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July 2011
Limited’s Wexner, 3 other business leaders urge Senate to confirm Cordray for consumer agency
WASHINGTON - Four influential and politically connected business executives in Ohio have urged the Senate to confirm former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as head of a new federal consumer agency.
In a letter last night to members of the Senate Banking Committee, the executives characterized Cordray as the “epitome of the judicious and fair-minded public servant. He has impressed us with his intelligence, pragmatism, integrity, and service-oriented mindset.’’
The letter was signed by Leslie H. Wexner, chairman and chief executive officer of Limited Brands of Columbus; Michael G. Morris, chairman and chief executive officer of American Electric Power of Columbus; John E. Pepper, retired chairman of Proctor & Gamble of Cincinnati, and Albert Ratner, the former head of Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland, one of the nation’s largest development firms.
“We have all worked with Mr. Cordray during his career in Ohio and have the highest regard for his ability to partner and collaborate on the most important issues facing our community,’’ they wrote.
The letter, which also was sent to Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, is aimed at rebutting charges by some conservatives that Cordray would be hostile to American companies if he becomes director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The new bureau, created last year in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law, would police consumer financial products, including home mortgage loans and credit card offers. Some business executives have feared the new agency might be so aggressive that it could inhibit lending.
Portman and 43 other Senate Republicans last May wrote President Barack Obama saying they would block any nominee as director until the White House agreed to major revisions in the agency. In particular, they want the director to be replaced by a five-member board and they insist that Congress approve its budget every year.
Cordray, 52, is scheduled to have a confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee.
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TweetFormer Sen. Voinovich, state Reps. Beck, Hackett, Derickson endorse Romney
Former Ohio U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and state Reps. Peter Beck, R-Mason, Robert Hackett, R-London and Tim Derickson, R-Hanover Twp., are among more than 30 Ohio Republicans who have endorsed Mitt Romney for president, Romney’s campaign announced Wednesday.
Voinovich, also a former Ohio governor and Cleveland mayor, was the most high profile of the Romney backers. The campaign released the list as Romney campaigned in Pataskala, east of Columbus.
“I look forward to working with these Ohioans as I reach out to voters across the state,” Romney said in a press release. “They will be vital partners as I campaign to bring back jobs to the state and get the economy going again.”
For a list of Romney’s Ohio backers, click here.
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TweetLawmaker drunken driving case delayed
State Rep. Jarrod Martin, R-Beavercreek, will face charges for child endangerment and drunken driving next week, according to the Jackson County Municipal Court.
Martin’s arraignment, which was scheduled for July 28, was continued to Thursday Aug. 4.
Martin, 32, who is his second term in the Ohio House, was stopped on U.S. 35 on July 22 for driving left of center and hauling a trailer without tail lights. He refused to submit to sobriety tests, which led to a citation for operating a vehicle under the influence and a misdemeanor criminal charge for child endangerment since he had three kids in the backseat.
The Ohio Highway Patrol expects to release video of the traffic stop on Friday or early next week.
Martin issued a written statement saying that he looks forward to the chance to vindicate himself in court.
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TweetHusted announces Nov. 8 ballot order for statewide issues
Secretary of State Jon Husted on Thursday announced the ballot order for the three statewide issues on the Nov. 8 ballot:
- Issue 1 - House Joint Resolution 1, proposed constitutional amendment to change the retirement age for judges.
Currently, judges cannot be elected or appointed if they are 70 or older when their term starts. The amendment would change that to 76 and make the cutoff date the date of election, not the start of the term.
Issue 2 - referendum on Senate Bill 5, legislation restricting public employee collective bargaining.
It would exempt Ohio from the individual mandate in the federal health care law and from any similar state mandate.
The Ballot Board is to meet next Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Statehouse to approve the ballot language voters will consider for the issues.
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TweetCourt upholds killer’s death sentence
The Ohio Supreme Court in a 7-0 decision upheld the conviction and death penalty sentence for Duane Short of Middletown.
In July 2004, Duane Short murdered his estranged wife Rhonda Short and her friend Donnie Sweeney who had helped Rhonda and two of her three children move out of the couple’s home.
Short admitted that he spent several days searching for Rhonda and when he discovered her whereabouts, he bought a shotgun, sawed off the barrel, went to her new home in Huber Heights and shot and killed her and Sweeney.
Short was convicted on all charges. At trial he elected not to present mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase and the jury recommended the death sentence.
On appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, Short alleged 14 errors by the trial court as grounds for a new sentence. The court rejected all his arguments.
Short, now 43, is incarcerated at the Ohio Penitentiary in Youngstown.
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TweetGov. Kasich to Washington, D.C.: “Suck it up”
Gov. John Kasich, a veteran of previous Washington, D.C. budget battles, had three words of advice Wednesday for President Barack Obama and members of Congress still trying to work out an agreement on raising the debt ceiling and cutting spending:
“Suck it up.”
Kasich, speaking to reporters during a break at the Ohio State Fair, also said he doesn’t think much of using a special committee to identify spending cuts. House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, a long-time Kasich friend, has called for creation of bipartisan congressional committee to identify a second year of spending cuts.
“When John says he wants to have a commission, maybe this is the best we can do, but I have to tell you, I wouldn’t vote against this because it’s a commission but commissions, we just have commissions all the time.”
Kasich said that Congress and the White House know where cuts can be made and should get to work. He was chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee in the late 1990s when a balanced budget was achieved.
“Everybody wants the budget balanced but a lot of people say ‘I don’t want it balanced on me.’ I understand that.
“What are you in this business for? If you’re not in politics to do the right thing, why are you there. So suck it up.”
He said that any increases in revenue should wait until savings are achieved by spending cuts. Otherwise, policy maker will just delay making changes in government spending, he said.
“I think they’ll get a deal,” said Kasich. “In my opinion, there’s no way they’re going to default.”
TweetGov. Kasich vists state fair; pronounces Ohio corn “so sweet”
John Kasich made his first trip to the Ohio State Fair as governor Wednesday and chowed down on two ears of sweet corn, plus a rib eye sandwich for lunch.
“It didn’t need any butter,” Republican Kasich said of the corn. “It was so sweet.”
Unlike previous governors, Kasich has said he does not plan to spend a night at the fair, a tradition championed by the late Republican Gov. James A. Rhodes.
Kasich stopped for lunch at the Taste of Ohio Cafe after he presented awards to winners in the “Agriculture is Cool” student art contest. The governor was accompanied by his wife Karen and their twin daughters, Emma and Reese.
TweetFormer Gov. Strickland heads new consulting firm
Former Gov. Ted Strickland, joined by former aides and advisors, is heading a new strategic consulting firm that will specialize in Midwest business expansions and political and advocacy campaigns.
Midway Gateway Partners has offices in Columbus and Washington, D.C., Strickland announced Wednesday.
Strickland, a Democrat who was defeated for re-election in 2010 by Republican John Kasich, also served 12 years in the U.S. House.
In a telephone interview, Strickland said that after leaving office he and John Haseley, who had been his chief of staff in the governor’s office, received phone calls from businesses seeking advice.
Strickland and Haseley decided to form the partnership to make the effort official.
“We like each other and we decided just to form this partnership so we could do the things we enjoy doing and doing them together,” said Strickland.
His major focus will be”economic expansion efforts.” He declined to name clients or potential clients.
Strickland said forming the partnership won’t be a factor in his ultimate decision later on whether to run for office again.
“It’s not in any way directly related to that decision,” he said.
The only person outside Columbus named as a member of the firm was Cleveland native Steve Ricchetti, former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and deputy chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton.
Ricchetti now is a Washington-based consultant and told Strickland and Haseley that he was interested in working in Ohio and the Midwest.
“We all need meaning and purpose in life,” said Strickland. “This gives meaning and purpose.”
Others in the firm:
*Haseley, an attorney and chief of staff when Strickland was governor.
*Aaron Pickrell, political consultant for Strickland and President Barack Obama.
*Sandy Theis, a political and public affairs consultant and former Statehouse reporter for the Dayton Daily News and Cleveland Plain Dealer and consultant.
*Mark Shanahan, Ohio “energy czar” when Strickland was governor.
TweetRomney brings presidential campaign to Ohio
Mitt Romney, who’s emerging as the front runner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, will bring his campaign to Ohio Wednesday, his campaign announced Tuesday.
Romney, former Massachusetts governor, will tour Screen Machine Industries, a manufacturing firm in Pataskala in Licking County, east of Columbus, and then speak about “jobs and the economy,” his campaign said.
A Quinnipiac University poll released last week showed that among Ohio Republicans, Romney was their top choice for the nomination with 16 percent support, although 28 percent were undecided.
Romney also did the best against Democratic President Barack Obama, with Obama winning a trial heat, 45-41 percent.
TweetUPDATED with reaction - Husted OKs health care amendment for Nov. 8 ballot; court challenge expected
COLUMBUS — On Nov. 8, Ohioans will likely get a chance to vote on a constitutional amendment exempting the state from the requirement in the federal health care law that all Americans acquire health insurance by 2014 or pay fines.
Secretary of State Jon Husted on Tuesday certified that backers of the Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment gathered enough signatures to put it on the ballot.
ProgressOhio, a liberal advocacy group, vowed to challenge the signatures in the Ohio Supreme Court, but political scientist John Green said that the high signature validation rate - 77 percent - means that such a challenge probably wouldn’t succeed.
Even if voters approve the issue, legal experts such as Richard Saphire at the University of Dayton’s law school said it would be a symbolic victory. That’s because federal law supersedes state law or state constitutions.
“It is largely symbolic, but symbolism matters in politics,” Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said in an email. “In this sense, this ballot initiative is likely to be a good vehicle for protesting against President (Barack) Obama and the health care bill.”
Jeff Longstreth, spokesman for Ohioans for Healthcare Freedom, a group backing the issue, said that even if the amendment doesn’t exempt Ohio from the federal mandate, it still would prohibit the state from imposing such a mandate, such as the one in Massachusetts.
“We believe that Ohioans fundamentally believe that individual mandates are wrong,” he said.
Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio, said his group is reviewing signatures for errors such as wrong dates and incorrect names and has until Aug. 5 to file a challenge with the Ohio Supreme Court. Rothenberg said it’s hard to understand why people would oppose the federal health care law that provides benefits such as insuring coverage for those with preexisting conditions. The mandate is an integral part of the law, he said.
The amendment would be the second high-profile question before voters Nov. 8. Last week, Husted certified a referendum on Senate Bill 5, legislation restricting public employee collective bargaining.
For the Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment, Husted certified 426,988 of 556,290 signatures as valid — more than the 385,245 required, a number equal to 10 percent of the vote in the 2010 governor’s race.
Amendment backers also met a second requirement, gathering signatures in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties equal to 5 percent of the vote for governor in each county. They met this requirement in 82 counties.
The Ballot Board will meet Aug. 3 to set language for state-wide issues.
TweetUPDATED with reaction - Ohio voters to decide fate of Senate Bill 5
Ohio voters will decide the fate of Senate Bill 5 on Nov. 8.
Secretary of State Jon Husted on Thursday certified that backers of a referendum on the legislation restricting public employee collective bargaining filed enough signatures from registered voters to get the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot.
They collected 915,456 valid signatures, meeting the requirement of at least 231,147 signatures, 6 percent of the vote in the 2010 governor’s race, Husted said in a press release.
Also, backers of the referendum had to collect signatures in 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties equal to 3 percent of the the votes in the 2010 governor’s race. They met the 3 percent requirement in all 88 counties, Husted said.
The next step is for the Ballot Board to convene to approve ballot language for voters to consider. The board is expected to meet in early August, the release said.
Both sides came out firing in what is expected to be an epic fall battle.
“This history-making, grassroots campaign, continues to prove SB 5 is a bad bill that was passed by extreme politicians who are out of touch with hardworking Ohioans,” Melissa Fazekas, spokeswoman for We Are Ohio, the group backing repeal, said in a press release..
“We look forward to giving all Ohioans the opportunity to exercise their right to a citizen’s veto of SB 5 on November 8, 2011.”
Jason Mauk, spokesman for Building a Better Ohio, the group supporting SB 5, countered,
“We can finally get beyond the process of putting a referendum on the ballot and start focusing on the merits of these reasonable reforms.
“Ohio voters now have a choice to make. We can keep the unfair, unsustainable policies that are bankrupting our communities, or we can change direction and give them the tools they need to create jobs and get spending under control. It’s that simple.”
TweetOhio poll: Obama approval lags, but president tops GOP challengers
President Barack Obama’s approval rating with Ohio voters has dipped slightly, but Obama still leads major GOP challengers in possible 2012 match ups, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.
Also, the poll finds that Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel leads former state Sen. Kevin Coughlin of Cuyahoga Falls for the 2012 GOP U.S. Senate nomination, while incumbent Democratic U.S. Sherrod Brown holds healthy leads over both of them in general election match ups.
In the poll, 50 percent disapprove of how Obama’s handling his job, while 46 percent approve, down from a May 19 poll which found 49 percent approval and 45 percent disapproval.
Also, voters split on whether the president deserves a second term, with 47 percent “no” and 46 percent “yes.”
In the scramble for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, “don’t know” is the big leader at 28 percent.
Here’s the rest: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 16 percent; former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin, 15 percent; U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, 11 percent and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 8 percent.
No other candidate tops 6 percent.
Romney comes closest in match ups with Obama, with the president leading, 45-41 percent.
The others trail far behind. Obama tops Palin, 51-35 percent; leads Bachmann, 49-36 percent and tops Perry, 47-35 percent.
In the battle for the 2012 GOP U.S. Senate nomination, nearly half of Republicans - 46 percent - are undecided. Mandel gets 35 percent to 12 percent for Coughlin.
Incumbent Democrat Brown beats Mandel, 49-34 percent and bests Coughlin, 50-32 percent.
As far as the presidential race, “voters are saying that they’re not overwhelmed by Mr. Obama but at this point they like him better than the alternatives,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
The poll was conducted from July 12 to Monday, July 18 and is based on interviews with 1,659 registered voters done by live interviewers on land lines and cell phones. Overall, the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
The survey included 563 Republicans and GOP only questions have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percent.
TweetUPDATED with Kasich comment - Gov. Kasich signs post-viability abortion ban
Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday signed House Bill 78, legislation banning post-viability abortions.
“Life is a gift from God and one way that we express our ongoing gratitude for it is by respecting it,” Kasich said in a press release.
“This bill does that in a very fundamental way and I’m proud to have signed it into law.”
Mike Gonidakis, executive director of the Ohio Right to Life Society, used a press release to praise Kasich:
“In order to protect life, it takes compassionate leadership from our elected officials
“By signing this critical pro-life legislation, Governor Kasich demonstrated to all Ohioans that the health and welfare of mothers and their unborn children are of paramount importance to the state of Ohio.”
Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, lashed out at Kasich.
“Its going to endanger women’s health because it does not have an adequate health exception. Now we know where Kasich stands on women’s health. He’s against it,” said Copeland.
The bill requires women seeking abortions to be tested for viability at 20 weeks. Although viability usually occurs about 23 weeks, sometimes the measure of a pregnancy can be a few weeks off, said Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, a key backer of the bill.
If the test shows viability, an abortion would be prohibited unless necessary to save the life of the mother or there is a serious risk to her physical health. There is no mental health exception.
Lehner said the law would save about 200 babies a year.
The legislation is separate from the “Heartbeat” bill, House Bill 125, which would prohibit an abortion once a heartbeat is detected which could be as early as six weeks. The House passed this bill, but the Senate has not taken it up.
TweetPoll: Voters cool to Kasich, support SB 5 repeal and photo ID requirement
Ohio voters continue to disapprove of Republican Gov. John Kasich’s performance and right now they appear ready to repeal Senate Bill 5, Kasich-backed legislation to limit public employee collective bargaining.
Those are two key findings of a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
In the poll, 50 percent disapproved of Kasich’s performance, while 35 percent approved. That’s a little worse for Kasich than a May 18 poll which found 49 percent disapproval and 38 percent approval.
Voters said they’d back repeal of SB 5, 56-32 percent, slightly stronger backing for repeal that May 18 results which found 54 percent for repeal and 36 percent against. A referendum on SB 5 appears likely to make the Nov. 8 ballot.
Also in the poll, voters overwhelmingly backed, 78-20 percent, efforts to require photo identification to vote, a measure that has passed the Ohio House, but not the Senate.
The poll also found that by a narrow margin, 48-45 percent, voters support a proposed constitutional amendments to block any federal efforts to require Ohioans to buy health insurance. The proposed amendment also appears likely to be on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Kasich’s approval rating continued to fall even though since the last poll the legislature passed and he signed a two-year state budget that closed a potential multi-billion dollar shortfall without raising taxes.
The poll found support for how Kasich and the GOP-controlled legislature handled the budget.
Sixty-three percent said it was a good thing that taxes were not raised and the budget deficit was closed by just spending cuts. Just 28 percent said taxes should have been raised.
The economy has remained sluggish and unemployment relatively high through Kasich’s first seven months as governor and that could be a reason for the low approval rating, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnpiac University Polling Institute.
“Governors get credit or blame just as presidents get credit or blame for big things like the economy, whether or not they have the ability to change them,” said Brown.
Kasich doesn’t face re-election until 2014 which gives him time to “drive home that he did what he said he was going to do to balance the budget and wasn’t going to raise taxes,” said Brown.
The poll was based on telephone interviews with 1,659 registered voters conducted from July 12 to Monday, July 18 by live interviewers over land lines and cell phones. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
TweetRedistricting competition starts Tuesday - $5,000 in prizes at stake
Three groups favoring redistricting reform on Tuesday officially launched the 2011 Ohio Redistricting Competition.
The competition allows Ohio citizens to draw district lines for U.S. House districts and the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate, based on the 2010 census.
Click here to go to www.drawthelineohio,org to find out how to participate.
Besides giving participants a chance to win $5,000 in cash prizes, the goal is to persuade the Apportionment Board and legislature to draw districts that serve all Ohioans, not just the interests of political parties, speakers at a Tuesday press conference said. The board draws state legislative districts and the legislature draws U.S. House districts.
The groups supporting the competition are: The League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund; the Midwest Democracy Network and Ohio Citizen Action.
“Redistricting matters because it affects every aspect of our democracy…every aspect of our government,” said Dan Tokaji, an elections law expert and professor at the Mortiz College of Law at the Ohio State University.
Plans will be judged on four criteria:
Preserving county boundaries.
Compactness
Competitiveness
Representational fairness - to encourage plans in which the number of districts favoring each party reflects statewide political balance.
Start of the competition comes a day before the first of five hearings on congressional redistricting by House and Senate members meeting together. The legislature, controlled by Republicans, will draw 16 new Ohio U.S. House districts. The legislation must be signed by Gov. John Kasich, also a Republican.
Ohio now has 18 U.S. House seats but is losing two because of national population shifts.
The Apportionment Board, also controlled by Republicans, will draw 99 new Ohio House districts and 33 new Ohio Senate districts. The board is expected to start meeting the first week in August, said Rob Nichols, spokesman for Kasich.
Members of the board are: Kasich; Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted; Republican Auditor Dave Yost and a member of the legislature from each party.
TweetUPDATED - Cincinnati chamber backs SB 5- SB 5 repeal backers say they’ll qualify for ballot - 32,439 valid signatures in Montgomery County
We Are Ohio, the group pushing for repeal of Senate Bill 5, has announced that preliminary results from Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections show there are enough valid signatures to get the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot.
In Montgomery County, 32,439 of the 45,742 signatures from registered voters - 76.8 percent - were found to be valid for the referendum on legislation restricting public employee bargaining rights, Betty Smith, deputy director of the board of elections said Tuesday. We Are Ohio wants to repeal SB 5.
Meanwhile, Building a Better Ohio, the campaign formed to support Senate Bill 5, announced Tuesday, that the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce, has officially announced its support for the law and opposition to a repeal. The Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce earlier took a similar position.
“We recognize that this change is not without discomfort, but this reform is long overdue,” Ellen van der Horst, president and CEO of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber said in a press release.
We Are Ohio officials expressed confidence the referendum would make the ballot.
“Based on preliminary results from 63 of Ohio’s 88 counties, We Are Ohio enthusiastically reports to our nearly 1.3 million supporters who signed the petition, that the repeal of SB 5 will be on the ballot in November,” Melissa Fazekas, We Are Ohio spokeswoman, said in a press release.
“Current county board results indicate more than 800,000 valid signatures and that the 3% threshold has been surpassed in all 63 counties that have reported thus far.”
To qualify, 231,147 signatures - 6 percent of the vote in the 2010 governor’s race - must be valid. Also, the total must include signatures equal to 3 percent of the vote in the 2010 governor’s race in 44 of the 88 counties.
Secretary of State Jon Husted has until July 26 to confirm the number of valid signatures. If there are not enough, the group has an additional 10 days to gather more.
TweetUPDATED - $5,000 in prizes to be offered: Groups to launch competition for congressional, legislative redistricting
Three groups plan to launch a competition that will let the public try drawing new state legislative and congressional districts, based on the 2010 census.
The competition comes as the legislators and officeholders who will have the real power to draw new districts get down to work.
For the competition, The League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund, the Midwest Democracy Network and Ohio Citizen Action will discuss plans Tuesday at a 10:30 a.m. Columbus press conference.
The groups will offer $5,000 in prizes, including some scholarships, for the best proposals, said Catherine Turcer, director of the Money Politics Project for Ohio Citizen Action.
The competition will “use modern computer technology to take legislative and congressional redistricting out of the political backrooms and place it into the hands of private citizens,” a press release said.
The press conference comes just a day before a House-Senate legislative committee will hold the first of five hearings on congressional redistricting in Columbus. The Wednesday hearing starts at 9 a.m.
No hearing is scheduled for the Dayton area.
“We’re happy to take input from anybody,” said Sen. Keith Faber, a member of the committee. “We’re the official body that is going to be charged with drawing the districts.”
The lawmakers, plus Republican Gov. John Kasich, will have the final word on creating 16 new U.S. House districts. Ohio now has 18 U.S. House districts, but will lose two because of national population shifts. Republicans control the Ohio House and Ohio Senate and will have the advantage in the process.
Later on Wednesday, at 3 p.m., the legislators will hold a hearing in Zanesville at the Zanesville Campus of Ohio University.
On Thursday, there will be a hearing in Cleveland at 9 a.m. at Cleveland State University.
On Aug. 2, there will be two more hearings. The first will be at 9 a.m. at the Lima Campus of the Ohio State University.
The second will be at 3 p.m. at the University of Cincinnati.
Separately, the Ohio Constitution calls for the Apportionment Board to being meeting between Aug. 1 and Oct. 1 to draw new state legislative districts - 99 for the House and 33 for the Senate -, based on the 2010 census.
Gov. John Kasich, Secretary of State Jon Husted, Auditor Dave Yost and a member of the legislator from each party make up the board. Republicans will hold four of five seats on the board.
TweetNational polll: Voters would blame GOP over Obama in debt limit battle
American voters would be more likely to blame Republicans than Democratic President Barack Obama if the debt limit is not raised, although they don’t think much of the way the president is handling the economy.
Those are two key findings in a national Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday as Obama and congressional Republicans continue a standoff on the best way to raise the government’s credit limit.
Here’s what the poll found on the debt limit question:
Voters would blame Republicans over Obama, 48-34 percent, if the limit is not raised.
Voters said, 67-25 percent, that an agreement to raise the debt limit should include tax hikes for the wealthy and corporations, not just spending cuts.
Voters said, 45-37 percent, that Obama’s proposals to raise revenues are “closing loopholes,” not “tax hikes.”
Voters also said, 57-30 percent, that the president’s plans would impact the middle class, not just the wealthy.
On the broader question of the economy, voters disapproved, 56-38 percent, of the way the president is handling the economy. By a 45-38 percent margin, however, they said they trusted the president more than congressional Republicans to handle the economy.
Also, the president’s approval rating was 47 percent approval, 46 percent disapproval, unchanged from a June 9 survey.
“The American people aren’t very happy about their leaders, but President Barack Obama is viewed as the best of the worst, especially when it comes to the economy,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling institute, said in a press release.
The poll was based on 2,311 telephone interviews with registered voters conducted by live interviewers over land lines and cell phones from July 5 to Monday, July 11. The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.
TweetPost-viability abortion ban wins final legislative approval
Ohio would become the 40th state to ban post-viability abortions if Gov. John Kasich approves legislation passed by the Senate on Wednesday.
Republican Kasich is considered likely to sign the bill, although he has not said for certain that he would. Rob Nichols, the governor’s spokesman, said Kasich aides are reviewing it and that Kasich has been “pro-life” throughout his career.
Mike Gonidakis, executive director of the Ohio Right to Life Society, said 39 states have similar bans, including five identical to the Ohio bill. It was approved on the legislature’s last session for the summer.
The Senate vote was 22-7, with all opposition from Democrats. All Dayton-area senators supported the bill, which passed the House earlier. One Democrat, Sen. Jason Wilson of Columbiana, joined Republicans in support.
Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, said the legislation would prohibit the abortions on about 200 babies a year.
“No one can call these babies fetuses or potential life,” said Lehner.
Sen. Nina Turner, D-Cleveland, fired back. Turner said that her sister had been raped and under the bill would not have been permitted to have a post-viability abortion because there is no exception for rape. Her sister, added Turner, did not get pregnant.
“A woman should have the right to control her body,” Turner said.
Based on 2009 Ohio data, the last year for which statistics are available, there were 28,721 abortions in the state.
More than half - 57 percent - occurred at less than nine weeks in the pregnancy. Another 28 percent occurred between nine and 12 weeks and 613 abortions involved pregnancies of 20 weeks or more.
Viability “the ability to live outside the womb” generally occurs at 23 weeks, Lehner said. The bill, however, requires women to be tested for viability at 20 weeks. That’s because sometimes determination of how far along the pregnancy is can be a few weeks off, Lehner said.
If the test shows viability, an abortion would be prohibited unless necessary to save the woman’s life or if there is a serious risk to her physical health. There is no mental health exception.
Gon idakis said the bill is designed to be consistent with federal court guidelines on restricting abortions.
It is less restrictive than the “Heartbeat bill,” which has passed the House, but not the Senate. That measure would be the nation’s most restrictive abortion bill because it would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which could be as early as five weeks, according to a physician supporting the bill.
The Ohio Right to Life Society does not support the bill because leaders say it would not withstand a court challenge and could set back efforts to restrict abortions. Janet Folger Porter, president of Faith2Action, the group supporting the “Heartbeat” bill, said she has a lot of commitments from senators to consider it in the fall. Porter said that other states are waiting for Ohio to lead the way with the “Heartbeat” bill.
Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, said it was “too early” to tell whether the Senate would take up the bill.
The bill would require a woman seeking abortion to be tested at 20 weeks and if the baby was viable she could not receive an abortion except in medical emergencies..
The legislation is separate from the “Heartbeat” bill which has passed the House but hasn’t been considered by the Senate. It would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat could be detected. A physician supporting the bill has said that could occur as early as five weeks.
Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, R-Napoleon, House sponsor of the “Heartbeat” bill, said he is going to talk with senators about it but made no predictions.
“I have no idea,” he said, when asked to gauge Senate action.
TweetKasich talks about debt ceiling on MSNBC
Gov. John Kasich swung by Morning Joe on MSNBC today and talked about the debt ceiling and his first half year as governor.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
TweetDayton chamber backs campaign to keep Senate Bill 5
The Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce has voted to officially endorse the campaign to retain Senate Bill 5, legislation restricting public employee collective bargaining, the campaign to retain the legislation announced Wednesday.
“The reasonable and long-overdue reforms we’re asking of our government employees will protect vital public services while respecting the ability of taxpayers to fund them,” Jason Mauk, spokesman for Building a Better Ohio, said in a press release.
“That’s what this campaign is about, and we’re grateful to have the support of the men and women working every day on the front lines of our effort to build a better Ohio.”
The endorsement was the first by a major urban area chamber, said Mauk.
The Dayton Chamber serves nearly 3,000 job creators and businesses in a nine county region of Ohio, the release said.
Backers of the repeal, who say the legislation unfairly penalizes government workers and will hurt the middle class, have filed petitions with more than one million signatures from registered voters to get a referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Secretary of State Jon Husted is to report by July 26 on whether the petitions have enough valid signatures - 231,147 - to get on the ballot. If not, backers will have an additional 10 days to gather more.
TweetNational poll: Obama leads Republican challengers; Bachmann moves up in GOP race
President Barack Obama leads all major Republican candidates and potential candidates in a national Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, with the president hitting 50 percent against all GOP challengers except former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
In the race for the GOP nomination, Romney leads with 25 percent, but U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who got in the race recently, is moving up and now finishes second with 14 percent support.
After Bachmann come two potential candidates who haven’t officially joined the race - former Alaska Gov. and 2008 GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin at 12 percent and Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 10 percent.
None of the other GOP hopefuls top 6 percent.
The GOP results compare to a June 8 survey in which Romney led with 25 percent, followed by Palin with 15 percent and Bachmann with 6 percent, then sixth in a 10-candidate field.
Here’s how Obama did in matchups with GOP hopefuls:
* 47 - 41 percent over Romney, the same as June 8
* 50 - 38 percent over Bachmann, who was not pitted against Obama June 8
* 53 - 34 percent over Palin, compared to 53 - 36 percent June 8
* 50 - 37 percent over Perry, who was not matched against Obama June 8.
Big leads among women voters helped the president against GOP challengers.
Among independent voters, a key to winning, Romney leads Obama 42 - 40 percent, but the president tops other GOP candidates with voters in this group.
“The question about Rep. Bachmann is whether she is the flavor of the month, like Donald Trump was for a while, or does she have staying power? Perhaps more than any of the other GOP contenders, Bachmann’s fortunes may depend on whether Govs. Palin or Perry get into the race,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a press release.
“All three of them are likely to appeal to the GOP’s Tea Party constituency.”
Results for other GOP hopefuls for the nomination:
* Entrepreneur Herman Cain, 6 percent
* U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 5 percent
* Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 5 percent
* Former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, and U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, each 1 percent or less.
The poll was based on 2,311 interviews with registered voters conducted from July 5 through Monday, July 11 by live interviewers over land lines and cell phones. Overall, the survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
The survey for the Republican primary included 913 voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.
TweetLeftwich to step down as development director; will serve as Kasich adviser
James Leftwich, former director of the Dayton Development Coalition, will step down Aug. 1 as director of the Ohio Department of Development and become an informal economic development adviser to Gov. John Kasich, Leftwich and a top aide to the governor announced Tuesday.
Chris Schmenk, currently general counsel in the state development department, will take over as director of the department as the state’s job creation efforts are transitioned to JobsOhio, the private, not-for-profit corporation whose board of directors held its first meeting Tuesday.
Leftwich, 46, whose state salary is $127,400 a year, said he plans to return to the private sector but declined to provide specific plans while still working for the state. He said that he anticipated that his tenure as director would be short when he took over in March.
Kasich tapped him for the director’s job after Democrats raised questions about the constitutionality of having Mark Kvamme, Kasich’s top jobs’ adviser, in the director’s job because Kvamme was not an Ohio resident.
“I came into this with my eyes open,” said Leftwich, who commuted to Columbus from the Dayton area and plans to continue living in the Dayton area.
Scott Milburn, Kasich’s spokesman, said Leftwich not only ran the department but helped “crystallize the vision for JobsOhio,” which is a statewide version of the Dayton Development Coalition.
Kasich is “personally, immensely grateful” to Leftwich for his service, said Milburn.
Milburn said the Kasich administration did not expect to get Leftwich as director for as long as he is to serve.
“We kind of milked everything we could,” said Milburn.
Going forward, Leftwich will be particularly important in advising Kasich on aerospace economic development opportunities, said Milburn.
“I’m very much vested in the success here of JobsOhio,” said Leftwich. He said he has offered to continue in an adviser’s role with JobsOhio, particularly in the aerospace area.
Kasich on Monday announced the appointment of eight members to the JobsOhio board of directors, with a ninth appointment to be made later. No appointees were from the Dayton area.
Leftwich said, however, that the Dayton area would be well served by JobsOhio.
“I think the whole state is going to be well served by JobsOhio,” Leftwich said.
Milburn said that Schmenk is the natural person to take over as director as the transition is made to JobsOhio, with the development department no longer playing the out front role in job development efforts.
TweetBill banning post-viability abortions headed for final passage
COLUMBUS - A ban on most post-viability abortions in Ohio could be headed to Gov. John Kasich for his signature by the end of today.
The House and Senate have passed separate versions of legislation to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks gestation except in medical emergencies or when a physician has determined that the unborn child cannot live outside of the womb.
The Senate today is expected to vote the House version out of committee and then bring it to the floor for a vote, said John McClelland, spokesman for Senate Republicans.
The House and Senate are scheduled to return today for a one-day session. Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, was sponsor of the House version. Kasich’s approval appears likely.
“The governor has been pro-life. He’s been pro-life throughout his career,” said Rob Nichols, Kasich’s spokesman.
The legislation is separate from the “Heartbeat” bill that has passed the House, but hasn’t been taken up by the Senate. It would ban abortions after a heartbeat has been detected, which one physician supporting the bill said could occur as early as five weeks.
Mike Gonidakis, executive director of the Ohio Right to Life Society, said that the post-viability ban was written to be consistent with federal court guidelines on restricting abortions. It is part of a national effort to limit “abortion on demand,” Gonidakis said Tuesday.
“Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day,” he added.
However, Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, criticized the bill, saying that, among other things, it lacked an exception to permit abortions intended to protect the mental health of the mother.
“Ohio is fast becoming the most dangerous state for pregnant women,” Copeland said.
TweetOhio GOP plans “Presidential Straw Poll” for state dinner
The Ohio Republican Party will hold a “Presidential Straw Poll” of GOP presidential hopefuls at the party’s State Dinner on July 22 in Cleveland, Ohio Republican Chairman Kevin DeWine said Monday.
“…if you and your fellow supporters want to make sure your candidate for president has a strong following in the Buckeye State, buy your tickets here, right away,” DeWine, of Fairborn, said.
Click here for DeWine’s message.
Ticket prices range from $10,000 for a “Diamond” ticket for a whole table and other benefits to $100 for a “Bronze” single dinner ticket.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is the speaker for the annual event at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. A reception is set for 5:30 p.m., followed by the dinner at 6:30 P.M.
TweetGov. Kasich playing “hard to get” in race for presidential endorsements
While Attorney General Mike DeWine endorsed former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty for president on Monday, Gov. John Kasich is not ready to get back in the endorsement business.
“I’m playing hard to get,” Kasich said.
The governor earlier had endorsed former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour for president but Barbour dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination.
Republican Kasich said he was glad so many candidates were seeking the GOP endorsement but said he is focusing on other issues right now.
TweetGov. Kasich appoints JobsOhio board members
Gov. John Kasich on Monday appointed eight business and education leaders to the board of director of JobsOhio, the state’s new private, nonprofit corporation that is to lead job creation and economic development efforts.
The board held its first meeting Monday morning after the appointments were announced, with Kasich attending.
“I am personally very excited,” Kasich said.
Those appointed were:
*James C. Boland, retired vice chairman, Ernst & Young, and former president, CEO and vice chairman of Cavaliers Operating Company in Cuyahoga County. Boland will be chairman of the JobsOhio board.
*Mark D. Kvamme, special limited partner, Sequoia Capital, and a top Kasich economic development adviser. Kvamme will be JobsOhio’s interim chief investment officer.
*Steven A. Davis, chairman of the board and CEO, Bob Evans, Farms, Inc.
*E. Gordon Gee, president, the Ohio State University.
*C. Martin Harris, chief information officer and chairman, information technology division, Cleveland Clinic.
*Gary R. Heminger, president and CEO, Marathon Petroleum Corporation.
*Bob McDonald, chairman of the board, president and CEO, Procter & Gamble.
*Pamela Springer, president and CEO, Manta Media, Inc., of Franklin County.
A ninth member remains to be appointed. Members serve without pay.
JobsOhio will work with six existing economic development organizations, including the Dayton Development Council.
TweetAG DeWine endorses Pawlenty for president
COLUMBUS - Attorney General Mike DeWine has picked his candidate for president, former Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
Gov. John Kasich is still looking.
DeWine’s endorsement came Monday as Pawlenty attempts to move up in the field of Republican candidates to take on Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012.
“I think he’s a winner,” DeWine of Cedarville said. “I like the fact that he’s been consistently pro-life. That is very important to me. I like the fact that he’s consistently anti-Obama health care. That’s important.”
Pawlenty’s ability to win in Democratic-leaning Minnesota shows “cross-party appeal,” said DeWine.
DeWine said he’s not worried that Pawlenty currently trails other GOP hopefuls in polling for the 2012 nomination. He was eighth among candidates and possible candidates, with a 4.5 percent average, on the RealClearPolitics website. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney led, with 25 percent.
Pawlenty has been focusing much of his effort in neighboring Iowa, site of the nation’s first caucuses next year.
It’s early, said DeWine.
In further comments, DeWine said:
“Throughout Gov. Pawlenty’s career, he has a record of fighting for the conservatives ideals that he believes in without alienating those who disagree.”
Kasich, who backed Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour for the GOP nomination before Barbour dropped out, is waiting.
“I got a lot of things I have to do … I’m playing hard to get,” he said.
TweetLocal member of Congress under ethics investigation
By Jessica Wehrman Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - An announcement earlier this month that a House panel was weighing a course of action regarding possible ethics violations by a local congresswoman is the latest chapter in what has been a three-year dispute involving a defamation suit, allegations of “blood money,” and a clash over a bloody 1915 feud between Turkey and Armenia.
David Krikorian, who ran against Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, in 2008 and 2010, is accusing Schmidt of improperly accepting free legal help from the Turkish Coalition of America. Schmidt’s congressional district covers southern Warren County and part of Hamilton County and several counties east of Cincinnati.
Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee said it had received a referral on a case involving Schmidt and would decide on a course of action by Aug. 16. In a press release announcing the move, the committee said the referral does not indicate “that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the committee.”
The committee did not specify what charges it was investigating, but Krikorian has asked House watchdogs to weigh in on the issue and said in an interview he believes the investigation was spurred by his request.
Krikorian, who is of Armenian descent, has had a long-standing feud with Schmidt since their 2008 race. During that race, he circulated campaign materials claiming Schmidt had accepted “blood money” from Turkish interests in exchange for her opposition to a congressional resolution declaring the 1915 conflict a genocide.
Schmidt responded by asking the Ohio Elections Commission to investigate whether the materials violated election law, arguing the flier was based on false statements. The Ohio Elections Commission ultimately sided with Schmidt.
Schmidt later filed a $6.8 million defamation suit against Krikorian, which is still pending. Now, Krikorian said Schmidt has unethically accepted free legal help for those cases from the Turkish Coalition of America and its Turkish American Legal Defense Fund. As evidence, he cites a transcript from the Ohio Elections Commission case in which Schmidt attorney Bruce Fein said the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund had not charged the campaign for legal services and “we would not charge them legal fees.”
“The facts show Schmidt never intended to pay all the money back,” Krikorian said. “You can’t go out and take hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars from a foreign interest lobby without any recourse.”
Krikorian’s lawyer, Christopher Finney, who also has represented Schmidt’s political opponent and former state Sen. Tom Brinkman, said if the committee moves forward with an investigation, it could opt to reprimand, censure or expel Schmidt from the House.
But Krikorian also said there may be another indirect impact - that ethics allegations might cause fellow Republicans to eliminate her seat during redistricting.
“She’s stuck in a fight right now because Ohio is going to lose two congressional seats,” he said. “And who’s the only (Ohio lawmaker) potentially under an ethics investigation?”
Joe Jansen, chief of staff for Schmidt, said Schmidt fully intends to pay her legal bills, but has asked the House Ethics Committee to determine whether it’s more appropriate to do so via a trust or through her congressional campaign fund. He said it’s been more than a year since Schmidt has asked for an opinion on the most appropriate course of action and the committee has urged her not to pay the bill until it rules on the issue.
“We recognize we do have a bill to pay,” he said. “We’re just waiting to see how we can pay it.” Finney said that argument is “absurd.”
“There’s nothing to prohibit Mrs. Schmidt from paying her lawyers if she wanted to,” he said. Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said the charges may have merit.
“The fact is she can’t take free legal help,” she said. “That’s pretty much black and white.”
Jansen said Schmidt has repeatedly been accused of lying by political opponents, including one accusation that she doctored marathon photos to make her finish time look better. “At some point it gets kind of old,” Jansen said.
TweetNew GOP ad blasts Obama; Ohio targeted
Get ready. The 2012 presidential TV campaign has started and Ohio, as usual, is being targeted.
The Republican National Committee has launched a 30-second ad blasting Democratic President Barack Obama and his record on the economy. It talks about job losses, foreclosures and the federal stimulus.
To view the ad, click here.
It is running nationally on cable this week and next week there will be buys in Ohio and other battleground states, according to the RNC. No word on whether ad will be aired in the Dayton market.
“It’s our responsibility to define the president and his left hand man (U.S. Sen.) Sherrod Brown,” Kevin DeWine, Ohio Republican chairman, said in a conference call Thursday.
It’s been a year since Obama and Brown announced a “recovery summer” that never happened, said DeWine.
Justin Barasky, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, wasn’t impressed.
‘Unfortunately, Republicans have made it clear that they would rather end Medicare as we know it and protect massive tax cuts for big oil instead of joining Democrats in their fight to create jobs, lower the deficit and give our seniors the peace of mind they deserve when it comes to paying for health care,” Barasky said in an email.
TweetDems, GOP clash on health care amendment
The partisan battle lines already are drawn in what’s expected to be a heated fall battle over a proposed constitutional amendment to exempt Ohioans from the personal mandate in the federal health care law championed by President Barack Obama and the president’s fellow Democrats.
Democrats and Republicans lashed out immediately - in different directions - after Tea Party groups and their allies on Wednesday filed petitions with signatures from more than 546,000 registered voters to get the amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot.
“This afternoon Ohio voters sent an unequivocal message - 546,000 voices strong - that they’ve seen the harmful effects of Obamacare and government mandated health care and they reject it,” Ohio Republican Chairman Kevin DeWine said in a press release.
Seth Bringman, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, took a different approach.
“What the Tea Party won’t tell you is that they are fighting against something that was a Republican invention championed by that party’s frontrunner, Mitt Romney,” Bringman said in an email. “This initiative is a waste of time and taxpayer money and it doesn’t pass constitutional muster.”
The amendment targets the provision in the health care law that requires all Americans to participate in a health care plan by 2014 or face financial penalties.
For a Dayton Daily News story on the petition drive, click here.
TweetHealth care amendment backers to submit more than 500,000 signatures
COLUMBUS: For the past 15 months, volunteers from Ohio Tea Party groups and their allies have been gathering signatures to put a constitutional amendment before voters aimed at exempting Ohioans from the personal mandate in the controversial federal health care law championed by President Barack Obama and Democrats.
Organizers plan to submit petitions to Secretary of State Jon Husted today with more than 530,000 signatures from registered voters to place the amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot.
That’s more than the required 385,245 valid signatures.
“This has been a long, hard grind,” said Jim Lewis of West Chester Twp. in Butler County, southwest Ohio regional coordinator for the Ohio Project, the grassroots effort behind the proposal.
The amendment targets the requirement in the federal health care law that all Americans buy 2014 buy health insurance or face financial penalties. It also would forbid the state government from imposing a similar requirement.
The requirement, said Lewis, is a “slippery slope” that could lead to the government telling people to “buy this kind of car” and “this kind of food.”
The Healthcare Freedom Amendment, backed by the Ohio Republican Party, could be one of two high-profile, politically polarizing issues on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Last week, supporters of a referendum aimed at repealing Senate Bill 5, legislation restricting public employee collective bargaining, submitted petitions with more than one million signatures to get that issue on the ballot. The requirement for a referendum is 231,147 signatures. Democrats and labor unions are major forces behind the repeal effort.
Husted has until July 26 to notify supporters of both proposals if they met the signature requirements. If not, they get 10 days to gather more signatures. There’s disagreement about the impact passage of the health care amendment would have.
Because a state law or state constitution can’t supersede a federal law, passage of the amendment would be mostly “symbolic,” said Richard Saphire, a professor at the University of Dayton’s law school.
Maurice Thompson, executive director of the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law and a backer of the amendment, disagreed. Passage of the amendment could aid in lawsuits already under way, including one in which Ohio is participating, challenging the federal health care law.
In the “worst-case scenario” in which the U.S. Supreme Court would uphold the federal law, the amendment still would prohibit the state and local governments from interfering with health care markets, Thompson said.
The political battle is already getting started.
Republican Gov. John Kasich “supports repealing Obamacare and replacing it with reforms that actually address the needs in health care. Namely, lowering costs by reducing frivolous lawsuits, improving care coordination, encouraging healthier lifestyles and allowing consumers to purchase health insurance across state lines,” Connie Wehrkamp, Kasich’s spokeswoman, said in an email.
However, Seth Bringman, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, called the amendment “a political ploy and a waste of taxpayer dollars.”
“The very policy that the Tea Party is arguing against was a Republican idea championed by that party’s presidential frontrunner, Mitt Romney. Massachusetts enacted a state law similar to the federal health care law when Romney was governor.
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