The Ohio Democratic Party is asking both state and federal prosecutors to look into allegations that a major coal company is coercing its employees to donate to political causes against their will. The ODP on Monday sent letters to U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steven Dettelbach and Acting Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty asking them to launch a criminal investigation into Ohio-based Murray Energy Corporation. The letters allege that Murray Energy “may have engaged in a pattern of illegal activity, extorting millions in financial contributions from employees and vendors for Republican candidates running for public office.” Murray Energy fired back in a Monday statement, saying the allegations “are simply an attempt to silence Murray Energy and its owners from supporting their coal mining employees and families by speaking out against President Barack Obama’s well known and documented War on Coal.” The allegations stem from an Oct. 4 investigation by left-leaning magazine The New Republic. The article is based on the accounts of two anonymous former Murray managers and a review of letters and memos to Murray employees. It suggests that employees are pressured into making donations to Republican candidates and contributing to the company’s Political Action Committee.  “There’s a lot of coercion,” one of the sources told the magazine. “I just want to work, but you feel this constant pressure that, if you don’t contribute, your job’s at stake.” ODP Chairman Chris Redfern told reporters during a conference call that party research found that Ohio political candidates — including all current statewide officeholders — had received almost $750,000 from Murray Energy, its subsidiaries and employees. Neither Dettelbach or McGinty returned CityBeat calls for comment on any pending investigations. Murray Energy in its statement called The New Republic biased and radically liberal. The company’s characterization in the article is incorrect and untruthful, according to the statement.  Murray had previously come under fire when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney held a campaign event at one of its mines. Some workers claim they were pulled out of the mine early when it closed for the event and forced to attend without pay.

Some Democratic lawmakers want answers from Republican Gov. John Kasich. A group of Democratic state representatives has put forth a bill that would require Kasich — and every governor after him — to come before the Ohio House of Representatives 10 times per year for 45-minute question and answer sessions where the governor would have to take at least five questions from each side of the aisle. Rep. Mike Foley, D-Cleveland, is the bill’s sponsor. He did not return CityBeat’s call for comment as of Wednesday afternoon. Cincinnati Democratic Rep. Denise Driehaus is one of the bill’s co-sponsors. She said Foley had the idea while visiting Canada, where their parliament has a similar procedure. “I think it’s a great idea where the governor interacts with the legislature and we have the opportunity to question him and really engage on some of the issues and get his opinion on things,” Driehaus says. She said the Legislature doesn’t currently have a whole lot of opportunity to interact with the governor, except for the State of the State address, but even then they can’t really engage Ohio’s chief executive. The Ohio Democratic Party has recently filed suit against Kasich for what it says is a failure to comply with open records laws for redacting parts of his public schedules when responding to a public records request. The ODP has called Kasich opaque and secretive for failing to respond or only partially responding to records requests. However, Driehaus said the bill isn’t meant to apply only to Kasich, but would apply to every governor after him. She said she didn’t think it was in reaction to her party’s spat with the governor. “This is much broader and much more forward thinking than that,” Driehaus says.

Gerald Norman Springer is a man of many titles. He is the former mayor of Cincinnati, that dummy who bounced a personal check at a "massage parlor" and a pioneer of trashy television gold. Tonight, Jerry Springer is the special guest at the Ohio Democratic Party's LGBT/Young Professionals reception, hosted by City Council's Chris Seelbach. Admission is $35 and includes one drink. The event runs 6:30-8 p.m. at Know Theater. See if you can strike a pose with the "Ringmaster" in Flashbox's photo booth. Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Alanta's Joe Pettis is a self-proclaimed "level 14 comedian wizard," so it's kind of a big deal that he's performing a free show at Mayday tonight. Pettis has been featured on comedian Doug Benson's podcast, Doug Loves Movies and "Today's Riff" on TBS.com. Swing by the Northside bar around 9 p.m. to check him out alongside local comics Justin Schafer, George Allen and Tom Schmidlin. Be sure to grab a delicious Mayday hotdog for dinner! The Western & Southern Open continues today. Gates open at 5 p.m. for the evening matches and men’s and women’s middle rounds begin at 7 p.m. Tonight’s special events include Saks Fifth Avenue’s Night on the Runway. The fashion show, featuring the Lafayette 148 New York collection, takes place in the grandstand tent at 5:30 p.m. Guests will enjoy dinner, a cash bar, make-up demos and more throughout the show, which will wrap up just in time for the evening session matches. Ongoing events: Reggae Wednesday on Fountain Square with The Ohms; Hofbrauhaus beer stein-holding competition; Sexy Time Live Band Karaoke at Northside Tavern; Apollo @ the Greenwich; Bandstand Bluegrass at Washington Park with Moonshine Drive.

The Ohio Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit against Gov. John Kasich — who they claim is improperly using his office to campaign for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney — to get the governor to release his schedule of public events. The ODP’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, contends that Kasich’s office either ignored or only partially fulfilled the request. “It’s unfortunate that this Governor is so opposed to transparency and public disclosure that we have to ask the Court to force him to follow the law,” ODP Chairman Chris Redfern said in a statement. “Serious questions remain regarding whether the Governor has improperly used his office for the benefit of Mitt Romney, and it’s deeply disappointing Kasich is so secretive he won’t even tell the public what he’s done or where he’s gone.” Kasich press secretary Rob Nichols said the administration doesn’t comment on litigation, but dismissed the Ohio Democratic Party’s allegations. “We release public records in accordance with the law, and in fact have already publicly released the governor’s schedule six times, including a schedule request to the ODP,” Nichols said. “This is predictable election year politics from the same people who were just rebuked for using public records demands to interfere with the Auditor of State’s investigation into possible data manipulation in some school districts.” Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Jerid Kurtz said Kasich’s office did respond to one of the seven requests for the schedule, but some of the information in the records was redacted — including an entire week that was blacked out with no explanation. “Ohio law is very clear, and it states you have to give a specific excuse when you redact something,” Kurtz said.  According to the lawsuit and court documents, the ODP requested on July 2 Kasich’s public schedule from that date through Aug. 27.  According to a letter to the Ohio Democratic Party from Mehek M. Cook — assistant chief counsel to Kasich — the information about the governor's future plans was blacked out because that information could put him at risk. “The governor and his office receive threats on any given day and the release of his whereabouts increases security issues surrounding the governor’s safety,” Cook wrote. Cook wrote that any information in the records used by the Executive Protection Unit assigned to guard Kasich constitutes a security record and was redacted. He also wrote that some information that would reveal confidential business meetings and trade secrets that would harm Ohio efforts to court businesses was blacked out. Additionally, information not relevant to the request was redacted. Kurtz said it’s important that the public have access those schedules because voters have a right to know what their governor is doing on the public dime. The schedules include where the governor is and with whom he meets, but they also show scheduled phone calls and media interviews. The Ohio Democratic Party worries that Kasich is improperly campaigning for Romney while receiving a taxpayer-funded paycheck, or using public money to have his staff do so. The concerns stem from statements made by Kasich both in public and on his Twitter account either praising the presumed Republican presidential nominee or slamming President Obama.  For instance, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reported that when Obama visited Ohio on Aug. 1 the governor tweeted “On the occasion of the President's latest visit to Ohio, we have a question for him,” with a link to a graphic asking “If the President's policies are behind Ohio's success, why is the rest of the country trailing us?” Democrats claim that Ohio’s success relative to the rest of the country are due to efforts by President Obama, while Republicans say Governor Kasich is behind Ohio’s faster-than-average recovery. While the Ohio Democratic Party is suing to have Kasich release his public schedule (Kurtz says Attorney General Mike DeWine and Auditor Dave Yost complied with similar requests in a timely manner) the state Republican Party has also submitted similar requests to Democrats throughout Ohio. Kurtz characterized the GOP requests as being sent by Kasich’s “hand-picked lieutenants in the Ohio Republican Party,” though Nichols told The Plain Dealer that the governor had no involvement. Ohio GOP executive director Matt Borges told the newspaper that the requests were routine. Still, Kurtz called Kasich’s refusal to release his own schedule “hypocritical.” “He’s a bully and the only way you can deal with a bully is fighting back.”

BREAKING NEWS EVERYBODY! The Boy Who Cried Wolf, yes, the proverbial shepherd boy from Aesop’s Fables who was so lonely that he invents a wolf attack to get the villagers’ attention, has endorsed serial liar state Treasurer Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate. According to the Ohio Democratic Party. We at CityBeat receive many news releases all day, but this appears to be the first time a fictional character has endorsed a candidate for Senate. Though the release is right that Mandel has a “penchant for repeating previously debunked lies,” the sheer absurdity of the release has caused the news team here at your friendly neighborhood alt weekly to dub it “the dumbest press release of the week.” Here’s the release in its entirety, with names of the guilty redacted. Happy weekend, y’all. Friday, August 3, 2012 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: [REDACTED] BREAKING: Boy Who Cried Wolf Endorses Josh Mandel For Senate Touts Mandel's Ability To Consistently Repeat Previously Debunked Lies: "Us Serial Liars Need To Stick Together" COLUMBUS, OHIO – The Boy Who Cried Wolf announced his endorsement of Josh Mandel today, ending speculation about who the world renowned liar would support in the Ohio senate race this November. "Josh Mandel shares my ideals, my values and most importantly my less-than-casual relationship with the truth," said the Boy Who Cried Wolf. "Us serial liars need to stick together, and now that Josh Mandel's officially been crowned King of Ohio's Liars, the choice for me is simple. I'm honored to support Josh and I look forward to joining him and his special interest friends on the campaign trail as they lie about Sherrod and distort his record on the issues from now through November." The Boy Who Cried Wolf rose to fame for repeatedly proclaiming that his sheep were being attacked by a wolf, when in fact, no wolf had attacked his sheep. Much like the Boy Who Cried Wolf, Josh Mandel's star has risen largely because of his penchant for repeating previously debunked lies. This week Josh Mandel earned the "Pants on Fire crown" from Politifact Ohio, an award reserved for the worst liar among all Ohio politicians. ###   Paid for by the Ohio Democratic Party, Chris Redfern, Chairman