Since Ohio sold the Lake Erie Correctional Institution to the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), prisoner accounts and independent audits have found deteriorating conditions at the minimum- and medium-security facility. In the past few months, prisoners detailed unsanitary conditions and rising violence at the prison, which were later confirmed by official incident reports and a surprise inspection from the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee. Now, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio is calling on the state to do more to hold CCA accountable. To read the full story, click here. A Northern Kentucky lawsuit backed by the tea party is threatening library funding across the state. The problems get into the specifics of Kentucky’s tax code, potentially unraveling the entire library system by forcing the state’s libraries to get voter approval before increasing or decreasing taxes. If the courts rule against the libraries, the libraries could have to set their tax rates back to levels from decades ago, leading to considerably less funding for the public institutions. City Council is set to approve a budget plan today that will avoid laying off cops and firefighters, but it will make considerable cuts to many other city programs, increase fees for various services and raise property taxes. The public safety layoffs were averted despite months of threats from city officials that such layoffs couldn’t be avoided without the city’s plan to semi-privatize parking assets. But the parking plan is being held up in court, and City Council managed to avoid the public safety layoffs anyway. Commentary: “Commissioners’ Proposed Streetcar Cut Ignores the Basics.” A budget bill from the Ohio Senate would keep social issues at the forefront and refocus tax reforms on small businesses instead of all Ohioans. The bill would potentially allow Ohio's health director to shut down abortion clinics, effectively defund Planned Parenthood, fund anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers and forgo the Medicaid expansion, while cutting taxes by 50 percent for business owners instead of going through with a 7-percent across-the-board tax cut for all Ohioans. The Ohio legislature is moving to take away the state auditor’s powers to audit private funds that JobsOhio and other taxpayer-funded private entities take in. State Auditor Dave Yost is looking to do a full audit of JobsOhio that includes private funds, but other Republicans, led by Gov. John Kasich, have pushed back, claiming Yost can only check on public funds. JobsOhio is a privatized development agency that Kasich and Republican legislators established to eventually replace the Ohio Department of Development. A teacher who was fired from a Catholic school when she got pregnant through artificial insemination when she was single is taking the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati to court, with hearings now underway. The Church’s critics argue that the Vatican’s stance on single pregnant women is discriminatory, since it makes it much easier to enforce anti-premarital sex rules against women than men. Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) is facing $14.8 million in deficits in its next budget — a sign that years of cuts are continuing at the school district. CPS says the shortfall is driven by state cuts, which CityBeat previously covered in greater detail and how they relate to CPS here. Hamilton County commissioners are asking Cincinnati to merge its 911 call centers with the county. The change would likely save money for both Cincinnati and Hamilton County, but it remains uncertain how it would affect the effectiveness of 911 services.Scientists are using yogurt to study how food interacts with the brain. CityBeat is doing a quick survey on texting while driving. Participate here. To get your questions answered in CityBeat’s Answers Issue, submit your questions here.

By now, you’ve probably seen Isaac Lamb’s masterfully choreographed routine/marriage proposal to Amy Frankel. The Portland, Ore. couple reached cyber stardom with YouTube video “Isaac’s Live Lip-Dub Proposal” — just one week after being posted, it's approaching 12 million views. It is important to note that despite various website mentions, this is decidedly not “hipster” (except maybe the dancing Jews, that might be some kind of underground art trend). The song is a 2010 hit Pop song by “Hawaiian Elvis” Bruno Mars. A similar performance can be seen on this very popular television show. Nonetheless, it is really damn cute. I dare you to not get misty-eyed. It might not be everyone’s dream proposal, but it’s such a representative 2012 slice of life: popular music, Glee-esque dancing, technology (Skype, YouTube). Just imagine their first dance as husband and wife… If you’re not one of the couple million people who saw Battleship, don’t waste your money quite yet. Here’s every line of dialogue Rihanna says in the box office bomb. School lunches usually suck. Although over the years many schools have committed to serving healthier, more substantial meals, the thought of cafeterias conjures up memories of greasy sloppy joes, canned fruit and square pizza. Most kids don’t mind it — who didn’t look forward to grilled cheese day? Kids aren’t concerned with nutritious content. Kids who aren’t Martha Payne, that is. GOOD shared the blog of this 9-year-old Scottish girl who became fed up with her inadequate school lunches. Under the careful supervision of her Dad, Payne created NeverSeconds, a blog of her daily school lunch with ratings (which adorably calculate number of mouthfuls and pieces of hair in every meal). The blog hasn’t even been up for two months and Payne is already getting recognition from the likes of school lunch champion Jamie Oliver. Payne, under the moniker Veg (as in Veritas Ex Gustu, which is Latin for Truth in Tasting), also invites children from around the world to send in photos and analyses of their healthy or sub-par school meals. What a cool little chick. Anchorman 2 is really coming. Mark Zuckerberg had a pretty busy couple weeks. He launched Facebook in the stock market, updated his relationship status and married a girl that did not dump him in The Social Network, honeymooned in Italy and ate McDonald’s there. And everyone’s pissed about all of it. Did anyone else nearly run their car off the road when they hear what sounds like Morgan Freeman’s sweet, heavenly voice on a … library commercial? That’s right, a guy who really sounds like Morgan Freeman voiced a commercial for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.