A ballot battle over whether to keep Ohio's tough new restrictions on public employee unions could give labor supporters and Democrats a lift going into the presidential election year. But some Democrats fear losing the Nov. 8 referendum could be another dispiriting setback that saps enthusiasm from the party's progressive...

A 78-year-old grandmother who urged a repeal of Ohio's overhaul of collective bargaining rights is suddenly at the center of a high-stakes battle over the future of public labor unions in the state.

Opponents of Ohio's new collective bargaining overhaul scored a tactical victory Wednesday on the wording of a ballot question to repeal it, even as the Ohio Chamber of Commerce pledged to put the money and the political clout of its 6,000 business members behind defending the law.

Ohio voters will have the chance this November to decide whether the state's contentious new collective bargaining law should be repealed.

Opponents of the new federal health care overhaul are one step closer to having voters in the political bellwether of Ohio decide whether the state constitution should be amended to keep people from being required to buy health insurance or face penalties.