Saturday, May 22, 2010

I'm Back!!!!

*** In a post at Telemarketing Indiana at Bankers Online (7/23/02), bank lobbyist Steve Stivers, tells bankers that there are ways to get around the Indiana "do not call" telemarketing law:

Indiana’s Do-Not-Call Law, One of Toughest in US

Indiana’s do-not-call law, which permits consumers to register their names on a list that prevents telemarketers from calling them is one of the toughest in the United States. The Indiana law does not allow an exception for financial organizations, nor is there an exemption for current customer relationships. Small and large banks alike claim the Indiana law is impeding their service with customers.

A Bank One government relations vice president, Steve Stivers said, “In this falling interest rate environment, we might give our customers some options for meeting with an investment representative, we might call them and say, ‘Look, we see you have a big balance. We have some options that might work for you.’ Unfortunately, under Indiana’s existing law we are not allowed to do that. Under Indiana’s law, that would be a sales call. To us, that would be a customer service call.”

OMG! Stivers was trying to skirt the law by labeling an obvious sales call a "customer service call."
Obviously, Stivers did not understand the concept of "DO NOT CALL" and had no respect for the laws of Indiana and the preferences of bank customers.


>>>> Great job news for Ohio! Dispatch:

After battling a decline in jobs for years, Ohio received a bolt of good news yesterday: The state added 37,000 jobs during April, the best number in the nation.

It also was the biggest jump in 22 years, helping the state's jobless rate to fall to 10.9 percent last month, down from 11 percent in March, the Labor Department said.....

The number of unemployed workers in Ohio declined slightly last month to 652,000. Gov. Ted Strickland said the state still has "a long way to go," but that Ohio is "making steady progress in the right direction."

This is definitely good news. The Bush created recession might be over.


**** The cozy relationship between the Kasich/Taylor ticket and charter school owners worries supporters of public schools.

Plunderbund:

....The bill that allows White Hat Management the ability to seize the charter schools’ property if their contract is not renewed, even if the charter schools had purchased the equipment with its own taxpayer provided funds, was passed in the final month of a lame duck session of the General Assembly in 2006 and signed into law one week before Gov. Strickland took office, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

To the surprise of nobody, White Hat Management’s executives have been major donors to the Kasich-Taylor campaign, as they’ve been to all other prior Republican causes. In fact, the lame-duck bill that gave White Hat Management so much leverage over the for-profit charter schools was authored by Ken Blackwell’s running mate, who also received considerable support from White Hat’s execs.....

....From David Brennan’s wallet to John Kasich’s mouth. He wants to give David Brennan more of the “market share” of building Florida mansions in Naples with tax dollars meant to educate children....

Kasich/Taylor's support of charter schools is dangerous for parents of school children. Why should tax dollars be given to charter schools when they continue to under perform? The charter school connection with Kasich/Taylor should worry every taxpayer in Ohio. (Jon Husted has also been a big recipient of Brennan and White Hat Management political contributions.) If Kasich/Taylor and Husted sell off our public schools to their charter school political contributors, our children will suffer from inadequate educations. It just might be what the Republicans want---- poorly educated Ohioans who will follow the GOP like sheeple.