Some of Today's State News Headlines
Today is Friday January 25, 2008
Some critics blame tax breaks for budget shortfall
COLUMBUS (AP) - Tax cuts given to Ohio businesses and individuals as part of a 2005 tax reform package can be blamed for the state's projected budget shortfall, critics of the tax changes said Thursday.
Others took shots at increased spending on Medicaid, the federal-state program that help pays for health care for the needy, disabled and low-income families.
Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland announced Wednesday that projections for the current two-year budget show a shortfall ranging from $733 million to $1.9 billion by the end of June 2009, depending how the economy fares.
State agencies have been asked to find ways to cut spending.
The tax breaks, which were intended to boost manufacturing investment and give citizens more money to pump into the economy, were adopted by the Republican-controlled Legislature and eagerly embraced by the Strickland administration when it took office last year.
(Refer to page 8 of today's Daily Chief-Union)
Federal judge in Ohio stripped of 5 death penalty cases
CINCINNATI (AP) - A chief federal judge took away five death penalty cases from a colleague criticized by some prosecutors for taking as many as eight years to issue appeals rulings.
Judge Sandra Beckwith, chief of the U.S. District Court for southern Ohio, said she made the unusual move to ease the workload of U.S. District Judge Walter Rice.
Beckwith said the decision was not made in response to complaints about Rice's handling of capital cases. The decision was mutual, she added.
"Judge Rice has a very heavy docket, and it seemed logical to give him some relief," she said. "These are enormous cases. They take a lot of time."
Two of the appeals removed from Rice's docket Thursday were filed almost eight years ago. The most recent case was filed three years ago.
(Refer to page 8 of today's Daily Chief-Union)
State high court declines to hear case over abortion files
COLUMBUS (AP) - The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit filed by the parents of a teenage girl that sought to have a Planned Parenthood clinic turn over a decades' worth of abortion records.
The court voted 4-3 this week not to hear the suit, leaving intact a state appeals court ruling last year that said the Cincinnati clinic did not have to turn over the records. Chief Justice Thomas Moyer dissented.
The girl's family alleges that the clinic unlawfully failed to get consent from a parent before performing an abortion on the girl, as required by Ohio law. The 2005 lawsuit sought records of other minors' abortion records going back 10 years in an effort to show that the clinic had a pattern of violating the law.
(Refer to page 8 of today's Daily Chief-Union)
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