John Kasich's Part-Time Job At Ohio State U. Pays $1,388.88 Per Hour: Average Cincinnatian Earns $21.37 Hourly Holding Down A Full-Time Gig

Wage Data For Cincy Area

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Former Wall Street investment banker John Kasich, the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio, makes more in a year as a part-time lecturer at Ohio State University than most Cincinnatians earn in full-time jobs.  Kasich gets $50,000 for 36 hours of talking -- or $1,388.88 per hour.  He takes money for speaking to college classes, something many prominent Ohioans are glad to do for free.  Former U.S. Sen. John Glenn -- a Marine fighter pilot who became an astronaut and was the first American to orbit the Earth -- comes to OSU gratis.  Comparing paychecks to Kasich's, you will see that a cop in SW Ohio -- which includes the Cincinnati area -- makes $25.21 per hour.  A fast food worker makes $8.58.  A high school teacher earns $39.59 hourly -- that is an average for public, private, parochial and charter school wages (see accompanying chart).  Kasich's pay is 35 times as much per hour as dedicated teachers -- both union and non-union -- who spend their entire days in classrooms trying to prepare Ohio kids for college classes.  Kasich has had the OSU gig for the past seven years, so it is not like he is getting a fat one-time speaker's fee.  This is a part-time position on the state's biggest campus.  Kasich has not opened up his income tax records to public view.  He is the only candidate for Ohio governor since the mid-1980s who has refused to reveal his tax data.  The OSU payments are public record.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks hourly earnings for hundreds of jobs, and 63 pages of data for the Cincinnati metropolitan area is available (pdf) by clicking here. The Cincy metro covers a wide swath of SW Ohio, including Hamilton, Clermont, Butler and Warren counties. Employers rely on the stats to make sure the salaries they are paying their workers are in line with area norms. Payroll data for the Columbus metro area is available in this labor statistics report (pdf).  The per hour earnings reports for Cincinnati and Columbus are from October 2009, and its is the most recent data available.  The Daily Bellwether looked over the Cincinnati numbers for full-time workers and found some examples to compare to Kasich's $1389 an hour part-time gig:

Accountants and auditors -- $27.55 per hour.
Engineers -- $36.79 per hour
High school teachers -- $39.59 per hour
Post secondary teachers -- 36.85 per hour (this post would equate to Kasich's OSU job)
Registered nurse -- $36.61 per hour
Fast food worker -- $8.58 per hour
Janitors -- $11.99 per hour
Plumbers -- $26.83 per hour  
Machinists -- $25.14 per hour
Factory foreperson (supervisor) -- $23.39
School bus driver -- $18.66
Tractor-trailer driver -- $26.30

Across the board, the mean salary for all workers was just over $20 an hour.  For a part-time job, the pay was $12.27 an hour.  The Cincinnati area data covers about 940,800 workers.

In Columbus, the hourly pay data shows that post-secondary (college level) teachers earn $59.64 an hour.  But if the wage rates are examined closely, they show $35.33 an hour for college level instructors in the arts, humanities and communications.  Kasich has a political science contract, which is a comparable position.  He made nearly 40 times the average in the Columbus wage market.

Ohio Daily is wondering today if Kasich got a sweetheart deal. Ohio Daily has gotten info from an e-mail circulating recently among faculty members on the Ohio State University campus:

"In an Oct. 19th email, Gunther said he and other faculty members were pressured to keep inviting Kasich back, and said he called Kasich’s salary 'obscene,' especially when compared to other part-time faculty. From the email:

"Let's look at this from another perspective. According to his own official report, Kasich was paid an average of $1,389 per hour for these occasional lectures. Instructors at OSU who are simply hired to teach a course (i.e., they are not regular faculty, but they often included Emeritus faculty) were paid between $2,500 and $5,000 for an entire 10-week course. That works out to something ranging from $63 to $125 per hour of lecture time, and that does not include the additional time required for grading and holding office hours with students. Even a full professor making $100,000 per year would be paid only about $200 for a 2-hour lecture (when research, grading and office hour requirements are factored in). Kasich’s pay, which averaged about  $2,778 per lecture, is simply obscene."

Stink Bugs Are On Their Way To Cincinnati: If You Hate Bedbugs, Catch A Whiff Of This



From New Jersey.com


CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Holy halitosis!  These pests are said to give off an odor that resembles sweaty socks, or ammonia, or cilantro.  And the Asian insect invader known scientifically as the brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys, is headed to our town.  In fact, it already is around, although not in  swarms currently driving Americans bonkers in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.  They are about an inch long and are making themselves comfortable, way too comfortable.  News reports are describing a plague of stink bugs skittering into homes and workplaces as they seek shelter from the coming winter. The headlines are squeezing Cincinnati's bedbug infestation into a footnote.  The bugs look for cracks to crawl through.  They line up on roofs that face South.  They don't bite.  And they don't use Old Spice.   Stink bugs get their name from a foul smelling liquid they create to deter predators.  If you find a stink bug in the house, it is best to flush it down the toilet.  Freeing it outdoors is not an option -- it will help the swarm reproduce quickly.

Ohio State University researchers say they found the first sign of stink bugs in Ohio just under three years ago. At that time, the colony wasn't breeding -- that's changed. The stink bug is a plant pest that immigrated into the United States from its home range in Japan and China. Another global import. Here's what OSU Extension Service reports:

"Sometimes called the yellow-brown stink bug, or the East Asian stink bug, it was first reported in the United States in 2001 from Allentown, Pennsylvania. It has since spread to New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, New York . . . Specimens have also been found in Massachussetts and Ohio . . . The brown marmorated stink bug feeds on fruits and seed pods of a wide range of plants. It is also a nuisance pest that invades buildings in the autumn."

That nuisance pest part looks like an understatement. In today's Pittsbrug Post Gazette, Doug Oster said the bugs smell when they're crushed or become alarmed. Some say the odor can make your eyes water. Supposedly, they can be killed by spraying them with soap and water. That means Dawn detergent is in the arsenal. Hoppy Kercheval in West Virginia reports the infestation really, really stinks:

"The stink bug has reached Biblical plague proportions in the eastern portion of West Virginia, parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. My brother, like everyone else in the region, is overwhelmed. 'Oh, God, it’s horrible. They’re everywhere,' he told me. 'I’m not even holding ground. I’m losing ground.' As he spoke to me by phone Thursday, there were a dozen or more stink bugs flying around the light above his head in his office."


"Jefferson County Extension Agent Craig Yohn talks about the stink bug as though he were referring to a nuclear blast. 'The epicenter for this year is in Smithsburg, Maryland,' Yohn said on Metronews Talkline this week. Yohn told me the stink bug has also moved into the crop fields, hitting peach and apple orchards particularly hard. 'When they find something good that they like, they send out a message of a pheromone that... stinks and draws their friends,' Yohn said. The infestation is worse now because the bugs sense winter is coming. As the days shorten, they start moving indoors, looking for places to spend the winter."

Columbus Dispatch Sports Writer Slams Cincinnati: Too Catholic And Too Kentucky For OSU Football

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Rob Oller's commentary today is an attempt to explain why most Cincinnati-area college football recruits won't flock to Ohio State University. He says "historical, cultural and geographical issues hinder OSU from cleaning up down there." It's also "because of Cincinnati's large Catholic community." Apparently, Cincinnati Catholics just don't put as much faith in Coach Jim Tressel as true believers ought. The Queen City has wicked ways. A day after signing day, Oller even reached into his sportswriter cliche bag to quote a "media wag" whom he doesn't identify:

"Tressel has a reputation for locking down Ohio for the Buckeyes. If there's a crack, it's Cincinnati. Or maybe not. As one media wag pointed out, Cincinnati should not count. After all, it's really northern Kentucky. Or at least acts like it."

Ohio On The Blogs: Football Season Tops Political Season

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Ohio is the heart of it all, right? Or maybe only when the state's sports teams are on the field. Technorati tracks blog posts using key words. And Ohio was on the scope in a major way during the football season -- with the Browns having a rare good year, the Bengals another lousy year, and the Ohio State Buckeyes a great year until Jan. 7. That's the day they lost the NCAA national championship game. Within a few days, mentions of the state in the blogosphere took a bigger tumble than Janet Jackson's breast. The March 4 match between Hillary and Obama has Ohio on a bit of an uptick. But politics ain't football.

Columbus TV News Health Segments: Ohio State Pays Stations $250,000 For Stories

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- TV news health stories that feature medical breakthroughs at Ohio State University's hospital have been paid for by the school. The university forks out nearly $250,000 each year for on-the-air coverage by two local stations in Columbus

Some believe the practice is nothing but advertising being disguised as legitimate journalism, or gussied up payola. The OSU-funded health segments appear on Channel 10 and Channel 4 in Columbus, and disclosures about financial ties has started to raise disturbing questions about paid propaganda and deception. The nub: Should anybody trust or believe TV news if broadcasters take money from those who appear as the subjects of newscasts? Such financial arrangements would appear to undercut any claims of journalistic independence and freedom. It looks like somebody is buying, and the other party is selling.

Gary Schmitz, who is at the University of Minnesota's school of journalism, says OSU's arrangement with the Columbus broadcasters is PR because the medical center paid its way onto the newscasts.

"Columbus residents join the long list of television news audiences all over the country who have been spoonfed one-sided PR and advertising messages from medical centers paying their way onto newscasts. The fact is that a supposed 'news' organization would accept these deals is an embarrassment to the TV news industry."

The story about OSU's payments comes from The Other Paper, where reporter Steph Gregor found marketing execs who said the anchor-hosted health segments play off viewer trust in TV reporters. She also says some of the segments have omitted details like the cost of procedures, or facts like mortality rates. Gregor's story made it clear that the line between marketing and news has been blurred.

Ohio State U Uncorks Economic Research: Wine Prices Dip When 'Net Sales Allowed

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Economic research about online wine sales shows Ohio consumers with a taste for the grape are going to be squeezed out of some cash by a new state law. The measure took effect this month and bans large wineries from shipping directly to customers who shop on the Internet or order by mail. The data published by Ohio State University and George Mason University in Virginia says online competition lowered wine prices by up to 40 percent in a local market.

Ohio's wine industry is the beneficiary of legislative and lobbying sleight of hand that prohibits wineries bottling more than 150,000 gallons a year from shipping directly to Ohio purchasers. OSU and George Mason researchers teamed up to study what happened to prices in northern Virginia in 2004 after federal court rulings knocked down a state-imposed trade barrier against online competition. Alan Wiseman, an OSU political science prof, said prices fell 40% when local stores in Virginia confronted interstate shippers.

"Consumers are better off when local stores have to compete with online sellers. Virginia merchants reduced their prices to meet online competition, and I think the same thing would happen in other parts of the country if the laws allowed. The results suggest that brick-and-mortar stores were quite calculating in how much more they could charge customers. They knew that their prices couldn't be too far above out-of-state merchants, but that they could still charge a premium because of shipping costs."

The researchers studied the 50 most popular wines in American restaurants, which were named by Wine and Spirits magazine. They compared online versus store shelf prices.

Hotter Nights And Global Warming: Ohio's Climatologist Offers Inconvenient Proof

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- A scientist at Ohio State University released a research study this week supportive of global warming. It agrees with Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who won a Nobel Peace Prize today for spreading awareness of man-made global warming. It says summer nights in the Buckeye State have grown 3 degrees hotter since the 1960s. The increase is seen as a signal that the climate has been altered in the Midwest, probably as a result of human actions. The school's report is here and got some attention but deserves much more . Ohio's state climatologist, Jeffrey Rogers, is the lead author of the study.

"A lot of Americans might expect that global climate change would cause extremely high daytime temperatures in the summer. But in Ohio at least, the high temperatures haven't been changing -- it's the overnight low temperatures that have been creeping up. That means the average temperature over the 24-hour period is creeping up as well.

"In Ohio, we don't have a clear signal of global change, like you have in the Arctic, where sea ice is melting. But these nighttime lows are the next closest thing."

A Good Question For Worthless Nuts: Why Is It 'The' Ohio State University?

COLUMBUS (TDB) --There are all kinds of nutty theories about the presence of the Buckeyes' "The." Is it because of a trademark? Some people have been discussing this on the Internet, wondering what THE heck it is all about. No answers here. I have wondered, too. Never heard anybody say "The" Harvard University, "The" Case Western Reserve University, "The" Youngstown State University, "The" Xavier University. Maybe it is some kind of uppity, anti-Michigan thing. That state has University of Michigan, er, the University of Michigan.

Ohio State University Bedbug Alert: Dorm Infested, Fumigators Itch For Action

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The bedbug problem plaguing Cincinnati cropped up at Ohio State University in Columbus, where an infestation led officials to evacuate a campus dormitory. News reports say the dorm is being fumigated today. Cincinnati has been battling bedbugs all summer and into the fall, and recently set up a hot line at the city's health department.

The Cincinnati Health Department has this tip sheet that shows how to be rid of bed bugs, which is not easy.

Ohio State U's Diversity Statement: Under Fire For Banning 'Blonde Jokes'

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- A group that portrays itself as a national watchdog against college administrators who get carried away in efforts to erase potentially offensive remarks from the English language is now on the warpath against Ohio State University. It contends OSU's attempt to crack down on ethnic jokes has even banned humorous references to dumb blondes. No mention of absent-minded professor jokes.

( Say, did you the one hear about the absent minded professor who was riding a train. The conductor asked for his ticket. The professor couldn't find it. The conductor said, "Don't worry, I'll let you go, no problem." The professor replied, "I gotta find it. Or I won't know where to get off.")

F.I.R.E. -- the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education -- has proclaimed OSU's diversity statement for residence halls its "Speech Code of the Month." That's not a good thing -- it's a pejorative meaning OSU has gone overboard with guidelines about verboten topics of conversation in a campus dormitory.

Here's the complete text of the diversity statement(PDF) issued by the Office of University Housing. FIRE's ire is aimed at a provision that specifically instructs OSU students:

"Do not joke about differences related to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, ability, socioeconomic background, etc."

FIRE said those words eliminate a lot of college humor.

"Of the many hundreds of policies FIRE has catalogued over the years, this is the first that flatly instructs students 'do not joke' about controversial topics. As anyone who has ever lived in a dormitory can likely attest, dorms are where some of the freest and most frank discussions among college students take place. And some of those discussions will almost certainly include -- gasp! -- jokes about controversial topics such as race, ethnicity, and yes, possibly even ability."

FIRE said OSU's policy violates the First Amendment: "There is no exception to the First Amendment for ethnic jokes or dumb blonde jokes."

There's more more about FIRE here. The organization definitely thinks free speech trumps all.

Ohio's Cow-Powered Fuel Cells: Moola May Come From State's Mooers And Shakers

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Researchers at Ohio State University say they have successful constructed an experimental fuel cell powered by digestive fluid drained from a cow's belly. This is not BS. The device actually delivered enough electricity in a laboratory to recharge one Double-A battery. This development is beginning to spark interest in the scientific world, which senses a potentially significant breakthrough in the search for alternative energy sources. There might be a way to make moola, which is why the state invested in the program to harness agriculture and high-tech.

OSU says "the source of power for these fuel cells comes from the breakdown of cellulose by a variety of bacteria in rumen fluid, the microbe-rich fluid found in a cow's rumen, the largest chamber of a cow's stomach. To create power, researchers fill one compartment of a microbial fuel cell with cellulose and rumen fluid."

Researchers said they tapped a live cow's belly through a surgically installed porthole. The fuel cell was about two inches wide, three inches tall and three inches long. The scientists kept it running for three months. OSU has more information about the project here. Researchers are now trying to figure out how to grow the bacteria that thrive in cow stomachs without having to tap a cow's belly.

Forget U.S. News College Rankings: This Scholarly Rating Puts Ohio State U Atop Harvard And MIT

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Washington Monthly magazine is out with its own ranking of U.S. colleges, a list that is meant to offer a serious challenge to the credibility of the almighty U.S. News and World Report college rankings. Both compilations try to measure the quality and academic performance of a campus. But Washington Monthly's is intended to smack down the newsweekly whose annual campus ratings are the bible but are growing increasingly controversial with some 60 schools refusing to participate.

This time around, Ohio State University comes out No. 12 in the nation overall (PDF). That spot places it one-notch ahead of MIT and betters academic bastions like Harvard, Penn, Johns Hopkins, Duke and the University of Chicago. Case Western Reserves holds 42d place, just behind Columbia. On the U.S. News list, OSU is No. 57 and Case 41, the highest rated campus in the state. That list has reinforced the concept the Ivy's are tops.

The monthly magazine's list is not quite as prominent as its newsweekly competitor's. It has only been around since 2004, but is growing in influence. The magazine looked at 242 national universities. Unfortunately, the University of Cincinnati is way down the list at 168. Cleveland State University fares even worse at No. 218, dead last among all the all the Ohio schools.

Liberal arts colleges are ranked separately, and Oberlin fills the 13 slot. Antioch was in 192nd place, the worst in the state and nearly the worst of its 201 peers across the nation. Antioch has financial troubles and plans to suspend operations next year. With such a poor ranking, its failings seemed fatal.

The editors at Washington Monthly explain they came up with their alternative to U.S. News in order to determine how well universities are delivering on their primary, public interest missions.

" . . . Rankings are meant to provide a guide not just to what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for their country. For the third year in a row, we've sifted through reams of publicly available data to come up with what we think is a fair assessment of which colleges are living up to their public interest missions, and which aren't.

"We us three criteria that we believe best measure the impact schools have on the country. The first is social mobility: does the school do a good job recruiting and graduating poorer students? The second is research: is the school supporting the scientific and humanistic study that is key to our national strength by producing PhDs and winning research grants? And the third is service: how effectively does the school foster an ethic of giving back to the country, either through military or civilian service."

Ohio Democrats Have Race Ruckus: An Opinion Column From 2000 Bites Back

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A newly recruited "outreach coordinator" for the Ohio Democratic Party won't be reaching out after all. She has been brought down by a racially insensitive column penned as an Ohio State University freshman nearly seven years ago. The column remained frozen in time on the Internet, where it was unearthed by a mouseclick and did the author in.

Pho's Akron Pages broke the story late last night. Amazingly, he was being urged to cover it up, which does not speak well for the Demo insider who tried to play censor.

An excerpt from the October 2000 column that kicked up the dust reads as follows:

"President Kirwan's [OSU prez at the time] plan to bring more minority faculty and students here is ridiculous. Why should minority students receive more scholarships and opportunities because they are minority? I could understand this plan if the minorities were doing well, but according to the graduation rates presented in Professsor Mityagin's article this is not the case. It seems the less likely one's chances of succeeding in college is, the more scholarship opportunities arise. the Diversity Plan is just one form of discrimination on this campus.

"Another example of discrimination is the presence of all-African American floors in residence halls. to me, this is a form of segregation promoted by the university. Nowhere on my housing application did I see a box I could check for an all-Caucasian dorm. Why? Because this would be discrimination and lawsuits would be filed against the institution."

Obviously written by a kid. Hopefully a college education opened eyes and changed the young freshman's views. Did the ODP overreact? The question could be argued either way. The thoughts expressed in the letter are deeply offensive. But they were nothing more than the youthful musings of a largely unformed intellect that moved in a different direction.

Bottomline: A lot of today's college students really need to pay closer attention to the types of things they are posting on the Internet. They have been getting warnings. Here's an example of the warnings coming true.

Ohio State U's Forest Research: Everything's Vine, And That's A Global Warming Sign

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Photos of some outsized vines that look like plant kingdom anacondas accompany an Ohio State University research study which hints an increase in greenhouse gases could eventually strangle the Earth's forests.

The vines thrive on elevated levels of carbon dioxide, and they are flourishing at the expense of forests, where young trees can't seem to catch a toehold. All of this could be a signal of global warming, or climate change.

Ohio State's scientists have been studying forestlands in South Carolina, where the number of vines has increased by 10-fold over the past 20 years. The vines climb and wrap around tree trunks with tendrils that bite onto the bark. Their grip is deadly.

Bruce Allen, lead author of the study from OSU's school of environment and natural resources, says:

"Collectively, we're talking about an increase of more than 500 vine stems in 27 acres of forest area that we studied. And all of the growth is within the last 10 to 20 years. Old photographs from the sides indicate there may have been fewer vines historically. There are now so many vines that they're starting to change the makeup of the forest. It appears that as the number of vines increase, the density of small trees decreases at a fairly uniform rate."

Other studies have shown CO2 helps poison ivy, and that vines benefit from the gas more than other plants. The researches didn't say the cause is global warning, but said the increase in CO2 is a "possible mechanism" for the changes they have observed.

Interestingly, they said Mother Nature helps the trees with hurricanes and windstorms. They knock holes in the forest canopy, and the sunlight kills the vines, allowing the trees to come back.

So here's a possibility: Global warming causes stronger storms (as many meteorologists have theorized) that wipe out all the vines that have taken hold because of global warming. The OSU research report is available here.

Privatizing Social Security: Ohio State U Prof Raises Caution Flag

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- An Ohio State University professor who studied Sweden's privatization of its public pension system found that investment companies advertised heavily and were able to fleece workers. They promoted investment programs that charged high fees and performed poorly. Professor Henrik Cronqvist examined mutual fund choices of 4.4 million Swedes who invested $5.6 billion in 2000, when the nation partially privatized its pension system.

"The results showed that firms that advertised generally charged higher fees than did other firms. Moreover, these firms did not seem to provide more services that would have made these higher fees worthwhile. Investors didn't get more value by paying higher fees. The bottom line is that choosing mutual funds based on advertising -- and as a result paying higher fees -- can be a costly mistake."

Cronqvist's research gives ammunition to those who doubt the wisdom of President George W. Bush's call for privatizing Social Security in the U.S. The OSU prof shows that unsophisticated investors subjected to a barrage of investment industry advertising can easily be separated from their savings. And privatization can boost the financial industry at the expense of workers.

Ohio Farmers Warned: 15-foot Tall Ragweed Plants Resist Chems

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Brace yourself, Ohio. An onslaught of herbicide-resistant giant ragweed appears on the horizon. Bad news for hayfever sufferers. But worse for farmers who can lose up to 70% of a soybean crop when the weeds establish themselves and shade out shorter plants. Giant ragweed can grow up to 15 feet high on stalks as thick as broomsticks.

Farmers who have serious infestations are being advised to give up on soybeans and switch to corn. The rest of us may have to reach for hankies and Visine.

Technically, giant ragweed is Ambrosia trifida, which roughly translates as a three-lobed leaf that is food for gods. Researchers say it is hardly a feast for a divine table.

A picture is HERE, and Marc Loux, an Ohio State University weed scientists, is all over farm publications this winter warning giant ragweed was found in three central and southwest Ohio counties last year that has developed resistance to glyphosate, a chemical used to control weeds. Researchers are cautioning farmers to be careful how they use weed control products year after year. A weed called marestail was among the first to discover how to survive. Now it is giant ragweed, and three or four in a square yard can devastate crop yields.

Farmers have been getting word on control techniques HERE. Purdue University and Ohio State say the weed poses a serious problem:

"It can germinate from late March through July. It is one of the first summer annuals to emerge in the spring and is often present before crops are planted. Best solution -- plant corn in fields with a history of giant ragweed control problems. Use a combination of pre and post herbicides in corn. The post herbicide treatment should include herbicides other than glyphosate, to ensure control of glyphosate-resistant plants."

David Beaulieu, who writes a gardening column for About Landscaping, says the plant was once thought to have value as a pioneer-day pharmaceutical. But now it is seen as a pest.

"As with so many plants considered baneful in the 21st Century, giant ragweed was used medicinally by the denizens of tougher eras. But when one thinks of the plant nowadays, one thing comes to mind and that is 'ragweed allergy.' Together, common ragweed and giant ragweed account for most of the hay fever experienced in North America in the fall. Symptoms of ragweed allergy are sneezing and runny nose, along with itchy eyes."

Click HERE to learn more from Beaulieu.

So, once again Mother Nature has found a way to outwit humans. Bugs, bacteria and now weeds have learned how to adapt and survive. They show remarkable resilience in the face of technology. Ma Nature is nothing to sneeze at, as the ragweed invasion shows.

Ohio State University's Ginn & Pittman NFL Bound

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- The big sports news out of Columbus and Cleveland today is breaking now on ESPN. There is nothing yet up on the OSU athletics Web site about the departures. The Plain Dealer covered Antonio Pittman's press conference at his high school in Akron this afternoon and has fresh reporting on the Buckeye's jump.

[Update: 5:57 p.m. Now we have this latest report from the Associated Press.]

The news that wide out Ted Ginn Jr. and running back Pittman are headed for the NFL draft has been on the Cleveland sports blog NFL Gridiron Gab for most of the afternoon. The last line in the post there caps the situation: As for the Buckeyes, a long off-season after the national title game disaster gets even longer.

A $64,000 question could remain: Is Jim Tressel thinking about the Browns head coaching job? Or is that a non-issue?

Art Schlichter's Probation Passed to Ohio Judge

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- A federal judge in Ohio has agreed to oversee former OSU and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Art Schlichter's probation/supervised release until mid-2009. U.S. District Judge Sarah Owens of Indiana legally ended her jurisdiction over the once-promising athlete with a history of compulsive gambling and run-ins with the law.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost of Columbus took the case last week, court records show. Schlichter is on federal probation for offenses that include interstate travel in furtherance of a scheme to defraud, interstate transportation of forged securities, unauthorized use of an access device and money laundering. Frost will be oversee the case until June 14, 2009 when the sentence expires, provided Schlichter can stay out of any more trouble. He is living in Washington Court House, where he was a prep star at Miami Trace High School. After OSU, he was selected No. 4 in the NFL 1984 draft by the Colts but never became a pro hero. He has been in prisons and committed felonies because of his gambling addictions, but is trying to turn his life around.

Mike Wagner of the Columbus Dispatch wrote a fantastic story about Schlichter and his efforts to reestablish himself that appeared on Christmas Eve. It is well worth reading and there is a link here