Toledo Public Schools will conduct an auction beginning at 9 a.m. May 23 to sell items from Libbey High School.

Included in the auction is 350,000 sq. feet of items. Photos of some merchandise that will be up for bidding are available on www.ToledoAuctioneer.com through the Montrie Auction & Estate Service, which is conducting the auction.

The service says that among the items available are a “large quantity (thousands) of desks, lockers, chairs, tables, shelves, Cabinets, Food prep, office, PA system, clocks, scrap metal, equipment, Wood shop tools, Bedrock wood planes, Vintage Science room equip., Antique cabinets, Industrial antique furniture, Toledo chairs (hundreds), Anatomical charts, Maps, and Thousands of great items.”

Libbey High School Alumni Association had requested to postpone the auction as it was working with the Ohio Historical Society to have the school designated as a historical landmark.

Lisa Sobecki, vice president of TPS Board and chair of TPS’ Ohio Schools Facility Commission committee, issued a statement May 21 which said permanent fixtures and historical structure items will not be included in Monday’s auction. Sobecki said the sale items are considered surplus equipment and supplies to the district.

The auction takes place from 9-3:30 p.m. on May 23, with pick up of items won from May23-25 before finishing on May 26 from 9-1 p.m.

The cover for this edition features a story about a father that was shot in the face while saving his daughter and the long road back to health. There is also a special section on Summer Events in our area. Editor in Chief Michael Miller shares his thoughts on a decision to cancel a performance of “To Kill a Mockingbird” because of one word in the production. The musical line up for the August 5 through 7 Smoke on the Water — Ribs for the Red Cross is also announced in this edition.

Senator Edna Brown and Rep. Michael Ashford were the hosts of a May 14 town hall sponsored by the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus at the Warren A.M.E. Church in Toledo.
The main reason for the town hall was to generate support for the repeal of Senate Bill 5 and to increase awareness of the voter identification bill that is before the General Assembly. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur attended to show her support for the area Democratic assembly members.
“The power of ordinary people is being tested,” Kaptur said. “When you look at what has happened, big money is in our face all the time.”
Restoring power to ordinary people has been Kaptur’s focus for decades. It’s not been just directed at huge corporations, banks or Wall Street; Kaptur advocates for grassroots movements, continuing to challenge members of her own party to avoid the lure of “big money.”
She still raises money through bake sales, something that John Nichols reported on for “In These Times” in 2002: “Behind the scenes and off the record, House Democrats and their aides were quick to confide the generally held view that Kaptur was crazy to suggest that the Democratic Party might want to hold a few less $5,000-a-head fundraisers and a few more bake sales and fish fries. ‘Bake sales!’ exclaimed an exasperated committee chair. ‘What the hell planet is Marcy Kaptur living on?’”

The question could have been and could still be in response — what the hell planet do committee chairs live on? — but that’s a question for another day. While it’s common for elected officials to forget where they came from, Kaptur has not done that. Her memories of her father’s store and the changes in access to locally grown food motivate her to this day.
“Ninety-eight percent of what we eat is not from Ohio,” Kaptur said. It’s a topic she’s discussed many times, with her goal being to increase local residents access to locally grown food, especially for seniors and those who rely on food assistance programs.
In March, Kaptur told the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition that this was the first year America imported more food than it exported.
She said as a young child, “I began to understand how small business people were not on the same turf, on the same playing field, as very big companies. “The food that we buy in the retail stores, we don’t know where it comes from. Where we live our community has been disconnected, the country from the town, the country is the lifeblood of the adjoining villages and city, it’s there where the food comes from.”
For Kaptur, it is about recapturing local markets — which grows more difficult each year as less acreage in Lucas County is farmland. In 2002, a little more than 77,800 acres of Lucas County was devoted to farmland, in 2007 it decreased to 62,906 acres. About 60 percent of the farmland in Lucas County is owned by those who farm less than 50 acres.
It’s not just about the nutritional aspect or knowing where food is grown. It’s about recapturing local dollars. What’s grown here, sold here and bought here, keeps more money local. Instead of profits going to corporations not located in the Toledo area, the money stays here.
“Think about who makes the money,” Kaptur said May 14. “Six banks control two-thirds of banking capital in our country. Find a way to talk to a credit union, a locally owned bank. Bring your money home.
“We in Toledo have the ability to have a public utility. Imagine if we could produce power at a local level,” Kaptur said. “Imagine if the solar fields at Scott Park could power up the campus, businesses and adjoining neighborhood.”
Not having control over the financial aspect of food, housing and energy makes us weaker said Kaptur.
Keeping local dollars local is a topic that should transcend politics.
It makes sense.
If encouraging people to make politics about dreams, ideals and to make it accessible rather than about money is crazy? I wish there were more crazy people.

Toledo Free Press Web Editor Lisa Renee Ward operates the political blog GlassCityJungle.com.

“Oooh La La” doesn’t exactly sound like a Crash Test Dummies disc. There’s big band, country twang and even a song inspired by doo-wop.
But then you hear Brad Roberts’ deep voice and you know it’s the alt-folk rockers.
“When I first started, I regarded [my voice] as a liability and tried to get other people to sing my songs because I just thought I sounded good for only Irish sea shanties,” the front man of the Canadian group said and launched into such a ditty.
“I couldn’t get anyone to sing [the songs] the way I wanted to hear them, so I sang by default,” Roberts continued during a call from his New York home. “When we were released, it was just coming out of the 1980s and that was like hair bands and every singer on the radio was a screaming tenor. The idea that the radio would even play a baritone voice was unthinkable.
“And it turned out things opened up; hair metal kind of died, especially after Nirvana, and suddenly my voice became an asset.”
Roberts and his recognizable pipes had fun making 2010’s “Oooh La La.”

Brad Roberts

“I came across this thing called the Optigan, this little ’70s instrument that was designed for amateur hobbyists. It has a singular strange technology; it’s weirdly prescient of digital sampling,” he said. “It’s very versatile because you can have it play all kinds of different bands, which were actually people recorded as opposed to mere synthesized sounds, that being the breakthrough technology of it for its time. And these discs had this weird, spooky, old-fashioned, creepy 78 RPM feel.”
The singer-songwriter worked with producer-engineer Stewart Lerman on the CD.
“The whole point of the record was to use those widely varied discs, which contain everything from bands that sounded like they were from Polynesia to Nashville,” Roberts said. “[The discs] grew songs practically; we’d sit down and play them and there were so many different genres to just be able to tap right into as a composer — it was great.”
Listen to “Now You See Her,” which was inspired by the Optigan.
“It’s an old-fashioned kind of ’20s jazz band sound, so I wrote kind of a campy, Tin Pan Alley-sounding lyric to go with it,” he said.
The Crash Test Dummies’ tour to support “Oooh La La” will stop in Ann Arbor for an 8 p.m. show May 26 at The Ark. Tickets are $27.50. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Roberts said he’ll be joined by original member Ellen Reid, vocalist and keyboard player, and touring guitarist Murray Pulver.
The group is known for “Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm” from 1993’s “God Shuffled His Feet” and “Superman’s Song” from 1991’s “The Ghosts That Haunt Me.”
“Demo-Litions: Cast-Off Recordings 1996-97” was released in April.
Roberts said he wished he had more demos to share.
“There are demos for the entire ‘God Shuffled His Feet’ record, which many people would love to hear; I would love to hear them. I have no idea where they are, probably on some cassette somewhere in a rusty old box in a storage room. Just never kept track of it, never cared, never thought about the future, never thought about posterity.”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is attacking hard-working Ohioans and the middle class of Ohio. The state budget he proposed, and the version approved by majority Republicans both in my committee, House Finance & Appropriations, and on the House floor is balanced on the backs of our citizens.
The budget being considered now calls for spending $5.5 billion more than the last biennial budget. That’s a huge spending increase, yet the governor wants significant cuts to public universities, K-12 education, social services, mental health, libraries and seniors. Also, local government funds are slashed which will affect vital services such as police and fire protection, snow removal and road improvements.
Gov. Kasich’s budget attacks the one advocacy group that is in place to protect Ohio’s citizens from high utility bills. In 1975, Ohio Consumers Council (OCC) was established as a legal advocate to protect more than 4.5 million homeowners in Ohio against high utility bills (gas, electric, water and communications). Last year alone, the OCC challenged and won approximately 300 cases of illegal rate increases in Ohio. In the last budget, the OCC annual budget was approximately $8 million to fight on behalf of homeowners in Ohio. The proposed OCC 2012-2013 budget is $4 million. That’s right, a 50 percent reduction and the reduction/savings goes back to the utility companies, not the consumers.
The Governor’s office took a tiny 1.9 percent reduction while all state agencies will receive an average reduction of 40 percent in their budgets.
During the budget talks, the buzzword was “privatization.” The state will sell off five state prisons for $200 million which are appraised at $1 billion not counting the inventory of the prisons. Several local agencies are taking a cut in this budget.  Listed below are several agencies that will receive significant decreases in state funding:

• Mental health: 40 percent reduction
• Area Office on Aging: provides critical programs for the elderly. Faces a 39 percent reduction
• PASSPORT Program, which meets the needs of the most vulnerable seniors, faces a 50 percent reduction
• Public libraries: just in Lucas County, there is a possible loss of $1 million
• TARTA, which provides public transportation, faces a 39 percent reduction
• Toledo Public Schools faces a reduction of $6 billion to $8 billion
• City of Toledo faces up to an $8 million dollar reduction
• Food Banks face a 14 percent reduction (while need continues to grow)

This 2012-13 budget was balanced on the backs of the state’s most vulnerable and the middle class: teachers, bus-drivers, police, fire, garbage workers, highway patrol, prison guards, teacher’s aides, hospital workers, county workers, city workers, child care counselors and college instructors.
It’s time to ask yourself: Whose side is this governor on?

Michael Ashford (D) is State Representative for Ohio House District 48. Call his office at Phone: (614) 466-1401 or email him at district48@ohr.state.oh.us.

One of the ways a family knows it should be a relaxing retirement is when their investments work and earn more than they do. Many of our readers have probably experienced this in one year or another, but may have never realized it. On the other hand, others might feel this day won’t come fast enough. For everyone, six steps can be taken to get there quicker and to keep you there longer.

Cut debt. It is rare that we run into a retired couple that has a large amount of debt and living comfortably. One way to eliminate debt is to write down the totals of each debt starting with the lowest moving to the highest. Put all of the extra monthly income towards the smallest balance and eliminate them one at a time. Once one debt is paid off, work on paying off the next lowest balance debt. This debt elimination plan will help your money work harder and gives a family a sense of accomplishment when a debt is paid off.

Cut fees and expenses. Review the internal fees and expenses of all of the investment holdings. This can be a very difficult area for many families to understand. So do some homework. Cutting half or one percent in fees and expenses can be a major difference in the long term. Various financial products charge fees and expenses differently. Some products have disclosed fees that are printed on the statement. While other fees are internal expenses that can take more time to understand. Bottom line, if everything else is equal, an account with less fees and expenses will have more money at the end of the year.

Cut taxes. Don’t forget about your least favorite relative, Uncle Sam. Think of crazy Eddie from the movie, Vegas Vacation staring Chevy Chase, we know he is not going to go away and will just show up one day. Most people are deferring taxes to a later date, but does that always make sense with the majority of the money? Taxes can’t be avoided forever and tax rates might be higher in the future. In many cases smart tax planning with the investments can be done when an investor gets their financial professional and accountant together to work on a detaxification plan. Talk about expectations on where your income will be in retirement and what percentage of money should be saved in the three different buckets of money: taxable, tax-deferred, and tax free.

Avoid losing money safely and/or not having an exit plan with risky investments. Many investors go from one extreme to the other. Right now with how low most fixed investment rates are, an investor’s money could work harder if it wasn’t all in safe accounts. In fact, once an investor factors in true inflation and taxes, most fixed rate investments have a negative return right now. At the same time, significant losses in the stock market in the future can put your retirement in serious jeopardy. Depending upon an investor’s time frame the long-term holdings might make the most sense in equity based accounts. Yet, determining when and why an investment would be sold or bought is an important step in creating a work manual for the accounts.

Grow productivity by increasing the yield using dividends and interest. According to www.visualizingeconomics.com, history has shown dividends can be a huge part to increasing how hard your money works. Increasing the yield by one or two percent can help compound the growth for the future or be used for current income needs. At the same time, simply picking investments based solely on yield can be risky. Make sure recommendations are right for you and you are comfortable with the potential risks and rewards.

Use all of these tips to put your money to work. Consider getting an outside opinion to prevent unintentional blindness. Have you ever noticed when you buy a new car, at first you think it is the only one in town. Then in the first week of buying the new car, you see one after another. I’m not quite sure what causes the phenomenon, but the same can be true when an investor looks at their finances. What might seem hard for one to figure out could be an easy fix by having someone else take a look at the accounts to help avoid unintentional blindness.

For more information about The Retirement Guys, tune in every Saturday at 1 PM on 1370 WSPD or visit www.retirementguysradio.com. Securities and Investment Advisory Services are offered through NEXT Financial Group Inc., Member FINRA / SIPC. NEXT Financial Group, Inc nor its representatives provide tax advice. The Retirement Guys are not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group. The office is at 1700 Woodlands Drive, Suite 100, Maumee, OH 43537. 419-842-0550

Has the market got you down the past few weeks? We hate to say it, but we told you so! In fact, the following is an excerpt from an article penned just seven weeks ago:
“It seems that the market’s recovery since the 2008 crash may be petering as the flow of good news on the economy has stopped flowing. The biggest issue remains above-average unemployment; and though personal incomes are up, the rise hasn’t been sufficient to encourage investors.
This confluence of factors has, unfortunately, led to what is beginning to look like a stall in the recoveries of the U.S. economy and financial markets.
There’s an old saying in finance that “markets don’t react to the same news twice.” Right now, that’s exactly where we find ourselves. Over the past two years the picture has brightened for the U.S. economy as business has stabilized, and the market has rallied on that optimism. Now the news has stopped improving and the market has stalled.”

And yet, investors remain surprised now that the market is suffering, despite the complete absence of any good news to drive it higher.
Admittedly, the market hasn’t exactly been in free-fall since our warning at the beginning of April. However, exiting the market at that time would have helped investors avoid the several percent slip from the markets top on April 29 (measured by both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average).
Our whole contention here is that there is a time to be in the market and a time to sit on the sidelines. The past 12 months have been, for lack of a better word, stellar (at least for our clients). Now that the spigot of good news has basically run dry, it appears time to reduce exposure in the markets.
This conclusion is not based on intuition or tarot cards, but is the result of time spent on economic research and analyzing market technical indicators; research that most advisers either don’t do or purchase with the hopes that it’s correct.
However, the quality of our research is also why we regularly serve as a resource for the media.
More importantly, the endless hours we spent keeping careful pulse of the economy are why our clients pay us. Our insight allows us to make investment decisions based on what we see coming that, hopefully, will be profitable for ourselves and our clients.
So when we write in an article that the way what we’re seeing “is beginning to look like a stall in the recoveries of the U.S. economy and financial markets,” you can bet that (1) that it’s not a conclusion we’ve reached by happenstance, and (2) that we’re using that insight to base investment decisions for our own assets and those of our 500-plus clients.
Getting back to the circumstances developing, we maintain that what we’re seeing at present is just what we wrote seven weeks ago: a stall. As is true of stalls, we expect this to be temporary rather than long-lasting.
We still are not bearish on the U.S. economy or the market, but markets do fluctuate; and we believe that this market has run about as far as it can until the headlines improve.

Dock David Treece is a discretionary money manager with Treece Investment Advisory Corp (www.TreeceInvestments.com). The above information is the express opinion of Dock David Treece and should not be construed as investment advice or used without outside verification.

Sometimes it seems as if economic development moves at a glacial pace. Major deals can take a long time to forge; that’s a fact of smart business. That process takes even longer in Northwest Ohio, where far too many layers of government slow forward motion (or in cases such as Toledo City Council vs. Dashing Pacific and the Marina District, stop that motion altogether).
The Regional Growth Partnership (RGP), a leader in privately funded economic development, is entering a new era under recently appointed President Dean Monske. At two recent events we were given some insight into how the RGP is approaching the long-term task of bringing business to our region.
At the May 17 Eggs and Economics program, former deputy mayor Monske and Toledo Mayor Mike Bell discussed their plans for marketing Northwest Ohio and their current trip to China.

The day before, at its annual meeting, RGP officials had stressed past and future regional collaboration as one key facet of its work.
“Most important is the spirit of cooperation among all the economic partners working together on growth and development for the region,” Dave Waterman, chairman of RGP’s board of directors, said at the meeting.
“It’s not all about RGP. It’s a true celebration of real collaboration for economic development, where everyone is working together on the same page,” Monske said. “Northwest Ohio has been a leader in regionalism on local, state, federal and even global levels. The biggest change is that we’re going to be laser-focused on being more proactive in promoting our region on all those levels. The new direction of RGP will focus on attraction of business and jobs for Northwest Ohio.”
Monske announced that RGP plans to open an office in Shenzhen, a business center located outside Hong Kong.
As reported by Toledo Free Press Senior Business Writer Duane Ramsey, Shenzhen has grown from a population of 50,000 to more than 14 million in the past 20 years.
That kind of rapid growth is antithetical to how things seem to move here, where progress is measured like drips of water wearing away at a stone.
But if RGP and its collaborators can tap into the waterfalls of motion and investment occurring in other parts of the world, perhaps we can move from trickles to opening the floodgates.

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

Unless I am hired to transcribe “The Collected Works of Lil’ Wayne,” there is no circumstance in which I can conceive uttering or writing the racial slur that is represented by “the n-word.”
I toss around curse words as casually as Lady Gaga shows her underwear, but the n-word is in a separate category of epithets. Its intrinsic ugliness defines its taboo, and not even the bewilderingly popular “ga” ending changes that.
Your choice to use the n-word opens you to some reflexive judgments, but you do have the choice to use it. Depending on the context, you push the boundaries from free speech to hate speech, but that’s for you to live with. And while there’s no context for the word that I find defensible, there are contexts that I will defend.
The Zane Trace Players, a theater group at Morgan High School in McConnelsville, Ohio, planned to perform the stage version of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which was adapted by Christopher Sergel. The play was canceled recently by the school’s superintendent.
According to reporter Kathy Thompson, “Lori Snyder-Lowe, superintendent for Morgan Local School District, said she received calls from parents concerned about the play because it contains a racial slur.”

Snyder-Lowe reportedly offered to allow the play to be performed if the n-word were removed.
Bruce Revennaugh of the Zane Trace Players said he contacted the play’s publisher to seek permission to change the script, but was told no. As Thompson reported, “The company receives requests every once in a while to remove the word, said Sergel, but making someone uncomfortable is not a sufficient reason to change a vital piece of American literature. ‘Being uncomfortable with history is not  means to change it,’ Sergel said. ‘We’ve  always denied these requests. People need to figure out how to confront issues’.”
All praise to Sergel for passing on the paycheck to maintain the integrity of Lee’s message. This puts him in opposition to people who would publish altered versions of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” or trample on other works of art based on their own sensibilities.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is one of the most affecting, enlightening and human books in American literature. The book thrums with an energy of purpose and compassion that can make the spirit soar with joy on one page and kick it to the depths of despair on the next. No American education is complete without experiencing the tale of young Scout Finch’s encounter with Alabama racism during the Great Depression.
As Scout’s father Atticus defends Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, Lee explores the hot-button themes largely through 6-year-old Scout’s eyes. One of the book’s most resonant passages comes when Scout asks her father about a slur she is hearing at school:
“Scout,” said Atticus, “nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything — like snot-nose. It’s hard to explain — ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It’s slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody.”
“You aren’t really a nigger-lover, then, are you?”
“I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody … I’m hard put, sometimes — baby, it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.”
It stuns and scares me that someone could read that passage and want to ban or censor “To Kill a Mockingbird” based on claims of racism.
It is important to address the sensitivities of modern audiences, but that has to be balanced with the historical and educational opportunities on a case-by-case basis.
What of a brilliant song like Randy Newman’s “Rednecks,” a scathing, acidic attack on racism that is sung from the point of view of the racist? A censor would have to keep his hand on the button and work hard to keep up with Newman in the song, which employs the n-word close to 10 times.
“We got no-necked oilmen from Texas
And good ol’ boys from Tennessee
And college men from LSU
Went in dumb. Come out dumb too
Hustlin’ ‘round Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Gettin’ drunk every weekend at the barbecues
And they’re keepin’ the niggers down.
Down here we’re too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free
Yes he’s free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he’s free to be put in a cage on the South-Side of Chicago
And the West-Side
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he’s free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston … ”
There’s a novel’s worth of criticism, conversation and education in Newman’s song (and those are just half the lyrics); to me, it’s worth the shock of hearing the word for the devastating indictment of racism the song delivers.
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view — until you climb into his skin and walk around in it,” Atticus tells Scout.
That holds true no matter what color that skin is, or what vile name you call the person who wears it.

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

Fifth Third mobile bank visits Toledo

Fifth Third Bank brought its mobile classroom to Toledo neighborhoods May 18-21 and 26-28 in an effort to provide access to comprehensive financial services information to the public as a community service.

The 40-foot mobile classroom is equipped with computer terminals that access the Internet via satellite to support instructor-led or self-directed home ownership and credit programs. The services are free and the “e-bus” was open to the public.

The bank’s “e-bus” was parked at Ravine Park in East Toledo May 18, at Adelante, Inc. on Broadway May 19 and at Smith Park on Door Street May 19 and 20 in Toledo. It will be available May 26 at Sherman Elementary School, May 27 and 28 at 1630 Door Street in Toledo.

Visitors can receive free personalized evaluation of their finances; browse self-directed programs; gain access to credit reports, and learn about identity theft, fraud awareness and prevention tactics. Free medical screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, body mass index, pulse and blood oxygen levels were available at those sites.

“The Fifth Third e-bus is one aspect of our commitment to strengthen the communities we serve by providing access to financial services, products and information to help people increase their financial knowledge,” Linda Ewing, senior vice president of community affairs at Fifth Third Bank in Northwest Ohio, stated in a press release.

Huntington Bank introduces new free checking

Huntington Bank recently introduced Asterisk-Free Checking to consumers in Ohio as the next phase of its “fair play” approach to banking in direct response to customer feedback.

With no catches or strings attached, Asterisk Free Checking is free to open; has no monthly maintenance fee; no minimum balance, no check or debit card usage requirements; and includes a linked savings account, free debit card usage, 24-hour grace period feature, and ID theft resolution services, according to Huntington Bank.

Development of the new checking product began more than a year ago and the process focused on ideas and feedback directly from our customers and employees, said Steve Steinour, Huntington CEO.

“Consumers are looking for simplicity, fairness, value and transparency. Asterisk-Free Checking delivers all four at no cost. Instead of taking away benefits and adding fees, we have introduced this new free checking account that gives our customers more.” Steinour stated in a press release. Asterisk-Free Checking is available to all Huntington consumer checking customers. The bank will proactively help its current customers into the new checking account over the next year, according to the press release.

Last fall, Huntington added 24-Hour Grace to all its consumer checking accounts and now provides free ID Theft Resolution Services to every customer.

The 24-Hour Grace waves any overdraft fee as long as the customer makes a deposit during the next business day to resolve the overdraft status on their checking account.