Jill Miller Zimon has a post up on an arrest in California of the founder of a charter school network. Apparently, the schools themselves weren’t for-profit, but the schools used the services of a for-profit company, owned by the same person. Clearly a conflict of interest. Jill writes about how this might affect Ohio:

Mary Taylor’s been publishing audits that indicate a problems with the charters. But she’s also been the benefactor of their profits. How will she interpret what’s going in California, for herself and her responsibilities?

Let’s not forget another readon why I dislike the profit aspect: because so many of the profits go to politicians.

By that logic, we should never have any Democrats doing anything about the public schools. Why should anyone trust Democrats to regulate public schools when they receive so much from teachers’ unions? In the public school system, we’ve got politicians giving raises to teachers, who give some of it to their unions, who contribute some of it to politicians in an attempt to get more money for teachers and to protect the monopoly teachers’ unions want on public funds, thus guaranteeing a more or less permanent revenue stream to Democrats.

The solution for Ohio is broad reporting requirements for spending and education results for all schools, public, charter, and for-profit. The legislature has to be smart enough to properly regulate all schools that receive public money. Then let parents decide where to send their children and where to spend the money earmarked for those children. Public schools fail and waste money too. There needs to be a credible alternative.

Political blogs are not subject to FEC regulations, unless they’re paid for by candidates. So, there is a First Amendment. I’m not impressed that the FEC is ruling on these matters at all. I mean they could just as easily rule the other way.

In the Dispatch, via Columbus RetroMetro:

Major Woody’s Bar is a major pain, say some Brewery District residents who want to see it go away.

They say they’re tired of the fights and noise, and their quality of life is being eroded.

“All I want is some peace and quiet for our residents,” said Jeannette Tannert, property manager for Liberty Place apartments, which opened earlier this year across a large parking lot from Major Woody’s.

It’s a common scene across the country, as residents in rejuvenated urban neighborhoods such as Cleveland’s Warehouse District and Seattle’s Pioneer Square have voiced concerns about activities around popular clubs and bars.

It’s kind of funny. Peace and quiet in an area known for its clubs and nightspots. Go ahead, turn the Brewery District into a quiet bedroom community. I’m sure that will attract the YPs. That and a Starbuck’s. Columbus, Ohio: the city that goes to sleep at around 9pm. 11 on weekends and holidays.

The city is aware of the concerns, said Barb Seckler, deputy public safety director. She said police, the city attorney’s office and state liquor agents are talking with residents and the bar’s owner.

Assistant City Attorney Tannisha Bell, who attended the meeting, said she will investigate residents’ complaints.

“You have people living Downtown and they pay (for) nice apartments and they’re getting the noise and some of the fights that result from having a bar (nearby),” she said.

The state can always take away the liquor license.

From CNN:

Ohio Rep. Paul Gillmor was found dead in his apartment Wednesday, a Republican leadership aide said.

The aide said the body of the 68-year-old Republican was found by staff members who went to his apartment after he failed to show up for work. There was no immediate word on the cause of his death. Gillmor’s office did not respond to a reporter’s call.

Gillmor, who represented Ohio’s 5th District in the Bowling Green area of the state, was first elected to Congress in 1988.

He was 68. I saw this first at Right Angle Blog.

From ONN, an update on the Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby story:

No charges will be filed against a middle school administrator whose toddler daughter died when she was left in her mother’s SUV for about eight hours on a day when temperatures reached about 100 degrees, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Leaving the child in the car was “a substantial lapse of due care” but did not meet the definition of reckless conduct necessary for prosecution, said Clermont County Prosecutor Don White.

In similar news, there’s this:

An Oregon rugby player remains in jail Tuesday after being arrested on charges he left his 2-year-old daughter in a vehicle in the parking lot of a Nevada brothel on a 95-degree day.

Lucien Hoffman, of Bend, Ore., is being held in the Storey County Detention Center in lieu of $40,000 bail on charges of child neglect.

Police arrested Hoffman early Sunday night at the World Famous Mustang Ranch brothel in Sparks, Nev., after a security guard found the child crying inside the car, according to Storey County Sheriff’s Det./Sgt. Kenneth Quirk.

Father of the year.

UPDATE: Thoughts on the Ohio case from Mark Daniels.

UPDATE: Next post: SUV mom did it several times immediately before.

The Dispatch reports on a scandal that probably won’t be seen as one by many:

The district’s data-processing chief, Steve Tankovich, agreed to the deal. He would leave the district in return for a taxpayer-funded buyout worth $167,300….

That two-year deadline came and went in 2006 and Tankovich stayed in his $121,000-a-year job.

Then, on July 31 of this year, he retired, allowing him to begin collecting the buyout — which will be paid over five years — and his State Teachers Retirement System pension, equal to almost 100 percent of his final year’s salary.

Then the district immediately rehired him as a $112,000-a-year data analyst.

So the school district paid this employee $167,000 for essentially nothing. Great deal for him- not so good for students and taxpayers.

The Columbus schools district says that Tankovich was rehired because it turns out that he’s indispensable. That’s another problem. Any organization that has an indispensable employee is not doing a good job as an organization. It violates the ten-ton truck rule.