During a baseball season, 40 games isn’t enough to tell the whole story, but it should be enough to get an idea where it’s going. Except when it isn’t — like with this season’s installment of the Cincinnati Reds.  

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.   

We live in an answer-fueled society today. Search engines are the go-to solution for every problem or tinge of curiosity — Google knows us as well, if not better, than we know ourselves.   

It hit me a few days ago. Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the bloody Easter uprising at Ohio’s crowded, racially tense maximum security prison at Lucasville. That deadly riot, the longest prison riot in American history, was The Enquirer’s finest hour.   

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.   

For three years now, the nation’s second-biggest bank has been after Smart Money host Nathan Bachrach to make good on $2.4 million it claims he owes. Ever hear of Kenwood Towne Place, the half-finished retail-office complex on I-71 that went bust under $136 million in debt? Not only was it the region’s most spectacular real estate failure during the Great Recession, it festers on as one of the most contentious court cases in Hamilton County history.   

Andy Dalton jokes that he can now hold his head up and boss around the mere rookies that invaded the Bengals’ locker room this past week for a rookie minicamp. He, of course, is joking. It’s not his style to boss anyone around — more likely he’s showing his new teammates the ropes.   

In January of 2011, Keller’s IGA on Ludlow Avenue closed its doors, leaving Clifton residents devastated. For those who believe “devastated” to be too strong of a word, simply ask residents how much the store is missed orb visit the numerous posts on Facebook asking about the store’s reopening or watch the YouTube videos of the passionate pleas to Ohio Gov. John Kasich to save the store.    

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.