Since Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong got back together in 2008, it’s been funny business as usual, high ol’ times.
It’s almost like nothing changed. Well, except that Cheech is clean-shaven these days. And Chong is tailing the police.
Does Cheech miss his ’stache?
“No,” he said and laughed during a phone call from a tour stop in Tampa, Fla. “I had my moustache years.”
Undaunted by his 2003 arrest for selling drug paraphernalia, Chong continues to flout the law.
“I’m following the cops; they don’t know that I’m on the cell phone,” he said and chuckled deeply via a hands-free model while driving on a Los Angeles freeway.
The iconic hippie stoners are still huffing and puffing — but in the name of change — as they bring their “Get It Legal” tour to Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor for an 8 p.m. show April 3. Tickets are $39.50 and $49.50.
“[Marijuana is] a proven medicine now. And not only should it be legal, it should be mandatory in a lot of cases,” Chong said. “There’s a case in Toronto where a 13-year-old boy with a brain tumor is alive because he smokes or takes marijuana daily because it shrinks the brain tumor. The critics say it does affect the brain, but in this case it affects it in a very positive manner.
“Also, it could be legal very easy,” he continued. “All they have to do is reschedule it from a Schedule I where it’s a dangerous drug, you know, they’re saying it has no medical level, to a Schedule II, which says that it is available by prescription only, which is the case in 16 states now, you can have medical marijuana.”

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong

“It’s quasi-legal now,” Cheech said. “There are people who look to me and say, ‘Well, dude, you want to make marijuana legal for medical purposes on the way to making it legal for everybody.’ Well, yeah, of course. Yet the powers that be are just making us go through this step.
“I think that marijuana should be legalized much more than beer is legal. There’re many more positive attributes about it than alcohol. Alcohol is good because it’s a disinfectant, you know?”
Both believe in using comedy to advocate for change.
“It’s absolutely the best way. I’ve always been of the opinion you should slip it into their coffee and not cram it down their throat,” Cheech said.
“If nothing else, comedy keeps it in the light, we keep making light of it, you know, much like they did with Prohibition during the Prohibition years; they had speakeasies and jokes about drinking,” Chong said. “Red Skelton made a living, Charlie Chaplin, they all had drinking jokes, so we’re just upholding a tradition.”
Cheech and Chong became known for their funny stuff when they lit up the comedy world with nine albums from 1971 to 1985; they won a Grammy for “Los Cochinos” in 1973. It was natural to roll their act into the movies, which included “Up in Smoke” in 1978, “Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie” in 1980 and “Nice Dreams” in 1981.
They split in 1985.
“That turned out to be one of the best things we could have done because we went off, we became different people, and then when we got back together, even though we had that history, it was all fresh,” Chong said. “We hadn’t got trapped into the stereotype, which we were doing, we were sort of heading into that ‘Up in Smoke’ world. We’re just two characters, you know, and had we stayed together, it would have died.
“So by breaking up, we got a fresh approach at it, and now the new movie might be called ‘Grumpy Old Stoners,’ and that’s what we are now, we’re just grumpy old guys.”
“Well, [reuniting] was one of the conditions of [Chong’s] parole,” Cheech joked. “And we said, ‘What the hell?’ We’ll go and get back together again. And we could get 150 hours of community service knocked off, so it’s a win-win for everybody.”
Chong went to the joint for nine months in 2003 and 2004 after he accepted a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He admitted to distributing bongs and water pipes online through Nice Dreams, a family business.
Does he feel he was targeted to be an example?
“Absolutely. I’m going to be doing a talk with the Democratic people in Allegheny County [Pennsylvania] because [former U.S. Attorney] Mary Beth Buchanan is running for Congress there, and they want me to talk about her. Mary Beth Buchanan was the prosecutor who put me in jail,” Chong said.
He said that talk will be May 5.
“What she did during the indictment, because I pled guilty, they could say whatever they wanted to say, and they did,” Chong continued. “In the indictment, they said I should go to jail because I made millions of dollars making fun of law enforcement agencies. I mean, she just crapped all over the Constitution, you know, along with the Bush people, and I paid the price.”
While serving his sentence, he did find peace.
“The good thing about my incarceration was that I could turn it into like a religious retreat. I think a lot of prisoners do, and I definitely do recommend meditation. The way it helps, it just calms the soul,” Chong said. “Meditation really helps connect you with your soul, and that’s why I still do it.”
Still performing with Cheech? That’s a blast.
“The show is really energizing, and Cheech and I, we both, oh man, have such a ball,” Chong said. “We’re doing bits that we never did on stage like ‘Dave’s Not Here’ … and ‘Santa Claus and His Old Lady.’ ”
“And we’re also doing a song Tommy wrote when he first got into music called ‘Does Your Mama Know About Me?’ ‘Earache My Eye,’ of course, and a lot of new bits,” Cheech added.
Two new movies will hit screens soon: “Cheech & Chong’s Hey Watch This,” a concert film from their 2008 reunion tour, will be released April 20, and then there’s “Cheech & Chong’s Animated Movie.”
“I love animation. It’s such an idealized art form because you can get it exactly right,” said Cheech, who has voiced the Disney characters Banzai the hyena in “The Lion King” and the lowrider Ramone in “Cars.” “And voice acting is like sculpting with a chainsaw; you have to really describe something in very big arcs in order for it to pop on the screen.”
After the snub of Farrah Fawcett and pop culture at this year’s Oscars, will the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognize the work of Cheech and Chong when they’re no longer here?
“When we’re no longer here, yeah, absolutely,” Cheech said and laughed. “That’s the key: That we’re no longer here.”

For most high school 800-meter runners, cracking two minutes would be considered a milestone. But Bedford High School junior Nick Kaiser would like to break 1:50, and he’s close to meeting that personal mark.
At the March 14 Nike Indoor championships in Boston, Kaiser ran 1:51.35, and he finished second.
“I led the whole race and then a kid from Virginia just caught me at the wire,” Kaiser said. “Of course, I was disappointed I lost, but I was pretty happy with that time.”

Bedford coach Bob Masters and junior Nick Kaiser.

He should be. Winner Anthony Kostelac (1:50.96) and Kaiser both broke the meet record. To give some perspective on how good 1:51.35 is, that time would have placed him second at the 2010 Big Ten Indoor Track Championships.
Going into the race, Kaiser had the fastest indoor time in the nation, and had already won the Michigan Indoor State Championship with a record time of 1:53.38. Most athletes and coaches would agree that running indoors is a lot tougher.
“The biggest difference is the track is only 200 meters, so you have to make four turns instead of two. They’re a lot sharper too, so you really have to accelerate out of each turn,” Kaiser said. “I think it’s a little harder to breathe too.”
Last season, as a sophomore, he won Michigan’s Division One State Championship and narrowly missed the meet record. Dyestat, a premier national Internet ranking service for track and field, listed him as the top sophomore 800 meter runner in the nation.
Kasier clocked a personal record of 1:50.47 at last summer’s Nike Outdoor Championships. With so many feats already accomplished, Kaiser could sit back and rest on his laurels, but he has other ambitions.
“I want to break our school records in the 400 and 1600,” Kaiser said, “and I’d like to run under 1:50, maybe even get the Michigan state record.”
According to his coach, Bob Masters, a former distance standout at St. Francis and UT, those goals are attainable.
“I plan to run him in different distances this season,” he said. “We’ll run the 1600 for endurance and the 400 for speed. Colleges will want to see good times in those distances, too. We’ll experiment early in the season and then get serious about the 800 closer to the state meet. He will run under 1:50 this season.”
One of the problems Masters faces is finding someone to challenge Kaiser. In big meets he plans to look at the field and then decide where to run his ace.
At last year’s St. Francis Relays, Masters moved Kaiser to the 1600 to face St. Johns standout senior Kevin Yarnell. Yarnell won in 4:16.60, but Kaiser clocked a 4:16.64.
In the Southeast Conference (SEC) jamboree, he moved Nick to the 400 where his finished fourth in 49.82 just .03 from his goal of a school record.
So how does Kaiser handle the pressure in big meets? He likes to grab the lead early and hold on.
“I just run well when I’m in front,” he said. “I do get pretty nervous right before a big race. Everyone expects me to do well, and I expect to do well, but once the gun goes off, the pressure is gone. I just run.”
This season, the Mules will again travel to the prestigious Mansfield relays where Kaiser is defending champ. Toledo track fans will get to see him at Whitmer’s Golden W relays, St. Francis Knight Relays, and the Eastwood Relays.
“We’ll try to go to as many big competitions as we can,” Masters said. “He needs to run against the best to get better.”
For now the coach is taking it slow.
“We didn’t really train that hard for indoor,” Masters said. We just got in some distance work and did speed work once a week. It’s a long season. Indoor is fun, but the outdoor season is our meat and potatoes. We want him to peak for the state meet and the big national competitions in the summer.”

The UT chapter of  Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and The Independent Collegian are hosting  the 11th annual First Amendment Freedom Forum, “A Nation of Watchdogs: Citizen Journalists and Traditional Journalists,” on April 1.
“The world is changing every day. Technology is a blessing and a curse, with quicker and more efficient means of communicating empowering ordinary people to be journalists,” said Paulette Kilmer, UT professor of communication, who helped organize the event. “People can snap pictures with cell phones and post work instantly and write a blog. The information that they offer isn’t always accurate, but certainly is powerful. Sometimes [citizens] get everything exactly right and are eyewitnesses to history and other times its wrong and starts rumors which have destructive consequences for individuals.”
The event, hosted in UT’s Law Center Auditorium,  is designed to be an open discussion between the panel and audience on freedom of speech issues and the new age of journalism.
“The media industry is continually evolving and it’s important to discuss the role of journalism and freedom of speech as it evolves,” said Joe Griffith, editor in chief of The Independent Collegian, president of UT’s SPJ and forum moderator.
Scheduled to be panelists for the forum are Michael S. Miller, editor in chief of Toledo Free Press; Lisa Renee Ward, Toledo blogger (Glass City Jungle); and Maggie Thurber, communication consulting firm owner, former public official and blogger (Thurber’s Thoughts).
The forum begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

President Barack Obama signed a landmark health care reform bill into law on March 23.
“We have now just enshrined the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health,” Obama said at the White House signing ceremony.

The controversial bill represents more than a year of debates and the biggest shift in U.S. domestic policy since the 1960s.
The Senate-approved health care bill passed in the House by a vote of 219-212 on March 21. A second bill, known as a reconciliation bill, passed 220-211. Republicans did not vote for either bill.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-Toledo), who grew up in a small-business family and has dealt with the lack of health insurance firsthand,  voted in favor of the bill. Kaptur said the bill is important because it brings competition into the market and provides insurance for 32 million uninsured Americans.
“We hope the exchange will provide more choices. If you believe in the  marketplace and true competition, then people will save money on  insurance plans as more people belonging to them,” she said. “The bill reforms the marketplace giving consumers more choices  for affordable health insurance.”

Marcy Kaptur watches as President Obama signs a March 24 Executive Order restricting the use of federal funds for abortion.

The reform will help more than 8,700 residents with pre-existing conditions in Kaptur’s district, as well as more than 32,500 individuals whose COBRA insurance has run out, she said. Approximately 1,200 seniors will benefit from the closing of the “doughnut hole” in prescription drug coverage, 46,000 families will benefit from reform that allows children to stay on their parents’ plan until the age of 26 and 167,000 families will be eligible for income rebates, she said.
Additionally, 12,400 small businesses in the district will benefit from the insurance tax credit, which starting in 2010, is a tax credit of 35 percent  the cost of insurance and will continue to increase.
Kaptur said more information needs to get out about the bill because people are assuming information about the reforms that are often not true.
“For the most part people need to look at their own situation, know the specifics and how this compares to what they already have,” Kaptur said.  “If they like what they have, they can keep it.”
‘Jobs killer’
Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) said he voted against the health care reform bill because it’s a jobs killer, it doesn’t address the problem and it’s not financially viable.
Latta said health care reform is needed in the country but the bill that passed on March 21 is not it. He believes the reform should have been passed as a few bills rather than one big one so the American people could understand what they were getting.
Latta claims the is bill full of back-door deals and goodies, including the “Cornhusker kick back.”
“If the bill is so good, why do you  have to bribe people for it?” he said.
The reform’s $938 billion price tag is something Americans cannot afford with rising national debt, he said. Americans will see an increase in their taxes to pay for the reform, which they will be paying for four years before they  really see anything, he said.
“How are we going to pay for this? By wiping people on the tax side. Why be an entrepreneur if all your money is going to taxes,” Latta said.
Fees for businesses are disincentives for businesses to grow, and will hurt businesses, Latta said. The bill also fails to address the doctor fix, addressing the lack of money doctors receive from Medicare for their services.
Latta believes the next step is challenging the bill’s constitutionality, as 13 states have done.
“The question becomes can you mandate that Americans have to do something,” he said.
Abortions
Kaptur, considered a key holdout on the bill because of the issue of abortion language, was surprised at the emphasis the media put on the matter.
“There were many issues that were vital, but [federally funded abortions] was the only one remaining that was unresolved,” she said.
With Obama promising to issue an executive order against federally funded abortions, Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), Kaptur and others voted for the bill.

Latta, and other abortion opponents, believe the president’s executive order will do nothing to prevent the federal funding of abortions.

“[The executive order] is not worth the ink it’s written with,” he said.
When Obama signed the executive order stating the administration would not allow federally funded abortions on March 24, Kaptur was in attendance.
Local hospitals
Local health systems are examining how the health care will affect them.
“This historic vote will significantly impact health care. It is a complex bill, and at this time, ProMedica Health System is analyzing each section of the legislation to determine how it will impact the people and communities we serve,” said a statement from ProMedica.
Mercy is encouraged the bill and executive order will cover 32 million of the 47 million Americans without health coverage and ensure no governmental funding will be used to fund abortions.
“Mercy believes that the health care reform bill passed by the House in Washington D.C., while not perfect, represents an important first step in helping ensure that all Americans have access to quality health care,” Mercy said in a statement.
“We say this is an important first step, because Mercy believes much work remains to be done on reforming the reimbursement model in order to incentivize hospitals that are consistently providing high quality care at the greatest value to payers. We are disappointed that lawmakers didn’t seize this historic opportunity to align payment incentives, and we’ll continue to lead by example and advocate for aligned incentives so that we can control the growing costs of health care.”
Kaptur, who said she recognizes the disproportionate reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid across the country, fought for language in the bill that would allow the rate of reimbursement to be reexamined in coming years, she said. The congresswoman has arranged for Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Service, to tour area hospitals to see how the reimbursement rates affect them.
Bill breakdown

• 32 million uninsured Americans, 94 percent of Americans will have coverage.
• Effective in 2014 an insurance mandate requires everyone to be insured or pay a fine with an exemption for low-income people.
• Starting in 2010, insurance companies are forbidden to place lifetime dollar limits on policies  or deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
• Parents with older children will be able to keep their child on their plan until the age 26.
• A new high-risk pool will offer coverage to uninsured individuals until 2014 when coverage expansion takes place.
• In 2014 safeguards will be implemented to protect individuals who have medical problems from insurance companies charging more.
• Federal-state Medicaid insurance program would cover people with incomes up to 133 percent the federal poverty level ( $29,327 for a family of four).
• The bill applies an increased Medicare payroll tax  to the investment income and wages of individuals making more than $200,000, or married couples above $250,000, to make up for the loss of revenue.
• Starting in October, the plan begins to close the “doughnut hole” in Medicare prescription coverage, providing seniors a $250 rebate. In 2011, seniors will receive a discount on brand-name drugs starting at 50 percent off. When the gap is closed in 2020, seniors will be responsible for just 25 percent of their medication costs.
• In 2014, small businesses, self-employed and uninsured to pick a plan through government-regulated exchanges. The exchanges offer employees the same kind of purchasing power big companies benefit from.
• Employers are hit with a $2,000-per-employee fee if the government subsidizes workers’ coverage. Businesses with less than 50 employees are exempt from this requirement.
• There are no government run insurance plans, but people purchasing coverage through exchanges have the option to sign up for national plans available to members of Congress.

The reconciliation bill, House-passed revisions of the health care reform, will be debated by the Senate before it goes to vote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

In his column of March 21, Don Burnard tried to refute purported Republican talking points against the President’s health care reform legislation.

He did mention, although very inadequately, the criticism concerning extensive tax increases. But he completely failed to address the four other crucial points of opposition:

Unconstitutionality. The bill is outside the limits of power allowed to the federal government by the Constitution; the power the Executive Branch assumes under it is unconstitutional; and, the “Slaughter Rule,” by which the House would cast a vote deeming the Senate version of the bill to have passed for the President’s signature, flatly contradicts Article I Section 7’s clear rules for passage and signing of legislation.

Contrary to the President’s assertion on Fox News last week, those rules are not merely a “procedure”; they are the supreme law of the land. But what good is that law when Congress renders it irrelevant – even while claiming we are a nation under law – by forcing an unconstitutional extension of government power onto a people that opposes it?

Fiscal irresponsibility. Along with significant tax increases to be enacted immediately upon the legislation taking effect, the bill adds many hundreds of billions of dollars more in spending to Obama’s already mushrooming deficit. The Congressional Budget Office’s preliminary estimate of the bill’s costs and revenues was demonstrably false. Among other critical errors in data provided to it by the Democrats, it employs sleight-of-hand accounting to double-count a half-billion dollars that the bill falsely claims to cut from Medicare.

Blatant dishonesty. Besides the above: Lies about debate being made public; Speaker Pelosi saying the bill has to be passed before we see what’s in it; the President’s promised 3,000 percent reduction in health insurance premiums; the corruption of buying and selling votes for political favor; and the inherent deceit of giving the public 72 hours to review an intensely legalese document more than 2,000 pages long.

There’s also the reliance on raw emotionalism, the sob story sideshow run by the statists, to break people’s hearts and win support at the expense of facts, ethics and fundamental legality. Congressman John Boccieri (D-Ohio) engaged in precisely this exercise in moral, ethical and intellectual fraud when, citing the standard cliché of, “if it saves just one life, it’s worth it,” he announced his vote for the legislation Friday.

All right, then: If saving just one life is the ultimate good, then will Congressman Boccieri please sacrifice vital organs, here and now, to save the lives of people in need of them? I didn’t think so. And neither will he or the other statists volunteer to surrender their liberties as their votes ruin Constitutional protections on ours.

Infringement on liberty. Quite simply: If and when the government is given or, in this case, seizes power over our health, it will use its power to control anything that it perceives as having an impact on our health. Current and recent schemes to ban politically incorrect foods in New York City (salt) and Chicago (foies gras) are only the beginning.

Finally, Mr. Burnard also grossly mischaracterized the nature of the opposition. It seems he can only think in terms of Democrats for and Republicans against what he wants.

In fact, opposition to the legislation is spread across the spectrum. Granted, many Democrats favor it while Republicans are uniformly against it. But it’s also earnestly opposed by Libertarians and by huge numbers of independents. Even more damaging to his argument, not a few Democrats also oppose it; after all, if it were so totally supported by Democrats, then why did it take so long to come to a final vote in a Congress so solidly controlled by Democrats?

As for his oxymoronic ridiculing of “Stepford Republicans” for repeating talking points word for word: His piece did exactly that, from the other side, even ending with the clichéd “Let’s get it done.” With so many people weighing in on this issue, pro and con, repetition is unavoidable; and for anyone to use repetition as a criticism of opposing arguments exposes the shallowness of his or her own position.

Mr. Burnard is correct in that there is broad support for various aspects of reform. But he is also correct in citing opposition to the bill as a whole by the people, “by large margins.”

Shouldn’t that tell him something about the entire bill? Such as, that its corrupt foundations and provisions are odious to the people? That it metaphorically cures a headache by decapitation? That it excludes popularly demands such as tort reform and allowance of interstate sales of insurance?

Vice President Biden promises that the government will control insurance companies. Evidently, the Constitution no longer controls the government, and that seems to be just fine with Mr. Burnard.

Thomas Berry, for the Children of Liberty, http://www.meetup.com/The-children-of-liberty/

Toledo Free Press media partner FOX Toledo is reporting that union members with the Toledo Police Patrolman’s Association rejected a proposal with the city of Toledo that would have spared over 100 layoffs.

See the coverage here.

Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank, warns that inflation was overlooked as a key economic factor by the Feds and other economists.
McCain agreed that sluggish domestic growth and potential problems in export markets were enough to keep economic growth the priority of the Federal Reserve after the first quarter meeting of its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on March 16.
The Federal Reserve did not express any plans to raise interest rates in the near future, justified by the widely shared belief among economists that inflation will be contained for the remainder of this year and next, McCain said.
There is a strong consensus by the Fed and economists that inflation will hover around 2 percent. McCain said he sees evidence in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) data that suggests they may not realize the effect high unemployment and low capacity utilization will have on inflation.

Bruce McCain

McCain called inflation the “forgotten stepchild” citing factors that point to more market volatility and less significant appreciation this year resulting in the added risk of inflation.
“Inflation may flare up more quickly and viciously than many economists anticipate,” said McCain. “Individuals and businesses have a much bigger fear of inflation with falling home prices holding down the Consumer Index.”
Gasoline prices are already averaging $2.89 per gallon and McCain said he would not be surprised to see further increases with current lower inventories of crude oil and gasoline.
The PPI for crude goods has increased 25 percent causing strong escalation of commodity and energy costs, cited McCain.
Consumer spending has helped drive the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while some businesses have seen improved sales and profits. McCain thinks that business picked up due to stimulus spending versus true sustainable sales increases.
“Businesses are caught in the vortex of a highly competitive market where it has been difficult to pass along price increases despite experiencing rising costs, especially for energy, raw materials and other basic costs of operations. Businesses remain overly cautious due to these conditions,” McCain said.
If the inflation rate rises as McCain expects, businesses could be forced to push price increases while consumers will struggle to resist those increases.
Exports have been a bright spot for the U.S. economy by adding 2.3 percent to 5.9 percent estimated GDP growth. McCain believes exports may help compensate for the loss of consumer spending growth, but he sees “dark clouds forming on the overseas horizon.”
“We’re starting to see weakness in several major European economies that are facing the same situation as the U.S., competing globally with emerging markets. We’re starting to see more exports into emerging markets like China, India, Singapore and Latin America,” McCain said.
The economies of the emerging world also show signs of rising inflation. Some experts suggest wage inflation in several developing countries may rise from four to seven percent this year, according to McCain. If inflation in the emerging markets does escalate, they could begin exporting some of that pressure, he said.
McCain suggests that business could be a little more aggressive to be prepared for the demand when it eventually picks up.
“Businesses need to lower costs and increase productivity to reach the break-even point at lower sales. They will become more profitable when sales increase,” McCain said.
“We see more businesses that have restructured to survive today’s environment and thrive in the future,” said James Hoffman, district president for KeyBank in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.
Small to mid-size businesses, which are the core of the Toledo and Northwest Ohio region, are most likely to provide any jobs growth in the future, according to Hoffman.
Most job creation or business growth in this region is based on technology, taking great ideas from research at universities, commercializing them and bringing products to market, said Hoffman.
“We’ve come a long way to providing support for those tech businesses in this region,” he said.
Hoffman serves as vice chairman of the Regional Growth Partnership which held its annual meeting March 22. He chaired the LEAD campaign which raised funds to establish RGP as a private economic development organization in 2005.
RGP collaborated with its private partners to create 7,000 new direct jobs and 17,000 new total jobs in this region in five years, according to its 2009 annual report. Its Launch program and Rocket Ventures helped to commercialize 63 start-up firms last year.
“This market environment is not one that longer-term investors can trade easily. Many of last year’s best purchases do not qualify as long-term capital gains,” McCain said in a report he produces for the bank’s internal staff and shares with the media.
McCain is senior vice president and chief investment strategist for Key Private Bank, a division of KeyCorp based in Cleveland. The private bank provides investment management, estate and trust planning, customized credit and banking solutions for individuals with higher net worth. McCain has appeared on Bloomberg TV and CNBC.

Ottawa Hills will battle the state’s top-ranked Division IV team Newark Catholic in an Ohio High School Athletic Association boys basketball state semifinal at 10:45 AM March 26 at Value City Arena in Columbus.

While both the Green Bears (24-1) and Green Wave (25-1) enter the contest with one loss each OH’s John Lindsay and Newark’s Drew Meister sharing AP DIV state Coach of the Year honors, the representatives from Northwest Ohio were never ranked in the AP polls this season.

Not an issue for the Green Bears, who have already illustrated this postseason that state-ranked teams present no intimidation factor for them.

After Miller City waxed ninth-ranked McComb 53-32 in a sectional final, Ottawa Hills pasted the Wildcats 57-44 in a regional semi at Bowling Green’s Anderson Arena. The Green Bears then put the clamps on tenth-ranked and defending state runner-up Kalida 41-33 to punch their ticket to Columbus.

Further, Ottawa Hills and Newark Catholic are sharing first time appearances in the state boys basketball Final Four.

The Green Bears may possess the veiled advantage with star senior 6’0” point guard Eliot Browarsky, who averages 19.1 points and earned All-Ohio second team accolades in IV after being tabbed the DIII Player of the Year in boys soccer in 2009.

Browarsky helped lead the Green Bears soccer team to its first DIII state championship in 2008. His state title experience has been and will continue to be a vital aspect of his well-publicized leadership for the Green Bears.

But the Green Wave bring in plenty of winning experience on the hardwood. They’ve compiled 45 victories over the past two seasons combined and much of that success leading up to this point has been engineered by a cast of five current seniors all manning spots in Meister’s starting lineup.

They’re led by All-Ohio first team 6’1” guard Matt Dawson and his 16.8 points per game, 6’4” forward Nate Adams (12.6 ppg) and guard James Moerman (11.2 ppg). Adams, an all-state honorable mention in hoops, is Youngstown State-bound on a football scholarship. Derek Adam and Kevin Cox have also produced double-digit point totals in games, with both recently scoring 13 in the team’s 57-37 regional title win over Tree of Life.

The Green Wave has averaged 67.8 points per tournament game this month, so the Green Bears will have their work cut out for them defensively. But defense is where Ottawa Hills has thrived, particularly in its own postseason endeavor. The Green Bears have allowed just 38.2 points per the five tournament contests won to reach Columbus.

Something will have to give.

And offensively OH figures to give the Green Wave’s defense its own fits to overcome. Junior 6’2” post Andrew Jamieson (11 ppg) and junior guard J.J. Buckey (10.9 ppg) present Newark Catholic three double-digit scoring threats to deal with.

The winner of the Friday morning contest will advance to the state championship game March 27 to face the winner of the other IV semi between Dayton Jefferson and Bedford St. Peter Chanel. The IV title game is slated for a 5:15 PM start and will be televised in HD by Sports Time Ohio.

It could have gone either way.  Friends and foes of the historic health plan waited with bated breath on March 20 to see how the last Democratic holdouts, including our own U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur, would vote. Then came the crushing blow for conservatives; while members of Congress walked to the Capitol, Tea Party protesters called racial slurs and actually spat on members of Congress.  That was the straw that broke the conservative back.  The Democrats linked arm in arm, marched through the protesters and made history.
How appropriately ironic that the right to free speech was the ultimate demise for those who shouted the loudest about individual liberties and the sanctity of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Poetic justice at its best.
It should shock no one that the conservatives were unable to make the case to “kill the bill,” because their only real strategy was to create fear loudly.  Since the bill was signed into law, the politics of fear have not stopped.  Some members of Congress and their families now require extra security as a result of death threats from Tea Party activists.  How sad and shameful.
Public health policy should always be evidenced based and outcomes driven. The president’s case for reform was built on concrete numbers, statistics and economic forecasting models. This data was coupled with dramatic, heartbreaking stories from patients who were denied coverage, who could not get coverage, or who lost coverage when they got sick.
In response, the conservatives dug in their heels, sent out a call to arms, and mistakenly allowed the Tea Party extremists to take control of the debate. Tea Party conservatives shouted down any legislator who dared host a public hearing to discuss the particulars of the bill, and then Republicans accused Democrats of avoiding public debate.
Conservatives cry that our Founding Fathers would cringe at the idea of the government paying for healthcare, but forget that Ben Franklin founded the nation’s first hospital. Pennsylvania Hospital was founded in 1751 by Ben Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond and supported by then-Lt. Gov. James Alexander.  The hospital’s purpose was to provide free health care for the poor.
Republican leadership in Congress complained that the bill was too long and too complicated to even read. Really? Is that really the crux of your argument? There is too much attention to detail? Isn’t that what we pay you people to do? No one told you there would be story problems?
The conservative argument that access to health care for all is unconstitutional is flat out bogus. Handwritten into the original document is the power for Congress to regulate interstate trade.  Clearly, insurance companies fall into this category, as well as most healthcare providers. The Constitution does not say that Congress can regulate interstate trade unless the industry is a huge chunk of the American economy.
Further nonsense is that universal health care is a step toward socialism that will cripple our capitalist free market. When Romanian socialist dictator Nikolai Ceaucesceau was overthrown in 1989, the first thing the new government did was open up health clinics.   Since then, Romania has adopted a representative government, universal health care, and has a strong, steadily growing economy in spite of the worldwide recession.
When the Berlin Wall fell that same year, East Germans fled the communist/socialist regime to head to the Western democracy that had better health care.  There are 32 industrialized nations that have some type of universal healthcare coverage.  Of those, there are four authoritarian monarchies, and Hong Kong, which is under Chinese rule but has its own city/state democracy which runs the day to day government.  The remaining 27 countries have some form of democracy.  There is not one single socialist government in the bunch.  Not a one.  Zip.  Nada.  Zero.
So where do the conservatives get the idea that universal health care is equivalent to socialism? Rush Limbaugh frequently says, “I don’t make this stuff up folks.” Well, apparently, he does.  The conservative talk show host vowed that if Congress passed health care reform and President Obama signed the bill into law that he would leave America. President Obama delivered on his promise to the American people. We can only hope Limbaugh will do the same. He will probably have a tough time finding a place where he can enjoy unfettered free speech in absence of universal health care.
The sad thing is, there are well spoken, articulate, calm conservatives whose voices cannot be heard above the shouts of the Tea Party.  If conservatives want to have a legitimate impact on health care reform, the reasonable people are going to have to step up, and step up now. They will have to tell the Tea Party extremists to stop looking for the birth certificate, stop shouting obscenities, and stop making threats on those who dare to disagree.  Conservatives needs a better strategy that includes a concrete, evidenced based, outcomes-driven argument if they really want to repeal Obama’s health care reform.
The challenge for them is that there isn’t one.  

Tricia Taylor is a journalist and epidemiologist currently pursuing a Master’s in Business Administration at UT.

Dana Corporation is working on a tentative agreement to lease the old JAC products building in Monclova that would create a minimum of 50 jobs.

In January, Dana announced the consolidating of its heavy vehicle products operations in Kalamzoo, Mich., and Stateville, N.C.

The building in Monclova would house part of the new heavy products operations, as well as another building in greater Detroit, said Chuck Hartlage, media relations for Dana.

The company estimates a minimum of 50 jobs, depending on the number of individuals who choose to relocate from Kalamzoo and Statesville, he said.

The company is working on a 10-year lease with the building and hopes to move in and start some modest construction as soon as possible.

The 100,000 square-foot building has been vacant for almost a year.

“It’s a win because its new jobs to the area,” said Chuck Hoecherl, Monclova Township trustee. “They’re going to be in the building of the where former JAC Products had been. It’s in the joint economic development zone so it’s positive for Toledo, Maumee and Monclova.”

Dana is a supplier of axles, driveshafts and structural, sealing and thermal-management products. The new building would also store samples of some of these products.