Governor s plan to stop Ohio budget bleeding could slash 2,700 jobs

1/31/2008

COLUMBUS Ohio would close two mental health institutions, slash as many as 2,700 state jobs, and introduce state lottery-operated electronic gambling devices in bars under Gov. Ted Strickland s plan to stop the state s budget bleeding. The proposal unveiled Thursday morning is designed to patch a potential $733 million hole in the state budget by June 30, 2009, the best-case economic scenario outlined two weeks ago by his budget prognosticators. If the hole gets bigger, the governor said the state will tap $1 billion in budget reserves meant for just such a "rainy day."

SANDUSKY The case of the nurse accused of raping a patient at a Perkins Township nursing facility will be bound over to an Erie County grand jury, a judge decided Thursday afternoon. The decision by Judge Erich O Brien was made following the testimony of the two detectives who interviewed John Riems, 49, after he was accused last week of raping a 55-year-old man who is partially paralyzed at the Concord Care and Rehabilitation Cold man who enter in Perkins Township.

Teachers in the Maumee City Schools overwhelmingly approved a new three-year agreement that gives them a 3 percent wage increase this year and next and calls for a reopening of wage negotiations for 2010. The agreement that was announced Thursday morning was in the form of a fact-finder s recommendation that had previously been accepted by the Maumee Board of Education. The teachers acceptance, by a vote of 185-8, means they have ratified a new contract.

COLUMBUS In a much anticipated ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court today unanimously upheld the constitutionality of red light and speeding enforcement cameras like those employed by Toledo. The court found that the cameras are an extension of local police powers and do not overstep local home-rule authority by civilly targeting vehicle owners rather than pursuing drivers criminally as state traffic laws do. The challenge was brought against the city of Akron, whose program is similar to those operated in other Ohio communities, including Toledo, Northwood, Sylvania Township, Columbus, and Cleveland.