Ohio

Five lingering questions over Ohio train derailment, toxic spill

Published

1 year ago

February 14, 2023

Five lingering questions over Ohio train derailment, toxic spill

Residents of the small city of East Palestine, Ohio are again of their properties this week following their evacuation over looming explosion fears after a practice carrying 20 automobiles of hazardous supplies derailed.

The contents of the rail automobiles have since been burned to stop an explosion, whereas officers performed a “managed launch” of poisonous chemical compounds. Noxious odors have additionally largely dispersed from city, although nonetheless stay close to some streams, in accordance with native reviews.

Questions have swirled in latest days across the root causes of the accident and whether or not residents needs to be involved a couple of continued risk to land and water. It’s additionally raised scrutiny over security laws.

Listed here are 5 lingering questions concerning the spill:

What was on the practice — and what received out?

Quick protection of the Norfolk Southern practice derailment targeted on an pressing risk — 5 leaking automobiles of vinyl chloride, a cancer-causing, explosive chemical ingredient used to make exhausting plastic like PVC pipe.

Confronted with the chance of an explosion, emergency responders diverted the leaking vinyl chloride right into a trench and burned it off — changing it into phosgene gasoline, used as a deadly chemical weapon in World Battle I.

Officers urged residents to shortly evacuate, with Gov. Mike DeWine (R) saying at a media briefing, “You should go away. You simply want to depart. This can be a matter of life and loss of life.”

Two days later, with the gasoline dispersed, state and native well being officers declared “it’s now secure for group members to return to their residences.”

However these 5 practice automobiles — every doubtlessly holding hundreds of gallons of vinyl chloride — weren’t the one hazardous materials, in accordance with paperwork the practice firm supplied to the Environmental Safety Company (EPA).

In the course of the wreck, EPA investigators mentioned they discovered different hazardous material-containing automobiles “derailed, breached and/or on hearth.”

These substances included industrial solvents like ethylene glycol monobutyl ether — which may be absorbed via the pores and skin and is poisonous to liver and kidneys — and ethylhexyl acrylate, one other recognized carcinogen that’s poisonous to the lungs and nervous system.

In keeping with the EPA, about 20 rail automobiles within the wreck have been listed as carrying hazardous supplies, and after the spill chemical compounds have been seen working into storm drains. Different chemical compounds have been buried on web site.

These chemical compounds didn’t keep in place — all of these listed are nonetheless being launched “to the air, floor soils, and floor waters,” the EPA reported.

What’s within the water?

Sulphur Run, the chemical-smelling creek that runs via East Palestine, connects via various waterways right down to the Ohio River, snaking via a densely populated countryside dotted with cities, cities and fields.

Final week, officers within the Ohio River group of Weirton, W.Va., detected butyl acrylate — one other chemical listed among the many burning automobiles — although they aren’t certain if it got here from the spill upriver, The Weirton Each day Instances reported.

Additional downstream in Cincinnati, officers have been monitoring water intakes to see if the chemical compounds make it to them. If detected, officers instructed native station WLWT they may shut off consumption valves to permit the chemical plume to float by.

Different residents don’t benefit from water therapy amenities to insulate them from spills. Fish kills proliferated alongside Ohio River tributaries within the days after the East Palestine spill, together with Little Beaver Creek, a Nationwide Scenic River, WKBN reported.

These streams are an necessary web site for the reintroduction of the hellbender salamander, an endangered species in Ohio — and a creature that, like different amphibians, is at explicit danger from water air pollution.

“We actually don’t know any of the consequences on the hellbender inhabitants the place we’ve accomplished the reintroduction of these within the streams. It’s gonna take time to know what the consequences are,” Matthew Smith, an official with the Ohio Division of Pure Sources, instructed WKBN.

In a press release to The Hill, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) known as on the state and federal Environmental Safety companies to make sure native households obtain full testing and cleanup and continued well being monitoring — and to make sure Norfolk Southern pays for cleanup.

Norfolk Southern mentioned on Monday it has carried out 340 in-home air assessments and hundreds of out of doors assessments, in addition to the water provide in municipal ingesting water and private and non-private wells — outcomes it would launch subsequent week.

It additionally introduced plans to create a brand new monitoring system and process drive to maintain tabs on contamination of native water provides.

Did lax laws assist trigger the crash?

Railroad security consultants and union members have reiterated requires extra stringent federal oversight of the rail business following the derailment.

One space of fixed stress has been brakes. Investigators from the Nationwide Transportation Security Board (NTSB) acquired reviews that crews of the Norfolk Southern practice pulled the emergency brake, and a mechanical situation with one of many railcar axles was found, CNN reported.

The opportunity of a break failure factors to a behind-the-scenes battle in American railroad regulation — and a spot the place critics say that each events have resisted reforms that might make People safer.

Most trains run on a system the place wheels cease separately utilizing a compression system, left-leaning information outlet The Lever reported. Against this, electronically managed pneumatic brake expertise (ECP) halts all of the automobiles concurrently — dramatically decreasing stopping time.

Whereas Norfolk Southern initially touted these advances, it was additionally a part of a coalition of rail corporations that efficiently fought the laws, successful a reprieve from the Obama administration and a repeal underneath the Trump administration, in accordance with the Lever.

The outlet reported that the Norfolk Southern practice wasn’t regulated as a “high-hazard flammable practice” despite the fact that its crash triggered a fireball.

“Railroads mustn’t use their lobbyists to dam or weaken commonsense security measures that shield employees and communities,” Brown instructed The Lever.

In his assertion to The Hill, the Ohio senator known as on the NTSB, which is investigating the derailment, to inform Congress and the Division of Transportation what may be accomplished “to avert future derailments involving hazardous supplies.”

One such measure is earlier than the company now. Members of a number of railroad unions are combating a possible rule that might permit trains utilizing the brand new digital brakes to journey 2,500 miles — up from 1,500 — with out stopping to have their brakes examined.

Whereas these trains would have digital logs, such a ledger “can not justify decreasing the frequency of inspections and repairs to coach brakes within the discipline,” Wealthy Johnson of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen mentioned in a press release.

“Such adjustments will virtually actually scale back the general security of trains working throughout the nation,” Johnson added.

Will it result in railroad reforms?

Within the aftermath of the crash, railroad union leaders have been fast to attach it to a problem they’ve warned about for years: that railroad layoffs and reliance on clockwork, rigid scheduling was working them ragged and resulting in catastrophe.

These insurance policies, rolled out underneath a broader mannequin in 2015, “pose actual threats to employees and public security,” Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Division of the AFL-CIO union, wrote the pinnacle of the Federal Railroad Administration final week.

“In actual fact, derailments per practice mile and incidents at rail yards have considerably elevated on a number of main freight railroads since they adopted the Precision Scheduled Railroading,” Regan added.

The query of scheduling is a very divisive one. Final 12 months, Congress voted to drive union employees to simply accept a cope with railroad corporations that gave them just about no capacity to take unscheduled sick time — after which narrowly voted down a plan that might have compelled the businesses to present sick time anyway.

Unions and progressive politicians see the latest derailment and leak as added proof that this was a foul resolution that benefited railroad service steadiness sheets over public security.

Final week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) linked the Ohio crash to railroads’ file 2022 earnings and what he characterised as persistent underinvestment in each infrastructure and staffing.

Sanders joined with Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) to demand rail corporations give employees not less than seven days of paid sick time.

He had motive to be optimistic: CSX Transportation — one of many nation’s largest railroad corporations — reached a deal final week with two railroad unions to supply that quantity of sick days.

In a speech, Braun framed this as a common sense measure. “On this day and age you don’t know whenever you’re going to get sick. It’s going to be a problem on retaining staff long run. The place I come from, most of these things needs to be pure,” he mentioned.

Sanders was extra pugnacious. He prompt the remainder of the most important rail carriers attain voluntary offers of their very own. “If not, I look ahead to seeing them proper right here,” he mentioned, gesturing on the Senate chambers.

Will it occur once more?

About 4.5 million tons of poisonous chemical compounds are transported via U.S. communities yearly by rail, and 12,000 trains carrying hazardous supplies cross via cities and cities every day, The Guardian reported.

“The Palestine wreck is the tip of the iceberg and a crimson flag,” Ron Kaminkow, a former Norfolk Southern freight engineer and secretary for the Railroad Staff United, instructed The Guardian. “If one thing just isn’t accomplished, then it’s going to worsen, and the subsequent derailment may very well be cataclysmic.”

Railway security advocates additionally level to reporting round near-disaster occasions.

The NTSB operates a confidential “shut name” reporting system — which permits staff to report unsafe occasions and near-misses to allow them to be mounted.

“Not one of many seven main U.S. freight railroads voluntarily use this program,” Regan, the AFL-CIO official, wrote in his letter to the Federal Railroad Administration.

Regan known as on Congress to drive rail carriers to take part within the reporting program, which he mentioned would “create a safer freight rail system and establish potential issues of safety earlier than they result in harmful catastrophes.”

With out significant reform, he wrote, “we worry that these security incidents will sadly maintain taking place.”

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Ohio

4th of July fireworks displays in NE Ohio

Published

1 hour ago

June 30, 2024

Press Room

4th of July fireworks displays in NE Ohio

Northeast Ohio (WOIO) – The Fourth of July is fast approaching this Thursday and several northeast Ohio towns, cities, and counties are celebrating with fireworks displays.

Here are some of the fireworks near you:

Cuyahoga County

Bay Village
- Time: Thursday, 9:45 p.m.
- Location: Bay Village Cahoon Memorial Park
Berea
- Time: Thursday, 10 p.m.
- Location: Over the water at Coe Lake
Cleveland
- Time: Thursday, 9 p.m.
- Location: Port of Cleveland
Lakewood
- Time: Thursday, 9:45 p.m.
- Location: Lakewood Park
Westlake
- Time: Thursday at dusk
- Location: Clague Park

Ashland County

Ashland
- Time: Thursday, 9:45 p.m.
- Location: Community Stadium
Loudonville
- Time: Thursday, 9 p.m.
- Location: Riverside Park

Ashtabula County

Conneaut
- Time: Saturday, 10 p.m.
- Location: Lakeview Park

Carroll County

Carrollton
- Time: Friday, event from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.
- Location: Carroll County Fairgrounds

Erie County

Sandusky (Cedar Point)
- Time: Thursday and Friday, 10 p.m.
- Location: Cedar Point Beach

Geauga County

Middlefield
- Time: Wednesday, 8:30 p.m.
- Location: Yoder Brother Park

Lake County

Eastlake (Lake County Captains)
- Time: Thursday, following 7 p.m. game
- Location: Classic Auto Group Park
Mentor
- Time: Thursday, following concert at 6:30 p.m.
- Location: Mentor Civic Amphitheater

Lorain County

Avon Lake
- Time: Wednesday, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
- Location: Weiss Field
Lorain
- Time: Thursday, 10 p.m.
- Location: Mile-Long Pier
North Ridgeville
- Time: Wednesday, 10 p.m.
- Location: Victory Park Ohio

Medina County

Medina
- Time: Wednesday at dusk
- Location: Medina High School
Valley City
- Time: Thursday at dusk
- Location: Mill Stream Park
Wadsworth
- Time: Wednesday, 6 p.m. to dark
- Location: Downtown Wadsworth

Portage County

Aurora
- Time: Thursday, 9:45 p.m.
- Location: W. Pioneer Trail
Hiram
- Time: Wednesday, 9:30 p.m.
- Location: Hiram College Football Field
Kent
- Time: Saturday at dark
- Location: Downtown Kent

Richland County

Mansfield
- Time: Saturday at dusk
- Location: Charles Mill Park

Stark County

Alliance
- Time: Thursday at dusk
- Location: Silver Park
Canton
- Time: Wednesday, 9:45 p.m.
- Location: McKinley Presidential Library and Museum
Canton (Italian American Festival)
- Time: Saturday, 9:30 p.m.
- Location: Centennial Plaza
Lake Cable (Canton)
- Time: Wednesday, 9:30 p.m.
- Location: Lake Cable Clubhouse
Massillon
- Time: Wednesday, 9:45 p.m.
- Location: Duncan Plaza
North Canton
- Time: Thursday at dusk
- Location: Hoover High School

Summit County

Akron
- Time: Thursday, 9:45 p.m.
- Location: Lock 3
Akron (Rubberducks)
- Time: Wednesday, game begins at 7:05 p.m.
- Location: Canal Park
Cuyahoga Falls
- Time: Wednesday, 8 p.m.
- Location: Blossom Music Center

Tuscarawas County

Mineral City
- Time: Saturday, 10 p.m.
- Location: Atwood Lake Park
New Philadelphia
- Time: Saturday, 10 p.m.
- Location: Practice Field

Wayne County

Orville
- Time: Saturday, 10:15 p.m.
- Location: Orr Park
Wooster
- Time: Thursday, 10 p.m.
- Location: Burbank/Oldman Road soccer field

Does your community have a fireworks display not on this list? Email 19tips@woio.com with the subject “4th of July.”

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Ohio

Transcript: Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio on

Published

9 hours ago

June 30, 2024

Press Room

The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, a Republican, on “Face the Nation” that aired on June 30, 2024.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Ohio Republican senator J.D. Vance. He joins us this morning from Cleveland. And Senator I should say, we’re having some technical issues. So you’re with us on Zoom. Hopefully, our uplink stays solid throughout because I got a lot of questions for you, sir.

SENATOR J.D. VANCE: Sure.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Donald Trump had a better night on Thursday during that debate by many measures. But according to our poll, he fell short on at least one of them. Fewer voters thought the former president was truthful compared with President Biden. Mr. Trump falsely claimed states are passing legislation to execute babies. I think you know that killing people is illegal in every state. He falsely claimed that the Speaker of the House at the time turned down 10,000 soldiers that he had offered to keep the peace ahead of January 6, something his own Acting Secretary of Defense testified to Congress did not happen. If he has such a strong platform. Why make false claims?

SEN. VANCE: Well, Margaret, I think the media is running interference on a lot of this stuff. We all know and Nancy Pelosi herself has admitted on camera that she could have requested more National Guard troops, she bears some responsibility for the fact that they weren’t there at the Capitol. We know that a- the multiple Democratic governors and states and even some Democratic senators and congressmen have tried to pass laws that would effectively legalize abortion up until the moment of birth. And most importantly, we know that the media seems totally uninterested, in fact-checking Joe Biden from any of the number of false claims that he made–

MARGARET BRENNAN: — You know, I lost track, sir, I’ve been told the media is on every single side of this and everything’s our fault. But let’s get back to the candidate you’re here to talk about. Chris Miller said 10,000 Troops, he was never ordered by the President to send those to the Capitol that day.

SEN. VANCE: Nancy Pelosi has said on camera, Margaret, that she bears some responsibility for the fact that the National Guard didn’t play a bigger role. But of course, we know the Speaker of the House has an extraordinary amount of influence over the Capitol Police. It’s not in dispute, Margaret and more importantly, Joe Biden said that no troops died on his watch, even though 13 American service members died, thanks to his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Joe Biden made multiple statements of falsehood during the debate. And a lot of folks in the media, yes, seemed totally uninterested, in fact, checking him. And the reason Margaret is because Donald Trump just performed so much better. There’s- there was- there was this 24-hour period, where effectively everyone honest that there was an incredible contrast between Donald Trump’s energy and command to the facts, and Joe Biden’s obvious inability to do the job as president. And now of course, we’ve trained this new media cycle where folks are trying to run cover. Look, the American people saw what they saw. Trump can do the job, Biden can’t.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You might not have heard it, but I did raise a lot of those issues to Wes Moore, the Biden surrogate who was on before you. As to where you stand on some of these issues tomorrow at the Supreme Court, it may be a significant day as we get- expected to get that decision on presidential immunity from criminal prosecution. And that’s directly relevant to the federal charges against Donald Trump. As you know, you’re a lawyer. I wonder if you become the Vice President and you’re in a Trump-Vance administration. Do you believe a president could pardon himself for federal crimes?

SEN. VANCE: Well, look, I’m focused on electing Donald Trump as president, whether I’m serving in some other roles serving as the United States Senator, I think the Trump agenda has worked, Margaret. And on this particular question–

MARGARET BRENNAN

— But would you object if the President were to try to do that?

SEN. VANCE: Maragret, we know that the President has to have immunity to do his job. Should Barack Obama be prosecuted for droning American citizens in Yemen? There are so many examples of presidents Democrats and Republicans who would not be able to discharge their duties, if the Supreme Court does not recognize some broad element of presidential discretion. I’m very confident that they’re going to be able to do that. And I’m very confident that the fundamental principle here is the President’s got to be able to do his job in the same way that police officers, judges, prosecutors, enjoy some immunity, that principle has to apply to the president too.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you do believe that a president could pardon himself for federal crimes?

SEN. VANCE: I believe that the President has broad pardon authority, Margaret, but more importantly, I think the President has immunity. It’s not about whether he should pardon himself. It’s about whether he should be prosecuted in the first place for discharging his official duties. So in that way, I sort of reject the premise of the question here. We need to have some recognition that- you know, look, a Democrat wins the presidency, they try to throw the Republican president in jail or a Republican wins the president. They try to throw the Democrat president in jail, that is the pathway to unraveling 250 years of American constitutional tradition and making the president totally unable regardless of party to do their job. That is not a good thing and it’s not something I think any Republican supports.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. To that point, President Trump on that debate stage on Thursday, suggested that Joe Biden could be criminally prosecuted after he leaves office. It wasn’t clear exactly what crime he was alleging. But he mentioned something about the U.S. border. In a Trump-Vance administration, would your Justice Department prosecute Joe Biden? And if so, for what?

SEN. VANCE: Well, first of all, that would be the responsibility of the Attorney General, Margaret. But Donald Trump did not say that he’s trying to throw his political opponent in jail. That is Joe Biden, who has in fact, already tried to do precisely that. And importantly, what he said is that if you apply the same standard that Joe Biden’s Justice Department has applied, then there are a lot of Democratic officials who could go to prison. He’s making a fundamental argument about constitutional fairness. It’s so extraordinary that people could say that Donald Trump is the one trying to use lawfare against his opponent sometime in the hypothetical future, when the very real president, that’s exactly what Joe Biden is trying to do. This is a danger–

MARGARET BRENNAN: But do you object to the premise?

SEN. VANCE: Right. And I think that what we need to recognize is that applying a consistent standard is what really matters.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you would not want the Justice Department to prosecute Joe Biden for any alleged crimes, correct?

SEN. VANCE: I want people who- Margaret, I want people who commit crimes to face the appropriate response in law. What I do not think is reasonable is for Joe Biden to weaponize his own Justice Department, going after Donald Trump, any number of crimes, some of which have already been thrown out, a number of which I think will be thrown out, including on Monday by the United States court. So the- the problem that I have Margaret is not with which Democrats should prosecute which Republican and vice versa, it’s let’s get out of the prosecuting of people based on their politics. Let- let- let’s let voters decide who the president should be, not judges and prosecutors who are politically motivated.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, you are, as everyone knows, on this very short list of potential running mates for Donald Trump. So for our viewers at home, you are 40 years old, you’ve been in the Senate for less than two years, you haven’t held elected office before this. If you are selected, alongside a nominee who is 78 years old, you will be a heartbeat from the presidency. What do you think your biggest accomplishment in the Senate has been to date?

SEN. VANCE: Well Margaret, again, I’m not running for vice president, and it’s important for us to remember that Donald Trump has been a very good president, he will be a very good president again. I think in some ways these vice presidential conversations serve to distract from the fact that we have: Donald Trump as president was a success, Joe Biden as president has been a failure. Let’s get back to success. Let’s get back to peace and prosperity. My attitude on the vice [president] thing, Margaret, is look, if he asked me, I want to help them. And of course, I would be very interested in the job. But you asked, what are my accomplishments in the United States Senate, and 18 months, Margaret, we’ve done a lot of good work for our constituents. We’ve got hundreds of millions of dollars to the Great Lakes. We’ve done a lot to help the people of East Palestine deal with a terrible train disaster. And of course, we’ve done a lot of work on making sure that Ohio has gotten defense resources that make not just Ohio but our country stronger. So there’s a lot we can hang our hat on. But I like being a senator. I’m not trying to leave the United States Senate. It’s an honor to serve the people of Ohio. And frankly, if you asked me, that’s where I expect to be in six months. That’s where I expect to be in a few years.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, J.D. Vance. We’ll be watching and hopefully we’ll have you back in-studio next time.

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Ohio

Jason Stephens has the extreme-right reined in. But how choppy will the waters get?

Published

16 hours ago

June 30, 2024

Press Room

Jason Stephens has the extreme-right reined in. But how choppy will the waters get?

Thomas Suddes
| Columbus Dispatch

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com

In what looks as if it were the final few days of legislating before a long, slow, summer off, the Ohio General Assembly was in a frenzy last week, passing measures, big and small, that by right should have been resolved long ago.

Still, as a pure study of human nature, there’s nothing like watching the legislature try to squeeze what should have been six months of lawmaking into a few frantic late-June sessions timed to end before Independence Day, to allow for state legislators’ appearances in hometown parades.

Ohio passes bills in special session: Ohio Senate passes Biden ballot fix, foreign campaign money ban. Here’s what it means

People have sometimes likened the “process” to sausage-making. That’s grossly unfair to sausage-makers, whose products, unlike the legislature’s, must at least pass inspection.

As others have eloquently reported, perhaps no General Assembly in decades has been less productive than the one now in session.

Reining in the extreme-right – for now

Part of that is structural.

Although the House is composed of 67 Republicans and 32 Democrats, Democrats have clout out of proportion to their numbers.

The Reason: There’s a split among the 67 Republican between intra-GOP-caucus foes and allies of Republican Speaker Jason Stephens, of Lawrence County’s Kitts Hill, who won the House’s gavel with the help of House Democrats’ votes.

And to keep the gavel, and to avoid riling his de facto Democratic allies, Stephens, it appears, has reined in House Republicans’ extreme-right faction, a noisy group that isn’t enthused about much of anything except the past.

Meanwhile, the Senate, led by President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, has tended to be more conservative, its Republicans are for the most part united, because in the Senate, what Matt Huffman wants, Matt Huffman often seems to get — a fact not lost on the Statehouse’s teeming corporate lobbies, always pushing for bills or amendments to advance private interests, and who prefer results to promises when it comes to legislation in Columbus.

(That’s so in a state whose per capita personal income last matched the nation’s in 1969 and, as noted here before, has been declining ever since.

Voters get distracted from that fact by the General Assembly’s politically convenient practice of pitting Ohioans against once another — on such topics as abortion, sexuality and gender identity.)

And now Huffman, who’s being term-limited out of the Senate, will be returning to the House in January, vying to wrest its speakership from fellow Republican Stephens.

Anti-Stephens House Republicans have gained control of the House GOP caucus’s campaign fund, what there is of it, in a legal fight the House’s anti-faction Stephens faction won, and which he lost.

What is Stephens facing? Judge strips control of campaign funds from Ohio House speaker ahead of November election

If you’re Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, with 30 months left in your governorship, you can expect to be navigating in at best choppy waters in the state Senate and Ohio’s House in 2025 and 2026, no matter how the Huffman-Stephens contest turns out.

Pitting Ohioans against each other instead of tackling real issues

At the same time, intra-party clawing and knifing over the 2026 statewide Ohio tickets of both the Republican and Democratic parties, will distract Statehouse attention from issues that continue to demand attention – school funding, property taxes and utility rates, gerrymandering of General Assembly districts – to sensation-of-the-day “issues” and policy gimmicks.

The creation of an Ohio culture war: Ohio lawmaker waging nasty war on educators, librarians and drag queens despite real problems

As things stand today on Capitol Square, even the most jaded Statehouse bystander likely longs for the era when the aim of the game was to get things done, not just score points to win headlines and attract talk-show invites.

Not to worry, though, before it went home, the General Assembly was preparing to give Ohio’s voters billions of dollars in gifts in the form of local construction projects – “gifts” the recipients, not the donors, will pay for long after today’s General Assembly has retired with nice pensions and no regrets.

On the eve of Independence Day 2024, and what’s likely to be the most momentous presidential election since Lincoln’s in 1860, that’s the wonderful world of Ohio politics today: Nostalgia for the past, indifference to the future and devotion to the status quo.

It’s a great life – if you know the right people.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com

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