"Barack Obama's Visit is Exciting for Tuscarawas County" 

It was one of those exciting weeks in the WJER Newsroom when we learned that Tuscarawas County would receive a visit from Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama. Regardless of your politics, having a Presidential candidate stop by our county is special. I guess my memory isn't what it should be, but the only visits I recall of national candidates were when John Edwards came to New Phila four years ago, and then was followed up by George Bush's visit and now Obama. And of course several months ago former President Bill Clinton spoke at Kent State Tuscarawas when he was stumping for his wife Hillary. It will be interesting to see if either McCain or Palin will make this a priority stop now. We did broadcast the speech Obama made at Kent State Tuscarawas live on WJER. As I was not one of the invited guests I appreciated being able to hear what he had to say while here. We had several representatives of the station on hand, and they all noted that the event was interesting and that he made a number of points that were relevant to those in the audience and to our county.

Another interesting development in Ohio's political arena was the decision by the coalition that supported the Ohio Healthy Families Act, which was going to be on the November ballot. It seems that the supporters of the act decided to respect Governor Strickland's request to head off a potentially divisive campaign fight that was about to begin. Let's face it…Ohio is facing a lot of economic issues, mainly unemployment, which is above 7% and the loss of manufacturing jobs. For current businesses and attempts to bring new businesses to Ohio, the passage of the HFA was not well timed. As Lee Fisher said, "We need to be doing everything we can to help Ohio's businesses and industries grow to retain and create jobs." What needs to be done is to have all parties sit down and work out a compromise bill that will be fair and equitable and won't drive business from Ohio.

As many of you know I am a proponent for instrumental music in our schools. So I am always happy to encourage your support of programs that promote music and music education which is a lifetime experience. This Wednesday night Jeff Furbay and the New Philadelphia Band will host the Tuscarawas Band Preview at the stadium. The event starts at 7:30 and features Strasburg, Newcomerstown, Garaway, Indian Valley, Claymont and host band New Philadelphia. This is not a competition, just a great opportunity for everyone to see our area bands perform. I hope you will come out for this event and support our area high school musicians.

Well, those are my views. If you would like to see more, check out the WJER website at wjer.com.

Those are my views, if you want to see these comments and more, check out the WJER website at wjer.com and click on R News and Views.