From the monthly archives: July 2011
Keith Olbermann’s Worst Persons segment tonight references information straight out of two of our recent exclusive stories.
For the record: Plunderbund was the first to report that Mecklenborg was likely arrested with a stripper and that Mecklenborg lied on his license application.
Enjoy!
Full Story... →When Randy Meyer was appointed to replace Tom Charles as Inspector General, no one seemed too unhappy (or elated) by the choice.
Despite having worked for Mary Taylor in the Auditor’s office – and having been appointed by Kasich – we expected he’d do a decent job. We’d heard he was an OK guy. And there is no way could possibly be any worse that Tom Charles.
Modern was hopeful when he heard that Meyer immediately replaced “at least half” of the existing IG staff when he took over.
Unfortunately, that seems to be the only thing he’s done [...]
Full Story... →I love political tees! Can’t seem to get enough of them. I especially like it when they are for campaigns of people I know or support especially strongly. I generally just like tee shirts period, but political tees are some of my favorites. Ones with killer designs I almost always have to have. Got one in the mail recently and wanted to share a quick video about it:
Support Anthony and his campaign at www.callmefoss.com. Follow him on Twitter. Like him on Facebook. Get the tee shirt. Buy the ticket. Take the ride.
Full Story... →Or something like that. This has to be the most brazen re-write of the Kasich Administration so far, and it comes from the conservative Washington Times:
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, on Sunday touted the fact that since taking office in January, he has helped the Buckeye State turn its deficit into a surplus.
“In my state, where we faced an $8 billion deficit, we wiped it out. We eliminated it,” he said on “Meet the Press.”
Given that Kasich just passed his first budget a month ago, it would be incredibly remarkable for him to claim [...]
Full Story... →
First, according to CNBC’s website, the 2011 “Business Friendliness” for Ohio went from #38 in 2010 to #42 in 2011. So, that’s not an improvement. What the 2010-2011 CNBC rankings (if you even care about such relatively arbitrary ranking gimmicks are from a media outlet) do show is that Ohio was the most improved State in their ranking system with an overall improvement in their rank by eleven spots from 34th in 2010 to 23rd this year.
But, again, this has nothing to do with John Kasich. Because anyone who reads about CNBC’s methodology can [...]
Full Story... →The Associated Press, and local Cincinnati media has confirmed, that State Representative Bob Mecklenborg has announced his intention to resign office, effective August 2.
Mecklenborg was arrested back in April for suspicion of driving while intoxicated after midnight on Good Friday. He reportedly failed all three field sobriety tests. A blood test taken by the Indiana State Police detected alcohol levels above the legal limits as well as the presence of Viagra.
According to the Indiana State Police report concerning the incident, a young woman, who was not Mecklenborg’s wife, was a passenger in the [...]
Full Story... →Standard & Poor’s is one of the three major credit rating agencies that has enormous influence in shaping the price and rates for Ohio’s bonds. Earlier this week, it and the other two major credit reporting agencies turned up the pressure on Speaker Boehner and the Congressional Republicans when it threatened to downgrade the credit rating of the United States if a deal on the debt ceiling isn’t reached soon.
On Friday, S&P revised Ohio’s credit rating (may require free registration to view.) While the credit rating has stayed the same, the raters changed Ohio’s outlook from negative [...]
Full Story... →Governor Kasich had quite the captive audience when he was invited to speak at the ECOT Graduation ceremony on June 11. We reported about the event when it occurred, and we all know everything is better with video, so when ECOT posted video of the ceremony online, we couldn’t wait to see it for ourselves. And, of course, share it with you. The Wall Street Governor listened to himself for nearly 20 minutes, but we have edited out the first 13 minutes where he focused solely on a personal story and jumped right to his big [...]
Full Story... →It seems that Kasich had so much fun offering dubious tax credits to rich Ohioans during the budget process he doesn’t want to give it up. According to Columbus Business First the Kasich administration is still looking at ways to pass legislation that would exempt capital gains taxes from the state income tax.
Kasich said he will let court cases involving similar capital gains tax laws in other states run their course before revisiting the issue in Ohio. His top job-creation advisor, Mark Kvamme, seemed a bit more optimistic, however.
“We believe there is still a way to do it [...]
Full Story... →The Plain Dealer reports that Sherrod Brown took aim at the Kasich administration yesterday, criticizing the size of the state’s incentive proposal to NASA for a new Cleveland-area project that would have employed Ohioans in the management of part of the International Space Station project.
Apparently, Florida was able to put together a package of incentives worth $30 million, while Ohio’s offer was in the ballpark of $2 million. When confronted with the Senator’s criticisms, Kasich snapped:
“Business people look at him like he’s an extremist, just so he understands that,” Kasich said of Brown. “I’m willing to [...]
Full Story... →Not even a month after signing his budget into law, and Governor John Kasich is ready to go on a spending spree.
Here’s a headline the Kasich Adminstration cannot be happy with:
Gov. John Kasich spends $2 million off-the-cuff; unexpected cash is for the state’s children’s hospitals to collaborate
Here’s the story from today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Gov. John Kasich on Thursday spent $2 million so calmly and nonchalantly you would have thought he was just handing over $2.
While touring a research laboratory at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus the governor asked the hospital’s CEO Dr. Steve [...]
Full Story... →Budget Watch
