From the Akron Beacon Journal:

ll working mothers statewide soon might be guaranteed at least 12 weeks off work after childbirth without fear of losing their job.

The minimum maternity leave is part of proposed changes for the state’s pregnancy-discrimination rule, which now requires companies to give women a ”reasonable period of time” off work to care for their newborn.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission wants to end confusion by defining what’s ”reasonable” for a minimum maternity leave, said Toni Delgado, spokeswoman for the commission.

”Of course, a business owner who has the interest of the business in mind is going to construe a reasonable amount of time as a different amount than a mother who would want to be with her family,” she said. ” . . . It’s too ambiguous and it’s confusing for employers and employees.”

But some business leaders are concerned that the proposed changes are unnecessary and go too far.

If enacted, employers probably will be forced to make cuts in other areas, said Tony Fiore, director of labor and human resources policy for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

”Right now, it’s a very competitive market for good employees,” he said. ”Many employers already provide unpaid leave and it’s not because the government mandates it. This mandated, 12-week unpaid maternity leave policy may force employers and, specifically, smaller employers to cut back on their voluntary leave benefits currently available, such as paid vacations, paid sick leave, general time off or unpaid maternity and paternity leave.”

Women should have time off to have children, and most companies have policies allowing for it. But it shouldn’t be the role of government to mandate time off for sick leave, pregnancy, or any other reason. This decision should be made between the employer and the employee- And its very arrogant of the state government, on a whim, to mandate that all businesses absorb the lost profits of employees on extended leave.

From the AP:

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Somali immigrant the government says plotted to blow up an Ohio shopping mall pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

Nuradin Abdi, 35, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley a week before the expected Aug. 6 start of his trial. He answered each of the judge’s questions with a quiet, ‘Yes, Your Honor.’

Under a plea deal, Abdi is expected to receive a 10-year sentence on the count, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years. Three additional charges were dropped in exchange for the plea.

The Justice Department accused Abdi of suggesting the plan to attack an unidentified Columbus shopping mall during an August 2002 coffee shop meeting with now-convicted al-Qaida terrorist Iyman Faris and a third suspect, Christopher Paul.[…]

Prosecutors accused Paul, who was arrested in April, of joining al-Qaida and plotting to bomb European tourist resorts and U.S. government facilities and military bases overseas.

Abdi was to remain at the Franklin County jail until his sentencing date, which was not set.

And as Patrick Poole reminds us, it was Ahmad Al-Akhras, Mayor Mike Coleman’s good friend and the president of the Ohio office of the terrorist-connected Council on American-Islamic Relations who was defending Nuradin in 2004:

“What we know about him is unlike how he is portrayed,” said Ahmad Al-Akhras, president of the Ohio office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations

And this isn’t the first time that one of Ahmad’s friends have been convicted of similar crimes.

Matt Mayer, a former top official at the Department of Homeland Security said in Sunday’s Columbus Dispatch that under Mayor Mike Coleman’s leadership, funding has “suffered because the city has done a poor job of identifying potential targets and stating how it would protect them.” And in 2004, the city recieved $4.7 million to fight terrorism, which is almost $3 million less than what the city recieved in 2004, with with atleast three al-Qaida-related plots coming out of Columbus.

Since Columbus is a serious has been and will continue to be a target of terrorists, do Columbus residents feel safe having an incompetent mayor who can’t secure the federal funding that is necessary to prevent future attacks? Or what about the fact that Mayor Coleman has a close friend who is an avid defender of terrorism and sits on the blue-ribbon board that oversees Central Ohio Homeland Security.

Reportedly, Ahmad is on the way out the door- Mayor Coleman should follow him.

That is one snazzy looking orange tie!

From a Thompson Hine LLP press release:

CLEVELAND-(BUSINESS WIRE)-Tom Zych, a partner at Thompson Hine LLP, has been appointed by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland to serve on the board of the Ohio Venture Capital Authority (OVCA), which oversees the Ohio Venture Capital Fund Program (OVCFP). The program was established by the governor’s office and the Ohio General Assembly to provide investment capital for early-stage companies to help drive entrepreneurial growth and job opportunities.

Who has Zych donated to? Let’s take a look:
Ted Strickland for Governor- $750
Barbara Sykes for Auditor- $100
John Kerry for President- $2000
DNC- $1000
Sherrod Brown for US Senate- $1250
Eric Fingerhut for US Senate- $450

So a politically connected, major Democrat donor is being appointed by Gov. Strickland to dole out corporate welfare (your tax dollars) to politically connected companies. What could possibly go wrong?

Hey Iowa, that arugula is so expensive!

From Jim Siegel in the Columbus Dispatch:

…Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern used campaign funds to pay Kim Redfern $4,500 in May for the cost of living with her earlier in the year.

And the ‘Fern also used campaign money to pay for his apartment:

Redfern used another $12,800 in campaign funds to pay rent and utilities for an apartment in the Columbus Brewery District throughout 2006. The rent was $975 a month, and he wrote himself a $2,739 check in January to cover utility costs from the prior year.

This is bad press for Ohio Dem Chairman Chris Redfern, and I absoutely loved watching the Dispatch change from a more scathing headline to this morning’s boring, oatmeal & milk-toast headline, “Ohioan used campaign cash for rent.” That is such BS.

Here are screen captures of the Dispatch’s switcheroo:

The first one is a descriptive headline that tells us what the story is all about, which was posted at 10:47 pm last night…

But then, to keep their friends at the Ohio Democrat Party happy, an editor at 3:37 am made the decision to water down the headline…

I can’t imagine the liberal Columbus Dispatch would give this sort of treatment to any Ohio Republican.

And as Right Angle said, Chris should use the “donate to me to pay for my rent” line in his next fundraising letter!

The NY Times reports on Marc Dann’s hero, Eliot Spitzer:

State Senator George H. Winner Jr., an upstate Republican, is calling for Gov. Eliot Spitzer to name Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo a special prosecutor.

The move would give Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, powers to further investigate the governor’s administration and its effort to discredit the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, the state’s top Republican.

A week ago today, Mr. Cuomo’s office released a scathing report that found the governor’s staff had misused the State Police to gather information about Mr. Bruno in an effort to plant a negative article about him in the media. The report concluded that no laws were broken.

Marc Dann has spent more than six months trying to be as much of a lawsuit-crazy activist that Eliot Spitzer was while serving as New York’s Attorney General. Does Dann still look up to this guy?

And speaking of AG activism, why is Dann so silent on the lead paint (Strickland’s illegal veto) Ohio Supreme Court case? The Ohio Supreme Court is taking forever to come out with an opinion, but it appears that Dann is backing off of his ideas to file frivilious lawsuits against paint manufactuers who took lead out of their paint many decades ago, and long before the government mandated it.

Also, Jane Genova reports that Volkswagen is considering building a second facility in the U.S., but it may avoid Ohio because of Dann’s willingness to file frivolous lawsuits against corporations at the drop of a hat.

From Ken Blackwell’s latest column on Townhall.com:

No more playing nice.

Senators Clinton and Obama now are going for each other’s throats, and in doing so, they both expose why neither might not be “ready for primetime” in a post-September11 world.

In last week’s CNN/YouTube debate, a questioner asked if the candidates would promise as president to meet — without conditions — with the brutal leaders of Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and Syria. Mr. Obama hastened to say he would, and Mrs. Clinton proceeded to blast him, saying that such meetings have to be done under the right conditions or the meeting could become a propaganda tool that strengthens the dictator and make matters worse.

Read the rest of Ken’s column here.

From a Cuyahoga County GOP email update:

A straw poll on the race for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination conducted at last Wednesday’s Joint Central and Executive Committee Meeting reflects the national polls. Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Senator Fred Thompson tied for the lead with 32% each. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich came in third at 12%, followed by Governor Romney and Senator McCain.

Patrick Poole’s crusade to get a terror sympathizer Ahmad Al-Akhras may be paying off:

According to a very reliable source, as a result of my FrontPage exposé several weeks ago, “Hometown Jihad: Getting By with a Little Help from His (Terrorist) Friends” (link is dead for some reason), CAIR-National vice chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras is on his way out of his long-time cushy government job with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC), where Al-Akhras is currently assistant director of transportation. Until my article, his MORPC employers were not aware of his close friendships with Al-Qaeda, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Islamic Courts Union and Muslim Brotherhood terrorists and operatives or his pro-HAMAS and pro-Hezbollah rallys he has regularly staged here in town.

Apparently things are so bad that not even his good friend, Mayor Michael Coleman, can apparently save him (but Coleman may still keep him on the Community Relations Commission and the Street Car Working Group).

Click here to read more.

Little Green Footballs picked up on this story, and linked to this video that I’ve never seen before of the blogger from Hourglass 1941 being assaulted twice by Ahmad Al-Akhras last July at CAIR’s anti-Israel rally:

The second assault, and more video, is posted here.

Are the citizens of Columbus comforted to know that this guy is one of Mayor Mike Coleman’s closest friends, and he sits on the blue-ribbon board that oversees Central Ohio Homeland Security? Not only should this nut be kicked off that board, but he should be removed from any and all government commissions.

As Jim Jordan, former executive director of the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee and John Kerry’s campaign manger said in Roll Call (Chris Cillizza, 8/1/02), “Survey USA numbers are the polling equivalent of a college professor’s quote. That is, for lazy reporters they offer the ring of authenticity while in reality being cheap, uninformed, unreliable and meaningless.” And the kook-left Salon.com agreed in 2004 that Survey USA to have an unreliable methodology.

Even I was once called by SurveyUSA, while working inside the Ken Blackwell for Governor campaign office on our main phone line! It was during the primary campaign in the evening after our secretary went home- And I got to vote in a poll and lied about my race, age, gender, education level, and party affiliation.

The system is just too easy to fool because it is computer automated- If they bothered to use live people to ask the questions, I think the operator could have figured out that I’m not a 67 year old black woman. And, I think people are more likely to tell the truth to a live operator than a robot. From my own experience in politics, I know that robot surveys can be accurate, but I think you must conduct thousands of calls to reduce the impact of false data in your results- And SurveyUSA only calls 600 households.

Today, Survey USA has a poll out showing that Senator Voinovich’s numbers are down, and Buckeye State Blog is predictably pleased about it. In fact, BSB is dumb enough to think that Ohio voters are paying close attention to every minor detail of Voinovich’s waffling on the Iraq war, and they use the irrelevant poll numbers to justify their claim.

I want to see low numbers for Voinovich in hopes that the polls would encourage George to step aside for a better candidate. But I’m not going to crow over unreliable, irrelevant poll results.

Emailed to me from a friend:

From The Dispatch blog:

The buzz about Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland ranking high as a potential running mate for the eventual Democratic presidential nominee is getting louder, including a story Sunday in The Washington Post.

The newspaper said talk about a Strickland VP candidacy is “hardly a surprise, since Ohio will be a hugely important swing state in 2008.” It goes on to list Strickland’s credentials that might be appealing: Son of a steelworker, former Methodist minister, his property tax cut this year, an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, and support of abortion rights and universal health care.

A Strickland spokeswoman told The Post that the governor has “an open-door policy” but isn’t yearning for the No. 2 job.

I love how the MSM used the talk of Ken Blackwell being a VP candidate during the campaign as a way to hurt him (Being the governor is just a stepping stone… blah blah blah), while now the talk of Strickland being VP is seen as a positive.

Update: Bill Sloat dumps a bucket of cold reality on this stupid story.

From the email inbox:

ABC of Ohio Blasts Decision by
Ohio School Facilities Commission

11th Hour addition limits competition and wastes taxpayer dollars

COLUMBUS, 7/30/07 – Associated Builders and Contractors of Ohio (ABC) railed against action taken Thursday by the Ohio School Facilities Commission. The Commission passed a resolution that guides local boards of education to mandate prevailing wage and project labor agreements on school construction bid guidelines. These late additions were not included in the initial outline and passed with little public debate.

Braden Black, President of ABC of Ohio, called the new requirements appalling and discriminatory. “When you try to lock out 80% of all contractors from bidding on a project, competition is diminished and prices go up,” Black stated. “Prices will increase nearly 20% for each school built with a PLA. For every five schools built with a PLA, one school will never be built. Whose schools will that be in the end?”

A study last year conducted by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University concluded that PLAs added 18% to cost of a construction project. With more than $1.6 billion in Ohio school construction slated for 2008, a PLA on every project would waste more than $280 million.

“With school districts around the state tightening their belt, how could they ever justify to the taxpayers increasing the local shared cost of building a new school?” Shane Ostrowski, Director of Government Affairs for ABC of Ohio added. It should be noted the Dayton school district just cut their budget by more than $30 million dollars, 18% of its total budget, and laid off teachers. “This is clearly a gift to the union contractors on the backs of the students, teachers and taxpayers.”

Senate President Bill Harris stated the previous program was a “model for the nation” and prior school construction was completed “with quality workmanship, but also by making our dollars stretch as far as we could.” Like President Harris, ABC of Ohio knows change is not always for the better.

Associated Builders and Contractors is the largest construction association devoted to the merit shop contractor. The ABC of Ohio organization consists of all three chapters in Ohio and is part of the 78 chapters in a nationwide federation consisting of more than 23,000 member companies across the United States.

From the Tribune-Chronicle:

Still, not everyone is convinced Dann is blazing a new legal trail in predatory lending. Mark Weaver, campaign chairman for Dann’s Republican 2006 opponent Betty Montgomery, said the national press is covering Ohio’s new law, not Dann.

‘‘Any warm body in the AG’s office could use that tough statute to get headlines,’’ Weaver said.

Republican blogs are quick to pounce on any misstep Dann makes.

Dann has given them plenty of material to work with. Among other things, he has fired his former driver, a deputy security director, who in the 1970s was convicted of involuntary manslaughter; Dann’s first top cop was fired over trust issues and double dipping; and Dann bought a luxury SUV from a campaign contributor.

Most recently, Dann was accused of practicing pay-to-play politics in the hiring of an outside attorney, even though he had instituted what he says is an objective selection process that does not take contributions into account.

They forgot to mention that he sold his State Senate seat to the mafia, swearing in public at a reporter, and a number of other incidents. And, just to remind you, Dann is still in office for three more years! It’s a chore to keep up with his weekly screwups!

Dann also gave a quote defending pay to play that I think may be perfect for a television ad in 2010:

Dann said, ‘‘I don’t want to disqualify my friends and people who share my political philosophy from representing the state because there may be situations we need them.’

So Dann can spend an entire campaign season attacking Jim Petro and Betty Montgomery for giving contracts to friends, but now that he is in office, he does the exact same thing!?

As James Nash in The Dispatch uncovered, 51 out of the 151 lawyers that Dann has hired have donated to his campaign. And even though I couldn’t be more tired of reading quotes from Ohio’s omnipresent Republican lord-and-savior Mark Weaver, he is absoutely correct that Dann is playing “hide the ball.”:

‘‘Marc Dann is playing hide the ball,’’ he said.

Weaver said Dann is raising large amounts of money for the state party and the other association for Democratic attorneys general. ‘‘His report will only show the tip of the iceberg of his fundraising with state clients,’’ Weaver said.

Dann has clearly become everything that he campaigned against. And we have three more years to see how truly corrupt he can become, and how many more screwups he can have.

Gosh, I thought John Wolfe was dead, and The Dispatch, a former Republican-establishment newspaper, already morphed into the type of liberal rag that the other Ohio newspapers already were?

Well, maybe I’m overreacting. But how could anyone read today’s article from Jim Siegel, and not think Jim is trying to make the establishment Republicans in the Ohio legislature look better than they actually are?:

Since the mid-1990s, the selection of a House speaker was strictly up to Republican legislators. But after a seven-seat pickup in 2006 reduced the margin to 53-46, Democrats say they can take over in 2008.

It would be a historic victory. Since the state created the current 99-member House in 1967, no party that did not draw the district boundaries has taken control of the chamber. Republicans last drew the lines after the 2000 census and are confident of a continued majority.

Leadership battles could interrupt election plans for both parties, potentially dividing money or leading to costly primary elections.

Rep. Mark Wagoner, a 35-year-old Toledo lawyer in his second term, is viewed as the top contender to replace Speaker Jon A. Husted in 2009 if the House remains in GOP hands. Husted, of Kettering, must leave because he will hit the eight-year maximum under Ohio term limits.

But before Wagoner got his first diaper change, Rep. William G. Batchelder’s 30-year legislative career was under way, and he wants the job, too. When the Medina Republican, who served in the House from 1968 to ‘98, returned this year after eight years as a county judge, he brought unmatched experience and a strong desire to claim the speaker’s chair that eluded him in the past.

“It’s very difficult, I think, for people who don’t have a lot of experience to anticipate some of the things that you will face,” Batchelder said.

Wagoner has built a solid team to help him: Reps. Matthew J. Dolan of Novelty, Bill Coley of West Chester, Jay Hottinger of Newark, Christopher R. Widener of Springfield and Ross McGregor of Springfield. Each gave at least $100,000 to the House Republican Caucus in the previous election cycle.

“We’ve been trying all along to sell the team concept,” Wagoner said. Batchelder “is running more of a statewide campaign about him.”

Wagoner already has given $150,000 to the caucus this year. Batchelder’s total is not expected to come close.

Batchelder, 64, said he understands that some see him as the underdog. But he notes that because of term limits and other maneuvering, the caucus will have more than 20 new members in 2009, and he plans to help get them elected.

Now, what Jim Siegel said isn’t entirely incorrect. Batchelder, even with his vast experience, is the underdog.

But, there are two points that I have problems with.

The first one is when he said that Wagoner has Christopher Widner on his team. How does Widner’s support help Wagoner, if Widner has already announced he is running for State Senate? Chris has one foot out the door, and he is probably much more concerned about the Senate Republican caucus and his race.

And the second, and much more important point is, as I have pointed out before, Wagoner is far from the fundraising power house that Jim Siegel and others likes to paint him as. As this document shows, Wagoner may have given $150,000 just 30 DAYS AGO to the caucus, but the Ohio GOP and the caucus have also contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars BACK to Wagoner’s campaign. So even with this major $150,000 donation, Wagoner’s net contribution to the caucus is a paltry $3, 716. And Wagoner is in a solidly Republican district!

But Batchelder, on the other hand, is in a tougher district- and the caucus and the Ohio GOP has donated zero, zip, squat to his campaign. And Batchelder’s net contributions to the caucus is $27,500, plus he personally donated $8,000 to the Ohio GOP! That also isn’t a ton of money, but thats much better than Wagoner- As Wagoner is clearly is an embarrassingly awful fundraiser and is being propped up by his Republican establishment friends. Batchelder doesn’t have that sort of luxury.

So why did Jim Siegel focus on contributions to the caucus, but ignored the money coming out of the caucus? Wouldn’t that change the entire premise of his article, and show that Batchelder is a solid candidate who could seriously become speaker, even though the Republican establishment is against him?

As Franklin County GOP Doug Priesse said, Batchelder has “more legislative history in his little pinky, and he’s got a mind like a steel trap.” And if Wagoner wants to defeat Bill, he might want to stop spending so much time in smoky rooms with Husted and Dolan, and learn how to fundraise.

From cleveland.com

Bob Holcepl says he’ll go out of business if the city continues its plan to install new display cases at the West Side Market, where he runs a crepe and coffee stand.

“I can’t work out of those cases,” he said. “I’ve explained that to the city, but they don’t seem to care.”

Cleveland recently spent $3 million to purchase more than 100 refrigerated display cases to install inside the market building, which houses primarily bakery, meat and fish stands.

Michael Cox, director of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Properties, said that the type of case the city purchased is used nationwide and that tenants had their chance to object to them during the selection process.

He said the new cases are part of renovations at the market, a National Historic Landmark started in 1840 that houses nearly 200 commercial stands, that will help make it a better place to shop. Some of the current display cases are more than 50 years old. Installation of the units, made by Virginia-based manufacturer Hill Phoenix, began last week.

But tenants said the cases do not fit their needs.

“They are really hard to work out of,” said Lucille Walker, owner of Walker’s Meat. “The countertops are so wide that we won’t be able to talk to customers or give them change.”

Other tenants said the inside of the new cases are too deep and wide for workers to reach food inside without leaning over the products. They also said the cases will be hard to clean, creating unsanitary conditions.

If they didn’t spent that $3 million, they might have been able to put that towards the Medical Mart.

Here is the transcript from Sunday morning on Late Edition:

BLITZER: Welcome back to “Late Edition.” I’m Wolf Blitzer in New York. African Americans are the most reliable voting bloc for the Democratic Party and will play a key role in selecting the next Democratic presidential nominee. So, it’s absolutely no surprise that the front-runners were courting votes at the National Urban League’s annual conference, which concluded yesterday in St. Louis.

Joining us now from St. Louis is the National Urban League president, the former Democratic mayor of New Orleans, Marc Morial. And in Cincinnati, the former Ohio secretary of state, Republican Ken Blackwell. He’s now a senior fellow with the Family Research Council.

Read more »

From William Hershey in the Dayton Daily News:

COLUMBUS — Right now it seems to be Rudy time among Republicans.

Don’t tell that to Lori Viars of Lebanon.

Viars, a 40-something Christian conservative and longtime Republican activist, represents the dilemma the GOP faces in the already heated race for next year’s presidential nomination.

“I will not vote for Rudy under any circumstances,” said Viars, a member of the Warren County Republican Party’s board of directors and executive director of Family First PAC, a conservative political action committee.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has surged to the front in polls among Republicans seeking the nomination.[…]

Viars isn’t keen on Giuliani’s two top announced competitors – Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

“We would probably hold our nose and vote for McCain and Romney,” Viars said of herself and other Christian conservatives.

McCain has made comments “hurtful” to Christian conservatives and Viars isn’t sure about Romney. Romney opposes abortion but when he first ran for Massachusetts’ governor said he would protect a woman’s right to choose.

I’m a big fan of the work Lori Viars does for Republicans- She is probably the most involved conservative activist in Ohio.

I think it is a sign for how far out of touch the Republican party is, when the top three candidates for president require the base to hold their nose or stay home on election day. And Lori is much more excited about the third tier candidates and Fred Thompson than I am. And at this point, I don’t know if any of the candidates could defeat the Clintonistas’ media-think tank-fundraising juggernaut. Our candidates, and Obama, seem to has as much chance as Vince Foster did while driving through Fort Marcy Park.

From today’s Plain Dealer:

Strickland’s shameful siphoning of millions for pet projects

tramples the law, the process and the clear will of the voters

Gov. Ted Strickland is violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the law spelling out how Third Frontier money is to be spent.

By law, the Third Frontier Commission - one of several layers established to insulate the $1.6 billion program from politics - is supposed to administer all of the program’s money, not just what’s left over after the governor grabs tens of millions of dollars to spread around in political paybacks.

Strickland’s budget takes $76 million from the program Ohio voters established to accelerate the state’s high-tech economy and hands it directly to the Supercomputer Center at Ohio State University for equipment and services to expand broadband Internet services in rural Ohio and to the Board of Regents to help universities lure more money.

By grabbing those tens of millions of dollars through fiat, Strickland tramples on the law, the process and the will of the voters. This is precisely what the Third Frontier’s architects - and Ohio’s voters - wisely sought to avoid.

The first time it was offered, the voters rejected the Third Frontier concept. They worried politicians would do with the program exactly what Strickland is doing now. Only after then-Gov. Bob Taft and Republican supporters expanded the independence and breadth of the group vetting the high-tech projects - at the insistence of Democrats who said they wanted to prevent the money from being used to scratch backs - did the voters approve.[…]

Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, also the state’s development director and a member of the commission, says the earmarks broaden and leverage the Third Frontier money already invested. He said the process in place would unnecessarily slow down progress. “And we wanted to send a strong signal that we move quickly.”

That is, at the very least, a gross distortion of the truth. And the signal the administration is sending is that the law doesn’t matter.[…]

As long as the Strickland administration continues to treat the all-important Third Frontier program like political pork, only the legislature can be trusted to protect the major investment voters made in Ohio’s future.

This is why it is so embarrassing that Republicans are responsible for the socialist Third Frontier program. Really, anything that Third Frontier project spends your money on is a “pet project”, even if the Pain Dealer might find some to be more noble than others. Regardless, politicians love wasting the money of others, and apparently Gov. Strickland enjoys doing that so much that he is willing to trample on the law and the will of the voters.