Issues 2, 3, 4 and 5, billed as ”Reform Ohio Now,” were defeated by voters across the state by a large margin, with an average defeat of 2-1 for the proposed amendments.

Little noticed by much of the media was the margin by which these initiatives were defeated in Lucas County. ”No” votes on all four measures ranged between 54 percent and 60 percent in Lucas County.

”This was particularly surprising given the large number of Democratic voters in the county,” said Doug Haynam, outgoing GOP interim chairman. ”It is clear that people took the time to weigh these initiatives on their own merits.”

Haynam also attributed the success of the local anti-RON initiative to grassroots efforts.

”Without the phone bank volunteers and others who got the word out, we would not have achieved these results,” he said.

One of the most important figures in the movement to defeat the RON initiatives was Alexandra Hertel, who ran the local phone bank operation.

”This campaign was much less like typical political phone efforts,” she said. ”We did not so much try to advertise as much as we did educate the voters.”

Hertel said recipients of the calls were more courteous than in candidate campaigns, and she believes ballot initiatives inspire less political polarization than do human candidates.

The local anti-RON campaign, according to Hertel, more than 40 regular volunteers.

”We had people from all walks of life who were committed to defeating these initiatives,” she said. ”Many volunteers also used their own cellphones to call everyone they knew and talk to them about the need to defeat these amendments.”

Hertel said she believes the grassroots efforts made the difference. Hertel said the Internet also was an important tool.

”Boards like ToledoTalk.com proved to be an effective means to spark discussion and inform undecided voters,” she said. ”On local-oriented blogs and Web sites, people are less intimidated to ask questions and debate the issues.”

One of the most common reasons cited for the defeat of Issues 2-5 involves the overly wordy nature of the proposed amendments. Lucas County Commissioner Maggie Thurber said the authors of the initiatives erred in creating text that some voters struggled to understand.

Thurber said many local voters were put off by perceptions that out-of-state money funded the Reform Ohio Now initiatives.

”Ohio First was funded almost entirely by citizens of Ohio,” she said of the leading anti-RON coalition. ”Reform Ohio Now had many out-of-state contributors, and local voters felt that RON was being directed by out-of-state people who wanted to use Ohio for other political ends, like the 2008 election.”

Editor’s note; On Oct. 26,

Ray Fisher sits in his armchair with a tiny poodle cradled in his lap.

”If anything ever happened to this dog, I’d … ,” his voice trailed off.

The dog, less than six pounds, seemed even smaller in his owner’s hands. His smallness spoke volumes of the fragility of life, and of the strength of a father who lost his oldest daughter in a violent and senseless crime.

Fisher remembers his daughter Misty with a smile.

”She lived hard,” he said.

He remembered how she would help him set up his drums when he played in a band to supplement the times he was laid off from Jeep.

”She was my little helper. She loved music,” he said, adding she played clarinet in the Clay High School band. He remembered how she loved babysitting, watching the sunrise, animals and trying hard to beat him at euchre.

”She used to torture me, because she couldn’t sing. The poor girl couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket,” he laughed. ”She’d sing a Garth Brooks song and I’d tell her, ‘Misty, please don’t do that to me.’ ”

It was times like those, Fisher said, he felt Misty and he were tremendously close: ”You couldn’t stay mad at her for anything. She’d pipe up and say something off the wall that would just make you chuckle.”

Fisher said Misty could ”walk into a room not knowing anyone, but would leave knowing everyone.”

She dedicated special days to take her younger sisters out for a meal and a movie. A teenager, she liked to hang out with friends, go to church, and make a mess.

”I used to tell her, ‘Misty, one day when you move out, I’m gonna come to your house and trash it like you trash our house. I’m gonna eat chips and leave the bag open on the table,’ ”Fisher said. ”She’d tell me, ‘I aint gonna leave, Dad.’

”I guess she never will.”

Misty wanted to be an accountant and exhibited a work ethic that made her father proud.

”She didn’t miss work. She never missed band practice,” he said. ”She got promoted at her new job. She loved her job. She was saving up to buy a new car.”

Fisher prided himself on raising three daughters with a strong work ethic: ”I raised them the same way I was raised, with an ethic to work and to never expect handouts.”

Misty worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Maumee as an assistant manager.

”She wasn’t even supposed to be working at that store on South Street,” he father said. Because Misty was hardworking and reliable, he said she would be called to fill in for absent workers at other stores.

Misty was shot during a robbery on April 12, 1996. According to witness statements, she was forced to try to open a safe and was shot in the head after she could not open it. She died en route to the hospital.

On May 13, 1996, the Lucas County grand jury indicted Jamie Madrigal, charging him with aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. Later that year, a jury convicted Madrigal on all charges and recommended Madrigal be put to death. Since then, Madrigal, who is in the Mansfield Correctional Institution, has filed numerous appeals with the courts. Until federal judge James S. Gwin ordered a new trial — after ruling jurors in Madrigal’s original trial were privy to hearsay confessions of co-defendant Chris Cathcart, potentially tainting their opinions by implicating Madrigal in the slaying — all appeals had been denied. The new trial is scheduled for Feb. 21.

Cathcart, also convicted in Misty’s murder case, was indicted Sept. 20 on charges of aggravated robbery and involuntary manslaughter in the slaying of Larry Loose on April 30, 1995.

”When my mother passed away, Misty always went to the cemetery to put flowers on her grave,” Fisher said. ”So we buried her next to her grandma.”

Since Misty’s death, Fisher has had to relive the crime against Misty through trials and multiple appeals.

”I’m mad at the whole system,” he said. ”I’ve seen the justice system work and it’s all backwards.

”Every time I go to something, I have to hear about Jamie Madrigal’s rights. Misty didn’t have no rights. She had no appeals; it was done. And everything that they’re doing now, you and I are paying for it.”

Fisher said he has had to go through unimaginable situations — all while missing work and losing pay.

”I’ve been to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati and had to listen to a female judge say, ‘If she hadn’t fumbled with the safe, none of this would have happened.’ ”

The sting of such a statement hasn’t deterred Fisher. He vows to be at every hearing regarding Misty’s killer.

”I’m going to be there,” he said. ”And I’m gonna look him in the eyes every time.”

Fisher said he went into Madrigals’ 1998 trial with an open mind.

”I told myself they had to prove to me that this was the guy,” he said. ”What proved it to me was that a 16-year-old [witness] that’s down on her knees, scared to death, remembered that he had cuts on his pants. When they pulled out these pair of pants that [police] found with him in Cleveland, they had those cuts. Now that’s something.”

Fisher said of Madrigal’s assertion that he did not pull the trigger, ”He admits to being there, but now all of a sudden, it wasn’t him. If I’m going to jail for something I didn’t do, I’m singing from day one.”

Fisher said Madrigal wouldn’t look at him during court appearances.

”[Cathcart] was man enough at his trial to turn around and look at me and say he was sorry,” Fisher said. ”I think what’s happened is that Jamie is down there on death row and they’ve started executing people and now Jamie is scared. Because he knows his day is coming sooner or later.

”That will be a happy day for me,” Fisher said. ”I’ll watch him and smile at him the whole time, because what he did accomplished nothing. He didn’t get no more money; he was 10 foot from a door. If he would’ve walked out of there with what he had, then nobody would have got hurt. But he didn’t.

”Truth be told, just put me in a room with him somewhere. Whoever wins gets to come out. Save the taxpayers’ money — just go somewhere and get it done.”

”Because what he done was cowardly. A man would have just walked out. Just go and leave those kids alone. They’re trying to work to make money and he’s out there stealing it.”

Fisher said Madrigal’s defense attorneys tried to gain sympathy with jurors by revealing he had children.

”He should have been home with those kids that night. I have no sympathy for that. I don’t agree with killing, but there’s one person I could without thinking twice about it.”

Fisher said he feels sorry for the witnesses — the teenagers who were at the restaurant during the robbery.

”Most of those people have left town,” he said, noting he still keeps in touch some of them. ”They don’t even want to be here anymore. When you are 16 years old and you go through something like that; they’ll have that for the rest of their lives.”

He said he has witnessed the justice system work in favor of the criminal too many times.

”At the first trial, they had a picture of Misty on the prosecutor’s table and they made them turn the picture over so the jurors wouldn’t see, because it could affect what they think,” he said. ”Doesn’t she have the right to be at the trial that she’s not here for?”

He said he has committed himself to attending every proceeding because he wants to see Misty’s killer serve a full sentence.

”There ain’t going to be no back-room deals as long as I can help it,” he said. ”I’ll be there every time. I’ll stare at him and say ‘I’ll see you in hell, because you took something you had no business taking.’ ”

Fisher said, despite whether her killer gets life imprisonment or death, there is never really closure.

”She was spontaneous, carefree. She laughed a lot,” he said. ”She packed a lot of living into those 18 years.”

In ”The Myth That Schools Shortchange Girls: Social Science in the Service of Deception,” Professor Judith S. Kleinfeld traces the widespread misconceptions about gender differences in education to two key sources — the highly publicized report, ”How Schools Shortchange Girls,” published by the American Association of University Women in 1992, and the work of Harvard gender studies professor Carol Gilligan.

Kleinfeld writes, ”The charge that schools shortchange girls is false political propaganda. In their zeal to advance the interests of women, the [AAUW] and other advocacy groups have distorted the achievements of women and the experience of girls and boys in schools.”

If anything, girls receive preferential treatment and it is boys who are shortchanged by schools. Kleinfeld says, ”Late-maturing boys can be [wrongly] stigmatized as poor learners and assigned to low-ability groups in the primary grades, especially in reading. … [Perfectly healthy and normal] bright, bored, and rambunctious boys [are often wrongly and tragically] diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and placed on drugs like Ritalin.”

Kleinfeld continues, ”[The ‘shortchanged girl’ myth] draws attention and resources away from the group the schools truly fail, African-American males… [who] score lowest on virtually every educational measure. This is the group where an enormous gap does exist between males and females.”

In ”The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men” American Enterprise Institute scholar Christina Hoff Sommers writes, ”In 1990, Carol Gilligan announced to the world that America’s adolescent girls were in crisis. … Gilligan, more than anyone else, is cited as the academic and scientific authority conferring respectability on the claims that American girls are being psychologically depleted, socially ‘silenced,’ and academically ‘shortchanged.’ ”

Read the rest of the first chapter of Sommers’s book free at Amazon.com to find out why the work of Gilligan and other gender feminists is based on fundamentally flawed analysis and ”missing” data.

Here are the facts about academic gender differences outlined by Judith Kleinfeld:

1. Most sex differences on standardized tests are negligible.

2. Females have an advantage in reading and writing, while males have an advantage in mathematics, science, and geopolitics.

3. Males cluster at both the bottom and the top of the academic bell curve, i.e. there are more males in remedial classes and more male academic ”superstars,” especially in math and science.

4. Sex differences in intellectual achievement are rooted in both biological and cultural influences.

Girls and women are more than holding their own academically and professionally. Women currently outnumber men on college campuses and generally outperform men academically — though a disproportionate number of women sadly opt for intellectually weak programs (art, English, etc.) and low paying professions (teaching, social work, etc.), or utterly waste their talents and opportunities in politicized mickey-mouse pseudo-disciplines like Women’s Studies.

Kleinfeld says because of our accurate understanding of gender differences, ”Improvements in mathematics and science education for females have taken place. …These efforts have borne fruit.” However, because of continued bias against boys ”comparable programs have not targeted the areas where boys are behind.”

The widespread proliferation, uncritical acceptance and college level teaching of blatantly bogus, biased and politicized theory and academic ”research” (particularly in the areas of education, psychology, gender studies, Africana studies, law, literary theory, history, philosophy, etc.) has fueled the wrongheaded liberal social agenda and resulted in an effective total loss of credibility in the social sciences and humanities.

Meanwhile, countless young minds continue to be tragically warped and wasted in the massive, misguided, dumbed-down, politicized and failed liberal social engineering experiment we call American education.

”You know what it means when they pay you minimum wage? It means they’re telling you, ‘If I could pay you less, I would! But it’s against the law!’ ”

The words of comedian Chris Rock, who once made the least money the law would allow when he worked at McDonald’s, ring especially true for those struggling to make ends meet on Ohio’s $4.25 per hour minimum wage.

It’s a humbling feeling to be told that your very best efforts are worth only the least amount of compensation, at least in your employer’s eyes, yet it’s one that most of us have experienced at one point or another. Whether it was a part-time job in high school, or working in the summer to pay for college, or even in that first ”real world” job, many of us who broke into the workforce ended up, well, broke in the work force.

Those of us who remember the tiny number in the ”net” box of our pay stubs, just below the only slightly larger number in the ”gross” box, can truly empathize with those who look at those little numbers today. Kind of makes us wish someone would march right into the boss’s office and demand that he raise everyone’s pay to a more reasonable, livable wage. And when someone finally does, we’ll applaud wildly. As long as that someone isn’t the government.

For nearly 15 years, the State of Ohio has refused to budge from its $4.25 minimum, making ours one of only two states to remain below the federal standard of $5.15. But next year, a group led by the Ohio AFL-CIO will attempt to do what the legislature won’t, and they’re going to the November ballot to do it.

Stand in one place too long in the coming months and you’re likely to find a petition stuffed in your face, with a union member or volunteer lobbyist (being paid minimum wage, no doubt) prodding you to sign it. They’ll need 322,000 signatures to get their proposal on the ballot, one that would raise the state minimum wage to $6.85 an hour, starting in January, 2007.

They’ll barrage you with tales of poor, hard working people who can’t feed their three kids on $4.25 an hour, and they’ll tell you how the mean old corporations are conspiring to keep the working man down. They’ll tell you how the government doesn’t really care about the little man, and that they only want to line the pockets of wealthy corporate executives.

What they won’t tell you, however, is how many of the hard-working ”little men” they claim to protect will be laid off when businesses are forced to increase their overhead costs through higher payrolls.

They’ll happily tell you about Joe and Pete, who will enjoy a higher quality of life on their $6.85 an hour wages, but you’ll never hear a word about Stan.

Stan, you see, will take his lunch pail to the unemployment line because the boss has a limit on how much he can spend on his workers. With three guys making $4.25 an hour, it’ll cost the boss $12.75 in labor to make and move his product. But now Joe and Pete are making $13.70 between the two of them.

Sorry, Stan. We’ve gotta let you go.

Down the street, of course, is a bigger shop, where 20 more Joes and Petes are now enjoying the bigger number on their pay stubs, and with a lot more elbow room in the shop, too. That’s because 10 more Stans are sitting at home.

And Sally at the front desk? The one who was promised a $1.50 raise after her third year on the job? Sorry. Postponed. Joe and Pete are eating her raise.

Too often, groups like the AFL-CIO are able to convince people that all employers are giants like Microsoft or Altell. They can afford to give up some profit and pay their people a higher wage, they argue. And for the large companies, that’s true. But the Bureau of Labor and Statistics says more people are employed by small businesses and entrepreneurs than all other companies in America. A broadstroke raise of overhead on Ohio’s largest group of employers, ignoring the laws of supply and demand, would be devastating to their already thin profit-margins.

So when that paper is shoved in your face in January, think about Joe and Pete and how tough minimum wage is on them. But before you sign, don’t you dare forget about Stan.

Bob Frantz may be contacted by e-mail at letters@toledofreepress.com.

SOUTH FLORIDA -— The trees are massive, towering, with inconceivably intricate bundles of roots that once sank yards into the tropical soil. They lay on their sides, their invincibility stripped away, tossed aside like splintered baseball bats.

The neighborhoods around Miami display deep scars and wounds. Fences are bashed in, piles of debris line the streets, boarded-up holes stand where windows once framed gardens and yards.

Houses without roofs, or with gaping holes in roofs, dot the neighborhoods, some under large tarps, some left open to the elements. Fallen lights and poles line many sidewalks. The usually verdant layer of green palm tree fronds has been scrubbed away, leaving palm trees with stumps and no leaves. Buildings that have stood along the Intracoastal for decades are cracked, shaken, with walls pulled inches from ceilings and splits in marble floors.

Hurricane Wilma swallowed South Florida on Oct. 24, big enough to straddle the state with one foot in the Gulf, one foot in the Atlantic, its girth fed by the warm waters of the Everglades.

Wilma killed 35 people, destroyed tens of thousands of homes, and caused widespread power outages. Damage estimates have neared $20 billion. Some places were without electricity for three weeks. Nearly everyone needed to completely restock their refrigerators and freezers.

The late-season beast has left many South Florida residents with much bigger concerns than preparing turkeys, watching parades and choosing wrapping paper.

I lived in the Miami area for a few years and always marveled at its economic dichotomy. There are pockets of immeasurable wealth, neighboring areas of abject poverty. During a Thanksgiving visit, I heard and saw evidence of an uncharacteristic malaise that has settled over many residents, even the ”lucky” ones who have the financial resources and insurance to help them rebuild.

After seeing the damage and talking to people during my travels, it is clear the people of the area still need help and support. There are still shelters operating in parts of South Florida, but as we move further away from the disaster, and it becomes tangled in the distant past with last year’s tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, urgency is lost and many will be forgotten.

Nearly 2,000 volunteers have been deployed to support the Red Cross response in Florida following Wilma, in addition to the tens of thousands on the ground across the Gulf Coast still serving communities damaged by Katrina and Rita.

”This year’s hurricane season has presented unprecedented challenges for the Red Cross,” said spokesman Pat McCrummen. ”It’s been a long and busy hurricane season, but our staff and volunteers continue to rise to the challenge daily. They know that these communities need our support.”

The next four weeks will focus us on shopping, looking for holiday gifts and planning holiday celebrations. It’s difficult to stop and let in thoughts of suffering and need.

At the airport in Fort Lauderdale, a young man in line behind me was describing his vacation to a friend. His main line of conversation was the complaint that he had to spend so much of his week off helping his father clean up hurricane damage. He was right in the middle of the damage, and yet seemed far removed from the consequence. I can only imagine how far to the background Wilma (and Katrina and Rita) are to folks in the Midwest.

If you can spare one less string of lights or one fewer CD this holiday season, think about sending whatever you can to the Hurricane relief effort through the Red Cross (www.redcross.org) or United Way (www.unitedway.org).

The fallen trees will take decades to replace and replenish. People do not have that kind of time to wait for help.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press. He may be contacted at (419) 241-1700 or by e-mail at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

 FOOTBALL SNAPS

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As if this weren’t a tricky enough pose to strike on the ground, try doing so while perched atop a human pyramid. UT cheerleaders combine theatricality, athleticism and steady nerves to provide entertainment during game breaks at Savage Hall.

Technical information: this photo taken at 1/640 sec., ISO 1600, f/2.8 and 200mm, inset at 70mm, with a Canon EOS 20D.

DM Stanfield is Toledo Free Press photo editor. He may be contacted at dmstanfield@
toledofreepress.com.

Are gift cards on your holiday shopping list?

If so, consider yourself trendy.

This year, 59 percent of consumers say they have bought or received a gift card, up from 36 percent in 2001, according to annual surveys by the ValueLink consulting group. In addition, more than half of consumers surveyed by the National Retail Federation said they’d like to receive a gift card as a present this year.

For many retailers, gift cards now represent a significant portion of sales. Starbucks has sold 58 million of its gift cards, worth over $1 billion, since they were introduced in 2001; they now account for 11 percent of the company’s North American retail revenues.

What’s behind the boom? It’s simple. Plastic, wallet-sized cards replaced paper gift certificates. The electronic storage of funds makes gift cards easy to buy and redeem.

”When the certificate had to be written by hand, you couldn’t just grab one and buy it,’’ said Len Gilbert, who runs Barnes & Noble’s gift card program. ”And nobody would think to carry those pieces of paper in their wallet. But when it’s a piece of plastic, it gets used more.’’

Besides, a gift card is no longer a ”cop-out gift. Now it’s seen as really giving choice,’’ Gilbert said.

Because gift cards can be purchased over the Internet and even sent by e-mail, they’re especially convenient for shoppers who dread long lines.

”They’re ideal for the last-minute shopper or anyone who doesn’t have the ability to get the gift to the person,’’ said Jill Ambrose, marketing vice-president for www.giftcertificates.com, a one-stop shop for gift cards from hundreds of retailers.

Some chains even sell gift cards at other companies’ stores — like Pathmark supermarkets and CVS drug stores, where you’ll find racks of gift cards for unrelated retailers. Some cards are dressed up with themed designs — snowflakes, snowmen and the like.

But does a gift card suggest that you didn’t care enough to select a more personal present? Don’t worry. Etiquette expert Peggy Post from the Emily Post Institute (and wife of Emily’s great-grandson), says gift cards are perfectly acceptable, especially when you’re not sure what the person would like. ”A lot of recipients enjoy having them,’’ she said.

Just beware: Some cards have expiration dates. Others — especially from banks or credit card companies — come with ”an abundance of fees and limits, which greatly reduces the monetary gift you’re giving,’’ said Jeffrey Strain, who runs a Web site about consumer savings called www.savingadvice.com. ”These can include a monthly maintenance fee, shipping and handling fees if purchased over the Internet, service fees, and ATM fees if used to get cash.’’

On the other hand, a fee may buy convenience. At www.giftcertificates.com, e-mailing a gift card is free, but it costs extra to snail-mail or deliver overnight. The Web site’s ”SuperCertificate,’’ which is redeemable for gift cards from a variety of merchants, comes with a 95-cent fee when delivered electronically.

If a card never gets used, or if only part of the value is used, merchants keep the change. Consumers who do use up their cards are likely to add cash to complete the purchase. A 2005 ValueLink survey found that 56 percent of gift-card recipients spent more than the value of the card.

And when you buy a card today and redeem it in the future, ”you’re making an interest-free loan. You are making a loan to the Gap or Barnes & Noble or Borders,’’ said Slate magazine’s ”Moneybox’’ writer Daniel Gross.

Gross, who wrote a column called ”`Why Gift Cards Are Evil,’’ said that it’s silly to think gift cards are ”better than cash or classier somehow. At the end of the day, you are giving them cash.’’

But some consumers think gift cards are preferable to cash.

Ardythe Davis rewards her employees with gift certificates for the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, which can be used at eateries around the state. ”If you give them an extra $10 or $20, it means nothing,’’ said Davis, who runs Ardy & Ed’s Drive In, a burger-and-fries place in Oshkosh, Wis. ”But everybody likes to eat out.’’

Davis also buys gift certificates to the Sundara Spa, in Wisconsin Dells, as a Christmas gift for her husband. ”He really loves it,’’ she said.

Gift certificates for an activity or experience — like eating out or getting a massage — are a way for busy people to encourage each other ”to put aside some time for themselves.

It sends the message, ‘I care about you,’’’ said Jeremy McCarthy, director at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., where gift card sales average $100,000 a month, a 28 percent increase over last year.

‘Tis the season for buying, giving and receiving. While many shoppers glow in the spirit of giving, they often are not as enthusiastic when they receive the bills in January and payment is due.

In retrospect, many gift givers wish they had been more prudent during the holidays.

To become more aware of spending and shopping behavior, it’s helpful to have a strategy for holiday buying, said Bill Sauer, professor emeritus of management for the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna

University in Selinsgrove, Pa.

Sauer has researched consumers’ buying behavior and offers the following holiday shopping tips:

Make a list and decide what to spend

Create a comprehensive list of all the people that gifts will be purchased for during the holiday season. Include family, friends, teachers, co-workers, and tips or gifts for service providers like the mail carrier or babysitter.

Determine how much will be spent for each person on the gift list so the total amount can be determined. Calculating all gift spending early in the process helps avoid surprises after the holidays. If the total is more than anticipated, adjust spending to stay within the budget.

Select gift ideas

Before shopping, come up with a specific item for each person. Shoppers save time by not having to aimlessly search until an item catches their eye, and it avoids the temptation to purchase gifts suggested by aggressive sales associates.

Think of at least two alternative gifts in case the first choice can’t be found. ”Alternatives will prevent impulse purchases and keep you within a budget,” Sauer said.

Consider a gift card

Many credit card companies offer gift cards that can be used at any merchant accepting the credit card.

Gift cards take the guesswork out of purchasing items for the hard-to-buy-for person on the list while saving time shopping at crowded malls and retailers.

The TowerGroup, a research and consulting firm in Needham, Mass. reports that $45 billion was spent on gift cards in 2003. The number of people who gave gift cards for a holiday present was four times higher than the previous year.

”With gift cards, consumers will never have to worry if a gift is the correct style, size or color,” said Stephen Diamond, vice president, prepaid products, Visa USA, which offers the Visa Gift Card. ”Many prepaid gift cards can be purchased from financial institutions in specific amounts, allowing friends, family and colleagues that receive the card to buy what they want, where they want, when they want.”

Consider buying online

According to Joel Kline, professor of business administration at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., once a user has settled on a model or item, Web shopping sites can be used to find the best price.

”If you know what you want and where to find it online, the Internet is very convenient,” Kline said.

Online sources such as Shopping.MSN.com offer a comparison shopping service where a product or brand can be entered to receive a list of matching products so shoppers can compare prices and features without going to individual Web sites or store to store.

Buying online is big business. eMarketer, a New York City company specializing in online market projections and Internet statistics, predicts retail sales in the fourth quarter of 2004 will increase by more than 27 percent from 2003, reaching over $22 billion in sales.

”The medium itself is hitting a maturation point,” said Jeffery Grau, senior analyst with eMarketers. ”The experience is faster, more secure and more consumer-friendly.” Shop early and shop around

Shop early for pre-season sales and clearance specials. ”Many shoppers come to expect sales around the holidays, and brick and mortar stores frequently have sales that significantly lower the cost of items,” Kline said. ”But these sales are often slow to reach online shopping sites.”

It’s next to impossible to purchase all gifts at one location. Instead, shoppers should look around for specials on popular gifts at outlets, department stores and discount retailers. Consider visiting specialty stores if assistance is needed for a product that requires expert advice.

”Online shopping is also great for selection,” Kline said. ”If a product can be sold online, the chances are that an online store has it in stock and ready to ship. Specialty items that are hard to find, especially for people in rural areas, are perfect to purchase online.”

Due to shipping constraints, it’s impossible to shop online at the last minute. Many sites advertise delivery up to Christmas, but shoppers can expect higher shipping costs, Kline said.

Consider how to pay for gifts

Dr. Leanne Mischel, assistant professor of management at Susquehanna University, suggests shoppers exercise caution when using credit cards during the holidays.

If using credit cards, Mischel advises researching and signing up for a card with the lowest interest rate and transferring the balance to the new card since most cards have a reduced introduction rate. Cards should be paid off while the introductory rates are in place.

”You should consolidate credit cards and don’t just pay the minimum,” Mischel said. ”This will pay off in the long run” he said, because interest payments can add up.

Consider joining a credit union or Christmas club. ”It will be at your disposal in time for gift buying,” Sauer said.

When Toledo music veteran Jeff Stewart is on stage, he’s doing more than performing; he’s looking directly at you.

”I watch the crowd and how all the different people interact, I apply it to my own life, and then figure out how to fit it into a song,” said the 36-year-old musician. ”This music is for people who can understand relationships, and how life can sometimes kick your ass.”

At 9 p.m. Nov. 26, Stewart’s debut solo CD, Mix Tape Blues, will be released during a performance at Diva restaurant, Downtown. Stewart has released records with two of his previous bands, the Flecks and the popular Toledo rock group the Starlings. Mix Tape Blues showcases Stewart’s smooth and suave blues/folk sound through well-crafted songwriting.

”It’s heart-on-my-sleeve music,” he said. ”We all go through the same emotions.”

The seven, all acoustic, original songs on the CD deal with the turmoil of failed relationships or the elation of newly discovered love.

The title track, ”Mix Tape Blues,” pays homage to the love songs of his past, forever linked with particular people or places.

”Sometimes when you hear songs on the radio, they can just crush you,” Stewart said. The chorus from ”Mix Tape Blues” alludes to iconic love lyrics from Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, the Wallflowers and the Starlings.

Stewart’s raspy and passionate vocals resemble Bono at the height of his U2 career, while many of his storytelling-style songs parallel Cat Stevens or Bob Dylan.

Mix Tape Blues represents a new degree of maturity for Stewart.

”Being in my 30s, I’ve been through the phases of trying to ‘be cool.’ That’s not what I’m trying to do anymore. I sing songs that I like to sing, and if people get it, they get it. Toledo’s a tough town to play in. You can go through a whole set and hear crickets chirp when you’re done, but then some nights are really great. It can be very humbling. You’re not going to ‘be cool’ [performing] in Toledo.”

Stewart is working on a 12-track album for release in late 2006.

”If you’re doing your job, you want to be the best at your job,” he said. ”You want to be the guy that people look up to for wisdom and grace. That’s important. I really want to make an impression on people. You just got to cherry pick one person at a time, you know? Break the rocks up and tackle it one rock at a time.”