Time Warner customers might lose CBS

Dec. 30, 2011, Coshocton Tribune

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

Time Warner Cable customers might lose access to 10TV and the Ohio News Network if a deal is not reached by midnight Saturday.

Judy Barbao, spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable, said The Dispatch Broadcast Group, which owns the CBS affiliate and 24-hour news operation, asked for too much money in the new contract.

The contract initially expired in August, but the sides agreed to a four-month extension of the 2011 contract. This extension expires at the end of the year.

Local legislators’ work thus far

Dec. 27, 2011, Port Clinton News Herald

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

Ohio’s legislative term is halfway up, so CentralOhio.com decided to check up on local lawmakers to see what they have accomplished in the past year.

Instead of just focusing on the biggest issue of 2011 — the state budget, CentralOhio.com asked them to dig a little deeper, to talk about their individual accomplishments both in sponsored legislation and committee work.

As follows are profiles of the area’s local lawmakers, and what they have done with their time in Columbus. 

Growth an opportunity for Ohio cattle industry

Dec. 23, 2011, Port Clinton News Herald

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

Ohio might gain jobs by giving its cattle a first-class ticket to Turkey.

Demand for livestock is growing in developing nations. A group of lawmakers recently visited Turkey to gauge interest in shipping cattle from the Wilmington Airpark.

The air facility is in a unique location. It once belonged to DHL, a shipping company that shuttered its Wilmington operations in 2008 and signed the airpark over to the Clinton County Port Authority.

Since then, the port authority has sought to make use of the facility, said director Kevin Carver.

It has enough space to land large jets — the kind that would likely be used for shipping cattle, Carver said. It is about 10 miles west of Sabina, which houses one of six agricultural export inspection facilities in the country.

Ohio enacts tax break for college students receiving grants

Dec. 13, 2011, Lancaster Eagle Gazette

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

If an Ohio college student’s Pell Grant or Ohio College Opportunity Grant is applied toward room and board or a meal plan, it no longer is considered taxable income by the state.

Gov. John Kasich signed a bill Friday that will allow students to take an income tax deduction for these situations. There was no opposition in the Legislature, and it takes effect immediately so students can take advantage of it on their 2011 tax returns.

Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Oxford, sponsored the bill.

Schools buying .xxx domain names

Dec. 12, 2011, Port Clinton News Herald

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

As a red light district forms this year in cyberspace using new .xxx domain names, universities and other groups are mulling strategies for keeping their trademarks from becoming adult websites.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers allowed universities, businesses and other organizations with registered trademarks to have first dibs in October at buying .xxx addresses that contain their trademarks. On Tuesday, ICANN opened up sales to the general public.

The .xxx domain is intended identify pornography sites.

Working to enrich Pike County

Dec. 11, 2011, Chillicothe Gazette

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

PIKETON — When Andrea McDaniel gets home after a long day at the Pike County Career Technology Center, she sends her four kids to their rooms and enjoys 15 minutes of quiet as she switches roles from student to single mom.

There’s not a lot of quiet in her life.

McDaniel, 29, is ambitious, and doesn’t want her kids to grow up on public assistance the same way she did. These ambitions were delayed by a rough marriage, but now being on welfare allows her to go to school.

“I definitely want to at least go for my LPN, but I don’t know if I’m going to be satisfied with that,” she said.

But the Piketon woman also is hesitant. “Sometimes I think, gosh, even if I do have a GED, there’s no jobs here, so does it matter?”

Pike County has the highest unemployment rate in Ohio, now at 15 percent. It’s a Catch-22 for the career center, which trains people for jobs that might not come.

She makes too much to get help, but too little to live on

Dec. 9, 2011, Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

Marilyn Allread is poor. Yet she makes too much money.

She’s taking out payday loans, and spent a month homeless, but she still earns too much to get any kind of public assistance. Recently she found out that she made $2 a month too much to keep her housing subsidy.

The public assistance programs don’t take into account the fact that a big chunk of her paycheck goes toward medical insurance to keep subpar coverage for her health problems.

Here’s the thing about Allread, who previously lived in Pataskala but recently found her way to Canal Winchester. The woman is determined. She wants to work. She wants to stand on her own two feet. But she’s come to realize, she does need a little bit of help.