Read the article on the Morning Journal's website here.

LORAIN- The Ohio Senate passed a bill to establish a pilot program in Lorain County that allows use of an overdose reversing nasal spray by firefighters and police officers.

Ohio Senate Bill 57, if passed by the House of Representatives, would expand access to Narcan, a brand name of naloxone, to those who are often the first on the scene.

Currently, Ohio law only allows Narcan to be used by paramedics.

Narcan buys victims time to reach a hospital by temporarily reversing the effects of any opioid, such as heroin or prescription pain killers.

The medication has not been found to have any adverse effects on someone who is not affected by an opioid, making it safe for use in cases where the drug used is unknown, proponents have said.

There has been a heavy push from Lorain County officials, led by Coroner Dr. Stephen Evans, to make Narcan available as a means of combating a skyrocketing overdose death rate in the county.

Nearly three times as many people died from overdoses in Lorain County in 2012 than in 2011. More than 20 people have already died from overdoses this year.

State Sen. Gayle Manning, R-North Ridgeville, introduced the bill on the behalf of county officials in February after receiving a letter from Lorain Police Chief Cel Rivera.

“It would be a tragedy not to save lives right here in Lorain County when the resources are quite possibly right at our finger tips,” Manning stated.

Rivera wrote in his letter that it was a “common sense solution” to allow police officers, who often arrive before paramedics, to carry the medication. Many of Lorain’s officers are also trained paramedics and EMTs who are familiar with Narcan, he said.

The training could take as little as 15 minutes to familiarize others with the spray, he said.

Narcan has to be prescribed and Evans has volunteered to act as a dispensary for county agencies, he said previously. His office would also be responsible for training.

The program does not get any state funding, but Rivera previously said Lorain could cover its costs through the department’s drug forfeiture funds. A Narcan kit costs roughly $20.

Participating agencies will be required to keep records every time Narcan is prescribed and when it is used. Those reports will then be sent to the Lorain County Drug Task Force, the Lorain County coroner and the director of the Ohio Department of Health for study. An overall study on the effectiveness of the program will then be sent to the governor, the Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services and legislative leaders.

The hope is a successful program in Lorain County will lead to a statewide rollout of the change, Manning said previously.

It was unclear exactly when the Ohio House would take up deliberations. The bill has a program start date of Aug. 1 and Manning hopes the House will take action by then, a spokesman said.

Senate President Keith Faber (R-Celina) yesterday addressed the City Clib of Cleveland on issues ranging from the state budget to workforce development.

During his speech, the President assued the crowd that the Senate's number-one priority of job creation remains unchanged. In supporting that goal, Faber outlined the Senate's work in helping Ohioans receive additional job training through Senate Bill 1 and the state's most recent announcement that excess dollars in the BWC fund will be returned to Ohio's private sector businesses as well as local governments and schools.

Read the editorial directly from the Columbus Dispatch by clicking here.

In the latest sign that word is getting out about Ohio’s business-friendly makeover, the Buckeye State is the biggest gainer in Chief Executive magazine’s 2013 ranking of Best States for Business.

Ohio advanced an impressive 13 spots from last year, by far the biggest gain of any state, on the list based on responses from more than 700 CEOs around the country.

Ohio landed at No. 22 after CEOs ranked states on factors including taxation and regulation, work-force quality and quality of life.

In addition to its impressive one-year gain, Ohio had the third-largest four-year gain among states, rising from a dismal No. 45 in 2009.

State tax reforms signed into law by former Gov. Bob Taft and phased in over several years have had a major impact on Ohio’s reputation as a good place for business.

Gov. John Kasich has taken the foundation of Ohio’s diverse economy and continued to build Ohio’s reputation for business-friendliness.

A state can’t promote itself as business-friendly if it can’t get its own house in order. Kasich quickly closed Ohio’s $8 billion budget gap, has overseen the addition of 115,000 new jobs since taking office and just announced refunds to employers from the state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, which is running a surplus.

A common theme that’s developed in the list is the bottom-tier rankings of states that were long seen as the business leaders of the country, and which are home to America’s largest cities: California, New York and Illinois rank 50th, 49th and 48th, respectively, on the Chief Executive list.

Those states have in common high-tax, high-regulation policies that a majority of CEOs say are crippling the growth those states desperately need to prop up their unsustainable entitlements and public-pension obligations.

By contrast, low-tax, low-regulation states have solidified their grip on the list’s top spots: Texas, Florida and North Carolina remained unchanged on this year’s list at Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

CEOs say that, in contrast to Washington, D.C., the states are adopting pro-growth policies by reducing business taxes and streamlining regulations, among other things.

Right here in the Columbus area, which is on track to surpass Cleveland within a few years for the size of its metro area, the city is gaining a national reputation for being business-friendly and offering a good quality of life. Columbus has ranked high on several recent lists of cities that are good for entrepreneurs, including a just-released list from Thumbtack.com of best American cities for starting a business. The city also has been noted a number of times by national publications in the past couple of years for its varied attractions and restaurants.

One ranking isn’t the be-all, end-all for a state, and there is still room for improvement on lists such as the Chief Executive one.

Though higher-ranked than most neighboring states, Ohio still lags Indiana, which maintained its No. 5 position. But clearly, momentum continues to build under Kasich’s stewardship and his championing of the Ohio story in national and international settings.

Senate President Keith Faber (R-Celina) today threw the game-opening, ceremonial first pitch for the Vintage Baseball Game on the Statehouse Lawn. The game pits your state legislators against the Ohio Village Muffins in an old fashioned ballgame.

(Columbus) – Ohio Senate President Keith Faber issued the following statement today regarding proposed Right to Work legislation in the Ohio House of Representatives:

“We have an ambitious agenda focused on job creation and economic recovery, and Right to Work legislation is not on that list. After discussions with other leaders and my caucus, I don’t believe there is current support for this issue in the General Assembly. The only purpose this discussion serves right now is to generate a bunch of breathless fundraising appeals from the Ohio Democratic Party.”