by Danny Cross
03.02.2012
O’l girl Leslie Ghiz
is back on local government’s payroll after being hired by Hamilton
County Prosecutor Joe Deters, which will allow her to run in a
judicial race as a badass crime-fighting prosecutor (The
Enquirer’s words, not mine). Deters, of course, is the former
chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party and Ghiz is the
former City Council woman who was voted out last fall and then
decided to move out of Cincinnati.
Tim Burke, head of the
Hamilton County Democratic Party called the move “political as
hell,” while Ghiz had Deters’ spokeswoman explain how Deters’
office is still allowed to hire one more lawyer if it wants to.
Ghiz will earn a
$55,000 salary, down from $60,000 she made in the part-time position
of City Councilperson.
Gov. Kasich is
apparently really proud of the new energy goals he outlined
yesterday, as evidenced by the 15 press releases he's sent to the media since then. Kasich: We have other stuff to write about other
than your thoughts on how cool it is that someone called Ohio “the
Saudi Arabia of coal.”
Cincinnati Police Chief
James Craig would like to skip the police certification
process even though he wouldn’t be able to arrest people if he
does.
Riverbend has gone the
way of 1970’s Riverfront Stadium, installing artificial turf on its
concert lawn.
Milford 15-year-old
Eben Franckewitz was voted off American Idol island last night, not
quite reaching the round of 13. Good try, Eben!
Oh snap! Obama on Iran:
“I don’t bluff.”
Unfortunately, Mitt
Romney and Rick Santorum are coming to Ohio, and they’re reportedly
“neck-and-neck.”
A mentally disabled
South Carolina man who has been on death row for 30 years could soon
be out of prison for a bond hearing. Edward Lee Elmore’s sentence
has already been overturned three times and reduced from the death
sentence to life in prison. From The Washington Post:
As
other death row inmates were exonerated because of new DNA testing
technology, Elmore’s attorneys asked a judge in 2000 to overturn
his convictions because a blond hair found on Edwards after her death
did not match her or Elmore.
Elmore’s
lawyers thought the blond hair may have belonged to Edwards’
next-door neighbor and they asked a judge to exhume the man’s body
to test his DNA, but a judge denied the request.
It
wasn’t until 2010 that Elmore began to see his fate turn around. A
South Carolina judge ruled he was mentally unfit and could not be
executed, per a 2002 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
State
prosecutors didn’t oppose a judge’s decision to sentence him to
life in prison, and Elmore was, after 28 years, moved from the
state’s death row to another maximum-security prison.
Weather services (and
people know what the sky is supposed to look like) are concerned
about tornadoes in the Midwest today. Most worrisome are extreme
southern Indiana, central Kentucky and north-central Tennessee, with
storms expected across the Gulf Coast states afterward.
Google offers some
answers to questions about its weird privacy changes.
Oh, and it’s Bockfest
Weekend. Grab your digital camera and the biggest mug you can find.
0 Comments · Wednesday, November 2, 2011
No one has ever accused Citizens Opposed
to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) of being less than honorable
and forthright. (Wait, no, that’s backwards. It happens all the time,
sorry.) The group best known for arguing from the suburbs that the city
should stop spending money trying to fix its problems today was accused
by a pro-rail group of knowingly making false statements about streetcar
funding.
2 Comments · Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Forget about those last-minute summertime picnics, Labor Day fireworks and Halloween hayrides. I wish November would hurry up and arrive. That’s because it’s still 76 days away from the elections for Cincinnati City Council and the level of grandstanding by incumbents already has reached irritating proportions.
0 Comments · Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Last week's extended soap opera at City Hall about how to fill a $54.7 million deficit in the budget ended anti-climatically, with differing City Council factions temporarily solving the dilemma by resorting to the same sort of tricks they did last year — instead of showing leadership or political courage, the mayor and nine elected council members decided to use $27 million in one-time sources of cash to patch over the immediate problem and approve studies into possible changes that could yield the rest of the savings.
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Anyone familiar with the political career of Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding probably isn't too surprised that some local groups are accusing him of being “two-faced” and reneging on a promise he allegedly made behind closed doors. The groups say Berding told Cincinnati's police union that he would only support the city's proposed streetcar system if it was fully funded by federal grants.
Repeal would save city of Cincinnati $350,000 annually
2 Comments · Tuesday, December 7, 2010
As Cincinnati City Council frets about how to close a $62 million budget deficit, some local activists are asking officials to consider repealing an ordinance they say isn't enforced evenly and wastes taxpayers' money. Critics allege that city's Anti-Marijuana Ordinance is being used to target specific races and is adding to the city's crippling budget deficit.
Selection process upsets some Dems, sparks call for change
1 Comment · Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Two people that most readers have never heard of before were the deciding factor last week about who became the latest member of Cincinnati City Council, in a process that's left a bad taste in the mouth of many voters. The pair in question was Miles Lindahl and Dawn Jackson — Councilwoman Laketa Cole's chief of staff and council aide, respectively — and when Wendell Young agreed to keep them on, Cole selected him as her replacement.
Well-known names battle for party nominations for open Hamilton County Commission seat
0 Comments · Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Most political junkies are busy focusing on the outcome of state and federal races in Ohio's May 4 primary. But the race with probably the most local impact hasn't been getting quite the same level of public interest or media attention: Who will face off as their party's chosen candidate for the vacant seat on the Hamilton County Commission. Vying for the Democratic nomination are former Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell, Cincinnati City Councilman Cecil Thomas and Whitewater Township Trustee Hubert Brown. The Republican battle pits Cincinnati City Council stalwarts Leslie Ghiz and Chris Monzel.
1 Comment · Wednesday, March 10, 2010
CityBeat recently obtained a copy of an e-mail written by Brad Beckett — chief of staff to Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Monzel and a right-wing activist involved in anti-tax and anti-abortion causes — outlining the agenda of a secret conservative group called the Vanguard. We were fascinated by the wording the e-mail used about prominent public figures and what it might reveal about the members' outlook for the 2010 elections.
1 Comment · Wednesday, January 6, 2010
It's only the first week in January, but already political campaigns are gearing up for what likely will be the most high-profile local race this year. Cincinnati City Council colleagues Leslie Ghiz and Chris Monzel are running in the GOP primary for the Hamilton County commission, setting up a fight for the local Republican Party's soul between moderates and hardcore conservatives.