cincinnati.com - WASHINGTON - It's bronze, really. But it's beautiful - and a long time coming.

It's the Congressional Gold Medal - the nation's highest civilian honor. It was awarded Wednesday to Jean Springer, 89, of Hyde Park, and about 180 other living veterans of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, program.

Excluded from flying in combat - and not even considered part of the U.S. Army - Springer and the other female pilots transported military personnel, towed targets for gunnery practice or shuttled planes from factories to the bases where they were needed.

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Huffington Post - The chair of a Senate panel overseeing the Federal Reserve wants the Obama administration to appoint Fed officials committed to transparency, consumer protection and lowering the unemployment rate—three critical areas that the Fed needs to beef up.

In a Wednesday letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) expresses his concern about the two current vacancies on the Fed's seven-member Board of Governors and the impending vacancy to be created with the June departure of vice chairman Donald L. Kohn.

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Industry Week - At a meeting with President Obama and Cabinet members to discuss climate change legislation, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) urged that "done right, clean energy legislation can be a jobs bill."

He pointed out however that the bill needs to promote the "competiveness of U.S. manufacturing through targeted retooling assistance and border equalization measures. A great risk of a weak bill is that U.S. industries incur increased costs, and as a result, cheaper products would be imported from abroad. That’s unacceptable and won’t create jobs or reduce emissions.

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Roll Call - Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) on Tuesday attracted nine new backers for his bill to overturn the military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but a Republican co-sponsor continues to elude him.

In a statement, Lieberman announced his bill drew the support of Democratic Sens. John Kerry (Mass.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Tom Udall (N.M.), Bob Casey (Pa.) and Russ Feingold (Wis.). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with the Democrats, also signed on as a co-sponsor to the legislation.

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Dayton Daily News - 
WASHINGTON – Emerging from a White House meeting with President Barack Obama, Sen. Sherrod Brown on Tuesday, March 9, said there was "a chance" that Senate Republicans and Democrats could agree on a sweeping bill that would curb global warming through the development of cleaner energy.


The 90-minute session, which included seven Senate Democrats, six Senate Republicans and one independent, represents a major effort by Obama and his senior advisers to forge a bipartisan agreement on how to combat climate change.

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Plain Dealer - COLUMBUS, Ohio—Gov. Ted Strickland has jumped into the fray over whether to add a bike lane to the planned Inner Belt Bridge project, ordering the transportation department to study whether such a multipurpose lane is even feasible.

The Ohio Department of Transportation has said it already studied whether to add a lane for bicyclists and pedestrians and had decided against it for various reasons—cost, maintenance and user safety, among them.

"But at the direction of the governor, we will take a renewed look," said Scott Varner, ODOT spokesman.

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Dayton Daily News - If ever there were a reason for filling out the U.S. Census form, here it is: It’s attached to billions of dollars in federal money.

A study by the Brookings Institution released today, March 9, found that nearly half a trillion dollars — $446.7 billion — in federal domestic assistance money is tied to census data.

Most Dayton-area residents should receive their 10-question census form in the mail soon. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, citing the Brookings Institution figure, stressed Monday how important it is for every household to complete the form and return it.

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WTAM 1100 - (Cleveland) - Put your hand in the air and be counted.

That’s essentially the message delivered in Cleveland Monday by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. Brown joined the "Help the Home Team, Be Counted".

Sponsored by the Cleveland Foodbank, Greater Cleveland United Way and Neighborhood Connections, the rally was to raise awareness about the importance of being counted in the 2010 U.S. Census.

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Columbus Dispatch - WASHINGTON - The letter last week to Sen. Sherrod Brown was signed by executives from some of the largest companies and business organizations in Ohio - including FirstEnergy of Akron, the Timken Company of Canton, the Ohio Manufacturers' Association and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

In pointed language, the authors urged Brown to back a bill that would prevent the U.S. Environmental Agency from regulating the greenhouse gasses thought to cause climate change, warning in near-apocalyptic terms that "the future of Ohio may depend on this vote."

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Chillicothe Gazette - An Athens-based company looking to provide broadband Internet service to rural areas of Pickaway, Athens and Fairfield counties has been selected as a recipient of stimulus funding for that purpose.

Intelliwave learned this week it will received $1.116 million in stimulus grant funds and $1.162 million in stimulus loan funds that will be used during the next three years to bring broadband service to about 11,232 households and businesses in the three-county area.

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