Dawson Companies will be offering a special Affordable Care Act (ACA) briefing for members of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. The briefing will 

take place Friday, May 24th from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Cherry Lodge, Newark, OH.

This important, private briefing for OOGA members will focus on the health insurance mandates of the ACA which impact every employer and every one of your employees. 

Katie Cooke from the Dawson Companies will cover key topics, issues, and questions all employers need to be aware of regarding this legislation, including:

- Employer mandates

- Excise Taxes

- Fines

- Penalties

- Other New Taxes and Fees

- Changes in the Health Insurance Market Place

- Reinsurance Stabilization Fees

- Question and Answer Session

Click here to register for this event

(Cincinnati Enquirer) Ohio's Senate leadership plans to include a 50 percent small-business tax cut in its version of the state's new two-year budget, but amendments due Thursday will determine whether the Senate budget can cut taxes further.

The Republican-led House earlier this spring passed a version of the Ohio budget that highlighted a 7 percent cut in personal income taxes.

Unless it finds additional savings or raises more tax revenue, the General Assembly must choose between the House's personal income tax cut and Senate Republicans' desired 50 percent tax cut on businesses' first $750,000 in profits.

While the Senate would like to include both cuts, "our priority is the business tax cut," said John McClelland, spokesman for Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina. "Our members believe that will be more effective in economic growth and job creation."

Proposals for amendments due this week will therefore serve as the Senate's hope for including both tax cuts before its June 5 target deadline to make changes to the House's budget.

After that, leadership from the two houses will seek to reconcile the two bills before a final vote later that month.

Spending cuts make up most of the possibilities for finding a way to include both tax cuts, said Sen. Bill Coley, R-Liberty Township and vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

"Maybe the time has come to pare out some of the under performing programs that cost more," Coley said.

(Business Journal) Representatives of the Ohio Oil And Gas Association, or OOGA, say that the fears and concerns associated with Class II injection wells across the state are unfounded. To prove their contention, they demonstrated for reporters just how routine the practice is.

"It's really underwhelming," said OOGA Vice President David Hill, who also owns three injection wells in Ohio and production operations in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. "They're very misunderstood. It's easy to fear what you don't know."

OOGA representatives invited print media from northeastern Ohio to a tour Wednesday of a typical injection well. David Ballentine, president of Northeast Ohio Oilfield Service Inc., owns and operates the well on land he leases in this rural area of the state in Portage County.

(Youngstown Vindicator) The loss of what was billed as an anti-fracking amendment to Youngstown's charter was surprising only in its margin of 57 percent to 43 percent. It should have been larger.

That is not a commentary on any perceived nonchalance by Youngstown residents about hazards that may be presented by the hydraulic fracturing process used to extract oil and gas from shale formations deep beneath the earth's surface.

It is, instead a recognition of at least three things:

The anti-fracking amendment, or Community Bill of Rights, as it was called, went far beyond an attempt to control or ban fracking. Most of the amendment was boiler plate produced by a Pennsylvania environmentalist group that ascribed inalienable rights to people, animals, plants and even fungi. It was so fuzzy in its language that anyone could have seized on one section or another to challenge anyone else's use of virtually any device or chemical that produced noise, odor or a perceived threat. One section effectively negated zoning by stating that Youngstown residents have "an inalienable right to the peaceful enjoyment of their homes, free from interference, intrusion, nuisances, or impediments to access and occupation."  

(Athens News) A number of community members will soon be testing air quality throughout Athens County to measure the impact of oil and gas waste injection wells, anti-fracking advocates revealed this weekend.

Anti-fracking advocates and local elected officials came together at ARTS/West on West State Street Friday afternoon to discuss air-testing community science training conducted by an entity known as Global Community Monitor.

GCM is a California-based anti air contamination organization that provided training Saturday to 20 Appalachian Ohio and West Virginia residents to measure levels of air contamination in their communities.

"In response to the presence of documented toxics in local injection well open pits and to the headaches and throat irritation experienced by residents who have ventured near the well sites, Athens Fracking Action Network has invited GCM to offer their 'Bucket Brigade' program to our region," the ACFAN announced in a press release.

The meeting at ARTS/West included a presentation and discussion among Ruth Breech of GCM, Molly Rauch of Mom's Clean Air Task Force, based out of Washington, D.C., and Teresa Mills, a Nelsonville native, of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice and Buckeye Forest Council.

Joining them were Athens County Commissioner Lenny Eliason, Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl, Athens City Council members Michel Papai, Chris Knisely and Chris Fahl, and local Fracking Action Network members Christine Hughes and Heather Cantino.

The Bucket Brigade, according to provided documents, originated in 1995 with Edward Masry, the attorney who worked with famed environmental activist Erin Brokovich.