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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Campaign: Job and Re-Entry Barriers a Drain on Ohio's Economy

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Thursday, June 9, 2011   

COLUMBUS, Ohio - It's not just a civil rights issue, it's a matter that some experts say is a drain on Ohio's economy. More than 2 million individuals in the state with felony or misdemeanor convictions face over 900 collateral sanctions that prevent them from getting a job.

The executive director of the AMOS Project in Cincinnati, Paul Graham, says that's a lot of people who could be contributing to the economy.

"If we are going to get serious about economic growth and prosperity, we have to realize that when we leave so many people out, we can't have an economy that works for all people."

A new campaign, A Working Ohio is a Safe Ohio, is developing policies that would open up jobs and remove employment barriers for offenders returning to society, while enhancing public safety.

Stephen JohnsonGrove, deputy director for policy with the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, says the state has failed to acknowledge that people can turn their lives around.

"We don't have to paint everybody with such a broad brush. There are ways to create state policies to enhance the ability of people who really demonstrate rehabilitation to get jobs."

Dozens of community leaders and some state lawmakers are backing the campaign, including the president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, Rep. Sandra Williams (D-Cleveland), and Sens. Eric Kearney, Shirley Smith and Nina Turner.

Their support goes to show just how important this matter is for the future of Ohio, JohnsonGrove says.

"There are lots of things we can do to open up job opportunities so that people can get back into the workforce, because that's good for all of us. It's good for public safety, it's good for the tax base, it's good for the stability of the community."

Campaign ideas include Certificates of Rehabilitation and Employability, improved state background checks and reducing the number of ways a criminal conviction affects a person's ability to get back to work.





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