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Ohio: Ohioan

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

Editorial: Unhealthy treatment

They just call them fees instead of taxes. One of the most harmful is the proposed hospital franchise fee, which would cost Ohio's cash-strapped hospitals $127 million, $333 million or $411 million, depending on whose plan and estimates one adopts.

The basic arithmetic is this: The state would impose the fee on hospitals and apply the revenue generated to the state's share of Medicaid. That money, combined with similar assessments on other health-care providers, would draw about $2 billion in matching funds from the federal government for the state's Medicaid program.

In return, the governor proposed to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates to hospitals so that they recoup some of the franchise fees they pay.

Read More at Columbus Dispatch >
There have been 31 comments posted in response to this story.

February 18, 2009 - 08:03 am
NEWS FEED: Columbus Dispatch

Executions get less notice since resuming in '99

By Alan Johnson

Twenty-seven more men -- 15 of them white, 12 black -- followed Berry's path to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville to be lethally injected. Collectively, those men killed 41 people -- wives, mothers, fathers, children, friends and total strangers.

Berry, who died 10 years ago Thursday, was the first Ohioan to be put to death after a 36-year hiatus because of various legal challenges.

Since Berry's execution:

• Death Row has shrunk. It houses 175 men and one woman, about 25 fewer than a decade ago. One of them, Brett Hartman of Summit County, has an April 7 execution date; 20 are nearing the end of legal appeals, the final step before execution.

Read More at Columbus Dispatch >
There have been 24 comments posted in response to this story.

February 5, 2009 - 10:08 pm
NEWS FEED: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Estimates of Ohio's benefits from stimulus plan vary widely

By Stephen Koff

WASHINGTON -- If the massive economic stimulus package in the Senate passes, Ohio would gain $6.8 billion and 142,000 new jobs over the next two years, Sen. Sherrod Brown says.

Or it could get $7.5 billion, based on a somewhat different bill and estimates put out by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Then again, the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, says Ohio could get $21.8 billion.

Any of these could be right. Or all could be wrong. They are built on assumptions about how the government would distribute the money, how states would spend it and what consumers would do with it -- an inexact exercise.

Read More at Cleveland Plain Dealer >
There have been 25 comments posted in response to this story.

February 5, 2009 - 01:28 pm
NEWS FEED: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Rev. Otis Moss Jr. named to White House Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnership panel

By Sabrina Eaton

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama today appointed the Rev. Otis Moss Jr., pastor emeritus at Cleveland's Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, to serve on a newly established 25-member White House Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Moss gave his farewell homily at Olivet late last year.

Obama signed an executive order today establishing a new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which is designed to be a resource for nonprofits and community organizations, both secular and faith-based, looking for ways to make a bigger impact in their communities.

The effort includes a presidential advisory council, composed of "religious and secular leaders and scholars from different backgrounds" to assist the office's efforts.

Read More at Cleveland Plain Dealer >
There have been 25 comments posted in response to this story.

February 4, 2009 - 08:32 am
NEWS FEED: Columbus Dispatch

Plan recasts state funds for private colleges

By Encarnacion Pyle

Although higher education would be spared the worst of the state's budget-cutting pain -- overall funding during the next two years essentially would be flat -- several programs would be eliminated or cut.

"There is going to be casualties and shared sacrifices," said Chad Foust, state grants and scholarships director for the Ohio Board of Regents.

Currently, any Ohioan who attends a private college in the state is eligible for about $660 a year through the Ohio Student Choice Grant scholarship program.

But Strickland wants to ax the $34.5 million program and replace it with aid for needy students at Ohio's private colleges.

Three-fourths of the 50,000 Choice Grant students could become ineligible because they or their families earn too much money.

Read More at Columbus Dispatch >
There have been 25 comments posted in response to this story.