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10 Mar 2011 14:39

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U.S.: Ohio Gov. John Kasich would like you to know he can crush unions too

  • Wisconsin As anybody with an even mild interest in politics now knows, Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget” bill is not about the budget, so much as it’s a duplicitous effort to crush public unions at seemingly any political price. Police and firefighters, being somewhat harder to scapegoat than teachers, are exempt.
  • Ohio Don’t look now, but Gov. John Kasich is the mega-Walker. The newly elected Republican (and former Bill O’Reilly fill-in host) has an even more draconian hope for unions, stripping broad bargaining rights (like health care), and even disallowing strikes. Oh, and no free pass for police or firefighters. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Mar 2011 14:36

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U.S.: Backers of Ohio’s “heartbeat bill” will bring pregnant woman to legislature

  • legislation The “Heartbeat Bill” in Ohio, which would designate abortion as being illegal at such a time as the fetus has a recognizable heartbeat. While the amount of time this takes can vary, such heartbeats can exist just eighteen days after conception.
  • testimony Supporters of the bill will be bringing a pregnant woman before the legislature, and will project her ultrasound images to the assemblage in color, which causes the fetus’ heartbeat to be more prominently visible. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Feb 2011 13:26

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Politics: Ohio may be going the way of Wisconsin on deficit issues

  • State employees are not the cause of the economic problems we’re having, and for Senator Jones and other Republicans to point to them as the problem is absolutely unfair and untrue.
  • Ohio State Senator Joe Schiavoni • Speaking about the burgeoning labor face-off in Ohio. The Republican state legislature is considering a bill to tackle the state’s financial troubles, which presently amounts to an $8 billion deficit, that may sound rather familiar to those protesting in Wisconsin right now. Namely, it weakens or strips away long standing and hard fought collective bargaining rights for organized labor, a typically Democratic voting block. To be clear, fiscal responsibility does matter. But isn’t there a way to do this that’s all about being good with money, without the distracting attempt at anti-labor scapegoating that these bills reek of? source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Feb 2011 21:57

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U.S.: Youngstown State reeling from late-night fraternity shooting

  • one person died in the shooting, near Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio
  • 11 were injured, one critically; a 17-year-old girl was shot in the head; what the heck? source
  • » What happened: A disagreement turned deadly after one of the suspects was being escorted out of the fraternity last night. He and another suspect reportedly reentered the fraternity, which is sanctioned by the university but off-campus, and opened fire. The shooting appeared to be an isolated incident, according to the university president.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jan 2011 00:09

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U.S.: “Separate but equal” returns: On the Kelley Williams-Bolar situation

  • Is this case The new “separate but equal”? The case of Kelley Williams-Bolar, a single mother who went out of her way to put her children in a better public school district that wasn’t crime-ridden, sparks a lot of emotions. The biggest, of course, is caused by the incredibly harsh punishment that Williams-Bolar received. The Akron, Ohio resident, a teacher’s assistant only a few credits shy of a teaching degree, can no longer teach in the state of Ohio because she’s a convicted felon. (They knew this when making the decision.) While she was released from jail yesterday, the court seemed to make her an example for something which doesn’t seem like it should be a crime. Some thoughts:
  • Kelley’s crime The crime that Williams-Bolar committed is one which may not be clear from the surface. She filed paperwork claiming that her children lived with her father, but she in fact shipped them over to her dad’s house daily. Williams-Bolar lives in subsidized housing, and the method prevented her from paying tuition and property taxes – a key issue for many.
  • “But we pay taxes!” For many not so kind to Kelley’s case, this is the crux of the issue. The people who live in the Copley-Fairlawn City School District pay out the wazoo for those nice schools, and in their view, Williams-Bolar is carpetbagging. There are a lot of issues at play, but by no means do they reach the level of felony. It’s way too harsh and has long-term ramifications.
  • The system doesn’t work The school district found out about what Williams-Bolar did by doing a stakeout after they got suspicious. You know, that really says it all, doesn’t it? The public education system, whether it’s intentional or not, favors haves over have nots. This is a brave act on the part of Williams-Bolar. She chose to defy the system, and by doing so, she exposed a major flaw. Kudos.
  • » One other thought: Race plays a huuuuuuuge factor in this story, obviously, and that is one point we don’t want to underplay. Blogger Kalimah Priforce has a great open letter up about the whole situation from a racial/civil disobedience angle. The whole thing is worth a read, but this is the point that really struck home for us: “At some point they determined that your girls didn’t belong in their schools and rather than meeting with you to determine a way for your children to stay with the same teachers and classmates they become accustomed to, they hunted you down and threw you into prison.” Honestly, we could see this case going to the Supreme Court. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Jan 2011 14:28

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Politics: Some thoughts on Ted Williams’ golden-voiced situation

  • Williams is an interesting figure who represents something far more than his own situation. And as more details come out about Williams, that becomes clear. He’s a product of that specific brand of fading industrialization that cities like Columbus have perfected over the last thirty years. A few years back, when Morgan Spurlock hosted the memorable reality show “30 Days,” he lived in Columbus, Ohio on minimum wage for a month. Spurlock gets beef for his Michael Moore-lite methods, but the truth is, the minimum wage episode was pretty on-point. We imagine Williams being in the background of that episode, thrown away by the society that let him down. And there’s the problem. There are lots of guys like Williams who were also in that scene, who don’t have his miraculous luck. Or the voice. We call them deadbeats. We criticize them for being dregs on society (looking at you, Fox News). Well, what are we doing to fix this? Enforcing drug laws? Citing them for trespassing? Ignoring them? For every Williams with a broken home life and no way to improve his situation, there are thousands of others. And we, as a society, should be asking why. (Now’s a good time to suggest donating to Street Sense. Help the homeless help themselves.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jan 2011 10:48

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Culture: So, how far did the homeless radio man Ted Williams fall?

  • Of all the people I’ve worked with in radio in 25 years, he would have been the last one I would guess would be famous. To be honest, I’m shocked he’s still alive, considering all the stuff he was into.
  • A former co-worker of golden-voiced homeless man Ted Williams • Explaining their experience working in radio with the man who’s dramatically been given multiple second chances this week. Williams, who has spent about five months in jail over the last twenty years and has a long-ranging list of misdemeanors, reportedly had a reputation of theft, according to the co-worker. Williams, who has six children (and myriad grandchildren and great-grandchildren), ended his marriage in 1998 because of his infidelity and crack-cocaine habit. He’s been clean for the last two years, and showed up on the “Today Show” this morning. Talk about comeback stories. Let’s hope that this time, he doesn’t get sucked into a world of drugs and alcohol. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

05 Jan 2011 21:39

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Culture: Golden-voiced homeless guy comes with lots of baggage

  • » The Cavs still want to help, though: Look, if you have a long history of drug and alcohol abuse like Williams here, it’s understandable that there might be a criminal record in there. But that isn’t deterring Quicken Loans, which owns the Cleveland Cavaliers and has offered Williams a home along with an voiceover job with the team and company. “We believe in second chances and second opportunities,” said Tracy Marek, senior vice president of marketing for the Cavaliers. “The gentleman deserves an opportunity to explain certain situations. We’re not jumping to conclusions. It’s not fair.” We hope that the obvious rough edges don’t deter anyone else, either. Too many give up on the homeless – and most of them don’t become YouTube celebrities.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Dec 2010 19:56

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U.S.: Midwest states screw themselves out of high-speed rail money

  • money The federal government gives a lot of money for high-speed rail projects across the country. The benefit could potentially be major.
  • principle Annoyed by having to take the money, Ohio and Wisconsin want to cancel their rail projects and use the cash for roads. The DOT says no.
  • money Know what happens to that money now? It goes to fund other states’ rail projects instead. Man, those states sure showed Obama! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

10 Nov 2010 00:53

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Politics: Ray LaHood to states: Keep building high-speed rail or lose money

  • no Newly elected governors in multiple Midwest states want to cancel in-progress high-speed rail projects they say their states can’t afford.
  • but … However, these newly minted Republican leaders want to keep the money already set aside for these projects to help fix the roads.
  • no Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the states either have to keep the projects going or forfeit the money entirely. It’s war, guys. source
  • » Our take: Why is it that the first thing GOP leaders look to cut are public-works projects with potential long-term implications? The two projects in question here – a high-speed link between Milwaukee and Chicago and another between four of Ohio’s largest cities – would have a long-term positive effect on the state economies. Yet canceling them halfway through is a great idea. Have these guys even looked at the rising popularity of the Acela trains in the Northeast Corridor? Or how much these would help commuters? Milwaukee to Chicago, for example, is a very common Amtrak trip, and faster trains would make it easier for people who want to skip the traffic to make the trek. It’s not always about slimming down now, but planning for tomorrow.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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