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Ohio: Dispatch Washington Bureau

June 1, 2009 - 01:24 pm
NEWS FEED: Columbus Dispatch

Brunner calls for cap on credit-card interest

Jennifer Brunner says that if she's elected to the U.S. Senate next year, one of her priorities will be to toughen the just-passed credit-card bill to limit interest rates consumers can be charged.

Brunner, currently Ohio's secretary of state, is running against Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher for the Democratic nomination.

Brunner lauded the credit-card bill's passage but said last week, "Until this bill becomes law next summer, Americans trying to pay down their credit-card balances will be at risk for being slapped with sudden interest-rate increases, excessive fees, double-cycle billing or charging interest on paid balances, and credit-card companies applying payments to low-interest balances before the higher-interest ones."

Brunner said Congress should quickly cap the amount of interest a company can charge, "so that the bill has some teeth and actually protects everyday Americans when it finally becomes law.

Read More at Columbus Dispatch >
There have been 34 comments posted in response to this story.

March 7, 2009 - 06:40 am
NEWS FEED: Columbus Dispatch

Dream to meet Obama comes true for sick girl

By Robert Vitale

Say hi to Malia and Sasha.

The 11-year-old East Side girl, who has the same type of malignant brain tumor as Sen. Edward Kennedy, was too ill to attend President Barack Obama's inauguration in January.

But she got to meet the man she admires yesterday when he came to Columbus.

"God is good," said her aunt, Stephanie Ivory.

U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi set up the meeting, which took place backstage at the Aladdin Shrine Center after Obama's speech to graduating Columbus police recruits. He had asked the White House after Inauguration Day whether the president could send Tanea a note, which he did.

Tiberi offered his tickets for yesterday's event to Tanea and her family -- Ivory, godmother Natausha Green and stepmom Rashida Ransom -- and he told the White House they'd be there.

Read More at Columbus Dispatch >
There have been 41 comments posted in response to this story.

March 1, 2009 - 07:03 am
NEWS FEED: Columbus Dispatch

D.C. dispatches

Sen. George V. Voinovich was one of a few Republican senators to vote yes last week on granting District of Columbia residents a House member with full voting rights.

The bill passed 61-37, and a similar measure is expected to be approved by the House as soon as this week.

The Ohio Republican has been a longtime supporter of voting rights for the District.

The District of Columbia

is populated with mostly Democratic-leaning voters and a new House member likely would be a Democrat. The bill balances that by

offering another seat to Utah, a GOP-leaning state. But most Republicans oppose the

measure because they say it

is unconstitutional to let a nonstate have a full House member.

Read More at Columbus Dispatch >
There have been 33 comments posted in response to this story.

February 5, 2009 - 09:03 am
NEWS FEED: Columbus Dispatch

Obama signs kids-health bill

"As I think everybody here will agree, this is only the first step," Obama said of the bill that reauthorizes the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

"Because the way I see it, providing coverage to 11 million children through CHIP is a down payment on my commitment to cover every single American," he said.

Obama held the ebullient East Room signing ceremony a day after admitting that he "screwed up" in naming former Sen. Tom Daschle to spearhead his health-care overhaul.

The president wrapped the signing event in another pitch for his separate $819 billion economic plan that now is under consideration in the Senate and faces Republican opposition.

Read More at Columbus Dispatch >
There have been 23 comments posted in response to this story.