The Rev. Jesse Jackson addressed Occupy Cincinnati yesterday at Piatt Park. Later in the day 15 individuals were arrested for staying in the park past its 10 p.m. closing time, the first arrests in weeks, as protesters have challenged the legality of the park closing at all. Jackson was reportedly scheduled to return to the park at noon on Wednesday to again speak with Occupy Cincinnati.

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City Council’s budget committee voted 6-3 Monday to use $29 million from other projects in part to move utility lines and pipes to accommodate for streetcar tracks. The plan will use $15 million from the Blue Ash airport deal and $14 million from a new financing plan to ensure the streetcar’s opening is not delayed further from the current 2015 deadline.

The city claims it will eventually get the $15 million back. That money, which was originally promised to neighborhood projects, will be used to move utility lines and pipes. The city is currently trying to resolve a dispute with Duke Energy over who has to pay to move utility lines and pipes. If the city wins out, Duke will reimburse the costs. If Duke wins out, the money will be lost in the streetcar project.

At the public meeting that preceded the vote Monday, neighborhood officials and streetcar supporters clashed. Opponents to the plan claimed the money should stay in neighborhood projects as originally promised, while streetcar supporters pointed to the benefits of the streetcar for neighborhoods and insisted the money will eventually come back.

Chris Smitherman, Independent; Charlie Winburn, Republican; and P.G. Sittenfeld, Democrat, voted against the plan. Roxanne Qualls, Laure Quinlivan, Yvette Simpson, Cecil Thomas, Wendell Young and Chris Seelbach — all Democrats — approved the plan.

Jason Barron, spokesperson for Mayor Mark Mallory, says the mayor is in favor of the plan moving forward.

Although the vote included all City Council members, it was not the formal City Council vote. Instead, it was only the budget committee vote. The City Council vote will take place Wednesday.

CORRECTION: This story originally said the entire $29 million plan will be reimbursed by Duke. Only the $15 million from the Blue Ash airport deal will be reimbursed if the city wins in the dispute.

Here's how The Enquirer describes an Ohio Supreme Court decision allowing Democrats to challenge a ridiculous Republican attempt to unfairly redraw Congressional districts: “Court ruling throws 2012 elections into chaos.” Here's the same report by WLWT, minus the drama: “Ohio Supreme Court Allows Redistricting Challenge.”

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Council Member P.G. Sittenfeld is circulating a small business petition to stop Cincinnati from privatizing parking services. Sittenfeld threw his support behind the petition in a statement: “Individual citizens have made clear that they are overwhelmingly against outsourcing our parking system. Now we're going to show that small businesses feel the same way. I hope that when council sees that the small businesses that are the engine of our city are strongly against outsourcing our parking, we can then nix the proposal immediately.” The petition asks city officials “to find a smart, resourceful, sustainable alternative to address the budget situation.” City Manager Milton Dohoney says parking privatization is necessary to avoid laying off 344 city workers.

Gov. John Kasich’s expanded sales tax is going to hurt a lot of people. The tax is being expanded to apply to many items included in households’ monthly budgets, such as cable television, laundry services and haircuts. The revenue from the sales tax expansion will be used to cut the state income tax by 20 percent across the board, lower the sales tax from 5.5 percent to 5 percent and slightly boost county coffers.

City Council and local residents are not impressed with the USquare development. At a City Council meeting Tuesday, Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls described the development: “I have to say that it is underwhelming. And that’s about the kindest thing I can say about it.  And also really repeats, on many different levels, virtually all of the mistakes that have ever been made in the city and in neighborhoods when it comes to creating public spaces.” But architect Graham Kalbli said he’s excited about the plan: “Because we’ve taken a vacant strip of land and really made kind of a living room for the Clifton Heights community. We wanted to do that, that was one of our overriding goals.”

The Hamilton County Board of Elections is subpoenaing 19 voters who are suspected of voting twice in the November election. Most of the voters being investigated filed provisional ballots then showed up to vote on Election Day.

David Mann is officially running for City Council. The Democrat has served as a council member, mayor and congressman in the past.

Traffic congestion isn’t just bad for drivers; it’s also bad for the environment and economy. The Annual Urban Mobility Report from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute found traffic congestion cost Cincinnati $947 million in 2011 and produced an an extra 56 billion pounds of carbon dioxide nationwide.

Leslie Ghiz is taking the judge’s seat a little early. The former city council member was elected to the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in November, but she was appointed to the seat early by Gov. John Kasich to replace Dennis Helmick, who retired at the end of 2012.

The magic of capitalism: Delta is already matching a low-cost carrier’s fares to Denver at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. 

The U.S. Postal Service is ending Saturday mail delivery starting Aug. 1. The Postal Service has been dealing with financial problems ever since a 2006 mandate from U.S. Congress forced the mail delivery agency to pre-fund health care benefits for future retirees. Riddled with gridlock, Congress has done nothing to help since the mandate was put in place. This will be the first time the Postal Service doesn’t deliver mail on Saturdays since 1863.

It’s unlikely zombies could be cured by love, but it’s possible they could be cured by science.

The next Michael Jordan has been discovered:

In an ad accusing Josh Mandel, a Republican, of lying, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s campaign team may have lied, according to PolitiFact. The U.S. senatorial campaign for Ohio’s senate seat has been filled with dishonesty, but it usually comes from Mandel. The dishonesty seems to be hurting Mandel more than Brown; Mandel is currently down 7.5 points in aggregate polling numbers.

Preliminary data for Ohio schools was released yesterday. Some data is still being held back while an investigation into fraudulent reporting from some schools is finished, but the data gives some insight into how schools performed during the 2011-2012 school year. The data can be found here. From a local angle, the data shows Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) did not meet “adequate yearly progress,” a federal standard that measures progress in student subgroups, such as minority groups; but CPS did meet standards for “value-added growth,” which measures the expected progress in state testing for all students between the third and eighth grades.

City Council approved the $29 million financing plan for the streetcar yesterday. The plan will use $15 million from the Blue Ash airport deal to move utility lines and pipes. The city claims the $15 million, which was originally promised to neighborhood projects, will be reimbursed by Duke Energy once the city settles a conflict with the energy company. Duke and the city are currently arguing over who has to pay to move the utility lines and pipes.

An Ohio state representative is asking the federal government to monitor the election more closely. Rep. Alicia Reece, a Cincinnati Democrat, is asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to send monitors to the state to ensure no funny business goes on in voting booths on Nov. 6. The request is partly in response to a recent court ruling that forces Ohio to count provisional ballots if the ballots were brought around by poll worker errors.

Ohio’s ability to stop political lies was upheld yesterday. The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) tried to put an end to the government power, which COAST claimed was censorship, by taking it to court, but a U.S. judge upheld the ability. The judge, who is a former chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party, said COAST did not properly display that its speech was held down by the law. Considering some of COAST’s tweets, the judge is probably right.

E.W. Scripps Co. will host a job fair in Cincinnati Oct. 10 to fill 100 digital jobs.

The Ohio Supreme Court upheld the rights of lesbian ex-couples to set visitation times. The court said non-parents are allowed to participate in visitations during child custody proceedings.

Ohio might expand Medicaid, but not to the extent asked for by Obamacare. That’s what the state’s Medicaid director said yesterday, anyway. A previous study found Medicaid expansions improved and might have saved lives in other states, and other studies have found Medicaid expansions may save the state money by cutting uncompensated costs.

Pundits really dug into Mitt Romney the past few days over his poor poll numbers in Ohio. The Business Courier asked if Romney has already lost Ohio. Politico said Romney’s biggest hurdle to the White House is Ohio. The New Republic ran an article with six theories as to what led to Romney’s losses in the state. The Cleveland Plain Dealer pointed out both presidential candidates were stumping at a pivotal time in northern Ohio yesterday. Aggregate polling paints a consistently bad picture for Romney in Ohio; he is currently down four points.

But Romney probably isn’t helping matters. In an Ohio rally Tuesday, he admitted President Barack Obama didn’t raise taxes in his first term.

Gov. John Kasich signed a series of bills shoring up Ohio’s public pension system yesterday. The laws will cut benefits and raise eligibility requirements, but state officials insist the new laws will mostly affect future retirees.

NASA wants samples from Mars, and it has a plan. The new plan may require a robot-to-human hand-off in space.

Convening in packed City Council chambers today, Cincinnati officials discussed the costs and benefits of the streetcar project in light of a $17.4 million budget gap revealed by the city administration on April 16. City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. said the project could and should be saved, but a minority of public speakers and some City Council members did not seem convinced.

In a memo to the mayor and City Council members last night, City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. revealed the streetcar is facing a $22.7 million shortfall because construction bids were way over budget. The memo says $5.3 million of that budget gap could be brought down through cuts, but fixing the rest requires $17.4 million in additional funds. The memo comes at a time the city is attempting to balance its operating budget by laying off cops and firefighters. But as John Deatrick explained when the city moved to hire him for the streetcar project, the streetcar is part of the capital budget, which is separate from the operating budget and can't be used to balance the operating budget because of legal and traditional constraints.

The budget bill heading to the Ohio House floor would ban comprehensive sex education, defund Planned Parenthood and fund crisis pregnancy centers that pro-choice groups consider "anti-choice." Citing "gateway sexual activity," the bill would open teachers to up to $5,000 in fines for explaining the use of condoms and other birth control to students, and it also bans the distribution of any birth control on school grounds. The bill takes its anti-contraceptive measures to promote an abstinence-only education program. Research has found abstinence-only programs to be generally ineffective, while birth control programs ultimately save money by avoiding costly pregnancies and sexually transmitted infection treatment.

Councilman Cecil Thomas is stepping down, and he will be replaced by his wife of 32 years, Pam Thomas. The appointment has raised questions about how council members are replaced upon resignation, but Thomas says he's just following the rules. Under the current system, designees appoint successors to council seats, but the designees give great weight to the incumbent's input.

JobsOhio repaid $8.4 million to Ohio yesterday — fulfilling a promise it made in March that it would fully repay the state for public funding received since it opened on July 5, 2011. The sum is much higher than the $1 million state officials originally said would go to the agency. JobsOhio's finances came under criticism after it was revealed that Gov. John Kasich was redirecting public funds to the agency, prompting a closer look from State Auditor Dave Yost. JobsOhio is a privatized development agency that Kasich and Republicans established to eventually replace the Ohio Department of Development.

In light of the Boston Marathon bombings, Flying Pig Marathon organizers are evaluating security measures, but they're not sure whether additional measures are needed just yet. The Flying Pig Marathon is expected to draw more than 20,000 participants on May 5 — close to the 23,000 who typically attend the Boston Marathon. Still, only about 150,000 spectators are expected at the Flying Pig Marathon, while about 500,000 typically spectate the Boston Marathon.

City Council is expected to vote today in support of expanding mobile food vending in the city and make the program, which is handled by 3CDC, permanent. The new mobile vending spots will be near nightlife areas in Over-the-Rhine and during the day at Washington Park.

TriHealth and Mercy Health are among the top 15 hospital systems in the United States, according to a new ranking from Truven Health Analytics.

When renewing its contract with Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc., Kroger asked the company to move its center from Des Moines, Iowa, to Cincinnati, bringing an estimated 55 new jobs to the city.

New surgical tape works like a parasitic worm for extra stickiness.

For the first time, scientists are being allowed to study psychedelics for potential medical treatments.

Blue Ash City Council approved rescinding and redoing its airport deal with the city of Cincinnati in a 6-1 vote last night. The deal will free up $37.5 million for the city of Cincinnati — $11 million of which will go to the streetcar while $26 million will go to municipal projects. After the vote, the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) vowed on Twitter to lead a referendum on the deal. But COAST’s opposition is misguided, fueled by their disapproval of all things streetcar.

Three Greater Cincinnati universities were praised for their part-time MBA programs. The programs were in the top 100 of a U.S. News and World Report ranking.

Ohio has the second worst toxic air pollution in the United States, according to a new report from the National Resources Defense Council. The report also found that toxic air pollution has dropped by 19 percent nationwide. The report claims this drop is partly attributed to natural gas, which is cleaner than coal and has become cheaper thanks to a fracking boom in Ohio and other states. New pollution controls also played a role, according to the report.

JobsOhio is claiming to have saved 11,238 jobs and created 4,666 new jobs during the second quarter of 2012. All the jobs saved and created are expected to keep $712 million in new payroll, according to state data.

The successor to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner might not be much better. He also has a history of using state resources for personal reasons.

Former Judge William O’Neill, a Democratic candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court, has accused two Republican justices of taking campaign contributions from parties they heard cases from. O’Neill says the campaign contributions are a blatant conflict of interest. Mike Skindell, another Democratic candidate, chimed in to say he would recuse or refuse money instead of inviting a potential conflict of interest.

The Ohio EPA announced yesterday a new plan for cutting down on water pollution in Ohio rivers, streams and lakes. The new plan is a joint effort between Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky to make it more economically viable through incentives for businesses to cut down on water contamination.

Ohio voters can now change addresses online. The new system will save taxpayer money and combat fraud.

July was the hottest month ever recorded, and 2012 has already had more record temperatures than all of 2011. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney’s spokesperson promoted climate change denial on behalf of ExxonMobil.

Romney says campaigns should pull ads that are found to be dishonest or misleading by fact checkers. Well, his campaign should get to it.

The U.S. Postal Service reported $5.2 billion in losses in the second quarter of 2012. On the bright side, a recent study found the U.S. Postal Service is the best at delivering mail.

The U.S. women's soccer team beat Japan for the gold medal yesterday.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will be stopping by Greater Cincinnati next Tuesday. The campaign stop is part of a three-day bus tour across Ohio. The state is considered a must-win for Romney’s presidential campaign, but aggregate polling is not friendly to his prospects in Ohio. 

Will Romney dye his face for the Ohio events? Gawker was among a few outlets and individuals that noticed Romney dyed his face brown for an event on a Latino television network.

Ohio’s unemployment rate remained at 7.2 percent, the same as July and June. The state made gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, financial activities and government, but it had losses in trade, transportation, utilities and educational and health services. Still, Ohio’s unemployment rate remains far below the national unemployment rate of 8.1 percent.

City Council is taking action to prevent further delays for the streetcar, but the city says the delay to 2015 is still set. By moving money around, the city will be able to front money to pay for moving utility lines and pipes, but it expects to get the money back eventually. The city says Duke Energy is responsible for moving the lines to accommodate for the streetcar, but Duke says it’s the city’s duty since the streetcar is the city’s project. If the city is right, it gets the fronted money back. If it’s wrong, the money is on the taxpayer dime.

The Cincinnati Park Board struck down Park Rule 28, a rule that had come under fire by homeless advocates. The rule allowed the city to put up signs that would immediately enact rules as law. Homeless advocates said the signs allowed Washington Park to make rules that discriminated against the homeless and poor. The dispute led to a lawsuit, which three Over-the-Rhine residents filed on Sept. 4. The city countered by saying they took down the signs weeks before the lawsuit and that the rules were never truly enforced on any individual

The Anna Louise Inn won a zoning appeal yesterday. The appeal gives way to the $14 million renovation at the Anna Louise Inn. But Western & Southern will continue its opposition to renovation of the historic building, even though it could have avoided all its problems by simply buying the Anna Louise Inn when it had the chance. In related news, Western & Southern commissioned a study from the University of Cincinnati to see how replacing the Anna Louise Inn with a hotel would work, which prompted laughter from Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls because the building isn't theirs.

The Cincinnati Hispanic Center is launching an initiative to connect bilingual and multilingual people around the region. The initiative will help multilingual individuals flaunt their skills to employers and anyone else in need.

In Butler County, fewer teens are using alcohol and tobacco, but more are using marijuana and prescription pills.

Procter & Gamble and a local manufacturing contractor are getting sued for religious discrimination. The dispute began when P&G and its contractor allegedly fired a Muslim employee after she was humiliated by another employee.

Bioscience looks to be a rising star in Ohio’s job market, according to a new study.

An Ohio woman unknowingly married her dad.