How green can the Valley be?

Congressman Tim Ryan has announced $2.7 million for an incubator to help spawn green jobs here in the Mahoning Valley.

Ryan said:

$2,700,000 for the Warren Technology and Business Center for Energy Sustainability

Money would be used to rehabilitate a facility in Warren. The prime focus of the incubator will be the creation and expansion of clean technologies including alternative energy sources and green building materials. This will also be the first area building to be rehabilitated under LEED standards and is expected to be a model for green building redevelopment.

Since he has been elected, Ryan has been consistent in his goals — one of them is to use earmarks to for cutting edge technology jobs that can help the Warren-Youngstown economy grow. These kinds of earmarks do more to bring good paying jobs to the Mahoning Valley than anything previous members of Congress have done.

Yes, that includes Jim Traficant. Many think Traficant’s big legacy is the Covelli Center, which is nice and helps downtown Youngstown, but what kind of jobs does it produce? And selling his vote to get the money destroyed his effectiveness in Congress, if he had any left at that point.

Traficant’s one true accomplishment was his work on the airbase at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

However, in less than half the time Traficant spent in Congress, Ryan has done more to foster research, economic development and good jobs throughout his district.

Starting an incubator in Warren to compliment the software incubator in downtown Youngstown has been one of Ryan’s goals. How he is on the verge of getting signifcant money to make it real.

I just hope he doesn’t let local politicians somehow screw it up.

Olympic failure

In the featured section on its home page, Yahoo earlier today had an AP analysis about President Obama and the Olympics and a story about Paris Hilton’s lastest fashion faux pas.

Despite the earnestness of the AP reporter, I’d say Yahoo had the Obama story played just about right. After trying to make it seem like a disaster for Obama’s presidency, the most telling line in the analysis says the whole thing may be forgotten in a day or two.

There was nothing wrong with Obama going — if nothing else Olympics construction jobs would be an economic stimulus.

And had he not gone, he would have been criticized for not trying.  Face it. No Democrat can do anything good. Ever. At least according to some right-wing commentators.

Once the Sunday talk shows get done with this issue, it will have more than outlived its usefulness in filling up the 24-hour news cycle.

Mayors’ gun stance

Warren Mayor Michael O’Brien and Youngtown Mayor Jay Williams have run afoul of the National Rifle Association for joiing a group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

O’Brien told the Tribune Chornicle, “I feel it’s an appropriate position for a mayor to be against illegal guns and getting them out of the hands of juveniles and criminals.”

One would hope.

However, the NRA has a point. While it is hard to object to MAIL’s principles, their legislative agenda is pretty much the exact opposition of the NRA’s.

For instance, on its web site MAIL takes credit for helping defeat a bill that would require one state to recognize conceal carry laws from other states. The effect of that bill would be to water down tougher laws and make the weakest conceal-carry bills the law of the land. And the NRA is for the weakest gun laws it can get.

So whatever else it is, MAIL is a lobbying group trying to to help define what is or isn’t an illegal gun. That’s OK, but it makes members like O’Brien legitimate political targets for the NRA’s political action committee.

I applaud O’Brien and Williams for being the only Mahoning Valley mayors to have joined MAIL so far. But O’Brien is a bit naive if he thinks he can deflect negative political fallout from his decision by merely saying MAIL is about “public safety” and the “NRA campaign is misdirected.”

It’s not a death tax

Republicans have cleverly called the inheritance tax the “death tax.” It has become so widely used that even some misguided Democrats have used the phrase.

Now, Ohio voters are likely to hear it a lot more. A group called Americans for Prosperity is planning on circulating petitions to end Ohio’s inheritance tax. They passed the first hurdle in the process last week with the Ohio Ballot Board approved their proposed statute.

But the inheritance tax is not a tax on death. It is a tax on the transfer of wealth from one generation to another. President Roosevelt — Theodore, the Republican, that is — said this when he proposed an inheritence tax:

“The absence of effective State, and, especially, national, restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. The prime need to is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which it is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise. …

“The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective — a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.”

In America, dynasties are not based on inherited titles, but inherited wealth. Think of the Rockefellers.

The inheritance tax should not cripple small family businesses. If that is the case as some claim, the law can easily be amended.

But there is no reason to do away with it. The inheritance tax is a tax on the living who acquire great wealth through no effort of their own. The tax is intended to level the playing field for all Americans; ending it would preserve inordinate power for a select few special interests.

Supreme Court race nasty form the start

The Ohio Republican Party on Wednesday launched a shot across the bow of district court Judge Mary Jane Trapps’ campaign for the state Supreme Court. They did not even wait for her to officially announce.

But wait. Appearing with Trapp at her formal announcement were Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and Democrat Party Chairman Chris Redfern.

So much for Supreme Court races being nonpartisan.

The race between Trapp and Jutice Judith Lanzginer will be on the ballot in Novemebr 2010 — assuming Trapp wins the Democratic primary. That seems pretty certain, with the party leadership lining up behind her this early.

Republicans immediately tried to discredit Trapp, saying she has been ineffective as the administrative judge of the 11th District Court of Appeals, which sits in Warren. Judges Diane Grendell and Colleen Mary O’Toole dissented to her re-appointment on Jan. 6 of this year, saying she is secretive and does not kep her word and her decisions have increased costs for the court.

Democrats responded by calling Grendell and O’Toole “hack judges,” according to the Columbus Dispatch.

The early name calling aside, Democrats have only themselves to blame for the all-GOP Ohio Supreme Court.  Republicans have consistently outspent Democrats in Ohio Supreme Court races. While million-dollor Supreme Court races are a bad thing for Ohio, William O’Neill went nowhere with his no-money-from-nobody campaign a couple of years back.

If Demcorats want to elect Trapp or any other Democrat to the court, they need to start spending like they mean it — at least until some sensible rules are put into place. Maybe the presence of Redfern and Strickland at Trapp’s press conference suggests that is going to change.

Forum Health bankruptcy

Creditors have lost confidence in bankrupt Forum Health’s management, a spokesperons for creditors said in today’s Tribune Chronicle. Some of us lost confidence in the management long ago.

What is especially revealing are statements that creditors want someone with health care experience to run the hospital system, which includes Hillside Hospital and Trumbull Memorial in Warren and Northside Medical Center in Youngstown. That action, of course, would rule out current CEO Walter “Buzz” Pishkur, whose experience is with water companies. Trumbull County residents should welcome such a move.

After all, Northside has been a money pit for years, soaking up resources from Trumbull Memorial. While nobody wants to see Northside workers lose their jobs if it should close, it would be worse for Northside to take down Trumbull Memorial with it. Forum has had years to find a way to deal with Northside and has consistently failed — despite paying millions to consultants.

Doctors at Trumbull have seen the writing  on the wall and called on the Forum Board to dissolve the Trumbull Memorial-Northside merger that created Forum Health. Unfortunately, those votes of the medical staff have gone nowhere, and with vary rare exceptions, individual doctors have been reluctant to take their case public.

In all of this, it would be interesting to hear how from Forum board members from Trumbull County explain how continuing the merger is good for Turmbull Memorial.  But the remain silent as well.

Forum has made a boatload of mistakes in the past few years. Maybe it is time for the creditors to come up with a restructuring plan and for the court to put experienced leadership in place.

Obama talks to students

Now that the White House has released the text of President Obama’s speech to school children, it is clear just how ridiculous and misplaced all the anger and concerns were.

Here’s an example:

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

Voinovich and health care

Ohio Sen. George Voinovich doesn’t seem to get it when it come to health care.

He voted no on re-importation of drugs from Canada, no on allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for drugs, no on expanding the SCHIP program.

The  American Public Health Association annually ranks lawmakers based on key votes. Over 10 year period, Voinovich has shown little support for public health issue. Former Sen. Mike DeWine, also a Republican, consistently scored better than Voinovich in the APHA rankings.

Here are APHA rankings since 1999:

• 1999: Voinovich 17 percent; DeWine 50 percent
• 200: Voinovich 0; DeWine 29
• 2001: Voinovich 0; DeWine 14
• 2002: Voinovich 0; DeWine 20
• 2003: Voinovich 0; DeWine 0
• 2004: Voinovich 29; DeWine 71
• 2005: Voinvoch 10; DeWine 60
• 2006: Voinovich 40; Dewine 60
• 2007: Voinovich: 25; Democrat Sherrod Brown 100
• 2008: Voinvich 50; Brown 83

It is seems safe to say Voinovich does not understand the social justice issues involved in making sure every American has access to affordable heatlh care. Incredibly, Voinoich includes his views on health under “American Competitiveness.”

Affordable Health Care: Health care is another of our nation’s most pressing domestic challenges, affecting the bottom line for many businesses, and the pocketbooks of many Ohioans. Sen. Voinovich continues to fight for access to quality, affordable health care.

With America’s inefficient system of linking health care to work, the effects on businesses is an important part of the problem. While that linkage goes a long way in explaining his dismal voting record on health issues, perhaps it is the key to convincing the senator to support health care reform this year. From General Motors to small family owned businesses, health care costs are a major problem. While it may be a competiveness issue for the GMs fo the world, for the mom-and-pop businesesses, access to affordable health care is a life and death issue.

Brown on health care

Tort reform is not a necessary part of health care reform, Sen. Sherrod Brown said Thursday night in at Youngstown State University.

In response to the last question of the evening, Brown, a Democrat, said that Texas has some of the most strict limits on lawsuit settlements in the nation, but medical costs that are rising as fast as most other places. He doubts tort reform would have much effect on the cost of health care.

To those who place all Democrats in the pockets of trial lawyers, it would come as no surprise that Brown opposes caps on settlements in malpractice cases. He said those injured should be fairly compensated for their loss.

However, Brown said he could support some measure to limit frivolous lawsuits and better licensing procedures to weed out bad doctors who are responsible for raising malpractice insurance rates for others.

Brown also said thinks the tide of public opinion has turned in favor of health care reform. Three things make him think reform will now pass.

First is President Obama’s plans to take a more active role in the debate with his speech before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Second is what he saw in Cincinnati and Akron, where supporters of reform outnumbered opponents at his appearances.

I hope he is right.

At the very least, Congress has to make health insurance accessible to everyone and affordable. For one thing, that means no exclusions for pre-existing conditions and no rate discrimination based on age or sex. Even Rob Portman, the top Republican candidate for Senate next year says on his campaign Web site, “We must make health care coverage affordable and accessible to every Ohio family, regardless of their situation or preexisting health conditions.”

With that kind of agreement on basic goals, it would be a shame if Congress failed to reach some compromise on how to help people.

Brown spoke for about half an hour and then took questions from the audience, staying until everyone had a chance to ask his or her question. Things were civil. Several conservatives politely asked pointed questions and Brown responded respectfully.

At one point, a woman tried to pin Brown down as she read from an what appeared to be a copy of a notorius e-mail message being circulated among conservatives.  She asked specifically about federal funding for abortion in the bill and Brown correctly answered that the health care reform bill does not change existing law that prohibits federal funding for abortions. He also pointed out that the e-mail was mostly wrong despite its claims to cite specific parts of the bill.

FactCheck.Org has prepared a detailed response to that email called “Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200.” Find it here.

As people filed out, I did not get a chance to ask the woman what she thought of Brown’s answer.

Welcome back Jimbo

Now that Jim Traficant is out of prison, he will hopefully enjoy his twilight years in quiet and seclusion. Attempting a political comeback might help his ego and gratify his fans, but it would not help the Mahoning Valley the least little bit.

Traficant’s  supporters talk about his straight talk about China and NAFTA and how he stood up for the little guy. They overlook the warts — his ties to the mob and the abuses that sent him to prison.

The facts are clear though. Traficant’s most significant accomplishment came as sheriff when he refused to foreclose on people who lost their jobs when the steel mills closed. That action alone would have made him a hero for life.

But Traficant squandered his political wealth. As the years went by he grew less and less effective and became a cartoon version of himself. He became a bully in his efforts to force Niles to pay virtually the entire cost of what is now Cafaro Field.  Before he was convicted, he was the least effective member of Congress — spurned by both Democrats and Republicans and in no position to help his district.

Traficant was clearly wearing out his welcome in the district. His margin of victory was shrinking steadily and more and more Democrats were willing to challenge him.

Many people will always back Traficant. They see what he once was and could have been.

But it is hard to image Traficant being able to regain his former seat in Congress. Too many things have changed, and too many people know the truth about Traficant.