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How did J. Kenneth Hackwell become a “multimillionaire” while a public official?

In 1998, the Akron Beacon Journal reported that Hackwell, then state treasurer, was also listed as “manager, officer and director of Blue Chip Broadcasters Ltd.” This limited partnership owned and operated six radio stations in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

According to legend – or better, spin – four black investors from Cincinnati, Ross Love, Penguin Painters owner Lovie Ross, Hackwell, and Cincinnati attorney Kalvin Buford, scraped together $500,000 to save WIZF-FM, a black-owned Cincinnati radio station that was facing bankruptcy in late 1992. Of more interest is how this group of four investors secured a $1.5 million investment from Blue Chip Venture Company as well as a $2.6 million loan from three Cincinnati banks – Fifth Third, Providence and Star. The reality is that the banks were more likely investing in the new Ohio state treasurer, Hackwell, not in four minority investors with no real experience in radio and telecommunications. Read more

On Wednesday morning, April 19, 2006, there will be a historic press conference at the law office I share with a voting rights attorney Cliff Arnebeck. An explosive announcement will be made involving election fraud in Ohio. Also at the press conference will be Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips, who is working with Ohio Honest Elections to document the voting irregularities and fraud in the 2004 and 2004 elections in Ohio. He will be discussing his recent examination of the ballots from Warren County’s 2004 presidential election.

Remember, Warren County called its own Level 10 Homeland Security emergency alert on Election Day 2004 and diverted the ballots to an unauthorized warehouse. Two Warren County election workers told the Free Press that a Republican operative oversaw the ballots. One of his intriguing findings was predicted in the Free Press early on, suggesting that ballots would be found punched only for George W. Bush. In precinct 128, someone even punched the pink “Header Card” for Bush and Warren County officials counted it in their total. In other counties, the pink Header Card serves only to identify the precinct for the central tabulator.

Dr. Phillips also found a ballot in precinct 155 that contained punch holes in all four precincts studied, with odd numbered punches for president. According to election officials, this would not have been possible if the card was punched in the voting machine. For example, voters could only punch every other odd number on the ballot for president, but he found ballots with double votes for president, including a vote in an even-numbered space. The only conclusion that Dr. Phillips could come up with is that these were unauthorized, hasty and incorrect “attempts to punch ballots for Bush” by hand outside of the machine. In short, Dr. Phillips argues that this is proof of “old fashioned ballot stuffing.”

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J. Kenneth Blackwell is a perfect neocon. He preaches fiscal responsibility while the budget at his office grows dramatically. He quotes Martin Luther King, Jr., yet he works for the anti-affirmative action, anti-civil rights corporate-sponsored Heritage Foundation. He talks about equality for all, but one of his key aides, Sherri Dembinski, third in charge of his office — which, by the way, oversees the chartering of nonprofit organizations — receives income and gifts from the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) charter school. ECOT is the largest charter school in the state.

The Akron Beacon Journal reported that managers of ECOT donated $330,000 to Ohio Republicans. If you wonder where they got that kind of money, in 2002 ECOT was caught by auditors at the Department of Education overcharging the state of Ohio as much as $7 million for children who cannot be verified as being on their school rolls. Dembinski serves on the board of ECOT, and Hackwell, of course, oversees the reporting of campaign contributions in the state.

After public scrutiny came upon Hackwell and Dembinski, she resigned and moved into a new role as vice president of an ECOT-related foundation that benefits students and organizations affiliated with the school.

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