Ohio would be PERFECT for this

There is one project that would jump-start the Ohio Economy and put Ohio on the map for some years; High Speed Rail.

California is attempting to build a high speed train system that would connect Anahim, Los Angeles, Fresno and San Francisco. They have launched a $9.9 billion state bond offering to finance the proposal.

Ohio needs to do the exact same thing. Such a train system would connect Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Phase two could connect Toledo, Akron/Canton and the South-East Appelachian area. Phase three could go to Indianapolis, Detroit and Pittsburgh.
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Ohio's Strickland is screwing up

Re: State shouldn't limit flexible workweek

Strickland is screwing up (see Strickland takes away flexible hours and State workers back to 8-to-5). He's messing with state worker's schedules. He's making it more difficult for people with kids (single parents even more so), unionized workers and people taking classes to stay employed with the state.

Why does it take Strickland's office to deem such policies down upon management of State Agencies. Can't those whom run each agency not manage their own employees time, schedule and workload? Don't they know their own employees the best to judge how to handle them? Really, is the state going to lose money if an employee leaves for an hour to go to a dentist appointment and then work an hour late to make up the work?

With the brain-drain of higher-educated people leaving the state for jobs why would one create rules that prevent them from shifting schedules to take classes and/or training. That seems counterproductive to keeping a highly educated workforce.

If Strickland's moves are meant to drive people to leave state employment, it's working. Those that can leave, will. Those that can't leave, won't. Let's be realistic, those are the bottom dwellers that private employment would never employ in the first place. He'll claim that his leadership has saved the state vast sums of money. In reality, he's driving away from state employment those that are most wanted. He'll claim up front goals and savings. But just a few short years from now all state agencies will feel the pain two-fold.

I'm beginning to regret having voted for him. And that's saying a lot, because Taft's administration was a total flop. And they mention this guy from Vice President with Obama? The thought makes me want to scream!

Also related: Ohio State Workers Are Coping: It’s Now 8 to 5, With a 5-Day Week and Strickland Diet to Slim Down Government, Gambling Machine Expansion to Fatten Coffers


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Everyone's leaving Ohio!

Our local newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch, has an article titled "More people leaving Ohio". Basically, the article is stating that more people are leaving Ohio then coming here. This claim is based on the fact that United Van Lines says for the 15th consecutive year, 57% percent of the moves they have made are out of Ohio.

No one should be suprised hearing this news. That's right, absolutely no one.

Ohio's Economy sucks. We have auto plants closing, or near-closing every year. Many of those who worked in the manufacturing industry that we've known over years, are gone, retired (not by choice) or are working in jobs that are no where near as advanced (nor well paying) as what they were doing in the steel and auto industries. Some of our cities don't rank well. Topics of discussion with family members are often dominated with the debate of whether to accept the then-current early retirement package being offered by insert manufacturing company with a union here.

We in Ohio cannot seem to keep religious matters from imposing upon everyone in the state. We seem to have religious wacko's coming out of the wood work (ahem, from the Cincinati area) working to tell everyone how to act. Will the young people in our state stay in such an environment? No, they won't. Look at the populations of some states out west. They are closing grade schools because there is no young population base that's marrying and having kids to supply the schools. They're all leaving or already left (we have family in Oklahoma, someday I'll write about that).

The higher-education situation in Ohio sucks too. For a few years now, there've been a lot Ohioans going to North Carolina (and obviously other states). Why? Because it's cheaper to go there in-order to send their kids to college. Yes, for a few years they are paying NC's out-of-state tuition rate, but it's far cheaper to do so then stay in Ohio and pay Ohio's in-state rates. Obviously, after you've moved down south to educate your family, and enjoyed the warmer temperatures, why would you move back to Ohio? Answer: you won't.

The last 15 years of "Republican Control" have stagnated Ohio's Economy. The decision to cut higher education funding (hence force the Colleges to significantly increase their rates) immediately started killing Ohio's economy because it's becoming near impossible for many people to send their kids to state schools. Prior to this, in-state schools were always the cheaper schools to send your children to. Another boneheaded cut - From 2001 to 2003 Ohio cut $268 million out of their child care assistance fund. If you have a part of our population who aren't making squat, have children, want to goto college and will eventually have a decent income from having gone to college why would you cut their knees out from underneath them? If they cannot afford childcare, they won't attend college. It's that simple; Help them help themselves to earn a decent income and fuel that tax base.

Thankfully Ken Blackwell didn't win the election. We'd already discussed how soon we could relocate out of the state if he'd won.

This all lends itself to a higher-education brain-drain throughout the state. Who thinks that will help attract industry? (I will admit the decision to drop Ohio's Tangible Personal Property Tax was a smart, belated, move).

If you have no people, you have no tax base. That's a brow-raising thought isn't it? Look out west for what Ohio could easily become.
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Hunting Masacer

This year in Ohio, hunters took 111,672 deer during the state’s weeklong deer-gun season. If you combine the adult seasons, youth seasons, muzzleloader season and archery season the total was 166,534.

However, there is a dark side so these statistics. It's the number of unknown deer that were taken but never reported.

This year we saw it again. Idiots had shot deer, pulled the skin back, taken some of the hind quarter meat, and then left them. They didn't take the rest of it to claim it with the state. They didn't take the rest of it to process it and use it for it's meat, hide, etc.

We saw this on the side of the road:



Infact, on the left, you can see the road.



In the picture below, these are most of the legs, which they threw further off the side of the road into the woods - just visible if you peered into the front of the forest from the roadside.



It looked as though they used some plastic bags and paper to take their haul away. They left some of the internals w/ the extra bags and what-not to litter it up.




What a shame. The pictures are very depressing to look at. It is idiots such as this that giving hunting a bad name.
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