Posted on 11/07/2008 4:32:21 PM PST by Mount Athos
Gov. Ted Strickland has placed the director of the Department of Job and Family Services on paid leave for possibly using a state computer and e-mail account for political fund raising.
The governor took the action against Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the state agency, late this afternoon.
Strickland said he asked Inspector General Thomas P. Charles to investigate the matter. He named Jan Allen, secretary of his cabinet, to serve as acting director of Job and Family Services.
The Dispatch filed a public-records request last week that requested any Jones-Kelley e-mails that mentioned Democrat Barack Obama, who won election as president on Tuesday. The newspaper was told it would receive those e-mails shortly.
Jones-Kelley contributed $2,500 this year to the Obama campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The inspector general already is investigating whether state computer systems at the Department of Jobs and Family Services were misused to access personal information on "Joe the Plumber."
After The Dispatch reported that state child-support computers were accessed for potential information on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, Jones-Kelley said checks are made on newsworthy figures that may have come into some money.
She later revealed that state computers also were used to conduct checks to determine if Wurzelbacher was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes.
Wurzelbacher became a national fixture when he questioned Obama about his tax policies and Republican presidential candidate John McCain popularized the man as "Joe the Plumber" during the candidates' final debate.
USA today also has an article on this but they cite this as their source and this has more info so I post this one instead
Obama will scoop her up to do research on enemies of the state.
PAID LEAVE???? She’s in 7th HEAVEN!! NO WORK with PAY!! YEAH! What a country!!
Strickland had looked very good and kept “center” for his first two years. He even escaped tarnish from the Dann fiasco. But first Brunner, then this attack on Joe, and he’s scrambling to recover.
Uh huh.
See also this link, I can’t post the story on freerepublic so link only:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/11/ohio-agency-hea.html
I know most of you hate BO’Reilly but he sent a reporter to confront this woman last night, so of course she called the police and refused to speak to him.
I emailed Strickland last week and said he needed to investigate this woman and Jennifer Brunner. Glad this is getting press. The Dems ran on cleaning up Ohio and we get this.
Wonder if Strickland was watching the show last night.
Or if Lis had a little advance warning.
I thought $2300 was the limit for donations.
The people were warned. Strickland is a crook.
Good news. Keep us posted.
Well, the forensics involved cannot be completed in a day. So, until they examine all the records/computers, she is presumed innocent. To get her out of the office and out of the way, they have to do something with her, but until something is found, they also have to pay her. I'm certain, if something is found, that status would change.
Ohio is a beautiful state. Why are they so corrupt?
Paid leave - what a laugh!
Peggy-The-Moocher was right.
The change promised by The Obamassiah is already taking place.
It is. There was another post on a thread when it came out that she had looked into Joe’s records that showed she made two donations. One for $2,300, one for $200.
The friendly face of today’s fascist.
Because Chicago is to the northwest and crap tends to spread southeast running with the jetstream.
Good job! Maybe we can get rid of this *%#@&* lib!
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