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Monday, September 14, 2009
Obama to visit Lordstown on Tuesday
President Barack Obama is set to make his second Ohio visit this month on Tuesday, Sept. 15, this time to the Lordstown GM plant in northeastern Ohio.
Obama will meet with workers and speak on the economy, the White House said. The president was in Cincinnati on Labor Day to speak at a labor picnic.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is to join Obama in Lordstown, Brown’s office said.
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Ohio House vote set on bill to protect gay rights
The Ohio House on Tuesday, Sept. 15, is scheduled to vote on legislation banning discrimination in employment and housing based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
House Bill 176 has bipartisan support and is expected to win approval in the House, controlled by Democrats. Rep. Ross McGregor, R-Springfield, is a joint sponsor and Rep. Terry Blair, R-Washington Twp., is a co-sponsor.
The chance of passage is considered less likely in the Republican-controlled Senate.
“I think it’s very important that we have fairness in employment,” House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, said last week. “….I think it sends a message that Ohio is welcoming to all.”
However, Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, said he questions whether the bill is needed. If the House passes it and sends it to the Senate, it will be assigned to a committee, he said.
“We’ll see what the committee decides,” said Harris.
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Slots may be off-limits to teens
Ohioans can buy lottery tickets at age 18 but they may have to wait until they turn 21 before they’ll be allowed to play slots in Ohio.
Gov. Ted Strickland is asking the Ohio Lottery Commission to change the age limit to 21. Current rules say 18 and older may play or enter the slots playing areas. “After careful consideration of articulated concerns, and the views of the directors of the Ohio Lottery and the Department of Public Safety, I am requesting that the Lottery Commission consider a rule revision to raise the minimum age to play video lottery terminals at Ohio’s racetracks from age 18 to age 21,” Strickland said in a press release on Monday, Sept. 14.
Ohio is moving forward with plans to add 17,500 slot machines at the state’s seven horse racing tracks by May 2010. The plan is designed to generate $933 million over the next two years for K-12 education.
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Brunner must decide Husted residency within 7 days
The Ohio Supreme Court is ordering Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to decide on state Sen. Jon Husted’s residency within seven days.
Husted filed asked the court on Friday, Sept. 11, to order Brunner to break the tie vote at the Montgomery County Board of Elections.
Husted, a Republican who is running for Secretary of State, owns a house in Kettering but his wife and child live suburban Columbus. State lawmakers are required to live in their districts and voters are required to live where they vote.
The board of elections deadlocked 2-2 twice on a complaint that Husted doesn’t really live in Kettering. By law, the secretary of state is the tie-breaking vote on boards of elections.
Husted complained that Brunner has taken too long to decide the matter. The Ohio Supreme Court unanimously granted Husted’s request for a court order compelling Brunner to make a decision.
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Akron mayor backs Fisher in Dem U.S. Senate primary
Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and two other high-profile Akron-area Democrats have endorsed Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in the race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in 2010, Fisher’s campaign announced on Monday, Sept. 14.
Fisher, whose political base is in the Cleveland area, and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner are running for the Senate nomination.
“Lee has led the state’s efforts to bring jobs and economic development to Akron and Summit County,” Plusquellic said in a press release. “He was instrumental in saving thousands of jobs at Goodyear and Bridgestone/Firestone, and I know he will fight just as hard to create new jobs across Ohio as our next senator.”
Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville and Summit County Executive Russ Pry also are backing Fisher, the release said.
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UPDATED - Third lawsuit challenges slots at tracks
Two Dayton-area Ohio House members on Monday, Sept. 14, filed a lawsuit challenging the plan to put video slot machines at Ohio’s seven racetracks.
The lawsuit contends that the plan violates a provision in the Ohio Constitution that prohibits the state from going into business with private businesses, in this case the seven racetracks, state Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chesterland, the lawyer filing the suit said.
Rep. Seth Morgan, R-Huber Heights, and John Adams, R-Sidney, will file the suit in the Ohio Supreme Court along with the Ohio Christian Alliance and Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, said Adams.
It will be the third lawsuit challenging the slots at the tracks plan approved by Gov. Ted Strickland and the legislature. The plan expands the Ohio Lottery to include the video slots and is supposed to raise $933 million for K-12 education.
Amanda Wurst, Strickland’s spokeswoman, said the plan is constitutional. The constitution gives the governor the authority to establish the terms under which the Ohio Lottery operates and the legislature gave its backing to the slots plan in the budget bill, Wurst said.
The new lawsuit will cite Article 8, Section 4, of the Ohio Constitution, said Grendell.
The section says:
“The credit of the state shall not, in any manner, be given or loaned to, or in aid of, any individual association or corporation whatever; nor shall the state ever hereafter become a joint owner, or stockholder in any company or association in this state, or elsewhere, formed for any purpose whatever.”
The plan calls for the state and the tracks to split the money from the slots, said Grendell.
The Ohio Roundtable, a suburban Cleveland conservative public policy group, previously has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the slots-at-the-tracks plan.
LetOhioVote.org, another conservative group, filed the first suit against the gambling plan. That suit asked the court to let the group mount a campaign to put the gambling proposal before voters in Nov. 2010. This would delay the start of the slot plan, which now is set to begin next May.
