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By Josh Sweigart
| Monday, July 7, 2008, 11:01 AM
Just received this press release from the Butler County Auditor’s office:
Butler County Auditor Roger Reynolds announced today that the new “Butler County Expenditures On-line” feature he announced last month is now available on the Auditor’s Web site. Citizens can visit the site at www.butlercountyauditor.org. An icon labeled “Expenditures Search” is easily located on the Web site home page.
“We are using the advancement of technology to provide our citizens more transparency into the Auditor’s Office,” Reynolds said. “I believe government expenditures should always be in the light, where citizens can see how their tax dollars are being spent.”
Continue reading "See online where Butler County spends its money"...
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By Dave Greber
| Monday, July 7, 2008, 10:20 AM
In the July 4 edition of the JournalNews and Middletown Journal, a letter to the editor took to task Butler County foster parents for their recent anger over what they believe is poorly aimed criticism at them.
Read the letter to the editor here.
During the past few months, Josh and I have featured stories about Butler County Children Services officials’ desire to right their ship by keeping children with their biological families — when it’s safe to do so — rather than placing them in foster care.
Read about the changes here.
Some of it had to do with possible instances of abuse in the wake of the death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel. Read that story here.
Those and other stories have caught the ire of foster parents, who have said Children Services Executive Director Michael Fox is unfairly painting them with a broad brush, making an already challenging task of raising foster children even more difficult. Read that story here.
Do you agree or disagree with the letter to the editor? Are these changes for the best?
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Children Services
By Josh Sweigart
| Saturday, July 5, 2008, 07:30 AM
While working on a piece on the two U.S. presidential parties’ efforts to set up camps in Butler County (read that post here), I spoke briefly to Mike DeWine, former U.S. senator and chairman of John McCain’s election committee in Ohio.
DeWine dismissed the argument that McCain will have a problem motivating conservative voters to show up at the polls — something local Democrats are hopeful for in this conservative county — citing the following issues:
Continue reading "DeWine on McCain’s ‘conservative problem’"...
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Presidential race
By Josh Sweigart
| Friday, July 4, 2008, 05:00 AM
Hamilton Mayor Don Ryan appealed to Butler County commissioners in a Thursday, July 3, letter to save county water customers money by having the city take over the county’s water system.
Ryan’s letter was in response to reports in the JournalNews of merger discussions between the county and Greater Cincinnati Water Works, with county leaders complaining that Hamilton’s water rates are too high and threatening to take its business south.
Click on MayorRyanWaterLetter.pdf below to see the mayor’s letter to the county.
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What do you think? Is this a good idea?
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Environmental Services
By Josh Sweigart
| Thursday, July 3, 2008, 01:32 PM
Both U.S. presidential campaigns are setting the pieces in place for a battle in Butler County.
Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama have dispatched lieutenants to base regional headquarters in and around Hamilton.
The state Republican party has set up a two-person “Victory Center” at the Butler County GOP headquarters. This is only one of nine such offices in Ohio set up to back their party’s candidates on all levels.
The Obama camp has set up its own three-person “Campaign for Change” office at the Democratic party headquarters. They will set up phone banks, register voters and hand out signs in Butler, Warren, Preble and Clinton counties.
Continue reading "McCain, Obama stake claims in Butler County"...
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By Dave Greber
| Thursday, July 3, 2008, 09:26 AM
If you’re a long-term patient at the Butler County Care Facility these days, you’re more likely to have pork for dinner instead of chicken.
That’s because the price of chicken — like gas, pharmacy items and other expenses — are on the increase, forcing agencies like the one housed off Princeton Road to scramble for dollars with six months left in 2008.
Making matters worse, state-based Medicaid reimbursements — which account for a majority of the facility’s budget — have been stagnant for the past four years, and in some years have dropped. In addition, indirect costs have risen nearly $120,000 per year, according to county records.
“I think it’s going to be a rough period of time,” said Chuck Demidovich, Butler County Care Facility administrator. “We’re trying to do all this with the same amount of money we were taking in before.”
UPDATE: The Columbus Dispatch featured a story on Sunday about potential cuts in Medicaid. Read that story here.
See the e-mail request by the facility here:
Continue reading "Care Facility struggling to make ends ‘meat’"...
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Butler County
By Josh Sweigart
| Thursday, July 3, 2008, 07:30 AM
In a story about party and campaign headquarters nationwide, the Huffington Post describes the Butler County Republican Party headquarters as ostentatious, second only to the party headquarters in Manhattan:
Perched atop a grassy mound just down the road from Walden Ponds Golf Course, Butler County HQ comfortably straddles a half-circular drive with a wide awning ideal for protecting guests from the rain. It’s also the clubhouse for one of the country’s most powerful Republican politicians, House Minority Leader John Boehner. President George Bush trolled for green here in 2004, and it paid off. The county voted overwhelmingly for the president and has contributed handsomely to Republican causes over the years. Maybe that’s why this modestly-sized county sports a palatial office in a relatively high-rent neighborhood. Across the street you’ll find a residential development with $300,000 single family homes.
Read the whole blog here.
This is part of the OffTheBus Special Ops experiment sponsored by the Huffington Post to get bloggers across the country to report on what presidential campaigns are doing in their communities.
What do you think?
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