Columbus—President Obama supporters and protestors lined 4th Street downtown to await his noon arrival to the Columbus Athenaeum. The President arrived last arrived in Columbus last night and spoke this morning at the private residence of Rhonda and Joe Weithman.  A group of the Weithman’s neighbors spoke with the President for an hour, asking questions [...]

Columbus—The iPad is one of this year’s hottest electronic gadgets and the Grandview Heights School District in Columbus isn’t missing out. Last month, the school district purchased ten base-model iPads (16 GB and wi-fi only) for the price of nine at $5,580 or $499 plus a $99 Apple Care package for each machine. This new [...]

Columbus- State Auditor Mary Taylor and her office released their performance audit of the Cuyahoga County Auditor’s Office today. The performance audit was authorized by the Cuyahoga Board of County Commissioners and the County Auditor’s Office in November 2009 by a joint resolution. The nearly 80 page audit made almost two dozen recommendations. If fully [...]

Columbus—The Main Street bridge opens today and Mayor Michael B. Coleman is betting that, eventually, taxpayers will forget it cost $60.1 million. The original design selected for the bridge with its unique inclined steel arch, only the fifth in the world, had an estimated $19.5 million budget and was slated to be finished in 2006. [...]

Columbus—State Auditor Mary Taylor may be indirectly to blame for LeBron James picking Miami to relocate his basketball prowess and not staying in Cleveland. At least, that’s the latest heat Taylor is getting after publicly saying she gave the option of moving to states with lower income and estate taxes to some of her wealthy [...]

Columbus–A new bill was introduced today to reduce waste and increase government accountability. State Representative Ross McGregor (R- District 72) was inspired to draft now-HB 561 after a project budgeted five years earlier sought re-appropriation. According to the press release, “When enacted, the proposed legislation would allow the public and the legislature to better monitor [...]

Columbus–The Ohio Budget Planning and Management Commission (BPMC) met for a second time at the Statehouse yesterday to hear testimonies from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), J. Pari Sabety, the Director of The Office of Budget and Management (OBM), and the Council of State Government (CSG). Tom Haggerty from NCSL presented “The State [...]

Canton—Former chief deputy treasurer Vincent J. Frustaci of Stark County surrendered to federal authorities at the FBI’s Canton office around 8 a.m this morning. He admitted to stealing $2.46 million from the county coffers and currently faces federal theft-related charges, including one count of conspiracy and one count of theft. Frustaci was hired by the [...]

Columbus—Eight Ohio newspapers have teamed up to expose the five Ohio government pension plans that cost tax-payers $4 billion a year. As the news reports highlight, where each dollar goes is not publicly disclosed and does not have to be, according to state law. There are currently five pension policies in the state of Ohio: [...]

The Social Security Administration, SSA, says “the information shown on www.recovery.gov under Agency Reporting incorrectly lists the Ticket to Work grants as ARRA funded, which they are not.” The “Ticket to Work Grant” is a $300,000 grant awarded to the Ohio Legal Rights Service, OLRS, by the SSA. Ohio Watchdog followed this particular grant to monitor [...]