Author: Mitch Shirley

Ohio House Dems Accuse Republicans of ‘Rigged’ Committee Process

Mitch Shirley

  The Ohio House Democrats of the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee have accused their Republican colleagues of rigging the vote on House Bill 6 (HB 6). The Democratic members of the subcommittee released a joint statement on Wednesday claiming the hearing to be a “rigged-process.” Joe Price, senior manager of government affairs and energy commodities at Timken Steel, testified as a proponent of the bill representing his employer on Wednesday. When State Rep. Kristin Boggs (D-Columbus) tried to question Price, she was denied the opportunity to do so after Rep. Nino Vitale (R-Urbana), chair of the subcommittee, claimed that the five minutes for Price was up. “I’m sorry we’re really trying to limit to five minutes as I stated earlier, including questions,” said Vitale in the hearing on Wednesday Following the testimony, Boggs, Rep. Casey Weinstein (D-Hudson), and three fellow Democrats on the subcommittee walked out of the hearing without comment and were absent for more than an hour. “If this is just going to be a show trial, then we’ll let them do it by themselves,” said Rep. David Leland (D-Columbus), according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer.  Vitale and the committee had agreed on a limit of five minutes per witness.…

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Ohio Middle School Forced to Close After Refined Uranium Found Inside

Mitch Shirley

  Zahn’s Corner Middle School was forced to close early for the summer due to high concentrations of uranium found inside. Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a nuclear plant in Pike County, Ohio, is the only known source of the high levels of uranium and neptunium-237 found in the school and air. The high levels were discovered by a U.S. Department of Energy air monitor detection building directly adjacent to the middle school. The closure has left parents and teachers in the Scioto Valley Local School District extremely concerned. Earlier this week, Ashley Day, a parent in the school district, was met at home by her son Kendon with some interesting news. Kendon informed his mother that the school will be closed for the rest of the academic year. “I felt anxiety, anger, and paranoia all at once,” she told NBC News. “It’s so scary that my child has been exposed to this because I have no idea how it’s going to affect him.” The now out-of-operation Portsmouth plant was built as part of the United States’ nuclear build up against the Soviet Union in the Cold War. It had been active for almost 50 years, from 1954 to 2001. Following the end…

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Senator Portman and Senator Cardin Reach Across the Aisle for Senior Retirement Reform

Mitch Shirley

  U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) introduced a bill in the Senate Finance Committee containing several reforms to reinforce Americans’ retirement plans on Monday. The Retirement Security & Savings Act (S. 1431) introduced by the two senators addresses four ongoing issues with retirement plans. Portman has made the issue of retirement a mainstay of his office tenure. As The Ohio Star reported last month, he worked with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to give Ohioans a say in the pension plans set up by their employers. “As a matter of basic fairness, they deserve a role in determining how to bring these pensions to solvency, and this bill ensures they have a voice in this process,” said Portman. Now Portman is working with Cardin to bring these same reforms to the national stage. “Half of the baby-boomers have no retirement nest egg at all,” Portman said on Fox Business yesterday. In a press release from Cardin’s office, he had this to say on the retirement bill: “Ensuring that families and workers can retire with dignity and stability is an ongoing, and strongly bipartisan, effort. There have been many recent efforts acknowledging this need, yet more work needs to be done to make…

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Ohio’s Largest Christian Public Policy Team Is Expanding

Mitch Shirley

  Ohio’s Family Policy Council, Citizens for Community Values (CCV), added a new member to its public policy team. CCV announced on Monday the hiring of University of Cincinnati Law School graduate Rachel Citak, who will serve as CCV’s legislative liaison out of the Columbus office. The CCV has been extremely active in Ohio since its founding in 1986. Most recently, the group was a proponent of the “heartbeat bill” in a fight that’s been ongoing in Ohio for over a decade. “Gov. Mike DeWine is the strongest pro-life governor in the nation. With a stroke of a pen, he’s saved countless lives in the state of Ohio,” said Aaron Baer, president of CCV.  Citak, an active voice in the Ohio community, is now the CCV’s fourth registered lobbyist, making it the largest Christian public policy team in the state. She will join CCV President Aaron Baer, Barry Sheets, and Averel Meden. Baer has expressed his enthusiasm about the new addition to the team. “Ohioans elected one of the most pro-life, pro-family General Assembly’s in our state’s history,” said Baer. “The heartbeat bill has passed, but our work to protect life, build up families, and defend religious freedom is only…

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Ohio’s Attorney General Dave Yost Joins Coalition Urging Congress to Allow Marijuana-Related Businesses to Access Banking System

Mitch Shirley

  Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost joined a coalition of 38 states urging Congress to grant federal banking system access to marijuana-related businesses. The coalition is working on getting Congress to pass the Federal Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act (H.R. 1595). Although many states have legalized medical marijuana, the federal government has regulations that block the federal bank and related banks from lending to cannabis-related institutions. Under the existing ruling, many legitimate marijuana-related businesses are forced to function as cash-only operations. Back in 2018 while Yost was a state auditor, he found an excess of flaws with Ohio’s medical marijuana system. “If you wrote a book about how not to roll out a government program, this would be exhibit A,” Yost said at the time. Now Yost is taking a firmer hand in fixing the ongoing issues in the growing medical cannabis market. In a press release from the Attorney General’s Office, Yost had this to say: “When a business is dealing strictly in cash, they’re inviting a whole host of problems. No legal business should have to operate in a manner that provides little to no security in their financial transactions.” H.R. 1595 seeks to change that and…

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Trump Announces New Occupant for Lordstown Plant

Mitch Shirley

  President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that he spoke with General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who said GM will sell the vacant Lordstown factory to Workhorse, an electric truck manufacturer. The president also mentioned that GM is going to invest $700 million into three separate locations in Ohio. Trump expressed his support for Ohio’s “great governor, and Senator Rob Portman” for their work in filling the GM void. Gov. Mike DeWine, although proud of the achievement, warned that it could be a year before the Cincinnati-based firm Workhorse has the plant up and running. ….in 3 separate locations, creating another 450 jobs. I have been working nicely with GM to get this done. Thank you to Mary B, your GREAT Governor, and Senator Rob Portman. With all the car companies coming back, and much more, THE USA IS BOOMING! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2019 “This is probably not yet a day to celebrate … a lot has to happen,” said DeWine. But it would bring “hundreds of jobs” back to the region after the GM closure left more 1,400 people out of work since closing over two months ago. Workhorse is in the process of obtaining a contract to…

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’60 Minutes’ Discovers Opioid Silk-Road From China to Akron

Mitch Shirley

  The CBS weekly show 60 Minutes recently discovered a drug route leading into Ohio. The CBS team found that fentanyl plants in Shanghai have been trafficking their product through Akron. Guanghua Zheng, a free citizen of Shanghai, is a wanted man in America. Zheng illegally imported fentanyl and other related narcotics into the U.S, which led to two known deaths. Tom Rauh and Carrie Dobbins were two Ohioans who overdosed and died on substances from Zheng’s supply. 60 Minutes producer Bob Anderson located Zheng outside a grocery store in Shanghai to question him about his illegal operation. “Are you still selling fentanyl in the U.S?” Anderson asked Zheng, who responded, “No, no.” “Will the Chinese Government ever arrest you?” Anderson then asked. “The Chinese government has nothing to do with this,” Zheng replied. Anderson continued to question Zheng, but the woman standing with him outside the grocer was emphatic that he not answer any more questions. “Don’t speak, don’t speak,” she repeated to Zheng. She then turned her attention to the CBS crew. “Don’t come back,” the woman said. Matt Cronin, an Ohio assistant U.S. attorney, notified U.S. authorities of Zheng’s trafficking scheme, known as the Gordon Jin drug trafficking organization,…

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Ohio’s Buckeye Institute Continues to ‘Fight Relentlessly’ in Minnesota Professor’s Union Case

Mitch Shirley

  Robert Alt, president of The Buckeye Institute, recently called on the U.S. Supreme Court to put an end to states forcing non-union members to pay union dues. The institute issued a press release after the Supreme Court denied to hear Kathy Uradnik’s case. After the certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court, Alt stated that his organization will take Uradnik’s case back to the U.S. District Court in Minnesota’s 8th district. “Unfortunately, today the high court passed on the opportunity to hear her case immediately, but it has given us another opportunity to seek justice by sending it back to the U.S. District Court where The Buckeye Institute will continue to fight relentlessly on Kathy’s behalf,” said Alt. The Public Employment Labor Relations Act (“PELRA”) has been in effect in Minnesota for over 20 years. The law requires that public employees pay union dues, even if they have opted to not be apart of said union. PELRA also asserts that any public employee is subject to representation by a chosen union representative and that no employee can confer with upper management. Liaisons may only occur between upper management and the union representative. Uradnik, a political science professor at St.…

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DeWine Says Driving ‘While Eating’ Should Be as ‘Culturally Unacceptable’ as Drunk Driving

Mitch Shirley

  Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the formation of a permanent Distracted Driving Advisory Council Thursday. The council is aimed at changing the atmosphere surrounding safe driving in acknowledgment of safe driving month. “Driving while texting, or eating, or dialing a phone should be as culturally unacceptable as drunk driving is today,” said Governor DeWine; adding: When drivers choose to do anything that distracts them from paying full attention to the road, they choose to risk their own lives, the lives of their passengers, and the lives of everyone else around them. Prior to the announcement, the task force released a 22-page pamphlet to inform drivers about the risks they are taking while driving distracted. The pamphlet contained detailed statistics surrounding the causes of incidents. The study was conducted by the Ohio Department of transportation. “Now is the time to create a long-term, comprehensive plan that educates drivers, promotes changes in behavior, and strengthens Ohio’s distracted driving laws,” said DeWine. According to the study, the state recorded around 14,000 distracted driving crashes in 2017. Of those incidents 58 people were killed, 493 seriously injured and over 7,000 people were injured statewide. The study concluded the majority of crashes happen during evening…

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Spring Business License Applications Set New Record in Ohio

Mitch Shirley

Spring fever has citizens eager to start new businesses all over the state. In March, Ohio citizens set a state record for new business license application filings. Last month, Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office received 13,747 new business filings, beating the previous record by 873. “It’s a significant milestone, and one that wouldn’t happen without a business environment that encourages entrepreneurs to take chances – to innovate and grow,” said LaRose. “We’re going to continue doing everything we can to empower Ohioans to succeed.” In 2015, State Sen. Larry Obhof (R-Medina) proposed a bill that would cut business filing fees by 21 percent. The bill also implemented easier online government filing systems. It passed both houses with 100 percent of the vote. There have been five records set since March 2017. Each record has surpassed the previous one by 30 to 600 filings. This past March’s filings were a 6.7 percent uptick from the previous record leaving Obhof ecstatic about the results. There are many reasons for this sudden growth. Sen. Obhof attributed much of it to “across the board income tax cuts.” “We eliminated the death tax, we had targeted tax cuts that benefited small businesses and really…

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Ohio’s Unemployment Rate Drops to 4.4 Percent from February to March

Mitch Shirley

Ohio’s state unemployment rate is at an 18 year low even after General Motors closing down its Lordstown factory. The Buckeye state’s unemployment dropped from 4.6 percent in February to 4.4 percent in March. The last time Ohio’s unemployment reached 4.4 percent back was in August of 2001. Despite this decrease in unemployment, Ohio is still behind the national average of 3.8 percent. The 0.2 percent shift from was partly the result of a reduction of 7,000 citizens unemployed, bringing the state unemployment from 265,000 to 258,000 between February and March. This growth is slightly contingent on the state’s strong agricultural and seasonal workforce. Andrew J. Kidd, PhD and economist with The Buckeye Institute, stated in on Friday that “spring has brought a rebirth to job growth in Ohio with 6,200 new private sector jobs, a falling unemployment rate of 4.4 percent, and a growing labor force participation rate of 62.7 percent. All these are positive signs for Ohio’s economy.” With a labor force participation rate of 62.7 percent, Ohio is quickly catching up to the national average of 63 percent. The closing of the General Motors Lordstown factory did some damage, contributing to a drop of 2,400 in manufacturing,…

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