As of Tuesday, early voting is underway in Ohio. The statewide issue that seeks to raise the mandatory retirement age of judges from 70 to 75 is easily the least controversial one this fall. But Ohio's prosecutors and the state Democratic Party have come out against Issue 1. Ohio is moving its death row to the Chillicothe Correctional Institution, to save money and open up beds. A death row inmate says Ohio is denying him meals prepared according to Islamic law while at the same time providing kosher meals to Jewish prisoners - so the prisons department is taking all pork out of prisons. And the historic Statehouse is embracing the latest in automotive technology - it's providing six new charging stations.
As we approach the November 2011 election, many Democrats are still stinging as they recall what happened a little less than a year ago - when their candidates across the state were swept away in a Republican tsunami. But their frustration has fueled a massive effort to defeat Senate Bill 5. Perhaps no one is in a better position to lead those who are fighting over those issues than the man who was at the top of the ticket last year - Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland.
Since 2007, fewer than one in four welfare recipients in Ohio are working, in job training programs or doing community service. Half of recipients are supposed to meet those federal work requirements. The federal government has fined the state hundreds of millions of dollars for three years, and has finally had it and has rejected the state's plea to waive the $33 million dollar penalty for 2007. So the state is trying a new tactic to avoid the rest of the fines. Explaining the program are Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services director Michael Colbert and Joel Potts, the director of the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors Association.
The Statehouse is a scary place for some all year round - but the agency that operates the building goes for the fear factor around Halloween. And in a building that's 150 years old with lots of dark stairwells, long and narrow hallways and a basement area called "the Crypt", there's rich ground to be mined in terms of historical ghost stories. Gregg Dodd from the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board talks about the Haunted Statehouse tours.
