Cindy Abrams News

State Rep. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) recently joined more than 100 state legislators from 32 states and both major political parties to learn about emerging environmental issues at the 2016 National Issues Forum hosted by the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL). The event promoted collaboration between state legislators and provided essential educational resources regarding the pressing environmental and conservation issues currently facing the country.

StateRep. Stephanie Howse (D-Cleveland) was recently presented with the National Institute for Civil Discourse Award for Civility in State Governance yesterday evening at the National Conference of State Legislators 2016 Legislative Summit. Ted Celeste, Director of State Programs at the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD), presented Rep. Howse with the award in recognition of her commitment to working in a civil, productive manner for the good of her constituents.

Today, Democratic legislators from both the House and Senate announced the introduction of legislation aimed to protect Ohio’s call center jobs. The Consumer Protection Call Center Act of 2016 would ban state grant or loan opportunities for companies that transfer or relocate call centers from Ohio to overseas for five years.

“Now more than ever, it is imperative to protect Ohio jobs that pay above the minimum wage,” said Representative Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood). “If passed by the Ohio General Assembly, this legislation would help pave a path to economic stability for working families by keeping call center jobs from being shipped overseas. The end goal of the Consumer Protection Call Center Act is to keep Ohio jobs in Ohio, with a workforce of Ohioans.”

The highest ranking Democratic member of the House Education Committee, Rep. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo), today responded to news reports that the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) fails to maintain critical documentation related to students’ offline work and that Auditor of State Dave Yost failed to conduct a comprehensive audit after receiving allegations of attendance fraud at the online charter school.

The Toledo lawmaker has called on Yost in the recent past to investigate Ohio Virtual Academy, the state’s second largest online charter school, for the same attendance scrubbing allegations taking place at ECOT. Fedor again called on Yost to reopen the investigation into the data scrubbing scandal that led to the resignation of David Hansen.