Glass City Jungle

The fact checker in me was happy to read the following from the Cleveland Plain Dealer – (link):
Starting today, The Plain Dealer officially kicks off PolitiFact Ohio, a new way to examine the claims, ads and statements of players in the political world. Once distilled, the newspaper’s findings are posted on the fanciful Truth-O-Meter, whose [...]

Erosion issues are starting at the land that was supposed to be the marina project. We have people in our community who need assistance when it comes to food and even the Department of Agriculture realizes the importance of urban agriculture. WTOL’s Bob Chirdon feels that Councilmen Joe McNamara and Mike Craig’s idea [...]

This received via e-mail, it does not pertain to any elected representatives of our area, but may be of interest to many of you:
Catholics United Announces New Campaign to Defend Rep. Driehaus and Rep. Boccieri from Religious Right Attacks
Organizing and Paid Media Effort will Set the Record Straight about Health Care Reform
Washington, DC – [...]

My “Shredding the Curtain” column, Patterns of precedents in this week’s Toledo Free Press is an attempt to raise awareness as to the precedent related to the City of Toledo paying the employee portion of the pension pick up. Some members of Toledo City Council have been advocating for having their own private legal [...]

Senator Karen Gillmor is not one of our local elected officials but I thought this release sent out via e-mail from her office may be of interest to some of the readers here on the Jungle:
GILLMOR URGES OHIO MAYORS TO BUY “BIO-OHIO,” SUPPORT STATE’S AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY
COLUMBUS—State Senator Karen L. Gillmor (R-Tiffin) is encouraging mayors [...]

More information will be following in the weeks to come, but the groundbreaking ceremony for Hollywood Casino – Toledo has been set for August 12 at 11:00 according to a media advisory sent out by Penn National Gaming.
Are you looking forward to the grand opening? One of those who hope to [...]

The video of what happened to Don RedFox when he was injured by Louie the elephant at the Toledo Zoo back on July 1 was released to the media today – most of our local media has a copy of the video on their websites, FOX Toledo as one example. Earlier today I received [...]

This in via e-mail from the Ohio Democratic Party:
WEB VIDEO: As Kasich Trots Around with GOP Presidential Hopefuls, Ohio Democratic Party Releases Flashback Footage of Kasich’s 2000 “Soul Brother” Endorsement of George W. Bush
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels Comes to Ohio Tomorrow for Kasich; Pawlenty, Gingrich, Romney Already Visited
COLUMBUS – Today, The Ohio Democratic Party [...]

The below came in via e-mail as a media advisory, it may be of interest to some of you on the blog since it may create additional media coverage tomorrow.
ADVISORY: Speaker Budish to Visit Toledo Area, Promote Green Jobs
Budish, Szollosi, Barlos Tour W&K Solar, Meet with Local Business Leaders
TOLEDO – Ohio House Speaker [...]

All members were present – Appointments were done first:
Downtown Parking Authority
Kenneth P. Wood -requires a residency waiver – reappointment
Michael Brinker – reappointment
George Yakumithis – reappointment
Stephen Herwat replacing John Sherburne
Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority
Brian Bucher –requires a residency waiver reappointment
All members present voted yes to confirm.
Resolution – Recognize Toledo Ticket Co. 100th anniversary – Webb and Sarantou [...]

Short story is neither proposed charter change that would have allowed voters to decide how they felt about rules concerning pensions and employment is going to be before voters. There was a very lengthy discussion on this at the July 19 Toledo City Council Committee of the Whole, a brief summary of the discussion [...]

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) endorsed Strickland in 2006, as pointed out in the link to 2006 FOP endorsements included in the below release from the O’Shaughnessy for Ohio Secretary of State campaign. Two releases are below, one from the re-election campaign of Governor Ted Strickland and one from Attorney General Richard Cordray [...]

Breaking news message from Politico moments ago – (link):
Ending weeks of stalemate, the Senate cleared the way Tuesday for Congress to extend federal jobless benefits through November’s elections for millions of long-term unemployed.
Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins were the sole Republicans to join Democrats on the 60-40 roll call, the outcome of which [...]

This in via e-mail from the O’Shaughnessy for Ohio Secretary of State campaign:
Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio Endorses Maryellen O’Shaughnessy for Ohio Secretary of State
Ohio’s Largest Law Enforcement Organization Supports O’Shaughnessy
COLUMBUS – The Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio endorsed Maryellen O’Shaughnessy today in her bid to become Ohio’s next Secretary of State.
“I [...]

A reader of the Jungle wrote me an e-mail asking basically where was Ohio education funding at since it had been declared unconstitutional over a decade ago. She suggested it might be an interesting topic to cover here, and I agree. It’s actually been covered recently in some of the media outside of [...]

The Sandusky Sheriff department was contacted by the family of Bryan Jones because he was under the influence of alcohol, had at least one weapon and had threatened to kill his mother. After Jones refused to come out of the house, a flashbang device was set off and when the SWAT team entered the [...]

I recommend reading the report in full from the Center for Community Solutions – (link). For those of you looking for a summary of what the report covered, I recommend John Michael Spinelli’s article on the report – (link). He does an excellent job in summation so there’s no need for me to [...]

The Ohio Controlling Board (link) approved funding for 180 projects listed on their agenda for July 19. Six of the funding approval requests list Toledo, one lists Lucas County. Since some of you like more details about these projects than is shared in some of the releases sent out by elected officials, below [...]

The Ohio Controlling board released funding for 6 projects in Toledo, the below release from Ohio House Representative Edna Brown focuses on two of the projects one to the University of Toledo and one to Regional Growth Partnership and Launch Accelerating Technology:
Rep. Brown Announces $350K to Aid Growth & Expansion of Local Organizations
Funds to [...]

Two releases sent out from of the office of Governor Ted Strickland today are shared below, one focuses on Hugo Boss in Brooklyn back in production after it was announced in 2009 the last Hugo Boss facility in North America was going to close. The second one focuses on the creation of another Ohio [...]

The environmental concern aspect of a recent oil spill at Heilman Ditch was referenced by Councilman Rob Ludeman at the July 13 agenda review, Councilman Collins shared some of what he knew at that time, Ludeman requested a referral from the administration as to more information about the contamination. WNWO reported on this story, [...]

The FTP server is back up, it’s new and improved – so before Council meets on Tuesday, July 20 some of the items discussed at Agenda Review:
Amend TMC to repeal Sec. 505.14 (vicious dogs) and enact new Ch. 1706 to address local dog issues
The administration made no recommendation on the changes to the TMC [...]

Reverend Donald Perryman and Lafe Tolliver focus on LeBron James in the Sojourner’s Truth, but the story I was drawn to this week is neither. While Perryman makes some relevant points about education, (link):
Yet the greater but least recognized insight emerging from “The Decision” is the lesson of economic independence. As we strive [...]

Recommended bio-type article by Christopher Kirkpatrick (link) for those of you interested in learning a bit more about Jerome Pecko, the new TPS Superintendent. Some of the challenges his former district faced are similar to ours, though TPS is much larger:
Summit County’s Springfield Local Schools, where he was superintendent from 2003 to 2007, couldn’t [...]

When I sat down last Wednesday to decide what I was going to focus on the “Shredding the Curtain” column I write for the Toledo Free Press each week, I had few different topics I could have focused on. The Maywood Project caught my attention since it’s been something I’d been following when [...]

The cover story for the Toledo Free Press this week is the result of an interview with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur done by Kristen Rapin of the Toledo Free Press – “Kaptur criticized for circumventing new earmark ban” (link) is a recommended read for those of you interested in more of the story than what was [...]

This in from the office of Governor Ted Strickland:
Governor to Renew Call to Retire Space Shuttle in Ohio at Dayton Air Show Saturday
Columbus, Ohio – Ohio Governor Ted Strickland will renew his call to retire one of the three remaining U.S. Space Shuttles to the National Museum of the United States Air Force Museum [...]

I guess it comes down to how you measure the word “success” though when I read the Blade headline – GOP chief: Reform petition drive a ’success’ (link) for a brief moment I thought that Stainbrook had actually pulled off getting the required 14,289 signatures.
The story doesn’t state how many signatures were collected – the [...]

The following is a guest piece sent via e-mail by the office of Representative Barbara Sears to share with readers of GCJ:
Hospital Tax is Putting Jobs and Ohio’s Economy at Risk
Ohioans have long felt the effects of the downturn in our state’s economy. With unemployment in the double digits for the 14th consecutive month, [...]

Several releases were sent out yesterday on the passage of the Wall Street reform bill, below are the ones I received, John Michael Spinelli has a recommended article (link) that references them and a few others that I did not receive yesterday:
Governor Applauds U.S. Congress for Passage of Wall Street Reform, Rebukes Republican Calls [...]