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Sep

6

Three muni candidates spend thousands to employ Hudson-based The Impact Group for campaigns

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Read today’s Chagrin Herald Sun story here.

Read about The Impact Group here.

The three candidates are Orange Village Mayor Kathy Mulcahy, Moreland Hills mayoral candidate Susan Renda and Twinsburg Mayor Katherine Procop.

Here’s the website for the three magazines – including Municipal Leader Northeast Ohio – published by The Impact Group’s principles, Tom Speaks and Don Polyak, through their venture, Verbatim Publishing Inc. – a website that appears to be dormant or “gone over” to the the three mag’s site.

Neither individual with The Impact Group gave information to or had information reported about their previous work in the article. However, this Tom Speaks has communications experience in Akron. I haven’t found anything much about Polyak yet except that he’s been a speaker at the Bliss Institute.

According to their most recent NEOhio edition of the magazine, they’re big supporters of regionalism.

Ryan Fissel and Paul Ackerman – what say you? You’re the only other people I know by name who do this stuff.

Chicken and egg question? re: which came first, the candidate’s desire for the services, or the services desire for the candidate?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 5:19 pm September 6th, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off 

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Sep

6

Casino coming to Ohio within 12 miles of Youngstown-will it undo all, any of the good there?

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Now, several times, Brewed Fresh Daily has covered Youngstown’s deservedly heralded efforts at making it in the 21st Century. So how do the folks there – all of them – feel about the new 250 acre spread that will be a harness racing and casino location?

Read all about it here.

Highlights:

Centaur officials immediately announced they would aggressively pursue a license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to install up to 5,000 slot machines, hoping the track and casino will be operational in 2009.

Bedford president Carmen W. Shick said he intended to build a water park, hotel and other businesses on about 300 acres he and his siblings will retain that surround the Valley View tract.

Centaur plans to build its own hotel on the land it is purchasing from Bedford Downs. The two entities will not be partners in the gambling or racing operations.

Oh goody – now parents can leave their kids in water parks while gambling, instead of in their cars.

Sorry – I couldn’t help myself.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:29 pm September 6th, 2007 in Politics | 2 Comments 

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Sep

6

Plain Dealer reports on Circuit City receipt/Michael Righi case

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The link for today’s Plain Dealer story, “Can Store Security Guards Search Your Bags?” is here.

Jeff Hess first wrote about it here four days ago, I wrote about it here on the same day. Michael Righi’s own words are here.

As I just wrote on Jeff’s blog, here’s how I feel:

Of course enforcement is another thing and then there’s always standard usage/practice, and then there’s how they apply what they’re saying they’re going to do. The company’s lawyers tell them what to put up and I would guess it’s usually as Draconian as they think they can get away with. Then, yes, people need to challenge it and we end up learning what the community value actually is, versus what the store wants to get away with in order to meet whatever objective they were trying to meet in the first place.

What is disappointing in ALL of this, the whole broad range of such things, is that if people had more common ideas of what was reasonable, we could make agreements – that if you do this, I’ll do that. If you don’t do this, I’m okay with not doing that. Whatever.

These waivers and disclaimers and policies reflect distrust. That is the saddest thing of all to me. That behavior gives rise to distrust and then everyone and everything gets swallowed up.

How’s that for pre-Rosh Hashana opining?

Yeah, that about covers it for me for now. The PD has some input from Case law school professor Lew Katz and the ACLU here.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:13 pm September 6th, 2007 in Politics | 4 Comments 

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Sep

6

Mortgage Bankers Assn: new foreclosure record hit, Ohio not named as one of the drivers

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Does anyone else roll their eyes when they see these headlines about new records being made for the “number of mortgage loans that have entered the foreclosure process”?

Why roll eyes? Well, it’s true – it hasn’t been me per se that’s been warning of this. But I’ve been reading about others, particularly in NEOhio, who’ve been raising the red flags literally for years.

Which all exists as another reason (for another post for another day) for why people should be reading blogs: the people who write blogs address issues that take foerver to get published by the big box news outlets. And if you want a legislative solution to such a problem? Fahgeddabout it. Double, triple or quadruple the length of time the issue will be addressed legislatively.

Okay – I’m spiralling down on this one now. Just go read the MarketWatch story that says,

According to the group’s quarterly delinquency survey, a seasonally adjusted 0.65% of loans on one- to four-unit residential properties entered the foreclosure process during the period, the highest level in the survey’s 55-year history. In the first quarter, when the previous record was set, 0.58% of loans entered the process; a year ago, 0.43% entered the process.

Driving the numbers were the states of California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona, said Doug Duncan, MBA’s chief economist and senior vice president of research and business development, in a news release.
“Were it not for the increases in foreclosure starts in those four states, we would have seen a nationwide drop in the rate of foreclosure filings. Thirty-four states had decreases in their rates of new foreclosure and the increases were very modest in the states with increases, other than those four,” Duncan said.

What’s different about California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona? The article doesn’t provide any demographic specifics. I look to see what I can find but Bill – what’s a good resource for checking on that?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:27 am September 6th, 2007 in Politics | 3 Comments 

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Sep

6

Carnival of Ohio Politics #81

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Thank you to Ben Keeler of the Keeler Political Report for doing a great job on the Carnival of Ohio Politics #81.

The Carnival’s contributor list is up to 41 Ohio blogs. That’s fantastic. Among this week’s 15 entrants is one newcomer, Inside the Northwest Territory.

In regard to the reminder about keeping it Ohio, I actually was one of the offenders! I sent in a link to my Maria Sharapova sexism shriekout. Nothing Ohio about it – except that the shrieker, me, lives here. Otherwise, sorry about that Ben. I was probably still thinking about lice when I sent you the submissions.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:04 am September 6th, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off 

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