Guest article by “funnelcake”

Would you like to comment on the proposed Street Car system for the City of Cincinnati?  According to the head tag line for the comment section “Cincinnati officials announced a financial plan Tuesday for a proposed $102 million streetcar system connecting downtown to Over-the-Rhine. The city would contribute $36 million, with the rest from other sources.”
source

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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A concerned reader recently dropped me an email, saying that this year’s council race was a bit trickier in terms of picking good candidates.  He wanted me to find out what readers of The Beacon thought were the biggest issues facing the City.  So if you have an opinion on the matter, drop a line in the comments section!

Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Guest article by Steve Garner, Canadian

Five guys from Canada, one tightly-packed rental Dodge Caravan (affectionately named “The Silver Bullet” ), and a 3,000 mile roundtrip – all this and much more just to see the Cincinnati Bengals’ season home opener? Perhaps we need to explain ourselves, eh?…

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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The story of how these documents have been made available for public download really encapsulates the power of the digital revolution.  First, we have Michael Earl Patton’s original story—based off the information he was given, which suggested the County accepted the gift of an industrial site without conducting an Environmental Site Assessment.  This prompted Assistant County Administrator Jeff Aluotto to write a response, asking The Beacon to post it.  After a review of this letter revealed several unanswered questions, someone filed a records request for the actual copy of the ESA.  The large file was put on a CD, which Michael Earl Patton acquired, and gave to me so I could make it available to anyone who wishes to review it!

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Cincinnati Six Years After the Killing and the Riots

Guest article by Dan LaBotz

Why six years after police killed an unarmed black man and the city was rocked by riots, has everything in Cincinnati come down to the building of a jail? How did the liberals’ darling Todd Portune end up joining hands with conservative moral crusader Sheriff Simon Leis? Why has the Democratic Party placed all of its chips on 800 more jail beds in a city and a county with a declining population? Why have not only Democrats and Republicans, but also the corporations and the labor unions joined together to build a jail that is opposed by the NAACP and most black Cincinnatians? How did what began as a search for racial reconciliation lead to a jail that is to many here the emblem, that is, both the symbol and the reality of racial discrimination?

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Speaking at the press conference will be Christopher Smitherman of the NAACP; Suhith Wickrema of No Jail Tax PAC; Dan La Botz of Cincinnati Progressive Action; Justin Jeffre, Green Party Candidate for Council; Michael Patton, Libertarian Party Candidate for Council; Andre Harper, Republican Candidate for City Council; County Commissioner Pat De Wine and Representative Tom Brinkman of the Ohio House.

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Posted by Media Release
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Whenever we offer criticisms about 3CDC’s corporate revision of our City’s central space, status-quo defenders are quick to assert that the new (and still unfinished) Fountain Square is a great success due to the people who attend the programs offered.  But the old Square never had this kind of programming, so for all we know the old Square could have been this successful with some programming, too.  The issue is not about the popularity of programming, but a look at the corporate backstory that no one wants to talk about.  And another chapter in this corporate backstory came this week as 5/3 bank branded the Square with their new logo.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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One cannot link to stories at the news aggregator CincyNation, since usually that site just collects stories from other places.  But occasionally, it offers short blurbs of news and commentary that are original—and today there are two such items about the sheer whiteness of CinWeekly.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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from Media Matters for America

When it comes to nationally syndicated columnists, Ohio’s daily newspapers are dominated by conservatives, leaving progressive voices behind.

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Posted by Media Release
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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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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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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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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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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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The State of Ohio only recognizes two political parties:  Democrats and Republicans.  How can it be, then, that the Charter Campaign Committee has given $10,000 to Chris Bortz’s City Council campaign, with the record of that contribution listing it as the type “Political Party”?

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Cincinnati, OH - Community Shares of Greater Cincinnati kicked off its 11th annual fall giving campaign during the first week of September.  Community Shares provides an opportunity for Cincinnatians to support causes and charities they care most passionately about. 

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Posted by Media Release
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Recently, has said that because I wrote a story that used Justin Jeffre’s campaign logo, that he needs to include it as a contribution on his campaign disclosure form.  His implication is that if I decide to use a logo to go along with a story, that the logo is not a visual aid for information, but an advertisement.  Therefore, I have decided to collect links to all the Council candidate websites I could find, including logos.  Do they all need to include this in their campaign finance reports?  How much is it worth?  Will they all include it at the same amounts?  Or, is Brian Griffin just an idiot?

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Guest article by Christopher Smitherman.

The African American community continues to identify two different justice systems in Hamilton County: one African -American and one White. County Commissioners David Pepper and Todd Portune communicated that they would release 300 inmates in jail to free up jail space. As the President of the Cincinnati Branch of the NAACP I would like to recommend their first release. Her name is Levonn Smith.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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The August, 2007, Print Edition of the Cincinnati Beacon is now available online.  Click here to download an electronic format of the newspaper!

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Lots of noise is still getting made about Christopher Smitherman—the latest being about the precise details of when, exactly, Smitherman would be considered an official candidate, and how that would impact the calendar of his ability to moderate NAACP meetings.  The issue boiled down to the details of the clock, and the Hamilton County Board of Elections.  If Smitherman paid his filing fee on the final day (August 23rd, the same day as the NAACP meeting where the membership will vote on whether to support the jail tax), would he immediately be certified as a candidate—and therefore ineligible to serve as president for that night’s meeting—or is there a turnaround time regarding the certification process?

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Back in June, 2006, we ran this item, featuring some letters to The Enquirer about Carl Weiser.  On June 12, 2006, in response to Robert Kennedy’s article in Rolling Stone about Ohio voting irregularities in 2004, Editor and Publisher wrote an item that quoted Weiser, who said, “The folks who know Ohio elections best checked into it and found there was no conspiracy.” At the time, The Beacon was talking extensively with Dr. Bob Fitrakis (who we consider an “expert” in this field), so we wondered what “folks” Weiser contacted.  No response was given to our inquiries. 

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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In the latest bipartisan effort to destroy our civil liberties and constitution, they’ve even thrown out the mere appearance of checks and balances. I guess throwing away that pesky rubber stamp (FISA) will save time. Here’s the most recent example of the corporate Democrats’ complete failure to act as an opposition party.

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Posted by Justin Jeffre
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Yesterday, I noticed this post at the CityBeat blogs, calling for anyone with a military recruiter horror story to contact the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC).  The blog entry explains, “ IJPC is asking students, parents, teachers, guidance counselors and others for their stories about encounters with aggressive military recruiters. E-mail your stories to or call Kristen or Julie at .” It just so happens I’ve had some experience with military recruiters bending the rules of engagement with high school students, so I just called to share my observations.  Please consider doing the same, if you know anything!

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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The real influential Cincinnati blogs.

After a secret nomination process where no one knows how many votes were actually cast, CincyTechUSA announced the region’s top ten blogs, and your humble Cincinnati Beacon did not make the list.  Now, while some of you may be laughing that we have lost our influence and popularity—perhaps trying to say we have turned into right-winged Republicans because we don’t believe in spending a billion dollars on a jail— a closer inspection shows that the judges may have invented rules as they went along to stop the real contenders from getting additional publicity.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Recently, a national coalition of technical-support geeks came trolling to the defense of Cincinnati Bell when I wrote this article about their bad email service.  A huge percentage of Cincinnati Bell’s Fuse emails were being bounced back to the senders—sometimes taking several days before senders knew their messages were not being received.  Cincinnati Bell says they’ve been blacklisted due to Fuse users having easy-to-guess passwords whose accounts were infiltrated by SPAMMERS.  Is that a likely story, or complete and total bullshit?  Let’s take a closer look at the scenario—affecting thousands of Cincinnati internet users.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Introducing Cincy Report, a new blog from African American writer Ric Ricland.  So far, Ricland has carved a niche for himself as one opposed to all things Nate Livingston.  He says Over-the-Rhine is filled with a drug-abusing criminal element, or people who like living with such people and who therefore endorse it.  He thinks we need a new jail, and he wonders why Mitt Romney dyes his hair.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Perhaps you’ve heard about how Cincinnati Bell’s emails are being bounced back as spam from some of the biggest national email providers.  And maybe you want to talk to someone at Cincinnati Bell, perhaps because you don’t believe the lame memos their PR people send to media to stop the fury of righteous complaints coming their way.  But when you call Cincinnati Bell’s help line, you don’t actually get someone working for them.  You end up at an outsourced corporation named Pomeroy.  Here are instructions for getting past them to someone who can actually do something about your complaint.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Local media has been buzzing this week, trying to figure out whether Christopher Smitherman is allowed to run for office while being president of the NAACP.  The error in all this reporting, however, is that everyone seems to be writing as if Smitherman may currently be in violation of a rule.  There is just one problem with that position—something so obvious, I can’t believe no one has mentioned it before.  Christopher Smitherman is not officially running for anything!

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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In the 2005 race for City Council, we were proud to provide some of the most extensive coverage of the campaign season—giving candidates opportunities to expand on their platform points through written interviews.  Things have been a lot busier this summer—with the debut of our new print newspaper—but we still want to provide additional details on candidates, especially for some of the newcomers.  Unfortunately, we have been delayed, and this is due, in part, to the rude and difficult treatment we have received at the hands of Joan Kaup, a Charterite who would rather play games than answer some straightforward questions about her vision for Cincinnati.

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Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
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Contract talks reach turning point as frustration grows over economic divide between wealthy corporations and city’s struggling workers, neighborhoods

Cincinnati – Hundreds of janitors who clean the majority of Cincinnati’s office space voted today to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary in the coming weeks. The overwhelmingly affirmative vote means janitors representing the more than 1,200 janitors who clean the majority of the area’s office space could call for a city-wide strike at any time. 

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Posted by Media Release
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