There's another hat that won't be thrown into the ring for the Ohio Governor's race next year.

In a letter to the Plain Dealer, former Democratic congresswoman Betty Sutton said she will not seek the office in 2014.

She lost her seat on Capitol Hill to Republican Jim Renacci in a re-drawn district last November.

Sutton, from Copley Township, is the latest among prominent state Democrats who have turned down the chance to take on GOP incumbent Governor John Kasich.

It includes congressman Tim Ryan and former Governor Ted Strickland.

One name still out there for the Dems--Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald, who is forming an exploratory committee to look at his chances of winning.
 

Ohio's tourism industry will help sustain itself if a new revenue sharing plan with the state goes as planned.

Governor John Kasich discussed the incentive at a press conference today at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. Under the new program, tax dollars generated from tourism will be used to further market those and other destinations to provide an even greater boost to the state's fourth largest industry. The museum dedicated to the NFL is expecting visitor number 9,000,000 by Monday, making it a fitting backdrop to talk about tourism promotion.

"We're not just going to give them more money because they want it," said Kasich. "They're going to have to prove that they're making progress."

Kasich says it's the marketing messages should point people toward specific attractions, and said that whoever designs messages should add some "pizzazz," drawing laughter from the crowd when he compared an advertising campaign by the state of Michigan to something that would be heard in a dentist's office and one that would put a driver to sleep if listening to it in the car.

The governor says that marketing revenue for tourism is only one component of the new law, which he believes adds simplicity to some processes that were already in place. The newly renamed Office of TourismOhio administers the marketing efforts with a budget that could double under the new plan.

"That's what this bill does," said Kasich. "It streamlines that whole process and begins to shed the regulations that hold us back."

Mary Regula, founder of the National First Ladies' Library in Canton and wife of retired Congressman Ralph Regula was eager to take the microphone when the governor at first failed to mention her favorite tourist destination:

Ohio's tourism industry generates $36 billion dollars a year and employs 439,000 people.

A first for Ohio's Childrens Hospitals. They'll share $2-million in a state grant to research more effective treatment of children's asthma and drug impaired children born to drug addicted parents. Akron Children's Hospital will be part of the research.

Governor John Kasich announced the grant in a Columbus news conference Tuesday. The Governor told reporters  " This is an effort to spend some money to figure out what we can do to offer the best treatment to allow these children to be able to have a normal life, to be able to have as good a life as they can possibly have."  

Kasich says drug and asthma impaired children are a growing problem and Ohio wants to be in the forefront of finding solutions to restoring these children to normal lives.

Kasich says half the grant will be used for research on asthma. " Asthma is a terrible, terrible condition that we think can be improved through research," says Kasich.

The Governor says the other half of the grant will be used to treat children born to parents who were battling drug addiction ." We've been unable to win this war, and the casualties, the victims, are children being born with addictions, that come from people who are addicted."

Kasich says drug and asthma impaired children are a growing problem and Ohio wants to be in the forefront of finding solutions to restoring these children to normal lives.

Redesigned Ohio license plates and driver's licenses will be made available in the next two years.

Read more http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OH_OHIO_LICENSE_PLATE_OHOL-?SITE=WAKR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT