The Secretary of State will soon decide if two Libertarians on the ballot – Charlie Earl, who’s running for governor, and Steven Linnabary, who’s running for Attorney General - will keep those spots. Ohio says fewer inmates than ever are going back to prison after they've been released. And JobsOhio says it had a good 2013, reporting that it created nearly 18,000 jobs and saved 70,000 jobs, but Democrats say the job numbers are overblown.
Last week’s State of the State speech in Medina was Gov. John Kasich’s shortest one – but it arguably included the most proposed legislation and policy changes. He talked about lowering the top income tax rate to below 5%. He said he wanted to put $35 million in new tobacco settlement money into programs to help tobacco users quit. He asked lawmakers to approve spending $10 million in casino licensing fees on a mentoring program for at-risk high school kids. Sharing their thoughts on those ideas and more are Greg Lawson with the conservative Buckeye Institute, which describes itself as a free-market think tank, and Jon Honeck ith the Center for Community Solutions, a progressive-leaning research group dealing with fiscal, health, social and economic policy.