Thursday, June 08, 2006

The Talk of the Town

*People in the district continue to talk about Republican Deborah Pryce and the Republican culture of corruption. The very conservative U.S. News and World Report has an article about Rep. Bob Ney's legal problems and the fallout that other Republicans, like Pryce and Chabot, may experience if Ney gets indicted.

By the way----where is Pryce? She is hardly seen in her district. We may need to revive the book "Where's Waldo?" and rename it "Where's Pryce?"

*The Republican culture of corruption story continues in Ohio. This investigation has involved federal, state, and county officials. Former CFO of Ohio's Bureau of Workers' Compensation, Terrence Gasper, went to court yesterday. Here are some excerpts from the Columbus Dispatch:

The former chief financial officer at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation accepted 150 meals, trips, sports tickets and other gifts from agency vendors — sometimes in exchange for handing out lucrative state investment business, authorities said yesterday.

Investigators said freebies taken by Terrence W. Gasper, who pleaded guilty yesterday to corruption charges, are an "egregious" example of a public official being bribed and that charges against others are expected soon....

...Gasper, who ran bureau finances from 1995 through October 2004, pleaded guilty yesterday to both state and federal charges as part of plea agreements that require him to cooperate with the investigation. He is the first bureau official to be prosecuted.

Gasper admitted accepting free stays at a Florida condominium, a $9,000 college tuition payment for his son and other gifts that authorities said were worth "many thousands of dollars" from former coin dealer Thomas W. Noe, brokers and others doing business with the bureau....

A Dayton TV station, WHIO, is reporting that some people in the Dayton, Ohio area are worried about massive layoffs. Here is an excerpt:

Officials in the Dayton area warn that a "perfect storm" of layoffs is developing that could wipe out as many as 9,000 jobs.

The Montgomery County Job Center said plans to close seven plants and end some shifts will mean the loss of more than 2,600 jobs by the end of June. More than a 1,000 other cuts are planned by the end of the year.The Job Center's Lucius Plant said there also could be some bad news for workers at the five Delphi auto parts plants in the region. And, he said any plant closings by Delphi or other companies are likely to have a domino impact, forcing suppliers to cut back their operations, too.

This must be another example of how well the Republicans are helping the economy----NOT!