News and Notes: Ohio

A lot is going on today in the first state admitted to the Union under the Northwest Ordinance:

Jean Schmidt: AGAIN with the Plagiarism! - Bill Sloat at The Daily Bellwether reports that Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) appears to have lifted most of her September 4th newsletter on public safety from an Ohio Highway Patrol superintendent's column written in 2005. Schmidt was heavily criticized for copying a letter to the editor from a press release issued by Rep Deborah Pryce (R-Upper Arlington) during the 2006 campaign.

Space Gets P.O. Named for Glenn - Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure introduced by Rep. Zack Space (D-Dover), renaming the U.S. Post Office in Cambridge, Ohio the “John Herschel Glenn, Jr. Post Office Building.” Ohio's famous astronaut and U.S. Senator was born in Cambridge. He later attended high school in New Concord and Muskingum College.

Maple Heights Featured in New York Times Story on Mortgage Crisis - A story on the front page of the SundayBusiness section of the New York Times this weekend was captioned, "Can the Mortgage Crisis Swallow a Town?" -- and the town in question is the Cleveland suburb of Maple Heights. Nearly ten percent of Maple Heights houses have been seized by banks through foreclosure in the past two years, and roughly 30 percent of Cuyahoga County subprime mortgages are either in delinquency or foreclosure. The story focused on a couple who did not take out a risky mortgage or miss a payment, but face the problems caused by having numerous vacancies on their block and are now unable to sell their home at anything near a reasonable price. Highlighted in the article are Maple Heights Mayor Michael Ciaravino, Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis, Ohio-based think tank Policy Matters Ohio, and the advocacy group East Side Organizing Project. The new Policy Matters report on Cuyahoga County foreclosures is here.

Report Finds Staggering Increase in Income Inequality in Ohio - Speaking of Policy Matters Ohio, they issued a report for Labor Day that reveals that the richest 1% of Ohio households earned more than $986,000 last year, 26 times the earnings of middle-income Ohio families. Hourly wages have not grown in the past generation despite increasing working hours, education, and hourly output. More women are working and the gender wage gap is slowly shrinking, but the wage gap between black and white workers is larger than a generation ago. The report concludes that Ohio should promote broadly-shared prosperity by investing in the future, creating more opportunity, generating "on-ramps to the middle class," protecting and building workers' assets, and retaining strong public structures.

Condolences on Death of Rep. Gillmor - Ohio Senate Democratic Leader Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) has just issued the following statement on the untimely passing of Rep. Paul Gillmor (R):

“I am saddened by the loss of U.S. Congressman Paul Gillmor. I offer my condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. Paul was a dedicated public servant, serving in the Ohio Senate for 22 years and rising to President of the Senate. The energy and hard work he contributed to serving the people of Ohio will be missed.”

UPDATE: Members of the Ohio Congressional Delegates will offer tributes to Gillmor on the floor of Congress at 4:00 pm today. I expect that C-SPAN will carry it live, although I have not been able to confirm that.It is being carried on C-SPAN.

Cleveland Crime Down in 2006, But Way Up Since 2004 - The dean of Cleveland bloggers, Bill Callahan, has a terrific post up today on crime statistics. Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Regina Brett wrote today that a police department spokesman declined to state how many additional police officers would be needed to make Cleveland safe, citing FBI statistics that show violent crimes (other than murder) declining in 2007 compared to last year. However, as Callahan explains (and displays in a nifty graph), violent crimes have risen dramatically each year from 2004 to 2006, with 2004 being the year of big layoffs in the Cleveland Police Department. The police spokesman suggests that public perception is out of step with the reality that Cleveland is not so lawless as supposed. As Callahan notes, however, "all media hype aside, Cleveland residents are reacting to a longer-term trend than just one year."