nbc4i.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio—It’s a sign of the times: The state of Ohio’s unemployment fund has run out of money and how Ohio has been forced to borrow from the federal government to keep paying out benefits.
What if you lose your job next week? What if you own a small business? NBC 4‘s Patrick Preston got answers.
Last week, unemployed Ohioans waited on the phone for hours to sign up for benefits after high demand and technical glitches crashed the state’s benefits Web site.
The Web site has been fixed, but the state’s funding formula remains broken, with too many unemployed workers collecting payments and not enough money coming in.
“Should workers be worried if they lose their job that there won’t be any benefits to collect?“ Preston asked.
“They absolutely should not be worried,“ said Sara Hall Phillips, Labor Policy Analyst with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. “The benefits will be there for them. We’re federally required to provide benefits.“
The federal government will continue loaning money to keep payments going as long as needed. The bad news is for businesses paying the taxes that fund the unemployment benefits.
“We’re realistic enough to know that employers are probably going to have to put more money into the system,“ said Andy Doehrel, president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
Doehrel said there are only two ways to fix the current funding formula: increase taxes or reduce or freeze the payouts—or a combination of the two.
If the legislature doesn’t fix the problem by 2012, business taxes will increase.
As it stands, the state paid an estimated $1.5 billion in unemployment benefits in 2008 and are averaging $43 million in payouts each week in 2009—on pace to exceed $2 billion by year’s end.
“This will get fixed. It’s been broken before. It will be fixed again,“ Doehrel said.
The Israeli military said Hamas was using the building to develop explosives "under the auspices of university professors," according to the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
But Ishaq Y. Al-Qutub, director of the nonprofit Arab Student Aid International, said the attack has him surprised and concerned. He said Kamalia Shaath, the president of the Islamic University of Gaza, told him the building had not been used to make explosives.
"I asked him if there were any activities related to explosives and what the faculty members are producing in those labs," said Al-Qutub. "He emphatically said 'no let them come and prove it.' So far, there is no evidence of what this claim is all about. We're taking his word as trustworthy."
All of Arab Student Aid's funding - raised through donations from around the world - is used for education at 10 Arab universities, Al-Qutub said. To verify how the money is used, school administrators submit regular reports to Al-Qutub at his offices on Wilcox Place in Dublin.
Al-Qutub said Shaath confirmed that the laboratory building the university built six years ago using $425,000 in Arab Student Aid money was destroyed on Dec. 29.
Arab Student Aid provides interest-free loans and grants to needy and deserving students, according to its Web site. Since 1981, nearly 5,000 students have earned degrees, including about 2,000 who earned doctorates. The organization also supplies grants for infrastructure and equipment.
Born in Hebron in the West Bank and raised in Jerusalem, Al-Qutub received educational assistance from Rolla Foley, an Illinois Quaker who helped more than 30 Palestinian students receive their education in the 1950s and '60s. Al-Qutub earned a doctorate in sociology in 1966.
"We trust the universities, that they are employing these funds to expand or improve the facilities," he said. "We trust the words of the university presidents."
Yet he concedes that there is a possibility for abuse: "What goes on afterward we cannot really know."
Some student loans are never repaid because "it is difficult to locate the student" for a variety of reasons, according to footnotes in the association's financial statements.
Al-Qutub has been subjected to inflammatory remarks on blogs trying to link his charity to terrorism.
"There has been a serious misunderstanding and misinterpretation of what we do," he said, adding that they eventually will consider legal action.
When the group moved from New Jersey to Dublin three years ago, Al-Qutub let the FBI's Columbus office know what the charity does. FBI Special Agent Harry Trombitas declined to comment. Dublin police have received no reports or complaints.
International law typically prohibits strikes on hospitals, churches or schools, unless there is evidence they are being used as military bases.
Even if Islamic University did produce weapons, that alone doesn't justify an Israeli attack, wrote Neve Gordon and Jeff Halper of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
"Weapon development and even manufacturing have, unfortunately, become major projects at universities worldwide - a fact that does not justify bombing them," they wrote.
Islamic University was established 30 years ago by the founder of Hamas, a group the U.S. considers a terrorist organization. The University has about 18,000 students, more than half of them women.
dnarciso@dispatch.com
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
I'm not sure what, if any, light this video --- as shot by local eye and ear-witnesses in Akron, OH --- sheds on the plane crash and death of high-ranking GOP IT operative Mike Connell. But, as it may reveal something, to somebody, in the still-unexplained, and surprisingly-timed crash, I suppose it may useful to put it on the record here.
For example, despite scattered reports that bad weather may have contributed to the cause of the crash, the weather seems to have been clear, at least on the ground, at least by the time the witnesses arrived, as seen in the video. Reports of "mist" seem to be belied in the early part of the video, shot through the front window of the car which does not appear to have its windshield wipers on. [UPDATE: RAW STORY also reports weather data during the hour of the crash, noting visibility was clear, and temperatures just above freezing.] Also, several descriptions of what was heard by the "ear-witnesses" as the crash occurred, may be of value as well...
VelvetRevolution.us' Emily Levy, who pointed the footage out to me, wrote: "This is disturbing for a couple of reasons at least. One is just that it shows ten minutes of the fire, in which we now know Connell's body was burning up. The second is that there's no concern expressed for the pilot or any passengers by the guys doing the filming. Near the beginning they refer to it as 'awesome.'"
Of course, as the folks who were video-taping drove to the scene and described the noise as "awesome," they didn't necessarily know what they were going to find when they got there, which was burning wreckage, eventually attended to by the fire department, as also seen in the video. Connell, as the pilot of the small single engine plane, was the only passenger on board.
Our original story on the crash is here. Our followup post, an exclusive interview with Cliff Arnebeck, the attorney who had subpoenaed Connell as part of a federal election fraud conspiracy case in OH (and had asked for protection for Connell from both the U.S. and OH Attorneys General after tipsters reported threats to Connell by Karl Rove) is here. Both stories offer links to previous BRAD BLOG coverage of the case involving Connell.
NOTE: Arnebeck, whom we also interviewed on last night's Peter B. Collins Show (I'll try to post the audio shortly) is also scheduled to be on this evening's Lou Dobbs' Tonight on CNN to discuss the crash and the Connell case.
UPDATE: Here's the audio from last night's PBC Show. I've broken it into two halves to make it easier to download/listen. Of most note, at least to me, were the comments from Arnebeck (which RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna, who joined us in the first part of the hour, also referred to when she was on) about Connell's attorneys being unwilling to confirm or deny the reports of threats to Connell by Karl Rove, but their insistence on any questions about such threats being sealed in the deposition that he was compelled by a federal judge to give on 11/3/08. I tried to press Arnbeck on that point as much as I could, and on the possibilities of unsealing that portion of the depo, now that Connell is dead, near the end of the interview...
• Brad w/ Peter B. and RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna. Download MP3 or listen online (appx 19 mins)...
• Brad w/ Peter B. and attorney Cliff Arnebeck. Download MP3 or listen online (appx :23 mins)...
Alex Jones Sandy Rosenthal.mp3A local levee watchdog group says that computer equipment at the Corps of Engineers has been used to send messages attacking her group on a couple of Internet blogs they operate.
Sandy Rosenthal of Levees.org says she believes that someone or some people at Corps' offices are behind some angry posts on her organization's blog.
The group, Levees.org is a citizens-led group who has been highly critical of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, especially over the failure of the levees that flooded a majority of the city of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
The group’s founder, Sandy Rosenthal, said she had begun noticing increasingly hostile posts on the site. She said the posts attacked her credibility and her information.
Among the comments were one that said local people had blocked the Corps’ wishes and thus locals are responsible for the flooding. Another was more blunt.
“Sure, blame the Corps for the floodwall failures,” it read. “But who do you blame for your own stupidity for putting your families in such a situation?”
The comments prompted Rosenthal to try to find where the e-mails were coming from. She said she plugged the screen names into an Internet search that showed they were coming from a computer at the Corps’ office.
“This is the use of taxpayer money for none other than… these are attempts at intimidation,” she said. “The statements are going after me and all I am is a citizen.”
The Corps responded with a written statement.
“There are over 1,600 people working at the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District to reduce risk for the metro New Orleans area. As each day passes, we are reducing risk. This isolated incident involved one person out of 1600 people that make up the New Orleans District."
Rosenthal said she thinks the use of multiple names and IP addresses indicate that more than one person is behind the posts.
The Corps’ response did not mention whether any effort would be made to track down the computer used and the people who used it to make the posts.
www.wwltv.com
To: STATE EDITORS
Contact: Ilene Proctor PR, +1-310-858-6643
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush's 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron airport. Velvet Revolution ("VR"), a non-profit that has been investigating Mr. Connell's activities for the past two years, can now reveal that a person close to Mr. Connell has recently been discussing with a VR investigator how he can tell all about his work for George Bush. Mr. Connell told a close associate that he was afraid that George Bush and Dick Cheney would "throw [him] under the bus."
A tipster close to the McCain campaign disclosed to VR in July that Mr. Connell's life was in jeopardy and that Karl Rove had threatened him and his wife, Heather. VR's attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, notified the United States Attorney General , Ohio law enforcement and the federal court about these threats and insisted that Mr. Connell be placed in protective custody. VR also told a close associate of Mr. Connell's not to fly his plane because of another tip that the plane could be sabotaged. Mr. Connell, a very experienced pilot, has had to abandon at least two flights in the past two months because of suspicious problems with his plane. On December 18, 2008, Mr. Connell flew to a small airport outside of Washington DC to meet some people. It was on his return flight the next day that he crashed.
On October 31, Mr. Connell appeared before a federal judge in Ohio after being subpoenaed in a federal lawsuit investigating the rigging of the 2004 election under the direction of Karl Rove. The judge ordered Mr. Connell to testify under oath at a deposition on November 3rd, the day before the presidential election. Velvet Revolution received confidential information that the White House was extremely concerned about Mr. Connell talking about his illegal work for the White House and two Bush/Cheney 04 attorneys were dispatched to represent him.
An associate of Mr. Connell's told VR that Mr. Connell was involved with the destruction of the White House emails and the setting up of the off-grid White House email system.
Mr. Connell handled all of John McCain's computer work in the recent presidential campaign. VR has received direct evidence that the McCain campaign kept abreast of the legal developments against Mr. Connell by reading the VR dedicated website, www.rovecybergate.com.
VR demands that the Ohio Attorney General and the United States Justice Department conduct a complete investigation into the activities of Mr. Connell and determine whether there was any foul play in his death. VR demands that federal law enforcement officials place the following people under protective custody pending this investigation. Heather Connell who
is the owner of GovTech Solutions, Randy Cole, the former President of GovTech Solutions, and Jeff Averbeck, the CEO of SmartTech in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Both GovTech and SmartTech have been implicated in the rigging of the 2000 and 2004 elections and the White House email scandal. Our prior request to have Mr. Connell protected went unheeded and now he is dead.
SOURCE Velvet Revolution
By Jewell Cardwell, John Higgins and David Knox
Beacon Journal staff writers
POSTED: 11:30 p.m. EST, Dec 19, 2008
LAKE TWP.: A single-prop, private airplane crashed next to a vacant house on Charolais Street Northwest Friday evening, exploding into flames and killing the pilot.
Michael Connell, 45, of Bath Township, was alone in the plane, according to State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Sheppard.
Connell was a prominent Republican political consultant. He founded New Media Communications in Richfield, which developed campaign Web sites for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and President George W. Bush.
The plane was attempting to land around 6 p.m. Friday at Akron-Canton Airport when it crashed about three miles short of the runway.
Taylor Fano, who lives two doors away from the crash site on Charolais, said she heard the crash.
''It blew up and shook the ground a little bit,'' Fano said. ''I was standing in the kitchen and I looked out the window and all I saw was fire.''
Fano said the plane came down in the front yard at 2017 Charolais, then skidded along the side of the house.
The plane came down between two houses, separated by about 100 feet, in the upscale neighborhood. Neighbors said one of the homes was unoccupied, while the other was lighted with holiday decorations.
They said wreckage from the plane could be seen sticking up from the ground.
''It took out the flagpole and the cement blocks surrounding the flagpole like a little planter,'' Fano said. ''It skidded across the driveway and right in between a line of pine trees and a small fence around an in-ground pool.''
Neighbor Julie Hufstetler, who lives across the street from the crash site, said she was getting ready for a party at their home when she heard the explosion.
''It was kind of a swish and a boom,'' she said.
When she looked outside, she saw flames billowing from the garage.
Greentown Fire Department Capt. Lorin Geiser said he arrived within three minutes of getting several 911 calls about a plane down.
Geiser said the crumbled fuselage from the plane was fully engulfed. It took less than five minutes to extinguish the flames.
The burning debris apparently set fire to the side of the garage of the unoccupied home.
There was no interior damage to the house.
Several neighbors, bundled up against the frigid temperature, were walking around taking pictures with their cell-phone cameras.
The plane was on final approach to Akron-Canton Airport's Runway 23 when it went down, said Kristie Van Auken, spokeswoman for the airport.
Van Auken identified the plane as a Piper Saratoga, a single-engine propeller craft capable of carrying up to seven passengers.
The plane, which was made in 1997, is owned by a Richfield corporation, Sierra-November Aviation, at 3046 Brecksville Road, according to the Federal Aviation Administration registry.
FlightAware, a Web site that tracks flight plans, reported that the plane was coming from College Park, Md., departing at 3:31 p.m. and scheduled to arrive at Akron-Canton at 5:43 p.m.
The plane had flown from Akron to College Park Thursday morning.
Van Auken didn't think the plane was based at the Akron-Canton Airport, but added, ''We can't verify that at this time.''
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected at the crash site Friday night. An FAA spokeswoman said investigations typically take weeks and even months or longer to complete.
In addition to the Greentown Fire Department, others responding included firefighters from Hartville, Uniontown, Plain Township and North Canton.
Van Auken said several members of the airport operations staff were also at the crash scene.
LAKE TWP.: A single-prop, private airplane crashed next to a vacant house on Charolais Street Northwest Friday evening, exploding into flames and killing the pilot.
Michael Connell, 45, of Bath Township, was alone in the plane, according to State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Sheppard.
Connell was a prominent Republican political consultant. He founded New Media Communications in Richfield, which developed campaign Web sites for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and President George W. Bush.
The plane was attempting to land around 6 p.m. Friday at Akron-Canton Airport when it crashed about three miles short of the runway.
Taylor Fano, who lives two doors away from the crash site on Charolais, said she heard the crash.
''It blew up and shook the ground a little bit,'' Fano said. ''I was standing in the kitchen and I looked out the window and all I saw was fire.''
Fano said the plane came down in the front yard at 2017 Charolais, then skidded along the side of the house.
The plane came down between two houses, separated by about 100 feet, in the upscale neighborhood. Neighbors said one of the homes was unoccupied, while the other was lighted with holiday decorations.
They said wreckage from the plane could be seen sticking up from the ground.
''It took out the flagpole and the cement blocks surrounding the flagpole like a little planter,'' Fano said. ''It skidded across the driveway and right in between a line of pine trees and a small fence around an in-ground pool.''
Neighbor Julie Hufstetler, who lives across the street from the crash site, said she was getting ready for a party at their home when she heard the explosion.
''It was kind of a swish and a boom,'' she said.
When she looked outside, she saw flames billowing from the garage.
Greentown Fire Department Capt. Lorin Geiser said he arrived within three minutes of getting several 911 calls about a plane down.
Geiser said the crumbled fuselage from the plane was fully engulfed. It took less than five minutes to extinguish the flames.
The burning debris apparently set fire to the side of the garage of the unoccupied home.
There was no interior damage to the house.
Several neighbors, bundled up against the frigid temperature, were walking around taking pictures with their cell-phone cameras.
The plane was on final approach to Akron-Canton Airport's Runway 23 when it went down, said Kristie Van Auken, spokeswoman for the airport.
Van Auken identified the plane as a Piper Saratoga, a single-engine propeller craft capable of carrying up to seven passengers.
The plane, which was made in 1997, is owned by a Richfield corporation, Sierra-November Aviation, at 3046 Brecksville Road, according to the Federal Aviation Administration registry.
FlightAware, a Web site that tracks flight plans, reported that the plane was coming from College Park, Md., departing at 3:31 p.m. and scheduled to arrive at Akron-Canton at 5:43 p.m.
The plane had flown from Akron to College Park Thursday morning.
Van Auken didn't think the plane was based at the Akron-Canton Airport, but added, ''We can't verify that at this time.''
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected at the crash site Friday night. An FAA spokeswoman said investigations typically take weeks and even months or longer to complete.
In addition to the Greentown Fire Department, others responding included firefighters from Hartville, Uniontown, Plain Township and North Canton.
Van Auken said several members of the airport operations staff were also at the crash scene.
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