Category Archives: news

2011 Leaf Collection Schedule

The City of Xenia is pleased to announce we will be collecting leaves for residents at the curb this fall. As you may recall, last year’s collection was cancelled due to budget concerns. However, Leaf Crews will travel each city street only once this season. Cars parked too closely, other debris in the piles or leaves not raked to the curb ahead of the crews will not be collected. Resident will have to make other arrangements to dispose of these leaves. Citizens can also use alternate methods to dispose of their leaves. Leaves can be mulched or bagged. Rumpke will take up to 14 bags per residence each week on regular trash collection days. Bagged leaves can also be taken to the Greene County Recycling Center at 2145 Greene Way Boulevard (562-5925).

City Crews will be picking up leaves raked to the curb during the weeks listed below in the following neighborhoods:

The Week Of:
November 14-18: Northeast Section from Church St. and continuing north to include N. King, N. West, N. Galloway and the Beverly Hills, Summerbrooke and Kinsey Meadows neighborhoods.

November 21-25: Neighborhoods west of US 35 Bypass including New Arrowhead, Windsor Park, Reserve of Xenia, Sterling Green and Wright Cycle Estates.

November 28 -December 2: Southeast Section from Church St. and continuing south to include the East End, South End, South Hill and Old Arrowhead east of US 35 Bypass.

December 5-9 Zone 4: All Laynewood neighborhoods and the neighborhoods that include Charles, Maple and Center Street.

City Staff would like to remind citizens of these important points:

• Leaves need to be raked to the curb BEFORE the Monday on your pick up week. Crews
could be at your curb anytime during that week. Return trips to an area are not possible.

• It is very important that cars are not parked in the leaf pick up area. Crews cannot reach a
leaf pile if a car is parked within 10 feet.

• Piles must contain leaves only! Leafing equipment cannot pickup sticks, limbs or trash.

Check out our website (www.ci.xenia.oh.us) for more information including a street by street listing for each of the four leaf zones.

Election Results: The Issues (updated)

The latest report from the Secretary of State shows the following:

Issue 1, the Constitutional Amendment increasing the age of at which a person may be elected or appoinnted judge, is losing. The percent of votes against the amendment are 62% and votes for it 38%.

Issue 2, the referendum to repeal the public employee collective bargaining reform law SB 5, is also losing. The percent of votes against SB 5 becoming law is 61% to 39% of the votes in favor of it.

Issue 3, the proposed Constitutional Amendment to preserve the freedom of Ohioans to choose their health care and health care coverage, is winning by 2 to 1 margin. The percent of yes votes are 66% and 34% of the votes are against it.

The latest Greene County Board of Elections report shows the following levy results:

County Issues
Issue 14: Greene County Career Ctr – 52% for and 48% against
Issue 15: Greene Memorial Hospital – 61% for and 39% against

Local Issues: Xenia
Issue 13: Xenia Schools – 34% for and 66% against

Local Issues: Others
Issue 5: Cedarville Twp & Village – 69% for and 31% against
Issue 6: Jefferson Twp Fire – 68% for and 32% against
Issue 7: New Jasper Twp Roads – 45% for and 55% against
Issue 8: Spring Valley Twp – 65% for and 35% against
Issue 9: Sugarcreek Twp – 46% for and 54% against
Issue 10: Xenia Twp – 53% for and 47% against
Issue 11: Beavercreek Schools – 44% for and 56% against
Issue 12: Greenview Schools – 36% for and 64% against
Issue 17: City of Bellbrook – 46% for and 54% against
Issue 18: City of Bellbrook – 56% for and 44% against
Issue 19: City of Fairborn – 53% for and 47% against
Issue 20: City of Fairborn – 58% for and 42% against
Issue 21: Bowersville Village – 67% for and 33% against
Issue 22: Bowersville Village – 63% for and 37% against
Issue 23: Spring Valley Village – 66% for and 34% against

Voters apparently intend for their cities and villages to maintain services. Thus far, voters seem to be telling school districts they have already voted for enough emergency, operating, permanent improvement, and renewal levies-enough is enough. As far as the Career Center is concerned, it is still too close to call for the GCCC, but county votes apparently want Greene Memorial Hospital to keep up its facilites.

Voters appear to have bought the union message as well as the call to maintian personal freedom over health care choices. Could there be a contradiction or confusion of views here?

Issue 16, What’s the Problem?

Issus 16 will enable Greene County commissioners to negotiate with electric power suppliers on behalf residents and businesses. Electricity aggregation, as it is called, will make those suppliers compete for the business of both residential and commercial consumers. Electricity aggregation also will lower the cost of electricity of Greene County energy consumers who participate in the program.

The passage of Issue 16 gives county residential and commercial energy consumers a choice. Those who prefer to pay less for electricity can and those who prefer not to participate can choose to opt out.

Here is a win-win opportunity for citizens and businesses of Greene County.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is not every resident or business in Greene County may participate in the electricity co-op. Although every voter in every Greene County city, village and township will see Issue 16 on their ballot, only the votes of those who live in non-incorporated townships or villages will count.

But that’s okay, because all Greene County voters can show their support for the electricity aggregation program by voting Yes on November 8. And, I’m sure the Board of Election officials and volunteers won’t mind it too much if their ballot counts show large support for this issue.

Some may be wondering whether Xenia and other incorporated municipalities have or can have their own electricity aggregation program. Everyone wants lower electric bills, right? Could it be possible for cities like Xenia to join the county program?

According to a Dayton Daily News article written by Katherine Ullmer, it is possible. “Since the county commissioners do not have jurisdiction over cities, city officials would have to place a similar issue on its ballots to seek authority for a similar electrical service agreements.” Bill Bradish, energy consultant to the County Commissioner’s Association of Ohio, also informed her “some Greene County cities might pursue this next year.”

Another good article on Issue 16 written by Megan Bachman can read by going to YSNews.com.

Preserving Iraq’s Assyrians: Federalism

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

As U.S. troops continue to pull out from Iraq, it is worth visiting the question of what future there is, if any, for the country’s Assyrians. Since the 2003 American-led invasion, the Christian population has declined from some 1.2-1.5 million to 400-800,000 today, and it is undeniable that Christians constitute a disproportionate percentage of Iraqi refugees. In fact, it is thought that around 40% of refugees are Christian, even though prior to the war they comprised at most 5% of Iraq’s population of roughly 30 million.

Since the end of 2006, there has been a marked decline in violence, for most of the Sunni insurgents began to realize that they were losing the sectarian civil war for Baghdad against the Shi’a militias and thus appreciated that survival depended on working with the central government against al-Qa’ida.

However, Iraq’s Assyrian community still faces two problems. Outside of the areas administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), there is the threat of al-Qa’ida, which is still able to extort money around $150 per month from most businesses in Mosul and is capable of carrying out mass casualty attacks and hostage takings. The most notorious recent example is undoubtedly the attack on the Our Lady of Salvation Assyrian Catholic Church in Karrada on October 31st 2010.

Although the Iraqi security forces were able to take out 8 militants and relieve the hostage crisis, the terrorists nonetheless detonated their explosives prior to being killed, leaving 58 dead and 67 wounded. The attack was followed by 11 roadside bombings and mortar firings on Christian neighborhoods in Baghdad that killed 5 more civilians and injured 20. Consequently, around 133 and 109 Christian families registered as refugees in Syria and Jordan respectively. More recently, two churches were bombed in Kirkuk last August, leaving 23 wounded in the first attack and damage to the church in the other (a third plot was foiled after the bomb was defused).

The KRG areas have provided a safe haven for many Assyrians fleeing the threat of Islamist violence further south since 2003, and the former KRG Minister of Finance- Sarkis Aghajan- did use some KRG funds to finance a Christian defense militia in Mosul and help rebuild a few churches and villages. The KRG hoped that these limited initiatives would win over the Assyrian (also known as Chaldean and Syriac) Christians to submit to Kurdish rule and authority, at the expense of marginalizing the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM).

Yet many Assyrians justifiably complain of problems of discrimination. As a 2007 report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom notes:

“KRG officials were also reported to have used public works projects to divert water and other vital resources from Chaldo-Assyrian to Kurdish communities…leading to mass exodus, which was later followed by the seizure and conversion of abandoned Chaldo-Assyrian property by the local Kurdish population.”

The anxieties of some Assyrian leaders over these issues are apparent in disclosures from the Wikileaks cables. Consider a message from the Ninewa Provincial Reconstruction Team:

“In a July 3 meeting with PRT and US Army civil affairs personnel, Mayor of Tal Kaif [Tel Keppe] District (and Provincial Chairman of the Assyrian Democratic Movement) Basim Bello said Assyrians in Ninewa Province feel intimidated by the Kurds and suffer from a lack of essential services. Bello said the solution lies in the inclusion of all groups in the provincial government. He said civil rights protections for Christians will continue to be a concern whether predominantly Christian areas remain part of Ninewa or join the KRG. He reiterated his party’s position that the Christian areas of Ninewa should form an autonomous region under Article 125 of the constitution.”

In light of issues highlighted above, one can only agree with the ADM’s proposal that the only viable way to preserve Iraq’s fledgling Christian population is the creation of an autonomous province, based on Article 125 of the Iraqi Constitution, which affirms that the “Constitution shall guarantee the administrative, political, cultural, and educational rights of the various nationalities, such as Turkomen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and all other constituents, and this shall be regulated by law.” There are of course several predominantly Christian towns around which this autonomous region could be based, including Alqosh, Batnaya, Tesqopa and Baqofa. The question now arises of how the prospects for attaining this goal can be raised.

The answer lies in one word: federalism. According to the constitution, provinces can break away into separate autonomous regions (or in groups) subject to a referendum. Calls for federalism have a long history in southern Iraq, especially in Basra province since 2003. Continue reading

Rutherford Institute Calls on Iranian Ambassador to Intervene in Execution of Christian Pastor in Iran

(New York, NY)   John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, has called on the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations to intervene in the impending execution of Youcef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor in Iran who was convicted of apostasy. In a letter to the Iranian ambassador and other key dignitaries, Whitehead urged the Iranian ambassador to encourage his government to abide by its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its own Constitution, which provides that “no one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief.”

The Rutherford Institute’s letter on behalf of Youcef Nadarkhani is available at www.rutherford.org.

“If citizens in Iran cannot depend upon the protections of the most basic human rights provided in their own Constitution, then we must offer them the solace of a watching world that is willing to intervene politically,” stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “Surely we cannot stand silent as this man of faith is martyred. Youcef’s imminent execution presents Iran with the unique opportunity to prove its commitment to human rights and being a part of the international community by dropping the charges against Youcef and letting him go free.”

According to reports by the Assyrian International News Agency, Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was convicted of apostasy after protesting the government’s decision to teach Christian schoolchildren—including Youcef’s own 8- and 6-year-old sons—about Islam. Over the course of the past two years Youcef has spent in prison, he has allegedly suffered various forms of inhumane and irregular punishment, including a denial of access to his attorney, the arrest of his wife, threats to place his two sons in the custody of Muslim families, and the administration of drugs in an attempt to force him to recant his religious faith. On Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011, Youcef refused to deny his faith a fourth time. Most recently, Youcef has been charged with rape and extortion, trumped-up charges which never surfaced during his series of trials in 2010.

Ron Paul’s Plan to Restore America

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-2Zs0-N1dA&w=420&h=315]

Rutherford Institute Sues Pennsylvania Police on Behalf of Business Owner Threatened with Arrest for Videotaping on Public Sidewalk

(Franklin, PA) Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a First Amendment lawsuit against two police officers with the Franklin Police Department who threatened a business owner with arrest simply for videotaping his own business activities and videotaping his subsequent interaction with the police while on a public sidewalk in Franklin, Pennsylvania. The officers allegedly informed Skip Dreibelbis, the president of True Blue Auctions, that by videotaping on a public sidewalk, he was violating wiretapping laws. Institute attorneys filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, charging that police violated Dreibelbis’ First Amendment right to make video recordings in public spaces and infringed upon his right to receive information.

The Rutherford Institute’s complaint in Dreibelbis v. John Does is available here.

“This is a form of censorship that is an egregious violation of Mr. Dreibelbis’ First Amendment rights,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “For police to suggest that this activity violates wiretapping laws is absurd. The ramifications of this kind of government mindset does not bode well for the future of freedom.”

True Blue Auctions, founded by Skip Dreibelbis, provides a variety of auction services to businesses and individuals throughout the country. As part of its normal business practices, True Blue posts auction signs at an auction site and often videotapes the auction so it has a record of bids, amounts, and other details to aid in resolving potential disputes. The videotaping of the auction is always done in the open, at a location to which the public is invited, with permission of the owner of the premises and/or in a public forum area. True Blue Auctions was contracted to carry out a two-day auction in Franklin, Penn., beginning on October 16, 2009. That day, Dreibelbis posted auction signs at the site and began videotaping the auction from the premises where the auction was taking place and from an adjacent public sidewalk. At no time did Dreibelbis block pedestrian traffic on the public sidewalk, nor did anyone complain about the signs or the videotaping or voice the concern that their privacy interests were being violated by the videotaping. Nevertheless, two police officers approached Dreibelbis while he was videotaping the auction from the sidewalk and allegedly informed him that videotaping was against wiretapping laws and that they would have to arrest Dreibelbis if he didn’t put away his video recorder. According to the complaint, the officers also ordered Dreibelbis to remove his posted auction signs and move about 75 yards away. In filing suit against the two unidentified officers with the Franklin Police Department, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute point out that individuals have a right under the First Amendment to videotape persons, including police officers, in public places. Moreover, Institute attorneys contend that by ordering Dreibelbis to turn off the video camera and threatening him with arrest if he did not immediately cease videotaping the auction and the encounter with the police, police also violated Dreibelbis’ right to receive information in that far more protected activity was chilled than was reasonably necessary to protect any compelling government interest.

Attorneys J. Michael Considine, Jr., of West Chester, Penn., and Joseph L. Luciana, III of the Pittsburgh firm of Dingess, Foster, Luciana, Davidson and Chleboski are assisting The Rutherford Institute in its defense of Dreibelbis.

Moscow Demogrpahic Summit Declaration, Aimed at Survival of the Family

The international pro-family Moscow Demographic Summit was held in June of 2011. The purpose of the Summit was to discuss the immanent problems of population decline. The following statement is is consensus solutions.

We, participants of the Moscow Demographic Summit, representing families from various social, ethnic and religious communities, leading experts in the field of the family and demography, public activists, NGOs, leaders of parents associations, representatives of the leading business, educational and diplomatic institutions, members of national Governments and Parliaments and other responsible forces of the civil society, representing 65 countries of the world, hereby declare that the Natural Family is the basic unit of society and the fundamental social value, that is a necessary prerequisite for the very existence of world civilizations and the whole humankind. The Natural Family is a necessary condition with no alternatives for survival and stable/sustainable development of all nations and states, basic and integral condition for the demographic well-being.

With reference to the objective and widely accepted scientific data and forecasts of the leading demographers, we express our deep concern about the dangers of the approaching worldwide depopulation. Despite wrong and biased information about “overpopulation” threat promoted by some mass media and international institutions, in reality already for several decades in a row we have been witnessing a global process of demographic degradation. In recent years this dynamic has assumed a threatening scale and magnitude. As a consequence of the global decrease in fertility below the replacement level (2.1 – 2.2), 42% of all humankind live in the countries where even simple replacement of old generations is not taking place. This destructive process of swift drop of fertility and birth rates has swept all the continents on our planet. In the nearest historical period, the negative demographic trends can bring about extinction of whole peoples, destruction of States, and disappearance of unique cultures and civilizations. Even according to conservative estimates by the UN, within next three decades, the total fertility rate will go down below the population replacement level all over the world. In reality, it can happen much earlier, thus making the whole world community face the unprecedented social and historical problem of humankind survival.

We are alarmed by the fact that the family institution is in a state of grave social crisis which consists in the destruction of universal family, conjugal and parental roles based on traditional family values; in the disruption of the reproductive function of the family; in an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, caused by the imposition of contraceptive thinking (in terms of safe sex) and destructive premarital and extramarital sex patterns; in widespread divorce; in the spreading of cohabitation without marriage; in increasing numbers of single-parent families; a wave of social deviations (abortions, homosexuality, paedophilia, drug addiction, refusal of marriage and childbearing (the child-free phenomenon), prostitution, pornography, etc.); disruption of the process of socialization of young generations; cutting of ties among relatives and alienation of different generations within one family, etc.

We call on the governments of all nations and on international institutions to develop immediately a pro-family demographic policy and to adopt a special international pro-family strategy and action plan aimed at consolidating family and marriage, protecting human life from conception to natural death, increasing birth rate, and averting the menace of depopulation. Nowadays, in most countries of the world, against the backdrop of devaluation of family values, the rights of the family are prejudiced in the information space, in the legal and socioeconomic spheres.

We also insist on putting an end to interference with private life of the family under the pretexts of so-called “family planning”; “protection of the rights of the child”, and “gender equality”. We consider it inadmissible to continue the policy of birth control, regarding this policy as one of the greatest threats to the survival of humankind and as a means of incursive discrimination against the family. Every family has the right of reproductive choice, inviolability of family life and bringing up their children in harmony with the culture and traditions of a specific country. Parents have absolute primary and priority right to support, bring up and educate their children.

We call on public associations, religious communities, entrepreneurs, media workers, and all people of good will to get involved in combating the above-mentioned threats that destroy family and marriage.

We support people and government of Hungary in its desire to protect natural family values and inviolability of human life since conception, that are declared in the new Constitution of Hungary. We support with one voice the definition of the family given below and codified in the final document of the Dialogue of Civilizations World Public Forum that took place on 7–11 October 2010 on the Greek island of Rhodes, and we urge that this definition be given an official international status.

Family is the basic unit (first element) of society with the following inherent characteristics:

1. Union of man and woman (according to Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948);

2. Voluntary nature of entry into marriage;

3. Co-residence of the spouses;

4. Joint household management;

5. Entry into marriage through a procedure of social recognition in the form of State registration of marriage and/or the relevant religious rite;

6. Wish to give birth to, socialize, and bring up children. Family is also a sine qua non demographic condition for the existence, reproduction and sustainable development of civilizations. The mother and the father have, inalienably and in conformity with human nature, the fundamental, priority and primary rights and duties to directly educate, bring up, protect and provide comprehensive spiritual, moral and psychological support to their children.

7. Indissolubility of marriage – initial mutual intention of the spouses to be together for life despite any difficulties of life.

“Accessorize, Economize and Socialize” at Greene Community Health Foundation’s 3rd annual Fashion Swap ‘N Shop, October 22nd

(XENIA, OH)—The Greene Community Health Foundation’s 3rd annual Fashion Swap ‘N Shop is scheduled for Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Schindler Banquet Center in Xenia.

The Fashion Swap ‘N Shop is just that…a chance for women to come together to “swap” clothing and “shop” with a variety of businesses, just in time for the holidays. Clothing swaps are becoming more and more popular as Americans from every tax bracket are cutting back how much they spend on clothing in local retail shops. And with the focus on living “greener”, it’s a great way to recycle unwanted fashion items from outfits to accessories, such as jewelry, purses and shoes.

Women are invited to bring up to 5 gently-used, upscale and consignment-worthy clothing items of all sizes, including scarves, shoes, hats and jewelry to swap with other women. The event, featuring a luncheon, fashion show and raffle, also boasts over 30 different women’s home-based businesses including Pampered Chef, Tastefully Simple, Soul Purpose, Dove Chocolate Discoveries, Gem City Fung Shui, Tomboy Tools, Scentsy, Willow House, PartyLite, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Silpada, Beau & Pearl, and many more. Goody bags filled with various items will be provided to each guest, courtesy of Key Bank. Jim Bucher of WDTN-TV will be the guest emcee for the event.

Proceeds from this event will benefit the Clinic Cupboard housed at the Greene County Combined Health District in Xenia. This cupboard contains basic over-the-counter medical supplies, baby necessities and personal products for GCCHD clients in need throughout Greene County. All remaining clothing from the swap will be donated to Community Action Partnership of Greene County.

Reservations will be accepted by phone and email until Friday, October 21 at 4pm and are $30.00 per person or $25.00 per person if reserving 4 or more women together. The event is sponsored by Hagler Orthodontics, The Greene, WDTN-TV, Mini University, Inc., Beavercreek Pediatric Dentistry, Key Bank, MVP Video Creations, IHS Pharmacy & Wellness, Evergreen Children’s Center, Tiffany Jewelers and Lori’s Loft Upscale Consignment Boutique. For more information or to make your reservation, please contact Laurie Fox at 937-374-5669 or email her at lfox@gcchd.org. The brochure is also available on the website, www.gcchd.org.

Ohio Reaches First Milestone in Personhood Amendment Drive

Personhood Ohio held a press conference on Friday morning at the Attorney General’s office in Columbus to announce the submission of the required number of initial petition signatures. The state of Ohio requires that at least 1,000 signatures be verified before the official citizen-led initiative drive can begin. Personhood Ohio is expected to turn in over 2,000 valid initial petition signatures.

The Ohio Personhood Amendment will define the words “person” and “men,” as used in the Ohio Constitution, to “apply to every human being at every stage of the biological development of that human being or human organism, including fertilization” irrespective of one’s age, race, gender, or disability.

“The scientific consensus is that every person’s life began at fertilization. It is not a subjective opinion, rather a verifiable fact,” said Personhood Ohio Director and Zanesville family physician Dr. Patrick Johnston. “The question for the citizens of Ohio is: Are we a people that will recognize and respect the inalienable and equal rights of every person?”