Tri-State weekend update

A quick sweep of the weekend to get us “up & running,” as it were, with Tri-State events reveals that Ohio has finally a budget for the year after Ohio House Speaker Armond Budish, along with Gov. Ted Strickland and Senate President Bill Harris reached a compromise agreement Friday afternoon that includes the authorization to put video lottery machines at seven horse racing tracks, including River Downs in Cincinnati and the Lebanon Raceway in Warren County. Opponents to the measure, however, "immediately vowed to challenge the plan in court," according to the Columbus Dispatch, Saturday, "complaining that the state was rushing into a risky expansion of gambling that voters have already rejected four times in the past." The Cincinnati Enquirer had earlier put together an overview of the spectacle that delayed the state’s July 1st. deadline almost two weeks.

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A portion of Ohio’s transportation budget, which was passed last April and went into effect on July 1st , incorporates tougher penalties for people driving off-road vehicles on farms and other properties without permission from the owners.

Offenders committing criminal trespass while using an all-purpose vehicle now face fines of two times the usual amount for violations, and "if an offender has previously been convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, two or more trespassing violations or a substantially equivalent municipal ordinance… the court, in additional to all other penalties may impound the certificate of registration & license plate of that vehicle for not less than 60 days."(Legislative Service analysis @ Pp. 39)

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State court officials in Kentucky say they’re ready to implement a new law, which went into effect on June 25th., but which there had been concern about by some court officials about the lack of process to implement the law, an nky.com article, yesterday, reports.

The new law calls for people who are convicted of one of a myriad of theft charges to have their licenses taken from them until they pay any court-ordered restitution. "Hardship licenses to get to work, school or medical appointments can be applied for, and the new law is not retroactive to persons already sentenced."

"The state's 120 circuit court clerks will be responsible for manually processing the order of suspension and sending hardship license request to the driver licensing division," Leigh Anne Hiatt, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Administration Office of Courts (AOC) said in a statement released July 2nd., and work has also begun on developing an electronic process that will eventually replace the current manual system. (Ky. HB 369 Here )