Stabilizing Cleveland Families

• Governor Bob Taft ordered $100 million in spending cuts to help balance the state budget this year and he said the problem would get worse next year. (PD 3/9)

• Business owners pleaded with lawmakers to tax steel and steel exports to help stanch surging steel prices they said have more than doubled over the last year.

• The Federal Reserve left short-term interest rates unchanged at 1 percent Tuesday, noting that "hiring has lagged" and suggesting that it had become more uneasy about the weak job market. (PD 3/17)

• Cleveland Works, the 18 year-old job-placement agency is going out of business. The nonprofit agency has let go about 20 employees in recent months. The 10 remaining workers are expected to join another job-placement agency next month. (PD 3/16)

• Oil prices pushed past $38.00 a barrel Wednesday, closing above that level for the first time in 14 years, and analysts predicted that already-high gasoline prices would keep moving higher.

• Mounting consumer debt and bankruptcies among seniors are becoming more common; say Ohio consumer credit counselors, bankruptcy lawyers and researchers. The average credit card debt among Americans 65 years and older more than doubled, to $4,041 between 1992 and 2001, according to a study released last month by Demos, a public policy research group. They found that seniors between 65 and 69 years old probably recently retired- saw almost a tripling in their credit card bills, to an average of $5,844. They’re not charging vacations or impulse purchases, said Tamara Draut, an author of the report and director of Demos’ economic opportunity program. " They’re charging prescription drugs and groceries." (PD 3/5)

• Harvard University reports that grandmoms who care for grandkids more than nine hours a week have a 55 percent greater chance of heart disease than carefree women. The likely reason is stress, so next up is a study to measure the stress hormone cortisol in overworked grandmas. (AARP March)

• Ohioans 85 years and older are one of the fastest-growing age groups in the state, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistic. And they show no sign of slowing down. (PD 3/10)

HEALTH

• Tamoxifen, the celebrated drug credited with slashing breast cancer death rates worldwide, could be eclipsed by a newer medicine that is even more effective at preventing a recurrence of the disease in women whose tumors were caught early and removed. A large international study of postmenopausal women with early-stage cancer found that those who took tamoxifen for two and one- half years and then switched to exemestane for another two and a half years were one-third less likely to suffer a recurrence than those who took tamoxifen the whole time. (PD 3/11)

• A new pill is the final stages of testing shows promise in attacking two of humanity’s biggest killers by helping people quit smoking and lose weight at the same time. The drug, which could be available in a year or two, works by blocking the same circuitry in the brain that gives pot smokers the munchies.

• Hospital Partners of America, a Charlotte, N.C. hospital development company, said it has nixed its plan to reopen the bankrupt Deaconess Hospital, which has been closed since November. (PD 3/18)

EDUCATION

• A sharply divided state school board Tuesday narrowly approved a controversial 10th –grade biology lesson that scientists fear will allow creationism into high school science classrooms. The state is now bracing itself for an almost certain legal challenge. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio said it is monitoring the fate of the disputed lesson plan and whether it will sue.

• Cleveland school officials have proposed $15.5 million in budget cuts for next year, which would shrink overtime for custodians and bus drivers, reduce academic assistance for students and limit mailing to parents. CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said that the district will try to cut programs before it cuts people, but she anticipates between 500 and 1,400 teacher and staff positions will be lost when the board completes the budget June 15. At least 55 of those positions will be in the district’s central office, Byrd-Bennett said. (PD 3/25)

• Students at Cleveland State University face the prospect of two tuition increases as the university struggles to make up for lost state aid. (PD 3/25)