For the first time in six months, a convicted killer could be put to death in Ohio - Gov. John Kasich has refused to spare 49 year old Mark Wiles of Portage County, who is scheduled to die next week for stabbing a teen to death in 1985. Another slowdown for the governor's big budget update, as House Speaker Bill Batchelder says it will not be discussed as a single piece of legislation but as nine separate bills. With the governor's public-private partnership JobsOhio up and running, lawmakers say it's time to tinker with the Department of Development with a bill nicknamed "JobsOhio II".
Ohio's largest gay rights group is hesitant about supporting a proposed ballot issue legalizing same-sex marriage, which backers were hoping to get onto the November 2013 ballot, and one of the key organizers of the petition drive is quitting. But the group is still pushing its issue. Former Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy of Columbus speaks for Freedom To Marry.
Two big elections have shaken up the state's two major political parties. And in the end one chairman stays in office, and another is out. Chris Redfern survived a challenge to his chairmanship Wednesday night at the Ohio Democratic Party's organizational meeting, as Lorain County Democratic Party chair Anthony Giardini launched a campaign to unseat him. And this week Ohio GOP Chair Kevin DeWine was ousted after announcing that he would resign after a new chair was selected on April 13. Former Ohio GOP chair Bob Bennett will take over for DeWine.
Ohio's welfare rolls have dropped 18% over the past year - in part because the state has been kicking people off the welfare rolls for not meeting federal welfare reform requirements that half of those receiving cash assistance be working or in job training programs for at least 30 hours a week. Last year, Ohio was slapped with the highest fines in the nation for having too few recipients who are meeting work requirements. This week, the second part of a conversation with Michael Colbert, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services; Joel Potts, executive director of the Job and Family Services Directors' Association, working with county offices around the state; Phil Cole, executive director of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies, and represents 50 offices working with low income Ohioans; and Jack Frech, director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services.
And now onto a lighter subject, but with a heavy beat. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions are back in Cleveland - this year the inductees are the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys, the Small Faces/Faces - which includes Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, and Guns N Roses. They'll be inducted along with Donovan, singer-songwriter Laura Nyro, Smokey Robinson's group The Miracles, Buddy Holly's band The Crickets, Bill Haley's band The Comets and James Brown's backup group the Famous Flames, along with the 50s vocal group the Midnighters and early rock and rollers the Blue Caps. Among those who will be on hand to see the 27th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony this weekend is Jack Marchbanks, a Columbus-based music expert and public radio contributor who's covered several Rock Hall ceremonies.
