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Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Wright brothers among finalists to represent Ohio in U.S. Capitol
By William Hershey Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS - The Wright brothers, Dayton’s aviation pioneers, and former Piqua congressman William McCulloch are among 10 finalists a legislative committee has selected for a statute to represent Ohio in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Orville and Wilbur Wright were considered as one entity by the committee, which announced its choices on Tuesday, Feb. 23.
McCulloch, a Republican, is credited with playing a key role in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and other major civil rights legislation.
The other finalists:
James Ashley, Toledo, abolitionist and U.S. House member.
Thomas Edison, Milan, inventor.
Ulysses S. Grant, Point Pleasant, president and Civil War general.
Jesse Owens, Ohio State athlete and winner of four Olympic gold medals.
Judith Resnik, Akron, astronaut.
Albert Sabin, Cincinnati, medical researcher known for creating oral polio vaccine.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Cincinnati, abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Harriet Taylor Upton, Ravenna, advocate for women’s suffrage.
The finalists were selected from more than 90 candidates. Candidates had to be dead. Rep. Richard Adams, R-Troy, the only Dayton-area lawmaker on the committee, said he cast his top vote for McCulloch.
McCulloch, said Adams, was responsible for something that is “ongoing, that is showing positive results.”
Ohioans now will have a chance to vote for their top choices at historical sites and museums around the state and other locations from March 20-June 12.
Sentiment from voters throughout Ohio “will be the single greatest factor” when the committee makes a final recommendation to the legislature, probably in July, said Sen. Mark Wagoner, R-Ottawa Hills, chairman of the National Statuary Collection Study Committee.
The House and Senate then are expected to make the final choice in November. Gov. Ted Strickland does not have a formal role in the process, which involves adopting a legislative resolution to send to Washington, D.C.
The new statue will replace a statue of William Allen, a former U.S. senator and congressman who also served a two-year term as governor from 1874-76. Allen, from Chillicothe in Ross County, held pro-slavery views and was an outspoken critic of Abraham Lincoln. State officials decided it was time to bring him home and send a replacement.
Each state gets two statues in the hall and President James Garfield will continue to be Ohio’s other representative.
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TweetMake up calamity days online?
The joy of an unexpected snow day may melt away faster than a snowman in a rain storm.
A pending bill in the Ohio House would let school districts make up excess calamity days by requiring students to complete missed assignments within two weeks of the day off.
Currently, state law allows for five calamity days without making them up. Next year, the allowance drops to three days and the plan is to eliminate all calamity days as a way to squeeze in as much learning time as possible.
House Bill 407, sponsored by state Rep. Jim Zehringer, R-Fort Recovery, is scheduled to get its first hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 23.
The bill would allow schools to sign up for the option at the beginning of the academic year. On calamity days over the allowed number, students would complete assignments online within two weeks. Anyone without a computer or Internet access would pick up paper copies at school and complete them within two weeks.
If the bill garners enough support, it could be adopted this year and implemented next school year.
Zehringer’s staff did not know whether other states have similar arrangements.
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TweetKasich hits YouTube with introduction
Just hours after a new poll said 62 percent of Ohio voters don’t know Republican John Kasich enough to have an opinion about him, the Kasich for governor campaign began touting a 4-minute video on YouTube that introduces him to Ohioans.
Kasich is a former Lehman Brothers investment banker, former Congressman and former Fox News host. Now, he’s running against incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland for the governor’s office.
In the video, Kasich speaks in broad terms about the importance of family, of fixing Ohio’s problems and of moving the state into the future. He does not offer specifics or touch on his proposal to eliminate the state income tax and how that would impact school funding, prisons, health care for the poor and other state services.
The poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University, also said Strickland is leading Kasich 44 to 39 percent.
To see the video, click here. Kasich’s campaign has uploaded 55 videos to YouTube while the Strickland campaign has uploaded seven videos.
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TweetObama approval in Ohio slips to new low in poll
President Barack Obama gets a negative 44-52 percent approval rating among Ohio voters, the president’s biggest negative in any state or national survey conducted by Quinnpiac University since Obama’s inauguration last year.
The university’s polling institute released the results on Tuesday, Feb. 23, in a poll that also found Obama’s fellow Democrat, Gov. Ted Strickland, doing better among voters and leading Republican challenger John Kasich in the governor’s race, 44-39 percent.
Obama’s new approval rating is down slightly from 45-50 percent in a Nov. 12 poll. The drop is led by a big fall among independent voters, who approve his performance, 38-57 percent. That’s down from 45-49 percent in November.
Ohio voters turn thumbs down on Obama’s handling of the economy, 39-57 percent, and 34-58 percent for his handling of health care.
Good news for Obama: voters approve 55-39 percent of his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
“Given that President Obama carried the state with 51 percent of the vote, these numbers mean many Ohioans who were in his corner have now deserted him,” Peter Brown, the polling institute’s assistant director, said in a press release.
The poll was taken from Tuesday, Feb. 16, to Sunday, Feb. 21, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
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TweetStrickland leads Kasich in gov poll
Democratic incumbent Ted Strickland leads Republican challenger John Kasich, 44-39 percent, among voters in a poll for the governor’s race released on Tuesday, Feb. 23, by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
The two were tied 40-40 percent in a Nov. 11 poll.
Also in the poll, voters approve of how Strickland is doing his job, 48-40 percent, up from a 45-43 percent approval rating on Nov. 11.
The governor’s favorability rating is 45-36 percent, up from 38-37 percent in November.
Sixty two percent of the voters say they don’t know enough about Kasich, a former Columbus-area congressman, to have an opinion about him .
“There has been an improvement in voters’ views of Gov. Ted Strickland,” Peter Brown, polling institute assistant director, said in a press release. “The momentum is a few points, but it is consistent across a number of measures. Voters, however, remain negative on his handling of the state budget and the state economy.”
Brown said the campaign “will be a race by the candidates to define Kasich for the 62 percent of the voters who don’t know enough about him to have an opinion.”
The poll was taken from Tuesday, Feb. 16 to Sunday, Feb. 21 with 1,662 voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
Other key poll findings related to the governor’s race:
*Voters disapprove of Strickland’s handling of the economy, 53-35 percent.
*Strickland gets a negative 32-51 percent approval for his handling of the state budget.
*Voters say 41-35 percent that Kasich would do a better job of rebuilding Ohio’s economy and by 41-35 percent that the Republican would do a better job of handling the state budget.
*Voters split on who would be more likely to do in office what he promises on the campaign trail. Thirty five percent say Strickland and 36 percent say Kasich.
*Voters say 40-36 percent that Strickland most shares their values.
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