GOP bill stuns payday lenders
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
By Jim Siegel
After months of debate over whether to cap payday-lending interest rates at 36 percent, House Republican leaders tossed a sharp curveball yesterday by proposing a 28 percent cap.
Stunning both the payday-lending industry and consumer advocates, House Financial Institutions Chairman Rep. Christopher R. Widener, R-Springfield, made major changes yesterday to a plan he introduced last week that did not lower the current 391 percent rate.
Widener introduced House Bill 545, which would cap payday lending rates at 28 percent, limit borrowers to four loans per year, cut the maximum loan size from $800 to $500 and require that borrowers get at least 31 days to pay off a loan.
I think I woke up in an alternate universe today. The only thing that would be better than this is if they expedited the vote and dropped it on Strickland's desk next week.
ONE YEAR LATER: How have area businesses fared since the smoking ban?
Michael Baker
On May 5 last year, the statewide smoking ban took effect and extinguished smoking in all indoor public places. The law — passed with 57 percent of the public vote in November 2007 — was hotly contested when it was put on the ballot and divided people into several camps.
Some felt that the ban unconstitutionally trampled smokers’ rights. Others felt that the law lacked teeth and didn’t go far enough in assuring that restaurants enforced the ban.
In addition, many business owners feared that the ban would slowly kill their business.
So how does it look a year after the smoke has cleared?
Governor pushes for high-speed Internet
Friday, April 25, 2008
BY MARK NIQUETTE
Strickland spoke yesterday in Columbus at the first of six events planned nationwide by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the nonprofit Connected Nation to promote the importance of broadband access.
The first step in Ohio has been to map where the coverage gaps exist in the state, and the initial map is expected to be completed by June 27, said Brent Legg of Connect Ohio.
The plan also calls for setting up "e-community leadership teams" in all 88 counties to develop customized plans for broad-band service and helping residents who can't afford computers or access get connected.
The idea is to show the demand for high-speed Internet access to encourage providers to offer it, as well as to educate residents who aren't taking advantage of the educational and job opportunities that broadband can provide.
Governor rejects cigarette surcharge
Thursday, April 24, 2008
By James Nash
A Washington-based anti-smoking group wants Gov. Ted Strickland and legislative leaders to slap a 75-cent surcharge on packs of cigarettes in order to save an Ohio foundation that discourages youth from smoking and runs a smoking quit line.
Legislative leaders and Strickland aren't biting, however. Spokesman Keith Dailey said the governor is not considering alternatives to his proposal to take money from the anti-smoking foundation for his economic-stimulus plan.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said revenue from the new tax would more than offset the money Strickland and legislative leaders want to divert from the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation, which would keep the foundation in business.
Is Marc Dann the Columbus Version of Elliot Spitzer?
Posted by
Mercurius
on
Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:47 am in
Political NewsSo a while ago it was reported (on a less than credible blog) that Marc Dann's scheduler, Jessica Utovich, had on her MySpace page that she was in a sexual relationship with Dann. Looks like the rumors are starting to get more validity behind them. This Plain Dealer article is one of the funniest news pieces I have read in while. So how long before Dann resigns?
The Plain Dealer wrote:
Text message fleshes out harassment accusations
Posted by Reginald Fields April 15, 2008 16:37PM
Jessica UtovichShe said she was drunk, "in a weird situation," and needed a ride home from Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann's apartment.
The woman's text messages to a friend last September are key evidence in sexual harassment accusations that she and another employee in the attorney general's office have lodged against Anthony Gutierrez, one of Dann's top aides.
The messages, obtained by The Plain Dealer, were sent on the night the woman said that Gutierrez took her out for drinks and then back to an apartment he shared with Dann. The woman's complaint says she felt drunk, asked to lie down and later woke up with her pants unbuttoned and Gutierrez next to her in his underwear.
"Girl. . .im in a weird situation. .iem w marc dan. . . .drunnnnk," the 26-year-old woman writes in one of nine messages sent before she fell asleep.
"Lol. . .i lnve u. . .im here with boss amd marc dann. . .," she writes. She follows that with, "Lol. . . .wasted. .love u. . .give details io the am."
She later writes that she's "trashed," and then in another of the one-line messages mentions that Dann's scheduler, Jessica Utovich, is there.
"Umm. . .im at marc danns place. . .pick me up," she writes.
Your party preference should be private
BY DAN WILLIAMSON / APRIL 3, 2008
Ever wonder whether your neighbors are Democrats or Republicans? You don’t have to. Just hop online, visit the Franklin County Board of Elections website and look them up.
It’s crazy that the government—not to mention your friends and coworkers—has the right to know which primary you voted in.
It’s kind of addictive, actually. Once you get on the site, you might find yourself typing in the names of acquaintances, coworkers and even local celebrities to peek at their political preferences.
It’s one of those things that’s fun to do because it feels like you shouldn’t be able to do it. And you shouldn’t.
Strickland gives Spitzer cash to food bank
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Gov. Ted Strickland is giving a food bank $10,000 in campaign cash he got from former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer resigned last week in a prostitution scandal.
He gave Strickland the contribution for the Ohio governor's 2006 campaign. It was the biggest of the out-of-state political contributions Spitzer had handed out to Democratic candidates and causes across the country since 2004.
Strickland donated the money to the Tri-County Food Pantry in southeast Ohio.
Lack of insurance is killing Ohioans, group says
By Jonathan Riskind
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Families USA, which advocates universal health coverage, said that a lack of health insurance kills about two working-age adults each day in Ohio, or about 750 people in 2006.
Uninsured adults were more likely to find they had serious diseases such as cancer at an advanced stage, the group said. In 2002, the Institute of Medicine found that uninsured adults are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults with private health insurance.
"A lack of health coverage is a matter of life and death for many people in the state of Ohio," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. "People without insurance often forgo checkups, screenings and other preventive care."
Ohio seizes voting machines in criminal investigation
By Ryan Paul | Published: March 18, 2008
At the request of election officials, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation has seized voting machines for forensic analysis and has launched a criminal investigation into the Franklin County Board of Elections.
Related Stories
The investigation was launched after Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's Secretary of State and chief election official, found that a candidate's name was marked as withdrawn on the electronic voting machine that she used during the recent primaries, an irregularity that was also reported by voters in other precincts. The state attorney general is now working with a team of computer forensic consultants to determine if there was any tampering.
Preliminary analysis conducted by specialists from SysTest Labs indicates that the internal audit capability of the Franklin County voting machines had been manually disabled by county election board programmers last year, making it almost impossible to tell if any nefarious changes have been made to the systems. SysTest also discovered that the election board had failed to adhere to routine machine testing standards and had tested only one machine in each precinct rather than all of the machines.
Bill strengthens gays' rights Lawmakers try again to ban discrimination based on sex orientation
By Jim Siegel
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Nothing in Ohio law stops companies from firing people because they are gay, just as there is nothing to stop landlords from refusing to rent to homosexuals.
Past legislative efforts to add protections for sexual orientation into state law have gone nowhere. That leaves people such as Jimmie Beall without a remedy from the state when they are fired for reasons they believe are directly related to their sexual orientation.
Beall was a teacher with the London City Schools in 2003. Her past reviews were excellent and she had been told by the administration that they planned to offer her a new three-year contract, she said.
But then, during a civil-rights lesson in her government class, Beall showed a presentation on the treatment of gays. Soon after, she said, the superintendent sent a message to the school board suggesting Beall was a lesbian, and her contract was not renewed.
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