Reece picked for Ohio House seat
Wed, 3 Mar 2010 11:55:14 EST
Former Cincinnati Vice Mayor Alicia Reece is being sworn in at 1:30 Wednesday afternoon as the state representative for the 33rd Ohio House District. She'll replace Representative Tyrone Yates, who recently resigned to take a seat on the Hamilton County Municipal Court. A release from the House Speaker says Reece was picked by a Democratic caucus screening committee. She was the youngest woman ever elected to Cincinnati City Council at the age of 28. She also served in the Ohio Department of Development as Assistant Director for Travel and Tourism. The district she'll represent includes neighborhoods in eastern Cincinnati as well as Deer Park, Elmwood Place, Golf Manor, Norwood, Silverton, St. Bernard and parts of Columbia, Springfield and Sycamore townships.

Listen  Ohio Supreme Court temporarily halts investigation of slots money probe
Tue, 2 Mar 2010 15:35:41 EST
Ohio's top elections official has been ordered to stop her probe into where an Ohio group raised money to push for a referendum on slot machines at race tracks. As statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen reports, though, this court order is not the final word on the dispute.

Listen  Ohio Supreme Court to rule in slots referendum money flap
Mon, 1 Mar 2010 15:26:45 EST
It looks likely that Ohioans will vote in November on whether electronic slots machines should be legalized at race tracks, but a side issue continues to flare up. It involves a dispute over how backers of the referendum raised the money to get it onto the ballot. Statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen reports.

Listen  Brinkman questions motive for LetOhioVote investigation
Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:09:27 EST
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has launched an investigation into the funding behind the group that is taking Gov. Strickland's slots-at-racetracks plan to the November ballot. The group LetOhioVote.org claims it received 1.5 million dollars from a little known Washington based organization called New Models. The Strickland administration has suggested the campaign against his slots plan was financed by casino interests. Former Republican state representative Tom Brinkman of Cincinnati is one of the three leaders of LetOhioVote.org, and says he doesn't know anything about his group's chief backers, and says the investigation is politically motivated: "I have no idea if it's coming from casinos or where ever because I don't know how that would happen. We filed a fully documented report with the secretary of state's office. She's certainly trying to make some political hay to support her flagging Democrat senate nomination campaign." New Models is thought to have ties to Sarah Palin and former Ohio Republican candidate for governor Ken Blackwell, who was defeated by Strickland in 2006.