Xenia Ohio Citizen Journal

Xenia Mural Society planning meeting will be held on Thursday May 1 at 6:30 PM. The meeting will again be at the Xenia Chamber offices, 334 W. Market Street. All interested parties are encouraged to attend.

A study of the cost of government was recently published by the City of Fairborn. The total cost of government included real estate taxes, income taxes, school district taxes, plus water and sewer services. The study compared the cost of government in 24 cities and villages in both Montgomery and Greene Counties. Each place was ranked from highest to lowest according to total costs.

The study used current tax rates as well as the water and sewer costs from a 2007 Water & Sewer Rate Survey prepared by Oakwood. Comparisons were based on a home valued at $144,896 for real estate taxes and $57,959 Earned Income for city income taxes. School District Taxable Income was
based on $53,609 with one personal, one spouse, and one dependent exemption.

The chart below represents only the study findings for places in Greene County. (more…)

From the The State of America weblog.

LGBT Day of Silence is a day of gay political activism. The Day of Truth is simply a day of counter-cultural political activism. A day of silence would almost be okay if it was about all bullying, all intolerance, and all discrimination, but it is not. What about the harassment of the goofy looking guy with glasses, or the person with a big wart on her neck, or the one with too many ugly pimples, or wimps, or nerds, or those who wear black cloaks and look like gangsters, or all the others who are often harassed because of appearance or speech problem or whatever? Gays are certainly not the only one silenced, harassed, bullied, alienated, or isolated. A lot of kids have been murdered by others kids because of being harassed before and since the Columbine massacre. Why is their not a national day of protest for them? (more…)

If you own one of Wal-Mart’s made-in China Hip Charm key chain’s, please stop using it now. Do not allow you children to handle it either. Take it back immediately to Wal-Mary for a refund.

On April 18, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a the voluntary recall. The charms on the key chain can contain high levels of lead, which is toxic if ingested and can cause adverse health effects. The Illinois Attorney General informed Wal-Mart and CPSC that the key chain was found in the home of a 9-month-old child who was discovered to have high blood-levels of lead. The child was observed mouthing this key chain.

The recalled key chain has several charms including a button, clover, leaf, heart and a sand dollar. The charms hang from a silver-colored chain. The words “Hip charm” and UPC (#31568 11017) are printed on the product’s packaging. Wal-Mart stores nationwide from April 2005 through April 2008 for about $6.

For further information, contact Wal-Mart at (800) 925-6278 between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.walmartstores.com.

Have you noticed the recent ads on Casino gambling? Ohio taxes are traveling out of state at 65 miles an hour. Poor Ohio is being left out of the profitable gambling. All of the surrounding states have accepted more crime, more violence, and more corruption all for increased profits and tax revenues. Because all other states have accepted the vice of gambling and its benefits such as increased tax revenue, ruin of families and individual lives, increased crime and corruption, Ohio should as well. Surely not all other states can be wrong!

Behind the snake in the grass is Governor Ted Strickland. He has devised a plan to expand gambling in Ohio under the auspices of the Ohio Lottery Commission, according to the Ohio Roundtable. When he first came into office, he helped fulfill the will of Ohio voters against more gambling, not anymore. Strickland’s plan would expand gambling without a vote. His plan would implement types of gambling previously rejected by voters. His plan gives the casino industry additional justification for acceptance in Ohio. Like casino gambling, Strickland’s plan also increases the problems associated with gambling. (more…)

Recent news has exposed the dangers of a toxic chemical known as Bisphenol A (BPA) used in some plastic containers that is believed to be harmful to consumers.

According to Reuters Health News, BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic, a clear shatter-resistant material in products ranging from plastic baby and water bottles to sports safety equipment and medical devices. It also is used to make durable epoxy resins used as the coating in most food and beverage cans.

People can eat or drink the chemical when it leaches out of the plastic into liquid such as baby formula, water or food inside the container.

“At this point, the writing is on the wall for bisphenol A. Major retailers and governments all across the country and the world are now recognizing that this chemical is extremely toxic at very low levels of exposure,” Michael Schade of the U.S. environmental group Center for Health, Environment and Justice said in a telephone interview.

Dr. Mercola reports that Bisphenol A (BPA) is an artificial estrogenic compound that may increase the adult breast cancer risk of female fetuses. This confirms earlier findings regarding a link between BPA and breast cancer.

A study exposed pregnant rats to bisphenol A at a range of doses from 2.5 to 1,000 micrograms per kg of body weight per day.

Their female children developed precancerous breast lesions during puberty at a rate three to four times higher than usual. BPA resulted in an increased level of lesions at all dose levels, which suggests that the current exposure limit set by the U.S. EPA (50 micrograms per kg per day) has put American women at risk of breast cancer.

Urine analysis has shown that 95 percent of people have been exposed to BPA. BPA has also been linked to prostate cancer and brain tissue damage, even at extremely low levels.

The Daily Green offers a handy guide to identify toxic and non-toxic plastics used in consumer goods. Inside a triangle molded into the the bottom of all plastic containers is number ranging from one to seven. The guide identifies what each number represents in terms of the type of plastic used, type of consumer goods manufactured using it, whether it is recyclable, and risk of leaching toxic chemicals, and more.

Plastics containing bisphenol A are among the last group of plastics identified by the number 7 on plastic containers. The Daily Green guide classifies this group as follows:

Number 7 Plastics = Miscellaneous

Found In: Three- and five-gallon water bottles, ‘bullet-proof’ materials, sunglasses, DVDs, iPod and computer cases, signs and displays, certain food containers, nylon

Recycling: Number 7 plastics have traditionally not been recycled, though some curbside programs now take them.

Recycled Into: Plastic lumber, custom-made products

Risks: A wide variety of plastic resins that don’t fit into the previous categories are lumped into number 7. A few are even made from plants (polyactide) and are compostable. Polycarbonate is number 7, and is the hard plastic that has parents worried these days, after studies have shown it can leach potential hormone disruptors.

To see the the entire guide, go to The Daily Green website.

Twelve Angry Men, according to Alan King, is about one man who argues to convince the eleven other jurors that there is “reasonable doubt” as they decide the fate of a young man accused of first degree murder.

The ensemble cast, directed by Jeffrey Purvis, includes Don Taylor, Daniel Sinclair, John Bukowski, Jim Yarcho, Alain Alejandro, John Falkenbach, Heath Grooms, Russ Dern, Jerry Buck, Michael Taint, Al Yarcho and Tobey McKee.

For more information, visit the Xenia Area Community Theater website.