SEVERE STORMS - Indiana, Ohio, and Oklahoma Consequences

"Overnight tornadoes devastate parts of Indiana and Ohio" PBS NewsHour 5/28/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A string of tornadoes cut a path of destruction across parts of Ohio and Indiana Monday night.  The twisters, some with winds of 140 miles per hour, flattened entire neighborhoods, killing at least one person and wounding dozens more.  Millions are without power as officials scramble to uncover the scope of the damage and encourage residents to check on their neighbors.  Judy Woodruff reports.

"With record rain, Oklahoma’s levee system is under extreme pressure" PBS NewsHour 5/28/2019

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SUMMARY:  Severe weather is devastating the American Heartland.  Spring storms have led to at least eight deaths in Oklahoma, which has been hit by tornadoes and record rain.  With more precipitation expected, state officials are closely watching levee systems for signs of a potentially catastrophic failure.  Judy Woodruff speaks by phone with Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt about managing the situation.

"What’s behind the recent rash of violent weather" PBS NewsHour 5/29/2019

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SUMMARY:  Violent weather has tormented regions from the Rocky Mountains to the Mid-Atlantic in recent weeks.  In Kansas Tuesday night, strong tornadoes tore houses apart, littered an airport runway with debris and hoisted a car onto a roof -- but widespread flooding may be the biggest and most prolonged threat.  William Brangham talks to atmospheric scientist Victor Gensini about the brutal spring weather.

William Brangham (NewsHour):  My understanding is, there's been some reporting that climate change perhaps might be shifting where certain tornadoes might be hitting, hitting places that are not used to them.

Is that right?

Victor Gensini, Northern Illinois University:  That's exactly right.

We did a study last October that looked at, well, the number of tornadoes across the United States really hasn't changed very much over the last 40 years, but where they're happening has been changing.

So places like Tornado Alley, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, we have been seeing a downward trend in some of those locations, and an increasing trend further to east in places like Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and portions of the Midwest, which is a big deal for population density and vulnerability, of course, the exposure, as we have many more people living east of the Mississippi River.

"The radical approach these communities have taken to flood mitigation" PBS NewsHour 5/28/2019

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SUMMARY:  The U.S. has experienced its wettest 12-month period on record.  Scientists warn that climate change is causing more intense storms, resulting in increased flooding risk for millions of Americans living near rivers and along the coasts.  How can vulnerable communities prepare?  Special correspondent Cat Wise reports on a radical approach some are exploring: relocation of the towns themselves.

SUPREME COURT - Ohio's Voter Suppression

"Why Ohio’s way of purging voter rolls is at the Supreme Court" PBS NewsHour 1/10/2018

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SUMMARY:  A case challenging the removal of hundreds of thousands of people from voter rolls in Ohio went to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.  Special correspondent Karen Kasler of Ohio Public Radio reports what's at stake in the Buckeye State, and Jeffrey Brown talks with Marcia Coyle of The National Law Journal about what the justices asked in the courtroom.

AMERICA ADDICTED - Local Response to Overdose Deaths

"To stop overdose deaths, this response team brings treatment options to your doorstep" PBS NewsHour 1/30/2018

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SUMMARY:  Local law enforcement in Chillicothe, Ohio, have found their own way to respond to a slew of fatal opioid overdoses in their community.  The 'Post Overdose Response Team' (PORT) sets out each week to find every person in their county who overdosed the week before and try to get them into treatment.  Special correspondent Esther Honig of Side Effects Public Media has the story.

OHIO - Traffic Cameras, Safeguard or Scam?

"Safeguard or scam?  Automated traffic cameras in legal limbo in Ohio" PBS NewsHour 6/5/2015

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SUMMARY:  Automated traffic cameras are used by hundreds of towns across the country to detect and ticket motor violations, but not without controversy.  Advocates say they make communities safer, but foes argue they raise revenues.  Ohio officials passed a law banning the cameras from ticketing without a police officer present, but the issue now hangs in the balance as the state debates its constitutionality.  NewsHour's Rick Karr reports.

RICK KARR (NewsHour):  Drivers who run red lights … kill nearly seven hundred people every year nationwide.  Sue and Paul Oberhauser refuse to call those crashes “accidents”.

PAUL OBERHAUSER:  Most of those are intentionally people think they gonna get away with it and they run the red light.  They never think they’re gonna kill a person.

RICK KARR:  Their daughter Sarah was killed by a driver who ran a red light in 2002.  She was thirty-one years old and a mother of two, a high-school chemistry teacher and basketball coach in Oxford, Ohio.  She was on her way to a teacher-training workshop on a Saturday morning when her light turned green.

SUE OBERHAUSER:  There was a young man who was 21 years old.  And he ran the red light going 55 miles an hour.  And he T-boned her car and Sarah was killed instantly.

RICK KARR:  The Oberhausers believe there’s a way to prevent crashes like the one that killed their daughter, automated cameras that keep an eye on intersections twenty-four-seven.  So even when police aren’t there, drivers think twice before running a light.  And the proof that they work, according to the Oberhausers, is a forty-minute drive from their farmhouse … in Ohio’s state capital.

RICK KARR:  The City of Columbus installed its first red-light camera at this intersection in 2006.  Since then, it’s put cameras at more than three dozen other intersections.  And at locations with cameras, right-angle crashes fell 74% between 2005 and 2008.

POLITICS - The Ohio Voters' View

"What do Ohio voters want?  More political cooperation despite clashing views" PBS NewsHour 1/13/2015

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SUMMARY:  What do Americans think about Washington politics and productivity over the last two years?  Across the political spectrum, one thing that many seem to agree on is that both parties share blame for dysfunction and stasis.  Judy Woodruff talks to voters in Columbus, Ohio, about their hopes for the new Congress.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Well, now that the President and congressional leaders are getting down to business, we thought it was a good time to check in with voters about what they expect from Washington right now.

We picked a Midwestern state you hear a lot about in presidential election years.

GOV. JOHN KASICH, (R) Ohio:  I, John Richard Kasich…

JUDY WOODRUFF:  We showed in Ohio on the same day Republican Governor John Kasich was being inaugurated for a second term and, for football fans, arguably an even bigger event, as Ohio State University’s beloved Buckeyes were about to face Oregon in the college playoff championship.

Despite this, we still found people across the political spectrum who were willing to talk to us.

KIDNAPPINGS - Ariel Castro in Court and Victims' Healing Process

"Ariel Castro Appears in Court to Face Charges of Rape, Kidnapping" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 5/9/2013

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  And we turn again to the shocking story in Cleveland (Ohio) of three women held captive and abused for a decade.  Today, the man accused in the case appeared before a judge.

Ray Suarez has the latest.

MAN:  Ariel Castro.

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour):  Ariel Castro kept his head bowed and buried throughout his early morning appearance in Cleveland Municipal Court.  It was his first public appearance since he was arrested Monday in the kidnapping of three women, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight.

All had been held captive in Castro's Cleveland home since their separate disappearances between 2002 and 2004.  Prosecutors said today the former school bus driver repeatedly beat and sexually assaulted the women.

TIMOTHY MCGINTY, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Prosecutor:  This child kidnapper operated a torture chamber and private prison in the heart of our city.  The horrific brutality and torture that the victims endured for a decade is beyond comprehension.

RAY SUAREZ:  The New York Times reported today that, according to a police document, the women were chained in the basement for years before finally being moved to the second floor.

It also said Knight told police she'd been impregnated by Castro on multiple occasions and that each time, he starved and punched her until she miscarried.  Castro didn't enter a plea today to the four counts of kidnapping, one for each of the women, plus Berry's six-year-old daughter conceived in captivity, and to three counts of rape.

His bond was set at $8 million dollars, $3 million more than the prosecution requested.  After the proceedings, Castro's public defender said her client will likely be kept isolated.

KATHLEEN DEMETZ, Public Defender:  I would imagine he will be in a single cell, and I would imagine he probably will be under a suicide watch observation unit.

RAY SUAREZ:  Castro's brothers, Pedro and Onil, also appeared in court on unrelated misdemeanor charges.  They were later released from custody.  Authorities say the two men knew nothing about the women allegedly being held captive in their brother's home.

"For Cleveland Victims, Trust and Comfort May Be First Steps in Healing" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 5/9/2013

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SUMMARY:  Ray Suarez talks to Matthew Dolan of The Wall Street Journal for more details on the case, and then gets analysis from Dr. Frank Ochberg, clinical professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University, about the healing process for the Cleveland kidnapping victims and what can be learned from past cases of abuse and trauma.

ALSO

Ohio's Ideastream coverage

POLITICS - Ohio Voters Speak, Anti-Union Law Dead

Win for America!

"Ohio election results: union curbs thrown out in blow to Republicans" (AP), Guardian UK 11/9/2011

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Voters in Ohio have overwhelmingly rejected a law curbing union bargaining rights for public employees, dealing a blow to the Republican establishment in a state that could prove pivotal in deciding the outcome of next year's presidential election.

The vote buoyed Democrats, who are hoping to rebound from their sweeping losses in 2010, though experts agree the economy is still the biggest issue. "If the economy were to turn around in the next year, that's going to matter a lot more than what happens in ballot issues," said one political analyst, Justin Buchler.

Ohio's bill went further than a similar one in Wisconsin by including police officers and firefighters, and was considered by many observers to be a barometer of the national mood on the political conundrum of the day: what is the appropriate size and role of government, and who should pay for it.

Its defeat is anticipated to energize the labor movement, which largely supports the Democrats, ahead of Barack Obama's re-election effort.

The result indicated that voters in the industrial Midwest may be growing disenchanted with the Tea Party-backed Republicans voted into office in 2010, who have advocated deep spending cuts and opposed tax increases.

Faced with budget gaps and Tea Party pressure to curb spending, Republican governors around the country have sought to limit unions' influence. The new law repealed in Ohio would have severely limited the bargaining rights of more than 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees.

The law had not yet taken effect. It would have permitted workers to negotiate wages but not pensions or healthcare benefits. It banned strikes for public sector workers, scrapped binding arbitration and dropped promotions based solely on seniority.

With about a third of the vote tallied, the repeal effort was leading 61% to 39%.

The vote is a blow to the state's new Republican governor, John Kasich, who pushed strongly for the legislation after Republicans gained a firm hold on the Ohio legislature in 2010.

Labor and business interests poured more than $30m into the nationally watched campaign, and turnout was high.

Kasich and supporters in the business community promoted the law as a means for local governments to save money and keep workers. The largely union-funded opponent coalition painted the issue as a threat to public safety and middle-class workers, running TV ads filled with images of firefighters, police officers, teachers and nurses.

Ohio voters also approved a proposal to prohibit people from being required to buy health insurance as part of the national healthcare overhaul supported by Obama. The vote was mostly symbolic but Republicans hope to use it as part of a legal challenge.

Looks like the Midwest MAY be realizing that the Republican Party no longer exists in practice, it has become the Tea Party (no compromise, bargaining is treason, and no governance if they don't get their way).

POLITICS - Ohio anti-Collective-Bargaining Law

"Ohio Voters Weigh Repeal of Controversial Collective-Bargaining Law" PBS Newshour 10/14/2011

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JIM LEHRER (Editor, Newshour): A major political battle is under way in Ohio. It's over a new law aimed at restricting collective bargaining rights.

Gwen Ifill reports.

PROTESTERS: No on two! No on two!

GWEN IFILL (Newshour): There's a ground war going on in Ohio, rally to rally.

MAN: When somebody comes and tells you that the solution to the problem is to take your rights away, that's a problem for you, for every working person.

GWEN IFILL: Door to door.

MAN: How you doing, sir? My name is Steve.

MAN: Steve, good to see you.

MAN: I am a volunteer with the We Are Ohio campaign.

GWEN IFILL: Phone bank to phone bank.

MAN: Your yes vote on issues two and three is critical to getting government spending under control, protect taxpayers, and preserve the freedom of Ohioans to choose their own health care.

GWEN IFILL: And all over the airwaves

WOMAN: Senate Bill 5 makes it illegal for nurses to negotiate for safe staffing levels. We can stop Senate Bill 5 by voting no on issue two.

HEALTH - Painkiller Addiction in Ohio

"Ohio County Losing Its Young to Painkillers’ Grip" by SABRINA TAVERNISE, New York Times 4/19/2011

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PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — This industrial town was once known for its shoes and its steel. But after decades of decline it has made a name for itself for a different reason: it is home to some of the highest rates of prescription drug overdoses in the state, and growing numbers of younger victims.

Their pictures hang in the front window of an empty department store, a makeshift memorial to more than two dozen lives. The youngest was still in high school.

Nearly 1 in 10 babies born last year in this Appalachian county tested positive for drugs. In January, police caught several junior high school students, including a seventh grader, with painkillers. Stepping Stone House, a residential rehabilitation clinic for women, takes patients as young as 18.

In Ohio, fatal overdoses more than quadrupled in the last decade, and by 2007 had surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of accidental death, according to the Department of Health.

The problem is so severe that Gov. John R. Kasich announced $36 million in new spending on it this month, an unusual step in this era of budget austerity. And on Tuesday, the Obama administration announced plans to fight prescription drug addiction nationally, noting that it was now killing more people than crack cocaine in the 1980s and heroin in the 1970s combined.

The pattern playing out here bears an eerie resemblance to some blighted cities of the 1980s: a generation of young people who were raised by their grandparents because their parents were addicts, and now they are addicts themselves.

“We’re raising third and fourth generations of prescription drug abusers now,” said Chief Charles Horner of the Portsmouth police, who often notes that more people died from overdoses in Ohio in 2008 and 2009 than in the World Trade Center attack in 2001.

“We should all be outraged,” Chief Horner said. “It should be a No. 1 priority.”

Scioto County (pronounced sy-OH-tuh), of which Portsmouth is the seat, has made it one, bringing what had been a very private problem out into the public.

A coroner and a pharmacist are among its state lawmakers, and a bill in the state legislature would more strictly regulate pain clinics where drugs are dispensed. The most popular drug among addicts here is the painkiller OxyContin.

The county’s efforts got the attention of political leaders in the state, including Governor Kasich, who declared the county a pilot project for combating addiction.

The problem is so bad that a storage company with business in the county recently complained to Chief Horner that it was having trouble finding enough job candidates who could pass drug tests.“Around here, everyone has a kid who’s addicted,” said Lisa Roberts, a nurse who works for the Portsmouth Health Department. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a police chief, a judge or a Baptist preacher. It’s kind of like a rite of passage.”

About 10 years ago, when OxyContin first hurtled through the pretty hollow just north of town where the Mannering family lives, the two youngest children were still in high school. Their parents tried to protect them, pleading with neighbors who were selling the drug to stop. By mid-decade, they counted 11 houses on their country road that were dealing the drug (including a woman in her 70s called Granny), and their two youngest children, Nina and Chad, were addicted.

A vast majority of young people, officials said, get the drugs indirectly from dealers and other users who have access to prescriptions.

My comments:

• I'm 67 and from my experience the general American public has become "wimps" when it comes to pain. Rather that just live with MILD pain; we take a pill.


• Then the medical industry, doctors, prescribe pills for everything. Maybe they are jumping the gun? And consider those who do NOT have access to a single doctor who knows what prescriptions they already have?


• Also, note that the jump in using prescribed medications coincides with allowing the drug industry to advertise their products on broadcast-media. There was a time that was not allowed. Was that a mistake?

EDUCATION - Ohio Teacher Evaluations

"Ohio School District Uses Unique Peer Evaluations to Grade Teachers"
PBS Newshour 12/14/2010