Five Things You Might Have Missed: 2-03
Top stories from this weekend's editions of The Blade
2/3/2014
Toth elementary students show their letters of kindness. They are, in back row from left, fifth grader Maia Colon, fifth grader Charlotte Keller, and bottom row from left third graders Sage Kiessling and Sage Colon.
The Blade/Matt Thompson
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The Rev. Jesse Jackson: Poverty thrives because ‘we’ve stepped away from the war on poverty and extended the subsidy to the wealthy.’
1. Jesse Jackson: It's time to outlaw poverty
Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty, America continues the battle, with 48.8 million people stuck below the poverty line as Congress argues about how much to cut food stamps and stops unemployment checks to millions of the long-term unemployed.
Need and poverty continue to be familiar to many.
“We must now fight to make poverty illegal,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said in an interview with The Blade last week. “The reason why you have such a radical gap between wealth and poverty [is] we stepped away from the war on poverty and extended the subsidy to the wealthy.” READ MORE
Auto enthusiasts look over the vehicles at last year’s Toledo Auto Show. This year’s show is again at SeaGate Convention Centre.
2. Ford, Chevy year's top-selling vehicles in region
Ford continued to be the area’s top-selling brand in 2013, but Chevrolet wrestled away the honors of having the year’s top-selling vehicle.
The Toledo Auto Dealers Association said area Chevrolet dealers sold 641 Silverado pickups to buyers in Lucas and Wood counties last year, a 14 percent increase from 2012. That helped push the Silverado, recently named 2014 North American Truck of The Year, ahead of the Ford F-Series to become the area’s No. 1 seller.
Ford’s F-Series remained the best-selling vehicle in America in 2013, a position it has held for 32 years running, and a new F-150 is coming for the 2015 model year. But for now, the Silverado, redesigned for the 2014 model year, is the newest truck in the stable. READ MORE
3. Buckeyes branch out; Winovich to join UM
Ohio State is exploring the world like never before as the school’s national cachet broadens under coach Urban Meyer.
On Wednesday, Ohio State will sign a second straight class with more out-of-state prospects than Ohioans for the first time in program history. In all, after signing 14 non-Ohio natives in a 24-member class last year, 13 of its 22 commits this year hail from beyond state lines.
Chase Winovich doesn’t remember much about August of 2004, when his older brother left home to play football at Bowling Green State University. All he remembers was the sadness.
Winovich got used to that absence, but 10 years later, he needed his only brother again. He had his own path to navigate toward becoming a college football player. His brother knew what that path entailed.
Winovich, a linebacker from Pittsburgh’s south suburbs, is expected to be part of Michigan’s incoming 2014 freshman class. READ MORE
A new Columbia Gas meter at left, with the old style meter.
4. Columbia Gas price to climb; Average Feb. bill to increase $50 from 2013
One of Toledo’s coldest Januarys on record means natural gas prices will be substantially higher in February.
According to Columbia Gas of Ohio Inc., the price of natural gas for February will be 68 cents per hundred cubic feet.
That’s 20 cents higher than last February’s rate. As a result, the average gas bill for February is expected to be $50 higher than last year, the utility said.
The average bill this month is pegged at $155.87, Columbia Gas said. A year ago it was $105.36. The new February rate of 68 cents is based on a closing price on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) of 55½ cents plus a processing fee of 13 cents. READ MORE
A Toledo Fire Department truck carries a flag-draped coffin past Toledo Fire Station No. 5, on North Ontario Street, as the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department and friends pay their last respects to Pvt. Stephen Machcinski as his funeral procession passes.
5. Private Machcinski receives final, solemn salute from Toledo residents
Screaming sirens broke the silence.
Spectators repositioned themselves on snow mounds.
Scores of firefighters lined each side of North Ontario Street between Monroe and Washington streets on Saturday. Waiting.
Engine 3, draped with black-and-purple bunting and carrying a flag-draped casket, turned right onto Ontario from Monroe.
Cameras snapped. Flags waved. A bell tolled.
Firefighters at attention. Right hands raised to their brows.
It was Pvt. Stephen Machcinski’s final salute.
The 15-year veteran of the Toledo Fire Department, with his crew member Pvt. James Dickman, died a week ago after he was trapped inside a burning two-story apartment building at 528 Magnolia St. READ MORE
OUR TOWN
Toth elementary students show their letters of kindness. They are, in back row from left, fifth grader Maia Colon, fifth grader Charlotte Keller, and bottom row from left third graders Sage Kiessling and Sage Colon.
'Thank you' among acts of kindness rolled out at Toth Elementary
Angie Baumgartner has desks in her Toth Elementary class that are filled with crayoned-drawn thank-you cards for Toledo and Perrysburg firefighters.
The Perrysburg elementary school participated in a "Great Kindness Challenge" this week and will do so again next week and the students are sending thank-yous to firefighters in the wake of 2 Toledo firefighters who died a week ago while battling a fire.
In another act of kindness, students are bringing coffee from home to donate to a fire station, as a result of teachers hearing that firefighters have to pay for their own coffee at the station. A monetary donation to families of those lost also is circling through the Toth staff members.
"We want them to be thinking about others," said Ms. Baumgartner, a reading intervention specialist at Toth.
The main challenge for the students is a checklist of 50 acts of kindness to complete during the two weeks. Acts include smiling at 25 people, holding doors for others, making a new friend, recycling, picking up trash around the school, and saying good morning to 15 people. READ MORE