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Tuesday, January 5, 2010
President Obama to visit Lorain County on Jan. 22
President Barack Obama will visit Lorain County in northern Ohio on Friday, Jan. 22, for the next stop on his “White House to Main Street Tour,” the White House announced on Tuesday, Jan. 5.
Obama will meet with workers, local CEOs, small business owners and local leaders to talk about growing the economy and putting Americans back to work, a press release said.
The president will speak to Ohioans “about the challenges they are facing and listening to their ideas for how we will continue to work together to turn the economy around,” the release said. It will be his fifth visit to Ohio since his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2009.
Obama kicked off the tour in December with a trip to the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania.
Democrat Obama carried Ohio in 2008 against Republican John McCain but state polls have shown a dip in his approval rating as the economy continues to stumble.
The state has lost 98,600 jobs since Obama took office in January 2009 and Ohio’s 10.6 percent unemployment rate in November was the highest since a 10.7 percent rate in November 1983.
While Obama won’t face voters again until 2012, his fortunes are tied to those of Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland who’s being challenged for re-election this year by Republican John Kasich, the former U.S. House member from suburban Columbus.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-0hio, who represented Lorain County in the House for 14 years, welcomed news of the visit. Brown plans to be with Obama when the president visits.
“I don’t believe a sitting president has visited Lorain County since President Harry Truman’s whistlestop visit to Elyria in 1948,” Brown said in a press release.
“….Harry Truman fought for workers and the middle class and President Obama is doing the same.”
Trip details will be available “in the coming days,” the Obama press release said.
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Web site launched to provide Ohioans with census information
The state has launched a new Web site, www.census.ohio.gov, to provide Ohioans with easy-to-get information on the upcoming 2010 census.
“The Web site not only provides information about the importance of the filling out and returning (of) census forms, but offers insight into how the data collected will impact communities across the state,” Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce, chairman of the Ohio Complete Count Committee, said in a press release on Tuesday, Jan. 5.
The homepage features links to a site with information on temporary census jobs and to a site with lesson plans, maps and other material to help teachers and students learn about the census, the release said.
In addition to the Web site, there will be a “2010 Census Rally” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 11, at the Statehouse in Columbus with speakers and displays.
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Private group pledges to post public pay
A private group promised Tuesday, Jan. 5, to post online the budgets, salaries and other financial data for 3,000 local governments in Ohio by April 15.
OpenOhio.org is a project of the Ohio Citizens Accounting Standards Board, which is a private non-partisan research group. The board’s funding and backers are undisclosed.
“We are not ready to go public with our structure yet,” said Michael Mauer, a former newspaper reporter who now works as the editor for the board.
The group plans to publish online financial data that will allow Ohioans to check on how local government is spending money on salaries, contracts and other items.
“This is extremely helpful to our organization,” said Eric Weber of Kettering Liberty Group, which is associated with the Dayton chapter of the anti-tax Tea Party. The data can be used to determine whether proposed levies or tax increases are merited, he said.
The group already published salary information for school district employees and state workers. That information is available by clicking here.
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New patrol superintendent to be sworn-in
Gov. Ted Strickland on Wednesday, Jan. 6, is scheduled to swear-in Capt. David W. Dicken as 16th superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Dicken, 48, succeeds Capt. Kevin Teaford, who has served as interim superintendent since September when Col. Richard Collins retired.
Dicken joined the patrol in 1990 as a trooper and worked his way up the ranks, most recently serving as commander of the fiscal services unit.
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Former Sen. Mike DeWine and family buy baseball team
Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine of Cedarville and his family have given DeWine a special present to celebrate his 63rd birthday - they’ve bought a baseball team, the Class A Asheville Tourists in North Carolina.
DeWine, whose birthday is Tuesday, Jan. 5, talked about it with Hal McCoy who posted the details on his blog.
DeWine’ son Brian will be the team’s president and Mike DeWine’s main job on the baseball front will be attending a few games. The team is a Colorado Rockies’ affiliate.
He’s running for the Republican nomination for attorney general this year against Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost.
DeWine and his family are long-time Cincinnati Reds’ fans.
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Bill Clinton, VP Biden to raise bucks for Gov. Strickland
Former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden are trying to make the campaign cash registers ring for Gov. Ted Strickland.
Clinton on Tuesday, Jan. 5, will appear at evening fundraisers for fellow Democrat Strickland in Toledo and Youngstown, said Aaron Pickrell, Strickland’s campaign manager.
Pickrell said he thinks the donation is $1,000 a person and the Biden event will be “something comparable.” The Toledo and Youngstown events are closed to the press, said Pickrell.
Biden is expected to appear Monday, Jan. 11, at a Strickland fundraiser in Cleveland, Pickrell added.
Pickrell said he also hopes to hold Strickland fundraisers in the Dayton-area with high-profile guests although none is scheduled yet.
Strickland and former President Clinton have a friendship that “goes back over the years” to when Strickland ran for and served in the U.S. House, said Pickrell.
“We’re in the campaign season,” said Pickrell. “We’ll see a lot of activity on both sides.”
