http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/41183727#41183727
* Ohio is experiencing a budget crisis, but....
Dispatch:
The state's law-enforcement agency will ask lawmakers for an extra $3 million to pay for additional security, including measures to protect Gov. John Kasich and his family....
...The Ohio Department of Public Safety is asking the Controlling Board -- a panel of lawmakers that approves spending requests -- to green-light an additional $2.9 million for staffing and $100,000 for equipment from the fund that pays for security for dignitaries including the governor.
The fund currently is allowed up to $6.4 million, but only has $1.4 million in the bank, according to the Department of Public Safety. Its revenue comes from fines on tickets issued by state troopers...
When Kasich refused to live in the Governor's Mansion, the Department of Public Safety was forced to provide security for the family at their private home and the Governor's Mansion.
I think that the public is owed the details on why the request for staff and equipment is so tremendously high.
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...Kasich has proved himself neither better or worse than the rest of the GOP.
In naming the 20 full-time agency directors who so far constitute his cabinet, all of Kasich's selections have been white. (Four have been female.) Responding to criticisms for these selections, Kasich has argued -- reasonably enough -- that he has a right to appoint whomever he feels will be the most helpful to these important executive posts...
....it strains credulity to believe that not one of the 20 most qualified individuals to assist the governor in his cabinet is a person of color. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, non-white citizens (including Hispanics) make up approximately 17 percent of the state. The last Ohio governor whose entire senior Cabinet did not feature a single non-white secretary was Michael DiSalle, a Democrat, who last served in 1962....
The Republicans and Kasich seem unwilling and unable to bring anyone other than whites into their party.