Latest news with #TheodoreRoosevelt
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'Good deal' budget bill offers smart tax policy and relief for Ohio families
As the state's operating budget works its way through the General Assembly, I want to bring to your attention legislation that I've reintroduced with my colleague from Cleveland, Sen. Kent Smith. Senate Bill 190 is a mini-budget bill entitled "A Good Deal for Ohio." It's named in honor of two past presidents and the work they did while in office: Theodore Roosevelt and the "Square Deal"; and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the "New Deal." This effort is bipartisan and reflects what we believe would be a great budget. The bill is roughly $2 billion in revenues and expenditures and is, of course, balanced. It raises revenue by revising our tax code to close some overly generous tax loopholes and align other taxes with those of similar states. For example, the business income deduction has been in place for well over a decade. The first $250,000 of business income is tax-free, and it is taxed at a flat 3% above that level. For reference, Ohio's top income tax rate is 3.5%. This tax policy costs the state about $1.2 billion every year. The change we've made is to simply say that to receive this benefit, you need to materially participate in the business and employ at least one non-owner employee. In other words, you have to create jobs and not be a passive investor. This saves the state hundreds of millions per year and is consistent with many Ohio tax incentives that have a job creation requirement. Alaska, North Dakota and Texas have either no income tax or a very low income tax. They also have some of the highest severance taxes in the country − a severance tax is a tax on oil and gas extraction. Ohio's severance tax is one of the lowest in the country, and we have a thriving oil and gas industry. These high taxes haven't hampered Alaska, North Dakota and Texas; they're all red states, and their tax regimes exist with at least the tacit approval of Republicans. Moreover, John Kasich tried to increase the severance tax to underwrite an income tax cut. To simply do what these three states are doing will not destroy the oil and gas industry, and it would raise $500 million per year. There are many other changes on the revenue side, but let's talk about the expenditure side. Consistent with what we've heard from the electorate, the bill would deliver $900 million per year in property tax relief. It would do this by paying for the entirety of bipartisan, property tax "circuit-breaker" legislation: SB 22. It is means-tested, and goes to renters and homeowners alike, irrespective of age. It holds local political subdivisions harmless and is the only property tax relief legislation to earn the support of OASBO, which represents school treasurers. You should make up your mind on the proposal, but briefly here are the other elements: a refundable earned income tax credit (EITC); universal school breakfast and lunch; a major boost to the Ohio Housing Trust Fund; increases to the local government and public library funds; and an increase to 200% of FPL for initial eligibility for publicly funded childcare. What has made America and Ohio truly exceptional, and what this legislation supports, is a large and vibrant middle class combined with world-class social mobility. Though the chances of this legislation passing in its entirety are slim, that's not the point. It is to demonstrate what you could have, and serve as a blueprint for the future. To show that this makes better economic sense, as it will drive demand from the poor and middle classes, which will in turn drive business activity to meet that demand, all while strengthening our social safety net. And, finally, to restore faith in our public institutions that, while imperfect, are often the only entities in our corner when we fall on tough times. Louis W. Blessing III, R-Colerain Township, is serving his second term in the Ohio Senate. He currently represents Ohio's 8th Senate District, which encompasses a portion of Hamilton County. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio's budget can be balanced and bold | Opinion
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
On This Day, May 22: Ireland is 1st to pass marriage equality in popular vote
On this date in history: In 1868, seven members of the Reno gang stole $98,000 from a railway car at Marshfield, Ind. It was the original "Great Train Robbery." In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt established Crater Lake National Park in southwest Oregon, the fifth-oldest national park in the United States. The defining feature is Crater Lake, the remains of Mount Mazama, a volcano that collapsed after a major eruption thousands of years ago. In 1972, Richard Nixon became the first U.S president to visit Moscow. In 1987, a tornado flattened Saragosa, Texas, population 185, killing 29 residents and injuring 121. In 1990, South Yemen and North Yemen united, forming the new Yemeni Arab Republic. In 1992, Johnny Carson ended his nearly 30-year career as host of The Tonight Show. In 2002, authorities in Birmingham, Ala., convicted a fourth suspect in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. Bobby Frank Cherry, 71, a former Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced to life in prison. In 2003, Annika Sörenstam became the first woman in 59 years to compete in a PGA event but her 5-over-par 145 through two rounds of the Bank of America Colonial tournament failed to make the cut. In 2011, the deadliest tornado to strike the United States in half a century roared into the heart of Joplin, Mo., with winds of 200 mph. It killed nearly 160 people, injured about 1,100 others and destroyed nearly one-third of the city. Damage was estimated in the $3 billion range. In 2015, voters in Ireland overwhelmingly approved a measure to allow civil same-sex marriage, making it the first nation in the world to legalize gay unions through a popular vote. In 2017, a suicide bomber killed 22 people attending an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. More than 500 people sustained injuries. In 2020, at least 76 people died in a fiery crash of Pakistan International Airlines Flight PK-8303 near Karachi's Jinnah International Airport. In 2024, Ireland, Norway and Spain announced they would formally recognize Palestine as a state separate from Israel in an effort to inject renewed impetus into a hoped-for two-state solution to decades of conflict.
UPI
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
On This Day, May 22: Ireland is 1st to pass marriage equality in popular vote
1 of 5 | People celebrate as the final vote of the referendum on same-sex marriage is announced at Dublin Castle in Ireland on May 23, 2015, one day after a referendum on the issue. File Photo by Aidan Crawley/EPA On this date in history: In 1868, seven members of the Reno gang stole $98,000 from a railway car at Marshfield, Ind. It was the original "Great Train Robbery." In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt established Crater Lake National Park in southwest Oregon, the fifth-oldest national park in the United States. The defining feature is Crater Lake, the remains of Mount Mazama, a volcano that collapsed after a major eruption thousands of years ago. In 1972, Richard Nixon became the first U.S president to visit Moscow. In 1987, a tornado flattened Saragosa, Texas, population 185, killing 29 residents and injuring 121. In 1990, South Yemen and North Yemen united, forming the new Yemeni Arab Republic. In 1992, Johnny Carson ended his nearly 30-year career as host of The Tonight Show. File Photo by Mike Hill/UPI In 2002, authorities in Birmingham, Ala., convicted a fourth suspect in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. Bobby Frank Cherry, 71, a former Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced to life in prison. In 2003, Annika Sörenstam became the first woman in 59 years to compete in a PGA event but her 5-over-par 145 through two rounds of the Bank of America Colonial tournament failed to make the cut. In 2011, the deadliest tornado to strike the United States in half a century roared into the heart of Joplin, Mo., with winds of 200 mph. It killed nearly 160 people, injured about 1,100 others and destroyed nearly one-third of the city. Damage was estimated in the $3 billion range. File Photo by Rick Meyer/UPI In 2015, voters in Ireland overwhelmingly approved a measure to allow civil same-sex marriage, making it the first nation in the world to legalize gay unions through a popular vote. In 2017, a suicide bomber killed 22 people attending an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. More than 500 people sustained injuries. In 2020, at least 76 people died in a fiery crash of Pakistan International Airlines Flight PK-8303 near Karachi's Jinnah International Airport. In 2024, Ireland, Norway and Spain announced they would formally recognize Palestine as a state separate from Israel in an effort to inject renewed impetus into a hoped-for two-state solution to decades of conflict. File Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI
Fast Company
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Fast Company
North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library will redefine what a presidential library can be
Were it not for his experience in North Dakota, Theodore Roosevelt said he never would have become president of the United States. After his first wife and mother died on the same day in 1884, the eventual 26th president retreated to modern-day North Dakota to mourn and reflect. Next July, more than a century after Roosevelt's death, a presidential library in his honor is slated to open in the state that held so much significance in his life. And the visionaries behind the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library hope a visit to the Medora, North Dakota-based library will prove as restorative to people in the modern era as this area once was for Roosevelt. That may seem an ambitious goal, but this project offers an opportunity to expand the definition of what a presidential library can be, says Edward O'Keefe, chief executive officer of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. It was only fitting to take a land-first approach when celebrating a man who is synonymous with conservation and the national park system, he says. 'We wanted to build a place where you can learn about, and from, Theodore Roosevelt, where you can connect with friends and family and nature so you can decide what change you want to see in the world,' O'Keefe tells Fast Company. He wrote the book, The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt, which was released earlier this month. 'SOMETHING DYNAMICALLY DIFFERENT' Though there was talk of building a Roosevelt library for years, the idea started to take shape in March 2020 when the foundation launched a design competition. That COVID-era timing proved serendipitous, O'Keefe says, because it made the power of creating a place that would serve as a convening point all the more relevant. Later that year, Snøhetta, an Oslo-based architectural firm, was unanimously selected as design architect. 'This is not a museum with only artifacts under glass. It is meant to be an experience,' O'Keefe says. 'There's no point in building a presidential library to a president who has been gone for over 100 years unless you're going to do something dynamically different and for the future.' Among the design elements that make this library different from others is its roof, featuring dozens of native plant species that will help the building blend seamlessly into the prairie landscape. The coming weeks will mark a milestone in the construction process—that's when more than 28,000 plant plugs will be planted on the roof, which spans about three football fields in length, currently planned for June 6. The library's architecture was inspired by a leaf atop two pebbles and is almost identical to the initial design, says Craig Dykers, lead architect for the project and co-founder of Snøhetta. Once completed, people can ascend to the top of the roof for a view of the surrounding Badlands, the nearby Theodore Roosevelt National Park, nighttime stargazing and, eventually, events. 'I can tell you, it's such a dramatic experience,' Dykers tells Fast Company, adding that it was important to foster a direct connection with nature that Roosevelt enjoyed. 'It sort of purifies your soul and allows you to see things in a unique way.' Beyond the roof, the butte where the library is situated is being restored to how it might have looked when Roosevelt came west, with native grasses that are more resilient in what can be a harsh and windy environment. Local ranchers have also been consulted as part of the design process and will experiment with grazing cattle and bison on the 93-acre site. A LIVING BUILDING The library is pursuing full certification from the International Living Future Institute as part of its Living Building Challenge, the most advanced measure of sustainability. The project will serve as a model of self-sufficiency, featuring zero energy, zero emissions, zero water, and zero waste sustainability aspects. Inside the library are walls made from rammed earth, or soil that's been compressed. It's the first time in modern times this ancient technique has been used in North Dakota, and a team based out of nearby Dickinson came together to learn how to make these walls, Dykers says. From the walls to the roof and beyond, the living building is intentionally tactile so that visitors feel a connection with nature that's pervasive. In such ways, the design draws as much inspiration from the uniqueness of the land as it does the uniqueness of the man. SLOWING DOWN In addition to pouring through a wealth of biographies, academic research, and Roosevelt's speeches and writings, Dykers sought to better understand how that time in North Dakota helped break the president's spell of mourning. So the architect embarked on a nearly two-week solo hike during COVID-era lockdowns in the national park and surrounding area. 'To be in that place was so powerful to me, and that's exactly what happened to Teddy Roosevelt,' Dykers says. Even if many people aren't inclined to do the same, a kidney-shaped cultural loop that surrounds the library will ensure visitors can appreciate the land from different perspectives, Dykers notes. That's because the design is unusual in that it's essentially flat, even though the land is not, which allows people to experience the rolling landscape in a unique way, he adds. 'We're trying to slow people down, so they look down at their feet for a moment or look across the horizon for a moment, to get a different sense of time,' Dykers says. 'North Dakota has an exceptional horizon.' INSPIRING VISITORS For O'Keefe, who grew up in North Dakota, leading the foundation after a 20-year stint as a media executive has been a coming home of sorts. The future library and surrounding land will be an opportunity to introduce more people to his beloved home state. Just as Mount Rushmore has become a landmark destination in South Dakota, O'Keefe envisions the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library someday becoming the same for North Dakota. And drawing people together in a place that held almost-spiritual significance for Roosevelt may have the same effect for those who embrace it, O'Keefe says. 'The design is evocative of this purpose in bringing people together and exposing them to nature and trying to inspire them to live more purposeful lives,' O'Keefe says. 'The journey is the destination.'
The Guardian
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump is laying the groundwork to privatize America's national parks
Theodore Roosevelt, to whom Donald Trump has likened himself, used his executive power to double the size of the national park system and expand protection of American natural landscapes and historic landmarks. He strongly supported a merit-based civil service that now includes the 100-year-old National Park Service (NPS). This small agency (its 2020 budget was one-fifteenth of one percent of the overall federal budget) has as its mission preserving 'unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations'. Public surveys repeatedly show that Americans rank the National Park Service the highest among all federal agencies. Last year there were over 330 million visits to the parks, more than professional baseball, football, basketball and the Disney amusement parks combined. Roosevelt, visiting Grand Canyon national park in 1903, proclaimed: Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American if he can travel at all should see. Yet today the Trump administration has turned its back on his role model's wisdom. Bolstered by 'free market acolytes' that have long pursued the parks as unrealized business opportunities, antipathy to public service, and the absence of congressional oversight, privatizing our national parks is now in their sights. Every American, Republicans and Democrats alike, should be outraged and determined in voicing their objections. The administration's plan is as clear and stunning as the sun rising over the Grand Canyon. First, severely slash the budget of the NPS, force retirements of dedicated and experienced NPS leaders, terminate the employment of those who refuse, cut the staffs of parks and historic sites, and replace park superintendents with political appointees ready to do the private sector's bidding. Then, with failure as the goal, ignore the concerns of the public, the outdoor recreation industry, conservationists, and the communities near parks (many with Republican town governments) that are dependent upon visitor tourism for jobs and services. Next, the administration will claim the private sector can better run (read 'exploit') the parks that the administration purposely set up to fail. Trump officials will begin to find ways around the law, Congress and the public to eliminate the NPS and centralize control among the Doge staff embedded at the Department of the Interior as a step toward putting the parks in the hands of private developers. The first to be privatized will be what they see as 'cash cows' – parks with high visitation and profit potential, such as Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. The Trump administration will suggest this is just a 'pilot program' but the real intent is to test if the public, the courts and Congress can be safely ignored. If successful, the privatizing will expand to the sale, transfer or abandonment of the smaller park sites, such as Teddy Roosevelt's home at Sagamore Hill national historic site. As clear evidence of this direction, on 2 May, the Trump administration released its fiscal year 2026 discretionary budget request proposing a $900m cut to the NPS budget and stated: 'There is an urgent need to streamline staffing and transfer certain properties to State-level management.' What is at risk? This is not a concession operating a park lodge or a contractor keeping a campground clean. This is taking the people's parks and giving them over to corporations with profit motives that will push for resort developments for the extremely wealthy and ticketed bison petting zoos for the general public. Turning national parks into entertainment venues – a zipline down the Grand Canyon from where Roosevelt once stood, or an exclusive golf course in Yosemite valley. What can be done to prevent this great harm to what has been called 'America's best idea'? A bipartisan effort within Congress is necessary to exert proper oversight and demand fidelity to the law regarding the national park system as a public resource. The mayors and city councils of the small towns in red and blue states that serve as gateway communities to the parks can make clear that weakening the National Park Service and privatizing the parks will affect their seasonal economy. The $800bn outdoor recreation industry can declare its existence is dependent upon keeping the public's land public and the parks managed by the National Park Service and its dedicated employees. Citizens – regardless of political party – must defend the extraordinary privilege of passing the national parks on unimpaired to their children and grandchildren. And President Trump should perhaps reread the words of President Roosevelt: What you can do is keep it … for all that come after you. Jonathan B Jarvis served as the 18th director of the National Park Service. Gary Machlis served as science adviser to the NPS director from 2009 to 2017. They are co-authors of The Future of Conservation in America: A Chart for Rough Water, published in 2018.
