Collapse in mine safety Investigators find federal regulators aren't doing their job Asection of the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah collapsed nine months ago, burying six miners. Three others died in a rescue attempt. The deaths, the slow and ultimately futile rescue operations and the mine's controversial operations demanded thorough investigation. ( 05/16/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Steamy story Akron Thermal devolves to 10 cents on the dollar If many of the details involving Akron Thermal's plan to emerge from federal bankruptcy court and continue as operator of the city's downtown steam utility are mind-numbing, one figure that emerged this week should serve to focus attention on what's necessary for the future. Under an amended reorganization plan, Akron Thermal would pay its creditors 10 cents on the dollar. ( 05/16/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Payday consensus At the Statehouse, Republicans and Democrats agree: The short-term loan industry must not exploit consumers It isn't often that state legislators speak with nearly the single voice they have on the issue of payday lending in Ohio. On Wednesday, the state Senate approved by a vote of 29-4 its version of a House bill that promises to transform the payday-loan industry. A little over two weeks ago, the House passed the bill by 68-26, surprising both the industry and its critics with the hard-nosed regulatory proposals. The Senate has proved equally tough. ( 05/16/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Still bloated? Fair enough that state law now requires boards of elections to charge county agencies and boards for the cost of elections when they have levies on the ballot. ( 05/15/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Spectacular fall Marc Dann howled about a ''culture of corruption.'' He then failed as attorney general to meet his own standard Marc Dann finally succumbed. On Wednesday, the embattled attorney general resigned, 12 days after an internal investigation concluded that his office suffered from mismanagement, cronyism and a lack of professionalism. The assessment found substance in allegations of sexual harassment. Dann admitted having a ''romantic relationship'' with a member of his staff. He stood alone politically, Democrats desperate to see him depart, Republicans ready to pounce in the fall elections. ( 05/15/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Over here and there Applaud the farm bill emerging from Congress for the many proposed advances in making food assistance available to the disadvantaged in this country. For one, the purchasing power of food stamps will be restored. ( 05/15/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Speaking in signs Silver Lake and Bath Township encounter the First Amendment Call it a sign of the times. In this intensely political year, two suburban communities are under fire from the American Civil Liberties Union over longstanding regulations of political displays. Silver Lake and Bath Township both require $5 deposits for each yard sign, refundable after Election Day. The ACLU has put them on notice that they are violating the First Amendment. ( 05/14/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Devastated in China A massive earthquake tests the capacity of the Beijing government China has been striving, during this year of the Beijing Olympics, to demonstrate a capacity for efficiency and organization that rivals any in the world. Dealing with a 7.9 magnitude earthquake, the worst since a 1976 quake killed some 240,000, is a more urgent call to demonstrate that capacity. ( 05/14/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Posse Democratus Ohio Democrats want Marc Dann to resign. They've now threatened him with flimsy articles of impeachment On Tuesday, Ohio lawmakers approved and the governor signed legislation permitting the state inspector general to investigate charges of mismanagement in the the attorney general's office. The occupant of the office, Marc Dann, faces a swirling scandal, involving allegations of sexual harassment, cronyism and a lack of professionalism. Dann already has received the harsh assessment of an internal investigation. An independent investigation is required, in part, because Dann's fellow Democrats, led by Ted Strickland, have called for his impeachment. ( 05/14/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Foreclosure fighters The U.S House has approved a response to the housing crisis. It deserves a better fate than a veto threat from the president Steve LaTourette and 38 other House Republicans joined the Democratic majority last week in approving legislation that would help homeowners at risk of foreclosure. The Painesville Republican explained that if he had designed the proposal, it would have been different in certain respects. What he found appealing was the overall direction, Congress recognizing the mounting harm of the foreclosure crisis and taking the aggressive step to expand access to federally insured mortgages to help troubled homeowners refinance their loans. ( 05/13/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Water through the roof An extreme price squeeze in Richfield Township Forget gas prices. For about 80 customers of a private utility serving parts of Richfield and Richfield Township, soaring water and sewer rates are putting a serious squeeze on suburban lifestyles. Customers of Water and Sewer LLC already pay some of the highest rates in the state. Under a request pending before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, charges would more than double, with some families paying more than $6,000 a year. ( 05/13/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Runaway tribunals A judge's harsh words for the military commissions at Guantanamo Col. Morris Davis once served as the chief prosecutor for the military tribunals established at Guantanamo Bay. Now he is a sharp critic of the system for putting on trial detainees in the war against terrorism, and on Friday, a military judge essentially agreed with his assessment. The judge disqualified a leading Pentagon official from any further role in one of the cases. ( 05/13/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Ground breaking Where education and innovation hope to converge Agroundbreaking ceremony launched Akron's newest public school on Tuesday. Construction of the National Inventors Hall of Fame School . . . Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Learning (a more ungainly name will be hard to find) will bring concrete reality to an innovative educational partnership. ( 05/12/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Ed Duvall An extraordinary police officer and compassionate man Friends of retired Akron police detective Lt. John ''Ed'' Duvall gathered last week to pay a fitting tribute to an officer whose fearless, play-no-favorites investigations established an almost iconic presence within the city force. In three decades, Duvall pursued public corruption cases to the highest levels of local government, resulting in the conviction of seven officials. He was the lead investigator in the successful murder case against police Capt. Douglas Prade, once Duvall's partner. ( 05/12/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Imbalance of blame Many link the whopping trade deficit to ''job-killing'' imports. Actually, the numbers show such a connection doesn't exist Listen to the debate about trade, and soon enough you will hear references to the country's trade deficit. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, in a recent column in the Wall Street Journal (and this newspaper), noted that in just 15 years, the gap between what Americans import and export widened to more than $800 billion a year, many multiples more than the $38 billion in 1994. Most conspicuous are the current deficits with China and Mexico, roughly $250 billion and $90 billion respectively. ( 05/12/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Unhappy Mother's Day The unnecessary deaths of 10 million children a year House members stopped squabbling long enough last week to pass (412-0) a resolution celebrating mothers and motherhood. On this Mother's Day, more than 26,000 mothers won't feel much like celebrating. They will lose a child under age 5. ( 05/11/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Payday challenge Now the Ohio Senate takes its turn at regulating the industry. Best to keep focused on the worthy priorities set in the House The bill to tighten regulations on payday lending in Ohio is encountering rough waters in the Senate. The resistance is not surprising. The legislation, which was approved by the House in April, delivered a package of tough reforms, a stunning reversal by a Republican-led House that had stalled an earlier proposal. ( 05/11/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Speaking in code John McCain rejects the judicial philosophy of Sandra Day O'Connor Many conservatives still burn at the thought of John McCain joining the Gang of 14. He did so in 2005, the bipartisan group of senators ending a dangerous stalemate over the confirmation of federal judges. The result protected the right of the minority to filibuster and opened the way to John Roberts and Samuel Alito sitting on the Supreme Court, a classic Capitol Hill compromise. ( 05/11/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Misery in Myanmar The ruling junta reveals a new level of callousness The scale of devastation in Myanmar (formerly Burma) now is much clearer a week after a tropical cyclone swept ashore with winds that reached 120 miles an hour pushing a wall of water 12 feet high. The death toll by midweek was estimated at 22,000, with more than 40,000 missing and nearly 1 million residents homeless. ( 05/09/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Impeach, they said The uproar surrounding Marc Dann has revealed one thing: Leading Democrats didn't think before they issued their threat What might be concluded now that a week has passed since Marc Dann admitted having a ''romantic relationship'' with a co-worker and an internal investigation found the workplace at the attorney general's office suffering from ''a general lack of professionalism and respect''? Ted Strickland, Sherrod Brown and other leading Democrats didn't consider fully the consequences of threatening to proceed with impeachment if their fellow party member failed to resign. ( 05/09/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Network of innovation The Global Business Accelerator helps to shape a new economy Behind the award given this week to downtown's business incubator, the Akron Global Business Accelerator, are hard-earned lessons that should continue to guide economic development in the city and across the region. They are: Start early, network widely and innovate relentlessly. ( 05/09/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Statehouse in Wonderland Might Ted Strickland and others threatening the impeachment of Marc Dann want something more on which to base their case than an internal investigation hatched by the attorney general himself? No need to turn the Statehouse into Alice in Wonderland, the queen famously declaring: ''Sentence first — verdict afterwards.'' ( 05/08/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Accelerate demand You may have noticed that the price of a barrel of oil has climbed 27 percent this year alone. Now oil watchers point to growing demand and unsteady supply pushing prices over $150 per barrel before year's end. That translates into almost $5 for a gallon of gas. Anyone need further incentive to get serious about those plug-in hybrids? ( 05/08/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
From here to June Hillary Clinton deserves an opportunity to play out the primary string. Then Barack Obama will have the chance to lead a united party Travel all the way back to February, and Hillary Clinton had a narrow path to the Democratic presidential nomination. She had to win primaries, and keep winning them. She did so in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. She took Pennsylvania. On Tuesday evening, she added Indiana, a state that once appeared leaning toward Barack Obama, the Illinois senator even describing Indiana as a ''tie-breaker.'' In that way, the day proved more favorable to Clinton than the many pundits have declared. ( 05/08/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Driven by the evidence Judge Schneiderman didn't play doctor. He stuck to the facts of the Taser case Ted Schneiderman playing doctor? That was the charge leveled against the visiting Summit County judge last week after he ordered Dr. Lisa Kohler, the county's chief medical examiner, to rewrite autopsy findings in three controversial cases. The judge called for deleting all references to Taser stun guns as contributing to the cause of death. Dr. Bruce Levy, the chief medical examiner for the state of Tennessee, read about the ruling and quickly criticized Schneiderman for ''practicing medicine.'' ( 05/07/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Too many children left behind The disappointing results of the Reading First program The ability to read is so fundamental to progress in school that it justifies spending money, time and effort to ensure that children acquire reading skills early. ( 05/07/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Rush to impeach Ohio Democrats want desperately to get rid of Marc Dann Aweek ago, Chris Redfern described the Ohio Democratic Party as the strongest state party organization in the country. You expect as much from the party chairman, yet this part is true: Democrats have traveled far since the wilderness years of the 1990s. That doesn't mean, evidently, that the party is strong enough to wrest the attorney general's office from Marc Dann. ( 05/07/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Statehouse stampede The embarrassment is monumental. So is the hypocrisy. Then there is the election mandate Marc Dann won Marc Dann stands virtually alone. On Sunday, Ted Strickland, Sherrod Brown and other leading Ohio Democrats joined in a letter calling for the state attorney general to resign. That abandonment, a party shunning one of its own, followed a fusillade of newspaper editorials over the weekend, from Cincinnati to Columbus to Cleveland, demanding that Dann exit his office. ( 05/06/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Polar bears on thin ice These creatures deserve the protection of the Endangered Species Act In December 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed coming to the rescue of the threatened polar bear. The agency called for providing protections permitted under the federal Endangered Species Act. Sound science drove the decision, and yet the Bush White House has resisted the step the past 16 months. ( 05/06/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Regionalism, inch by inch Four Summit County communities explore a breakthrough The advantages of greater cooperation continue to penetrate the many units of local government in the region. As an increasing property tax burden, driven largely by new levies for schools, villages and townships, outstrips real income growth, the pressure to find new ways of doing things mounts. ( 05/06/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Strategically challenged Five years after declaring ''mission accomplished'' in Iraq, President Bush still lacks a complete plan for combating terrorism Thursday marked five years since President Bush landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, declaring, under the banner ''Mission Accomplished'': ''Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.'' On that day, the toll of American dead in Iraq stood at 140. Today, the count exceeds 4,000. That moment, the president so full of himself, has become representative of a White House arrogant, unknowing and ill-prepared. ( 05/05/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Payback in Norton Tom Jones had the nerve to propose a better way for law enforcement In Norton, where it seems no sound idea goes unpunished, Tom Jones is under attack — again. The veteran Ward 1 City Council representative showed the tenacity last year to pursue a ballot issue that would have abolished the town's high-priced police department. What Jones had in mind was a contract with the Summit County Sheriff's Office, saving money, improving services and freeing money for other city operations. ( 05/05/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Flexible coverage The governor seeks a working balance between citizens and state employees Talk about customer service, and you'll hear stories about the inefficiencies, delays and runarounds people encounter dealing with government agencies. The complaint often goes: Customer service just isn't the priority in government work that it is in the private sector. Correcting such perceptions merits a cheer any day from the public. ( 05/05/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Still the chairman Whose county Republican Party is it, anyway? Alex Arshinkoff survived. No surprise, really. The chairman of the Summit County Republican Party has ruled so completely, loudly and ruthlessly that his reign won't end in one battle. The reform-minded New Summit Republicans acknowledged as much as they regrouped following the fierce combat of recent weeks. ( 05/04/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Butt of the joke The Statehouse pulls a fast one on the tobacco prevention foundation Gov. Ted Strickland and Ohio legislators want the money held by the state's tobacco foundation and they want it fast. How fast is apparent in the great speed with which they are moving to grab the funds — to the point of killing a foundation created amid righteous indignation against tobacco companies. ( 05/04/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Healthy group think John McCain talked about health-care reform last week. Here are a few challenges he would face as president Almost three-quarters of Americans with health insurance receive coverage through their employer. The benefit comes with a considerable tax advantage. The money spent by the employer on health coverage, an average $8,824 a year for a family policy, is excluded from the taxable income of employees. The companies also gain. These incentives go a long way toward explaining how the system of health coverage has evolved. ( 05/04/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Juvenile injustice An excessive, if mandated, punishment in the Tallmadge hazing case The Tallmadge High School football players involved in the ugly hazing of a teammate have received their days in Summit County Juvenile Court. In the main, the cases have reached appropriate conclusions, Judge Linda Teodosio finding one participant guilty of rape, another of hazing, with others pleading guilty to related counts. ( 05/02/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Aborted takeoff Continental pulls up short of merging with United When United Airlines announced its larger-than-expected first quarter loss of $537 million, Wall Street wasn't alone in its skittishness. Continental Airlines, evidently, turned its eye on the nearest exit, the country's fourth-largest air carrier bringing to an abrupt end this week talk of a merger with the country's second-largest carrier. ( 05/02/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Payday advance Hurray for the Ohio House! It approves strong legislation to limit exploitative practices in short-term lending No, consumer advocates didn't die and go to heaven. The Ohio House really did approve by a vote of 68-26 on Wednesday a payday lending bill that goes much further to control the quick-loan industry than any piece of legislation the industry's critics dreamed of passing. ( 05/02/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Hot party Chris Redfern told the Associated Press this week that the Ohio Democratic Party is the strongest such statewide organization in the country. An exaggeration? Probably. Still, the comeback has been real — and in no small way fueled by Republican blunders. ( 05/01/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Forgot their bus money The most recent evidence of the state's broken system for funding public schools? The Columbus Dispatch reported this week that the state lacks sufficient money to update aging fleets of school buses, some district buses now 21 years old. ( 05/01/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Politician Obama Jeremiah Wright doesn't get it. His former parishioner wants to lead a large, sprawling and diverse nation Barack Obama warned about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He did so in his distinguished speech about race delivered in Philadelphia almost seven weeks ago. The Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate explained that ''the profound mistake of Rev. Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static, as if no progress has been made; as if this country . . . is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.'' ( 05/01/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Look at the candidates pander Only Barack Obama keeps his head about gas taxes John McCain went first, the Republican candidate for president proposing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline for the summer driving season. Now Hillary Clinton has joined the call. She would recover the lost revenue through a windfall profits tax on oil companies. McCain pledges to find the money elsewhere in the federal budget. ( 04/30/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Fear of fraud The Supreme Court upholds voter identification requirements. In doing so, the majority gives little weight to the actual evidence Both sides in the highly political debate over voter identification are very short on hard evidence that producing a photo ID or other document on Election Day represents either necessary protection against fraud or a burden so heavy it disenfranchises the poor, elderly and disabled. ( 04/30/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
All-day kindergarten works Why, then, the lack of state support? There's a reason Ohio pays for all-day kindergarten in school districts with high percentages of low-income families. The relevance of all-day programming in preparing young children for regular school is increasingly apparent. Given all that is known about the value of all-day kindergarten, the question is why Ohio leaves all other districts to pay for it themselves or charge tuition to cover the costs. ( 04/30/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Rattled about Iran The Bush White House escalates the tough talk. To what end, precisely? That is the puzzle Gen. David Petraeus recently accused Iran of playing a ''destructive role'' with its military support of militant Shiites in Iraq. He warned about the long-term threat of such assistance for Shiite militias. President Bush fingered Iran as largely responsible for his decision to postpone further withdrawals of American troops from Iraq, once the level declines to 140,000 during the summer. ( 04/29/2008 10:15 AM EDT )
Step on the accelerator C'mon, state lawmakers, end the antiquated mayor's court The legislature need not fear getting a ticket for moving too fast on legislation to abolish mayor's courts. The long-debated measure, pushed early last year by Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court, finally moved out of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. There is no reason action shouldn't accelerate to reform a system too often twisted into a cash cow for tiny villages — at the expense of fairly administering traffic laws. ( 04/29/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Quality counts How the legislature can enhance the state's judicial branch Ask Ted Strickland whether judges across the state deserve a pay raise, and the governor will answer yes. He will then follow quickly with a dose of fiscal reality, arguing that a state facing a budget deficit must ask broadly for sacrifice. In other words, judges should join those leading the way in the belt-tightening. ( 04/29/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Genetic protection When too much information puts health and livelihood at risk The legislation has been more than a decade in the making, but finally the burden of fear will be lifted from individuals concerned about what their genetic heritage may mean for their health. ( 04/28/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Failure is not an option Ted Strickland sounds serious about repairing school-funding In his State of the State address two months ago, Ted Strickland set the deadline. The governor pledged to deliver a plan early next year for repairing the broken school-funding system. He outlined the principles, albeit mostly vague, that would guide the effort, including strengthening the state's commitment to public schools. ( 04/28/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Less deadly force Tasers can kill. Most often, the stun-guns reduce harm, when police officers are trained properly in their use Taser International and the city of Akron presented their final arguments last week in an unusual case against Lisa Kohler. In three recent homicide cases, the Summit County medical examiner ruled that the stun-gun weapons used by law enforcement officers to incapacitate suspects ended up contributing to their deaths. ( 04/28/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Payday facts and fiction A new proposal in the House amounts to little change at all Speaker Jon Husted promised to move payday legislation through the Ohio House within two weeks. He indicated, too, that the measure would likely include a limit on the interest rates the lenders are permitted to charge. ( 04/27/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Alarmed and dangerous The Ohio Senate now stands virtually alone in its opposition to a Great Lakes Compact that would serve the region and the state Count the states that already have approved the Great Lakes Compact: Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and New York. Wisconsin stands on the verge of approval, along with Pennsylvania and Michigan. Ohio? The House has given its overwhelming assent, Democrats and Republicans joining together. Unfortunately, Timothy Grendell and other Republicans in the majority have erected roadblocks in the state Senate. ( 04/27/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Overgrown in Ohio Two hundred years later, local government deserves a hard look An Ohio looking to improve its global competitiveness must examine the many layers of its local government. The Fund for Our Economic Future has taken up the worthy task in Northeast Ohio. Now an effort has begun to gain support at the Statehouse. State Rep. Larry Wolpert has proposed establishing a commission that would look across the state at local governments and their structure. ( 04/27/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Waiting in Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe writes another chapter in his corrupt and brutal reign| If Robert Mugabe had won the presidential elections in Zimbabwe, by a whisker or less, it's a good bet the result wouldn't be the closely held secret it has been four weeks after the election. ( 04/25/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Finally, the hybrid (part 2) John Otterman makes an impressive debut at the Statehouse John Otterman hasn't spent much time in the Ohio House, three months to be exact. But the Akron Democrat has made a favorable impression — for thinking independently and, more, showing backbone when the legislative going gets tough. ( 04/25/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Finally, the hybrid OK, the business of restructuring the electricity industry wasn't pretty. Give the Ohio House credit for pushing a productive ending Ted Strickland described as ''good'' the electricity restructuring legislation that emerged from the Ohio House and won passage in the state Senate. The governor would have struck a more accurate chord if had used the word ''better.'' ( 04/25/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Decision by June Democrats, calm down. You need the next six weeks to see whether Obama or Clinton can close the deal Listen to the roar of the crowds greeting Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the evening of the Pennsylvania primary, and you recalled what should please Democrats about the run for their party's presidential nomination. The two candidates have generated uncommon enthusiasm, the turnout in Pennsylvania doubling in comparison to 2004. There is a drive for change, spilling into the ranks of independents, many frustrated with the course of the war in Iraq and the decline of the country's influence, not to mention what ails the economy. ( 04/24/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Hot scrap Akron seeks a measure of order in a booming market The theft of copper and other metals from homes and businesses in Akron has increased dramatically, a symptom of a booming market for scrap. Little seems safe, even when bolted down. Catalytic converters have vanished from cars; aluminum bleachers from Archbishop Hoban High School (twice). Last year, 60 bronze landscaping lights were ripped up from Cascade Plaza and sold as scrap. ( 04/23/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Uncomfortable truth Jimmy Carter is right: Hamas must be engaged, sooner or later Remember the Annapolis conference on the Middle East late last year? All the hopeful words about renewing the peace process? President Bush pledging to give the matter sustained attention? On Monday, Jimmy Carter rightly observed to the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations that the process has ''regressed'' the past five months. ( 04/23/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Litigation as last resort Extend health coverage to children? President Bush makes the task more difficult by inviting states to pursue the matter in court It shouldn't take a lawsuit before a state can extend health coverage to uninsured children of families with moderate means. Unfortunately, it may come to that to achieve the reasonable goal Gov. Ted Strickland and Ohio legislators set last year to reduce the number of uninsured children in the state. ( 04/23/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
Defiant forsythia Dare we say, spring is here Today is Earth Day, and what better occasion for declaring the arrival of spring in Northeast Ohio. Oh, sure, the formal date, in chilly, even snowy, March, came and went a month ago. Almost everyone has held their breath since then, fearing weekends when the cineplex amounts to one of too few options for escape. ( 04/22/2008 12:00 AM EDT )
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