Licking County Pro-Active Citizens

NO PORK FOR PATASKALA?

Anxious about earmarks, those Congressional pork rinds inserted by individual legislators in appropriation bills to benefit their home districts?

Well, Congressfolk for the first time this year were required by law to post their earmark wish list on their websites for the edification of the voters.  Here are this year's local-area requests from Rep. Zack Space, D-Dover, whose 18th district includes 18 counties, including eastern and southern parts of Licking:

• $600,000 to improve Newark city water treatment system and reduce sewer outflows into the Licking River.
• $4 million to Momentive Performance Materials in Hebron to develop next-generation transparent armor materials for future vehicle and other military applications.
• $500,000 to City of Heath to construct a water tower.
• $500,000 to Licking County Water and Wastewater Department to upgrade the Jacksontown sewer system.
• $500,000 to the Madison Township Fire Dept.in Newark to enhance preparedness.
• $40,000 to study the need for a central water system in the village of Hanover.

See the entire Space package at:

http://space.house.gov/uploads/Zack_Space_FY2010_Appropriations_Requests1.pdf

Nothing for Johnstown or Pataskala or Granville?

Those communities are in Rep. Pat Tiberi's 12th District, and the Republican congressman has declared his district earmark-free as an issue of principle.

"Securing earmarks has spawned a seamy Washington business, in which lobbyists and the interests they represent ply lawmakers with campaign donations, and lawmakers deliver earmarks that benefit those special interests," Tiberi wrote on his website on March 11. 

(It should be noted that Congressman Pat only began shunning earmarks last year after Democrats took over the House and it appeared unlikely he would get much in the way of political booty anyway).

See his born-again rant against earmarks at http://tiberi.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=114165

Sorry about that, Pataskala and Johnstown and Granville.  Maybe come 2012 or so you'll be redistricted and/or get a new House representative willing to bring home the bacon.

(Gray Hunter)

WE NEED "WHO" AS WELL AS "WHAT"

If newspapers want to survive, they need to provide information quickly and efficiently that readers are not likely to obtain easily from other media.

Today's Dispatch, for example, has a "good news" piece by syndicated columnist Tom Teepen about final Congressional action on the Omnibus Public Lands Management Bill of 2009 (H.R. 146).  He writes:

"Forget the bum economy for a minute. You just got richer. We all did. A lot richer.

After years of dawdling and fussing, both abetted by an indifferent-to-antagonistic Bush administration, the House and Senate finally have passed an omnibus wilderness bill that will protect more than 2 million acres from despoliation. President Barack Obama was pleased to sign it.

The bill brings the highest level of federal protection to sites in nine states, from California to Virginia. Key sections of several national parks and monuments receive heightened security. A number of historic sites benefit.

National forests will be preserved against development encroachments. The nation's system of designated "wild and scenic" rivers will be extended by a thousand miles -- a 50 percent increase.

Our national parks, forests, historic sites and monuments are the nation's endowment, our trust fund for the country's future. They amount to a patrimony of incalculable worth."

See the complete column at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2009/04/01/teep01.ART_ART_04-01-09_A9_G6DDMGB.html?sid=101

But why, after reading Teepen's piece, should I have to spend another 15 minutes on the Internet tracking down the official name of the legislation, the bill number and how our Ohio representatives voted on the measure?

(FYI, all Ohio Republican representatives (including Pat Tiberi, Delaware) voted NO while all Ohio Democratic representatives (including Zack Space, Dover) voted YES.)

Instead, the timely reporting of how our representatives and senators in Washington vote is pretty hit-and-miss.  Even when the Dispatch's own Washington reporters write about legislative action, they often don't say how central Ohio congressmen voted, or only do so days later.

With congressional voting tallies now available virtually instantaneously through a number of Internet sites, why can't the newspaper help out its readers by automatically telling us not only about legislative action but about how our area congressmen voted?  Needless to say, most readers are not going to spend time doing their own research. 

The failure to track legislators' votes is even more problematic at the Ohio Statehouse.  But it's more understandable, since Statehouse voting is more difficult to track on a timely basis.

(Gray Hunter) 

 

EVOLUTION OF THE SCIENCE PAGES

You may have noticed that the Tuesday science pages (2) in the Dispatch have been downsized this month to one page, now running Sundays in the Insight section.

Some of us find this disappointing, since there will be less space for science coverage and fewer columnists contributing on topics such as astronomy, medicine and the earth and biological sciences.

But considering all the aggressive downsizing going on at the Dispatch these days, I am glad to see at least one weekly science page survive.

As a former Dispatch reporter, I was involved in the start-up of the newspaper's science page in September, 1984. 

"If Columbus is to have a high-technology future, we need to do a better, more intensive job of reporting the hard sciences, the technology, the future," announced then-Dispatch editor Luke Feck.

The early 1980s was the golden age of newspaper science coverage, and the Dispatch jumped in aggressively, at first publishing a 12-page stand-alone section.  By the 1990s, however, most of these science sections  across the country disappeared or were converted to health-medical pages because of a lack of advertiser interest.  By 1992, only 30 newspapers continued the practice, the Dispatch among them.

Evolution, however, rules, even when it comes to science journalism.

The Dispatch science pages were initially published on Sundays.  But beginning in 2002, the feature was moved inside the regular news sections each Tuesday. 

Now the scaled-down science page is moving back to the Sunday editions (in Insight), which at least increases its potential readership.

While I hope the Dispatch finds itself able to maintain this niche for science coverage, saving space is not nearly so critical as preserving the quality of the science reporting - and, of course, preserving the newspaper itself. 

The recent lay-off of 45 reporters and editors at the Dispatch, including many newsroom veterans, is discouraging in this regard since it means that more and more coverage will depend on stories downloaded from the wires and syndicates. That, in terms of science, probably means fewer stories about Ohio doctors and scientists and engineers and their local projects and initiatives.  Not the way for Columbus to realize Feck's dream of "a high technology future."

(Gray Hunter)

OUR HEROINE FROM HOMER

The spirit of Victoria Woodhull can be felt at The Buckingham House this month.

The 19^th Century suffragette was among notable Licking County women brought to center stage by actors last weekend (March 14) during a county Historical Society luncheon at the 6^th St. meeting center.

And Woodhull’s  passion for progressive reform will surely be noted this Sunday (March 22) at  Buckingham House as  the Licking County Democratic Women’s Caucus hosts Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner,  guest speaker at a 1 p.m. reception honoring Licking County Democratic women in public service.

Woodhull, who under the banner of the Equal Rights Party in 1872 became the first female presidential candidate, certainly was up against impossible odds in her bid for the White House. 

Woodhull, in fact, was in jail facing obscenity charges on Election Day as President Ulysses S. Grant was returned to office, according to Lois Underhill’s biography, The Woman Who Ran for President.

Over the last 137 years, the barriers to female candidates seeking local, state and federal office have given way, but only gradually.  The anger voiced by many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters after last year’s Democratic presidential primaries reflected their frustration with patience denied.

In Licking County, for example, women have since the dawn of statehood been speaking out on issues like slavery, alcoholism, gambling and ill-paid and dangerous working conditions.

But while many women in recent decades have begun to move up the political ladder, as school board members, city council members and small-town mayors, only three have won ballot support in Licking County for the most prestigious jobs:

·       Jean Ashbrook, wife of 11-term Congressman John Ashbrook, Johnstown, succeeded her husband following his death in April, 1982.  This was no widow’s bequest.   Mrs. Ashbrook won both a Republican primary and the general election for the right to serve out the remaining six months of his term.

·       Mary Lusk, a Democrat, became the first and only woman to serve as mayor of Newark, elected from her council seat in 1980. 

·       Marcia Phelps, in 1996, became the first woman elected as a Licking County commissioner.  Phelps, a Democrat, served in that office for nearly 12 years before winning election last year as Licking County Municipal Court Clerk.

 

In some cases, when male officeholders died, women (usually their widows) were appointed to serve out unexpired terms without standing for election.  This was the case with county commissioner Betty Seward (1965) and sheriffs Nora Embrey (1934) and Christine Howarth (1971).

 

And while Woodhull is now embraced hereabouts, it should be noted that she left her childhood home in Homer as a teenager and never looked back.  Her career certainly didn’t reflect the politics of rural Ohio, then or now.  In the words of her biographer,  Woodhull was nominated – at a time when women couldn’t even vote – because she called for “a revolution – political and social, educational and industrial, economic and sexual.”

 

For Brunner and the women officeholders at  Buckingham House on Sunday,  the stump speech is not be that radical.  Still, the problems they face are just as persistent, given  the current economic crisis and the continuing challenge of living in revolutionary times.

(David Lore) 

LAYOFFS AT THE DISPATCH

Amid the widespread carnage in the economy, the news of lay-offs at the Dispatch hardly causes a ripple.

http://blog.dispatch.com/blog-36/2009/03/it_wasnt_supposed_to_be_like_this.shtml

Except for those, of course, whose lives have been tied to the newspaper as a profession -- and an addiction.

The Dispatch was my first newspaper job out of the Army.  Hummingbird and I in February 1965 had dropped baby Diane off with her grandmother in Findlay and set out across the Midwest to look for work.  First stop was Columbus where we checked in at the former Christopher Inn on E. Broad St. 

By the time we checked out the next day, I had interviewed with the city editor, Gene Jordan, and been offered a beginning reporter's job at $110 a week (Jordan initially offered $90 but I held out for the big bucks!).

Thirty-seven years later, in February 2002, I checked out of the Dispatch as well.  It was a good run.  As time went on, I got better at my job and so did the Dispatch.  And despite riots and wars and recessions, I don't recall anybody ever getting laid off because of the economy.  The story around the newsroom - which I don't really know if it was true - was that even during the Great Depression, the newspaper protected its staff.

Despite the current gloom and doom clouding the future of print journalism, the Dispatch as an independent in a relatively healthy market still has a lot going for it.  These were not the newspaper's first layoffs, although they're the first impacting the editorial staff.  Ahead will be more cost-cutting, redesigns and lean years in terms of pay and benefits.  But hopefully the Big D will survive.

Everybody - including those who work there - gets off on criticizing their hometown newspaper.  But what would we do without them?  And that "we" includes the TV talking heads, the bloggers, the suburbans, the wires, all of whom depend on the print folks for actual information.

Who wants to live in a world where we save the banks, the brokers and hedge funds, but shut off our window on the world?

For a good look at what's happening with newspapers nationwide, check out this piece at the New Republic:

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=a4e2aafc-cc92-4e79-90d1-db3946a6d119&k=77891

(Gray Hunter)

DO OUR BANNERS STILL WAVE?

Traveling to Northwest Ohio this week, I still saw a few "McCain-Palin" and "Obama-Biden" yard signs, banners of campaigns now nearly four months behind us.  But those aren't the only political signs wintering over in somewhat permanent display.  In Licking County alone, I've seen:

• LET OUR TROOPS WIN!
• I'M A BITTER GUN OWNER - AND I VOTE
• ODOT SUCKS (along Rt. 161 construction, of course)
• GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS
• SUPPORT OUR TROOPS
• NO MORE TAXES

Some of these protest signs literally disappeared beneath the January snow and ice storms and then remained standing during the wind storms that followed.  Nobody ever thinks of taking them down.

Will Obama's aggressive war on recession bring forth even more yard signs come spring?  Let me know what you see out there.

(Gray Hunter)

PROGRE$$IVE RADIO

That's not a typo in the headline.

Progressive Radio, it turns out, is not likely to be available to central Ohio (and especially Licking County) listeners in the future unless the progressive community here can make a sizeable down payment for such programming.

That was the lesson when ownership of WVKO (1580) changed last month, resulting in Air America and other progressive syndicate talkers being dropped from local airwaves.

During a Saturday workshop at rootscamp 2009 at Ohio State University, discussion leader Russ Childers said the progressive talk increased listenership for WVKO but didn't have a long-term commitment from the previous station owner.

"WVKO may be back on the market," he said, "but you'd need $1.5 million to $2 million to buy the station rather than renting it."

The previous arrangment with WVKO came about because supporters of progressive talk radio could show support in terms of a database of central Ohio contributors. That helped sustain interest and operations for about a year but proved insufficient to prevent the sale.

"The station owner, Bernard Ohio, accepted an offer from St. Gabriel Radio to purchase WVKO AM," said Childers, who runs Ohio Majority Radio.  "The offer to purchase was accepted, in light of the fact that the General Manager of WVKO was renting month-to-month, and did not make an acceptable counter-proposal." 

OMR (www.ohiomajorityradio.com ) is a non-profit advocacy group out of Columbus which provides online computer access to a number of progressive talk shows.  The site also hosts news and discussion about progressive radio projects in this area.

Right now, online streaming is the only way locally to access to a number of these programs (including talkers such as Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz and Thom Hartmann) other than for those personalities also available by subscription over satellite radio.

Ohio may have gone blue-purple in the last election, but it's still all-red in terms of political talk radio.  With WVKO's change in ownership and format, the only other free broadcast sponsor in the state is one low-power station in Toledo, said Childers.

Short of a successful multi-million fund raising campaign, he said, the future of progressive radio in central Ohio will probably depend on interest by low-power stations in Columbus (which currently don't reach Licking County) or the development of new media technologies or structures.

(Gray Hunter)

LESSONS ON INEQUALITY

I certainly hope that I'm not the only central Ohioan who noted that the first place award in The Nation's Student Writing Contest went to Columbus Alternative High School senior Laine Allison Zalac.

An excerpt from Zalac's piece gives you the flavor: 

"If the President-elect Obama doesn't address the inequities that exist in education, the United States will continue to see disenfranchised youth who don't vote, don't go on to higher education, don't get ahead and don't have a chance of moving up the socioeconomic ladder. In my school, we have a large population of English as Second Language (ESL) students. They are evaluated on the same tests as the rest of the school population, even though they don't speak English and might have arrived in the United States three months ago.

In the suburbs, most students come from families that don't struggle every day to pay rent or have enough food to eat. How is it fair that less than three miles from my school, there is a school where students eat at fast food restaurants for lunch and sit on benches in their school's courtyard talking about what they will wear to the school dance? Kids in my school are dashing off to work to support their family and to try to pay for basics. We know the differences exist and we wonder why we are treated differently."

Read the whole piece at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081229/zalac

In my reporting days, I visited Alternative High in Columbus as well as several of those country-club suburban high schools she mentioned, and the contrasts in facilities and resources are astounding, just as she states.  Still, it's discouraging to read that the quality of education at Alternative -- undoubtedly Columbus' best -- is deteriorating along with the plaster.

Also, in the Jan. 12-19 edition, there are a number of probing essays on the major problems facing the incoming Obama administration.

Plus there's an interesting update on the Obama (campaign) (movement) (administration) attempt to create a new nationwide grassroots organization, a topic we've explored locally in recent weeks.  See:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090112/melber

http://www.licopac.org/licking_county_issue_pac/2008/12/moving-on-1.html

We've lost Air America (again) in central Ohio but, despite rising publishing costs and mailing rates, we've still got The Nation. If you don't subscribe, you should.  Especially if you live in Licking County where, as a progressive, you can get to feel mighty isolated. 

 (I wish they were paying us for this ad!)

(Gray Hunter)

 

 

MOVING ON

We know that Barack Obama on Nov. 4 became the leader of the party.

The question now is whether that's the Democratic Party, the Obama Party or some cobbled-together combination of the two.

The new President-elect is still more than a month away from taking possession of the White House, and already such winds of discord are swirling, from Chicago to Washington and -- yes -- into even Licking County, Ohio.

On Thursday, for example, about 30 Obama supporters met at Licking County Democratic headquarters in Newark to explore what change means in their futures.  Everyone in the room vowed to remain politically active for progressive causes after Jan. 20. The questions now are what to do and how to do it.

The meeting, which reached no conclusions, proved to be somewhat premature.

In this morning's email, for example, there was a Democratic Party alert from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to an upcoming nationwide series of house parties to address just these kind of issues:

"On December 13th and 14th, supporters are coming together in every part of the country to reflect on what we've accomplished and plan the future of this movement. Your ideas and feedback will be collected and used to guide this movement in the months and years ahead," it said.

And, in this morning's Dispatch, an AP story recounted that "Obama aides are weighing whether to keep the ($30 million campaign surplus) to build a massive grass-roots program to support his agenda or to cycle that money to the party apparatus."

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2008/12/06/Obama_Dems_1206.ART_ART_12-06-08_A3_QLC5A8F.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

True, Plouffe's memo was circulated by the national Democratic Party.  But at both the national and local level, it's hard to see right now where all this will go.

There are certainly more important problems facing the nation and its incoming president than how to spend that $30 million left over from Barack's $745 million campaign.  What is significant, however, is whether Democrats and the sort of independent progressive activists who flocked to Obama can find common cause on the local level in the years ahead.

Here, discussions have just begun as to whether Obama volunteers not previously active in local Democratic politics would now join the local party or affiliate with existing independent groups (such as LICOPAC or the Licking County Women's Democratic Caucus) or maybe form a new organization or organizations to pursue different goals.

Can those local activists who were so enthused about Obama's run for the White House become equally engaged now in trying to elect Democrats running for county offices, the state legislature and the Congress?  Or should  these Obama warriors now focus on promoting specific issues, such as universal health care, or spread the word by lending their weight to community service projects?

Some answers may emerge before Obama ever takes office.  Local volunteers agreed to meet again once more information is received from Washington and/or Chicago as to just what this reported "massive grass-roots program" might involve.

In addition, a number of Obama volunteers said they intend to stop by this Tuesday evening when the Licking County Democratic Club holds its regular monthly meeting (7 p.m., at the county administration building, 20 S. Second St., Newark). 

http://www.lickingcountydemocraticparty.com/

There is precedent for this, of course.

After the 2004 election, a number of previously uncommitted Kerry campaign volunteers were faced with the same sort of choices.  Many joined the county Democratic Club, revitalizing the local party which had struggled for years from a lack of manpower and resources. 

And at the same time, some of us decided not only to stick with the party but to also develop new local political action organizations -- LICOPAC and more recently the women's Democratic caucus -- to focus on specific issues and the congressional campaigns.

(Since early 2005, LICOPAC has worked on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates in the 12th and 18th Districts while promoting voter education, redistricting reform, the preservation of Social Security and sick-leave benefits for all Ohio workers. We have also been active in networking with progressives in neighboring counties and developing regional action through the Central Ohio Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations.

It's called evolution, and it ain't easy.  But it's a sign of health that we, as progressives and Democrats, can adapt to change as it happens in our lives and not just talk about "change" as a campaign buzz word.

(Gray Hunter)

.

  

COUNTY SHELL GAME ON TAXES

If you think the Nov. 4 election is just about Barack and Joe, John and Sarah, take a look at the slick trick played on Licking County taxpayers by county commissioners this week.

As reported today in the Advocate:

Monday, county Commissioner Doug Smith made a motion to request a resolution from the auditor's office to reduce the inside millage of the 2008 property tax enough to reduce the total revenue by $1 million. The 2008 tax is collected in 2009.

"We are in a position to do something positive for the residents of Licking County. It is sort of unheard of in this day and age, and hopefully this will be good news for the property owners, especially in tough economic times," Smith said. "We don't want to hoard funds, and we don't want to act as a bank."

So is this move, by Smith and his fellow Republican commissioner Tim Bubb, an early Christmas gift to taxpayers or just a little devious Halloween trick-and-treat?

The third commissioner, Democrat Mark Van Buren, has been arguing for years that Republicans pulled the trick back in 2005 when they raised the sales tax by 0.5 percent, in excess of actual need.  As Van Buren explains at his web site (www.markvanburen.org/articles.html ):

"County finances are another important issue. I have always believed the citizens should have had the right to vote on the sales tax increase in 2005. Since becoming commissioner this year, I have spent a great deal of time researching county finances, gathering data and speaking with county officials.

I believe Licking County can and should lower the sales tax a quarter-percent. This would let hard-working citizens keep more of their own money, allow Licking County to stay competitive with neighboring counties, and would assure people they are not penalized by paying more when purchasing goods or services in Licking County."

On Monday, Van Buren supported the $1 million, one-time property tax reduction after failing to get Republican support for his permanent 0.25 percent  sales tax cut, a reduction which could have saved taxpayers up to $4 million a year according to the Advocate.

"The way I look at it, it's a start. At least we are showing the people of Licking County we are willing to cut taxes," Van Buren said.

So once again, Republicans demonstrate they know how to campaign, if not how to govern.

Even when it's evident the county since 2006 has been collecting $4 million or so each year in excess sales taxes, the Republican majority on the commission poses as taxpayer friendly by giving back $1 million on a one-time basis for 2009.

Monday night's action is a clear concession by Bubb and Smith that Van Buren is right, and the half-percent 2005 sales tax increase was -- and is -- excessive.

It should also be clear evidence that a change on the county commission is necessary.

Both Van Buren and Bubb are on this fall's ballot.

If you agree with Van Buren that county government shouldn't be hoarding $4 million a year in funds now badly needed by taxpayers facing hard times, return Van Buren to office and give the commission a Democratic majority by also electing Democrat Doug Moreland (www.dougmoreland.org ).

A persistent problem has been that many Democrats and progressives don't bother to vote on down-ballot candidates and issues because they think Washington is the only place where "Change" matters.

As our county commission has demonstrated, however, trick-and-treat is played locally as well.

(Gray Hunter)