FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), announced its Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, located in Oak Harbor, returned to service following an April 5 shutdown for scheduled maintenance work.

The 908-megawatt (net) plant is currently operating at 21 percent power and is expected to reach full power in the next several days, according to a news release. The plant began producing electricity at 2:08 p.m. According to the news release, “a number of major projects were completed to ensure continued safe and reliable operations, including replacement of several valves and maintenance work on systems supplying cooling water to the plant. Numerous safety inspections also were successfully completed.”

Open auditions for Toledo’s All-America City delegation will take place at 7 p.m. April 27 at the Park Lane Apartments at 142 23rd St., Toledo.
The national All-America City finals will take place in Tampa, Fla., from June 16 to 19 and the delegation is looking for “Toledo pride-filled citizens, particularly thespians,” according to a news release. Auditioners will be asked to give a dry reading of a script and sing a few bars of a song of their choice.
People interested or experienced with backstage technical work, including props and costumes, may also attend the audition.

April 20, Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner released the following statement after receiving a recall notice from City Council Clerk Gerald Dendinger:

” Mr. Dendinger, Clerk of Council, has acted contrary to the evidence that my attorney presented to him this morning. There are not enough valid signatures. The evidence is voluminous. (See attached documents)

“Of course, I do not intend to resign. We will contest the validity of a significant number of signatures, as more than half of the signatures have already proven to be false or invalid.

“Lastly, the day I turn Toledo over to a group of self-interested malcontents from outside of Toledo, will be a cold day in a warm place.”

Take Back Toledo organizer Brian Schwartz said while he had “been called worse than a malcontent by the mayor to my face,” no comment on the challenge would be available until Take Back Toledo’s organizers met April 21.

BROOKLYN, Mich. – Michigan International Speedway officials have announced the first phase of a broad master plan that includes a significant redesign of the speedway’s infield.

According to a news release, Phase One of the plan, approved by the speedway’s parent company, International Speedway Corporation, includes a more than $17 million reconstruction of the current terrace suites and media center in the track’s infield.

Demolition and construction will begin immediately following the track’s August NASCAR weekend and will be ready for the 2010 season at the track.

“The two-story design calls for 30 corporate suites that span the second floor of the structure. A number of the suites will include movable walls so areas can expand or decrease based on partners’ needs, building upon MIS’ philosophy to tailor custom packages to each partners’ business goals,” the release said. “The structure’s first floor is a state-of-the-art media, technology and meeting center. Print, radio and TV journalists, including their photographer counterparts from across all news mediums, will have ample space to work and cover MIS’ popular events. Separate rooms for large press conferences and competitor meetings will also be housed on the first floor, near a new kitchen and press dining area.”

“We continue to invest in the overall experience at MIS,” speedway President Roger Curtis said. “There are few companies today investing in their facilities in such a manner. We are exploring ways to create lasting and memorable experiences for our fans, guests, media and sponsors while they are at MIS. We are also investing in the future of auto racing at one of the revered speedways in the country – Michigan International Speedway.”

The suite and media center project was designed by Rossetti Associates. The Southfield, Mich., architecture, planning and design firm has created a host of sporting venues from Ford Field, home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions and the NCAA’s 2009 men’s basketball Final Four, to The Palace of Auburn Hills, home of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.

Michigan International Speedway is the first auto racing project for the company, which excited the acclaimed team of Michigan-based designers and planners.

“When you think about sporting events, the focus of the project is typically toward the event itself or the playing field,” Rossetti Associate’s Jim Renne, principal in charge of the project, said. “For motorsports, however, the focus is all around you – it’s the pits, it’s the backstretch, it’s the garage, it’s the frontstretch.

“It’s the 360-degree experience that made this project exciting and unique.”

The scope of Phase One of the project includes modifying pit road and the current fire lane. The speedway’s fueling station in the garage will also be moved.

The project is the largest at MIS since the construction of the suite tower in 2005. In that venture, the speedway’s motorsports fan display area was also expanded and paved.

Phase One of the master plan redesign of the infield is just one piece of an ongoing transformation at MIS. In all, MIS will have spent more than $55 million since 2005 on various capital improvement projects from enhanced seating to a new scoreboard and public address system, to better campsites and directional signage – all with the fan in mind.

Future hopes for the speedway include an eventual Phase Two of an infield renovation to create a fan walk-style entertainment area with fan-accessible garages, along with reconfigured and enhanced infield campsites.

“We will continue to do our part to make sure the fans are a part of every decision we make,” Curtis said. “Race fans are as passionate about their favorite venue as they are about their drivers. We talk to them directly and regularly because we care about what they have to say, and it’s our mission to make sure they know how important their input is to our business.”

For tickets, camping and pit passes for all MIS events, call the speedway toll free at 800-354-1010 or log onto MISpeedway.com.

A Chapter 11 filing might be the most effective way to overhaul General Motors Corp., but that doesn’t mean the sweeping changes that are possible in bankruptcy court are going to be quick or easy.

GM CEO Fritz Henderson said Friday that the company still would prefer to restructure out of court as it tries to prove it can survive to repay its $13.4 billion in government loans, but he conceded that bankruptcy protection is more probable than it was in the past.

Henderson said in a conference call with reporters that GM is simultaneously restructuring out of court and planning for Chapter 11. The company would either file a prearranged bankruptcy in which stakeholders agree to take cuts, or use a section of the federal code that allows companies to sell off bad assets and keep good ones.

Experts say there are many reasons why the quick, “surgical” bankruptcy that GM may seek won’t be as smooth or as fast as the company and U.S. government expect.

“It would be a mammoth undertaking,” said Jon Groetzinger, a visiting law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. “It has been done, not on a scale quite as big as GM.”

In order for it to go quickly, GM would have to gain agreements from creditors to wipe out debts, unions to change contracts, and perhaps dealers to alter franchise agreements, experts said. There could be thousands of claims from employees, retirees, parts suppliers and others that would have to be heard by the court.

“The only way it would be speedy was if they had all the agreements in advance. But then why would you need it?” asked Doug Bernstein, a lawyer with Plunket Cooney PC in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

It’s overly optimistic to think GM can go in and out of bankruptcy for a “quick rinse” of its troubles in as little as two weeks to four months, according to Bernstein. The process, he said, could drag on because creditors could object to contract changes and be heard in court. Experts say six months would be considered quick.

Key to emerging quickly would be advance deals with the United Auto Workers union and holders of roughly $28 billion in GM bond debt. Bondholders are being asked to take stock for part of their debt, while the union is negotiating to accept stock for roughly $20 billion in payments GM must make to a trust that will take over retiree health care costs next year.

Henderson said there has been dialogue but no intense talks with a bondholders’ committee. Negotiations with the union have taken a back seat to talks at Chrysler LLC, which faces an April 30 deadline to finish restructuring and forge an alliance with Italy’s Fiat Group SpA. GM’s deadline to give the government completed restructuring plans is June 1.

The decision to file for bankruptcy would be made with the Treasury Department’s autos task force and GM’s board, and the government is not pressuring GM to file, Henderson said.

“I felt several weeks ago that it would be more probable that we would need to go through a bankruptcy process,” he said. “That continues today. But I wouldn’t be able to hazard a guess as to what the probabilities would be.”

Henderson mentioned Section 363 of the bankruptcy code, in which companies under court supervision auction off bad assets while keeping good ones.

“The first thing a company will do when they go into bankruptcy is figure out what their bum assets are,” Groetzinger said. “It’s a way of shedding the nonproductive or less-productive assets.”

But such auctions need time for the company to line up bidders, and creditors may object to the terms, he said. GM’s good assets also could be auctioned, he said.

Even if GM gets deals outside of bankruptcy to exchange debt for equity, slash benefits, or close showrooms, not every bondholder, retiree or dealer will agree, said Steve Mertz, a partner with the Faegre & Benson law firm in Minneapolis.

“At the end of the end of the day you’re going to have to use the bankruptcy process to implement whatever agreements they negotiated outside of bankruptcy,” he said.

Regardless of how GM is restructured, the automaker will need more government aid in the second quarter, Henderson said, although further loans haven’t been approved. The company said in February that it would need $4.6 billion in the quarter, and that hasn’t changed, he said.

Meanwhile, GM is finding ways to make deeper cuts than its Feb. 17 viability plan outlined. Henderson emphasized that more factories will be shuttered beyond the five closures GM announced in February. The factories have not been identified.

More employees will lose their jobs this year than the 47,000 the company had planned to lay off two months ago.

GM is also working to slash its portfolio of eight brands.

Henderson expects final bids from three potential Hummer buyers by next week, with a decision expected by the end of April. He said several parties are interested in GM’s troubled Saab unit. GM revealed this week that a number of groups have proposed to take over Saturn.

More than six parties are interested in buying a stake in GM’s Opel unit in Germany, and Henderson said he expects work to be done in the next two to three weeks.

But despite reports that GM is under pressure to get even smaller, Henderson emphasized that the company’s plan calls for the automaker to keep four core brands – Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick. He said GMC and Buick are highly profitable.

Henderson also said the company will not sell its ACDelco parts division, despite having potential buyers.

“It’s a highly profitable business for us. It’s creating good, strong cash flow,” Henderson said. “Our conclusion was that we weren’t going to get the value for the business.”

Henderson also said the company’s April sales were “OK,” but he did not elaborate.

A Lima man has been arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting another man nearly two decades ago in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity.

Carl Humphreys III of Kenton has been arrested in Florida and is expected to be sent back to Ohio this week. A warrant charges him with the November 1989 murder of 33-year-old Haskell Woodley.

Police say Woodley was standing outside a home in Lima when a vehicle pulled up and the passenger shot him in the chest.

A detective has been reviewing the case at the request of Woodley’s sister, who says the arrest is a relief for her family.

Detective Kent Miller says Lima police made progress with help from previously uncooperative witnesses.

It’s not easy to make a splash when you’re the state auditor. But Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor did just that last week.

Taylor, a Republican, released her own analysis of Ohio’s budget condition. It showed that the state would face an $8 billion gap in two years, after federal stimulus money and other one-time funds the Democratic governor is counting on dry up.

Strickland

The state auditor doesn’t typically play a role as fiscal watchdog of the state budget, but Taylor made a deft political calculation in determining it was the time to step in.

For one thing, her fellow Republicans in the Legislature are in a quandary over Strickland’s budget.

Until details were released on Thursday, House Democrats who control that chamber had kept the fine points of their school-funding rewrite close to the vest. And, even after the press conference and document release, the minority GOP caucus must still wait until next week _ like the rest of the public _ to see the exact language of a substitute budget bill.

Republicans hold a majority in the Ohio Senate, meanwhile. But there, too, the GOP finds itself in a bind.

As of Friday, the state budget – a massive policy document detailing $54 billion in state spending over the two years that start July 1 – wasn’t expected to emerge from the House and sent to the Senate until the last week of April. By statute, the budget must be signed into law by June 30.

That gives the Senate an unusually small time window – one-third the time the House has used – to make its own revisions to the budget. And the changes will have to include the Republican response to Strickland’s school-funding concept, a complete overhaul of how Ohio pays for public schools.

So Taylor put her staff, which includes former Republican state budget director Tim Keen, to work on the numbers for the good of her fellow Republicans.

House Republican Leader Bill Batchelder commended her for her “forward thinking.”

“Since legislators have not been able to obtain clear information from the Strickland administration, this analysis was much needed,” he said in a statement.

But Taylor’s act wasn’t purely magnanimous.

Politically, Taylor aspires at minimum to be re-elected in 2010. She’s also eyeing the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by George Voinovich and, with her statewide success, might even want to run for governor someday.

Last week’s splash, and an earlier ruckus she raised over the Strickland administration’s books being potentially “unauditable,” are improving her visibility and placing her sometimes sleepy office in the limelight.

The results of her budget analysis also underlined two themes about Strickland’s plan that Republicans have been trying to hammer home – and undoubtedly would love to use against Strickland when he runs for re-election.

First, it emphasized that his budget is reliant on a good chunk of one-time money (a criticism out-of-power Democrats once lobbed at Republicans). Second, it shows that the Strickland administration’s budget numbers haven’t always added up.

Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern labeled the whole exercise disingenuous.

“It’s time for Mary Taylor and Ohio Republicans to get honest with the people of Ohio,” he said. “They have made it clear they oppose Ohio benefiting from billions in job creation funds provided by President Obama. That leaves only two options: either they want a massive tax hike on Ohioans or devastating cuts to job creation, education and health care for Ohio families.”

Strickland responded to her report with a statement.

“If we put aside heated rhetoric and partisan gamesmanship, there emerges a simple truth about federal stimulus resources. Without them, more Ohioans would lose jobs, fewer Ohioans would have access to health care, teachers would be laid off, tuition would increase, prisons would be forced to close, mental health and other important community services would be cut, and fewer Ohio jobs would be created.”

Strickland also hinted, between the lines, that Taylor was using her state office – the only one the once-powerful Ohio GOP now controls – for the benefit of her colleagues in the Legislature.

“If these are the actions that Mary Taylor and legislative Republicans are advocating for,” he said, “they should come out and say so.”

The brother-in-law of actress Katie Holmes died while visiting his family in Florida.

Family members say Joseph Jeffrey Fretti died of heart failure Sunday while visiting his mother in Sarasota. He was 48.

Fretti operated a funeral home in Toledo, where Holmes grew up. She attended an all-girls Roman Catholic school in Toledo before leaving to pursue an acting career.

Fretti was married to Holmes’ sister, Tammy, although the couple was in the process of getting a divorce.

Services are planned for April 20 morning in Toledo.

In a little over a year, a former guard at the county jail was convicted of beating up two inmates and another was sentenced for trying to smuggle drugs into the lockup.

And two years ago, a state inspection of the jail found that overcrowding was creating miserable conditions.

This all came before charges were filed last week against the Lucas County sheriff, accusing him of making false statements to FBI agents who were investigating the beating death of a man at the jail in 2004.

Federal prosecutors said Sheriff James Telb was attempting to cover up the role his deputies are accused of playing in the death of a man who was beaten in jail.

Telb and three others were indicted on civil rights violations relating to the 2004 death of Carleton Benton, an inmate who was being held on murder charges.

Prosecutors said a sheriff’s deputy assaulted and strangled Benton in his cell and that another deputy also hit the man. The two deputies made false reports, and Telb and a lieutenant concealed their knowledge of the case from federal authorities, prosecutors said.

Telb, who is in his seventh term as sheriff, and the others charged have denied any wrongdoing. “At no time was there any attempt, or any effort, to cover up anything,” Telb said.

In recent years, the sheriff has had to defend operations at the jail and his deputies as problems mounted.

Among the troubles were a pair of embarrassing escapes.

In one case, a man waiting to be booked ran out through the front door a year ago. He was caught within minutes.

Another inmate used a guard’s keys that he had found on a desk to escape in 2006. The inmate took an elevator down to the jail’s basement and slipped out an unguarded door. He then robbed a bank before being caught.

Most recently, a former guard, Seth Bunke, was found guilty in October of assaulting two jail inmates in 2006 and 2007. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Two deputies who watched Bunke beat one man pleaded guilty in November to witness tampering, admitting that they both wrote false reports and prevented other witnesses from telling the truth.

“I thought I knew what love was/What did I know?” – Don Henley

There are a lot of ways to measure 50 years. If you want to be technical, clinical, 50 years is 2,600 weeks, 18,200 days and 436,800 hours. If you want to be historical, chronological, there have been 11 presidents in the past 50 years (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan (twice), Bush, Clinton (twice), Bush (twice), Obama); Fidel Castro has been in power for 50 years; the Dalai Lama escaped to India 50 years ago; Alaska and Hawaii became states 50 years ago; in 1959, the cost of a first-class stamp was 4 cents; 50 years ago, Marilyn Monroe, Alfred Hitchcock, James Michener, Boris Pasternak, William Burroughs, Frank Sinatra and Henry Mancini were at the top of their games.

On April 11, 1959, Dean Matheney married Bettie Hendrix. At a celebration at Perrysburg’s Belmont Country Club April 11, 2009, friends and family gathered to celebrate their 50 years of marriage.

It is tempting to praise Dean and Bettie’s grace and commitment at the expense of reality, to let their life together assume rose-colored hues of American perfection. No marriage is without challenge and cloudy weather, however, and Dean and Bettie would be the first to protest any attempts to aggrandize their partnership as anything uber-special. But the temptation lingers.

There were many living testaments to their 50 years of marriage at the April 11 celebration. First and foremost, their sons, Steve and Tim, were there to reminisce and share stories. Tim, with whom I have been friends since first grade, is one of the defining influences on my life. He is the most intelligent light I follow, and his achievements – as a graduate of St. John’s Jesuit High School, the University of Michigan, Princeton University and as principal at South Brunswick High School in New Jersey – set a high standard of service and dedication to education. Tim is godfather to our first son, Evan, a choice as close to a foregone conclusion as anything we’ll do with our sons.

Dean and Bettie also had their three grandchildren at their side April 11 – Erin, Lauren and Evan. Evan, the senior class president at Lake High School, sat at our table that night and spoke of his grandparents in reverent, loving tones, making a summer weekend of gardening sound like a life-experience summit, which, upon reflection, it probably was. Dean was the director of non-teaching personnel and an elementary school assistant for TPS. Bettie was a paraprofessional in the Title 1 reading program for TPS. Tim and Steve stressed their parents’ emphasis on education, service and family during their comments at the dinner, but their accomplishments more than illustrate the point.

My parents did not stay together. Our mother was incapacitated by a muscular disease, and our father lived his life outside our home. To me, a weekly or biweekly visit with him was the norm. I never questioned that environment, because that was all I knew.

It was late 1970s and early 1980s visits to the Matheney household that showed me an alternative. Dean was home with his family, every night. They had dinner together, at one table. Dean interacted with Tim and Steve, on matters of school and life.

I saw a similar scenario at the home of my friend John Bleau. His parents, Bill and Delores, who are just a few years from their 50th wedding anniversary, were similarly active in John and his sister Cindy’s lives, and were there. Again, I’m not coloring any of these people as perfect, but I can’t overemphasize how important there was, and what an impact seeing that had on my understanding of what a family could be.

I do not remember the specific epiphany, but at some point I began to understand that my reference point for family was perhaps not all it could be. Dean and Bill were the first adults outside of a school setting who treated me, not as a child, but as a young adult, and they listened, even when the things I was saying weren’t as mature or grounded as they should have been. I won’t place the burden of father figure or father by proxy on these men, as they shouldn’t shoulder any of the blame for my mistakes and flaws, but a lot of my framework for being a husband and father, I learned from them.

Seeing Dean and Bettie, surrounded by 50-year-old photos and mementos, enveloped by family and friends, I can see the payoff, in love and strength, that results from working to stay in a marriage for more than half a lifetime. Bettie faces some health challenges that make these days bittersweet. And just like he has been for 50-plus years, Dean is there, and his tender, watchful eyes keep Bettie in view, his arms embrace her, and his heart colors his every word and expression for her.

Every Christmas, my wife and I take our two young boys to Dean and Bettie’s for a visit. My sons are far too young to understand the triumph that Bettie and Dean represent, but as they grow, I hope they know enough about them to understand what an impact they had on their own father, and what a standard has been set for me and my wife to pass on to them. Coupled with the example set by their maternal grandparents, Kit and Kay Scott, there are more than enough role models to learn from.

I won’t live to see my sons Evan and Sean celebrate their 50th wedding anniversaries, but when they do, I hope they remember Dean and Bettie, and Bill and Delores, and Kit and Kay. And their own mom and dad, which may represent the greatest triumph of all.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press. Contact him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.