Lawsuit filed vs. police, Enquirer
Here is the Enquirer's version of the story on the lawsuit filed against them. This paints a significantly bigger picture of the lawsuit. The passages they quoted have Ken Lawson written all over it. I think the conspiracy has fewer legs on it than Mr. Lawson is stating. 5 police officers have been named as John Doe defendants, meaning they are believed to be real people, but their identity is unknown to the plaintiff. The claims against the Enquirer are outlandish. They are overstated and what could be considered bigoted. I think that if Mr. Williams III wanted to get Lt. Col. Twitty's job, I don't think he is going to do himself any favors by suing the organization he apparently has interest in joining.

I see this as a case of bad reporting. Ms. Prendergast had reported on Deangelo Williams in a story from last year, where Deangelo Williams got into a heavy shootout with police. A year later this guy is on the street getting arrested again, a whole different issue. Ms. Prendergast also could have been confused with the fact that there are 2 other Clarence Williams listed with drug offenses on the courtclerk.org website, both of whom are college age (20 and 21).

It will be interesting how this lawsuit progresses. I am more inclined to have the Enquirer fight it. At this point there are no documents listed on the court clerk's website giving any more details than in the papers. If I were the Enquirer, Ken Lawson would be in my editorial sites. There may be something to individuals in the police department knowingly giving the Enquirer bad information, but the Enquirer would not print what it new to be false, no matter what its detractors might think. They may have just been lazy, and need to fire either the reporter for not researching or a staffer for not doing the research.

Mike McConnell of 700WLW thinks the American public, including him, are not being "sold" on War with Iraq. We are all being fed propaganda and he knows it. It just happens to like the propaganda or is just getting on board what he thinks will be the "winning" side in the game of "one upsmanship." He wants to say "I' told you so" to those against war when Saddam uses chemical weapons during the war. "Think of what Iraq would have done if we had not followed the blood lust of my callers," is something like he might think to say at that point. I wonder if he would get the irony. I do not know when the GOP became so hawkish, but it has not always been that way. I wonder if the hawks that called in to Mike's show would have been calling Republicans who opposed sending aid to England before we entered WWII "unamerican" for not wanting to go to war against Hitler. I am sure in hindsight they would have one opinion, but it would not be consistant with their rantings now.

Suit claims newspaper wrong on arrest identity
This case must be a problem for the Enquirer. I cannot find the referenced article on thier archive that the suit refers to. My knee jerk reaction to the conspiracy claim about Mr. Williams being tarnished intentionally to reduce his chances to become the new assitant police chieif is to disregard it. I do think this warrents looking into. There is some smoke here, and the source of Jane Prendergast's story is a question that I think needs answering. I do not know how the source shield rule is applied for civil cases, if at all, especially when the source appears to be wrong. I hope the Enquirer releases it soon. The longer they wait the worse it looks. It might just be a case of bad reporting or bad reseach, for which the newspaper should just confess, settle, and get on with their business.

I hate to report rumors but the grapevine is reporting that 1160 WBOB-AM will be switching formats to "Christian" programming. Listeners are indicating that commercials are already appearing that are fundamentalist Christian advertisements. There is no information as to when this might take place. I really hope this does not happen. I am not a big "BOB" listener, but this town has more than 3 full time "Christian" radio stations now. I do not think any more are needed. I don't think any are needed, but that is a side issue. Radio is dying in this town as it is, but this will push it a little faster if it happens.

Men attempted to jump off hotel
Are these guys totally nuts? Why only try a 34-story building? The late "Sky Punk" jumped from Carew Tower twice, so why not stick to the tallest building in town? I wonder how these crackpots got out on the roof in the middle of the night. I would have bet that at least one of them would have died. They are luck to have been caught.

West Chester Man Gets Jail Time For Fraud
This man should have gotten a much bigger fine. I would guess it cost far more than $3,000 to process his false claim and to prosecute him.

School Illegally Reopens Under New Name
Are there any sanctions to back up this action? What responsibilities lie with the Cincinnati Public Schools? I hope no State funds were used to run this version of the school.