Statewide Indoor Smoking Ban?

This will not happen here in Ohio. The GOP control the state government, and a statewide ballot issue will have to contend with a whole lot of smokers and bar owners.

Internal Probe

The Post reported yesterday that City Manager Valerie Lemmie instructed Cincinnati police to begin a criminal investigation of the City's Community Development and Planning Department. This probe stems from the LaShawn Pettus-Brown/Empire Theater scandal, and appears to be bye-stepping possible roles played by Mayor Luken and Councilwoman Reece. If Lemmie wants to get to the bottom of things, why doesn't she request an FBI investigation into both Luken and Reece? The CPD will not be a credible agency to investigate their own ultimate bosses.

Politics Lacking Linkage

Queen City Forum got a huge plug today from the Enquirer. I will admit, I have never heard of their site before. I will have to look it over and will likely add the link to my site. I do have to criticize one part of their site without hesitation. They list a link called "THE FINEST COLLECTION OF NEWS & POLITICAL LINKS" on the site. If you go to that page you will view a nice list of links on news, political party, opinion, and reference sites. What you don't see, beyond a couple of exceptions, are blogs. Adding insult to injury, they recommend the "Drudge Report." Drudge is a up to speed on politics as my Aunt is on the working definition of "metrosexual." There are at least 50 blogs that nationally push political and current events debate in the country more than nearly any other source. They do that because all of the people who write the opinion columns on those pages, read those blogs.

Not to mention national blogs, but ahem, there are many locally based blogs that cover Cincinnati and Ohio politics, mine of course being one of them. Not to mention XRay Magazine, Cincinnati Tomorrow, and MediaBridges to name of few of news or local resources.

The writing on the site looks interesting. I welcome all of the local coverage of politics as much as possible. I have to ask the question, why can't we read a column like those written on the Queen City Forum in CinWeekly? Just one? Once in a while? A little political opinion, please?

Crazy Nuts Up in Columbus?

No, I am not referring to Ohio A&M fans. There has been a rash of gun fire along I-270 in the same general area which killed a woman this week. Police don't call it a sniper case yet, but there are signs that it might be. This is starting to garner some national attention, even today on Thanksgiving. I will be keeping my eye on this story. Each additional attack will increase the media coverage by a factor of 10. I hope the criminals responsible are caught before we are forced to see FOX News and the usual suspects up in Columbus scaring the OSU parents to death.

Coverage: FOX News, CNN, NY Post, PD, & ONN.

Turkey Day

I am off to my Turkey Day Festivities. My blogging will be zero or at best near zero over the next day or two. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Thanksgiving!

Editorial Fact Checking

Sarah at The Hegemo points out a significant factual error in the Enquirer's editorial today on Nick Clooney. This sentence is just a bit wrong:

Jerry Springer was a TV anchor before becoming mayor of Cincinnati.

I hope David Wells is getting a bit of scolding from the bossman Tom Callinan. I think Sarah is correct when she posits that nearly everyone on the editorial page must be in vacation mode or already on vacation.

Am I Now Some How With It?

Ok, CinWeekly has a story on the Dubliner's Tuesday night Trivia. I just got back from participating in that event. Our team, "ToFurkey," had 411 points and placed 15th. This was a poor showing, but when you have a full round dedicated to drinks & beverages and a round matching philosophers to the name of one of their writings, our low score makes sense. The winning team had like 575 points. Last week our team had 432 points and I think we were in about 6th place.

The best advice in the story, Arrive Early! We had a back booth and were squeezed in.