State Democrats are making a lot of noise about John McCain and DHL’s acquisition of Airborne Express. The ODP has a new video.

Here are a few background facts:

• DHL isn’t shutting down the Wilmington ABX facility, since they don’t own it. DHL is their largest customer. (Six of one…)
• Once under foreign ownership, ABX air cargo had to be spun off because federal law limits foreign ownership of US airlines to 25%.
• 88.4 of Airborne’s shareholders who voted approved the merger.
• DHL is 68.3% owned by the German government, which is to say, people (maybe Obama has some pull with them?)
• As noted in the Plain Dealer post, it was now-indicted Alaska Republican Ted Stevens who tried to stop the deal (shouldn’t he be a hero now?)

Here’s the Plain Dealer again:

On his way to Lima, McCain told a group of Ohio journalists on the “Straight Talk Express” bus from Marion, Ohio, where he had campaigned on Wednesday, that he was not sure that the DHL the job loss could be prevented.

McCain said he would discuss how he could help with an investigation of the anti-trust implications of Germany-base Deutsche Post’s plan to replace two cargo airlines in Wilmington by switching to United Parcel Service, causing the job loss.

Whatever happens, McCain said, the need is critical to boost the economy by investing in nuclear power plants, clean coal technology and improved job training at area community colleges.

No, they do not.  In fact, it is possible that a Seller would counter a full price offer with a number higher than the asking price.  The Seller is not legally required to accept an offer just because it is full price. 

I have never been part of a transaction where this happened — except in competitive situations where other buyers were competing against my buyers for the same (no doubt under-priced) home. In those cases, the final sales price could be upwards of 30% or more on top of the listed asking price.

Is under-pricing your home in hopes of a competing-offer frenzy a smart marketing strategy in the Columbus Ohio Real Estate Market? Not usually. The best way to price your home is still pricing it at the place where it is most likely to sell, depending on what the market will bear, for the most money in the least amount of time possible. 

Possibly of interest:

If you want to sell your location, location, location, you may have to adjust your price, price, price. 

Homes for Heroes - a Columbus Area First Time Home Buyer Program

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In an economic climate marked by cutbacks, layoffs and outsourcing, Columbia Gas of Ohio is doing something many central Ohio business would find unthinkable.

It’s hiring.

It’s not for me, but maybe you know someone. (Link.)

Eat it, PBS!

Here’s a primer on John McCain’s day in Ohio today:

The Republican presidential candidate heads to Wilmington after a scheduled 11:30 a.m. town hall meeting in Lima at the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center. Another campaign stop is planned for the Columbus suburb of Dublin.

The DHL deal is expected to be front and center in Wilmington.

Lisa the Waitress has things to do this weekend. There’s a Waterfire on the Mile event this Saturday. Never been. Maybe I’ll go.

John McCain will be in Columbus today for a private fundraiser. Big bucks, apparently. Progress Ohio is holding a counter-event. Tomorrow (Thursday) McCain’s got a public appearance in Lima. More at the Dispatch.

SurveyUSA has a poll on the Ohio-15th race. It’s Mary Jo Kilroy (D) vs. Steve Stivers (R). Kilroy narrowly lost two years ago to Republican incumbent Deborah Pryce, who’s retiring at the end of this term. The result is Kilroy over Stivers, 47-44. I’m surprised, in this Democratic year, that the result is so close. Those numbers are within the margin of error.

Independent Don Eckhart is also running- he’s at 7%. (Via BSB.)

The lefty blog dedicated to the Ohio 15th district, smartly called Ohio 15th District, has a warning on right-wing 527’s who are preparing to run ads:

They are against any movement that would take American troops out of Iraq and into the growing attacks on Americans in Afghanistan. Both Freedom’s Watch and Vets for Freedom subscribe to the Bush and McCain plan to have everlasting war in Iraq. Remember—you’ve been warned!

Speak TRUTH TO POWER, baby!

Nick D at Buckeye State Blog published the home address of that wacky guy who demanded Barack Obama recite the pledge of allegiance at his campaign event in Berea yesterday. (Obama did.)

Now clearly what that guy did was bizarre and I don’t approve, but publishing a person’s home address isn’t cool. And there’s a non-partisan consensus about that.

We’re increasingly hearing that a reworked Streetcar proposal will be contingent on help from our friends in Washington, but what happens if they never come to our rescue?  Certainly, changes will come when a new presidential administration takes the reigns in 2009, but what kind of changes will they be?

Some people, like columnist Neil Peirce at the Washington Post, have their doubts that federal funding in transit is something that should be counted on.  He notes that cities with vision have decided to act like big boys and girls, and do it on their own.

Metros Move to Forge Their Own Transit Futures
By Neal Peirce

America’s major metro regions may be on the verge of transit independence.

They tap federal aid whenever they can. But increasingly they’re being obliged to find money for system expansion right at home. They’re learning to get cities and suburbs on the same page as they prepare for a post-petroleum age.

And where they’re not succeeding, anger is mounting. Take the Atlanta region, legendary for its traffic tie-ups. It added 2 million people in 20 years but built little new capacity, and now needs to invest $50 billion in rails and roads. As recently as April, Georgia’s legislature refused to let citizens of the region even vote on a sales tax boost to finance transit lines and roadway expansion.

“The business community is screaming for relief at the top of our voice,” says Sam Williams, president of the Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. He’s not only urging early transportation investments but warning that “failure to invest would spell economic disaster for Georgia.”

The good news: only few other regions — metro Detroit, for example — are as stalemated as Atlanta. Indeed, just check what’s happening elsewhere:

Houston, legendary capital of Big Oil, has decided to plunge ahead with building an integrated five-corridor light rail system. “With gas headed to $8 a gallon and oil to $200 a barrel,” said Councilman Peter Brown, “we have to rethink Houston as a happy motoring paradise.”

The Denver region continues to construct its ambitious 119-mile, $4.7 billion “Fastracks” system of light rail and commuter rail that voters decided, 57 percent to 42 percent, to fund in 2004.

Charlotte is celebrating 13,000-passenger-a-day patronage, 4,000 ahead of projections, on the first corridor of its Lynx rail system, inaugurated last November.

The Seattle region’s Sound Transit Board has just voted unanimously to put a 15-year mass transit package, including bus, commuter rail and a 53-mile regional light rail system, on this November’s ballot. It’s a daring move because just last autumn the region’s voters turned down a combined highway-transit funding measure. But Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is hailing the big rail expansion as the right response to high gas prices and rising congestion: “the right plan for us, our kids and our planet.”

This December, Phoenix opens a 20-mile light rail link from its downtown to neighboring Tempe and Mesa, using funds from a designated sales tax voters approved 2-to-1 in 2000.

And so it goes across the U.S.– check Dallas, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, Washington, Portland, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Norfolk and more. In amazing numbers, rail transit systems are either experiencing record ridership, or expanding, or both.

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