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NEW YORK – A mortgage fraud crackdown announced Thursday resulted in the arrests of dozens of people, including six lawyers, seven loan officers and three mortgage brokers in four states. Thirty-one people were arrested in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina. They were among 41 people charged with engaging in mortgage fraud scams that defrauded lenders out of more than $64 million in home mortgage loans. Of the 10 other defendants, one was expected to surrender later Thursday, four were previously charged and five remained at large. Authorities gathering for an afternoon news conference in Manhattan said the crackdown,...

Ohio Judge: State to Take Custody of Christian Convert Runaway October 15, 2009 COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio can take custody of a girl who ran away to Florida, saying she feared she'd be killed for converting to Christianity from Islam, a judge ruled Thursday in a decision clarifying the girl's legal status once she returns. The Franklin County Children's Services agency will take custody of Rifqa Bary pending the confirmation of her immigration status or her return to Ohio, according to the order by Franklin County Juvenile Court Magistrate Mary Goodrich. SLIDESHOW: Christian Convert Fears Family The decision was supported...

Seems like a shame that only the early birds might get to read this thread..as in the replies: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2362878/posts

As an entrepreneur and resident of Ohio I am used to swimming upstream. Ohio's economy never actually recovered from the 2001 recession. We have been hemorrhaging jobs and population for over a decade. Except for two nuclear power stations and some tiny "green energy" pilot projects, our state is powered by coal fired power plants dotting our lakes and rivers. With our energy intensive manufacturing economy there are few places in the country which will be more affected by Cap and Trade legislation than Ohio. Short of a nuke-wielding dictator threatening to wipe us off the map, it is hard...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A woman being driven around in a rented limousine pulled up at a coat store and announced she'd won the lottery and would pay for everyone's purchases, police said, but she ended up causing a riot when customers realized it was a hoax. Angry customers threw merchandise around and looted, leaving the store looking as though a hurricane had passed through it, police said. Linda Brown was arrested Tuesday after an hours-long shopping spree that began when she hired a stretch Hummer limousine to drop her off at a Burlington Coat Factory store, police Sgt. Lt. Michael...

Ohio Industrial Jobs Shrink by 106,000 Oct. 14, 2009 6:46 a.m. EVANSTON, Ill. -- Industrial employment in Ohio fell 10.4% over the past 24 months according to the 2010 Ohio Manufacturers Directory. Ohio lost 106,629 manufacturing jobs over the past two years, with 27,398 jobs lost between August 2007 and August 2008 and 79,231 industrial jobs from then to August 2009. Over the same period, Ohio lost 1,198 manufacturers, or 6%. Ohio is home to 18,762 manufacturers employing 918,721 workers, compared to a high of 1.3 million industrial workers and 21,000 manufacturers in 1994. The loss of nearly 80,000 manufacturing...

CINCINNATI — The Hamilton County prosecutor has begun an investigation into discrepancies with dozens of absentee ballot applications submitted by a group campaigning for casinos in Cincinnati and three other cities. Prosecutor Joseph Deters told The Cincinnati Enquirer he plans to take the matter to a grand jury.

Unnecessary fear over swine flu is clogging up area emergency rooms. Three of Cleveland's major hospitals -- MetroHealth Medical Center, University Hospitals Case Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic -- said Tuesday they are seeing unprecedented numbers of people coming into their ERs with flu symptoms. The vast majority of these visits are unwarranted because the cases are mild and don't require emergency medical attention. After being seen by a doctor, most patients are being told to go back home, rest, drink fluids, take Tylenol and avoid contact with others. The emergency room at MetroHealth has seen a record number...

Former police association contractor charged with snooping on 'Joe the Plumber' Wednesday, October 14, 2009 11:42 AM By Randy Ludlow The Columbus Dispatch A former contractor for the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police has been charged with rummaging through state computers to retrieve confidential information about "Joe the Plumber." Brett A. Gerke, 52, of 2329 Woodcreek Place on the Far North Side, is charged with attempted unauthorized use of property. Gerke entered a diversion program on Oct. 2, which typically results in the dismissal of a criminal charge. He has not entered a plea. The charge is a first-degree...

A Florida judge has ruled a teenager from Ohio must return after running away to Florida in fear that her parents would harm her for converting from Islam to Christianity.

3:09 pm - Judge Dawson plans to enforce his order for the passport and related papers, even if the case is moved to Ohio. 3:10 pm - "We still don't have a complete copy of (Rifqa's) passport," said Bartholomew. "I am very alarmed that it hasn' been provided," she added. She said she has learned there are more documents being withheld. 3:18 pm - Attorneys are talking about arrangements for a psychological evaluation and counseling. She is to see a local psychologist on Friday morning. 3:21 pm - Elahi said he suspects "a ploy" by Rifqa's legal representatives to delay...

A 17-year old girl who fled from her home, fearing her Muslim parents would kill her for converting to Christianity, must go back to Ohio, a Florida judge ruled Tuesday. Judge Daniel Dawson ruled Ohio has jurisdiction over the case involving the teen, Rifqa Bary. Before the girl gets sent back, the judge says he needs immigration papers proving her status in the U.S. and proof from the state of Florida that she can continue her virtual schooling and receive credit in Ohio. She is expected to be placed in foster care when she returns and will also be provided...

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I've received dozens of emails forwarded to me in the past month, with the senders' grave concern over an alleged U.S. Senate bill, SB2009, that would require gun owners to list all their firearms on their tax documents and pay upward of $50 per gun owned, annually. While this bill is very believable, considering President Obama's rabid, unjustified and foolhardy anti-gun/anti-hunting administration, it's another urban legend, at least for now. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) wishes to be perfectly clear on this matter: "There is no such bill," the NSSF stated in a news release. "And if the NSSF...

A late-night disagreement between two men in a bar becomes a stare-down. One side throws fists, and a brief brawl breaks out. Customers scatter. Tables are overturned. Friends on the sidelines straighten their postures and walk tough. Others grab their coats and head for the door. Some physical commotion is not uncommon at evening establishments where alcohol is served. But it's what happened next on Thursday evening inside the Route 66 Kitchen in West Toledo that has unsettled some Toledoans. With surveillance cameras rolling, several figures pulled out handguns and engaged in a shootout that raged inside and outside the...

The Marine Corps unit of a Lorain native killed in Afghanistan will be featured as part of a CBS News "60 Minutes" segment about the war there. USMC Lance Cpl. David R. Hall, 31, who was killed in action Aug. 31, was serving with a force that became part of the research for the "60 Minutes" program scheduled to run this Sunday. ...It appears the television crew has footage from Helmand Province, the same place where Hall spent his final days. The reporters were a kilometer away when a bomb took Hall's life and may have footage of the helicopter...

Senators aren't counting on reform savings when it comes to their constituents. Senate Finance votes next week, and no doubt this freak of political nature will pass amid fanfare and self-congratulation that their new entitlement will reduce deficits. Never mind that such a spectacle has never happened in the history of the republic. P.T. Barnum had nothing on this crowd, and the bill hasn't even hit the Senate floor yet.

You could say they're all fired up: Seventeen people in protective gear set themselves ablaze to break the world record for the most people engulfed in fire at the same time. The stunt, which lasted 43.9 seconds, shattered the previous record of 12 burning people set in Spain, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.

Stings were conducted at seven gun shows in Tennessee, Ohio and NevadaInvestigators hired by New York City conducted stings at gun shows in states that have not closed the "gun show loophole'' and found some vendors openly selling weapons to buyers who admitted they couldn't pass background checks. The stings, described in a city report released Wednesday, were conducted at seven gun shows in Tennessee, Ohio and Nevada. Those states are among the many that permit private unlicensed dealers, known as "occasional sellers," to sell weapons at gun shows without conducting background checks. Some 30 weapons were sold to NYPD...

At last night's central committee meeting, John Husted announced that the OH Supreme Court, by a 7-0 vote, had declared his residency in Kettering valid and legal, ending all Dem attempts to keep him from running for SoS. He also said he had been approached by high-level Dems with a deal to let him run unopposed for Treasurer, but of course the goal is to get Jennifer Brunner out.

Yesterday was not a great day for Braylon Edwards. He failed to get his hands on the ball even one time, as the Cleveland Browns lost an overtime heartbreaker to the rival Cincinnati Bengals. Later that night, though, Braylon did allegedly get his hands on a fellow named Edward Givens. The name is blacked out from the police report, but multiple sources told Cleveland.com that Edwards is the suspect. Here's the story that Givens, a promoter of some kind with an organization called Eighty81, told police. "After the club closed, I was outside greeting and saying goodbye to people. Braylon...

Lawrence Reynolds had been scheduled to be executed on Thursday Two more executions have been delayed in the US state of Ohio, three weeks after an attempt to put another man to death by lethal injection failed. On 15 September, the execution of Romell Broom was abandoned after Ohio officials failed to find a vein. Judges halted Thursday's execution in the state of Lawrence Reynolds, 43. The state governor then delayed next month's execution of Darryl Durr, until a judge hears arguments over problems with the injection process. The execution of Broom - convicted of rape and murder - is...

A federal appeals court Monday halted the execution of an inmate three weeks after problems with a lethal-injection attempt. A panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled 2-1 to grant the request of 43-year-old Lawrence Reynolds Jr., who had been sentenced to die for strangling his 67-year-old neighbor during a 1994 robbery. On Sept. 15, Gov. Ted Strickland stopped the lethal injection of Romell Broom after state executioners struggled for two hours to find a usable vein. Mr. Broom's execution is on hold while his attorneys prepare for a Nov. 30 federal-court hearing. They argue...

InkStop Inc., a specialty retailer of ink, toner, consumer electronics and other supplies for small businesses and home offices, abruptly told its employees that it was shuttering all 152 stores nationwide as of Friday and laying off all workers until further notice. "The company has elected to temporarily close all stores at the close of business today, Oct. 1, to focus on a restructuring plan in an effort to improve the overall operations of the organization," the Warrensville Heights company told employees in a letter sent late Thursday.

1. Meet “Ardi”Evolutionists aren’t yet sure if they should call it a human ancestor, but one thing they do know is that “Ardi” does away with the idea of a “missing link.”Although first discovered in the early 1990s, the bones of Ardipithecus ramidus are only now being nominated for evolutionists’ fossil hall of fame—via a slew of papers in a special issue of the journal Science. In it, Ardi’s researchers describe the bones and make the case that Ardi is even more important in the history of human evolution than Lucy. Despite claims of its evolutionary significance, one of the...

A homeowner fires shots at a suspect outside their home in West Chester. Police say a man kicked in the door to Edward Honerlaw's home in the 8200 block of West Chester Road, shortly before 2 pm today. After a brief scuffle, the intruder fled to his pickup truck. Honerlaw fired a shot at the suspect's vehicle. Police describe the suspect as a male, white, around 35 years-old, six-feet, 175 pounds, with a gray beard. He was wearing a white hooded sweat shirt. Police are looking for a tan Ford F-150 pickup truck with an extended cab, Ohio license DDK3796....

A conservative rock band, The Reaganites, are releasing an anti-Obama album in January 2010 that will be available to download for FREE off their website, www.reaganites.org You can currently download three of the songs for FREE. There is an anti-Obama ballad, "America, I Miss You," an anti-Joe Biden song called "Joe" and an anti-abortion song called "No Choice." The Reaganites are based in Cleveland, Ohio.

Robert Forrey regularly skewers city officials in Portsmouth while pontificating on their perceived sins on his River Vices blog. The self-styled government watchdog concedes that Mayor Jim Kalb is a favorite target, but he never expected the rant that landed in his in-box at 1:47 a.m. Sunday. The e-mail was from Kalb, who informed Forrey that he could drop by the mayor's office in the Ohio River city to pick up a public record he had requested. The mayor went on to write, asterisks and all: "I think that you're a worthless piece of s**t and I wouldn't p**s on...

Oh joy. Please God, help us relocate by then..... COLOGNE, Germany — The Federation of Gay Games announced this afternoon that Cleveland will be the site of the 2014 games. The city was chosen over Boston and Washington, D.C., after a year-long site-selection process, the organization said in a news release issued at 1 p.m. "Cleveland demonstrated to the Federation of Gay Games that they understood the mission of the Gay Games and our principles of ‘Participation, Inclusion, and Personal Best’," said Kurt Dahl, of Chicago, and Emy Ritt, of Paris, FGG Co-presidents.

"Common Sense Tea Party" Rally held in Downtown Kenton Saturday. - News Dept. on 10:41:23 AM EDT A "Common Sense Tea Party" Rally was held in downtown Kenton Saturday. The Tea Party movement is a grassroots political movement. It carries many specific messages but primarily it believes in smaller government, lower taxes, and fiscally conservative government spending. Its name is derived from the Boston Tea Party but also is and achronim for "Taxed Enough Already". Organizers of the rally in Hardin County relayed these messages among others Saturday in downtown Kenton. Among those who spoke to people in attendance were...

A place to discuss Bill's radio program. Click here for available internet streams.

Economically beleaguered Michigan faces a possible government shutdown - shuttering highway rest areas, state parks, construction projects and the state lottery - if lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal in the next few days. The state with the nation's highest unemployment rate has a nearly $3 billion shortfall. Federal recovery act money will fill more than half the gap, but the spending cuts or tax increases needed to fill the rest have caused bitter infighting at the state Capitol. Michigan is one of just two states whose budget year starts Oct. 1. The other, Alabama, already has a spending...

To all you would-be politicians hoping to jump start a career in the public spotlight at the local level, be fore-warned: Local politics can be a pretty cut-throat business. And you'd be well served to not provide your political opponents with any ammunition to help them bring you down East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer blasted a local television station Thursday, one day after it aired photographs that purported to show the mayor wearing a wig and lingerie. The news conference came less than a week before voters decide if he should be re-elected. You see, that guy didn't think ahead....

LEVELAND -- East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer responds to racy photos sent to various media outlets. "Are you all part of the Eric Brewer for governor campaign? You need a sex scandal if you want to get to the next level," Brewer said to reporters as he arrived at his campaign headquarters on Euclid Avenue for a Thursday morning news conference. Mayor Brewer answered no questions, but talked to reporters about potentially embarrassing pictures released to the media days before the city's mayoral election on Tuesday. "I apologize to the residents of East Cleveland for the embarrassment my opponent's gutter...

Next year’s U.S. Senate race in Ohio is a neck-and-neck battle for Republican Rob Portman no matter which Democratic candidate he faces, according to the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey in the state. Portman is in a virtual tie with Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher 41% to 40%. Six percent (6%) of Ohio voters favor some other candidate, and 14% are undecided. The former GOP congressman is also essentially even with Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, leading by a similarly insignificant 40% to 38% margin. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure how they...

Next year’s U.S. Senate race in Ohio is a neck-and-neck battle for Republican Rob Portman no matter which Democratic candidate he faces, according to the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey in the state. Portman is in a virtual tie with Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher 41% to 40%. Six percent (6%) of Ohio voters favor some other candidate, and 14% are undecided. The former GOP congressman is also essentially even with Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, leading by a similarly insignificant 40% to 38% margin. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure how they...

A court in Columbus was supposed to take up one of the matters involving Rifqa today, but a magistrate judge decided Monday to set both cases -- a criminal case and a dependency case -- for a hearing Oct. 27, said Ohio lawyer Kort W. Gatterdam. Gatterdam is representing Rifqa in the criminal matter. That case was prompted by a filing by Rifqa's father, Mohamed Bary, asking a judge to declare his daughter incorrigible for repeatedly being disobedient. Gatterdam said he filed a motion to dismiss that case this morning. In the mean time, Rifqa, 17, remains in Florida. A...

DELAWARE, OH - As a growing number of mayors in Ohio and around the country resign from Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control group, new evidence suggests some of their names have been added to the member list and used to promote Bloomberg's political agenda without their knowledge or permission. "Mayor Robert Shiner" (Mentor, OH) was listed in a letter from MAIG to Congress in June 2009 opposing reforms to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), as well as in a full page advertisement opposing nationwide reciprocity of concealed handgun licenses....

A Republican member of President Barack Obama's cabinet blistered conservative talk-radio hosts and cable-television news yesterday, saying they have eroded civility and impeded the nation's ability to solve big problems. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told The Dispatch that the level of "harsh discourse in Washington has probably reached an all-time high," and he partly blamed it on "all of this trash talk about the process and about politicians 24/7" on cable television and talk radio. LaHood referred to criticism Obama received for appearing Sunday on five television news shows to promote his health-care overhaul. The secretary also indicated that even...

Fathima Rifqa Bary may not be a household name to most Americans, but she may soon be the international symbol of society’s willful blindness to the dangers of Islamic radicalism already present. Bary, a seventeen year-old high school student who previously lived in the Columbus, Ohio area, is of Sri Lankan decent and was raised in a Muslim home with her family in Ohio. Over the last few years, Rifqa, as she is known among friends, was introduced to and chose to secretly convert to Christianity. During this summer, she saw growing threats to her safety developing within her family...

GARRETTSVILLE, Ohio — Authorities say a parachute failed to fully open during a tandem jump at a northwestern Ohio skydiving center, killing an instructor and his student. Witnesses say instructor Daniel Mathie and student Sierra Thomas spiraled to the ground Saturday night. They landed in a field near the Cleveland Parachute Center and were pronounced dead at the scene.

DAYTON — Police said Montgomery County prosecutors have approved aggravated robbery charges against a man who attempted to rob an elderly man at the point of an AK-47 assault rifle, only to be shot and wounded by his would-be victim. Lt. Brian Johns said the suspect, Phillip D. Anderson, 24, is under armed guard at Miami Valley Hospital, where he is in stable condition. Police said Anderson blocked the elderly man’s vehicle with his own, then got out with the AK-47 and approached the man, who drew a handgun and shot Anderson twice. The incident occurred Saturday, Sept. 19, at...

Yellow Springs company embraces niche and club publications YELLOW SPRINGS — In the summer of 2008, Benjamin Smith and Vicki McClellan spotted a small magazine out of Fort Myers, Fla., calling itself Patriots of the American Revolution. After seeing it, they knew two things. First, they liked the magazine, its exploration of a certain corner of history, its direction and feel. Second, they knew their company, Yellow Springs custom publisher Ertel Publishing, could make it better. The magazine’s owner, Three Patriots LLC, has hired Ertel Publishing to design and produce the magazine. But Three Patriots and Ertel Publishing aren’t exactly...

It must have been a grim scene on Tuesday night inside of Ohio’s state prison at Lucasville. Romell Broom lay strapped to a gurney with a team of medical technicians and correction officials hovering about him. But rather than receiving emergency medical treatment, Romell was waiting to die. Back in 1984, Broom had been convicted of abducting a fourteen-year-old child as she walked home from a football game in Cleveland, raping her and killing her. No credible opposition to the evidence presented against him was forthcoming, and the court determined that Romell should no longer be sharing above ground real...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The state leader of ACORN says the community organizing group has stopped taking on new clients in Ohio amid national fallout over hidden-camera videos. The videos produced by conservative activists appear toshow ACORN employees in other states offering a couple advice on setting up prostitution businesses. Ohio director Amy Teitelman (TEYE'-til-muhn) says ACORN — or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — is under attack from people who want to make the group look bad. So, it has suspended taking on new clients while it puts in place new procedures and training that Teitelman says...

Despite their victory this week on cutting off federal funds to the community organization Acorn, House Republicans are not about to let the matter go. Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, on Friday demanded that Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly hold a vote on a bill devoted solely to cutting off any future federal money to the liberal activist group. His push comes because Republicans on Thursday added the Acorn funding ban to a college loan measure that has a long way to go in Congress – and which many Republicans oppose to boot. So the funding restriction...

DAYTON — Sen. Sherrod Brown said Friday, Sept. 18, that he believes President Obama should have a health reform bill — one with a government-run insurance plan and universal coverage — on his desk by late fall. The Ohio Democrat said he would be “hard-pressed” to vote for a bill that does not include a government insurance plan as one of the options available to people. He made his comments following a breakfast speech sponsored by the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Also Friday, an audience member asked Brown about comments by Nancy Pelosi, the...

Ohio Town Struggles After Package Giant DHL Leaves WILMINGTON, Ohio (Reuters) – Unemployment in this small U.S. town has quadrupled in the past 16 months, but worse is to come as thousands of unemployed workers run out of severance money and benefits. "Things are going to get tighter around here toward the end of the year," said David Raizk, mayor of this town of 12,000 in southwestern Ohio. "As benefits run out we're going to see a greater and greater dependence on the aid that's available." In May 2008, before German shipping firm DHL Express, a unit of German post...

Unemployment in this small U.S. town has quadrupled in the past 16 months, but worse is to come as thousands of unemployed workers run out of severance money and benefits. "Things are going to get tighter around here toward the end of the year," said David Raizk, mayor of this town of 12,000 in southwestern Ohio. "As benefits run out we're going to see a greater and greater dependence on the aid that's available."

The director of ACORN in Ohio says neither she nor other employees of the social-justice group have ever offered to help pimps or prostitutes ply their trade in the state. But the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and would-be clients in poor, black and Latino neighborhoods are paying a price nonetheless, said Amy Teitelman, the group's Ohio leader. ACORN, which says it has about 7,500 dues-paying members in Ohio and operates offices in Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, has temporarily stopped offering help to clients in the wake of an undercover video shot by self-styled investigators. From conservative standard...