Free Republic

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...

State employee says she was ordered to check out Joe the Plumber Friday, October 31, 2008 8:21 PM By Randy Ludlow The Columbus Dispatch Vanessa Niekamp said that when was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case. Niekamp didn't know she just had checked on "Joe the Plumber," who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain's example in a debate of an average American. The senior manager would not learn...

Rudy Giuliani suggests Obama campaign illegally accessed Joe Wurzelbacher's records. McCain Campaign Insinuates Joe the Plumber's Private Records Were Illegally Breached as "Political Retribution" by the Obama Campaign, Compares it to Watergate The Columbus Dispatch reports that "state and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about 'Joe the Plumber,'" the nickname of Joe Wurzelbacher.