“A year ago we could see some of this coming,” Laidlaw said. “We just didn’t anticipate that the recession would hit and that the cuts would be so deep.”

Several sites had to be closed two additional days a week after budget reductions in 2008. With a 1 point 3 million dollar reduction slated for the 2010 budget, Laidlaw says even bigger changes are going to have to happen.

“We’ve got a really good plan, I think, for providing services that will provide the most public value, that will be targeted for the major market segments that we serve the most, and that will allow us to raise some general revenue funds so that we can continue our effort to be less dependant on the state in the future,” Laidlaw said.

The plan will shift the focus to three “core functions” collections and sites preservation, access for research and education, and statewide outreach.

It will extend hours at the archives, and create exhibits that will travel around the state. But it also means 18 sites and museums may have to close.

“That’s the catch,” Laidlaw said. “There’s not enough money in the budget. Even if we reallocated everything in the state budget, there’s not enough money to keep the sites operating the way they should.”

The Historical society is currently working with communities and private organizations to create local partnership agreements. Daily operations would then be the responsibility of the local partner with the society providing support.

Laidlaw says they currently have enough funding to operate the sites only through the end of June, but that he is optimistic the partnerships will work.

Christie Angel says she’s not sure how many people will be eligible for the position, and that will likely play a role in how long the selection process lasts. “We will take as long as we need to find the right candidate for the job,” Angel said.

City Civil Service rules say eligible candidates must be a current deputy chief or commander. Angel also says the selection will be different from when Chief Jackson was chosen nearly two decades ago.

“The last time it was what they call a competitive process where the candidates at a minimum took some kind of exam then were selected from the list that was developed after the exam,” Angel said.

Angel says this time, the selection will be based on the person’s traits and achievements, not a score. Dan Williamson says the mayor wanted a more holistic process.

“He wanted a process that would reflect some community input rather than it just come from within city hall,” Williamson said. “Obviously he and the safety director will ultimately choose the chief of police but because it’s important to the community to the city as a whole who their chief is. He thought that it was important to have a screening committee where there’s not just city insiders choosing it.”

Executive Director William Laidlaw said Wednesday that the society is facing an estimated budget deficit of $1.2 million.

The sites closing the week of March 28 are: Ohio Historical Center in Columbus; Ohio Village in Columbus; Adena Mansion & Gardens in Chillicothe; Armstrong Air & Space Museum in Wapakoneta; Campus Martius Museum in Marietta; Dunbar House in Dayton; Fort Ancient near Oregonia; Fort Meigs in Perrysburg; Harding Home in Marion; National Afro-American Museum in Wilberforce; Piqua Historical Area in Piqua; Wahkeena near Lancaster; Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor; and Zoar Village in Zoar.

The historical society is responsible for 58 sites and museums around the state.Click the Listen icon to hear Lauren Schmoll’s interview with William Laidlaw.

They found students who score higher on tests of empathy, courage, and honesty are the least likely to cheat. But studies show 50 to 80 percent of college students have cheated at some point, leaving honest students in the minority.

“There’s a lot of pressure to get good grades in college so if you haven’t studied or if anything else happens then you’ll do whatever you can to get a good grade,” said Ohio State student Haley Wilson.

On this cold October day in the middle of Autumn quarter, Wilson says she’s not at all surprised to hear about a study that shows more students have cheated in college than not cheated. Ohio State Newark psychology professor Julie Hupp knows the numbers well.

“Pretty consistently, at least 50% of the students report that they have cheated,” Hupp said. “That doesn’t mean that they’re cheating on every assignment in every class but some instances come up where students do cheat.”

Professor Hupp is part of a team working to profile the personality of students who don’t cheat; a group so unique, they’re being labeled “academic heroes.”

“So many students were reporting that they cheated especially in comparison with the number of charges that are brought up before the center for academic misconduct,” Hupp said. “Very very low numbers of students actually get charged with cheating . So this discrepancy is interesting that so many students are cheating and getting away with it.”

OSU Student Matt Dickey says most students feel like they could get away with cheating if they tried.

“I’ve never known anyone that’s gotten caught before,” Dickey said.

One reason for the discrepancy between rumors of cheating and formal charges of cheating could be red tape.

Nathan Rosentein teaches history at Ohio State. He says he spends a lot of time developing tests on which cheating is difficult. But if he catches someone cheating, the disciplinary process can be lengthy.

“We have elaborate procedures in place for dealing with the cheating,” Rosenstein said. “The days when you could just grab the exam booklet from the student and rip it up in his face those are gone.”

Those ‘elaborate procedures’ usually lead to a hearing before the Committee on Academic Misconduct. Tim Curry is the coordinator for the committee and even he says the rules make it tough to prove that a student has done wrong.

“In order for us to see a case, the instructor has to gather evidence,” Curry said. “That narrows the number of cases right away because you can hear about someone cheating, you can think someone is cheating, but for us to hear a case there has to be evidence.”

A fact that students like David Drago are well aware of.

“There’s a lot of risk behind cheating, but if you’re not going to get caught– it creates an environment where you’d want to cheat,” Drago said.

Cloudy skies set the tone for a serious lunch hour discussion: the economy.

The talk ranges from highly optimistic to down in the dumps.

Sally Leatherman is positive.

“I’m very confident about it,” Leatherman said. “I think we did the right thing by congress approving the bailout. So I think we’re going to be okay. It won’t be short term, but long term we’ll be okay.”

Steve McKee looks at the practical side.

“I’m obviously concerned about the 401, how it is doing,” McKee said. “But it is also a buying opportunity, right?”

Debbie Stone is downright nervous.

“I just think the whole thing is pretty scary,” Stone said. “Very scary. I don’t really know what to think. I wonder what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

Others like Daniel Langstaff say it is just out of his hands.

“If something doesn’t change soon we’re going to be in for a big problem,” Langstaff said. “Not much I can do about it, just try to wait myself through it.”

No matter what the opinion, the facts are the same.

The Federal Reserve made $300 billion available to failing banks Monday but didn’t stop markets from diving.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility index is considered a measure of investor fear. It is at a 19 year high.

And global markets struggle as credit concerns fly around the world, with down markets in both Asia and Europe.

From Michael Phelps to Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, kids young and old are energized about realizing their version of the American dream.

Carl Winegartner is a railroad historian from Newark. He has fond memories of his days riding trains and working on them.

“You had to wear a uniform,” Winegartner said. “Your uniform was navy blue and you had to wear a white shirt and a black necktie. They had to both be sparkling clean at all times.”

But that all came to an end.

“June the 21st of 1961: I worked the last passenger train over here,” Winegartner said.

Stu Nicholson is a railroad enthusiast and works for the Ohio Rail Development Commission. He says the demise of passenger rail started long before 1961.

“People came home from WWII and wanted that freedom of the open road,” Nicholson said. “We built this magnificent interstate highway system. We built a huge aviation system.”

There was one other thing.

“Then you had cheap gas,” Nicholson said. “Now you’ve got expensive gas. They’re looking around for options and suddenly it dawns on everybody we don’t have them. If you live in this part of Ohio you have no other option you have to drive.”

And that’s exactly why passenger rail is making a comeback in some parts of the country. In New England, Patricia Quinn works for the Downeaster.

“We kind of call it the people’s train,” Quinn said. “It was a group of advocates that got together to restore passenger rail service to Maine after about a thirty year hiatus.”

Ohio has a grassroots effort of its own All Aboard Ohio. Its primary focus is advancing the Ohio Hub Project a plan endorsed by Governor Strickland, to connect Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati by rail.

Andrew Bremer is the Executive Director of All Aboard Ohio. Right now, he is collecting signatures in support of the Ohio Hub.

“My initial thoughts were to gather as many signatures as I possibly could,” Bremmer said. “And present those signatures that are tied to a specific zip code to our state legislators to show that there is widespread support.”

Patricia Quinn says even with the large amount of public support for the Downeaster, many people were still skeptical.

“It really was a whole cultural shift,” Quinn said. “We don’t have a lot of public transportation here. It’s a pretty rural state. A lot of people didn’t know how to ride the train and weren’t willing to give up their cars.”

Now that gas is four dollars a gallon and higher, Quinn says people are more willing to give the train a try. But she says willingness to ride hinges on one other very important factor: connectivity.

“If people are going to be without their cars, you have to provide an efficient and economical way for them to get to their ultimate destination,” Quinn said. “It’s a constant struggle to make sure there are good transportation connections to get people downtown.”

Stu Nicholson says improving outside connections may be one of the biggest challenges when it comes to passenger rail in Ohio.

“You’re going to see a push for better connections at the local level,” Nicholson said. “You know, it’s great that I can take the train from Cincinnati to Columbus, but when I get to Columbus, then what?”

That means more money for busses and light rail.

“Transportation is always something that involves a heavy dollar investment,” Nicholson said. “A heavy dollar investment is something that requires a heavy political will.”

Political will for passenger rail isn’t lacking in Ohio. Earlier this year, Governor Strickland commissioned a study from Amtrack, to assess Ohio’s railways and what it would take to ready them for passenger trains.

Patricia Quinn says the study is important because rail faces challenges not realized by other modes of transportation.

“Railroad is different from busing because the infrastructure is not publicly owned,” Quinn said. “It’s owned by someone else. You have to make sure you have enough capacity to get the job done reliably. It has to be a negotiation between the host railroad and the operators and everybody needs to come to a reasonable conclusion that what we’ve got there is going to work.”

Mark Magliari is a spokesman for Amtrack.

“We’ll work with the folks that own the tracks the host railroads in this case it’s largely owned by CSX,” Magliari said. “We’ll take a look at the infrastructure and see what it would cost to upgrade that infrastructure to passenger train speeds of 60 to 100 miles per hour.”

“You have to be able to have a benefit there for the freight railroads,” Nicholson said. “They own the corridor. We’re essentially asking to come play in their swimming pool and run passenger trains.”

Nicholson says that expansion will also benefit Ohio’s economy. He says moving more freight means doing more business and ultimately makes the corridor more attractive to potential employers.

Crystal Ward Allen directs the Public Childrens Services Association of Ohio. She helps run a new program she says will help Childrens Services keep families together.

We’re trying to sit down with that family and say, Clearly this isn’t the situation that you want or that we want. What ideas do you have that we can help you bring to your current situation?’

The program is called Alternative Response, and allows case workers to work with families to try resolve problems without removing the children from the home. Franklin County is one of ten Ohio Counties participating in the pilot phase of the program.

Franklin County Children Services Director Eric Fenner says the program is useful in cases where the child is not in immediate danger.

When we come out through alternative response, we’re not checking cupboards, looking for sleeping arrangements not having the disposition of abuse or neglect. We’re more focused on assessing that family: what are the needs, what are the issues and then we can provide those services.

Alternative Response is the result of a research effort between the Ohio Supreme Court and the Department of Job and Family Services to more clearly define child abuse and neglect. Fenner says it gives Childrens Services more power to make important decisions

We know that all families don’t require the same level of intervention, but we’ve not had the authority through laws and rules to have an alternative response to servicing those families. We have to service all families the same once we decide to take them in. This gives us another path.

There is some cost involved. Additional training is needed for case workers participating the program but Fenner says the program will eventually save Franklin County money.

We believe that in the long run there’ll be a real cost savings for both our office and the community. And not just savings in terms of dollars, but also savings in terms of keeping families together.