Ohio: Sen. Sherrod Brown

But what Montgomery won't be armed with is any guarantees that facilities such as the northeastern Ohio Chrysler plant in Twinsburg can be saved.

Montgomery, who will visit Dayton and Toledo as well as Twinsburg, joined Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, on a conference call yesterday with Ohio reporters.

The White House's director of recovery for auto communities and workers said he will bring with him Small Business Administration and Department of Commerce officials who can help with access to credit and companies trying to retool to make non-auto related products.

There will be officials to help with housing and economic-development issues, and people from the Energy and Transportation departments will be on hand to advise communities about shifting to "green" manufacturing.

As if sitting on the floor of the U.S. Senate isn't heady enough, Sen. Sherrod Brown need only open his desk to be reminded of his historic place.

COLUMBUS -- Flanked by 25 new Columbus police recruits whose jobs were saved with federal stimulus money, President Barack Obama today announced that $2 billion in recovery funds would go to law enforcement agencies across the country.

"This city needs the courage and conviction of this graduating class to keep it safe," Obama said at the recruits' graduation ceremony. "This economy needs your employment to keep it running."

Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder attended the graduation ceremony for the recruits, whose class had been laid off in January before they could report for duty.

The Democratic president used the opportunity to tout the recently passed $790 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will help preserve the recruits' jobs.

WASHINGTON — For the last two years, Sen. Sherrod Brown has occupied offices in the Russell Senate Office Building, a grand but aging place with lots of marble -- and not enough space for Brown's staff in the same suite. No more. Today, Brown and his staff are moving to the Hart building, a modern place with a giant Calder mobile-sculpture in the atrium (which bugs some Republicans) and linear patterns more attuned to architects than bureaucrats.

The previous occupant of Brown's office on Hart's seventh floor: Barack Obama, before he won the presidency in November.

Ohio's other senator, George Voinovich, is on Hart's fifth floor.

Obama left his old digs in good condition, Brown's staff reports.

"So far, it looks like no tuna fish sandwiches in the desk drawers or things like that," says spokeswoman Meghan Dubyak.