Joe Wessels To Write For CityBeat

Joe Wessels will be writing for CityBeat starting next month. I look forward to reading Joe's perspective. I also am very interested in what the "mild refresh" of CityBeat shall entail.

“We were forced to cut the lion’s willy off with the aid of a computer.”

The world has gone mad:

Protests from female soldiers have led to the Swedish military removing the penis of a heraldic lion depicted on the Nordic Battlegroup's coat of arms.

Conservative Talk Radio Fails

Let us all join together and have a communal IN YOUR FACE to the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck.

Now, to be clear, a clone of WEBN is not adding much to the local radio climate. I am happy they are keeping Miami sports, however.

Brunner Reports On Electronic Voting, and the News is Not Good

Earlier today, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner released the Evaluation and Validation of Election-Related Equipment, Standards, and Testing report (or the EVEREST report). Early Enquirer coverage is here; the full, eighty-plus page report is here.

Brunner devised a remarkably aggressive evaluation protocol, engaging both a private consultant and academic researchers to test the integrity of the voting systems used in Ohio. The Hart voting machines, used here in Hamilton County, got particularly low marks. How's this for scary?

The researchers concluded that virtually every ballot, vote, election result, and audit log is “forgeable or otherwise manipulatable by an attacker with even brief access to the voting systems.” The reason is that the mechanisms that Hart uses to protect data and software is frequently based on absent or flawed security models. The researchers concluded that “in most cases these issues cannot be addressed via software upgrades, but call for rethinking of both technical design and procedural practices.”

(EVEREST report at 44.) The Enquirer article mentions some of the EVEREST report's recommendations (particularly the suggestion that votes be centrally scanned and tabulated, a process that Hamilton County BOE officials think could take four days). From a voter's standpoint, the most notable proposal is one the Enquirer misses: Brunner recommends (at pages 77-80 of the report) that polling places that consist of fewer than five precincts be eliminated, and that "Voting Centers" consisting of 5 to 10 precincts each be created. Moreover, she suggests a true "early voting" system through which the "centers" would be open beginning fifteen days prior to Election Day. (And if BOE officials are permitted to scan (but not tabulate) ballots at the end of each day, that may solve the purportedly long wait-time for results created by centralization of counting.)

That's two huge changes, one of which I support but the other I view with some skepticism. Early voting seems like a good idea that should be implemented. We should always be looking to create more opportunities for citizens to participate in the electoral process. I'm concerned with the notion of large "Voting Centers," though, and the impact that change would have on the indigent and marginally indigent. The advantage of single-precinct polling places is that people don't have to travel far to get to their polling place. Consolidating them inevitably means a longer trip for many people, and we should be concerned about what effect that would have on voter participation. Perhaps the two week period for voting would make this a non-issue, but I'm not convinced that the EVEREST group fully considered the potential problem.

All 'Roided Up and No Place To Go

Senator McCarthy Mitchell has released his report. Reds reliever Mike Stanton is named as having used steroids.

If last season was one in which Stanton was "enhancing" his performance, he apparently needs to find a better method: his ERA was 5.93 over 57 and two-thirds innings. And maybe if Adam Dunn got some help from modern chemistry, he might be able to hustle out a double here and there....

Main Street Treading Water

Joe Wessels has a good story in the Post about where the Main Street Entertainment district is going. At the beginning of 2007 there was a sense that Main Street was on the rebound. A new theatre was opening, Neon's was living on, and the former Main Street Brewery location was going to open again.

Well, where it is going at this point is unsure. Cue's opening is good, but the location is slow out of the gate. It appears to me that they are not opening every night they are advertising. Neon's is a mess. Mixx is supposed to open on New Year's Eve, but I am not going to hold my breath. What is happening? Are we just in a slow period of flux? Will 2008 be a big year?

One issue already looks better: Club Red and Club Dream are no more. Good riddance to the bad promoters who catered to the drug dealers and the foolish people who idolize the drug dealers.

Money appears to be the problem with Vinyl and Neon's. Harry's Pizza hasn't opened up either, nothing appears to be happening there.

The situation is right for things to bounce back, but I think and I hope it is not going to be a place for the nutty partiers. An older more sophisticated crowd would be best.

Looking ahead, what will Midpoint do?

A Good Deal for Downtown

As reported by the Enquirer, FirstGroup (which owns Greyhound and Laidlaw) will keep its North American headquarters in Cincinnati, and will move from Centennial Plaza to the Center at 600 Vine (formerly "the Convergys Building"). It's a good thing for the 600 Vine building, which has been sadly, sadly empty for the past two years.

It also sounds like the kind of deal the City should be making with corporations to keep them around. Yes, FirstGroup gets a million dollars to cover the cost of their move (they should've called Two Men and a Truck, who probably could do it for less!), but the City will recoup that through payroll taxes on newly hired FirstGroup employees. And if FirstGroup doesn't hire as many people as it has promised it will, it has to repay the City itself.