Obama uses Zanesville appearance to tout more aid for faith-based organizations

7/1/2008

ZANESVILLE Taking a page from President George W. Bush s playbook, Democratic nominee-to-be Barack Obama Tuesday urged an expansion in aid to faith-based organizations that pick up where government falls short. "Few are closer to the people than the churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques," he said after touring Eastside Community Ministry s center in downtown Zanesville on the edge of conservative Appalachian Ohio.

The Ohio Department of Health has proposed revoking the license of Angel Arms, a South Toledo group home, where two residents were found unconscious in an upstairs bedroom June 9 and later died, a spokesman for the agency said. A letter dated June 26 was sent to Pamela Shay, who owns the facility, notifying her the state health department has proposed to revoke and not renew the license based on violations that existed June 9 "that jeopardized the health and safety of the residents of your facility."

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner on Tuesday said cleanup of the former Toledo Edison Acme Power Plant in East Toledo s planned Marina District development would commence this week. Mr. Finkbeiner said the west wing of the building and a section referred to as boiler 16 would be torn down after asbestos removal this summer.

WASHINGTON - Operators of nuclear power plants have yet to comply with some of the government's fire safety rules three decades after they were issued, a congressional report said Monday. The Government Accountability Office said there were 125 fires reported at 54 power plants since 1995, an average of nearly 10 a year, although none threatened safe emergency reactor shutdown or posed any significant safety threats. The fires were mostly electrical or maintenance related.