Ohio Supreme Court orders BWC to give all coin records to The Blade

[TOhioLiberal]

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court ordered the state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation today to release all coin purchase and sales records to The Blade, which first reported on the agency’s controversial rare coin investment.

The Blade had the final lawsuit pending before the court against the insurance fund for injured workers.

The Blade wanted records of every coin transaction back to the fund’s creation in 1998, including names of who bought or sold them and the sale price.

The Bureau of Workers’ Compensation had argued that the records belonged to the two coin funds once managed by Tom Noe, a Toledo-area coin dealer, not a public office. The bureau also said divulging the coins and their prices would reduce their value and violate trade secrets.

more here:
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050713/DEVELOPINGNEWS/50713027

[noamnety]

1. Trade secrets?

I'm not a collector, but are the value of collectibles really considered trade secrets that devalue an item if revealed?

[Selteri]

4. Not really, look up numistitism and Breen's book, you'll get

pretty much everything about the trade that really matters.

[kansasblue]

2. The Blade kicks ass!

They had some great research pieces on the Vietnam war too.

[RoyGBiv]

3. Indeed ...

Someone is paying attention in Toledo.

I first started hearing about this paper several years ago in relation to a very detailed story they did on Vietnam War atrocities and crimes. An acquaintance of mine was involved in these stories in a small way, to the extent he passed the reporters information that led to an expanding of the investigation to include examining the role of a current so-called legal scholar whose opinions on torture and the like make those of Alberto Gonzales look almost reasonable by comparison. The whole time this was going on I kept thinking with astonishment, "The _Toledo Blade_?"

So, I read the articles as they appeared, and it was thrilling to see real investigative journalism that didn't pull punches. Ever since then I've paid attention to what is coming out of Toledo, and it seems to me they, at least, have a clue.

[WCGreen]

5. This brings to mind the report about the Cuyahoga Cnty

Judges being disqualified from hearing a case brought to civil court by Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan....

Now look, the same supreme court that ruled that the BWC had to give the coingate records to the Toledo Blade also ruled that the sitting Judges in Cuyahoga County, the majority democrats, could not hear the case brought to court by Tim Hagan....

So, the item left out of the story about the 34 judges was that a fair amount of the judges are actually republican, a small number yes, but thos judges were also disqualified...

Now, the reason they were disqualified was because the Commissioners, Tim Hagan being one of them, control the budget for the Judges....

Pure and simple, a potential conflict of interest.....

It was a rule of law, not a partisan action....

The republican controled supreme court ruled against the GOP's interest by forcing the BWC to release the documents requested by the Toledo Blade....

Sometimes a ruling, although unpopular, is correct......

BTW, Tim Hagan filed in Cuyahoga County on purpose just to get democrats riled up. It's called tainting the pool.....

[Carla in Ca]

6. Wow. I just sent them a thank you email.

n/t

[thatgemguy]

7. The Blade Rocks!!!

Where is the outrage in Ohio over the BWC scandal?

The BWC needs to completely audited by an INDEPENDENT investigator.

The workers comp reform passed by Voinovich and the repukes in have given an unfair advantage to employers at the expense of injured workers. I think the repubs would like to damage the system enough so they could then call for privatization, in order to benefit their friends in the insurance industry.

The Ohio BWC now works on the 3-D system:

DELAY any decisions
DENY as much as possible
DESTROY the injured workers

I am an injured worker who has become a victim of this bureaucracy.

Managed care organizations (MCO's = Mismanaged Care) Nothing more than nurses on phones, second guessing decisions of doctors. Another unnecessary layer of bureaucracy,

BWC will no longer pay for the narcotic pain meds I need to function. (effective 7/10/05)

BWC has delayed payment of temporary total disability awards in my case.

My attorney tells me there are no statutes on the books regarding employer fraud.

Unless you are directly affected, you probably don't know how screwed up the system has become.

The Dems need to be all over this, especially with major elections in '06.

[WCGreen]

8. Okay, I know how bad this is....

But the outrage is there. Look at Bob Taft having only a 17% approval rating.......