11/16/10 Headline News…

A new report by the US Department of Agriculture shows it’s getting harder for Ohioans to keep food on the table. Ohio now ranks 9^th in the nation for food insecurity, with one in every seven households struggling to buy food last year. Lisa Hamler-Fugitt with the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks says that’s an increase from last year, when Ohio ranked 12th in the nation.

Hamler-Fugitt says nearly 2-million Ohioans visited a food pantry during the last quarter. She says demand is up nearly 70-percent in three years.

Administrative law judges increasingly face threats from disability claimants frustrated by years of delay and bureaucratic struggles. At a hearing in Akron Monday, the head of the Association of Administrative Law judges says the threats are growing more numerous, specific and ferocious. And Randall Frye says some have gone beyond just threats.

Frye’s group says the judges faced 80 threats in the last year, up nearly 20 percent from the year before. He says some of that is tied to the increasing desperation of claimants who wait as much as three years for a decision on a disability claim.  The Akron hearing was held by the U.S. Senate oversight committee, which is focusing on efforts to tighten up resolution of disability claims to just nine months within the next three years.

Two children who were forced to sleep in cages by their adoptive parents are suing the Summit County counseling center that approved the adoption. Michael and Sharen Gravelle of Huron County were sentenced to prison in 2006 for keeping some of their 11 adopted and foster children in cages.  The lawsuit alleges Fairhaven Counseling of Cuyahoga Falls approved the adoption despite records that showed Michael Gravelle was an "admitted child molester". Two of their oldest adoptive children filed a similar lawsuit last year.

Illegally selling loose cigarettes to people who can’t afford to buy a whole pack is becoming more common in Cleveland. And City Councilman Zack Reed wants to make it more difficult for businesses to get away with it. Reed introduced legislation Monday that would allow city health inspectors to cite businesses for the practice. Currently, only police can issue citations.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has spared the life of a man facing execution today for the 1996 shooting death of a 3-year-old. Strickland commuted the sentence of Sidney Cornwell of Youngstown to life without the possibility of parole. Strickland said jurors might have chosen a different sentence if they'd known of an undiagnosed medical condition that caused Cornwell to develop motor and language skills late, which led to repeated teasing.

General Motors is likely to raise the price range of its common stock to by as much as six dollars per share in its initial public offering on Thursday. GM reportedly also will sell 9 million more preferred shares than originally expected due to demand.  Bankers handling the sale are expected to stop taking orders for the shares this afternoon.

Just as Ohio has been near the top in the number of foreclosures nationwide, a new federal report says it also has a large concentration of abandoned foreclosures. The U.S. Government Accountability Office report shows Ohio, Michigan and Indiana account for more than half of the nation’s abandoned foreclosures – the practice of mortgage companies walking away from foreclosures they’ve started, and Cleveland ranks third among 20 metropolitan cities. Ohio U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown called for an investigation last year.  Brown says lenders often foreclose on a home first and ask questions later – leaving the property and surrounding neighborhoods to deteriorate.

A new study of Akron and 25 other cities shows what people are passionate about in their communities. The three-year “Soul of Community” study focused on places where John S. and James L. Knight were passionate about their newspapers. The Gallup and Knight Foundation concluded people in Akron are passionate about openness and beauty and social life more than leadership and safety. Gallup researcher Katherine Laughlin says the survey offers new approaches for communities to organize themselves for economic growth.

Laughlin says Akron residents feel that the city needs to improve its social offerings and job seeking college graduates are perceived to be the least welcome group.  

Cleveland and East Cleveland are agreeing to drop the lawsuit they filed against the Cleveland Clinic to keep it from permanently closing a higher-level trauma center at Huron Hospital.  In exchange, the clinic has agreed to keep the center open while the two sides keep talking.

The clinic announced in October that it would close the trauma center at Huron by year’s end. It said the East Cleveland hospital did not have enough cases to justify the cost and to keep its certification for the treatment of more severe injuries.  The clinic says it remains committed to providing healthcare on the east side, and is citing its plan to build a $25 million health clinic at Huron Hospital.

State health officials predict the number of cigarette smokers will rise this year despite a decline over the past decade.

According to the Ohio Department of Health, more than a quarter of the population was smoking in 1999.  That fell to about a fifth in 2009, but 2009 did see a slight uptick from the year before. The Ohio American Lung Associations’ Shelly Kiser that increase may come from a decrease in state-funded tobacco prevention.

Kiser says tobacco taxes, smoke-free laws and services that help people quit are among the most effective ways to decrease smoking.

Just about all of the decline in smokers over the last decade came in Ohio’s urban counties, and Cuyahoga County now has the lowest rate.

Case Western Reserve University is getting a $12.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study childhood obesity.

Case is partnering with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and the YMCA of Greater Cleveland to study overweight and obese students from 50 schools. The researchers will divide the students into three groups to study the effects of different diets, exercise and habits. 

Associate Professor Elaine Borawski says about 40 percent of Cleveland’s young people are obese, higher than the national average. Borawski says the study will try to reduce obesity and lower blood pressure in the children, but also wants to involve parents and each of the child’s surrounding environments.

Case Western is one of four sites in the country to participate in the research program.

The city of Akron will try for a third time today to cut down and deliver its annual Christmas tree that’s displayed downtown. Crews had two botched attempts in as many days last week to cut down and transport donated trees. One split apart and another was destroyed when a crane toppled over. The Beacon Journal says city officials won’t say where today’s donated tree is coming from until it’s safely on its way downtown.

Efforts are continuing on all levels to prevent American Greetings Corporation from leaving its Cleveland area suburb. Cuyahoga County Executive-elect Ed FitzGerald met with American Greetings executives Monday, about a week after Governor-elect John Kasich visited the facility. The card company said earlier this year it’s considering moving its world headquarters and 2,000 employees out of Brooklyn after voters approved a city income tax increase.