Northwest Ohio

Suffering Ohio begs for a federal lifeline. ***"Ohio, which has shed 100,000 jobs in the past year, Gov. Ted Strickland and his budget team spend a lot of time delivering bad news to constituents and plotting ways to wring money from the federal government. In the meantime, Lucas County Health honcho David Grossman continues to target smokers and has eliminated rat control.
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Another report comes out saying Toledo's unemployment is worst in the state of Ohio. Of course this is Bush's fault that Toledo's economy would be the worst in the State with such high unemployment. If you are not the worst, then is that Bush's fault? What about the areas of the country which are doing good? Is that Bush's fault? Maybe it is time to bring some accountability to the local leaders who love saying it is everyone else's fault but their own.
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This is very TMZ tabloidish, but today, at around 11:15am, Carty was seen doing his Christmas shopping at Books-A-Million at Levis Commons in Perrysburg according to a very reliable source. It is nice to know that Perrysburg book stores have the Mayor of Toledo's seal of approval. Maybe he was poaching, pirating, and pilfering great book deals at Books-A-Million.

According to the Toledo Blade this afternoon: Former radio personality Troy Neff has been charged with assault for his part in a road-rage incident earlier this month.
Mr. Neff, 40, of Curtice, faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted of the first-degree misdemeanor, which was filed Monday in Perrysburg Municipal Court.
The case is set for arraignment Jan. 2.
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The Union's won their case in keeping the City of Toledo from making employees take days off. City must back pay the 240 workers who were not allowed to work the day before Thanksgiving.
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An arbitrator ruled Monday that Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s attempt to shut down the city’s nonessential services for three days to save money violated union contracts.

I love the latest piece by Ann Coulter in Human Events. Some highlights:
Sarah Palin wins HUMAN EVENTS’ prestigious “Conservative of the Year” Award for 2008 for her genius at annoying all the right people. The last woman to get liberals this hot under the collar would have been … let's see now … oh, yeah: Me!
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Perrysburg, Ohio (December 22, 2008) - Black Swamp Conservancy, a Perrysburg, Ohio-based land conservation organization, has announced that it has matched a challenge grant the conservancy received from Toledo Community Foundation.
The conservancy was awarded a $50,000 grant from Toledo Community Foundation earlier this year. The grant allowed Black Swamp Conservancy to hire a stewardship manager.
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Can you believe that 2008 is almost here? What do you think are the best and worst stories of 2008? Locally and nationally?

I'm no supporter of the Noes, but The Blade's piece on Bernadette Noe is sleaze worthy of one of those supermarket tabloids. The Blade really sank into the muck when they put this piece together. It's pure trash.

Joe now has a book:
Blade has a detailed writeup of his book.
'Joe' pens memoir on his life, his dream
Like the two men whose campaigns for president he influenced with his unexpected step upon the national political stage, Joe the Plumber has published a book about his life.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081220/NEWS09/812200...
Joe the Plumber Pens Memoir

Webb Challenges Administration to Save Ottawa River Dredging Project
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*** NEWS RELEASE*** Stop by and join us!
TOLEDO, OH — The Toledo Young Republican Club will hand out flyers Saturday, December 20 letting residents with homes for sale know that the Club will shovel snow at their properties to offset the recent increase in Lucas County’s real estate conveyance fee.
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Wow, a lot of things have happened in the last week. If you have not caught your breath, I don't blame you.
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I'm a little curious about the missing post from earlier today and wonder if it was taken down by the site administrator or the poster himself. Perhaps things got a little too hot to handle. Apparently not all publicity is good publicity.

Apparently Ed has started a "Take Back BG" program. Literally!
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081217/NEWS02/81...

Something may be afoot at the Erie Street Market. Word is that all of the sound equipment has been removed from the facility. Also a quick check of the Civic Theatre website shows no scheduled events, in fact the upcoming concerts are scheduled for Dockside Grille and Howard's. WSPD will have the latest as soon as we have the details

Ok, tomorrow (12/17) I will try to live blog and audio stream the Toledo budget hearing at the UT/MCO campus. Here are the conditions: 1. I will be about 15 minutes late, so watch for live coverage to start around 6:15 PM. 2. I will need to get a network signal in the auditorium. It is possible but you never know. 3. that we can actually hear what everyone says. Stop by here tomorrow night and see if I can pull it off.
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Only Pete Gerken and Tina Skeldon Wozniak Jingle Heimer Schmidt et al. can somehow think that taking money out of the working class's pockets when they sell a house can be a plus. Here's hoping that their name will be next to the fee when you go to closing so everyone knows who to thank. With the sorry state this area is in, especially in housing stock, this is one of the most dumbest decisions I have seen although it is not a surprise.
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Former Mayor Owens will join me at 7:30 to talk about the Monclova land deal which she and Phil Hawkey put together back in the mid 80's. The current mayor has claimed that Brian McMahon was behind it and that Toledoans lost a lot of money on the deal. The truth is very different though from what Finkbeiner remembers.
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If you did not already see, the Toledo Blade had a front page story about the bloggers in the area. Yours truly was also in it. I had one quote and it provided a description of what I do and a link to a couple of my sites. Newspapers are limited to a certain amount of space and seeing the print version, that space was rather large. The online version you can't get the same feel for what was put in the print version.
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went there last night-read the fine print on the sign. I knew this couldn't last long, as it was a MAJOR giveaway, and I was right. "every Wednesday" really meant two in a row. Sooooo.....get to Rally's Wednesday, December 17th!! Remember also-Wednesdays at Rally's are ALSO '69 cent' days-cheeseburgers or hot dogs are 69 cents. I paid 69 cents last Wed. for a cheeseburger & the three free wings, which are delicious.
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The former Macomber High School at 1501 Monroe St is in foreclosure and set to be sold at the sheriff sale this month. If any of you are interested, bidding will start at 500k. This may be a good time for a charter school to purchase the property. See the attachment for the December list of properties.

Maybe I missed something, but I am sitting here wondering when the conversation turned. I hear so many people saying we have to bail out this and that, but have we stepped so far from the tree that we can no longer get back? Does everyone who is advocating for the auto bailout understand the long term consequences of bailing out everyone? Economics is a hard subject, even for someone who studied to teach it.
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Maggie Thurber posted the latest nasty-gram from our mayor. If you read it, you can see what an ass he is. The Take Back Toledo has legitimate gripes and it is obvious Carty is clueless on his problems. Since they have legitimate gripes, there is no reason to make it so personal.
http://thurbersthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/12/latest-nasty-gram-from-tole...

LATTA STATEMENT ON H.R. 7321
WASHINGTON- Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) made the following statement after the House of Representatives considered H.R. 7321, the Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act.
“The auto industry is a critical segment of our nation’s economy, especially in Ohio. During the testimony from the “Detroit 3” and the drafting of this legislation, important questions remain unanswered that put the American taxpayer at serious risk.