April Fool's Day Is Not The 2nd

Someone needs to tell the Dean that his Joke was a day late. Yeah, if it is not a joke, than it is just sad and a mockery of our political system.

UPDATE: It appears the Enquirer''s political blog is slow on the take and doesn't read the date on blog posts.

I'm Such A Geek

Like City Beat's Stephen Carter-Novotni, I've been excitedly anticipating the May 8 arrival of the new Star Trek movie. (For those keeping track, this is the eleventh Star Trek movie. But since the release of the first movie in 1979, we are currently in the longest gap between Star Trek movie releases; the last movie was Nemesis, released in late 2002. This is also the first summer release since The Final Frontier, which premiered in 1989.)

So how about today's news that Star Trek will be be in AMC at Newport on the Levee's new IMAX theatre? (Way to bury the lede, Enquirer!)

I'm positively giddy.

Let the hurling of ridicules in my general direction begin.

UPDATE: If anyone at AMC, Star Trek, Paramount Pictures, or anyone else is interested, I'd happily blog about the movie here in exchange for preview or premiere tickets....

Are You Happy?

Here's an open thread for anyone who wants to tell me how much fun the Cincinnati Imports Happy Hour was tonight.

Because it's 9:00 and I'm still at the freakin' office.

Fool's Day Parade Starts At 11 AM

Be sure to make it Downtown today for the Annual Fool's Day Parade. Floats, bands, and dancing girls! The fun starts at 11 AM. This year Cher is the grand marshal.

Find your place along the route early, space will fill up fast. The Cost is free, but if you want to participate in the parade you can just add your float to the end.

Hope to see everyone there!




(I also hope people can take a joke)

The Jail Situation: Raw Numbers

Commissioner David Pepper and Councilmember Leslie Ghiz are reportedly collaborating on a plan through which Cincinnati would pay to incarcerate individuals sentenced for misdemeanor offenses in Campbell County, Kentucky. I supported the public safety tax when it appeared on the ballot. But I keep hearing from people (largely on the margins) that Hamilton County's correctional system should be large enough as is. So I set out to find out how we compare to other cities.

Here's what the Internets has taught me:

Cincinnati has a population of about 332,458. Hamilton County's population is about 842,369. Its jail capacity (now that Queensgate is closed) is 1,448. That's about one bed per 581 county residents. (If Queensgate were open, total capacity would be 2,270 for a ratio of 1:371.)

Columbus has a population of about 747,755. Franklin County's population is about 1,118,107. Its jail capacity is 2,331, for a ratio of 1:479.

Cleveland has a population of 444, 313, with Cuyahoga County at 1,295,958. County jail capacity is 1,749. But Cuyahoga County is unique; in 2004, local municipalities operated jails with an additional (cumulative) 700 beds. That leaves a combined ratio of one bed per 529 residents.

Pittsburgh has a population of 312,819; a total of 1,219,210 live in Allegheny County. It has 2,700 jail beds, for a ratio of 1:451.

So what do we know? Of the three most populated counties in Ohio, Hamilton County has the highest number of residents per jail bed. I threw in Pittsburgh, because it is of similar size and nearby. It, too, has a lower ratio of population to jail beds than Cincinnati.

This is based on my quick tour of Google. I leave open the possibility that I have overlooked something critical to this analysis. But if it is correct, then it is maybe not so surprising that the jail is severely overcrowded.

Reminder: Be Happy

Cincinnati Imports has organized another happy hour, this one set tomorrow at Northside Tavern beginning at 5:30.

Just so there's no confusion (or excuses): this is not a blogger meet-up or twitterer tweet-up or anything like that. So while a few of us will make the trek to Northside from our behind-the-keyboard location in the basement of our mothers' houses, that's not true of the vast majority who showed up at the last, very well-attended happy hour put on by Liz, Lauren, and Avani.

Hope to see you there!

Digging a Hole

Chris Smitherman is digging himself a hole he will not get out of, unless he is looking for the GOP to drop him a rope.