News Archives

By Anthony Gottschlich, Staff Writer, Wednesday, November 21, 2007
DAYTON — U.S. Rep. Mike Turner and local hospital officials on Tuesday said they will convene a task force to improve services at the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The Centerville Republican, responding to reports of patient dissatisfaction and other issues at the Dayton VA, said a Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association task force will serve as an "advocacy group" for the VA hospital, much like the Dayton Development Coalition is for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

"Our veterans have served our community with such great distinction that we need to be sure that the medical care they receive serves them," Turner said at GDAHA's headquarters near downtown.

The association, which represents 11 area hospitals, will assemble the task force from its existing members and start working on the initiative with VA officials by January, said Frank Perez, GDAHA board member and Kettering Health Network president.

Turner said the task force will be charged with researching and assessing quality and types of services; employee and customer satisfaction levels; timeliness of service, costs involved and ways to secure more federal funding.

"I think at times there's a sense in the VA system that it's isolated," he said. "This will help ensure our community partners, those who have hospital expertise, are at the table."

The Dayton Daily News reported in August that the Dayton VA hospital ranks among the worst of the nation's 146 VA facilities for patient satisfaction and last among six VA medical facilities in Ohio for employee satisfaction, according to surveys obtained from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dayton VA hospital Director Guy Richardson, in a statement to Turner's office, said, "We see this initiative as an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to veterans and excellence."
http://www.daytondailynews.com

POSTED: 1:46 pm EST November 19, 2007
DAYTON, Ohio – Rep. Mike Turner announced Monday that $230 million in Base Realignment and Closure construction funds have been earmarked for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The funds are included in the pending conference report to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2008.

The funding places WPAFB on track to receive 1,000 jobs that are to come to the base as a result of the 2005 BRAC.

Turner said the funds will go toward the construction of important facilities at the base such as the Aero Medical Research Laboratories, facilities for the Air Force Research Laboratories, and the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine.

This year, Turner testified before the House Budget Committee regarding the importance of this funding to WPAFB and the entire Dayton region. The Military Construction bill has passed the House and Senates with Turner’s support.

The House and Senate are expected to vote on final passage of the conference agreement in December.
http://www.whiotv.com

By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer, Sunday, November 18, 2007
DAYTON — — U.S. Rep. Mike Turner on Saturday sought to build the buzz surrounding the year-old "Dayton beehive," a one-stop Web portal through which area residents can access free local services and agencies.

The Web portal, beehivedayton.org, has two new partners, the United Way of Greater Dayton and H&R Block, Turner said Saturday.

The United Way recently added to the Web portal a link to its 2-1-1 HelpLink Directory. H&R Block, meanwhile, has added tax preparation and e-filing software that will be free for more than 100,000 Dayton residents earning less than $54,000 in annual adjusted gross income.

"This is a great project," Turner, R-Centerville, said. "We haven't had a single spot people can go to find all those agencies.

While it may not be a local buzzword yet, Turner said the Web portal had nearly 2,000 visits last month and appears to be gaining traction.

Turner also said 250 computers and high-speed in-home Internet hookups will be made available to low-income households through local nonprofits such as the Dayton Urban League, St. Mary Development Corp., East End Community Services Corp. and Improved Solutions for Urban Systems.

In a press release, Turner called the Web portal and computer distribution "an important step in bridging the digital divide in the Dayton community."
http://www.daytondailynews.com

By Jessica Wehrman, Staff Writer, Thursday, November 01, 2007
WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Turner Wednesday aligned himself with first lady Laura Bush and former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on perhaps the one subject the two women agree on politically: making permanent two federal grant programs that aim to preserve and promote historic sites in America.

Flanked by the two women, Turner, R-Centerville, who is co-chair of the House Historic Preservation Caucus, Wednesday announced legislation to make permanent Save America's Treasures, a grant program that pays for threatened or endangered collections or historic properties that are nationally significant and Preserve America's Treasures, a grant program that aims to promote heritage tourism.

Both are set to expire at the end of the Bush administration.

Turner credited both programs — the product of the Clinton White House and Bush White House, respectively — with preserving important sites in Dayton.

In 2006, Wright Dunbar Inc., representing a coalition of Dayton area organizations involved in cultural heritage tourism, accepted a $70,000 Preserve America grant to study how best to connect Dayton's historic sites, including Wright-Dunbar Business Village, Carillon Historical Park and the National Museum of the United States Air Force. And in 2000, the Dunbar House, where famed poet Paul Laurence Dunbar lived, received a $100,000 federal grant to improve the site's house and detached barn.

Dayton is one of nearly 550 Preserve America communities, a designation that makes the city eligible for federal grants.

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said the legislation will be key to helping save otherwise endangered sites.

"There is a formal role for historic preservation," he said. "And this legislation more clearly defines it than anything that's come before."
http://www.daytondailynews.com

By Jean Dubail, The Plain Dealer, October 09, 2007, 4:28PM
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today defended the Architect of the Capitol's refusal to permit use of the word "God" on official certificates enclosed with flags flown over the U.S. Capitol.

Dayton-area GOP Rep. Michael Turner and more than 100 of his Republican colleagues sent a letter to Pelosi last week after an Eagle Scout in his district asked that a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol be sent to his grandfather with a certificate inscribed with the message: "In honor of my grandfather Marcel Larochelle, and his dedication and love of God, country, and family."

The boy and his father contacted Turner's office after noticing the word "God" was left off the certificate included with the flag. Outraged upon learning that the acting Architect of the Capitol, Stephen T. Ayers, won't allow religious expressions on flag certificates, Turner sent a protest letter to Pelosi.

"The Architect's policy prohibiting "God" from appearing on certificates for flags flown over the U.S. Capitol puts at risk our religious freedoms and heritage," said the letter, which also was signed by Ohio Republican Reps. Steve LaTourette of Bainbridge Township, Patrick Tiberi of Genoa, Jim Jordan of Urbana, Steve Chabot of Cincinnati and Jean Schmidt of Miami Township. "The Architect's policy is in direct conflict with his charge, as well as the scope of his office and brings into question his ability to preserve a building containing many national religious symbols."

Asked about the issue today at a press luncheon, Pelosi said the architect's policy was adopted because "people were asking for statements that not only were religious, beyond using the word God, but political as well." She said the official policy is to send a certificate that lists nothing beyond the date the flag flew over the Capitol and the name of its recipient. She said that members of Congress who request flags on behalf of constituents can "add whatever they wish" to the certificates, "whether it is a political statement or a religious statement."

"It's not about being anti-religion," Pelosi said, noting that each day in the Capitol starts with a prayer. "It is just about what the architect thought was appropriate for him to proclaim in a certificate."

Turner said Tuesday that he will continue seeking more signatures for his letter asking Pelosi to overturn the policy, and "if the speaker and the architect continue to implement their censorship program, we will drop legislation to compel the architect to return to granting inscriptions permitting the acknowledgement of God."

He said members of Congress vet the appropriateness of messages constituents request with the flags, and their discretion should be sufficient.

"We have the responsibility for these common sense issues that might arise with flag inscriptions and this one is basic," Turner said. "The architect has decided the word 'God' is offensive. This rule should not be allowed to stand."
http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2007/10/pelosi_defends_refusal_to_put.html

Posted: 2:59 pm EDT October 4, 2007
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congressman Michael R. Turner, (R-Centerville) successfully advocates for veterans services in Wilmington.

In March, the Veterans Outreach Clinic in Hillsboro was closed. As a result veterans in rural Clinton and Highland Counties were forced to travel to Chillicothe or Dayton for VA medical services.

Congressman Turner advocated within the VA to establish clinic services in Clinton County, as requested by local veterans.

"Today, we can announce that VA outreach screening is scheduled for October 16, 2007 at 10:00 a.m., said Congressman Turner. Clinton and Highland Counties are home to over 8,000 veterans who will greatly benefit from outreach services much closer to home."

The outreach screening will be held at the Free Clinick of Clinton County.
http://www.whiotv.com/news/14270655/detail.html

By Rory Ryan, Publisher & Editor, The Times-Gazette
Last week, we looked at why voters should reject each and every state issue on the Nov. 7 ballot. And as long as outside political interests continue to bring such inane proposals to the Buckeye State, Ohioans should continue to vote them down. These outside political activists are costing Ohio taxpayers millions of dollars. A year ago, Ohio voters told 'em to get lost. Let's send them packing again.

This week, in keeping with the obligatory pre-election newspaper column, let's look at the candidates worthy of our consideration next Tuesday.

Ohio Third District Rep. Mike Turner also has earned voters' support for another term.

The Dayton Daily News, in endorsing Turner, said "His experience and record in Congress, as mayor of Dayton and, before that, as a citizen activist, make him clearly a more qualified choice to serve this community in Washington than an opponent who not only has not held local elective office, but has never been active in the community beyond his job. Rep. Turner has served energetically, creatively and honorably."

Many Highland County residents have not been pleased with the county's inclusion in the Third Congressional District, where the majority of voters live in Montgomery County. In reality, Highland County with less than 5 percent of the votes, has less political clout in the district than her neighbors in Clinton, Warren and Montgomery counties. That said, Congressman Turner and his staff do make themselves available for Highland County concerns and issues.

The congressman, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, has a strong record of support for the military. This fact is not lost on local veterans, who will remember that Congressman Turner was at the Hillsboro VFW Post 9094 on Sunday morning, Oct. 15 to thank them for their service and to wish them well on an NCB-sponsored trip to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The largest newspapers in or near the Third District, The Dayton Daily News and The Cincinnati Enquirer, have endorsed Rep. Mike Turner. He's earned those endorsements and deserves to be re-elected on Nov. 7.
http://www.timesgazette.com

By Jessica Wehrman, Staff Writer, Sunday, October 29, 2006
WASHINGTON — During an election year when Republicans nationally face a harsh climate, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner is hoping voters in Ohio's 3rd Congressional District support him for primarily local reasons.

"I don't run for or against a party," he said. "I run on my record of service."

That record, he said, includes expansion of jobs at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, work on national security and promoting tax policy that he said helps to bring and keep jobs.

It also includes Turner's successful efforts to keep a nursing home at the Dayton VA Medical Center and to secure money for low-income senior housing at the center, he said.

Turner, R-Centerville, raised $244,954 for his re-election between July 1 and Sept. 30 and had $501,418 on hand as of Sept. 30. He is on the air with TV ads, but said he's trying to run a "very grassroots-oriented campaign."

He's gone door to door and will debate his opponent, Democrat Richard Chema, on WHIO-TV, NewsCenter 7 on Saturday.

"This is a critical time for our country, and we need experienced, community-oriented leadership," Turner said.

Chema campaigns under the platform of supporting a reasonable exit from Iraq as soon as possible. Turner said it's important to stabilize Iraq and that creating a successful democracy there would be good for the region.

"No one wants us to stay in Iraq forever," he said. "Everyone is supportive of the United States doing the job it needs to protect the American people, stabilize Iraq, fight terrorism and bring our men and women in uniform home."

He cites his own recent trip returning from Afghanistan, when he landed at Heathrow Airport in London, which had been closed because U.K. authorities had thwarted a plot to take down airplanes en route to the United States.

That plot, he said, was a reminder that the war on terror continues — and has gone on since the 1990s, when U.S. embassies were bombed by Islamic fundamentalists.

He said his work on the House Armed Services Committee — he is the only Ohio Republican on the committee — helps give the community a voice in the war on terror and directly helps Wright-Pat, as he works to raise the profile of the base and to seek funding for it.

He has also been active in urban issues, and has created a niche as one of the few members of the House Republican conference who is a former urban mayor.

He chairs the Speaker's Working Group on Saving America's Cities and is chairman of a House subcommittee on Federalism and the Census.

"When you're talking about urban development, you're talking about redevelopment," he said, saying the issues touch on cleaning up environmental contamination, seeking funding to revitalize dilapidated inner cities and making previously abandoned areas ready for jobs.

He said while in office, he has secured $4.5 million for developing land for Dayton's Tech Town project, near the baseball stadium, to make it ready for jobs, and $6 million for the expansion of RiverScape, a project he said had helped attract business to downtown.

He said he has also garnered funding for the cleanup of the abandoned NCR site near the University of Dayton.

He bristles at Chema's suggestions that he has focused on "ribbon-cutting," rather than saving area jobs, saying he has worked to support policies that encourage capital investment as well as education and transitional training for those looking for new careers.
http://www.daytondailynews.com

Cincinnati Enquirer
When Stephanie Studebaker withdrew as the Democratic candidate for Ohio’s 3rd U.S. House District seat in August after being arrested in a domestic violence case, Dick Chema of Dayton took an extraordinary step – resigning his post as assistant U.S. attorney to run in a special primary for the nomination, which he won handily.

Chema has run a strong if somewhat improvised, short-on-cash campaign, upholding the finest tradition of competitive politics by offering a real choice.

We applaud him. And we choose his opponent, Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Turner, for our endorsement.

Turner, a former mayor of Dayton who was elected to Congress in 2002, serves a district that includes his home turf, plus northern Warren County, Clinton County and Highland County.

He has quickly made his mark, establishing himself as a leader on urban issues – a natural outgrowth of his former post – and being named head of the House’s new national Saving America’s Cities working group.

Turner is committed to having the nation’s urban legislators and mayors put their best practices together and press Congress for legislation to let the market work in reviving core cities. Turner deserves the chance to continue work on policies that could help Dayton, Cincinnati and cities throughout our region.

Turner has been a good advocate for his district on preserving jobs at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and other issues. He takes a no-nonsense, no-excuses stance on the GOP’s Mark Foley scandal, saying those who learned of the former representative’s inappropriate messages to male teenage pages should have just called the cops right away. He favors full investigations, wherever they lead.

Chema, who was in charge of the criminal division in this area’s U.S. attorney’s office, dealt with complex, high-profile cases. His legal qualifications and management experience are outstanding. But as a sudden, first-time candidate for public office, he’s just getting his feet wet in issues that face Congress such as energy policy and budgeting.

He is a thoughtful, independent voice, but Mike Turner has the experience and clout to serve the 3rd District well. We endorse Mike Turner.

By Jessica Wehrman, Staff Writer, Thursday, October 26, 2006
Rep. Mike Turner hosted two members of a key House appropriations subcommittee Wednesday in hopes of securing funding for last year's base realignment recommendations.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base garnered a handful of key missions as a result of the September 2005 recommendations, including the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, the Air Force Institute of Occupational Health and the Naval Aeromedical Research Laboratory.

But bringing those missions to the base will cost an estimated $200 million, Turner said Wednesday. Among the most high-price implementations: Bringing medical missions to the base.

"The BRAC (base realignment and closure) decision is not when the game is over," said Turner, R-Centerville. "It's when the jobs are actually here that it's over."

So he decided to do a little in-Congress lobbying: He invited Reps. Denny Rehberg, R-Montana and John Carter, R-Texas, to the base to show them the base's needs. Both are members of the House Appropriations committee's Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee. Also serving on the larger House Appropriations Committee is Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield.

Rehberg said the visit helped Turner make his case for the base. "By being here and seeing the projects, we become advocates," he said. He said initial implementation costs nationally have come in higher than anticipated, and communities that once scrambled to garner jobs for their bases are now scrambling for money to implement recommended changes.
http://www.daytondailynews.com

Monday, October 23, 2006
This year has some Democrats thinking big thoughts about their chances of knocking off Congressman Mike Turner, R-Centerville. After all, his 3rd Congressional District, while designed to favor Republicans, is not an absolute lock for them. Centered in Montgomery County, it does have a lot of Democrats.

And Democrats are expecting their best year in a very long time. And they caught a break in this race. Coming into 2006, people weren't lining up to run against Rep. Turner. So the nomination went to a newcomer. That candidate had to withdraw for personal reasons. Then came Richard Chema.

As the top federal prosecutor for criminal cases in this region of Ohio (having been named to that position by a Republican prosecutor), he deserves to be taken seriously. If he's not exactly a household name, he does have a public record. He also has connections to raise some money. He can make a case for himself that, if it lacks the Mike Turner polish, is nevertheless professionally done and substantive.

The case Mr. Chema makes is not fuzzy. It is that the incumbent is a Republican, and a loyal one. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, Rep. Turner has supported the war in Iraq. He's been a member of a House majority that is racked by scandal. He has been part of a team that is doing little about the nation's energy or education problems. People looking for a change should vote for the Democrat, says the Democrat.

In fact, Rep. Turner does have some answering to do on the question of party loyalty. He never raised a public peep about the notorious Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the most bitterly partisan, ethically offensive major figure in American politics in years.

Rep. Turner and his colleagues just kept re-electing him to leadership. A whole network built up around Rep. DeLay that included disgraced superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. It was a dark day.

However, Rep. Turner himself has not been caught up in any scandals. He has gone about doing the legitimate work of a nuts-and-bolts legislator effectively. He has helped create an agenda for "urban Republicans," pushing his party to support cleaning up "brownfields" so that cities might redevelop them.

He successfully fought a Bush administration plan that jeopardized a federal program — Community Development Block Grants — that urban specialists know to be a good one. Dayton benefits from this money, as do many other local cities.

He has served his home community on other fronts, too, including being part of a successful battle to prevent the Army from disposing neutralized nerve gas in the area.

He has impressed his party leaders and won good assignments, such as chairmanship of an ad hoc committee to study security threats to the country.

Loyal to President Bush? That's certainly true. Perhaps the best that can be said on that score is that his actions have won him some freedom of maneuver on urban issues.

Rep. Turner did oppose the president's call for partial privatization of Social Security (in his first campaign for Congress).

His experience and record in Congress, as mayor of Dayton and, before that, as a citizen activist, make him clearly a more qualified choice to serve this community in Washington than an opponent who not only has not held local elective office, but has never been active in the community beyond his job.

Rep. Turner has served energetically, creatively and honorably. He deserves to be judged as an individual. The district would serve its own interests by doing so.
http://www.daytondailynews.com

(10/06)
"It's refreshing when a Republican endorses public-private partnerships to revive his deteriorated urban district, as Turner does, rather than trotting out the same old claptrap about the miracle of the market."

By Jessica Wehrman, Dayton Daily Staff Writer
WASHINGTON —  How can the agency whose job it is to count the U.S. population lose 672 laptop computers and not know?

That's the question of U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, after the Commerce Department reported it lost 1,138 laptops since 2001 — including 672 from the Census Bureau and 325 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Turner, chairman of a House subcommittee on federalism and the census, has oversight over the Census Bureau. He said Friday he will schedule hearings in October on its lost laptops.

Announcing the loss late Thursday, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said "the vulnerability for data misuse is low."

The census computers require passwords and much information is believed to be encrypted.

"We know of no instances of personal information being improperly used," he said.

Turner, however, said the Census Bureau has not investigated whether information has been compromised. "The Census Bureau needs to operate at a higher level of care," he said.

Turner said 246 of the lost census laptops are believed to contain personal information, from name and address to Social Security data, professional information and household data.

Commerce's announcement came in response to public requests and a July 10 request from leaders of the House Government Reform Committee for federal agencies to inventory their laptops.

The request followed the theft of a Veterans Affairs laptop — since recovered — with information on about 26.5 million veterans and troops.

Turner said most of the census laptops are believed to have been lost when departing employees did not return their equipment. He said the bureau also reported lost handheld electronic devices, and other technology.

He wants a full accounting and detailing of lost devices by Oct. 12.

By Jessica Wehrman, Staff Writer, Thursday, September 21, 2006
WASHINGTON — Former Dayton City Commissioner Idotha Bootsie Neal on Wednesday credited federal programs with helping to revitalize the Wright-Dunbar Village, rebuilding a section of Dayton that was mostly vacant and dilapidated.

Neal, now the president of Wright Dunbar Inc., testified before a congressional subcommittee chaired by Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville. She said Wright Dunbar Inc. and the city relied on $2.9 million in federal funding to buy and stabilize nine historic properties in the area and used Community Development Block Grant money and federal tax credits to rebuild an area that's now thriving.

"People are now coming back to the community and feeling good about being there," she said.

Neal's argument dovetailed with Turner's assertion that historic preservation not only rehabilitates housing stock but "has been increasingly recognized as a powerful tool for neighborhood revitalization and economic development."

Turner is chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census, which this year is studying historic preservation.

Other witnesses Wednesday hearing backed legislation introduced by Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., that would tweak historic preservation tax credits in hopes of making them more applicable to community revitalization, housing and smaller "main street" preservation projects. Turner is a co-sponsor.

Neal said restoring the neighborhood also preserved a key piece of Dayton's identity.

"There's a neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio — a Midwestern city — where three geniuses ... helped to change the world," she said, referring to Orville and Wilbur Wright, inventors of flight, and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, who lived in the area that now bears their names," Neal said.

"Those three individuals, even though they are no longer here, continue to impact the kind of world we live in."
http://www.daytondailynews.com

By Sean Strader, Staff Writer, Wednesday, September 20, 2006
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, made a trip to Dayton on Tuesday to tour local historic sites with U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, chairman of the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment.

The congressmen visited the Air Force museum, Carillon Park, Orville and Wilbur Wright's bike shop, and the Wrights' former residence at Hawthorn Hill in Oakwood.

Taylor said he visited because his committee deals with funding for the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, and he had never visited the park or Dayton before.

"We wanted to show the chairman first-hand the history and heritage in these locations," Turner said. "You don't understand the places until you get to actually see them."

Amanda Wright Lane, the Wrights' great-grandniece, gave them a tour of the Hawthorn Hill residence, which was donated to the Wright Family Foundation by NCR this August. Hawthorn Hill is not part of the national park, but will be considered if the foundation decides to include it, Taylor said.

"I'm from North Carolina, where we are very excited about what the Wrights did," Taylor said. "These places are all a great part of the history of the birth of aviation."
http://www.daytondailynews.com

Dayton Business Journal
First Lady Laura Bush visited the Wright-Dunbar neighborhood Wednesday, touring the Wright Cycle Shop and Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center along with congressmen and local officials.Her visit will help draw attention to the area's revitalization and preservation efforts, said U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, who invited the First Lady to visit the site. Turner also helped Wright-Dunbar Inc. land a $70,000 'Preserve America' grant, which will fund a study of the economic impact of connecting cultural heritage sites, such as the national park area in neighborhood and other sites in the region.

"This really is an area that was in great distress, and now today with the housing that's going up, with the commercial area that's being redeveloped and the national park as an anchor, we really do see a neighborhood that's turning around," Turner said.

"This really is an area that was in great distress, and now today with the housing that's going up, with the commercial area that's being redeveloped and the national park as an anchor, we really do see a neighborhood that's turning around," Turner said.

"This is a national jewel for the entire country," Neal said.

The First Lady visited Dayton while campaigning for Republican candidates in Ohio and Kentucky. While this stop was not a campaign stop, she had delivered remarks at a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis in Lexington, and another for Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, at the NCR Country Club in Kettering, earlier in the day.

DeWine also accompanied her on the tour of the site. Before returning to Washington, D.C., this evening, she had another appearance to make at a reception for Chris Wakim, who is running for Congress in West Virginia.

By Ryan Justin Fox, Dayton Daily News Staff Writer
DAYTON | U.S. Rep. Mike Turner intended to return to the Miami Valley to give constituents an update on the country's war on terror in the Middle East. On the way home though, he found himself in the middle of London's latest battle with terrorism.

Turner, R-Centerville, talked about his travels at Saturday's Dayton Dragons game at Fifth Third Field. He was there to present a video tribute to military families shot during his delegation's trip to Afghanistan.

Turner, who arrived in Dayton on Friday night, said the recent events reminds Americans and British citizens of the continuous threat of terrorism. Turner was flying into London's Heathrow Airport when he learned about Thursday's foiled terrorist plot.

"I think sometimes we forget," Turner said. "One thing is we have to be right all the time. They only have to get lucky once."

Heathrow was in disarray with thousands of stranded travelers when Turner arrived in London. U.S. Embassy officials told him about the events and eventually coordinated his flight back to the United States.

Turner commended the Dayton airport for its security measures, but said that citizens need to remain vigilant, even in smaller airports such as Dayton International Airport.

Terrorists could use mid-size and smaller airports to connect to larger sites, he said.

"Our airport and others like it are ports to other airports," Turner said.

By Jessica Wehrman, Dayton Daily News Staff Writer
Rep. Mike Turner flew into London Thursday morning at the conclusion of a congressional trip to Afghanistan only to be greeted with the news that London Heathrow Airport was closed and that authorities had thwarted a terrorist plan to target flights between London and the United States.

Turner, R-Centerville, had been scheduled to meet with a member of the British Parliament Thursday night and fly back Friday on a United Airlines flight, one of the airlines apparently targeted in the plot. He said Thursday his flight plans were now in question and he was working with the U.S. Embassy in London to figure out when he could return.

Turner said he did not know of the threat until after he had gotten off his flight from Kurdistan to London, which flew over Armenia. He said when he arrived in London, the airport was "in significant disarray," filled with travelers whose connecting flights had been canceled

Turner was in Afghanistan and Kurdistan this week to meet with soldiers serving in the war on terror

By Jessica Wehrman, Dayton Daily News Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Turner reunited with one of his former aides this week in Afghanistan — and the aide's parents got to reap the benefit of that visit.

Turner, R-Centerville, who went with two staff members to Afghanistan to meet with the troops and other military leaders, met with Scott Thompson, a Bellefontaine native who worked as a staff assistant for about six months during Turner's first year in office.

Turner arranged for Thompson, 26, to talk to his parents by videophone from Thompson's station on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan at 4:15 a.m. Wednesday. The meeting was joyful, said Thompson's mom, Peggy Thompson. Peggy and Gary Thompson also have a son, Greg, 28, who is serving in Afghanistan. "They make us proud," said Peggy Thompson.

She said Thompson "was tickled" to meet with his former boss and give him a tour of where he and the 20th Special Forces Group are stationed.

Turner met with 50 troops from Ohio. He said troops stationed in Afghanistan "are definitely feeling as if the American public is not aware of the everyday danger men and women in Afghanistan are feeling."

"Afghanistan is as violent today as it has ever been," he said, adding that al-Qaida continues to train in Pakistan and would like the Taliban to regain control of Afghanistan.

Turner said Thompson's team is working to train the Afghan army and secure the area where they're deployed.

"When we get briefings in Washington, they're third- or fourth-hand," he said. "Here was an opportunity to actually go to a forward-operating base and talk to the special forces."

By Timothy R. Gaffney, Dayton Daily News Staff Writer
The Energy Department is seeking bids to clean up the last two contaminated parcels of the former Mound nuclear weapons plant in Miamisburg.

The cleanup involves the removal of a variety of buried wastes, including 2,500 empty, crushed drums contaminated with radioactive thorium, sand contaminated with radioactive polonium and a mix of other wastes contaminated with radioactive isotopes and non-radioactive chemicals.

In June, the Energy Department's Ohio Field Office and cleanup contractor CH2M Hill declared they had shipped the last truckload of radioactive contaminants from the 305-acre site.

On Monday, a spokeswoman for the agency's Cincinnati office said the June shipment was only the last truckload by that contractor.

The new work remains because the Energy Department didn't include it in the current cleanup contract. It had decided the wastes could remain safely buried, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had agreed.

Local officials opposed the plan, and U.S. Representatives David Hobson, R-Springfield, and Mike Turner, R-Centerville, got Congress to earmark $30 million to finish the job.

A local group is converting the site to commercial use as the Mound Advanced Technology Center.

The Energy Department's office of inspector general criticized the Mound cleanup project in March, saying it was more than a year behind schedule and $476 million over original estimates.

The cleanup work will be done under a task order to be issued to a small business from a pool of previously qualified companies.

By Nakeisha Rowe, Dayton Daily News Staff Writer
DAYTON | U.S. Sen. George Voinovich R-Ohio, toured Tech Town on Friday, and said he was excited to see the project under way,

Tech Town is one of 10 old contaminated industrial sites, called "brownfields," in the area.

It is being developed by several companies, including General Motors, which formerly owned the 35-acre Harrison Radiator plant site on East Monument Avenue, and CityWide Development Corp., to bring in new companies and create jobs.

Montgomery County Commissioner Charles Curran said that once Tech Town is fully developed, three companies that have committed to move in, or expressed an interest, could bring in 2,500 jobs.

The companies are Dayton-based Quantrum LLC, Miamisburg-based Western Environmental and Fairborn-based Diamond of Ohio LL, Gwen Eberly, acting director of the city's Department of Economic Development, said last week.

"The country is becoming incredibly technology-based and we want Tech Town to move in that direction," Curran said.

Mayor Rhine McLin said that she hopes other organizations look at Tech Town as a potential office site.

"We're hoping that folks from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the University of Dayton Research Institute will check out Tech Town once everything is developed," McLin said.

The Tech Town project is funded through several sources. Eberly said Friday that $25 million has been secured to date.

The Clean Ohio fund has contributed $3 million. U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, has secured $5 million in federal funds.

"Right now, we're just focusing on getting the site ready for developing, active marketing and securing more funds," Eberly said.

Turner said development of Tech Town is part of the downtown revitalization project that includes RiverScape and Fifth Third Field.

"If it wasn't for the abandoned sites that are around the city, we would more than likely have a lot more jobs than we do now," Turner said. "The brownfields that we have are the sole impediment in the industry field in Dayton right now."

The bill Voinovich introduced last month, America's Brownfield Cleanup Act, is the Senate version of the bill Turner proposed in the House of Representatives. The Cleanup Act will provide $40 million to clean up brownfield sites around the country and offer a tax credit of up to 50 percent to companies that help revitalization efforts.

Voinovich said projects like Tech Town help improve the job situation and the quality of life in the area. The Dayton region has been taking more blows than any other region in Ohio in recent months, he said.

"In terms of social economy, this is what we should be focusing on," Voinovich said.

By Jessica Wehrman, Dayton Daily News Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — U.S. Reps. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, and Tim Ryan, D-Niles, have sent a letter to the Secretary of Labor urging her to ensure that Delphi employees who accept a buyout are still eligible for federal benefits.

Turner and Ryan said in particular they want to make sure Delphi employees who accept a buyout can receive federal assistance that will help train them for and find new jobs.

"It's a question that has been raised and we would like to impact the outcome," Turner said. "At this point it appears there may be an attempt to deny those individuals services and assistance to find good and high-paying jobs."

In the letter, the congressmen say they're worried that workers accepting the buyout would be considered to have left voluntarily.

"The hard-working employees of Delphi would like nothing more than to continue to do the jobs they have always done, some for almost 40 years," they wrote.

"The fact is, the Delphi Corporation is in bankruptcy and seeks to eliminate thousands of employees, whether they accept the offer or not."

Turner said one of the jobs to be eliminated is one his father held for 42 years.

"I know how important these jobs are to the families in the community," he said.

Gita Balakrishnan, The Times-Gazette and The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — While House leaders gently push for changes to a beloved federal grant program, the chairman of a Senate subcommittee Thursday said he’s concerned about fraudulent use of the aid and promoted the administration’s proposed changes.

The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is jealously guarded by cities and counties who rely on the flexibility it gives them to use federal money to cure all kinds of local ills, from health care access problems to urban blight.

In past years, President Bush’s attempts to overhaul the grants have gained little traction in the face of heavy local government lobbying. But Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., whose subcommittee oversees the program, was ready Thursday to push changes to grant distribution formulas and tougher restrictions on how the money is spent.

‘‘The lack of transparency and accountability of this program is unacceptable,’’ Coburn said.

The tenor of Senate hearings contrasted similar House hearings earlier this week. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, the former mayor of Dayton, has warned mayors that the grants require some changes and he welcomed some of the same witnesses to his House committee to tout their proposals.

But Turner said he didn’t like how the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s planned changes to the grant formula would shift funds from the Midwest and Northeast to the faster-growing, newer communities of the South and Southwest. Turner’s hometown of Dayton stands to lose more than $1 million a year under HUD’s proposal.

In a phone interview with the The Times-Gazette, Turner added that in aggregate, the state of Ohio could potentially lose more than $11 million if the proposed changes were to pass.

“That would impact the state’s ability to provide grants to rural areas, and it would impact urban areas that currently receive the (CDBG) funds directly,” Turner said. “When you have $11 million less in the state of Ohio to use for community and economic development, it has an impact on our ability to continue to grow and to address community development issues. There are ways that CDBG funding can be improved, but a state like Ohio, with a shifting economy, should not be penalized. Our federal assistance is necessary to make positive improvements.”

“Even with the population drain, we should be putting more weight on the urban poverty in the Midwest and East Coast, not less,” Dayton Commissioner Dean Lovelace said. “These cuts would be devastating to us.”

Highland County Commissioner Russ Newman agreed saying that “those cities that are growing should also be having growing economies. They should have a better opportunity for funding. (If CDBG funding were cut) it would reduce our ability to upgrade roads, housing, water and sewage throughout the county. CDBG funds are one way small, rural counties can take care of some of the problems we have.”

Newman added that in past five years, CDBG funding to the county has already been reduced by close to 50 percent, citing 2002’s grant at $232,000 and this year’s grant at only $178,000.

Turner added that in the past, Ohio had always been a big winner in receiving CDBG funding because of an element included that would base the allotment of monies to state on the number of houses that were built pre-1940.

“They have eliminated that as a consideration and that was a big element for us,” Turner said. “Another big thing in Ohio is that for our urban areas, they took out any funds addressing abandoned housing. In Ohio, there tends to be thousands of abandoned housing that CDBG had been used for.”

Even cities that stand to gain under a revamped formula are concerned. Lorain Mayor Craig Foltin, a Republican congressional candidate, said cuts to the overall pot of grant money is hurting his Lake Erie shoreline city and restrictions on use of the money have already kept him from beautifying areas of his downtown.

“Every year I personally contact our delegation and send letters to the relevant committees to keep the block grant in tact,” he said.

Coburn emphasized that he doesn’t want to eliminate the grant program, but fears it will be swept away entirely if it isn’t reformed. He was particularly disturbed by the testimony of Kenneth Donohue, the Federal Housing Department’s internal auditor, who reported several types of fraud using the federal grant funds, including the 2004 bribery conviction of former East Cleveland Mayor Emmanuel Onunwor.

Donohue said his investigators have questioned $100 million in grant spending since 2004 after reviewing just 35 of the approximately 1,200 cities, counties and state governments that receive the funds.

“The CDBG program has been one that has showed great examples of success and some cases of abuse,” Turner also said. “One of the abuses are areas where cities use a lot of the funds to pay their staff instead of using it for community development activities. Congress is very concerned that this money should get to the roads, housing and infrastructure of communities. This is an important program where in almost every community you can see the results and as a federal program, that makes quality, I want to make certain that it is sustained.”

Subcommittee member Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., the former mayor of St. Paul, said the program works too well to change so dramatically. Local leaders would be more accepting of changes if they weren’t accompanied by a 25 percent cut to the program’s current $3.7 billion budget, he said.

“My subcommittee just held a hearing on this,” Turner said. “We were the first to have a hearing on this with the administration proposals and we’ll work to modify their proposals that would obviously not penalize Ohio.”

The Times-Gazette
Congressman Mike Turner (R-Dayton) visited the VFW Post 9094 Tuesday to receive a plaque by the veteran’s organization recognizing his continuous support of Hillsboro’s VFW Post and veterans statewide. In a statement, Turner said that “our freedom has come from our veterans and it’s a continuous battle in the world. For Americans to stay free, we have to have people stay in uniform.” As Turner (right) was handed the plaque by quartermaster Bob Curtis, he thanked the VFW for their hard work and dedication to America and urged those in attendance to continue to recognize and support the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as veterans continue to be recognized nationally on Memorial Day.

By David S. Broder, Washington Post
The federal budget, for all its bewildering detail, sketches a remarkably clear picture of the priorities of any administration. Congress always puts its own stamp on the fiscal design, but when you have a situation where the same party controls both elected branches, as Republicans do now,the modifications tend to be at the margins.

What the budget released last week shows about the Bush-Republican regime is essentially a very simple story. Financing military operations has taken an increasing share of the federal dollar, with health care and Social Security eating up much of what remains.

The squeeze has been felt by a variety of other domestic programs, but especially -- and significantly -- by those where Washington is supposed to be a partner of state and local governments.

There's been a lot of attention given -- and properly so -- to the way Uncle Sam has commandeered National Guard troops from the states for service in Iraq and Afghanistan. But an examination of budget trends shows that Washington has been just as effective in siphoning money from the states and cities to help finance our military obligations.

National defense outlays rose from $304.8 billion in 2001 to $535.9 billion in the current fiscal year -- an increase of 76 percent. In the same five-year span, health care and Medicare, combined, rose from $389.6 billion to $611 billion, up 57 percent. Social Security and other federal retirement and income-support spending went from $702 .8 billion to $915.3 billion, an increase of 30 percent. Everything else the government does -- at home and abroad -- went from $466 billion in 2001 to $645.6 billion in 2006 -- an increase of 39 percent.

During those five years, the public debt rose from $3.3 trillion to $5 trillion -- a measure of the degree to which we have failed to pay for the government activities that Congress and the president have approved. Even with interest rates declining, the net interest bill has risen from $206.2 billion annually to $220 billion.

What this has meant is that federal aid to states and cities has been shortchanged. While federal payments to individuals -- through such programs as Medicaid, welfare and food stamps, in which states share the costs -- grew rapidly in this period, those for infrastructure, housing, education and other domestic purposes grew more slowly, even with the addition of large sums for homeland defense.

The trend is particularly striking when it comes to capital expenditures -- the financing of highways, airports, mass transit, sewage treatment plants and community development. Measured in constant dollars, they grew only 10 percent in five years -- and the federal contribution actually declined when compared with the sums that state and local governments were investing.

This year, once again, the Bush administration has targeted urban programs for cutbacks. Last year the president tried to kill the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program in its historical home in the Department of Housing and Urban Development and substitute for it an alternative that would be run out of the Commerce Department.

Responding to protests from mayors of both parties, who said that the grants were their most flexible tool for spurring investment in blighted downtowns and neighborhoods, Congress rejected the Bush plan. But this year the president wants to cut CDBG funding by $1 billion, a reduction of more than 25 percent.

A joint statement from 14 groups described the cut as "devastating" and a "serious threat" to ongoing projects. The statement noted the irony that the administration has used the program as the best vehicle to deliver $11.5 billion of emergency funding to Gulf Coast communities devastated by last year's hurricanes, but it nonetheless wants to take the program out of many other cities.

Rep. Michael Turner, the Ohio Republican who heads the House task force on urban affairs, conducted hearings last year on the program and has recommended improvements in it. But he said he is concerned about the impact of President Bush's proposed cuts on a program he called "essential to our nation's communities and neighborhoods."

"Reducing funding to these programs hurts people trying to recapture their neighborhoods and revitalize their communities," Turner said.

This is but one of many examples of the way that important domestic programs are being jeopardized by the priorities of this government -- and especially by Bush's adamant refusal to raise the revenue needed to support the ever-more-expensive war effort.

By David S. Broder, Washington Post
However hapless he appeared at the congressional hearing Tuesday on Hurricane Katrina, former Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown was right about one thing.

The failure to respond to that disaster exposed one of the few real structural weaknesses in our Constitution: a mechanism to coordinate the work of local, state and national governments.

The federal system of divided power and responsibility is one of the glories of the Founders' work, a scheme that has helped preserve individual liberty and the flexibility needed to run a continent-size nation.

But when a task requires those separate governments to work together, there is no ready forum in which they can meet.

This is a problem that urgently requires presidential attention. Before the United States spends $60 billion, or $200 billion, or whatever the final bill may be, there needs to be a coordinated federal response -- not a dictated Washington plan.

President Bush wisely has rejected calls to appoint a Washington czar to issue orders to Gulf Coast officials. But he has yet to enlist the ideas of the people who could make this a new model of federal-state-local cooperation. Instead of repeating his flying photo ops to the region, he ought to be on the phone inviting people to a summit on how to fill this gap in our constitutional structure.

Whom to invite? Because the president is more comfortable with fellow Republicans, I'd start with someone he knows well, a member of his own Cabinet: Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. As governor of Utah and chairman of the National Governors Association, Leavitt was probably the most creative thinker on federalism issues among a talented cohort of state executives.

Next, another man he knows well, former secretary of state Colin Powell. Before he entered government, Powell founded America's Promise, the largest consortium of faith-based and secular nonprofit and private organizations working on urban and human-service problems. Those groups have a vital role to play in rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Then, Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, unique in his background as mayor of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County commissioner, state legislator and governor. When I talked to Voinovich this week, he said the president should be in touch with all the organizations representing local and state governments. Like the others, he has yet to hear from the White House.

As it happens, the president could reach all those groups through another Ohio Republican, Rep. Michael Turner, the head of the House speaker's urban working group. Turner, the former mayor of Dayton, and his colleagues have enlisted a strong advisory panel, including Marc Morial, the National Urban League president and a former New Orleans mayor, and have established liaison on a bipartisan basis with all the major organizations, public and private, with a stake in housing and economic development.

But Turner, like the others, has heard nothing yet from the White House. Last Friday a presidential aide made a conference call to 220 groups, briefing them for an hour and answering questions about the response to Katrina and the preparations for Rita. But participants said there was little opportunity -- or appetite -- for them to offer ideas.

If the president were smart, he'd invite Jack Kemp, who is on Turner's advisory panel, and two other dynamic former secretaries of housing and urban development, Carla Hills and Henry Cisneros, to brainstorm with him.

He should include Dick Moe, the head of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, who could remind him of the contributions that the craftsmen of New Orleans -- plasterers, ironworkers and the rest -- can make to refurbishing their city.

If Bush wanted to make this effort really bipartisan, he could also usefully tap the minds of Harry McPherson, the wise old man of Lyndon Johnson's domestic staff, and his new law partner Dick Gephardt, who before going to Congress was an energetic and imaginative alderman in New Orleans's sister city on the Mississippi, St. Louis.

Bush definitely should call former governor William Winter of Mississippi, who helped found the University of Mississippi's Institute for Racial Reconciliation. If Bush is serious about tackling the problems of race and poverty, a repository of knowledge awaits him there, and Winter is eager to help.

And, finally, he should call William H. Gray III, the Philadelphia preacher and former congressman who for years headed the United Negro College Fund -- the group whose slogan, famously mangled by Dan Quayle, could well be paraphrased as advice to this president: These minds are a terrible thing to waste.