Columbus has the highest rate of reported rapes among the largest U.S. cities, federal crime statistics show.

Data for the first half of 2002 -- the most recent available for cities nationwide -- as well as for all of 2001, show a rate here twice that of Los Angeles and four times as high as New York City.

And Columbus is no standout among Ohio cities. Rates of reporting are higher in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Dayton!

Christine Long, who was raped 15 years ago in her Grandview Heights apartment and now lives on the Northwest Side, blames the state's sentencing laws.

The man who raped her in August 1988 had been released from prison eight months earlier after he had served seven years of a 15- to 75-year sentence for raping two other women.

Eventually Long bought a gun. "It was the first time I felt I could go to sleep.''

In the mid-1990s, Long championed a successful move to ban weightlifting equipment in prisons and jails. She supports a measure currently in the Ohio legislature that would allow some Ohioans to carry concealed weapons.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for information on how concealed carry reform can reduce this victimization of women in Ohio.

A new survey has been added to the OFCC PAC website, inquiring as to whether or not your purchasing power will be directed away from businesses which elect to ban CCW in their stores.

Yesterday marked the deadline for applications to replace conservative Republican Justice Deborah Cook, still awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation to the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Fifteen judges and lawyers have submitted resumes to Gov. Bob Taft for an Ohio Supreme Court vacancy that doesn’t exist yet.

Taft spokesman Orest Holubec said the administration has actively sought minority applicants. A third of the applications are from African-Americans.

"I’m glad African-Americans are in the pool of candidates," said state Sen. Ray Miller (D., Columbus). "But I’ve asked the governor not just to consider African-Americans to make sure he has a diverse pool, but to make a commitment to appointing an African-American to the Supreme Court."

OFCC PAC Commentary:
Funny, we always thought qualifications should be the ONLY consideration when selecting judicial nominees, not qualifications and race, or qualifications and religion, or qualifications and...

OFCC PAC will be keeping a close eye on this developing issue, as Gov.Taft's appointment could shift the court away from the constitutionalist majority which was voted in by Ohioans in last fall's elections.

Click here to read the entire story in the Toledo Blade.

Last week, we told you that Crain's Cleveland Business had published an editorial opposing the reformation of concealed carry laws in Ohio, which essentially mirrored a letter printed in multiple Ohio papers over the past three weeks, written by the president of the "Million" Mom March chapter of greater Cleveland.

In their March 31, 2003 edition, Crain's published the official OFCC response, as submitted by OFCC's northwest Ohio coordinator (and PAC Vice Chairman) Chad Baus. Because the Crain's website is subscription-based, the response can be viewed in it's entirety by clicking on the "Read More..." link below.