If not losing as much as before is considered a win, then Ohio is winning even as it loses, according to federal labor statistics on mass layoffs (ML) released July 23 for June that showed fewer Ohioans are lining up for unemployment insurance year-over-year.

The numbers — based on 50 or more initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed against an employer during a 5-week period — show Ohio had 58 ML events in June, compared to 47 in May and 61 in April. But one year ago in June 2009, that number was 94 or 38 percent higher.

Read the full story here.

School preparation starts long before the day it’s time to buy that first oversized, never-actually-going-to-put-anything-in-it preschool backpack. It starts the minute our child graces us with his or her worldly presence. I am not talking about Baby Einstein flashcards or Your Baby Can Read DVDs. Things like flashcards usually end up bent beyond recognition, chewed up and spit out or lost altogether in a house like ours. I’d like to justify it by saying that my children are just so brilliantly creative that they see beyond the surface, but in reality they just like to destroy perfectly nice things for no good reason.

Despite our little problem keeping home educational materials in proper working order, my husband and I seem to have found a decent formula for getting our children excited about and ready for school:

1. Incessant chatter – Begin a conversation with your child the first minute you lay eyes on them and don’t stop…ever. My husband and I are not well-versed in baby talk, so a full-sentence, full-immersion, standard American English program is all we offer in our home at this time. We’d like to add a second language, but, considering neither of us speaks one, that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

2. Expect the unexpected – Don’t just talk at your child; expect them to respond. Our questions are followed with enough pause for an answer whether our child is five weeks old or five years old. We also offer them an expectation to follow our directions, even when that expectation being realistic is still months away.

3. They learn something new every day – There is a learning opportunity around every corner of good ol’ everyday life. Putting on a Onesie? Count the number of snaps out loud. Plunging the toilet? Walk your potential future plumber through the process step by step. There are no flashcards required to give your child an introduction to how the world works.

4. Be your child’s corrections officer – It’s not always easy to reverse course when you don’t have something quite right. Correcting your child’s pronunciation, grammar and other mistakes as soon as they make them is not interfering; it’s your job, Mr. Kotter.

5. Old dogs can learn new tricks – One of the best ways to be your child’s first teacher is to illustrate for them firsthand how to be a good student. Education should span a lifetime and openly modeling your own curiosity about the world around you is a great way to pass along lifelong learning to the next generation.

6. Let them learn through what they love – Repeatedly going over maps and math facts could never have given our son the leg up that watching the World Cup and playing FIFA World Cup Soccer for Wii did. He quickly and excitedly learned 32 countries and their flags plus rules, strategy and how a bracket works. Academic basics are hidden in every child’s interests; they just need our assistance in discovering them.

7. It’s time to take from that village – Not quite sure how to be your child’s first teacher? Most of us aren‘t sure, so find a mentor or two. My own playbook has come from years of paying attention to whose children speak well, listen well, learn well and behave well. Recognizing which parents have a knack for teaching certain things and adopting their secrets of success can give quite a boost to your own teaching qualifications.

8. Rah rah sis boom bah – Your job as your child’s first teacher doesn’t end once you send them off to school. Presenting school in a positive light and continuing to assist in their education throughout their school years are keys to your child’s continued achievement. Have faith in their teachers, get to know some other parents, volunteer and become an all-around fan of their school. Your child thinks that you are the end-all, be-all, so if you love it and put forth the extra effort, they most likely will too.

Molding your child into a vessel that can take in all that the rest of the world has to offer is much more important to his or her long-term success than school supplies or any one piece of academic knowledge. Showing your child how to be a learner for a lifetime is the single best lesson you can offer.

Shannon and her husband Michael are raising three children in Sylvania. E-mail her at letters@toledofreepress.com.

Congress last week passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act in the hopes of bringing to a close the abuses of a financial industry that has left the nation’s economy (if not the world’s) in a shambles since the end of the Bush Administration. Curiously however, the more than 2,300 pages in which this legislation resides apparently does little or nothing to curb the abuses of the mortgage industry (or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) to which most economists attribute the recent economic downturn. This is especially curious since the co-sponsors of this new law, Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank (both Democrats), were in charge of congressional oversight of large parts of this industry during the rampant abuses this legislation claims to now prevent, and neither raised a red flag in the days leading up to the collapse it supposedly protects us from.

I would love to debate the logic behind legislation creating a $19 billion fund that will eliminate the need for future taxpayer assistance by assessing financial institutions for such funding, expecting that these institutions will not pass them on to the very taxpayers that are supposedly being saved from such burdens. I would also like to debate the legislative logic of banks being required by government to maintain more funding on hand to protect against potential bad loans, at a time when that same government is also pressuring the banking industry to lend more money out. I would really like to debate the Constitutionality of allowing unelected federal regulators to determine when and if the government (long known for its private sector business acumen) should seize banks or other companies they consider “failing” in order to save the economy.

Such debate is impossible however, since like most of what has been recently passed by Congress: we don’t really know all of what’s in this legislation, had to pass it in order to find out what was actually in it, and are now placed in the dubious position of it being years before we can discover all of the consequences (especially the unintended ones) that it will generate. It may well be weeks before real economists can even begin to wade through this ponderous document and attempt to digest all of its implications or do the math required in order interpret them. It is the math of legislation however, that I would like to address … at least indirectly.

Many of you cannot have helped but notice that the number of pages of regulation and legislation in this country seem to be increasing exponentially recently. Some cannot help but further understand that the more laws and regulations that exist, the greater the potential that any of us might be in violation of one or the other. One or two might even remember that Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu told us more than 2500 years ago that, “The more laws and orders are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.” (from Quotationspage.com) The logic that we apparently dare not use around this increasing legislative burden cries out that we might perhaps best limit its potential damage therefore by limiting its total number of pages.

The answer that I propose is to apply “Zero Sum Solution” thinking to the problem, a principle from economics understood to mean that any addition to one side of a situation must be met by a subtraction from another. The concept implies that by application of such principles, any and all participants can mutually benefit; and is one often used by both major political parties when discussing “revenue neutral” budget proposals and by countries when discussing “trade imbalances” (except apparently, when the US is having such discussions with China).

I therefore propose that no future pages of legislation or regulation at any level of government be added without removing a corresponding number from that same level. (Think of the benefit to taxpayers alone when considering current tax laws and IRS enforcement regulations!)

Apparently there are plenty of laws worthy of such sacrifice if such a legislative exchange must be made. Ohio alone has laws on its books that make it illegal: for women to wear patent leather shoes in public, to arrest anyone on a Sunday or the 4th of July, and to fish for whales on Sunday. Certainly legislators concerned with the welfare of citizens and sponsoring new laws can take the time required to find such corresponding nonsense and remove it.

If nothing else, the effort may reap the unintended benefit of simply slowing the increasing pace of the governments’ legislative and regulatory processes. Perhaps in fact, application of this “Zero Sum Solution” by legislators will provide far greater protection for their respective constituencies than any of the things that they otherwise do.

Tim Higgins blogs at Just Blowing Smoke.

When Chris Isaak takes the stage, it’s going to get hot and heavy — especially if he’s wearing his mirror ball-like suit.

“My mirror suit weighs about 35 pounds, and they literally have to wipe it down with Windex after the shows,” the singer-songwriter wrote in an e-mail from a tour stop.

Chris Isaak

The clean-cut rocker is on the road to support “Live at the Fillmore,” which was released in June.

“I love to play live; I must love it because I haven’t missed one show in 25 years. When you have a great band, it’s like driving a Cadillac. I think the time we get up on stage and play is always the best part of the day,” he wrote. “I have worked at a port, worked on farms, and did roofing, and this is way more fun!”

Isaak and his band, Silvertone, will stop at the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium to play an 8 p.m. show July 30. Marc Broussard will open. Tickets range from $25 to $65. The concert is a post-season special of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.

The guitarist is known for paying tribute to his idols. Those influences are heard in his hits “Wicked Game,” “Somebody’s Crying” and “We Let Her Down.”

“I think I try to sing — pretty. I grew up listening to singers like Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis, and later when I became a musician, I got to work with Roy and Jerry Lee,” Isaak wrote. “They both made great music in a wide range, ballads and rockers. And that’s what I try to do, sing pretty and also be able to rock.”

It doesn’t hurt that Isaak’s pretty. His good looks and quick wit have landed him in the movies and on TV with “The Chris Isaak Show,” which ran on Showtime from 2001 to 2004, and “The Chris Isaak Hour,” where he interviews musicians on the Biography Channel.

And if that combination doesn’t knock you out, the native of Stockton, Calif., is a former Golden Gloves champion.

“I think the turning point to me getting into music was being homesick in Japan. I was boxing over there and I bought a record of Elvis’ ‘Sun Sessions,’ ” he wrote. “It didn’t take me long to start greasing my hair back and playing guitar all day.

“I always loved to listen to music. It made bad times bearable and good times better.”

www.chrisisaak.com

President Obama’s tax policies are going to cost you a bundle starting New Year’s Eve. Summarized in part from an Investor’s Business Daily article:

All federal income taxes, not just on the wealthy, are going up. Get this: The lowest tax bracket – for the lowest wage earners – goes up the most, 50%, from ten to 15%. Thanks to the Obamacrats, the poorest, lowest-paid taxpayers will pay an additional five precious dollars in taxes per hundred earned – money that’s needed for food, rent and clothes for the kids. But guess what? If you wanted the Bush tax cuts to end, that’s one of them. All other brackets go up three to, in the case of the highest, almost five per cent, with the top bracket becoming 39.6%.

The capital gains tax, on profits earned in sale of assets, increases from 15% to 20%. The marriage penalty returns. So does the estate tax. 55% of every estate that’s worth more than $1,000,000 will be seized from its rightful heirs. In fact, there has been talk of retroactively reinstating the tax, in blatant violation of the Constitution’s ban in Article 1 Section 9 on ex post facto laws, specifically because the Obamacrats feel cheated out of over a half-billion dollars from the late George Steinbrenner’s estate because he died during the lapse in the death tax. Glad the wealthy are getting screwed? Oh, that’s right – to the Obamacrats, we’re all wealthy if the label makes us a juicier target for taxes.

The tax on dividends, a source of income heavily relied upon by retirees and pension funds, nearly triples to 39.6%. Making any money in dividends? Kiss $40 out of every $100, instead of the $15 as it is now, goodbye. How many struggling pension funds will this destroy? To turn a vicious slander of Republicans on its originators: How many seniors will be forced to choose between taxes and food after Obama’s tax increases hit?

The child tax credit is being cut in half. Junior will only save you $500 on taxes instead of $1,000. Multiply an additional $500 hit to your taxes by how many kids you have and see how happy you are that you voted for the Obamacrats.

The Congressional Budget Office says the Bush tax cut expiration will cost taxpayers $115 billion in 2011, and $2.6 trillion through 2020. If, as the Department of Labor says, there are about 139,000,000 Americans working, the government will confiscate another $827.33 per worker next year on average. But that’s actually going to be much higher because not all workers pay taxes . . . yet. Remember, the highest percentage tax bracket increase hits the lowest wage earners.

But wait, there’s more! The Alternative Minimum Tax will now soak 28,500,000 families – instead of 4,000,000 – for punitively higher taxes. Tuition deductions are ending and student loan interest deductions are being cut – while more Americans are seeking retraining for new careers after Obamanomics cost them their jobs. And a new IRS policy disallows legal tax deductions and shelters on the purely subjective grounds of “economic substance.”

Health care demolition will bring lots of new taxes. What we know of so far – remember, House Speakerette Nancy P. said that the bill had to be passed before we could see what was in it – are taxes on tanning salons that have already kicked in, and new taxes on medicines, medical devices, health savings account withdrawals, and brand-name pharmaceuticals – the last payable by manufacturers and importers who will out of fiscal necessity pass them on to customers.

There’s the new Medicare tax, and the punitive tax-or-penalty (depending on how the Obamacrats are spinning it) on those who don’t buy the health insurance – with what little is left after all the tax increases – that the federal government unconstitutionally orders you to purchase. A punitive tax on gold coin and bullion transactions, ostensibly to discourage investing in gold as a hedge against inflation, has just been discovered in Obamacare, and surely there are more taxes hidden in this monstrosity.

Businesses – especially small businesses – are facing losses of tax credits and scores of tax increases. The more income the government confiscates from employers, the less money is left to hire employees, and the higher the prices the employer has to charge in order to cover costs while customers have less to spend because of their tax increases.

If you’re happy now that you voted for these extortionists, you’ll be ecstatic when I remind you that you actually believed the Great Confiscator when he promised he wouldn’t raise taxes on those who earned less than $250,000. One more Obamalie.

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

The fourth annual Fallen Heroes Pokers Run benefiting Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is Aug. 7.

“It’s a good cause. Cops and firefighters are the unsung heroes of the country, beside our military, and that’s what this is for,” said Rob Kay, founder of Fallen Heroes.

Fallen Heroes is a group of police and firefighters, Axemen Professional Firefighters Motorcycle Club and Toledo Warthogs Motorcycle Club, who host the ride to raise money for their causes. The groups will split the proceeds from the poker run and donate it to C.O.P.S. and MDA.

Registration is 10 a.m. at Connxtions Comedy Club, 5319 Heatherdowns. The first bike leaves at noon with the last bike is out at 1:30 p.m. The poker run ends at Six Pack Bar and Grill, 710 S. Reynolds Road.

Prizes will be awarded for individuals who have the best and worst poker hands. The event will also feature a silent, a raffle and entertainment, Kay said.

The ride is $25 for singles and $35 for couples. The cost includes a t-shirt and dinner.

Individuals can register online, or the day of the event.

For more information or to register, visit www.fallenheroesride.org/pokerrun/.

Huntington Bank has stepped in to help Northwest Ohioans affected by the June tornadoes.

The bank is partnering with the Ohio treasurer through the Renew Ohio program, offering 3 percent interest rate reduction for two years on qualified loans, including some pre-existing loans. Applications are due Sept. 30 and applicants must have suffered severe damage or loss from the tornadoes.

Huntington is the largest of several banks participating in the Renew Ohio program, said Jeremy Gutierrez, Northwest Ohio business banking market manager for Huntington.

The bank sent 10 employees to All Saints Catholic Church in Rossford, Ohio, to help collect donations. It also donated 20 personal computers, 20 flatscreen monitors, 10 servers, 36 switches and 10 printers to Lake High School and police department, Gutierrez said.

“We believe it’s our obligation to help,” Gutierrez said. “We have a commitment to the community we live in, and we firmly believe that our customers are truly our neighbors.”

The July 25 electronic edition of Toledo Free Press is available.

It’s not too early to start thinking about the November elections, although that thought might make some readers’ lemonade seem a bit more sour.
As the statewide races heat up, politicians are crisscrossing Ohio, meeting voters and media. On July 19, we had the pleasure of hosting Secretary of State candidate Maryellen O’Shaughnessy for an hour of talking politics, development, ethics and how those concepts are faring in Northwest Ohio.
O’Shaughnessy, a Democrat running against Sen. Jon Husted, replaced State Rep. Jennifer Garrison on the ballot in February. O’Shaughnessy may not have the funds Husted is working with, but she has racked up an impressive list of endorsements: Gov. Ted Strickland, the Ohio AFL-CIO, the Ohio Education Association and several others.
O’Shaughnessy, the clerk of Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, has served as a three-time Columbus City Council member and owns a small business, her family’s fourth-generation funeral home.
She is running on a platform that is inclusive and comprehensive, if not trailblazing. She understands how the secretary of state office can impact economic development by making it easier (or more difficult) for businesses to register to do business in Ohio and navigate its resources.
We talked at some length about Lucas County specifics, in broad terms of economic challenges and in specifics about the integrity of the voting process in Lucas County. It is no secret that the Lucas County Board of Elections, local party leaders and affected politicians operate under a dysfunctional cloud that rains everything from questionable influences to charges of outright illegalities.
O’Shaughnessy, or her opponent Husted, will quickly learn that Lucas County offers unique challenges that will occasionally require a decision from Columbus.
If one of her primary concerns is ethics and protecting the integrity of the election process, she will have her hands full when it comes to  Lucas County.
O’Shaughnessy was personable, well-informed and energetic as she discussed her goals for the secretary of state office. It may be too early to endorse a candidate or decide which one to vote for, but it is never too soon to start the education process.
Our thanks to O’Shaughnessy for sharing her time and thoughts. We will have further conversations with her, to share with local voters, as the election season approaches.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. E-mail him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.

One union contract signed in the late 1990s started the chain of events for pension pickup by the City of Toledo; it became a standard for all of its union contracts. On July 20, the City of Toledo took another step backward by accepting the fact finder’s report for AFSCME Local 3411.
It’s another step back because Local 92, the union representing Toledo’s firefighters, will be paid back its temporary give-back of 3 percent of pension pickup. Precedent could be argued by other bargaining units and accepted by future fact-finding.
The approximately 74 workers who work for the Municipal Clerk of Courts and are represented by Local 3411 were paying 1.5 percent toward their pension pickup. The bargaining unit was seeking a 3.5 percent raise in the final year of the contract and no increase in the pension contribution.
Toledo as a city was seeking a 1.5 percent smaller raise and a 1.5 percent increase in the pension contribution as concessions. The fact finder decided for the city on the raise but for the union on the pension pickup.
Members of Toledo City Council had several options before them on July 20 — accept the fact finder’s report, reject the fact finder’s report or do nothing. If it was not rejected or approved, the terms would automatically go into effect at 11:59 p.m. July 21.
On the question of accepting the fact finder’s report, Council members Joe McNamara, George Sarantou, Tom Waniewski, Wilma Brown, D. Michael Collins, Mike Craig and Adam Martinez voted no.  Steve Steel, Lindsay Webb, Michael Ashford, Phil Copeland and Rob Ludeman voted yes.
The question raised by Collins of whether Local 3411 was defined by Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board (SERB) as a strike or nonstrike unit created lengthy discussion. An unsigned document from 1993 stated an agreement was made that would make it a nonstrike unit, which could create a different dispute process.
This 1993 document was revealed to the law department and to the administration July 19. They were not aware of its existence. SERB was contacted by Ellen Grachek of the city’s law department to attempt to get a legal clarification. She said a ruling, if sought, would not happen until August.
Collins said this was important to know so Council would be aware of the ramifications of rejecting the fact finding report. Additional concerns about City Council not having its own legal representation were raised. It was stated several times that the law department was representing the Clerk of Courts on this issue and a conflict of interest could be created if they advised Council. An attempt by Webb to delay voting on rejection until legal counsel could be sought failed.
Mayor Mike Bell asked Council to reject the fact finder’s report. He said the city can not afford this contract and “we are going to be in the same position we were at the beginning of this year.”
Bell also raised concerns about the precedent this factfinder’s report could create.
The cost factor and the precedent were raised several times by members of Council and the administration during the discussion.
On the vote to reject the fact finder’s report, McNamara, Sarantou, Waniewski, Brown and Martinez voted yes. Steel, Webb, Ashford, Copeland, Collins, Craig and Ludeman voted no. Since eight yes votes were needed, the legislation to reject the fact finder’s report failed.
Those who voted “no” created the same outcome as if they had voted “yes” on the legislation to approve the fact finder’s report. It ended the process there, barring some later attempt at a contract re-opener.
It will make it more difficult for discussions with other bargaining units when it comes to concessions related to pension pick up. It also makes it less urgent to obtain answers as to the strike or nonstrike status of Local 3411.
The Bell administration did not get the support it needed from Council; Council was given an issue to decide without access to independent legal counsel.
No mention was made of the lobbying by the union or who promised to support the union.

Toledo Free Press contributor Lisa Renee Ward operates the political blog Glass City Jungle.