Miles Davis fired up his Ferrari and took him for a drive. He roamed the stage at Woodstock in 1969. And Janis Joplin performed a private concert just for him.
He is Baron Wolman. As Rolling Stone’s first chief photographer, he chronicled the music scene for the publication from 1967 to 1970.
“For the most part, it was just working. It was a fun job,” he said. “At the time, there was no context, you know, like this was really cool; it was just that’s what we’re doing today.
“The thing with Janis, I knew at the time that was very special.”

Baron Wolman

Wolman shares special memories, classic photos and the stories behind them in “The Rolling Stone Years.” Released by Omnibus Press in August, the 176-page book features icons from Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead to George Harrison, Carlos Santana, Bob Dylan, and Ike & Tina Turner.
“I knew I was documenting a very important part of American history; the changes that were taking place were phenomenal and very visual,” he said during a call from his home in Santa Fe, N.M. “I was another guy with a camera working hard to take pictures of an important time in San Francisco.”
He was 30 years old and living in Haight-Ashbury in 1967, the year Rolling Stone began publishing.
“So many of the people that I photographed lived in the Haight also; it wasn’t as though you were seeing rock stars, you were just seeing neighbors. See Janis walking down the street, see The Dead walking, Jefferson Airplane hanging out,” Wolman said.
What was his strangest job?
“The most crazy situation had to be with Frank Zappa at his house because I was a little concerned about getting along with Frank because he was so smart and, musically, he’s a creative eccentric, and I didn’t know what I was going to get when I got there,” Wolman recalled. “It turned out he was in some kind of Frank Zappa mood to play around with me and the camera.”
Who was the shyest subject?
“Tiny Tim was reluctant to be photographed or interviewed, so [the writer and I] brought him a bouquet of daisies and, for some reason, that touched his heart,” Wolman said.
The most photogenic musician?
“Jimi Hendrix was always moving. Not only was he a phenomenal guitarist, he was a great performer,” the 74-year-old said. “Being on stage with Jimi Hendrix was phenomenal; I couldn’t stop taking pictures.”
The Ohio native started shooting during high school in Columbus.
“The moment I picked up a camera and looked through the viewfinder and could isolate moments that meant something to me, the camera became my friend,” he said. “I couldn’t believe how easy it was for me to take pictures. It was so meaningful, so wonderful, so special.”
Wolman was known for his photojournalistic style: “Maybe it was more honest; this is the world I saw in front of me at the moment and that is the world I wanted to reflect. I didn’t want to create a world. Annie Leibovitz went on — to her credit — and did very well at creating reality.
“I was more interested in, who are these people? How do they behave? I wanted them to give me, as the Native Americans say, a little piece of their soul when I photographed them.
“A good photo should cause you to pause for a moment to look at it for some reason or there’s something there you want to take a second look at,” Wolman said. “It should, in that moment, give you a little bit more information about what it means to be alive.”

Before hitting any snow this winter, snowmobilers need to check their sleds to make sure they are in top condition, area service technicians say.

Preseason maintenance checks are commonly done starting in early November through Christmas, said Robert Streiffert, owner of DZ Motorsports in Genoa. The checks should review the machine from front to back to make sure all essential components are in working order.

“A snowmobile is very maintenance-intensive,” said Dan Cunningham, shop foreman and snowmobile specialist at Honda East Toledo in Maumee, who said he starts getting calls about snowmobiles in mid-summer and typically starts working on sleds by mid-September. “There’s a lot of wear items on a snowmobile you don’t find on other vehicles.”

The most important pre-winter maintenance duty involves checking the fuel system, particularly dealing with any gas left inside a snowmobile stored during the off-season, Streiffert said.

Humid summers like this year’s are especially hard on fuel and engine parts because of the moisture in the air, Cunningham said.

When gas sits inside a machine, solid deposits called varnish deposits can form in the fuel, which can clog carburetor jets.

“You need to pull the carburetors down and make sure they’re clean because the lifeblood of the machine is the carburetor,” Streiffert said.

If there are enough deposits, the sled won’t start because no fuel can reach the engine, Cunningham said.

“Or it still runs, but it’s running lean and when it runs lean, it’s burning pistons,” Cunningham said. “It will run great, but they always say it runs the best right before it blows up. That’s always the biggest thing we see. People just neglect them.”

For fuel-injected machines, drain any old fuel and put fresh in, Cunningham said.

“It’s not such a big deal with fuel injection because you’ve got 90 pounds of pressure pushing it so it’ll probably start, but you still need to get the old gas out of there because if you run it with that old gas in there you can do engine damage. It will overheat,” Cunningham said.

Newer fuel-injected machines are able to tolerate 10-percent ethanol fuel, but in general ethanol should be avoided in snowmobiles, Cunningham said. Ethanol is corrosive, absorbs water and elevates combustion temperatures, which burn up engine parts.

Before storing snowmobiles in the spring, owners should fog their engines, meaning spray oil inside the engine while it’s running to coat all the internal parts of the engine, Cunningham said.

“If you didn’t do that there’s the possibility of some corrosion inside the engine, which will rear its ugly head usually later on down the line — and usually not too far down the line,” Cunningham said.

All bearings and suspension parts should be greased with a low-temperature grease at the start of the season, Cunningham said.

“Make sure it’s low-temperature grease,” Cunningham said. “We have people who put regular wheel bearing grease in their suspensions and then it gets down to zero degrees and it’s rock hard. It locks everything solid and they have to warm it up get the right grease in there.”

Parts should also be greased after each ride.

“Water from melting snow gets inside so as soon as you get it home and thawed out, pump your fittings, bearings and suspension parts full of grease,” Cunningham said. “It pushes water out and gets a good grease in there so it’s ready to go the next time. That’s just normal maintenance most people disregard.”

Another common pre-winter issue is snowmobiles that were hauled on open trailers and then stored without washing off the salt, Cunningham said.

“We have machines coming in the fall that you can’t even steer it because the steering is all locked up,” Cunningham said.

During a standard winter tune-up, a technician will also check clutch condition and alignment, inspect the drive belt, check the front end alignment, align the track, adjust the carburetors and adjust and lubricate cables, Cunningham said.

The rear suspension should be checked for worn or broken parts, Cunningham said. Spark plugs and ski wear bars should also be checked.

“They [wear rods] usually wear down and then you can’t steer well, so that’s going to be a big one,” Cunningham said.

Another common wear item many people don’t check are sliders, Streiffert said.

The chain case oil should be changed and the battery and coolant level and condition should be checked, Cunningham said.

Over time, shocks fade and will need to be rebuilt, Streiffert said.

Pop the chain case fluid covers off, clean the case and make sure bearings in the chain case haven’t stretched because that’s a major drive component of the machine, Streiffert said.

It’s also important to check the electrical system, including head lights, tail lights and hand warmers, Streiffert said.

“You don’t want to freeze first time out,” Streiffert said.

If unsure about performing any of these checks, it’s best to consult a trained professional.

“A lot of our customers are riders, not mechanics, so we try to point out the things a lot of people overlook, but we know what to look for because see them all the time,” Streiffert said.

For more information, call Honda East at (419) 891-1230 or DZ Motorsports at (419) 855-9060.

In a recent column on MarketWatch.com titled “Companies trim investment choices in 401(k)s,” Andrea Coombes said many employers have been going against the long-term trend of increasing investment options within their sponsored retirement plans. Many plan participants have been unsatisfied with the performance of their retirement accounts, and employers seem to be taking action to satisfy the unease of employees — but in all likelihood will only make things worse.
In fact, during the past several years it seems that more and more employer-sponsored retirement plans have been limiting investment options to broad debt- or equity-focused funds (e.g. large-cap growth, small-cap value), along with the more recent additions of target-date retirement funds
Surveying the change in landscape, it would seem that companies think they’re doing employees a favor in trying to dumb down 401(k) plans by simplifying the options available. Given more recent developments — namely, the increasing dissatisfaction among plan participants — we are likely witnessing the culmination of this trend.

For a prime example of how these developments are adversely affecting investors, consider that at present the Dow Jones Industrial Average is at roughly the same level as it was in 1999. That certainly doesn’t mean there hasn’t been plenty of money to be made in the markets; it’s just been in certain sectors.
A growing number of plan participants have been wising up to the fact that buying and holding a broad range of stocks — essentially the market — simply isn’t a viable option. The recent growth of popularity in target-date funds is yet another example of plan sponsors’ misplaced intentions.
Put bluntly, it’s safe to say that target-date funds miss the mark, by and large. In fact, most investors don’t even realize how these products work, though they’re assumed to be an “easy button” for investing.
Target-date funds are nothing more than an actively managed portfolio with a shifting balance between equities and bonds. While these funds always have some composition of bonds, the fixed-income allocation increases as the fund’s target date approaches. If most of those people currently utilizing target-date funds were asked whether they wanted to put 40 percent or more of their portfolio in bonds, they’d probably say “no,” and with good reason. It should be obvious to the investing public that right now is a terrible time to be buying any bonds at all, and any fixed-income portfolio will likely suffer in the near future.
A quick scan of a long-term interest rate chart will show the United States to be at the bottom of a long-term cycle, with rates having fallen since peaking in the early 1980s. The probability of rates rising in the future is exponentially higher than of staying low much longer.
As interest rates begin to rise, target-date funds — and most bond funds — will certainly see their prices suffer. These funds are priced daily, meaning that the underlying bonds they own have to be valued daily, priced to the market. As interest rates rise, the market value of those bonds will fall, pushing fund prices lower. This is only one example of a shortcoming in target-date funds. The subject of higher expense ratios is a topic for another day. The bottom line is that employers’ recent efforts to simplify investment options in retirement plans have been counterproductive.
The task at hand for plan sponsors will be to include a greater variability of sector-focused investment options, as well as providing the plan participants with more resources to help in the selection process.

Dock David Treece is a discretionary money manager with Treece Investment Advisory Corp and is licensed with FINRA through Treece Financial Services Corp. The above information is the express opinion of Dock David Treece and should not be construed as investment advice or used without outside verification.

First Solar updated its financial guidance for 2011 and announced its projections for 2012 and a reorganization of its executive leadership Dec. 14.

First Solar forecasts 2011 net sales in the range of $2.8 to $2.9 billion, down from its previous guidance range for net sales of $3.0 to $3.3 billion. The Company expects diluted earnings per share (EPS) for 2011 to be in the range of $5.75 to $6.00 with consolidated operating income of $575 to $600 million.

The primary reason for the revised 2011 guidance is continued delays of certain projects in First Solar’s systems business due to weather and other factors, according to the company.

In financial reporting, guidance is a publicly traded corporation’s prediction of its own near-future profit or loss stated as an amount of money per share.

Expected charges related to a series of initiatives to accelerate operating cost reductions and improve overall operating efficiency were not included in the revised guidance. These charges include up to $.75 per fully diluted share related to certain equipment and $.10 per fully diluted share related to a work force reduction of approximately 100 associates, less than 1.5 percent of First Solar’s total work force.

Only a small number of associates at its Perrysburg operations are being affected by the work force reduction, according to Alan Bernheimer, corporate communications director at First Solar.

For 2012, First Solar forecast net sales from $3.7 to $4 billion, including approximately $1.7 billion from its systems business. Diluted EPS is expected to be from $3.75 to $4.25 with consolidated income of $425 to $450 million.

The company expects to generate nearly $1 billion of operating cash flow with plans for approximately $375 to $425 million in capital investments in 2012.

“Our diverse business model and robust project pipeline will help First Solar generate a significant amount of cash in 2012 while improving operational efficiencies, but we are recalibrating our business to focus on building and serving sustainable markets rather than pursuing subsidized markets,” Mike Ahearn, chairman and interim CEO of First Solar, stated in the announcement.

First Solar also announced that it will consolidate its worldwide sales and project development activities under Jim Brown, who has been appointed to the new position of president of Global Business Development.

The move combines the company’s Utility Systems Business Group and Components Business Group under a unified global structure encompassing sales, project development, product management and the customer service and technical services groups.

Brown joined First Solar in 2008 as vice president, project finance, and was appointed president of Systems Business in August 2011. He brought 20 years of experience in banking for the energy and industrial sectors to the company.

As a result of this reorganization, T.K. Kallenbach, president of the Components Business Group, will leave First Solar effective Jan. 1, 2012. He joined the company in 2009 as executive vice president of marketing and product management and was appointed president of Components Business in February 2011.

In addition, First Solar has reorganized the structure and roles in its financial and accounting groups to optimize efficiency.

As a result, James Zhu, chief accounting officer, has elected to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. Mark Widmar, chief financial officer, will add the role of chief accounting officer to his responsibilities effective Feb. 1, 2012. Zhu will remain with First Solar through May 1, 2012 to ensure a smooth transition.

Widmar joined First Solar as CFO in April, 2011 coming from the same position at Graftech International. He has held senior positions in finance and controlling at Dell, NCR and Lucent Technologies.

Zhu joined First Solar in 2007 as vice president and corporate controller. He has served as chief accounting officer since 2009.

“These changes support our broader effort to reposition First Solar to lead the industry through the current market turbulence and to better serve our customers around the world with comprehensive solar energy solutions,” Aheard stated.

Toledo is one of several metropolitan areas that have experienced improved housing markets recently, according to the First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) released Dec. 6 by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
The number of improving markets continued to expand with 20 new additions on the IMI list in December, including Toledo and Canton, Ohio; Ann Arbor, Mich. Fort Wayne, Ind.  and Washington, D.C.
“The increases we continue to see in the number and geographic diversity of improving markets are quite encouraging and evidence of the fact that all housing markets are dependent on uniquely local factors,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, a homebuilder from Reno, Nev.
Nielsen said 21 states and the District of Columbia are represented on the improving markets list in December, up from 14 states in November.
“The December IMI results are in keeping with the latest government housing data and our own builder surveys, which have shown modest signs of improvement in certain individual markets where employment is gaining and distressed properties are not as numerous,” NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said.

13 villas have been sold at Brooklyn Park in the past nine months.

“These gradual improvements are now becoming evident not just in small, energy-producing metros that have previously dominated the IMI, but also in several larger markets and areas with more diverse economies,” Crowe said.
The IMI index is designed to track housing markets that are showing signs of improved economic health. It identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement in the number of home building permits, growing employment and price appreciation or increase in home values for at least six consecutive months.
Bill Brennan, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association (HBA) of Greater Toledo, said this area has seen some improvement in the housing market in 2011.
The Toledo metropolitan market usually builds from 1,500 to 2,000 new homes per year, but has averaged only 400 annually during the past three years, according to James Moline, president of James E. Moline Builders and past president of the local HBA.
“There has been so much pent up demand from the past three years. Those people didn’t go away but just delayed their purchases. Many of those people are now looking to buy homes,” Moline said.
He said his company has sold 13 villas in the Brooklyn Park development on Dorr Street in the past nine months. The villas for seniors age 55-plus sell in the range from $120,000 to $130,000.
Moline Builders has seven homes under construction at the Deer Valley development in Monclova Township in the $300,000 to $600,000 range. Moline said the company has additional homes under construction in Sylvania in the $900,000 to $2 million range.
“Construction costs are down now so it’s a good time to build a home,” Moline said.
He also said if the housing market continues to recover, it could create a problem since the number of builders and skilled tradespeople is down about 50 percent in the Toledo market. Demand could eventually outpace the supply of new homes, Moline said.
“Consumer confidence is rising and the job market is improving here. Everyone is busy which is very unusual for real estate in December,” said Barbara Stout of the Danberry Company, who was instated as president of the Toledo Board of Realtors on Dec. 1.
“Interest rates are historically low and good news creates more good news. We hope 2012 will continue to grow and be another successful year,” Stout said.
Home sales in the Toledo market have shown modest improvement during 2011, according to information supplied by the Northwest Ohio Real Estate Information System (NORIS) Multiple Listing Service.
NORIS reports that 5,838 single-family homes have been sold in the Northwest Ohio MLS market year-to-date in 2011, an increase of 2 percent over the 5,719 sold during the same period in 2010. Home sales increased 10 percent compared to last November with an increase of 6 percent in the average prices in November 2011.
The total volume of home sales increased by 1 percent from $588 million in 2010 to $592 million in 2011. The average price of homes sold fell 1 percent from $102,849 in 2010 to $101,496 in 2011.

Since holiday gift-gifting doesn’t end with the family, readers have been asking who else “needs” a gift or a tip.
“While there are no hard and fast rules regarding holiday tipping, it is a great way to recognize all that your service providers (hairstylists, etc.) do for you throughout the year,” said Communications Manager Christine Bailey of the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Once the list is narrowed down, the real question is how much to spend.

There is no list of approved gifts for postal carriers, according to David Van Allen, USPS Corporate Communications, but only a general ruling: “Postal employees may accept a gift from an outside source if the gift is  not cash and has a fair market value of $20 or less (but the aggregate sum of gifts from that same source cannot exceed $50 in any calendar year),” he stated in an email.
Some might remember a time when baked goods were frowned upon, especially during the anthrax scares after Sept. 11, 2001, but Van Allen said there are no prohibitions against giving baked goods as a gift to a postal carrier.
Bailey suggested www.emilypost.com for people looking for gift and tipping guidance.
Some recommendations from Emily Post:
Regular babysitter: One evening’s pay and a small gift from the children.
Barber: Cost of one haircut or gift.
Newspaper delivery person:  $10-$30 or a small gift.
Nursing home employees: A gift that can be shared among staff.
Personal trainer: The cost of one session or a gift.
Trash collectors: $10-$30 each.
Emily Post also recommends keeping a few guidelines in mind if the budget is a concern.
“First and foremost, don’t feel obligated to go beyond your personal budget,” she said.
And never discount the value of a homemade gift or card.
“Remember that words are always a great way to express your thanks for a year of good service.”

Email Toledo Free Press Community Ombudsman Brandi Barhite at bbarhite@toledofreepress.com.

Toledo native and Fulbright Scholarship recipient Scott Fry will travel to Johannesburg, South Africa, in January to teach and serve as a cultural ambassador.
“South Africa has a lot of potential, but it needs a lot of help,” Fry said.
Through the Fulbright program, Fry will teach literacy strategies at the University of Witwatersrand, work at a writing center and offer tutoring services to the community. Fulbright gives its recipients funding to study, research or teach abroad. For the 2011-12 school year, Fulbright committed funds to 1,600 U.S. citizens.
Fry graduated from Sylvania Southview High School in 2005 and from The Ohio State University in 2009 with a degree in political science and economics. He earned a master’s degree from Dominican University in the Chicago area in 2011. While in Chicago, he taught middle school at Parkman Elementary through the Teach For America (TFA) program. His experience with TFA and his teachers inspired him to pursue the Fulbright.

Scott Fry

One of Fry’s high school teachers and current mentor, Janet Rogolsky, said she believes Fry will do “an outstanding job” in South Africa.
“I’m sure you will see him living a life of worth,” she said. “Scott’s work ethic is sublime, he truly has a dedicated work ethic and he has always shown that doing the job.”
Fry displayed that work ethic at Parkman Elementary by organizing a trip for 21 sixth-graders to The Ohio State University. During the school year, Fry’s classroom was Ohio State-themed, complete with a Woody Hayes picture and a secret handshake. Fry set up a fundraising website, a Facebook page and contacted OSU to raise money for the trip. Once the students were in Columbus, they attended the homecoming parade and OSU game, sample lectures and a speech by President Gordon Gee.
Calling the trip his most meaningful life experience, Fry said, “Hopefully, it gave [the sixth-graders] an idea that university is a possibility and they should aim to go to university.”
Fry’s family history in South Africa is another reason he was drawn to the country, which he visited last summer. Fry’s grandmother and her family moved to South Africa from Germany in 1927 and his great-grandfather lived in an internment camp there during World War II. Some of Fry’s family still lives there.
“By trying to understand my family, I have come to a deeper appreciation of many South African struggles, especially the people’s desire for equality and prosperity in a country that guaranteed both for a select few,” Fry wrote in his personal statement for the Fulbright application.
The nearly yearlong application process of screenings, waiting and interviews was intense for Fry, who learned he was a finalist in January and a Fulbright recipient in May. As the date he leaves for South Africa approaches, he said he is excited.
“I can’t wait. I just signed a lease this past week. There are some things I have to figure out — like buying a car,” he said, laughing.

Setting up a musical Christmas light display is time-consuming, but occasionally a moment arises to remind Robert Densic why he started his show seven years ago.
“This guy showed up last year, and he had been showing up with his wife for years since we started this,” Densic said. “He was in his mid-80s and his wife had just passed away a week before the lights came on. He said, ‘She was so looking forward to coming and seeing what you were doing this year. I just had to bring her.’ He had her in her urn. That’s when you know all the time, effort and standing out in the freezing rain, snow and cold is worth it.”
Densic upgraded this year’s display, called “The Ageless Childs’ Christmas,” from 55,000 to 66,000 lights connected with nearly three miles of extension cord. At full tilt, the display draws 135 amps of power.

Robert Densic

“When everything goes bright outside, everything goes dim inside,” Densic said. “We have a 200-amp service. If we’re pulling 135 amps out here, it doesn’t leave us much inside. If we’re cooking dinner, our lights will dim. I don’t have much of a problem.”
The neighbors have also come to expect the display.
“They enjoy it as well,” Densic said. “One neighbor next door and another across the street insisted we start using their yard. They are all very supportive and come out to help.”
The lights are managed with 23 control boxes, each of which controls 16 different elements in the show. Everything is connected with computer wiring and runs off a computer in the house. With such a complex system, the process of setting up the show starts long before the holiday season.
“The whole family is involved in the setup,” Densic said. “My wife and I start in early October. I program year-round. The setup and programming are separate aspects. My family, her family and friends come out and help. My mother, niece and nephew were here constantly helping every weekend for a month. We need that. Our neighbors help us set up. It took us just shy of seven weeks to set this all up.”
The idea for the display came to Densic and his wife seven years ago.

“There was a video that started flying around the Internet of a house in southern Ohio done to the music of Trans-Siberian Orchestra,” Densic said. “Everybody saw the house and thought it was amazing. I saw the video and thought, ‘Wow. I have to do that.’ I still had dial-up, so it took about two hours to download the video. I called my wife, and she said we had to do it. We thought it was a great way to celebrate Christmas.”
This year’s show includes seven songs from Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Densic, a Toledo Free Press political columnist, was enthusiastic about decorating for Christmas even before starting the light show. He decorated outside with 17,000 icicle lights, which used more power than his new display.
“I almost tripled the number of lights but went down in electrical costs,” Densic said. “That’s the first question we get from people, is what is our electric bill like. Honestly, it’s not that bad. At any given point in time, they are not all on, compared to a display where you just have timers with everything on. I keep arguing that as a cost-saving measure, I should put more lights and more controllers in the show, because obviously we’re saving money.”
Densic isn’t just saving money, he’s raising it by accepting donations. Since Cedar Creek Church had to cancel its light show, Densic and other members are raising money for the church.
The lights are on display from 5:30-10:30 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Hours will be extended until midnight on Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Densic’s home is located at 107 Birch Drive in Rossford. Visit the web site TheAgelessChildsChristmas.com for directions and more information.

The Port of Toledo makes an economic impact in Northwest Ohio by generating nearly 7,000 jobs with vessel and cargo activity resulting in more than $1 billion in economic impact.
The numbers were validated by a study conducted in the entire St. Lawrence Seaway system and released Dec. 14 by the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.
“The results of the economic impact study clearly show the positive impact of our seaport’s operations to the entire Northwest Ohio region. It’s all the facilities and terminals along the Maumee River that contribute to the success of the port,” said Paul Toth, president and CEO of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, at a news conference. “We’re here to share the good news about the economic impact of the port, which validates what we do every day.”

Terry Johnson Jr., left, and Paul Toth discusss the port’s impact Dec. 14.

Toth said the Port of Toledo has invested $25 million during the past 18 months in land, materials handling equipment, two new cranes and a railroad loop to help move cargo from ship to rail and rail to ship.
“It shows the vision of the port board and staff to make these investments to take advantage of the opportunities out there. Northwest Ohio is the right place to be for transportation and logistics,” Toth said.
Thousands of people are employed directly or indirectly as a result of Toledo’s cargo handling operations. It includes not only dock workers but jobs with railroad and trucking companies, steamship agents, freight forwarders and many others, Toth said.
About 2,521 jobs are directly generated by the port’s marine vessel and cargo activity, according to the report. As a result of the local purchases by those individuals holding jobs, an additional 2,688 induced jobs are supported in the regional economy.
The study showed that another 1,763 indirect jobs are supported by $173 million of regional purchases by businesses supplying services at the Port of Toledo marine terminals.
Personal income from those jobs is estimated at $558 million. Business revenue directly related to the cargo activity at the port is estimated at $381 million in the local economy.
The Economic Impacts of the Port of Toledo study, conducted by Martin Associates of Lancaster, Penn., examined the effect of marine cargo activity at the Port of Toledo and through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System.
“The Port of Toledo is one of the most important ports in the St. Lawrence system and is critical to the success of the entire system as the largest land mass port operated by Midwest Terminals. It’s a port on the move and looking forward,” said Collister “Terry” Johnson Jr., administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. based in Washington, D.C.
The Great Lakes and maritime system play a vital role in the economies of the U.S. and Canada by generating a total of $60 billion of economic activity, he added.
The St. Lawrence Seaway is the longest inland system in the world at 2,300 miles with 100 ports and terminals in eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, Johnson said.
“Ohio is second only to Michigan in economic impact of the St. Lawrence system and with a lot less coastline and ports,” Toth said.
The Port of Toledo registered nearly 4.8 million metric tons of overseas cargo through the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 2010 navigation season, a 16 percent increase over the 2009 season. A total of 9.8 million metric tons were shipped via 567 vessels through the seaway and Great Lakes systems.
Figures for the 2011 shipping season will be available in January.
Two new locomotives purchased by Midwest Terminals for the purpose of internal switching were unveiled Dec. 14. The locomotives complement other equipment acquired to modernize operations at the Port of Toledo, including two mobile harbor cranes, a material handler and dry-dock bulk conveyor.

The Republican Party has left no doubt it is bought and paid for by its corporate masters (Disclaimer: Several Blue Dog so-called Democrats also fall into this category). The Super-Special Save the Country Committee was a colossal failure, as expected by just about everyone.
Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who ran for office to supposedly bring his expertise in monetary matters, proved to be just what I thought he would be: another corporate shill.

During his recent Toledo appearance he presented his seven-step plan to boost the economy. It was a rehash of every Republican wish list since Ronald Reagan: We need lower corporate taxes so that the largesse will trickle down to the little people; we need more free trade agreements to increase our exports and lower trade barriers; less regulation because it will cost jobs; yadda, yadda, yadda. The only problem with all this is it has been tried for the past 30 years, and it does not work! So now we’ll go back to looking out for the “job creators,” as Republican strategist Frank Luntz has trained them to call the rich. Wage earners need not apply for relief — unless it benefits, say, the oil industry, even more. Look no further than the failure to pass the middle-class tax extension and unemployment benefits extension. The Repubs just can’t bring themselves to pass a simple bill that will help an estimated 160 million people without larding it up with gifts for the 1 percent. Couple that with the cavalcade of clowns running for the GOP nomination and we’re left wondering just what the hell these guys are thinking.
They are deliberately trying to set up a massive failure of government so that the corporate interests can sweep in and “save” the country. There is no other rationalization that even begins to make sense. Ohio representative and Speaker of the House John Boehner and his minions were outed as having played an instrumental role in the egregious congressional redistricting map that’ will most likely be the subject of the next major referendum. Another possibility is that they know that they have so thoroughly bollixed things up with their obstructionism and political pettiness that they could quite possibly be in the political hinterlands for another 30 years, and they want to endear themselves to the moneyed class in hopes that they will have a lucrative position after leaving government “service.” After all, it worked for John Kasich and myriad other politicians. The Occupy movement and its numbers are starting to make the Tea Party movement look like, well, a tea party in comparison. The only thing they have still working in their corner is the ingrained ineptitude and lack of courage exhibited by the Democratic Party. A third party candidate or an independent could fare well in 2012.
Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor and chancellor’s professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, pointed out a number of fallacies in the GOP’s economic policies. First, that tax cuts for the rich trickle down. Under Reagan and Bush II, taxes for the rich were sliced. Wages began to flatten under Reagan and actually went down under Bush. The Half In Ten Campaign, a group of experts  studying how to cut poverty, did a study that showed in the past 36 years real wages, adjusted for inflation, grew by an incredible $1.23/hr, or 8.4 percent, from an average of $14.73 in 1973 to $15.96 in 2009. The Congressional Budget Office recently released a report that said that between 1979 and 2007, income grew  275 percent for the top 1 percent  and by 18 percent  for those at the bottom. If there’s any trickling going on, it’s up, not down.
Higher taxes on the rich would hurt the economy and slow job growth. From the end of WWII to 1981, the rich had tax rates of 70 percent  or above. Under Eisenhower, the top rate was 91 percent. Even with those high rates, growth was much higher than it is now. And, as Reich and others have pointed out, only about 2 percent  of the vaunted small business owners would be affected by the higher tax rates that have been proposed.
Shrinking government will generate more jobs is another fallacy. Wrong again. It means fewer teachers, police, firefighters and social workers at the state and local level, and fewer safety inspectors and military at the federal level.
It’s time the so-called government servants start serving the people they were elected to serve.

Email columnist Don Burnard at letters@toledofreepress.com.