Kasich refuses Syrian refugees - but the Obama Administration doesn't care

art credit: IndyThisWeek

Cleveland.com reports that Gov. Kasich went on record to refuse to admit Syrian refugees into Ohio, but over at neoneocon.com, we find that the 16 (and counting) governors who want to refuse admitting “refugees” probably can’t block the feds. Some refugees are already here, of course. Rush has a map here (scroll down a tad).

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Ohio Democratic Party Chairman just threw Ed FitzGerald under the bus

Art credit: One Old Vet

From Cleveland.com:

By Henry J. Gomez, Northeast Ohio Media Group 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The race for governor won't be decided for another 36 days.

But Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern is now publicly voicing his frustration with his nominee, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald.

In story posted Sunday night, the New York Times was the latest national news organization to weigh in on the collapse of FitzGerald's campaign.

The piece traced the former FBI agent's troubles to the 2012 incident, unearthed last month by the Northeast Ohio Media Group, in which police found FitzGerald parked after hours with a woman who wasn't his wife. That revelation led to the discovery that FitzGerald hadn't had a driver's license for a decade.

"I've never met a former FBI agent who doesn't have a driver's license," Redfern told the Times' Trip Gabriel, who described the exchange as a figurative finger pointed at FitzGerald. "It's akin to saying, 'Damn, I should have my umbrella' after it rains."

Redfern went on to blast the outside firm that the campaign hired to probe FitzGerald's past, saying he wouldn't hire the company "to clean out my bird cage."

FitzGerald, also the former mayor of Lakewood, faces Republican incumbent John Kasich this fall. Polls show him trailing the governor by double digits.

. . . 

Read the rest here.

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Cuyahoga County Council will consider charter amendments, 40-year extension of hotel tax

As of 5:45pm:  Cleveland.com is reporting

Cuyahoga County Council will consider charter amendments,

40-year extension of hotel tax

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County Council is meeting at 5 p.m. to consider a 40-year extension of the county's bed tax, as well as possible amendments to the county's governing charter, and we'll be covering it live.

Northeast Ohio Media Group Andrew J. Tobias will attend and provide live updates in the comments section at the bottom of this post. The meeting will be council's first at the new county building at East Ninth Street and Prospect Avenue.

Council is also expected to approve the proposed 40-year extension of a portion of the county's bed tax to provide additional funding to Positively Ceveland, the local convention and tourism bureau.

The tax was initially proposed as a 20-year extension.

Council is expected to consider seven different possible charter amendments.

Among the proposed amendments:

• Requiring approval of a majority of county council to fire the county sheriff. Currently, the county executive can unilaterally fire the sheriff without giving any reason.
• Changing the county charter to make the county agency of inspector general a permanent feature of county government and give the position similar protections to those contained in the sheriff amendment.
• Making the protection and promotion of the right to vote a permanent part of the county charter.
• Requiring those running for county executive to live in the county for two years prior to officially filing as a candidate.

These proposed amendments received preliminary approval from a council committee last month. However, each individual amendment needs 'yes' votes from eight members of council -- a higher threshold than the preliminary approval -- in order to be sent to the November ballot for final approval from voters. 

Council also is expected to vote to approve leasing a warehouse just east of downtown Cleveland to hold the county's archives.

That deal has been on ice since last October, when council members raised concerns over the condition of the property and questioned County Executive Ed FitzGerald's overall plan for storing records.

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Federal appeals court panel deals major blow to the ACA (Obamacare): UPDATED

Art credit: insureblog.blogspot.com

UPDATED: From The Hill:

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that ObamaCare subsidies issued through the federal exchanges are legal, contradicting a separate ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court on the same day.

Fourth Circuit Judge Roger Gregory argued that because the statutory language of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is ambiguous, courts should defer to the interpretation of the Internal Revenue Service and allow the subsides to stand. 

"Applying deference to the IRS's determination … we uphold the rule as a permissible exercise of the agency's discretion," Gregory wrote.

The decision came just hours after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals came to the opposite conclusion in its ruling. . . .

From Cleveland.com:

Taxpayer subsidies of the Affordable Care Act in many states, including Ohio, could be in jeopardy because of a federal appeals court decision this morning.

The case, Halbig v. Sebelius, did not specifically involve Ohio, although the legal scholarship of a particular Ohioan, Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler, provided the basis for the argument against providing the subsidies.

In a nutshell, the U.S Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that when Congress wrote the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, it specifically said that federal taxpayer subsidies should help offset the costs for people buying health coverage in new, state-based marketplaces.

But a number of states, including Ohio, declined to set up their own marketplaces, or “exchanges,” in the ACA’s parlance. Instead, they piggybacked on the federal exchange, although each state offered policies specific to insurers and medical providers in the state.

The problem with this, as Adler first found while doing academic research, is that Congress specifically called for subsidies in state exchanges. While the federal exchange offered a fallback in states that would not set up their own, state-specific exchanges – many in states with Republican governors – that did not automatically transfer the right to give subsidies in federal-exchange states. Adler wrote this first in a scholarly paper after reviewing the law, and his analysis soon made the rounds in conservative and libertarian circles and became championed as a legal theory for challenging the ACA.

More than 80 percent of policy buyers on ACA exchanges have relied on subsidies. Three dozen states are using the federal exchange. So in those states, a court agreeing with Adler and other conservative legal authorities could shoot a substantial hole in the underpinnings of the ACA – namely, insurance coverage made affordable through federal subsidies.

In a 2-1 ruling today in Washington, D.C., a federal appeals court did just that. The court ruled that language in the ACA “unambiguously restricts” the taxpayer subsidies to exchanges “established by the state.”

President Barack Obama’s administration argued that Congress intended for subsidies to be offered in every state, and that the ACA established complete equivalence.

But the appeals court said that the wording in the ACA “plainly distinguishes exchanges established by states from those established by the federal government.”

The ruling was 2-1, and parties in the case may ask the full court for an opinion. Some analysts believe the full court may be more friendly to the Obama administration. If not, the Obama administration could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, although that would come with risk.

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More from The Washington Post is here.

And Jonathan Adler's report in the WaPo is here. 

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The 2016 GOP Convention in Cleveland

Photo credit: cleveland.com

Links of the Day: 

More on the 2016 GOP Convention in Cleveland at The Q

From Five Thirty Eight: Republicans' Choice to Hold 2016 Convention in Cleveland Probably Won't Help Them in Ohio.

FTA: “the mere fact that the Republicans chose Cleveland probably doesn’t say very much about how the Buckeye State is going vote in 2016.”

From Cleveland.com: Congrats on the convention. Here's what you're in for, Cleveland. [Security. Housing. Blocked traffic. And Clevelanders as ambassadors.]

From Cleveland.com: Suburban Cleveland leaders applaud Republican National Convention, hope it spills into surrounding towns

FTA: Suburban Cleveland leaders are welcoming the chance to show off the region during the Republican National Convention in 2016 – and maybe reap some tourism dollars, too.

Said Bay Village Mayor Debbie Sutherland, one of few Republican leaders in Democratic-heavy Cuyahoga County: "All the action is not going to be downtown in Cleveland. This is going to be good for everyone."

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