Governor Admits There May Be More To Come

In the on-going saga of political corruption in the dirtiest state of the union, today reveals that there is going to be more pay for play and dodgey dealin's and this is coming from no other than the Governor himself.

toledoblade.com :

"Clearly there was something very wrong with the investment management at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation," the governor said at a news conference at the bureau's office. "I don't think we know yet everything that went wrong with respect to that part of the bureau."

Mr. Taft also said not everything is known yet about problems with the bureau's investments and he couldn't guarantee more issues wouldn't come to light.

"We keep being surprised by investments," the governor said. While he wasn't aware of additional problems, "that doesn't mean there won't be new problems that arise," he said.

Mr. Taft also said he couldn't explain why his top business aide, Jim Samuel, didn't inform him about an October e-mail that detailed the $215 million loss.

Taft wasn't aware huh ? Can't understand why no one told him ? uh-huh.

What he really keeps getting surprised by is the fact that all their little scams are having light shone on them for the first time in years, and its going to take them all down.

So on to the new...

www.cleveland.com :

Some of MDL Capital Management's state investment deals were brokered by a politically generous Westlake bond firm with ties to another state investment scandal.

Great Lakes Capital Partners is the new incarnation of US Discount Brokerage, a firm that handled lucrative long-term trades totaling $860 million for former Treasurer Joe Deters' office from July 2000 to April 2002.

Former Cleveland police sergeant turned stockbroker Patrick White formerly worked for US Discount and is president and chief executive of Great Lakes.

White's brother, Billy, also a former police officer, once worked as Deters' driver.

White, former president of the state police and fire pension fund, has given $24,300 to Ohio political campaigns since 1997. He, his wife, Mary, and employees of Great Lakes have given more than $42,000 to state cam paigns since the company was formed in 2002 - including money to Deters, Auditor Betty Montgomery, former House Speaker Larry Householder and State Reps. Jim Trakas and Tom Patton, all Republicans.

MDL selected Great Lakes from a list of preferred brokers at the state treasury that was the subject of a grand jury investigation in Cleveland involving rogue broker Frank Gruttadauria.

Familiar names keep cropping up like bad pennies (pun intended). And in the tidbits section we have:

www.cleveland.com :

Boxes of records: Bill Wilkinson, attorney for Toledo coin dealer Tom Noe, turned over 82 boxes of records from Noe's coin shop to Inspector General Tom Charles and the State Highway Patrol. More records may be coming from coin shops out of state, Wilkinson said.

Campaign contributions: Five of the seven Ohio Supreme Court justices,who got more than $23,000 in contributions from the Noe family, will send the money to a special fund. Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and Justices Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, Maureen O'Connor, Terrence O'Donnell and Judith Ann Lanzinger, all Republicans, have recused themselves from three cases regarding release of coin fund inventories.

Coins, collectibles in storage: Examiners have separated the thousands of coins from thousands of collectible items, like baseball cards, autographs and Beanie Babies, and the inventories are being held in vaults, said State Auditor Betty Montgomery. A special audit began last week examining each transaction. Sotheby's is evaluating items purchased by the coin funds.