1. The Nation
Despite President Obama's call for federal employees to "do their part" and accept smaller-than-usual pay raises, Congress is considering a budget that could spend an additional $1.3 billion or more on pay for civilian federal workers.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-04-03-government-pay-raises_N.htm

2. The State
Progress made—and progress still needed—in implementing recommendations of the Ohio Medicaid Administrative Study Council are tracked in the new report, Managing Medicaid: An Update on the Report of the Ohio Medicaid Administrative Study Council, by Wendy Feinn. Community Solutions will continue monitoring the status of Medicaid in the coming months as part of our Public Policy and Advocacy agenda.
http://www.communitysolutions.com/images/upload/resources/OMASCFinalReport.pdf

3. The Region
The Akron Film Festival begins Thursday in a new venue and has more workshops, as well as a selection of short and feature-length films. The festival will be based in the Akron Art Museum this year, a change from last year's presentations in the Summit Artspace building…And while the festival comes close on the heels of the larger Cleveland International Film Festival, the Akron event has different films and a different audience. For more information: http://www.AkronFilmFestival.com.

4. Community Solutions
We’ve taken a major step in our move toward a primarily electronic communications platform! After 50 years as our signature publication, the Northeast Ohio Media Guide, is now an online subscription service ($50/year). A user name and password are required to access the system…so subscribe today!
https://www.communitysolutions.com/mediaguide/login.asp

5. Miscellaneous
Quit-smoking hot lines are smokin' hot thanks to the largest-ever increase in the federal tobacco tax.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/04/ohio_stopsmoking_800quitnow_li.html