The bill establishing JobsOhio requires that only “actual expenditures” on travel be reported. That phrasing would seem to exclude plane rides, dinners, and hotel rooms paid for by corporations.

The legislation approved by the Ohio House this week and sent to the Senate exempts Kasich and any public employee he designates for JobsOhio from state conflict-of-interest and other laws limiting gifts of travel, food, drinks, and lodging. It appears Kasich would still have to report those gifts, but others may not.

The Ohio Ethics Commission is scheduled to review the bill on Thursday.

Executive director Matt Dietrich says the Ohio Rail Development Commission continues to negotiate with three freight railroads. Those companies own the tracks on which passenger trains linking Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati would operate. Dietrich says the needs of both freight rail and passenger train service must be weighed.

“It’s part of our mission not just to develop passenger but to develop freight,” Dietrich says. “And so we need to make sure that we take the opportunities to advance the abilities of utilizing rail to transport people and goods around our state, that we maintain that balance and make sure that all interests are considered.”

A spokesman for Norfolk Southern Railroad says his freight company continues to negotiate with the Rail Development Commission but would not give details on the status of the talks.

In a letter to Gov. Strickland last month, Senate president and rail skeptic Bill Harris included the freight agreement as one of 18 questions. Harris also questions whether Ohio can afford to subsidize passenger rail even with the federal government offering a $400 million start-up grant.

Meanwhile Dietrich says the commission continues to work with the Federal Rail Administration and other stakeholders to make the project a reality.

“Right now we’re working both with the FRA, all of our state agencies together who are involved in this, as well as the freight railroads who are involved in this,” Dietrich says. “It’s a process. Like any other large transportation project and that’s how we’re proceeding.”

Supporters say the project would produce thousands of direct and indirect jobs. But the legislature’s controlling board has yet to vote on whether it will authorize receipt of the $400 million grant.

When the president of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce talks about the Arena District he describes its growth as nothing short of miraculous. Once home to the Ohio Penitentiary, Ty Marsh says the area has been transformed into a vibrant entertainment district with 170 businesses and 5,000 employees. Marsh says it’s a major revenue producer for the city, the county and the state

“It is generating over $30 million a year that goes into our tax coffers of our government entities. We believe all that is the result of the catalyst of the Blue Jackets,” Marsh says.

The chamber’s findings are contained in a study conducted by Ohio State finance professor emeritus Stephen Buser. Buser says that at present the NHL team is hemorrhaging cash to the tune of $12 million a year. Part of that amount is rent that the Blue Jackets pay to lease Nationwide Arena. Buser says most other hockey teams have lease agreements more favorable to the team.

“The Blue Jackets have to pay a large amount of money to rent the arena and it’s provided free of charge to most NHL Teams,” Buser says.

There was talk several months ago about the sale of Nationwide Arena to Franklin County. The county would then negotiate better terms for the Jackets. Nothing has come of that plan. But some form of public / private partnership might be necessary to keep the Blue Jackets in Columbus.

“Columbus is sitting in the power seat right now. They’ve got a good position for retaining the Blue Jackets. But if they choose not to take action I’d personally be surprised if the Blue Jackets would decide to stick it out and continue to take these massive losses they’ve been incurring,” Buser says.

The report lays out a range of possible options but does not make recommendations. However, Buser says the loss of the team would likely result in the loss of jobs and declining tax revenues.

“If we lose them I think it’s going to be a real bad outcome financially,” he says. “For the non-hockey people like myself, we’re going to suffer because we’re not going to have as much tax revenue coming in.”

The chamber’s Ty Marsh says the report should serve as an incentive to get community discussions started. But he says the matter must be settled quickly; by the end of the year if possible. “This again is not just about saving the team. It’s about saving the catalyst for growth in that area and surrounding areas. They’re generating a lot more business activity down there and we want to keep that growth and prosperity going,” Marsh says.

In a statement acknowledging the value of the team, Mayor Michael Coleman said he would not divert city tax dollars away from basic services. But he called on the public and private sectors to search for options that would keep the Blue Jackets in Columbus. A more vaguely worded statement from the Franklin County Commission says it will take time and effort to determine what’s best for Central Ohio during tight economic times.

Rail Development commissioners voted to move the passenger rail application process to its final stage. They’ll ask the Federal Rail Commission for as much as $400 million for the so-called 3C project: a passenger train service connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati. Ohio Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Varner says the application must be filed by October 2nd.

“We’re in the process of finding the safest most efficient and cost effective route for this service,” Varner says. “We will have a very strong application that we will submit to Washington. If we receive funding you could see these passenger trains running by as early as 2011.”

Ohio faces stiff competition from other states who all want a part of the eight billion federal dollars set aside for rail projects. The Rail Commission also agreed to support a private company’s bid to build diesel powered passenger trains in Gahanna. Helped by federal and state aid, U.S. Railcar LLC says it intends to build a $14 million factory that would employ about 160 people.

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission – or NRC – is in charge of the radioactive materials use in the US. And the NRC has yet to receive an application for a “build-and-operate” license for a Piketon nuclear reactor.

Spokesman for the NRC, Scott Burnell says there are already several applications in line ahead of the Piketon project.

“At this point, the NRC is reviewing 17 applications for licenses to build and operate new plants. We are expecting an 18th application to come in – in the next few weeks,” says Burnell.

Burnell says after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, there were a few applications in process that never resulted in actual nuclear facilities. Then, he says the requests dried up for several decades.

“From 1979 up until 2007 there were no applications that came in to start the process. But it was in 2007 that we started to receive those 17 applications that I talked about.”

Burnell notes that since the NRC is a federal agency, its budgets are set years in advance. As a result, he says it could take until 2012 for the agency to even look at the Piketon application.

Burnell says the agency streamlined the licensing process in the 80s and 90s. Since then, no plants have been approved, so there are no statistics as to how many applications turn into operational nuclear facilities.

“I’m going to sleep a little bit tomorrow; I know that,” John O’Grady told reporters when asked what he was going to do now that he has the democratic nomination for a Franklin County Commission seat. On a more serious note, though, O’Grady said he does not plan to delay preparations for November’s election.

“It’s going to be a tough race. The Republican Party always puts together tough candidates, tough campaigns and we’re going to get ready for it right away,” O’Grady said.

Former Franklin County judge Cindy Lazarus was O’Grady’s challenger. Lazarus said although she is disappointed in the loss, she said Tuesday was a victory for the Democratic Party.

“The night was an incredible success for both Franklin County and the state of Ohio to have the kind of voter participation that we had. That was one of the reasons that I chose to be involved in the primary was to encourage that type of participation,” Lazarus said.

Although O’Grady will have to beat out a Republican challenger in November for the county commission seat being vacated by Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, O’Grady said the first thing he will address is the housing crisis.

“We need to work on this foreclosure crisis in Franklin County. It’s a huge deal. We’ve seen it, obviously here in Franklin County; Ohio’s has the second largest number of foreclosures of any state in the county. Franklin County’s been hit very, very hard by it. The presidential candidates are talking about it now. This is something that we’ve talked about in the campaign and I’m anxious to get started on it right away,” O’Grady said.

The race between O’Grady and Lazarus was not necessarily a friendly one. Much of the Franklin County Democratic Party backed O’Grady. Franklin County Democratic Party chair William Anthony Junior told supporters Tuesday night “if you work against the democratic party in this county you’re going to lose.”

Before O’Grady was announced the winner, Lazarus talked about the tension among the party.

“I certainly wish our party had been more inclusive in how they looked at any number of the races in the primary for this particular year, but they chose not to do so,” Lazarus said.

Lazarus, who is President and CEO of the Columbus YWCA, said she plans to continue her work there now that the race is finished.

Unofficial results show O’Grady took 55 percent of the vote.