State & Regional politics
Bills targeting Internet cafes advance
State lawmakers moved closer Tuesday to shutting down hundreds of Internet sweepstakes cafes operating in Ohio. Two bills are headed to floor votes as early as today: One would essentially ban the storefront gaming centers and one would extend the moratorium on new cafes and strengthen reporting requirements. Both bills ...
Speed limits to rise on 560 miles in Ohio
When the new 70 mile per hour law takes effect July 1, motorists will see new speed limits on 570 miles of Ohio’s interstate highways, though the current limits will remained unchanged in all of Montgomery County. The Ohio Department of Transportation on Tuesday released a map detailing which segments ...
Fallen Ohio soldiers honored
Sixteen fallen Ohioans, including nine from southwest Ohio, were posthumously honored at the Ohio Statehouse Tuesday for their sacrifices on the battlefield.The 16 were awarded the Ohio Military Medal of Distinction, presented by state legislative leaders to family members who attended. Afterward, the fallen were recognized again during a wreath-laying ...
Cincinnati-area lawmaker to run for state treasurer
State Rep. Connie Pillich on Monday said she’s running for state treasurer, making her the third Democrat to announce a statewide bid in 2014 against current Republican officeholders.Pillich, 52 of Montgomery, is an attorney and a former captain in the U.S. Air Force who served eight years of active duty. ...
Ohio shaping up to become battleground in gay marriage debate
Ohio is shaping up to become a possible battleground — this time over gay marriage — after Minnesota became the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriage last week and voters here could face the issue as early as November. But, Ohio is in a much different position than Minnesota and ...
Revived Tea Party may hurt Kasich
The IRS scandal has put the Tea Party back in the news, and Ohio conservatives have been featured prominently in stories about the targeting of groups because of their political affiliations. But an invigorated Tea Party may not be the best news for some Republicans, including Gov. John Kasich, who ...
Christian groups push for preschool vouchers in Ohio
Saying it would promote economic opportunities that lead to stable, traditional families, a group of Ohio pastors and Christian educators on Thursday urged state lawmakers to put more money in pre-kindergarten education. The group, organized by Shepherding the Next Generation, a Washington, D.C., based organization of evangelical pastors and ministry ...
Hamilton to lay off 6 firefighters
Six Hamilton firefighters will be told this week they no longer have a job as of June 5, according to union officials.The layoffs will mean the closure of Station 27 on Shuler Avenue in the Lindenwald neighborhood, according to Hamilton Fire Chief Steve Dawson.The news comes just days after city ...
State accuses 14 daycares of fraud, pulls funding
An unprecedented fraud crackdown has led Ohio officials to cut off payments to 14 child care centers since October — including one in Dayton and five in the Cincinnati area — for allegedly charging the taxpayer-funded program for children not in their care. These centers are accused of overbilling the ...
Local governments plan to pay off debts with rebate
Paying down debt tops the list of what local government leaders say they will do with an anticipated windfall in the form of a rebate from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.Butler County public employers are estimated to receive $2.9 million as part of a $1 billion rebate proposed last ...
States urged to lower DUI limit
A federal agency on Tuesday asked states to toughen the standard to declare when someone is legally too drunk to drive. Among a series of recommendations, the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates traffic crashes, said states should reduce the DUI standard from 0.08 blood alcohol content to 0.05. While ...
Board of Elections approves precinct boundary changes
Thousands of Butler County voters will have a new precinct number when they head to the polls in November as a result of boundary changes made by the county board of elections this week.The board approved the changes Monday in West Chester, Liberty, St. Clair, Madison, Wayne and Milford townships, ...
Auditor helping 1,400 small governments save money
Small government bodies such as libraries, planning commissions and tiny villages will save some of their public dollars under a new program that drastically cuts the costs of state-mandated audits.Since the program was launched in December, 11 governments in this region have cut the cost of their audits by an ...
Butler County governments get windfall from bureau of worker’s compensation
Butler County public employers are slated to receive $2.9 million from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation as part of a $1 billion rebate proposed last week by Gov. John Kasich and the agency’s Administrator/CEO Steve Buehrer.Under the proposal, the bureau would return $112.8 million to nearly 3,800 local governments ...
Gee’s $1.9M salary 3rd among U.S. public colleges
Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee was knocked off the top spot on the list of highest paid public university presidents but is well positioned to regain the number one post in the coming year, according to a survey released Sunday by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Gee’s $1.9 ...
Council creates finance manager position
Hamilton is adding a new position to help it manage its financial present and prepare for any possible economic impact to come.City council recently voted to create a finance manager position. The city currently has one staff member dedicated to preparing forecasts, analyzing budget trends, performing fiscal policy analysis or ...
IRS admits to targeting tea party groups
The Internal Revenue Service Friday admitted to targeting tea party groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections for extra scrutiny, saying “mistakes were made” in the handling of those organizations’ applications for tax-exempt status.The IRS apology came after complaints from tea party organizations including the Ohio Liberty Council that they ...
Civil lawsuits cost local governments millions
More than 100 lawsuits against city, township and county governments in Butler and Warren counties have resulted in almost $10 million in payouts over the past five years, a Middletown Journal/Hamilton JournalNews analysis of city and court records found.But because the majority of those civil cases were settled by governments’ ...
VIDEO: Speaker Boehner shows reporter how to tie his tie properly
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-West Chester Twp., is known on Capitol Hill for his dapper look and perfectly tied neckwear.Recently after an interview with Peter Cook of Bloomberg News, Boehner gave the reporter a lesson in how to tie the perfect knot.“You don’t have a dimple. You’ve got ...
Former councilman plans run for mayor
Former City Councilman Steve Miller has filed to run for the mayor of Fairfield, a position he once held for seven months.Miller served as a city councilman from 1997 to 2007, reaching his term limit after those 10 years.“Since then I’ve been biding my time until Ron hit his term ...
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