Is the Cincinnati Beacon Finally Dead?

If you head to the Cincinnati Beacon website (www.cincinnatibeacon.com) one finds nothing of the old website and instead a graphic for IIS7 (an "internet information services" entity) shows up.  I guess the Beacon is finally dead.

Political blogging is not an easy thing, no matter how many may think what I do is easy (or just drivel.) This blog has been rather un-prolific as of late.  I'm never going to return to daily blogging, but I plan on keeping this 11 going on 12 year endeavor going.

Did the FOP Endorsement of Sam Malone Stem From Familiarity?

I was thinking why in the world would Sam Malone get an endorsement for City Council from the FOP? Could they have been confused as to why they recognized him?

His arrest record for child abuse wouldn't have anything to do with it?

If you are wondering what I am talking about and don't remember things that happened 8 years ago, here's my blog post on Malone's arrest for beating his son with a belt.  I'm wondering how many FOP members actually knew this.  If they did and don't care, then I wonder how many of them also beat their kids with belts.  Then I wonder why people are not more concerned with Cincinnati Police brutality more often.

Also, No, Republicans, I don't care that Malone was 'acquitted.'  He admitted to beating his son with a belt, so what ever technicality exists, if Malone did this to anyone other than his son, and didn't appear in front of a Republican Judge, he would have been found guilty of assault.

The fact that the police union endorsed him is an insult to victims of crime everywhere.

A Burn From the Business Courier

Just in case you missed it, Quimbob has the editorial cartoon from the Business Courier that slams Cranley.

Enquirer Twitter 'Coverage' of Primary Night Reminded Me of People Magazine

I am really not sure if I can really say People Magazine or just use US Weekly or TMZ, but it was rather disappointing at times.

NCIS has been playing on TV at side of room at @RoxanneQualls HQ. #enquirervote
— Cindi Andrews (@cindiincincy) September 10, 2013

.@Johncranley Party chatter: Negative ad hurt @Qualls2013. @Cincienquirer #enquirervote
— Sherry Coolidge (@SharonCoolidge) September 10, 2013

I didn't now TV shows and 'Party Chatter' were things to point out from a journalistic perspective, but if your target audience is an uninformed suburban housewife, then maybe it relevant.

The Polls are Closed on the Mayoral Primary; Who's going to win?

More importantly, what is the over-under spread for how long it takes the Hamilton County BOE to tabulate a single race?  Do we think we'll get the final results by 11:00 PM?

If You Can't Run a Meeting, How Could You Possibly Run a City?

That is a question everyone should be asking mayoral candidate John Cranley after watching this video below from 2001 when he was a member of Cincinnati City Council and was the Chairman of the Law and Public Safety Committee.

Annexation: Is it in Cincinnati's Future?

UrbanCincy has an interesting editorial calling on the City of Cincinnati to consider annexing many of the separate communities that are either immediately adjacent to the City or completely surrounded by the city. The idea would add over 77,000 people to the City and provide the opportunity to consolidate expenses for all of those communities. Furthermore the plan would give those communities much better protection from financial ruin brought about by State budget cuts forced on local governments by the current Governor.

This plan is a big variance from other plans that call for a full City/County merger, which would be an action that would have likely an insurmountable number of obstacles preventing it from succeeding.

I don't know what the initial cost outlay that would be on the City's shoulders for the smaller scale annexation plan, but if the numbers are reasonable, I think the long term gains would be worth it, even if only a portion of the communities agree to annexation.

A big problem to this getting any traction now is that we are in an election year, so discussion of this idea would either be dismissed outright or become a political weapon to beat on without serious consideration. I mean the amount of political contributions Cranley would get from the Westside areas under consideration for annexation would be huge. Cheviot, Cleves, North Bend and Addyston are filled with people who don't like the City and far too many living in those communities don't like the race of nearly half of the people who live in the City.