To the Point

As Ohio Goes, So Goes the Nation?

Hard hit by globalization, it's lost almost 250,000 jobs in the past four years, many of them to China. Unemployment is above 15 percent in some counties, and Cleveland is now the nation's poorest big city. But the President's still in a dead-heat with John Kerry, and Ohio's being called an essential "swing state." In tomorrow's final debate on domestic issues, what do Ohio voters want to hear? If it's not just the economy, what about homeland security and social questions, like abortion and gay rights? Warren Olney finds out, in a conversation with journalists, economic experts from the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and Case Western Reserve University, and a steel worker displaced by outsourcing. Making News: Corporate Tax Bill Forget the Columbus Day holiday and forget the deficit. The Senate yesterday joined the House in passing a massive corporate tax break. President Bush is expected to sign it, despite harsh words last week from his own Treasury Secretary. Jonathan Weisman, who writes about economics for the Washington Post, does not share the President's optimism that the bill will discourage outsourcing of manufacturing and consumer services. Reporter's Notebook: An Attack on Kerry in Primetime, and Democrats Cry Foul The Sinclair Broadcast Group calls it news. The Kerry campaign calls it political propaganda. At issue is Stolen Honor, a film that Sinclair has ordered 62 TV stations to run in almost 25 percent of US media markets. The Democratic National Committee is going to court to try to prevent the broadcast. Robert Thompson, who runs the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, says the matter combines issues of journalism, ownership, propaganda and deregulation.