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Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Voino bill aims to get China, India on board in fight against global warming
Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, has long been concerned with a cap and trade proposal aimed at fighting global warming. He’s worried in part that the United States will take all sorts of steps to clean up their air, only to see other industrialized countries such as India and China keep polluting.
So he introduced a bill this week aimed at getting other countries on board. His bill, introduced with Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., would launch an international effort to develop new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance energy security. Specifically, the bill would direct the U.S. program office of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate to establish a committee focused on the development and commercialization of clean energy technologies.
“Countries like China and India will continue to use coal regardless of the availability of clean energy technologies,” Voinovich said in a statement. “We must work to give these countries and the rest of the world better, cleaner energy options while protecting jobs and the economy.”
The bill would provide a $200 million per year investment from Fiscal Year 2010 to 2015 for the development of clean energy technology.
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TweetSenate approves bill that targets urine drinking
By a 30-3 vote, the Senate on Tuesday, April 21, approved legislation that would make it a crime to collect someone’s body fluids, including urine, without permission.
Sen. Jim Hughes, R-Columbus, the bill’s sponsor, said Senate Bill 58 is needed to “keep our children safe.”
It was prompted by the behavior of a suburban Columbus man, Alan D. Patton, whose fetish involves surreptitiously collecting young boys’ urine and and then drinking it.
Patton has been seen trying to collect urine at a miniature golf course, a children’s video arcade and a movie theater. Patton has been in court on charges such as public indecency, voyeurism and criminal mischief but there is no specific law outlawing urine collection.
The bill would make the first offense a first degree misdemeanor with a penalty of six months in jail and a second offense a fifth degree felony with a penalty of a year in jail.
Sen. Tom Sawyer, D-Akron, who cast one of the “no” votes, said lawmakers needed to be aware of unintended consequences.
Sawyer brought up the case of Clarence Elkins, the Ohio man who was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of his mother-in-law but finally was freed when DNA from a cigarette butt was snatched from another prison inmate whose DNA matched the crime. The DNA was in the saliva on the butt, Sawyer said.
Hughes, a former prosecutor, said the proposed law wouldn’t have prohibited the taking of the cigarette butt which he said would have been a “lawful taking.”
The bill now goes to the House.
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TweetNo earmark requests for Austria
His predecessor was once referred to as “Porker of the Month” by an anti-earmark watchdog, but if U.S. Rep. Steve Austria aims to fill former U.S. Rep. Dave Hobson’s earmark-securing shoes, he ain’t doing it this year.
U.S. House members were asked to post all their earmark requests on their websites earlier this year. For Austria, R-Beavercreek, it was easy: He hasn’t asked for any earmarks.
Austria spokeswoman Courtney Whetstone said Austria opted not to request any earmarks because of the current economic climate.
As for the rest of the delegation: House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, makes it a policy not to request earmarks. U.S. Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, asked for three, one in Lima, one in Mansfield and one in Findlay and U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, asked for two, one in Cincinnati and one for a corridor between Cincinnati and Clermont County. U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, meanwhile, requested nearly 50, many benefitting Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which also adjacent to Austria’s district.
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TweetHusted testifies for redistricting plan
Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, on Tuesday, April 21, gave the first testimony supporting his plan to change the way Ohio draws state legislative and congressional districts.
“I am presenting to you a proposal that would end the partisan gerrymandering of legislative and congressional districts that allows the politicians to pick the voters rather than allowing the voters to pick their public officials,” Husted said in testimony prepared for the Senate State and Local Government and Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Senate Joint Resolution 5 would establish a bipartisan, seven-member commission to oversee the creation of the districts after each census. Husted wants the legislature to put the proposal before voters in November.
“Our current method of redistricting is a winner take all system that ranks Ohio as one of the most partisan states in the country,” Husted, who is running for secretary of state in 2010, said in his prepared testimony. “This system has led to partisan control of government and serves as an incentive to work in a partisan manner.”
The commission would replace the five-member Apportionment Board for drawing legislative districts and the legislature for drawing U.S. House districts.
Each of the four legislative leaders would appoint a member to the commission and those four members, by unanimous vote, would select the other three. If they cannot agree on the other three, each would submit a name to the governor. The governor, in public view, would randomly select the three additional members from the four proposed names.
Each legislative and congressional district would have to meet compactness guidelines. Also, the plan calls on the commission to maximize the number of competitive districts.
A five-vote supermajority would be required to approve any redistricting plan.
“The time is now for Ohio to adopt this proposal to end the partisan gerrymandering that serves political parties over the public,” Husted said in his prepared testimony.
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