AGRICULTURE
The sponsors of two bills whose planned passage was included as part of a deal to pull an animal-welfare issue off the November ballot said they believe the bills can move before the end of the session, and they welcomed the support of Gov. Ted Strickland for their passage. The two bills are SB95, a dog breeding standards bill sponsored by Sen. Jim Hughes (R-Columbus), and HB108, an anti-cockfighting bill sponsored by Rep. John Domenick (D-Smithfield).
The Ohio Soybean Council said that Ohio State University has begun using soy-based toner the laser printers across its campus, making the university one of the largest users of the toner in the nation.
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Premcor Refining Group Inc., an oil refining company based in San Antonio, TX, that was accused of illegally releasing petroleum from 55 underground storage tanks in 26 Ohio counties, will pay $4 million in penalties and clean up the former Clark gas station sites, Attorney General Richard Cordray and Ohio Department of Commerce Director Kimberly Zurz said Thursday. The company has agreed to 26 consent orders filed in the counties where petroleum had been released.
FY12-13 BUDGET
The Office of Budget and Management (OBM) Thursday released its budget guidance for state departments and agencies to use in developing their Fiscal Year 2012 and 2013 budgets. These proposals are to be based on 90 and 100 percent of the agencies spending for the current fiscal year, FY11. Gov. Ted Stricklands spokeswoman, Amanda Wurst, stressed that these levels do not reflect any decisions that have been made or future decisions about budget levels. The proposals are due Nov. 1.
DEATH PENALTY
Gov. Ted Strickland followed the unanimous recommendations of the Ohio Parole Board and denied clemency to William Garner, who was then executed Tuesday for the 1992 arson deaths of five children. The execution, however, was marked by a 10-minute delay when the curtain was drawn after the administration of the lethal injection but before the pronouncement of death. This was the sixth execution this year, with four more scheduled.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Gov. Ted Stricklands administration continued with its designation of Ohio Hubs of Innovation and Opportunity with the unveiling of the Cincinnati Consumer Marketing Hub, which will bring together the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Procter & Gamble, Kroger, University of Cincinnati and Macys in an effort to strengthen and create job opportunities in Ohios consumer marketing industry.
Lanx Inc., a Colorado biomedical company, said it has chosen Ohio as the location to launch its Lumbar Motion Monitor Commercialization project, explaining that the states biomedical industry and support from programs such as Ohio Third Frontier were key to the decision.
The Ohio Department of Development reported that nearly $9.2 million of the $10 million appropriated for the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit in FY10 had been allocated; a total of $20 million has also been appropriated for FY11. Films benefitting from the credit include Unstoppable starring Denzel Washington, 25 Hill and Life After.
ECONOMY
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said she saw cautious confidence in the states economy based on recent business filing data from her office that showed an overall upward trend in business growth consistent with state and national reports of growth in the economy.
EDUCATION
Superintendent Deborah Delisle presented her proposed budget for FY12-13, showing an increase of nearly $1 billion for the next biennium. That breaks down to a $333.2 million increase for FY12 followed by a $262.6 million in FY13. This does not account for the more than $800 million in federal stimulus funds included in the current biennial budget for education.
The STEM Committee moved to award $1 million to two eventual grant winners in Northwest and Southwest Ohio two regions that missed out on STEM funding in the previous budget though Chancellor Eric Fingerhut cautioned that the funding isnt set in stone.
The State Board of Education continued its series of stakeholder presentations by hearing from Executive Director Chad Aldis of School Choice Ohio, evoking discussion that was sometimes civil and other times harshly critical. Aldis urged moving past the partisan divide that has enveloped school choice debates.
The Ohio School Funding Advisory Council (OSFAC) discussed the question of funding student transportation a thorny issue that has forced school districts to bus children who have left their schools for competing charter schools. The discussion focused on recommendations from the Traditional Public/Community School Collaboration Subcommittee but was sent on to the Regional Variation Committee after it was agreed transportation per se is not within the purview of the original subcommittee except as it relates to the specific issue of charter school busing.
The pending verdict on Ohio's Race to the Top (RttT) application will get a boost from a pair of newly announced Gates Foundation awards to a select group of states that includes Ohio. "Longitudinal" data systems that track the long-term academic progress of individual students and, on the flip side of the performance spectrum, "staff proficiencies," are among the four original goals of RttT and the target of new Gates funding
to Ohio and Florida. The grant, and a second Gates award to Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Arkansas, were announced in June by the Center for Education, Leadership and Technology (CELT), which is administering both initiatives.
2010 ELECTIONS
A new analysis from Governing Magazine shows that Ohio is among 18 states that have at least one of their legislative chambers in play in the November election. Of those, Alabama, New Hampshire and Wisconsin could see both chambers change party hands.
Treasurer Kevin Boyce named Bryan Clark as his new campaign manager, replacing Marquez Brown, who returned to Cleveland to work on the Ohio Democratic Partys campaign efforts there.
Joe Roberts won the three-way special election Tuesday to fill the vacant Democratic spot for the Third Congressional District seat on the November ballot. The vacancy occurred after the original candidate pulled out for personal reasons. The seat is currently held by Republican Rep. Mike Turner, who is running for re-election.
Three of the four counties involved in that special election were the first to pilot the use of vote centers rather than opening up all the traditional polling places a move touted by the Ohio Association of Election Officials as saving about $300,000.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine will be the keynote speaker at the state partys 2010 State Dinner, which will be held Aug. 7 at the Columbus Convention Center.
Steve Stivers, the former state senator who is again challenging U.S. Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Columbus) in the 15th Congressional District, reported that his campaign raised $587,376 in the second quarter and has $1.2 million cash on hand going into the fall. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Columbus) reported that he has raised $560,089 in the second quarter of this year and has $1.9 million cash on hand.
The Buckeye Firearms Association endorsed Gov. Ted Strickland for re-election as governor; Rob Portman for U.S. Senate; Josh Mandel for state treasurer; and Jon Husted for secretary of state.
ELECTIONS
A ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that shot down Kentuckys rules for judicial candidates, saying that they went too far in restricting a candidates free speech rights, may affect Ohios rules, which are promulgated by the Ohio Supreme Court and which are similar.
FEDERAL
President Barack Obama lent his support to a proposal by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) by calling for extension of the manufacturing tax credit by $5 billion.
Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher testified this week before an Ohio hearing of the U.S. Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, asking congressional leaders and the Obama administration to strongly encourage General Motors to meet its obligations to Delphi retirees who lost the pension benefits they earned both when Delphi was part of GM and after it was spun off. The bankruptcy process for Delphi and GM, according to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, protected the pensions of some Delphi workers but not others.
With news Thursday that Congress had passed its overhaul of financial sector regulations, Gov. Ted Strickland praised federal lawmakers for getting the measure through, while Attorney General Richard Cordray said he was pleased that states would retain their own watchdog powers.
GAMING
Lakes Entertainment, the Minnesota-based casino company that was behind a failed 2008 Clinton County casino proposal, announced that it was selling its share of the Toledo and Columbus casinos approved by Ohio voters last year for $25 million.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY/STATEHOUSE
Senate Republicans and House Democrats continued to spar over how the hearings of the Budget Planning and Management Commission should proceed, failing to agree even on who should be asked to testify at the July 20 hearing. Monday, Sen. Shannon Jones (R-Springboro) wrote her co-chair Rep. Vern Sykes (D-Akron), urging administration officials be invited in to discuss the Medicaid program. Commission member Rep. Jay Goyal (D-Mansfield) responded, expressing concern over politicizing the review Rather than coming up with the commissions own proposals, the Senate Majority seems intent on investigating various agencies and department heads. Jones, on the other hand, made the case the commission needs to better understand the complex Medicaid program, and who better to help than the administrations own Medicaid director.
HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
The Ohio Hospital Association said that it had learned that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had approved a plan to return an estimated $87 million to hospitals through Upper Payment Limit (UPL) payments, which are expected to be made by the end of July. Hospitals will also receive UPL payments next July.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently unveiled a new online tool that will connect consumers to new information and resources that will help them access quality, affordable health care coverage. Called for by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), HealthCare.gov is the first website to provide consumers with both public and private health coverage options tailored specifically for their needs in a single, easy-to-use tool.
HIGHER EDUCATION
Chancellor Eric Fingerhut led a Core Trustee Summit to advance efforts to increase trustee engagement in university governance to help rein in student and administrative expenses and promote university collaboration in advance of a difficult state budget.
University of Toledo Vice President for Research and Development Dr. Frank Calzonetti was one of five panelists at the Clean Energy Economy Forum at the White House on Friday.
INSURANCE
The Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review declined to take action on a proposed Ohio Department of Insurance rule dealing with the annual review of title insurance escrow accounts, which the Ohio Association of Independent Title Agents said would undermine the departments ability to police the title insurance sector. The committee found the disagreement to be a matter of policy and not relevant to the four criteria JCARR uses to determine if rules are valid.
JUDICIAL
In a unanimous decision, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the Cleveland Division of Police didn't have to convert its daily reports from local pawnbrokers in order to satisfy a public records request. The Court's per curiam decision overturned an 8th District Court of Appeals ruling that the city had violated a provision of
the Ohio Public Records Act that requires government agencies "to organize and maintain public records in a manner that allows them to be made available for inspection and copying."
The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled that pre-adoption placement procedures for "private" adoptions set forth in R.C. 5103.16(D) remain in force even when the prospective parents have legal custody of the child.
PEOPLE
Ann OBeay, who served as lead consultant on the Ohio consortium that won a $30 million federal stimulus broadband grant, was named chief technology officer at the Board of Regents.
Martha Sweterlitsch, a lawyer with Beneschs Health Care Practice Group who chairs the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations, won the Outstanding Lawyer Award from the American Bar Associations Nonprofit Organizations Committee.
Judge Linton D. Lewis Jr., who first tried the DeRolph v. State school funding case, retired from full-time status after 27 years on the bench.
The Ohio Alliance of YMCAs hired Elizabeth Tsvetkoff, a policy analyst with the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, as its first executive director.
U.S. Senate Republican candidate Rob Portman broke his collarbone this week as the result of a biking accident while on a fundraising trip in the Grand Tetons.
Jim Mauro has returned to the practice of law, leaving his post as executive director of NAMI Ohio. Filling in as interim director is former executive director Terry Russell.
Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut named Darlene Evans McCoy associate vice chancellor for the Division of Affordability and Efficiency, beginning on Aug. 16.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal and request for a new trial by Mark Lay, who had been convicted for fraud related to investments for the Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC). Lay had managed a hedge fund that lost $216 million in BWC investments.
Onetime intern Joanna Saul has been named executive director of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC) following the announced retirement of agency veteran Shirley Pope. Saul will officially begin as assistant director on Monday, July 19 and take over as director on Aug. 13, when Pope will leave after some 25 years at CIIC.
American Water said it has hired Gerald A. Reynolds as its eastern division general counsel. That division comprises nine wholly owned subsidiaries, including Ohio American Water. Most recently, Reynolds was assistant general counsel at Kansas City Power & Light Company in Kansas City, MO. He currently chairs the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C.
RECOVERY ACT (ARRA)
Chair of the presidents Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) Christina Romer released the councils latest quarterly report on the economic impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), saying it is already responsible for 2.5 to 3.6 million jobs and that for every $1 in government funds invested in Recovery Act programs designed to leverage outside capital, other investors, mostly in the private sector, are putting in another $3.
STATE GOVERNMENT
An Ohio Supreme Court case pitting Lake Erie waterfront property owners against the state over where private land ends and the publicly-owed shore begins drew two high-profile friend-of-the-court briefs. Former Attorneys General Jim Petro, Betty Montgomery and Nancy Rogers weighed in on behalf of the power of Attorney General Richard Cordray, challenging the 11th District Court of Appeals ruling that held Cordray lacked the ability to continue the case because the agency he was representing, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, had withdrawn. And the attorneys general of Pennsylvania and Michigan filed a brief in support of the states position that the longstanding public trust doctrine holds that the ordinary high-water mark should be recognized as the boundary between public and private land.
TRANSPORTATION
Transportation Director Jolene Molitoris joined with other directors from the Midwest to release a report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials that finds the nations highways, railroads, ports, waterways and airports require investments beyond current federal levels to maintain much less improve their freight capacity.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said that the state needs to move forward with passenger rail service in order to create new manufacturing jobs. Brown joined with Policy Matters Ohio, which released a report making the case that increasing demand for passenger rail cars will create thousands of construction and manufacturing jobs.
While the state has yet to receive $25 million in federal funding for new studies on the 3C passenger rail plan,
transportation officials said that they hope to secure an agreement with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) soon.
UTILITIES
Residential customers of electric utility providers indicate that their monthly electric bill amounts have declined and power reliability has improved from 2009, resulting in a notable increase in overall satisfaction, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study. The study measures customer satisfaction by examining six factors: power quality and reliability; price; billing and payment; corporate citizenship; communications; and customer service.
VETERANS
The Department of Veterans Services (DVS) said Thursday it is now in the process of bringing on new staff for its bonus program and hopes eligible veterans will be able to start turning in applications in early September.
VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS (VLTs)
The Ohio Roundtable said it wouldnt count out reviving its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Gov. Ted Stricklands slots-at-tracks plan now that the LetOhioVote.org referendum on the matter has been pulled from the ballot. However, the Roundtable said doing so isnt a high priority right now.
With LetOhioVote.org having dropped its referendum on the matter, the Ohio Lottery Commission is expected to move forward with implementing video lottery terminals (VLTs) at Ohios racetracks at its meeting on Monday. The new rules will not specify licensing fees for the VLTs and will also state that the age limit to play the terminals is 21, not 18 as the original rules allowed.
WORKFORCE
The U.S. Department of Labor certified more than 20,000 Ohio workers who lost their jobs because of rising imports and/or shifts in U.S. production to overseas locations for help last year under the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. This was nearly double the annual average over the previous three years.