COINGATE: Noe lavished gifts on political bigwigs.

[barbaraann]

Article published Thursday, August 4, 2005
Reports show ex-Taft aide benefited

By STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITER

COLUMBUS - Tom Noe showered Columbus decision-makers with lavish meals, golf outings, and vacations, extending his largess from Ohio's capital to Washington, and to the Florida Keys, records released yesterday by the Columbus city prosecutor's office show.

Dozens of pages of investigative records shed light on Mr. Noe's so-called "Supper Club" with influential bureaucrats and other gifts to power brokers, including Brian Hicks, Gov. Bob Taft's former chief of staff, who last week was convicted on ethics law violations for his vacations to the Toledo-area coin dealer's Florida home.
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Lavish gatherings

Mr. Noe also used lavish meals and gatherings at upscale restaurants to bring himself closer to the people holding the state's purse strings.

He established the so-called "Noe Supper Club," which included Cherie Carroll, Mr. Hicks' executive assistant at the governor's office who now works at his lobbying and consulting firm. Ms. Carroll, who was convicted on an ethics violation last week and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, coined the name "Noe Supper Club," her investigative report showed.
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http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050804/NEWS24/508040450


So, the Republican answer to hunger in Ohio is to have a Supper Club for the wealthy while the poor stand in line at food pantries:

Every day in Ohio...

* 1 in 6 children are hungry or at risk of hunger;
* 1.2 million people in Ohio are hungry or at risk of hunger;
* 309,000 people experience hunger; and,
* 129,000 of those people are children!

http://www.ohtf.org/FACTS/