News and Notes: Ohio

Newsy bits from around the Buckeye State today:

Draft DePiero - Thanks to a new website with an internet petition, now you can add your voice to the chorus urging the popular mayor of Parma, Dean DePiero (D-Parma), to mount a primary challenge to serial long-shot presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland).

Kucinich's Rant: "It's The Oil, Stupid!" - Speaking of Cleveland's entry in the White House derby, I caught part of his long-sought one-hour floor speech on Iraq yesterday. He laid out his case that the underlying purpose of our presence in that traumatized nation is the greedy interest of big oil companies in vast untapped oil reserves. His case is rendered more difficult to dismiss by the fact that the oil law that the U.S. is pushing Iraq's parliament to pass was largely shaped by those western oil companies and it would grant them huge development opportunities in the country. Jill has the link to the printable version the speech.

Strickland Calls on Bush to Address Gas Price Crunch - Ohio's new governor joined top officials from 16 other states in calling on the president to work with the oil companies to find a long term solution to rising gas prices.

Ohio Senate Approves "Instant Racing" Machines at Race Tracks - The bill would allow the horse racing industry to install machines that allow gamblers to bet electronically on thousands of old races. But ... isn't that a lot like the slot machines that voters emphatically rejected last November?

Dann Proposes Regulating "Skill" Gambling Machines - Betting machines that resemble slots but purportedly require some element of "skill" have sprouted up all over the state. Attorney General Marc Dann (D-Liberty Township) has proposed a plan to test and certify those machines. Yesterday, Dann settled a lawsuit with a manufacturer of two types of such machines, and the settlement allows Dann to hire an independent expert to determine whether that manufacturer's products are based more on skill (which is legal) or more on chance (generally illegal). He wants to expand that testing to all such machines.