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Repeat gun offenders could face mandatory 11-year prison term
New tough-on-crime legislation would mandate an 11-year sentence for those convicted of illegally possessing a gun, if they previously had been convicted of two or more violent felonies. The bill, which has the backing of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, will be introduced Friday by state Sen. Jim Hughes, R-Columbus. ...
Lawmaker may have broken ethics law
Springfield Republican Sen. Chris Widener may have violated Ohio ethics law when he personally appeared before a state board to appeal a building code ruling on a fire hall he designed as part of his private business, a Dayton Daily News investigation found. Widener was in the Ohio Senate when ...
Lebanon prison focus of steroid probe
A drug task force is investigating illegal steroid use, distribution and manufacture among staff at the Lebanon Correctional Institution state prison, the Dayton Daily News has learned.Commander John Burke said the investigation by the Greater Warren County Drug Task Force is centered on prison employees, not inmates. No arrests have ...
Prison focus of steroid probe
A drug task force is investigating illegal steroid use, distribution and manufacture among staff at the Lebanon Correctional Institution state prison, the Dayton Daily News has learned.Commander John Burke said the investigation by the Greater Warren County Drug Task Force is centered on prison employees, not inmates. No arrests have ...
Racing commission delays decision on Dayton racino
The Ohio State Racing Commission will take a week to consider a compromise to its seating requirements for Penn National Gaming’s proposed racinos in Dayton and the Youngstown area. Under a plan Penn presented to the racing commission on Wednesday, the Dayton racino would open with 509 enclosed seats with ...
Beer brewers upset with Ohio lawmakers
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, says it was blindsided by Ohio lawmakers who approved an amendment “in the space of four hours” that will prohibit breweries from buying wholesale distributorships in the future. The beer giant is now publicly pleading with legislative leaders to reverse course or even take ...
Ohio school retirement board votes to take controversial Hawaii trip
Despite outrage from lawmakers and retirees, Ohio’s School Employees Retirement System board refused to cancel plans to send two trustees to a five-day conference in Hawaii next month and declined to adopt the same travel limits followed by the state’s four other public pension systems.The nine-member SERS board spent Thursday ...
Ohio school pension board member collects OT for time missed at work
School Employees Retirement System trustee Barbra Phillips earns overtime pay for field trips and sports team travel as a school bus driver even when she is out of town on pension board business, public records obtained by our Columbus bureau show. Ashland City Schools allows Phillips to sign up for ...
Schools could face fines for teaching ‘gateway sexual activity’ in Ohio
Ohio may become the second state in the nation to adopt regulations that prohibit teaching comprehensive sex education to public school students, under an amendment added to the state budget bill on Tuesday. The Ohio House GOP-backed idea would subject teachers and organizations that violate the ban to possible lawsuits ...
Ohio GOP director’s tax bill reduced, still owes $168,161
Ohio Republican Party Executive Director Matt Borges learned Friday that his federal tax bill was reduced to $168,161, down from $493,624. Bob Onda, Borges’ newly retained tax attorney, said the IRS adjusted the bill in October but Borges’ old attorney did not deliver the news to him. Onda said he ...
GOP official owes $592k in back taxes
Ohio GOP Executive Director Matt Borges, who is in line to become state party chairman later this month, owes $493,624 in federal taxes and $98,397 in state taxes, according to public documents filed in Franklin County. Borges said he is on a payment plan for some of the back taxes ...
Fallout continues over Hawaii trip for school retirement board trustees
There is mounting concern that some trustees of the School Employees Retirement System are preparing to remove SERS Executive Director Lisa Morris, who publicly advised them not to attend a pension conference in Hawaii next month. SERS is expected to foot the bill for the trip. Our Columbus bureau first ...
House GOP make major changes to Gov. Kasich’s budget plan
Ohio House Republicans want to drastically change Gov. John Kasich’s state budget proposal and plan to scrap his expansion of Medicaid, substitute a 7 percent income tax cut for his proposed 20 percent break, and eliminate plans to hike taxes paid by oil and gas exploration companies.House Speaker William Batchelder, ...
State withholds records detailing what Leftwich did for $114K job
The state Development Services Agency refuses to disclose what Jim Leftwich did as an intermittent state employee, saying the entire balance of his work is a “trade secret” that can be legally withheld from public disclosure. Leftwich, the former director of the Dayton Development Coalition, was paid $114,850 over 13 ...
Poor unfairly jailed for failing to pay fines, report says
Courts in at least seven counties routinely jail Ohioans for owing court fines and fees, in violation of the state constitution and laws and against a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, according to a new study released by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice ...
Ohio State issues alert after threats target a ‘cafeteria’
Ohio State University officials posted extra police officers around 25 campus dining areas on Wednesday after OSU got tipped off to a threat of a shooting. Users on fantasy gaming websites alerted OSU authorities on Tuesday when they saw chatter about a shooting at an OSU cafeteria on April 4. ...
Pension board refuses to cancel Hawaii trip
In a feisty meeting Thursday, the School Employees Retirement System board rejected calls to cancel a trip to Hawaii and dismissed a proposal to limit trustees’ annual out-of-state travel expenses to $6,000 per board member. Board member Mary Ann Howell withdrew her request to travel to Hawaii in May for ...
Political consultant accuses business partner of theft
Two high-profile Ohio political consultants are embroiled in a civil lawsuit over who is entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in casino gambling revenues.Ian James, who runs a petition gathering company, is suing Rex Elsass, who runs a Republican ad placement and consulting firm, in Delaware County Common Pleas ...
Pension board members spend big on out-of-state conferences
Members of the state pension board that is sending three members to a conference in Hawaii have made 67 other trips over the past four years to New Orleans, San Francisco, New York and other vacation destinations, a Dayton Daily News investigation found. VIEW travel costs for retirement board members ...
70-mph limit clears another hurdle
Faster speed limits on most Ohio highways advanced one step on Wednesday when the Ohio Senate gave its approval to the final compromise version of the transportation budget bill. The House is expected to do the same Thursday. Motorists would be allowed to drive 70 miles per hour on interstates ...
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