Alaska

Strickland, speaking after an event at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank in Columbus, said he wasn't singling out himself or Ohio, but that the convergence of problems in the housing market, the Wall Street collapse and other issues has every state but Alaska in or near recession.

Although Ohio's actual credit rating remains strong, the rating service Fitch Ratings downgraded the state's outlook from "stable" to "negative." Moody's had done the same in February 2007.

The governor's comments are part of an ongoing effort to publicize the state's economic struggles in advance of the next budget that the governor must introduce by February and the legislature must pass by June 30.

U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Chagrin Falls) made a joke.

LaTourette was explaining to the Twinsburg and Hudson Chambers of Commerce how the construction of a pipeline had not harmed the local Caribou population in Alaska, but instead had grown it five-fold since the 1970s because "the warmth" of the pipeline had been making the caribou "frisky."

In a bit of "convention week fun," the campaign of LaTourette opponent, former state Appellate Judge William O'Neill (D-South Russell), decided to razz the Congressman about his answer regarding Alaska and energy somehow drifting to the mating habits of Caribou.