From the monthly archives: May 2010
The Cleveland Plain Dealer provides the first published comments by Acting Public Safety Director Cathy Collins-Taylor the day before her confirmation hearing:
“I’d like to think I’m going to get a fair hearing,” Collins-Taylor said Tuesday. “I don’t have a whole lot of confidence based upon past hearings and the antics leading into this week.”
[On the I.G.'s report which has been widely criticized as containing a number of obvious and embarrassing errors and flat out ignoring evidence that did not confirm its conclusions]
“I’m appalled. I’m offended. And I would call the report an opinion. That’s all [...]
Full Story... →A little late, folks.
The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that the House Democrats will announce today legislation “that specifies when the inspector general must recuse himself from investigations. Some critics have pointed out Charles? connection to the Ohio Highway Patrol ? his wife, Bridgette, is a patrol captain and he had recommended her boss for the superintendent’s job.”
Senate Minority Leader Capri Cafaro has come out publicly to support the confirmation of Kathy Collins-Taylor as Director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
?Information reported by the media has raised troubling questions about whether the findings of [...]
Full Story... →The first time it was in his own back yard in Shaker Hts.? Now, it’s as our nominee for US Senate.?? Awesome.
Full Story... →In 2007, newly minted State Auditor Mary Taylor broke a Republican taboo, she finally reported how White Hat Management gamed the “for-profit” charter schools system by engaging in “abusive business practices” like, paying board members multiple times for one meeting, etc.
After today’s published reports over a number of charter schools filing suit challenging the constitutionality of a statute that gives companies like White Hat Management the legal right to replace a charter school board that votes to end its contract and seize the schools’ textbooks and classroom equipment, ProgressOhio is asking for Attorney General Richard [...]
Full Story... →The Akron Beacon Journal editorial board has not entirely weened itself off the Kool-Aid Thomas Charles has been peddling in the so-called “Troopergate” matter, but they’re still able to recognize the fundamental problems with the confirmation process as demanded by Ohio Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman Timothy Grendell:
Grendell has a penchant for overplaying his hand. He already has described the prisoner work program at the governor’s residence as ”Club Med,” a colorful exaggeration, to say the least. No question, the program ”veered off-course,” as the inspector general put it. Now Grendell must take care not to lose [...]
Full Story... →It’s so on.
Full Story... →Today, the Ohio Department of Public Safety released a report that demonstrates how the Inspector General ignored evidence and misrepresented others in Thomas Charles attempt to allege, without evidence and despite clear evidence to the contrary, that the tobacco sting at the Governor’s Mansion was scaled back due to political considerations.
The report is like a greatest hits of the criticism of the report, but also includes new points that haven’t been addressed.? The report breaks out the response into three areas: The misrepresentated evidence, the ignored evidence, and the evidence of a predetermined outcome.
The Misrepresented Evidence
[...]
Full Story... →Over the years I’ve written more than a few posts here at Plunderbund bitching and moaning about the horrible job Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature has done implementing our charter school system.
There are, of course, a few successful schools. But these minor successes are easily overshadowed by the many horrible and disastrous failures directly resulting from the intentionally limited oversight and amazingly loose restrictions imposed on schools that never had any chance of being successful in the first place. It seems anyone can get public money to start a school and there is little or no requirement to define or track [...]
Full Story... →Wow, this is a horrible lede to a Columbus Dispatch blog post:
Richard Cordray, ever the opportunist, smelled blood.
Of course, this appears to be the words of Marc Dann:
Cordray, a fellow Democrat and the state treasurer at the time, was preparing to take on Dann for his job in the 2010 Democratic primary, Dann said in an interview he granted to investigators April 27 as part of the criminal investigation of the former attorney general. Dann disclosed Cordray’s aspirations while discussing his own political operation, which got Dann into legal trouble.
Dann said he worked [...]
Full Story... →Budget Watch
