tuesday, December 8th, thousands will come together in Tacoma Washington to pay tribute to four Officers who were killed last weekend.US Senate Candidate Rob Portman offers a rather bold proposal to stimulate the economy:
The Cincinnati Republican spoke in Cleveland Friday afternoon. Among his proposals was one that he maintains would jump-start both hiring, and spending.
Portman said “to spur immediate investment by employers and encourage consumption by employees; I support [...]
Not surprisingly, some construction contractors are feeling left out after they were not invited by Senate Republicans to testify on a proposed overhaul of public construction laws.
Leaders of the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association sent a letter this week to Sen. John A. Carey [...]
For more than a week, Sen. Sherrod Brown and his staff tried to get his name attached as a co-sponsor to a Republican health care amendment. Nine times his staff members contacted the office of GOP senators and nine times they came away without any answer.
So today, Brown, [...]
An executive whose Oregon-based windows and doors company has plants in Ohio went to the White House jobs summit yesterday, his invite at the recommendation of Rep. Zack Space, D-Dover.
Attending the summit, which President Obama convened to address tackling the still double digit unemployment rate, was Ron Saxton, [...]
House Speaker Armond Budish told Senate President Bill M. Harris today that he is willing to work with him on construction and prison sentencing reform, but the measures cannot be passed as a part of (the budget fix) in the next week or two.
Given the very short timeline [...]
Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee will enter the debate over the state budget fix on Monday when he testifies before the Senate Finance Committee in support of public construction reform being pushed by Senate Republicans.
Lawmakers continue to debate how to fill the $851 million budget hole. [...]
Dispatch political reporters Alan Johnson and Jonathan Riskind talk about President Barack Obama's plan for Afghanistan.
[...]The state's highest court has agreed to consider whether state officials overstepped their authority when they outlawed prizes worth more than $10 from so-called games of skill such as Tic Tac Fruit.
The Ohio Supreme Court today accepted an appeal from Attorney General Richard Cordray to a portion' [...]
Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman agrees with President Obama that more troops are needed in Afghanistan, but doesn't like the president's decision to impose a timetable for beginning to withdraw some of those soldiers.
"I agree with President Obama's decision to follow the advice of his military commanders and'" [...]
The Senate Finance Committee was delayed again this morning, but the chairman, Sen. John A. Carey Jr., R-Wellston, said he is optimistic the Senate will take action on the budget shortfall by the end of the day.
Legislative leaders from both parties and the governor are trying to [...]
Count U.S. Senate candidate Lee Fisher among the Democrats who are opposed to President Obama's decision to send 30,000 more U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan.
On the one hand, says Fisher, "Keeping America safe is our most sacred duty. Thats why I believe we must continue to aggressively target al-Qaeda" [...]
Like many Republicans, Rep. Steve Austria of Beavercreek backs President Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, but the endorsement came with criticism of the length of time Obama took to make the move.
It is good the president finally made a decision on this important issue," Austria" [...]
Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Columbus, says Obama's speech tonight laid out a "military strategy, a civilian surge, and the need for addressing the presence of Al Qaeda in other parts of the world, including Pakistan."
Kilroy said she understands both "the need to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda," [...]
Elyria – Two Oberlin men were arrested early Sunday morning after Police were told one of them was waving a gun in the downtown Burger King Parking lot.If the reaction by Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio is any indication, President Obama still has a way to go to win over fellow Democrats, even after the commander in chiefs nationally televised speech tonight laying out his Afghanistan strategy.
Brown before the speech said he was very skeptical [...]
Giving away $3 million isnt so easy.
Franklin County commissioners are eager to cut a check for the last dollars needed to build Columbus Commons, an urban park replacing the dead City Center Mall.
But the grant will have to wait until spring when a legal land description of [...]
Gov. Ted Strickland came to Washington today to tell the U.S. International Trade Commission that it is time to impose penalties on Chinese companies allegedly dumping too-cheap steel tubing into American markets.
Earlier this year, steel mills in Lorain and Youngstown and Warren were forced to lay off workers [...]
Jobless Ohioans were jamming state phone lines this morning to find out why they didn't receive their unemployment benefits as expected.
Brian Harter, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, said there was a computer system failure over the weekend which has been corrected, however' [...]
There are 111,255 uninsured children in Ohio and most of them qualify for tax-funded health care but aren't enrolled.
While Gov. Ted Strickland's plan to expand eligibility in the State Children's Health Insurance Program to higher-income children is on hold because of a lack of funding, child advocates' [...]
As expected, Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman today endorsed Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher for U.S. Senate in 2010.
Coleman and Fisher have been allied since their losing gubernatorial campaign in 1998. Fisher, who had selected Coleman, then a city council member, as his running mate, was defeated for governor [...]
The national Republicans today assailed Democratic Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner for what they described as her inflammatory and baseless attacks against General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Jennifer Brunner should immediately apologize not only to General McChrystal, but to all American troops, for her inflammatory [...]
It's not much of a secret that the establishment of the Democratic Party wants Lee Fisher to be the 2010 U.S. Senate race candidate, not Jennifer Brunner . But there is fresh evidence in an invitation for a Fisher fundraiser next week in Washington hosted by none other than [...]
Only two of the seven Ohio horsetracks were able to come up with license fees for slot machines in September -- and that was before voters approved full-blown casinos that would compete with the tracks.
But that doesn't mean the idea of slot machines -- officially known as' [...]
With billions of dollars up for grabs, it's perhaps no surprise that lobbyists have gotten to work trying to influence which states the Obama administration gives money for high-speed passenger rail.
The federal government's $8 billion allocation for rail projects around the country "is poised to become Washington's latest" [...]
Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio agrees with those who say the United States should get more help from allies in the war in Afghanistan. But while Voinovich is awaiting details of President Obama's policy tomorrow, the Ohio Republican seems supportive of Obama's decision to send more troops to [...]
Two Franklin County wind and solar energy savings projects are among 25 statewide to share more than $13 million in federal stimulus funds. (See entire list here).
Gov. Ted Strickland, joined by other elected and state officials, announced the grants today in Cleveland at Lincoln Electric, which will receive [...]
Twelve elected Democrats from Lucas County today endorsed Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher for the party's nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2010.
The officials, including seven countywide officeholders and Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, opted to endorse Fisher rather than his opponent for the Democratic nomination, Secretary of State Jennifer [...]
Ahead of President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday when the president is expected to outline plans to send another 30,000 or more troops to Afghanistan, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio says he remains "very skeptical" about such a move by his fellow Democrat in the White House.
It's' [...]
U.S. Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner doesn't have a vote, of course, but the Ohio Democrat seems to typify the intra-party problem facing President Obama Tuesday night when he reportedly will announce that he will send another 30,000 or so U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan.
Brunner says in a release this' [...]
TMC NEWS / BRIAN WOODSOhio will get more than $5 million from a pharmaceutical company that was found to have overcharged the state Medicaid program for three nasal sprays, Attorney General Richard Cordray's office said today.
Ohio's share of a $95.5 million multi-state settlement with Aventis Pharmaceutical Inc. is $5,019,441.83, Cordray's' [...]
Elyria – A Grafton man was arrested early Thursday morning after running from a State Trooper during a traffic stop on Cleveland Street in Elyria.
TMC NEWS PHOTOS / BRIAN WOODS
South Amherst – Firefighters from around Lorain County came together Wednesday morning to pay their final respects to one of their own – Captain Kenneth R. Beran of the South Amherst Fire Department.
Usually, losing parties in Ohio Supreme Court cases accept their defeats quietly. Not Jeff Norman.
Norman, whose companies were hammered in October with a record-breaking $6.4 million verdict for allegedly fleecing senior citizens, today lost his bid to have the Supreme Court take another look at his [...]
Sex offenders are in the legislative crosshairs again.
Rep. Bill Coley, R-West Chester, has introduced a bill that would increase the penalty for sexual imposition committed against children ages 13 to 16. The offense would be a first-degree misdemeanor instead of third-degree.
Coley noted that the penalty for gross [...]
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray is taking the side of gun owners in a U.S. Supreme Court case over whether Chicago can ban handguns.
Cordray's office said today that it is co-sponsoring a friend-of-the court brief in the case of McDonald v. Chicago, arguing that gun rights [...]
Calls for help to the Ohio Benefit Bank hotline reveal how bad things have gotten for some Ohioans.
The Benefit Bank surveys about one of every 10 callers about their personal situation. Here is information from roughly 500 calls in October. The vast majority were seeking help with [...]
Gov. Ted Strickland is in Washington today to share a meal with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - but the Ohio Democrat won't be at the much-talked about state dinner at the White House tonight being hosted by President Obama.
Instead, Strickland was invited to a lunch for the' [...]
Gov. Ted Strickland unleashed a torrent (296) clemency decisions Monday, but Bradley Tapp's case was not among them.
Strickland waited nearly three full years into his term before making a non-death penalty clemency decision, but when he did he cleared the deck of all leftover cases from former Gov. [...]
SMOKE SEEN MILES AWAYSheffield Village – Smoke could be seen from miles away as a large garage burned to the ground in Sheffield Village Monday afternoon.Letting the governor appoint members to the Ohio Supreme Court might offer Democrats their best shot of breaking the Republican monopoly on the bench. But that doesn't mean every Democrat is in favor.
Mary Jane Trapp, an appellate judge in northeast Ohio who is running for the Supreme' [...]
Ohios Republican members of Congress wrote a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland last week encouraging him to create an independent, bipartisan board to monitor the states use of federal stimulus dollars, but the governor called the letter a political document.
The letter, signed by House Minority Leader John [...]
State Rep. Jay Goyal will attend the first state dinner hosted by the Obama administration Tuesday evening, when he helps welcome the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh.
I am honored to represent Ohio at the White House where I will discuss the issues and concerns facing Ohios working [...]
Gov. Ted Strickland didn't mince words last week when asked what he thought about a proposal by some Senate Republicans to fill an $851.5 million hole in the state budget.
"This is a joke," Strickland said of the GOP plan, which failed to get enough votes from Republicans' [...]
Two central Ohio lawmakers, a House Democrat and a Senate Republican, say they are moving ahead on proposals that would give individual counties more oversight over casinos, or even outright reject them.
After 58 percent of Franklin County residents voted against state Issue 3, which will allow the building [...]
The AFL-CIO says it will sue if state leaders try to use $200 million in casino licensing fees to help plug an $851 million hole in the state budget.
The constitutional amendment passed by voters earmarks the $200 million in licensing fees for regional workforce and economic development, said [...]
Image via Wikipedia
Good for Congressmen Pat Tiberi and Steve Austria:
Tiberi, elected in 2000, hasn’t gone after taxpayer dollars for central Ohio projects since 2007. Austria says he is not pursuing earmarks in his first year in office “due to [...]
Amherst – Sunday was the 2nd Annual Great Turkey Give Away in Amherst and many families in need this holiday season took advantage of the event.
After more than a year of hitting the streets collecting signatures to recall Elyria Mayor Bill Grace, the group Stand Up Elyria has been riding a high since they found out that they had enough signatures to force an election. This week though something happened that [...] 
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 [...]
