State

National AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka, signaling how important Ohio’s fight against SB 5 is to the entire labor movement, will address the official KICK-OFF OF THE FIGHT TO WIN THE SB 5 AT THE POLLS, being held this THURSDAY, JULY 21, at 1:30 at the PIPEFITTERS UNION HALL, 1250 KINNEAR RD, COLUMBUS.

Leading the kick-off meeting will be OHIO AFL-CIO PRESIDENT TIM BURGA. This important gathering is OPEN TO ALL OPPOSED TO ANTI-LABOR SENATE BILL 5. Folks are asked to contact Amanda Sabol, if possible, to RSVP for this historic kick-off meeting; RSVP

Having filed an historic 1.3 million signatures, the most, by far, ever gathered for a ballot referendum in Ohio, the real fight is just now set to begin. At a recent meeting in Columbus, Senator Sherrod Brown stated that he expected wealthy supporters of SB 5 to spend over $4 million in an attempt to defeat the referendum. As important and historic as the referendum drive was, it can all be for naught if we don’t get out the votes and win at the polls in November.

Pete Eyre and Ademo Freeman (aka Adam Mueller) were arrested outside the Franklin County Jail by Todd M. Dodge of the Greenfield Police Department as they attempted to record the bailing out of a friend last July. On Monday, July 18th they hope to finally be vindicated at their trial held at Greenfield District Court.

The pair - advocates of transparency active with CopBlock.org and LibertyOnTour.com - have since their arrests sought to hold accountable those who violated their rights. Today two charges - a felony and a misdemeanor - against Eyre stemming from an unjust search of his vehicle parked blocks from the incident location, were dismissed. This is very telling.

Felony wiretapping is the most-serious remaining charge, though they are confident it too won't stick as they were told by a supervisor at the jail that they could film, no posted ban against filming existed, and no policy was ever produced to support later claims that recording was prohibited.

The "Heartbeat Bill, HB 125, must not be passed.
Why? Here are 3 powerful reasons:

~HB 125 is tantamount to a total abortion ban, forcing rape and incest victims to give birth to their rapist's baby.
~HB 125 also does not allow for an exception for fetal anomalies. Women who have been informed of a medical condition that harms their fetus would have to carry the pregnancy to natural birth.
~HB 125 is unconstitutional and would be litigated for years.

The state of Ohio would have to spend millions to defend this bill in court battles that could take years. The Executive Director of Ohio Right to Life acknowledged this in an interview with Fox News when he said, “…the Supreme Court…has ruled on countless occasions that any restrictions on abortion pre-viability are unconstitutional.”

We must not give into the groups pressing for passage of HB 125. Listen to the voice of reason and true humanity for the mother and child alike, and block it.

Sincerely,
Shira Nahari

The referendum campaign to place SB 5, the legislation to take away public worker’s collective bargaining rights in Ohio, culminated on Thursday in a massive ‘People’s Parade’ to the Secretary of State’s office to turn in petitions. 233,000 signatures, or 3% of the electorate in 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties were needed to qualify the issue being placed on November’s ballot. The huge labor-led ‘We Are Ohio’ coalition got that number, and then some! On Thursday a march of an estimated 10,000 Ohioans wound down Broad St. in Columbus and in turned in 1.3 MILLION signatures!

“This is truly impressive, it really gave me chills,” said OCSEA representative Bill Otten. “Now is when the real fight begins. We have to build a political machine that will represent the people and overcome the millions of dollars the corporate side will spend against us in November.”

“We can realistically reach a million signatures against SB 5 with the mobilization we’ve put together now,” stated John Parker, Regional Field Director for the We Are Ohio coalition. “This is a goal that will build momentum into the November election. It will show everyone that the union, community coalition can and will have the horses to reverse SB 5 and gain justice for Ohio’s working families.”

State Rep. Vernon Sykes (D-Akron) requested June 17 an analysis of a new proposal by Ohio Gov. John Kasich to give tax breaks to financial investors. The proposal was reportedly provided to some members of the Ohio House and Senate Conference Committee to be included in the state budget at the request of Gov. Kasich.

“This tax breaks for big shots proposal could result in another devastating blow to middle class families facing massive budget cuts to their schools and communities,” said Rep. Sykes. “Of course we want to encourage investment in Ohio companies but we shouldn’t do it on the backs of hard working, middle class Ohioans.”

Unfortunately, we’ve just had another open theft of retired worker’s benefits, this time Whirlpool management stealing the health care coverage of retired former Hoover workers and their families. Once again, we see “Carpetbag” managers brought in from outide our community, Whirlpool, which took over the Hoover plant, coming here to steal from hard-working families who’d earned these benefits. Health care is not some type of “entitlement” for these hard-working families, it is a right guaranteed these folks by the IBEW contract. These working families earned those health care benefits, and gave up wages and other benefits in order to assure that their families would be provided with health care after they retired. Like pirates of old, Whirlpool management has come into our community only to plunder our friends, neighbors, leaving behind diaster while obsconding with the wealth of our community! They’ve done this in other communities across the nation. We say---IT ENDS HERE, RESTORE HEALTH CARE TO THE HOOVER WORKER’S FAMILIES!

SOAR---‘SUPPORT WORKERS, RESTORE HEALTH CARE!’

Whistleblower Nuovo fired by OSU Medical Center for exposing alleged fraud

OSU is facing a very public scandal as a result of Coach Jim Tressel's resignation under embarrassing circumstances and allegations of unethical behavior affecting its many football fans. However, the scandal involving OSU's medical center and Dr. Gerard Nuovo affecting the health and well-being of many female patients, are potentially more explosive and costly to the university.

The Columbus Free Press obtained public records documenting that the Ohio State Medical Center recently fired whistleblower Dr. Gerard Nuovo for allegedly filing frivolous charges of scientific misconduct against Sanford Barsky, M.D.

Dear Editor :
Ending the Tax would do little to balance the State Budget or decrease the deficit since only 20% of the revenue goes to the Ohio Treasury. The remainder goes to townships, counties and municipalities. These sub state entities would lose $ 277 million each year. Local sales tax, property tax and/or flat income tax would have to make up the $227 million lost, or necessary services would have to be cut. The middle class and poor would pay most of these regressive taxes. Our regressive tax code is eliminating the middle class. Legislators voting to eliminate the Tax will lose votes in coming elections.

Only those with an estate above $ 338.333 after deductions, pay Ohio Estate Tax. The wealthy should be willing to pay their fair share of taxes. Although the Farm Bureau has a big campaign to end what they call the “Death Tax”, few farm families are affected.

Senator Bill Seitz proposes a modification of the Ohio Estate Tax would not be a hardship on poor townships, farmers or the wealthy who allegedly retire outside Ohio so their heirs avoid the Tax.

Sincerely,

Albert A. Gabel
Professor Emeritus
Ohio State University

Editor Benjamin Marrison
Columbus Dispatch
34 S. 3rd St.
Columbus, OH 43215

Dear Mr. Marrison:

In your subtle way, your lead editorial on Sunday April 15 was the most disingenuous yet: “Kasich and the House put Ohio on a sustainable path after predecessors failed” is a cruel joke.
· Bill Harris led the Senate in blocking Strickland and Budish from most of their good solution to budget problems.
· It would have been a waste of time and effort to pass more Bills in the House which would have been blocked in the Senate. Several were blocked.
· The “Jobs Budget” and SB 5 will cause losses by the state and sub state governments at all levels. · Please read the enclosed letter for evidence that Republicans caused the “mess we are in”:
1. The Republican Income Tax cut of 2005, which favored those with high income accounts for $ 1 billion per year.