Lucas County Public Schools Five Year Forecasts

The Toledo Blade has an article stating that most of the schools within Lucas County as well as Ohio will be in the red at the end of their five year forecasts.

If you would like to see these forecasts for yourself...Visit here

While math is not one of my strong points, I know many of you enjoy not only math but statistics so this information might be helpful.

:-)

Learn and Earn, the ad farce....

See it for yourself here not once in the whole commercial does it even mention gambling. Yet gambling is at the very heart of what Learn and Earn is.

This is really what Learn and Earn is about the main part:

The Amendment further provides that the scholarships and grants would be funded through the operation of slot machines at the seven commercial horse racing tracks and at two other locations in Cleveland and one other location in Cincinnati. The number of slot machines would be limited at each location. The amendment would prohibit the operation of other games unless approved by the voters of the county in which the slot machine facility is located, and such election could not occur sooner than the fourth general election after passage of the amendment.

Under the agreement, thirty percent of the proceeds of the authorized games shall be dedicated to the scholarship and grant programs. An additional eight percent of the proceeds of the authorized games shall be dedicated to county, township and municipal governments primarily for economic development or capital improvement projects as specified. Six percent of the proceeds of the authorized games shall be dedicated to the purse funds of Ohio's seven permitted horse racing tracks, and one percent of the proceeds of the authoized games shall be dedicated to gambling addiction services. The amendment would prohibit any other taxes or fees against the amounts wagered or proceeds of the authorized games.

I don't care if you decide you want slot gambling here at Toledo Raceway Park or if you think that gambling is a sin. Promoting this with this type of advertisement on TV and radio without one mention of what this is really about which is GAMBLING...Is not only wrong? But totally dishonest.

And there is not a whole lotta good coming from that.

UPDATE: I'm not even sure if that type of advertising is legal:

3517.22 Unfair activities in issue campaign

(A) No person during the course of any campaign in advocacy of or in opposition to the adoption of any proposition or issue submitted to the voters shall knowingly and with intent to affect the outcome of such campaign do any of the following:

(2) Post, publish, circulate, distribute, or otherwise disseminate, a false statement, either knowing the same to be false or acting with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not, that is designed to promote the adoption or defeat of any ballot proposition or issue.

More to follow...Looks like I'm going to discover what is entailed in filing a complaint.

Old South End will rise again!

Those of you who read my Blog it, Toledo column might have stopped by to visit Larry Farren's blog. This week's Toledo City Paper has an article about some of the problems that these South Toledo residents have been going thru and a few solutions.

Larry's blog is mentioned as a part of the article and Larry writes about meeting the reporter on his blog.

I am a former South Ender, about to be an again South Ender since that's where the house we are moving into is. Both my mother and my father were born and raised in the South end, my father lived on Ralph. My mother lived on Copeland.

It's a long article, but I recommend it and I'm proud of these South Enders for trying to take back their neighborhood.

:-)

Rest easy Toledo, the Schwartz is with you...

Yes that is cheesy yet I couldn't get the movie line "May the Schwartz be with you" from my head when I read the above linked Toledo Blade article.

While I'm not sure I agree with Liberal_Dem's Duct Tape idea, I do have to wonder about the salary difference from what Brian Schwartz earned working for the Port Authority versus what he will get paid to work for Mayor Carty Finkbeiner as Communication Director. While I can see why Brian would not want to take a pay reduction, an increase of $14,000 is a bit of a hefty raise in income, especially since $78,000 as a yearly salary is $9,500 above the top salary rate in the Toledo Municipal Code.

I'm also curious to see if the Communication Director actually reaches out to communicate with us. Does he use the internet for more than checking email? Is he reading this right now? If so....HI BRIAN! :-)

While I think we all agree communication is important and it's nice to have someone who is a big fan of yours working for you, I really have to question the salary. I'm also wondering if these could be useful...

:-)

Update on Sylvania Vision 2010

I promised I'd update with information, and for those of you who went back to the original post have probably seen Alex was kind enough to post a link to the pdf of notes from May 25th. Mark Bula also emailed me, so thank you to both of you.

I recommend downloading this pdf even if you are not a Sylvania, Ohio resident. Mark and Alex are both correct in stating that this type of vision quest for the future could be done other places locally. This was the meeting objective:

Provide a public forum for those interested in having early input on creating a vision for Sylvania’s future. Utilize visual metaphors and hands-on activities to collaboratively identify the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats to our community.

As the saying goes, “be careful if you don’t know where you’re going ‘cause you might not get there.”

I wondered how this would be accomplished. As an example, taking a few results from the "Today We Look Like" segment where people were given a series of questions and the metaphor was the City of Sylvania as a Bus Trip:

Primary bus driver is Mayor with a King’s crown and assisted by City Council

People on the bus:
o Closest to front is “Shakers & Movers”
o School Board
o Flower Hospital
o Lourdes College
o Residents in the every back of the bus – not being informed by drivers to where and
what is going on. They are left to admiring the scenery and that’s it.

There were other visual metaphors as well as many more results listed, yet the meeting did not just revolve around visualizations. Those who attended were asked to list strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the City of Sylvania.

My immediate reaction was it appears there are many "Strengths" and that is something that Sylvania should be proud of, though I really must dispute the categorization of "Spiky haired councilman" being listed as a "Weakness", I would have thought he would have been a "Threat" (lol). The parts of the meeting related to the future of Sylvania also contained some great ideas. It's pretty obvious to me that Sylvania is heading in a very positive direction, and it's one I hope the rest of our area follows.

Great job Mark Bula and thank you for sharing this information with us and a great job is also extended to those who attended.

:-)

Blog it Toledo, Bob Frantz, Tom Noe and the Mudhens

Interesting combination in the title, yet all can be found in this week's edition of the Toledo Free Press. The cover story is about Tom Noe and his request to change the venue of his trial. I had a moment of envy when I discovered Michael Brooks had a chance to sit down and talk with Bob Frantz about leaving Toledo and his new gig in Cleveland. I still need to show Bob how to properly remove the paper from candy dots so that he doesn't eat wet soggy paper with his candy! :-)

Blog it Toledo is up and has some new blogs for you to check out.

Then, Michael Miller offers some interesting adult oriented themed advertising suggestions for the Mudhens to consider.

While not in the title, another article I found that was very well done was by Tom Richard, entitled, Trusting a bald barber.

That's just a taste of what you'll find in this week's edition...

:-)

Lucas County Democrats and the ODP

Back on May 23rd, Liberal_Dem wrote an open letter to Chris Redfern, which he posted on his blog Politics in Mudville.

Yesterday he had the opportunity to talk with Chris Redfern.

I recommend visiting his blog for the full post, and he provided the news that:

The Strickland and Brown Election Headquarters will not be housed at 1817 Madison Avenue. Rather, they are locating an alternate site in downtown Toledo, and are bringing in an independent staff for that new headquarters.

He also has a piece on Mike Craig and some questions regarding the certification date.

So if you missed this yesterday like I did? Head on over.

:-)

Underestimating Black Voters....

I've read several news pieces about Ken Blackwell automatically having some type of power to lure Black voters merely because of his race rather than his politics. In reading the above Cleveland Plain Dealer article, almost the same assumption is made when it comes to Ted Strickland:

Watch for Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Cleveland's powerful black Democrat, to endorse Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland as early as this week.

Tubbs Jones was joined by the following black leaders, who thus far have also withheld formal endorsements: Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin, and Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams. Political consultant Arnold Pinkney also attended the meeting.

Strickland is eager to claim their support because his Republican rival, Ken Blackwell, is black and is trying to woo black voters.

This made me think back to 2004 when supporters of Theresa M. Gabriel tried the "blood is thicker than politics" line to convince Black Democrats to vote Republican.

Granted there are uniformed Black voters just as there are uniformed voters of every race and Ken Blackwell would be the first Black governor of Ohio if he were to win but there's more to an election than just pride in one's heritage, race or sex. Personally I think that's an insult to the majority of Black voters whether it's by Blackwell or Strickland. I don't vote for a candidate because of his race or sex nor do I believe the majority of them do.

We've seen the same thing here in Toledo where it's assumed the inner city voters will turn out in large numbers to support a Black candidate. Maybe race was a small part of the times it has happened but it is much more likely it was the message not just the color of the skin that gained their support.

Prof. David Harris on Nookular Option tomorrow

Tomorrow not only will Nookular Option be live streamed thru the the internet but they will be live on your radio dial for those of you within range of WXUT. The show will also be podcast for those of you who miss it.

I'm looking forward to hearing what Professor Harris has to say as well hearing from my favorite catman. There's more information on the above link.

:-)

I remember summers on the Lake...

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has an article linked above on the topic of people who spend their summers on the shores of Lake Erie. It reminded me of summers spent at my great-grandmother's cottage on the Maumee River, summers spent visiting relatives at Lake James and other visits to a friend's cottage near Sandusky.

My father owned a boat so we would also cruise out to Put in Bay as well as taking camping/boating trips in the Ohio/Michigan/Indiana area.

Taking this article with the below one on Toledo becoming a port of call for Great Lakes cruise lines points out how important not only our Lake is but the vacation/recreation aspect of this area that we are very lucky to have.

:-)

Why Glass City Jungle exists...

First of all thank you to all of you who read and comment here. Glass City Jungle has gone beyond my expectations for the short time it has existed and continues to grow because of you.

Everyone is welcome here, no matter your political affiliation, and so far we have been able to keep the comments open to those who want to remain anonymous. The level of discussion has been fantastic which I greatly appreciate and even more important it has been I think a great resource for all of us. Things are going to get heated at times, politics at times does become emotional rather than fact based. The most important thing to remember is that we do care about this area enough to debate it, at times with passion, but if we didn't care? We certainly would not be here.

I've made it a point to try to reach out to many candidates and all political parties as far as requesting information. Some have utilized this, others have not. Yet if I find something of interest even on those who have not? I'll still post about it. If I missed covering a candidate that you think is important, email me or post it in a comment.

This blog is written by me, but it's not all about me. I'm going to provide information at times on candidates some of you don't support. I'll provide information on candidates I don't think I would support but some of you might. The same with issues on the ballot as well as news items I think might be of interest to discuss. My goal is not to have you all agree with me, because frankly that would be very boring, but I don't know everything, each of you brings to the discussion here your own personal experiences. My goal was to create a place where we not only agreed/disagreed but hopefully learned something along the way. So far that has happened for me and I hope it has you as well.

That's why Glass City Jungle is here and thanks again for being a part of making it happen.

Mark Dansack for Ohio House District 46

Thanks to a commentor here on Glass City Jungle, I became aware that Mark Dansack is running against Republican Mark Wagoner for District 46. I had the opportunity to speak with Mark tonight and he is in the process of creating a web presence so more information on that will follow. Some important information from his press release:

Dansack says his campaign will concentrate on ethical concerns spawned by 12 years of one party rule in Ohio; educational funding reform; job creation and retention; and the retraining of displaced workers.

Many issues inspired Dansack to join this race. For example, in his current position aiding injured workers, Dansack speaks daily with clients who are incensed that their benefits will be cut before there is resolution regarding the failed investments and scandal within the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Additionally, the lack of action on part of the state legislature to reform the education funding process, declared unconstitutional a decade ago, fueled his candidacy. Dansack feels passionately about the need to shift the brunt of the funding burden away from property owners who are increasingly asked to bear responsibility . Finally, Dansack knows from experience of the need for effective programming to retrain workers, as he was one of five-hundred employees displaced when a major manufacturer left the Toledo area.

“Ohio continues to lag behind the rest of the country with respect to employment as thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs have been lost in the past five years. After 12 years of Republican dominance, controlling the executive and legislative branches, we continue to fall behind and there seems to be no sense of urgency from the current leadership. Ohioans deserve better.”

I think we all agree Ohioans deserve better, if you'd like to help Mark accomplish this goal, you can email him at:

dansack4rep46 @ buckeye-express.com

More as it becomes available.

:-)

Crusing the Great Lakes

I found this in today's Toledo Blade:

It's been nine years in the making, but Toledo will start designing and building a Marina District passenger terminal this summer to receive Great Lakes cruise ships and passengers with money to spend.

The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board of directors approved spending $611,000 to match $2.45 million in federal money the port started receiving in 1997.

The city of Toledo has budgeted $1.5 million for the project.

The board also approved plans to hire Poggemeyer Design Group for $236,250 for design and construction management.

The port authority has to spend the federal money or risk losing it, said Jim Mettler, the port authority's vice president for new projects.

"There's a pretty healthy Great Lakes cruising industry, and there are several different companies that run full itineraries from the beginning of May to October.

"They are not well-known in this area because there is no port of call.

I admit I didn't know about it. I had heard of Delta Queen who does Steamboat cruises in Cinci, but I was not aware of cruises on the Great Lakes. So I set out to search.

At first it was not promising, the first link I found that advertised:

Information about cruise activity and ports on the Great Lakes, as well as ship photos, schedules, services and layouts.

Was a dead link, www.cruisingthegreatlakes.org.

Next was more positive, Great Lakes Cruising Coalition they list information on several cruises. Yet when I started to go into these links, very few of them went into Lake Erie.

The Blade article listed this company:

American Canadian Caribbean Line, based in Rhode Island, runs ships from Chicago through Mackinac Island to Cleveland. Detroit and Toledo do not have cruise ship ports, though Windsor, Ont., receives ships.

Yet their website as listed on the Great Lakes Cruising Coalition is not an updated one. Their new site can be found, here.

I did find one additional possible Itinerary. That's not to say if Toledo did add a Port of call that more might be added. Or that there could be other cruise lines out there that travel thru Lake Erie.

I always thought the Steamboat cruise would be a fantastic one. I've never been on a cruise either Lake or Ocean (unless you count days spent on My father's 18 foot Starcraft).

:-)

Poppies!

Don't forget to get a poppy today, I stopped by Krogers thanks to my wonderful oldest daughter playing "drive Mom on her errands day" and met a wonderful volunteer from the Holland American Legion.

:-)

Aunt Sandy and dear departed Uncle Bill don't matter...

Last night I was watching Toledo's WTVG and they had a clip of both Ben Konop and George Sarantou about the whole issue of ethics and Lucas County. Part of this is written about on this Toledo Blade article

What the article doesn't mention though is George's statement about Ben's Aunt, which he referred to if memory is correct, "Ben's Aunt Sandy, Sandy Isenberg" along with Ray Kest had been found guilty of ethics violations by the State. WTVG stated after the clip that neither had been but that's only a small part of this. Isenberg was not even indicted by the Ohio Ethics Commission.

Ben Konop is the one running for Lucas County Commissioner, George Sarantou is running for Lucas County Commmissioner. The concerns regarding George Sarantou and the now "famous" possible money in the envelope deal relate directly to...George Sarantou.

During the primary we saw first hand that Phil Copeland didn't have a problem with people thinking that he was his deceased Uncle Bill Copeland. He was proud of his uncle's record, (rightfully so) yet what kind of an elected official Bill Copeland was has nothing to do with Phil Copeland. Yes, we have a lot of families involved in Lucas County politics. They do use the name recognition to their benefit and at times that can also be attempted to be used as a jab at a candidate.

Sandy Isenberg is not the one running, not to mention after years of being in office that focusing on the roof deal as some major indication of her years in office is not a fair representation, but that's beside the point.

WTVG does not have the clip up of George making this statement, claiming that both Sandy and Ray Kest were found guilty of ethics violations, yet it concerns me that George made such an incorrect statement because chances are if he said it on camera he is saying it off camera. Even if it was correct, which in this case it wasn't, that has no bearing on this election.

It's another, "Don't look at what I did, look at THIS instead" that has nothing to do with the real issues at hand right now in this moment in time.

The whole roof deal was a part of another campaign for Lucas County Commissioner and while I realize in this never ending game of tit for tat has been used often, yet George? I know Ben Konop and that sir, was not his roof.

:-)

Why you should watch Ohio's Congress

and why you might not want to

Ohio Channel which is linked above, is a fantastic feature in many ways. It gives us a chance to watch not only live but also has video archives of legislation in action (or inaction) on the floor of the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate.

Even if you are not a political junkie like me, watching this even infrequently and letting your elected represenative know you are watching is important.

However, there are some downsides to watching these sessions. You'll notice that the media and the political parties at times report on something being "heated" or create an impression that a member was treated unfairly which does not always appear that way when the full context of the event is looked at rather than just a selected statement here or there. Granted sometimes it is correct but most times I've discovered the best way to sum up some of it is "much ado about nothing".

You'll also see how much time is wasted on partisan jabs rather than work, as well as at times seeing how much time is spent on resolutions that really don't have a huge impact on the lives of Ohioans. I'd never be able to be the President of the House or the Senate, I'd end up sending members of both political parties into some type of "time out" corner at times.

If you watch these you could view speeches where you feel inspired by members of both parties, while at the opposite moment at times you may shake your head wondering how that particular person was elected to represent us. Which of course leads to the most important reason why from time to time I encourage you to stop by and watch some of these online videos, so that you will have as much information as possible so that you have the tools to decide for yourself.

It's not easy to get information as to what our Ohio legislators are doing, anyone who has spent hours looking thru the daily journals to get more information on a vote or a bill knows that. Most times the media doesn't give you a bill number, which makes it even harder to search out where and when something you might be interested in was really acted on. It takes time to sit and watch the videos, or listen which is what I do most times. It is however worth it, especially if they know we are watching.

:-)

Sylvania Vision 2010

If you are a Sylvania resident, hopefully you've marked your calendars for tonight:

Acting as a citizen, not a council member, Mr. (Mark) Bula has scheduled a public forum at 7 p.m. tonight at Wingate Inn & Suites in downtown Sylvania to discuss strategic visioning for the city. Participants in Sylvania Vision 2010 will be actively engaged in hands-on activities and should be prepared to discuss the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats to the community, he said.

In addition to the above linked Toledo Blade article, more information can be found on Mark's website

I hope there is a fantastic turnout for tonight, this is a wonderful way for residents of Sylvania to become even more involved in the future of their City.

Hamilton County Ohio Sheriff and the ACLU

The above linked La Prensa story is not about Lucas County, however with the recent focus and discussion on immigration, I felt it was an article that might be of interest.

No matter which side of the immigration issue you are on, this article clearly points out part of the problem which started with a phone call:

“I’m working out here on a construction site and there’s about 20, 30 Mexicans and about five or six [U.S.] Americans and we’re about ready to all fight because they’re all illegal aliens out here and we’re Americans and they’re out here taking our jobs,” the man said in the call to the sheriff's office.

When deputies asked the men for identification, some of them said they had none and others offered papers that Capt. Norm Lewis said were “obviously bogus.” The men were detained and interviewed by investigators. They were released by 11:00 p.m. without being charged.

Now, the American Civil Liberties Union and federal officials are questioning whether the deputies had the right to detain the men in the first place.

Butler County Sheriff Rick Jones has insisted his office acted appropriately, saying the men were detained because they could not be identified and because of a communications barrier. Jones said the case has been referred to immigration officials and the sheriff’s office plans to continue an investigation to find the men’s employer.

But Richard Wilkens, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Cincinnati office, said that, generally, local authorities can only take undocumented individuals into custody if they are being charged with violating state law.

There's more at the title link, and it appears despite Sheriff Jones statement that the case has been referred to immigration officials, it also appears immigration officials did not do anything after they were notified that the Sheriff's department were holding these men. If you refuse to give identification to a police officer in certain situations you can be detained, that was established by the Supreme Court in 1968 here in Ohio with Terry V Ohio. In 2004 in the case Hiibel V Nevada the Supreme Court took this further stating that "stop and identify" laws were constitutional.

While I personally question the personal freedom aspect of these "stop and identify" statutes, if they are being used on legal citizens, and have been held as consitutional it's going to come down to why were the illegal immigrants questioned in the first place. Which at first glance given it was the result of a phone call on a possible physical altercation? What was the Sheriff supposed to do? Be told "We are illegal immigrants" then just let them go? If that's the case than anyone who doesn't want to identify themselves under that scenario might want to consider that...

I realize there are some underlying issues in Hamilton County but on the basis of this one situation alone, as is reported, I'm not sure what the alternative could have been.

This week's Blog it Toledo and...

Blog it, Toledo is online and has some interesting blogs this week. Traci Curth has another great article this week that I recommend. (And she didn't make me cry this week :-)

However this week's favorite would have to go to Michael Miller, I won't ruin it by even hinting what it's about.

There's of course much more, a cover story about Dr. Sanders, Michael Brooks has an article about a bacterium we should take note of and several other good pieces that you will discover online and in the print edition.

:-)

Dave Schulz makes it official...

Just received this Press Release:

Dave Schulz Comments On Today’s City Council Meeting

Today City Council appointed Lourdes Santiago to fill the vacancy created by jail-bound Bob McCloskey.

Schulz, who chose not to apply for the vacancy because the process became so undignified and dirty, took out petitions Monday to run for the unexpired term in November.

Schulz stated, “Obviously this process wasn’t about selecting the best person. It came down to who the mayor could control. The people are growing tired of the Democratic party in-fighting. They are ready for someone who has convictions and is willing to speak truth to power.”

Schulz, who ran unsuccessfully for council in 2005 garnering nearly 21,000 votes, uncovered some of the corrupt and deceptive actions of McCloskey and others and fought to defend the city’s term limits provision is ready for the campaign.

“I wish Lourdes good luck on council but I will see her in November.”, Schulz declared.