In a move that was quickly contested by Democrats, Republicans on May 15 attempted to add another controversial policy to John Kasich’s mid-biennium budget review: drug testing for welfare recipients.   

Planned Parenthood advocates and supporters packed a hearing room in Columbus May 16 to demonstrate opposition against controversial House Bill 298, a measure that, if passed, would put family planning clinics such as Planned Parenthood at the back of the line for state funding, instead giving priority to health departments.    

Pit bulls can legally put their paws on Cincinnati ground for the first time in nine years. After a long, arduous battle for dog lovers and Cincinnati animal welfare advocates, Cincinnati City Council on May 16 voted 8-1 to officially repeal the breed-specific language in Cincinnati’s vicious dog ordinance, which previously made ownership of pit bulls within city limits illegal.   

The first in a series of nine events in cities across Ohio, culminating with a rally at the Columbus statehouse, kicked off in Cincinnati last week to protest the use of fracking across the state of Ohio.    

Cincinnati City Council last week approved a motion brought forth by the Cincinnati Taxicab Advisory Commission that will implement changes to the design of the city’s taxicab industry, some of which will be seen as soon as July 1. 
  

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has been at odds with his own party during the past week over a battle for education reform. On May 8, Republicans in the Ohio Senate pushed to slow down Kasich’s reforms, which would call for tougher reading standards and report-card rating systems in Ohio schools and districts.   

The women’s shelter that has called downtown’s 300 Lytle St. home since 1909 last week faced another hitch in moving forward with its $12.6 million expansion. Hamilton County Judge Norbert Nadel on May 4 ruled that the Anna Louise Inn’s zoning was incorrectly done in its application for a building permit last year for its planned renovations.  

In another effort to save tax dollars and fill holes in the state budget, Gov. John Kasich and his health care advisers will streamline the state’s Medicaid system by altering the availability of care plans and condensing care regions.    

After safety issues, shipping complications and ongoing construction postponed its original May 1 opening date, the Cincinnati Bike Center at Smale Riverfront Park opened its doors to the public Sunday, May 6.
  

Cincinnati City Council was posed to approve extending insurance benefits to the same-sex partners of city employees as this issue went to press. Council was set to vote May 2 on the plan, which was pushed by Councilman Chris Seelbach, the first openly gay person to serve on the group.
  

After spending several weeks reviewing proposals from seven energy providers as part of Cincinnati’s initiative to power homes using energy aggregation, a decision was made April 26 — and it’s a green one. Cincinnati has selected First Energy Solutions (FES) as the city’s new electricity provider, which will make it the first major city in the U.S. to use a 100 percent “green” electricity supply.  

Cincinnati and Hamilton County fared poorly on a national list of places with polluted air that was released last week. The Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington metropolitan region ranked as the eighth-worst for air particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association.
  

A state-contracted analysis of Ohio Graduation Tests last year flagged seven individual answer sheets at Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School for having a suspiciously high ratio of erasures resulting in wrong-to-right answers.   

Republicans control most functions of Hamilton County government. Despite the dominance, however, county commissioners say mid-year budget cuts totaling $4.78 million might have to be made because several departments — led by the Sheriff’s Office — are over-budget so far.   

Cincinnati officials are hoping to give property owners more of an incentive to clean up their yards. City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld has proposed changing Cincinnati’s litter laws to allow for a full refund of fines for first-time violators if they remedy the problem within 10 days of being cited.