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Payday Lending Crackdown Passes, And Improving Work For Counties And Life For Kids

In the final chapter of one of the most surprising twists of the year, the Ohio House has agreed with the Senate’s changes to a payday lending overhaul and sent it to the governor’s office. This week marked the opening of John Kasich's last Ohio State Fair as Governor. Kasich has also taken two more actions on condemned inmates – first, commuting the death sentence of Raymond Tibbetts to life in prison, and delayed Cleveland Jackson’s execution from September to May, to give Jackson’s legal counsel time to prepare for his clemency hearing.

With a new governor taking over in January, groups that want to make an early impact are sharing their proposals in critical areas such as the economy, local government, health and education. Last week the Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio Mayors Alliance put out their ideas. This week, a group representing the commissioners of Ohio’s 88 counties, headed up by Democratic Lake County Commissioner and former state Rep. Dan Troy and Republican Julie Ehemann, a Shelby County Commissioner and former mayor of Anna, Ohio.

Then there’s a group that’s advocating for those who can’t vote – kids. A quarter of kids under 6 in Ohio live in poverty – in Appalachian Ohio, it’s 1 in 3.  Ohio is still 9 th from the bottom in preventing infant mortality, and is 46 th in the nation in terms of kids experiencing childhood trauma. Those are findings in what former state Sen. Shannon Jones says is the most-comprehensive early childhood report in the state’s history, prepared for her group Groundwork Ohio.