Nate Livingston Sued By State of Ohio

The Enquirer is reporting that Nate Livingston Jr. is being sued by the Ohio Elections Commission for not filing campaign finance reports for his 2001 campaign for Cincinnati City Council. The article reports that the state is seeking $43,042.08. It is kind of odd to be filing suit almost 8 years after the election.

Hometown Glue

Cincinnati's Gorilla Glue treated the President with kindness after the comments from former Georgia Senator Zell Miller. What I'm not sure about is whether Gorilla Glue is well known enough for Miller to reference or did Miller make a racist joke? I have driven past the company location out on Red Bank Road, but have never used or seen their products. I'm guessing Miller called the President a Gorilla, so I'm glad we have one less racist in the Democratic Party.

Walter Cronkite: Icon

When I think about history in the second half if the 20th Century I put it in terms that relate to the broadcasts of Walter Cronkite. Next to Edward R. Murrow, no one has witnessed history as Walter Cronkite did thoughout his career. I am just old enough to have experienced him in his prime and he was a man with a presence like few have had. He could relate to the common man, but commanded the attention of kings. He will be an icon in American history for tearing up on air in November of 1963, telling a hard truth about Vietnam to the country, and as we commerate 40 years later his boyish glee and wonder for space and the moon landing. For those younger than I, take the time to listen to his reports or read up on the events he was charge with being the face the public turned for comfort, truth, and pride.

Great NY Times Article About Cincinnati

I don't know if the writer for the NY Times read my mind or read the minds of all of my friends or was stalking everyone I hang out with, but this travel article highlights what I believe are many of the of the coolest places in Cincinnati. If you want to explain to people living anywhere, including people in the Cincinnati area, why this a vibrant place to live, point them to this article and tell them this is just the tip of the iceberg. If City and Business leaders want to attract people to live or visit Cincinnati, they must promote these facets on par with any other attribute.

WOXY.com Moving to Texas: Not a Big Deal

News of the move of woxy.com's studio from Cincinnati to Austin, Texas will likely cause some to freafk out. Bottom line, don't, woxy.com in real terms was not doing much for local music. I am not saying they didn't support it, but did local music get much air time? This will be a PR negative that some anti-city twits will be happy about, but otherwise the local music scene will go on. Woxy was off the air and our music scene went on. I am disappointed woxy is leaving, but once they came back from they dead with outside backing, it was only a matter of time before they were pushed to leave.

I will admit that I am far less likely to to listen, and I think it is in WVXU's best interest to program local content for their digital frequencies.

What Happened to County Government Reform?

Last year, David Pepper floated the idea of a significant reformation of county government. (Links: Pepper's post; my post.) The notion raised, I thought, interesting questions. Do we really need to have an elected Recorder, Treasurer, Auditor, Engineer, Clerk of Courts, and Coroner?* Does Wayne Coates do a better job recording deeds because he's a Democrat? Does William Brayshaw build better roads because he's a Republican?

A better county government might have a commission with three or five members with a strong president (called, in some states, a county executive). The commissioners would appoint most of the current elected row office holders. Presumably, there'd be not be an unelected county administrator, and the budget would be initially proposed by the commission president instead.

At the time Pepper floated the idea, I praised him for thinking about the big picture of governance. Unfortunately, we haven't heard any more about structural reform of county government. Granted, Pepper and his two colleagues have been busy putting out budgetary fires. (Okay....Pepper has also recently found time to start thinking up ways to harass homeless people sleeping outside the courthouse but I'm sure that's just a hobby, since the homeless have occupied that space for years without incident.) But I hope that the commissioners aren't so busy examining the trees that they're not able to see the forest.

Pepper is in an interesting position. He's essentially a lame duck (since he's announced he's running for State Auditor in 2010, he obviously can't run for re-election to his commission seat that year, when his term expires). Certainly over the next year we'll see less and less of him in the county as he ramps up his state-wide campaign. But a lame duck--someone whose efforts cannot be viewed as a power grab--could be just the right kind of person to lead a massive overhaul of county government, as he might have some immunity against the entrenched interests (i.e., the elected office holders who'd lose their jobs) who would oppose any sort of progress.

Of course, Pepper might take the tack of another politician whose name begins with "P," decide that being a lame duck is just no fun, and ignore the tougher aspects of his office for the next year and a half. But that doesn't seem like Pepper's style. And I think he'd actually enjoy the challenging of redesigning our local government.

*For native Cincinnatians who learned about all these offices in grade school or high school civics: be glad you didn't grow up in Pennsylvania, where you had to figure out what a prothonotary is! (It's basically the clerk of courts.)

The President's Pitch

I'm watching the All-Star Game (which will no doubt be ruined by Fox's terrible sports coverage), and have a lingering thought about President Obama's ceremonial first pitch.

What's up with the weird camera angles used to show us the pitch? The live shot was taken from third base, isolated Obama, and didn't pan over to home plate to follow the pitch. The replay was simply an isolation shot from another angle.

Why didn't we see one of the more traditional views of a pitch, either from center field or from behind home plate? Please tell me that Fox Sports wasn't complicit in some effort to spare Obama from the possibility of a national Mallory moment. Were there some sort of security concern? Is the President simply so important that he can't be shot with Albert Pujols? Were there some fans behind home plate that Fox didn't want to show because they were being disrespectful to Obama in some way?

I've no doubt the right-wingers will pick up on this and hatch some wild conspiracy theory. I'd just like a simple explanation.

UPDATE: Just as I was about to publish this post, I rewound the DVR to look again (thanks, Time Warner!). I think the two traditional views were unavailable. The giant American flag was still in center field, so the mounted camera out there wouldn't have worked. And the old guys Cardinals Hall of Famers were standing behind home plate, blocking that view. Still, it's weird that the live shot, taken by a camera operator who was on the field and probably just a few steps behind the pitcher's mound, didn't follow the flight of the pitch to Pujol's glove.