Posted by Justin Jeffre
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Sunday’s jail story and opinion by Peter Bronson was obviously written by someone who did not understand the issue and who was relying on only the pro-jail side for information.  Besides portraying the jail as the preferred place for many mentally ill and African-Americans, some of the “facts” reported in a sidebar are wrong.  One number, the “14,000” early releases since 2004, Sheriff Leis knows to be wildly wrong but often repeats it or a similar number in an apparent attempt to scare voters.  Another, the $33 cost per taxpayer, is fudged.  Other data are also wrong.

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Posted by Michael Earl Patton
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Photo courtesy of here.

The other day, I found this discussion thread about Fountain Square, and I was surprised to see how many people agree with The Beacon about how bad of a job 3CDC has done with Fountain Square—which still isn’t finished over one year after its original completion date.  So often, when we write anything critical of 3CDC and Fountain Square, a small number of commenters—who probably work for 3CDC—flood the site, trying to tell us that we are an extreme minority with our views.  As it turns out, plenty of people recognize the problems of 3CDC and the allegedly improved Fountain Square.  Here are a sampling of comments from the forum.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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This week, the murder case of Stephanie Hummer has ended, with Jonathan Gravely getting sentenced 25 years to life for raping her, then murdering her. 

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Does former naked candidate for Cincinnati City Council really have a brain tumor?

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Last week, I posted this item, which raised the question about Steve Black’s voting record.  While he is running as a Democrat against Victoria Wulsin for Congress, word has it that Black spent his life as a registered Republican.  (As a side note, this same article prompted a larger discussion about Steve Black’s ethnicity.) But more significant than the whiteness or blackness of his ancestors, it might be more significant to study his voting record.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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First, Simon Leis used taxpayer dollars to distribute threatening letters to his employees, suggesting that if they did not vote for the new jail they could lose their jobs.  Next, Leis put huge “Support the New Jail” signs all over County vehicles in the Harvest Home parade—both actions which eventually prompted a citizen lawsuit.  Now, he’s posted his message on the Sheriff’s web page!

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Most people don’t know what that word means anymore, but ”miscegenation” refers to the act of interracial marriage, and/or the creation of mixed-race offspring.  Are any members of the Charter Committee involved in an interracial marriage?  I have no idea, since they keep their membership lists a secret, but I can’t help but wonder if I am being discriminated against due to Jeff Cramerding’s personal distaste for miscegeny.*

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Posted by Bearman
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Photo courtesy of here.

(Editor’s Note:  I decided to post this media release from David Pepper’s office because I am hoping that Nate Livingston will have a chance to respond to the allegations against him.)

Tosses Out Complaint; Plan Opponents Don’t Even Make Appearance

(September 20, 2007). The Ohio Elections Commission today ruled in favor of Sheriff Leis, Commissioners Todd Portune and David Pepper, finding no probable cause that they and other supporters of the Comprehensive Safety Plan made false statements when talking about the county’s safety crisis.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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In today’s Enquirer, Todd Portune gets the final word in a story about Simon Leis getting sued for allegedly using public dollars to engage in political campaigning.  According to the story, “It’s all politics,” Portune said. “The politics gets the headlines. Do we really need to tie this up in court?” Give me a break, Todd.  Are you really trying to play politics by pretending to make some kind of righteous commentary on politics?  Todd, you know as well I as do, that if Phil Heimlich had done the same thing last year, you would have been right there with me, and probably David Pepper, too, complaining about his illegal campaigning.  How dense do you think we are?

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Linda Newman, an activist with Cincinnati Progressive Action and the No Jail Tax PAC, recently published a letter to the editor in CityBeat.  She desired to have it posted here, too, for reaching the maximum number of readers with her concerns.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Lead-laced toys. Tainted snacks. Poisonous pet food.

They’re products made in China and sold at Wal-Mart… so dangerous they’ve been pulled off the shelves.

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Posted by Media Release
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Thank God for MEP.  Without him, we might not have had a wide distribution of where it looks like Si Leis might be using taxpayer dollars to campaign for the jail tax!  And because of Michael Earl Patton, The Cincinnati Beacon’s presentation of this evidence has been entered into the suit against Leis, and we have even been mentioned in the suit!

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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When we posted this story about Steve Black, Nate Livingston left some comments which have caused people to wonder at Steve Black’s ethnicity.  Today, Livingston has at his blog looking at the issue further.  This story is on the one hand absurd, but also strangely intriguing.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Yesterday, I was informed about a story that aired on WLWT last week.  I was told that a white man driving downtown ran into and killed a Black woman, and that no charges had been filed against the guy.  I found that strange—almost unbelievable—thus I wanted to see the story for myself.  Unfortunately, I could not find it.  So, I called WLWT, and the guy at the web page desk was kind enough to forward me the link.  And since yesterday, WLWT has already changed the text of the story.  What’s going on with this white guy, and should he get into any trouble for killing an elderly Black woman with his car?

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Photo courtesy of here.

But Safety Plan Is Necessary to Fund Both Temporary, Permanent Solutions

Echoing meetings they have had in recent weeks, Hamilton County Commissioners Todd Portune and David Pepper today continued to express support for state efforts that will allow them to rent jail beds across the river, including legislation being announced today.

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Posted by Media Release
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In the weird and wild world of Gerald “Jeff” Berding, former Democratic councilmembers like Roxanne Qualls and Minette Cooper are good-for-nothing grandstanders—career politicians unlike Berding, who characterizes himself as a good old fashioned working man, employed by the Cincinnati Bengals, who dutifully completes his public service before going back home with his kids.  Just check out the following email Berding recently distributed to his mailing list, where he blasts some of his Democratic colleagues!

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Photo courtesy of here.

by No Jail Tax Pac

Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis and County Commissioners Todd Portune and David Pepper have called upon us to vote to add 800 news beds to the county jail to be financed by a regressive sales tax that we don’t want. The NAACP led a successful campaign this summer that also involved CPA, COAST, ACORN, the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. We succeeded in keeping Leis, Portune and Pepper from foisting this jail on us and now have the right to vote on the jail tax in the coming November election.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Is Ohio often penny-wise and dollar-foolish when it comes to foster care?  That is the contention of the Contact Center’s Safe & Stable Families Campaign. During the Hamilton County Commissioners’ meeting Wednesday several people spoke out about the importance of placing children with relatives if they have to be removed from their biological parents.  Yet relatives receive far less support payments than foster parents who are not related.  The amount of support is so small that in many cases the family cannot accept the child.  If the relatives live in a small place to begin with, the county may even refuse to consider placing the child there.

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Posted by Michael Earl Patton
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From what I’ve been told, Steve Black—who is running against Vic Wulsin for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the Second District—has never voted as a Democrat.  Allegedly, in the last election he took a Republican ballot, which would have allowed him to vote for Jean Schmidt.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Guest article by Hamilton County Commission President Todd Portune.

The Beacon article quoting Suhith Wickrema’s statements that we do not need to house federal prisoners and which then forms the basis to launch other attacks against the Hamilton County Comprehensive Public Safety Plan offers a multitude of inaccurate or incomplete assertions in the ongoing effort to defeat the plan at the polls.  As a consequence, people like Dan La Botz react without full knowledge, or worse yet, La Botz has willfully chosen to join in.  Either way a full recitation of the facts and the reasoning is needed for the voter to make an informed decision. 

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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by Vice Mayor David Crowley

In March of this year I, along with former Vice Mayor Tarbell, cast the two lone votes against an ordinance that criminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Just to be clear, the vote in March of 2007 made the law permanent after it was instituted on a trial basis the year before—a decision I also opposed. 

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Why is it that 3CDC’s problems have such a keen way of finding me?  This evening, my family decided to go downtown to Benihana for some live-action dinner.  My wife, who was driving, parked in the 3CDC garage at Fountain Square.  I got out of the garage, grabbed my son’s hand to walk toward the elevators, and two older gentlemen asked for my help.  They were holding their parking ticket, and they wanted to know if I had ever parked there before.  They wanted me to explain the parking system to them, because they did not understand how to pay!  (What would happen if I were not around to explain such things to these poor victims?) But what’s more shocking is what happened when my turn came to leave the garage!

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Last night, WCPO aired this I-Team report.  Looks like someone must have forwarded The Beacon’s information to Laure Quinlivan, as the whole piece looked like a recap of what Michael Earl Patton has been posting for the last several days.  Who knows!  But the real treat in this report is how Si Leis looks like he is about to become totally unhinged!  Go to WCPO and check out the video!

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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A story in Wednesday’s Cincinnati Enquirer relates how Mr. Jeff Capell criticized Sheriff Leis at the commissioners’ staff meeting Monday, after which the sheriff is alleged to have approached him and threatened him with a lawsuit for calling his behavior unethical.

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Posted by Michael Earl Patton
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Yesterday, this Beacon contributor spoke in front of the Hamilton County Commissioners at their meeting and stated that Sheriff Simon Leis, by his use of county money to campaign for the jail tax, was engaged in unethical behavior and requested that the commissioners do something about it.  I also mentioned his threat to sue another critic, as reported in The Cincinnati Enquirer. Mr. Portune said Sheriff Leis believes he has behaved legally and that by turning over documents to the prosecutor the sheriff demonstrated that he is a man of integrity. When I started to ask if that meant that the sheriff would continue to campaign in the manner he has been, Mr. Portune sharply cut me off and said that my two minutes were up.

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Posted by Michael Earl Patton
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The more I think about the alleged “Charter Party,” the more questions I have.  Yesterday, I started thinking about their bank accounts.  All bank accounts must have one of two things:  an associated Social Security Number, or a Tax ID Number.  Which one is tagged to the Charter Committee’s bank accounts?

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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No Jail Tax PAC, the grassroots citizens’ political action committee that led the fight to defeat the jail tax proposed on the ballot last November, will oppose the jail tax again in this coming election, according to spokesman Suhith Wickrema, a social worker who lives in Cincinnati.

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Posted by Media Release
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Photo courtesy of here.

There is an old saying, “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” I asked a friend of mine who worked with horses all his life about this saying and he explained that there are many reasons why one SHOULD look a gift horse in the mouth, in fact, one would be a fool not to.  Similarly, one should always check out free gifts of industrial property.  Anybody who has paid attention to the news in the past thirty years knows about toxic waste sites, poisons, lead paint, Superfund, groundwater contamination, and underground storage tanks.  Cleaning up such sites can cost many millions of dollars.

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Posted by Michael Earl Patton
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