News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area
Without fear or favor
Since 2004
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Symmes Township, Ohio – A Great Horned Owl owlet from Raptor Inc. has been renested with adults at Symmes Park.
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Loveland and Symmes Township, Ohio – From the moment the report of a missing child comes in, to the resolution of the case, every action taken has the potential to make the difference between a successful recovery and a tragic outcome.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) developed the Missing Kids Readiness Program to promote best practices for responding to calls of missing, abducted, and sexually exploited children. Emergency communications centers and law enforcement agencies are recognized for meeting essential training and policy elements demonstrating preparedness for responding to a missing child incident.
To meet the requirements of the Program, the Northeast Communications Center (NECC) located at the Loveland Safety Center on Lebanon Road worked with NCMEC on their missing child policy to ensure it met the critical elements of the model policy for emergency communications centers. In addition, Aaron Burg, Captain of Communications, completed the required agency administrator training and ensured all Dispatchers and Training Officers completed their required training.
“By demonstrating remarkable leadership, and making this commitment of training and preparedness, NECC is communications to its citizens and families that protecting the lives and safety of their children is a top priority,” said Symmes Township in their Spring newsletter.
Armed with the information, knowledge, and operational resources gained through meeting the program criteria, NECC is positioned to respond more quickly, comprehensively, and effectively when a child’s life or safety may be at stake.
NECC becomes the 8th emergency communications center in the State of Ohio and the 2nd in the Greater Cincinnati region to become a member in the Missing Kids Readiness Program.
To learn more about NCMEC and the Missing Kids Readiness Program, click here.
To see the full listing of all MKRP recognized agencies, click here.
Learn more about the Northeast Communications Center (NECC) located at the Loveland Safety Center on Lebanon Road. Since 1999, the Northeast Communications Center has been providing 911 service, emergency, and non-emergency dispatching for the City of Loveland and Hamilton County District 3.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Symmes Township, Ohio – The Township has announced that beginning on Monday, April 3rd, Snider Road was to be closed for up to 120 days to repair the overpass structure which is situated just north of the I-71/I-275 interchange. The project will include replacing the concrete parapets and vandal fencing and conducting other minor bridge work.
Traffic will be detoured by way of Kemper Road, US 22/3, Mason-Montgomery Road and Fields-Ertel Road.
For more information, contact Kathleen Fuller at the Ohio Department of Transportation at (513) 933-6517.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Larry Householder speaks after guilty verdict. Photo by: WEWS/WCPO.
Columbus-based utility giant AEP wasn’t at the epicenter of a historic bribery and money-laundering scandal in 2019. But it also wasn’t very far away as a corrupt deal was hatched in the Ohio Capitol to use $61 million in bribes to pass a $1.3 billion bailout.
The name of the nation’s sixth-largest electric utility came up repeatedly in the seven-week criminal trial that ended earlier this month in the racketeering convictions of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and former state GOP Chairman Matt Borges.
Through its dark-money group, AEP provided more than $900,000 that was used to help pass the bailout. And to date, it has received more than $60 million to subsidize aging coal plants that belong to a consortium in which it owns a 40% stake.
Just after the utility bailout was passed and a repeal attempt was thwarted, AEP spent another $500,000 through the same dark money group on an effort that stood to keep Householder in the speakership well into the 2030s. During the trial, a federal prosecutor asked a Householder co-defendant who had pleaded guilty why AEP would spend so much to keep the speaker in power.
“It kind of went without saying that they support anything that’s good for the speaker because anything that’s good for the speaker is good for them,” the aide, Jeffrey Longstreth, testified.
But everything changed when Householder and four others were arrested in July of 2020. Now AEP doesn’t seem interested in talking about its actions prior to that.
Lobbyists and other wired-in parties on Capitol Square knew that as the battle heated up over the 2019 bailout measure — House Bill 6 — a geyser of cash was financing the effort to pass and protect it from repeal.
It was logical to suspect that the money was coming from a utility industry that stood to benefit. But there was no way to be sure because it was coming through 501(c)(4) dark money groups that don’t have to disclose their donors.
But then the FBI got involved.
Acting on a tip, it launched an investigation. Using subpoenas, wiretaps, confidential informants, forensic accountants and undercover agents, investigators were able to grope their way through the dark money smokescreen and determine who was really behind the push for an unpopular corporate bailout.
By far and away the biggest donor was the biggest beneficiary — Akron-based FirstEnergy. Starting in 2017 it ponied up what would become about $60 million to elect representatives who would vote to make Householder speaker in 2019 and then to pass and protect HB 6. In return, it stood to get about $1 billion of the benefit of the bailout — a return of more than $16 on each dollar it invested.
But AEP is getting an even better return — more than $66 for every one of its dollars that made their way into the dark money group that fueled the HB 6 scheme. And, because the part of the bailout that benefits AEP is the only part of HB 6 that hasn’t been repealed, AEP is continuing to collect that money. That means returns from its dark money expenditure will only improve over time.
AEP hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing in the scandal, and a spokesman denied that it acted improperly.
“AEP participates in legislative and regulatory processes ethically and in compliance with the laws of the states where we operate,” the spokesman, Scott Blake, said in an email. “As we have previously stated, we do not believe that AEP was involved in any wrongful conduct.”
And a board member of the dark money group AEP solely funded, Empowering Ohio’s Economy, claimed it didn’t know its dollars were used for nefarious purposes — even though it was at least partly in on the secret of HB 6’s mysterious funding.
“Obviously, knowing what we know now, we wouldn’t have made the donations,” the board member, J.B. Hadden, told the Dayton Daily News in December 2020.
The company is, however, being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about its involvement in the passage of HB 6.
However, AEP didn’t seem all that eager week to discuss its contributions which, until Householder was arrested, were secret. In the wake of the scandal, the company decided to start disclosing what dark money groups it contributes to, but only going forward.
“We adopted a revised political engagement policy in 2021, which is available at https://aep.com/investors/governance/politicalengagement,” Blake said. “Under that policy, beginning with contributions made in 2020, AEP has disclosed its contributions of $5,000 or more to 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations as part of AEP’s annual disclosures. Organizations that receive contributions from AEP are subject to their own disclosure requirements.”
But since the company started making such disclosures, Empowering Ohio’s Economy hasn’t appeared on them. AEP was the group’s sole contributor and its top lobbyist, Tom Froehle, was on its board.
The dark money group gave $700,000 to Generation Now, a dark money group controlled by Householder, that has since pleaded guilty to its role in the scandal. It gave another $200,000 to the Coalition for Opportunity and Growth, which ran TV ads supporting House candidates who would back Householder for speaker.
During the Householder trial, two of Householder’s co-defendants and other witnesses testified how money from Generation Now financed savage attacks on opponents of Householder candidates. And, when the recall campaign got underway, it paid for false, anti-China commercials, private eyes and “blockers” — people who harassed and even assaulted petition circulators, witnesses testified.
In an early 2019 text message presented to the jury, Borges described efforts to get AEP on board with a bailout that primarily benefited FirstEnergy.
“Lots of pressure from FE, AEP, renewable standards, setbacks… so thought is to move a comprehensive package and let everyone get a little (bit) of what they want,” Borges said.
Then in testimony, Householder’s fixer, Longstreth, described what AEP got.
“They received a benefit of… there were two coal plants in southwest Ohio,” Longstreth testified. “I’m not exactly sure where. One of them is actually just over the line in Indiana. I’m not sure where the other one is. They had to be created because of the U.S. Department of Defense needed them created 50 years ago (it was actually 68.) I don’t really know all of the details on it, but they received some benefit for running those plants on a continuing basis.”
Longstreth, who pleaded guilty to his involvement in the conspiracy, was referring to the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation, or OVEC, in which AEP holds a 40% interest. According to the Office of Ohio’s Consumers’ Counsel, the corporation so far has received about $152 million in ratepayer subsidies as a consequence of the corruptly passed HB 6.
But Blake, the AEP spokesman, didn’t respond directly when asked if the HB 6 arrests in July 2020 had anything to do with its decision to report dark-money contributions going forward.
“The decision to list contributions over $5,000 to 501(c)(4) organizations was made in the second half of 2020, and the reporting began with contributions made that year,” he said. “AEP has not made a contribution to Empowering Ohio’s Economy since 2019.”
In addition, Blake wouldn’t comment on the misleading way Empowering Ohio’s Economy described itself in 2019 as it made huge, secret contributions of AEP money that ended up being used in a bribery and money-laundering scandal. On its IRS Form 990, the group blandly described its purpose as:
“Promoting Ohio as well-suited to host and support major conventions or similar events and as an attractive destination for travel, business meetings and vacations. The methods of achieving these purposes include funding and hosting major conventions and meetings via internet, professional organizations, and social media education to the general public.”
Even though AEP was the dark money group’s sole contributor and its top lobbyist sat on its board, Blake said it wasn’t AEP’s job to answer for the misleading description.
“501(c)(4) organizations are subject to their own reporting requirements and any questions about what they reported would need to be addressed by them,” he said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this month warned that greenhouse gas emissions must be cut swiftly and dramatically to spare future generations from the worst consequences of global warming. So subsidizing two coal plants built during the Eisenhower administration might not seem the best use of ratepayer resources.
It also might seem important to avoid rewarding corporate attempts to secretly buy ratepayer subsidies for their regulated monopolies.
But legislative attempts to end the HB 6 coal subsidies so far have been unsuccessful and Blake cited last year’s jumps in natural gas prices as a reason for keeping the $130,000-a-day subsidies in place.
“The recent increase in natural gas prices has shown that (the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation) offers customers price stability,” he said. “As we transition to cleaner resources, power from the OVEC plants offer security from rising natural gas prices and can provide power when renewables like wind and solar are unavailable.
Blake added, “Having reliable generation resources is critical to providing the reliable power our customers need. Customers receive a credit when OVEC outperforms the energy market. The current mechanism supports only the actual costs of providing secure, reliable energy.”
Indeed, default rates for customers of AEP, FirstEnergy and other Ohio utilities are all jumping this month to reflect high wholesale rates last year, when gas prices were high — partly as a consequence of disruptions caused by war in Ukraine. But keeping the dirty, coal-fired plants spinning now might make less sense because natural gas prices are down dramatically, and closer to their 10-year average.
While AEP might have wanted to distance itself from secret spending supporting Householder just after his arrest, it showed no such compunction in the months immediately before the feds broke up the racketeering scheme.
Householder’s fixer, Longstreth, testified how — fresh off his HB 6 success — the speaker turned his sights to even bigger game. He’d used tens of millions in secret utility dollars to create a political juggernaut that made him speaker and that enabled him to pay off his financial backers. Now he sought to keep his juggernaut dominating Ohio politics — possibly until 2036.
Longstreth had discovered that the idea of reforming Ohio’s legislative term limits polled well and he and his boss figured they could push one with an important catch. It would limit lifetime service to 16 years, but if it would reset the clock on everybody. That would mean the then-61-year-old Householder could serve until he was 77.
To fund the scheme, Householder and his aides again turned to businesses that stood to gain the most from having close allies in the government — the utilities whose monopoly subsidiaries’ revenues were controlled by it.
After he was approached in early 2020, then-First Energy CEO Chuck Jones in a text message described Householder as “an expensive friend.” But FirstEnergy quickly agreed to secretly spend $2 million on Householder’s tenure-enhancement scheme.
On the witness stand in the Householder trial, Longstreth described a similarly warm reception from AEP’s then-CEO Nick Akins. Longstreth said he attended a meeting in early 2020 at AEP’s Columbus headquarters with Householder, Akins and two lobbyists.
Longstreth testified that Akins’ reception to the plan that stood to make Householder speaker well into the next decade was “very positive.”
“It was probably a 30-minute meeting,” Longstreth said, according to a transcript of the trial. “Fifteen minutes of it, you know, exchanging pleasantries and talking about anything that they had going on and then 15 minutes of us explaining it, and they said sounds great, we’ll get back to you and they did get back to us and said they would be supportive.”
Shortly thereafter, AEP contributed $500,000 to the dark money group Householder set up for the initiative through AEP’s own dark money group, Empowering Ohio’s Economy.
But then forces struck that were beyond the control of even Householder and Ohio’s largest utility companies. Neither can be counted on to intervene in the future.
Asked why the term-limits initiative didn’t get off the ground, Longstreth referred to a Feb. 29, 2020 email he sent to FirstEnergy providing instructions on how to wire money into Householder’s new dark money organization.
“COVID hit like two weeks later, and then we were arrested in July,” Longstreth testified. “So it never happened.”
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The Oho Statehouse, Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for the Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.)
The way that the law is written would only complicate the state’s school-funding woes, take money from libraries, and increase property taxes for farmers and homeowners, it added.
It sounds fair. If everybody paid income taxes at the same rate, the rich would pay more because of their higher incomes and the poor would pay less because they make less in the first place.
But an Ohio proposal to enact such a “flat” state income tax ignores a host of other taxes, said a progressive public policy think tank. And the way that the law is written would only complicate the state’s school-funding woes, take money from libraries, and increase property taxes for farmers and homeowners, it added.
“One of the myths that we have to dispel is that flat taxes make things fair,” said Guillermo Bervejillo, a state policy fellow at Policy Matters Ohio. “It’s quite the opposite. One of the things people forget when they talk about income taxes is that there’s a whole array of state taxes.”
Bervejillo was speaking in reference to House Bill 1, which, as the bill number implies, is a top priority of the Ohio House’s Republican leadership. A spokesperson for that leadership didn’t respond to questions about the many criticisms that Policy Matters made of the bill.
One is that many economists have long argued that so-called “flat” income taxes add to the overall tax burden shouldered by the poor and act as yet another means of lightning that of the wealthy.
“There’s use taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes, taxes that are generally focused around consumption and use,” Bervejillo said.
He explained that those kinds of taxes are the same for everybody, no matter her or his income. Buy a $100 pair of shoes in Ohio and you pay $5.75 in state sales tax regardless of whether you make $100 in a minute or in a whole day of work.
“You can only buy so much toilet paper,” Bervejillo said, explaining why sales and excise taxes fall more heavily on the poor. “You can only drive so many miles.”
The cumulative impact of those taxes is that the poor pay much more as a percentage of their income in state and local taxes than do the rich.
“On average, the lowest-income 20% of taxpayers face a state and local tax rate more than 50% higher than the top 1% of households,” the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said in a report, Who Pays? “The nationwide average effective state and local tax rate is 11.4% for the lowest-income 20% of individuals and families, 9.9% for the middle 20 percent, and 7.4 percent for the top 1%.”
Federal and state income taxes are the few exceptions that were originally structured to be “progressive.” In other words, they were intended to fall most heavily on those with the greatest ability to pay.
And it’s true that if you take those and all other taxes into account, the richest Americans pay a bigger portion of their incomes out in taxes than poorer Americans. But the spread isn’t very wide.
In 2019, the poorest 20% of Americans paid 20.2% of their incomes in taxes, while the richest 1% paid 33.7%, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported.
But in Ohio if you take just state and local taxes into account, the script is flipped. In 2018, the poorest 20% paid almost twice as much of their income in such taxes — 12.3% — as the richest 1%, who paid just 6.5% of their lavish incomes in state and local taxes, the institute reported.
And if Ohio were to enact a flat income tax, it would come on the heels of other measures in which the state has foregone large sources of revenue largely to the benefit of the wealthy.
Ohio is giving up about $1 billion a year on a tax break for limited liability corporations. It was sold as a way to incentivize mom-and-pop businesses, but a 2017 analysis by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission found that as much as $450 million of that annual benefit was going to the highest 0.5% of Ohio wage earners.
Meanwhile, there’s been no evidence that the cut improved Ohio’s jobs picture. It was 39th among states for job growth in February 2003 — well before the LLC tax cut was implemented, according to data compiled by Arizona State University’s Seidman Institute. By last month, Ohio ranked 46th in year-over-year job growth.
And former Gov. John Kasich created JobsOhio by diverting funds from the state liquor monopoly. It’s spent more than $1 billion on things like incentives for wealthy businesses to locate to Ohio, but the agency has struggled to show that those expenditures have made much of a difference to the state’s jobs picture.
But aside from fairness, Policy Matters raised another objection to HB 1 — it’s not paid for. Working from a fiscal analysis of the bill by the Legislative Services Commission, the group found that after the initial phase-in:
Bervejillo said it’s not hard to understand why pain would spread to large swaths of Ohioans from the flat-tax proposal.
“At the end of the day, there’s only two things you can do when you cut taxes on the wealthy,” he said. “You can either cut services — and who depends more on services than low-income people? Or you increase sales and use taxes and gas taxes and cigarette taxes that fall disproportionately on low-income and working-class Ohioans.”
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Photo from Wikimedia Commons by “Mister Upstate.”
The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles will issue refunds to nearly 2,000 disabled veterans who were wrongly charged for specialty license plates.
The BMV recently realized it did not implement a change in Ohio law that went into effect in October 2019 that allows certain disabled veterans to receive up to two free disabled veteran license plates/military license plates, the BMV said in a release Thursday.
The average refund will be $60, although the exact amount of each refund will vary based on local fees and taxes.
“The BMV deeply regrets this error,” Charlie Norman, Ohio BMV Registrar, said in a news release. “We are undertaking an internal review to determine why the legislative change wasn’t adopted in a timely manner to ensure that this will not happen in the future.”
The BMV will be contacting all veterans who were improperly charged and refunds will be processed within the next month. The BMV is implementing a “processing change” so veterans who qualify for free disabled and military license plates are not charged in the future.
The law applied to veterans with a service-connected disability who are declared 100% disabled by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and does not apply to personalized specialty disabled/military license plates.
Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Symmes Township, Ohio – Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers will open soon near the At Home store and the Chase Bank in the vicinity at 4047 Montgomery Road. The location is also near the Meijer Express Gas Station and the Meijer store.
Freddy’s is now hiring and training staff.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1680560191642{background-color: #eaeaea !important;}”]
Freddy grew up on a farm near Colwich, Kansas, just outside of Wichita. After finishing high school, Freddy enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving in the Pacific Rim region during World War II. A self-proclaimed “regular guy”, he was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries sustained during service, as well as a Bronze Star for valor.
Freddy then returned to Kansas, started a family, worked hard in the hospitality industry for 56 years, and raised six children with his wife, Norma Jean.
Freddy’s family values and patriotic service to his country is the foundation of Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers®, and these values have inspired us to do everything The Freddy’s Way.
Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers® was co-founded in 2002 by brothers Bill and Randy Simon with their friend and business partner, Scott Redler. It was named in honor of Bill and Randy’s father. Together, they built a brand focused on quality, hospitality, cleanliness and timeless traditions.
Today, our Freddy’s Family creates fresh, made-to-order, craveable food, served to our guests with genuine hospitality in a fun, inclusive environment.
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Loveland, Ohio – Better Blend’s newest confirmed location is right in Historic Downtown Loveland on the Loveland Bike Trail.
Better Blend is going in the former Alley Boutiques location.
This will be the second franchisee location Brent Hill will be opening in Ohio this year. A store in Mason will be the first to open its doors, followed by Loveland this summer.
There are currently Better Blend locations in Clifton Heights and downtown Cincinnati.
Learn more about Better Blend on FaceBook.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1680530914335{background-color: #e8e8e8 !important;}”]About Better Blends
Founded by Isaac Hamlin in 2018, Better Blend was created with the goal to make the world a happier, healthier place.
While playing on the University of Kentucky rugby team in college, Isaac was inspired to find a replacement for the heavy meals that were the team’s pregame tradition. So he set out to develop protein smoothies that offered optimum nutrition, tasted great, and didn’t weigh him down. Not only was Isaac successful, but he went on to be named first-team SEC All-American.
After graduating, Isaac realized there was a need for healthy food options in his hometown. Equipped with a business degree and healthy smoothie recipes he’d developed at college, he set out to bring nutritious and delicious choices to his community. Isaac made it his goal to make it easy for everyone to eat healthy by offering fast, healthy options that taste indulgent but are nutrient-rich and made with clean ingredients.
With hard work, creativity, and determination, Isaac opened the first Better Blend location in June 2018. Since then, the brand has seen incredible growth, including the opening of two additional locations as of 2022.
“I created Better Blend because I enjoy helping people and this is just a vehicle that allows me to do that on the largest scale. The world can be a healthier place, we just need to make it easier.
Much of Better Blend’s success is attributed to a strong internal culture. It’s about building a culture where the team operates with empathy. This mantra is rooted in respect for the person next to you, which is how we are able to build A+ caliber teams.”
ISAAC’S FAVE: Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Blend + banana
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Loveland, Ohio – Here is the list of the streets, or sections of streets that will be repaved in the city this year.
Construction is expected to begin this spring.
Sawcutting of curb sections to be replaced was scheduled to begin on March 31. On-street parking restrictions and minor traffic delays are expected, according to the City.
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Loveland, Ohio – Loveland High School (LHS) has a new mural, thanks to a partnership with the Cincinnati Reds and PNC Bank. The school was selected as the recipient of a “Murals with a Mission.”
Artist Brent Billingsley worked with Loveland High School students to design and paint a mural that spreads a message of hope, depicting the journey from sadness to hope with the help of those around us,
according to a release from the school district.
Students from the LHS Hope Squad took a leadership role in creating this artwork. Hope Squad is a national youth suicide prevention program that includes education, training, and peer intervention.
The mural was unveiled during a celebration on Friday, March 31, with guests from the Reds and PNC Bank in attendance during a full school assembly in the high school gym.
The mural will be on display in the main hallway of the school, where students and guests will pass it every day.
Murals with a Mission, powered by PNC Bank was launched by the Reds organization in 2022 with the intention of creating a mural at high school campuses across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The mission is to elevate positive social messages relevant to each school’s student body. Under the guidance and leadership of local artist Brent Billingsley, students at each location work together to develop a concept, design, and finished product through which fellow students can feel represented.
Both Mason High School and and Princeton High School have previously completed and installed murals as part of the Murals with a Mission initiative
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