Ohio: Montgomery County

The rate, which was up 1.4 percentage points from the revised number for the previous month, was the largest one-month increase since 1980.

Also yesterday, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that the country's economic output dropped by 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter last year, a major shift from the 3.8 percent drop that had been expected. The dramatic fall in the gross domestic product showed that the economy is deteriorating faster than had been thought.

The deteriorating economy in Ohio was manifested last month by more major layoffs, an increasingly commonplace occurrence. Ohio's job losses in January were unusually high, even by the standards of the current downturn.

Lucious Plant is feeling the effects.

Montgomery County Democratic Chair Mark Owens joined the call for an investigation after the non-partisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington did the same and placed U.S. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Centerville) on its 2008 "Most Corrupt in Congress" list as a "Dishonorable mention."

CREW states that Turner's "ethics issues stem from a no-bid marketing contract that was awarded to his wife from a group that receives federal funding."