The remaking and re-imagining of classic films and TV shows is often met with high expectations and harsh reviews. Despite this, I was really looking forward to A&E’s new horror-drama, Bates Motel. Something of a warped prequel to Psycho, the thriller places a young Norman Bates and his mother Norma in charge of a previously foreclosed motel in a contemporary setting. With the swoon-worthy Vera Farmiga (big sis to American Horror Story’s Violet, Taissa Farmiga) starring as the mother to the future sociopath (who is portrayed by creepy-yet-cute Freddie Highmore), I really thought it was going to be awesome. It wasn’t. Check out my full reaction in this week’s TV column. I know I should have lowered my expectations — prequels generally suck — but I was really pulling for this one. Sadly, I’ve felt more suspense in an episode of A&E’s Intervention that in this show where multiple people were murdered in the premiere. Dammit, Bates Motel, I was rooting for you! Popular restaurant recommendation site Urbanspoon recently listed the most buzzed about bar-n-grills across America and Cincinnati topped the list with seven restaurant-bar mentions — matched only by Chicago, New Orleans and St. Louis. The restaurants include A Tavola, Adriatico's Pizza, Bakersfield OTR, Nada, Senate, Taste of Belgium Bistro and Terry’s Turf Club. With Covington’s Wunderbar bringing the local count up to eight, it looks like Greater Cincinnati is the place to go for beers and bites! Usually when my mom shares with me something she found on the Internet, it’s either a pug photo shoot on YouTube or an MSN slideshow of inappropriate advertisements, but recently she sent me something even better. Check out this informational North Korean documentary footage of American life: Ah, America: Where there aren’t any birds, except for the ones we all ate yesterday. Just a reminder, next time you order your snow coffee, make sure to ask if it’s local. Thanks for the cake, North Korea! So the Catholics got a new pope last week. Remember: There’s always money in the Vatican! Usually when I hear “Satan” and “Obama” in the sentence, I quickly tune out whichever Fox News zombie or disgruntled family member is ranting, but this week the two were compared for a new reason. The History Channel’s incredibly factual miniseries The Bible obviously features the devil, an important supporting character from the original masterpiece, but some people are upset about the resemblance to our president. Check it out for yourself here. The Princess Bride is a classic, but what if little Fred Savage’s grandpa gave him another book instead? If the kid hated all that kissing in PB, I can only imagine what he’d think of GOT’s uh, adult scenes.Hey remember my American Horror Story Season Three guesses? AHS: Coven = confirmed. Witches! Squee!

Thirteen may historically be an unlucky number, but we’re all sure to be blessed with pop culture gold this year. Sure, Heidi and Spencer are back on TV and Kim Kardashian is cooking up a baby with Kanye West — don’t run for the hills quite yet. The fact that the New Year was rung in by a washed up Jamie Kennedy and a stoned Macy Gray on this low-budge Los Angeles NYE show has to be a good sign of what hot messes are to come. Here’s a peek at what’s to come in 2013. Many spoilers lie ahead; proceed at your own risk. WINTER This Sunday, the Golden Globes (aka the one show where TV and movie stars mingle while drunk) will be hosted by women for the first time ever! OK, the show has only had an official host since 2010, but it’s been Ricky Gervais every year since. This time around, dynamic duo Tina Fey and Amy Poehler run the show. The pair have a long history, back to their improv days at Second City in the ‘90s. Over the past decade+ they’ve proven their comedic chemistry on Saturday Night Live and in Baby Mama, but they’re also awesome in their respective rights, as seen on 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation. Check out some of my unlikely-but-hopeful Golden Globes picks here. The Chinese calendar may deem 2013 the Year of the Snake, but according to my diva calendar, this is definitely the Year of Beyonce. The musical maven, who just celebrated baby Blue Ivy’s first birthday with hubby and baby daddy Jay-Z, is set to sing the national anthem at President Obama’s inauguration Jan. 21. Next, she’ll fly down to New Orleans to headline the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 3. Bey is rumored to perform with a reunited Destiny’s Child (FINALLY) and the Hov. Just two weeks later, HBO will premiere Queen B’s full-length documentary on Feb. 16. The Bey-directed doc touts a personal, never-before-seen look at “Beyonce the person” (there’s no way she’s 100% human, but whatever) as opposed to Sasha Fierce the performer. A few things I’m really hoping to see: Jay-Z changing Blue’s Egyptian cotton diaper; Beyonce eating actual solid food; a baby bump shot to put those pesky rumors to rest; at least 13 different hairstyles/weaves. The Walking Dead returns to AMC for the second half of Season Three on Feb. 10. We’ll pick up with the new Woodbury/prison storylines introduced in early December’s mid-season finale. Fan fave Daryl has been captured by the Governor, who places him in the demented fighting arena against his brother Merle (who was pretty much presumed dead by the group after leaving a trail of blood and sawed-off hand behind in Season One). Loyalties will certainly be tested when the Dixon bros meet for the first time and, according to this sneak peak, the Woodbury clan wants them to battle to the death. Back at the prison, Rick questions his leadership role and Tyreese (a character plucked from the comics) will step up as the group’s token black guy. On the other side of the camera, showrunner Glen Mazzara, who took over for Frank Darabont after a rather sluggish second season, will be stepping down. Some speculate the move may be due to a lackluster second half of this season, but Mazzara, AMC and comic creator/exec producer Robert Kirkman all claim the departure is on good terms. We’ll see for ourselves next month; meanwhile, check out this preview: SPRING At first glance, Game of Thrones did not seem like my small screen cop o’ tea. I generally don’t read or watch anything too fantastical/mythical (but bring on the zombies and True Blood), plus the number of characters and settings almost make fictional family trees and note-taking a must. Regardless of TV preferences, though, GoT is an addictive epic. And on March 31, fans will return to Westeros for a third, slightly super-sized season. See, in the past, episodes were generally just more than 50 minutes long. This season promises several eps as long as 57 minutes, ultimately adding up to almost a whole extra episode. Way too nerdy and nitpicky? Well, that’s Thrones for you. But another fun addition to this season is that fans can now drink along with the show as New York’s Brewery Ommegang releases a series of Game of Thrones beer. The first, Iron Throne Blonde Ale, is set to debut in time for the season premiere. And speaking of TV show beer tie-ins, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will also get its own brew with Aleman and Two Brothers Brewing Co.’s Dayman Coffee IPA, also slated to come out this March. Let’s just hope the gang hasn’t touched the stuff. And since you can’t even read the word “Dayman” without singing: Moving along to May, you better scratch those Star Wars Day and Cinco de Mayo plans. Cult hit Arrested Development is coming back with a new season, to be released on Netflix in its entirety on May 4. Of course, everyone is happy to have a little more Tobias Fünke in their lives, but this is a huge, possibly telling move for television in general. Plenty of failed shows gain a following after their demise on TV, but rarely do these shows actually get picked up again, and certainly not 7 years after cancellation. My only fear is super-fans’ high expectations will be hard to meet in just a single season. 'Til the release, catch up on the series and look out for these Easter eggs. After being pushed from its original Christmas 2012 premiere date, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby will hit theaters May 10. The director is known for his visually exciting films, such at Romeo + Juliet (which starred Gatsby himself, Leonardo DiCaprio) and Moulin Rouge, and likes to blend contemporary music and themes in with those of the films’ eras. For example, in the following trailer, Kanye West's “No Church in the Wild” juxtaposes the 1922 setting. If that's not enough for ya, stay tuned for more 2013 pop culture previews for summer and fall.

Election season is over! Regardless of how you voted, I think we can all celebrate the fact that our portals to pop culture — television, radio, social media and the rest of the Internet — will no longer be clogged with annoying political rants, campaign advertisements and baseless polls, making more room for puppy cams, nail art blogs, unflattering celebrity photos and other important things the American people deserve. But, since we’re talking politics, this week we witnessed what can only be described as the best Rom-com of 2012. Here’s a sampling of the finest presidential gifs:And, for old time's sake:As people in Colorado and Washington are legalizing recreational weed, the cannabis king himself, now known as Snoop Lion, is working on his first Reggae album. While the release date for Reincarnated is yet to be announced, Snoop debuted his video first single under his new moniker, titled “La La La.” While it’s no “Oh Sookie,” this colorful Jamaican adventure looks straight out of Pee Wee’s Playhouse and was directed by Eli Roth (Hostel, Grindhouse). Here’s a really freaky map plotting out the expansion of Walmart locations over the past 40 years. Remakes and sequels have become a staple in Hollywood at this point. It’s irritating, but can you blame ‘em? You’ve got your foundation already set, there’s a built-in audience and, presumably, it requires a lot less effort than a completely original work. Generally, I detest the modernization of classics (or even silly childhood gems), but my heart skipped a beat when I read Disney is in the early stages of a Boy Meets World sequel.The ‘90s T.G.I.F. staple followed Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) as he grew from an adorable sixth grader to the best college-aged husband ever (oops, Spoiler Alert). From 1993-2000 audiences got to know and love Cory, his family, BFF Sean, GF Topanga and neighbor/principal Mr. Feeny. Girl Meets World, Disney’s proposed sequel, is to follow Cory and Topanga’s tween daughter as she comes of age herself *wipes tears*. Casting Savage and Danielle Fishel (who played Cory’s main squeeze/’90s lioness) is crucial to this being acceptable in my book. Savage’s work has been sparse in the past 10 years — a couple indie flicks and a few single TV show episodes — and if Fishel can take a break from her “I almost lost my virginity to Lance Bass” tour, I’m thinking they can make this work. In actually-confirmed-television-projects news, MythBusters is working on an episode devoted to Breaking Bad. While Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage won’t be cooking any of the blue stuff, they will be trying two experiments from the series’ first season. One involves the stomach-churning scene where Jesse uses hydrofluoric acid to dispose of some evidence. Since BB has offered countless other scenes begging to be myth-busted, there is talk of additional episodes dedicated to Walter White & Co. The episode, airing in Spring 2013, will feature Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman) and creator Vince Gilligan. Breaking Bad is one of those shows that, if you are or ever even plan to get into, you really don’t want anything to be spoiled. But in this age of the Internet, where millions of people think an unsolicited “woah can’t believe [character] just died on [series]” is a necessary and interesting message to share with the world, spoilers lurk around every corner. College Humor created a helpful guide to dancing around spoilers. TV people, take note.

Voice of the common man, conscience of the American people, shepherd of men and 700WLW staple Bill Cunningham made an impassioned plea to his radio audience Nov. 2, saying if Mitt Romney lost the election, he would end his 30-plus year career in radio. “For nearly 30 years I’ve been the voice of the common man and conscience of the American people. I have led you and you’ve allowed me to lead you through thick and thin, through good times and bad, through recessions, depressions, wars, feasts and famines, through hurricanes, tornadoes and more,” Cunningham said. “If Mitt Romney does not win the election, I, Bill Cunningham, your shepherd, will quit radio on Wednesday Nov. 7. I’ll give it up. Continue my great television career and practicing law, but if my credibility means anything between you and me it means that you will listen to what I have to say.” Now, in the morning after, a time when we ourselves have often felt that “oh God, what have I done” feeling, we at CityBeat want to make our own impassioned plea: Don’t quit, Willie. Cincinnati needs you. You’ve always been a source of inspiration and wisdom to budding journalists and truth-seekers at CityBeat. Were it not for your Aug. 28, 2009 interview with Cincinnati Profile, we would never have known what “my baby daddy” was. We might forget what Barack Hussein Obama’s full name is were it not for your show. Without your faithful shepherding we’d go on believing the lie that things like assistance to the disabled and payments to workers who are injured on the job were good things! We’re glad to hear that you are backtracking on your Nov. 2 pledge planning to go on an intervention with Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Rob Portman to determine your future in radio. As you said on your show today, “every herd of sheep needs a shepherd,” and you’ve been our shepherd for more than 30 years. Please don’t “take [your] staff, crash in [your] skull and kill [yourself].” We, the bleating masses of Cincinnati, still need you.

It’s no secret that Cintas Corp. CEO Scott Farmer showers part of his wealth on Republican political candidates. Over the years, he has thrown money at George W. Bush, Rob Portman and Steve Chabot. This year, he has given $52,500 to the Mitt Romney campaign. His wife Mary has ponied up $22,500. But votes, not money, win elections, and the Farmers’ two meager votes don’t amount to much. So what better way to help the Romney effort than to muster the votes of the Cintas-employed masses, as Scott Farmer did in an Oct. 19 letter e-mailed to his 30,000 or so workers, or “partners” as he likes to call them. Farmer, the son of Cintas founder Richard Farmer, takes issue with Obamacare, the “potential of government to increase current tax rates” and what he considers business-impeding “over-regulation” by federal agencies. All three are straight from the Romney playbook. Farmer, though, insists that the company doesn’t “endorse one candidate over another.” Cintas spokeswoman Heather Maley said the letter was sent to help employees “make an informed decision.” “In today’s political climate, the issues can certainly be confusing and even overwhelming,” Maley said in a statement. “We believe our partners want to be informed about issues that affect our company and are interested to know where the company stands on these issues.” One would think that after Cintas’ shabby treatment at the hands of the Bush administration, Farmer would welcome a second Obama term. In 2008, Cintas agreed to pay a $2.8 million fine to settle federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration charges that it was willfully negligent in the death of a Cintas worker who fell into an industrial dryer while clearing a tangle of wet laundry at a company plant in Tulsa, Okla. In 2005, Cintas had to fend off U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims that it was biased against women in filling sales jobs. The claims were dismissed in court. And in 2004, the Inspector General for the U.S. Postal Service investigated whether Cintas tacked millions of dollars in “environmental fees” on uniforms, towels and mats it cleaned for the postal service under a 10-year, $200 million contract. Cintas halted the practice. One person who doesn’t buy into Cintas’ professed ambivalence about its workers’ voting choices is Caleb Faux, executive director of the Hamilton County Democratic Party. Cintas is based in Mason, and many of its workers live and vote in Hamilton County. He sees the Farmer letter as a brazen reminder to workers of the source of their livelihood. “I think that it’s disgraceful that any employer would use the power implicit in the employer-employee relationship to coerce people while they are making their voting decisions,” Faux said.

In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here. Hurricane Sandy slammed the East Coast last night. At least 16 people are believed to have died from the storm, and as many as 7.5 million were left without power. Areas of New York and New Jersey also faced major flooding. It took until 4:30 a.m. for Sandy to go from hurricane to tropical storm.  The Anna Louise Inn will be in court at 9 a.m. today arguing in front of the First District Court of Appeals, which could overturn a May ruling and allow the Inn to move forward with its renovation. CityBeat will have online coverage for the hearing later today. Hamilton County’s probation department is facing sexual harassment charges. The charges are coming from a county worker who said her promotion was denied due to her actions “for opposing discrimination and encouraging others to exercise their right to be free from acts of discrimination.” The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes filed a lawsuit Friday in an attempt to reverse the August reworking of the Blue Ash airport deal. For COAST, the lawsuit is mostly to stall or stop the financing for the $110 million Cincinnati streetcar. City Council will vote next week to decide whether the city should borrow $37 million to fund development projects and a portion of the Homeless to Homes program. But Homeless to Homes is generating some concern due to its requirement to move three shelters. Three Cincinnati charity groups are coming together to help veterans with disabling injuries. The organizations will pool available resources to hopefully find jobs for veterans. Mitt Romney is running a new ad against President Barack Obama in Ohio that says Chrysler is moving Jeep production to China. The ad, which Chrysler says is false, warranted a snarky response from the car company: “Despite clear and accurate reporting, the take has given birth to a number of stories making readers believe that Chrysler plans to shift all Jeep production to China from North America, and therefore idle assembly lines and U.S. workforce. It is a leap that would be difficult even for professional circus acrobats.” The Obama team also responded with its own ad. It is somewhat understandable Romney would be getting a bit desperate at this point in the race. Ohio is widely considered the most important swing state, but aggregate polling has Romney down 1.9 points in the state. Romney is up 0.9 points nationally. State Republicans are refusing to pull an ad that accuses William O’Neill, Democratic candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court, of expressing “sympathy for rapists.” This is despite the fact that Justice Robert Cupp, O’Neill’s Republican opponent, has distanced himself from the ad. At this point, even the most nonpartisan, objectives watchers have to wonder why the Republican Party can’t keep rape out of its messaging. In comments aired first on Aug. 19, U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri said on pregnancy after rape, “If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” On Oct. 23, Richard Mourdock, the Senate candidate for Indiana, said, “I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.” Ohio is getting closer to the health exchange deadline with no plan in sight. Obamacare asks states to take up health exchanges that act as competitive markets for different health insurance plans. States are allowed to either accept, let the federal government run the exchanges or take a hybrid approach. As part of the health exchanges, the federal government will also sponsor a heavily regulated nonprofit plan that sounds fairly similar to the public option liberals originally wanted in Obamacare. Meanwhile, Ohio and other states still haven’t decided whether they will be expanding their Medicaid programs. In the past, state officials have cited costs as a big hurdle, but one study from Arkansas found Medicaid expansions actually saved money by reducing the amount of uncompensated care. Some states that expanded Medicaid also found health improvements afterward. An inspector at the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) was caught not doing her job. The inspector was supposed to do 128 site visits for in-person safety inspections, but she apparently never showed up to some of the schools and filed fraudulent reports. Peter Cremer North America could add 50 jobs in Cincinnati over three years in an expansion. A San Francisco firm bought a major stake in Cincinnati Bell.

For the past month, Romney-Ryan and crew have been busy accusing President Obama of eliminating welfare-to-work requirements. You can hardly miss the campaign commercials that claim Obama has taken the “work” out of welfare reform. But what we haven’t heard is that state officials in Columbus are getting squeezed by the Obama Administration because Ohio failed to move enough people off public assistance programs into real jobs. The feds contend the state has mismanaged welfare reform since 2007. It is former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration getting blame for not being aggressive with the work component.  Now Ohio is desperately trying to dodge $136.2 million in penalties for failing to shift welfare recipients into the workforce.  Next week, Republican Gov. John Kasich’s administration plans to spend nearly $500,000 on a consultant to help clean up Ohio’s mess. Public Consulting Group Inc. of Boston is in line to get the $499,642 contract. That company says the welfare to work reforms suggested by the Obama Administration in July — the waivers denounced by Romney-Ryan — could actually help get more people off assistance and into jobs.  Here’s language straight from the Kasich Administration’s request to hire the Boston consulting firm: “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), notified Ohio of its failure to meet the performance threshold of fifty percent (all families) and ninety percent (two parent families) for TANF work participation for FFY’s 2007, 2008, and 2009.  These notifications carried potential penalties of $32,758,572 for FFY 2007, $45,050,074 for FFY 2008 and $58,517,487 for FFY 2009. Ohio’s current corrective compliance will require Ohio to completely correct the violation by meeting the work participation threshold during the current FFY 2012. Failure to do so will result in a reduction of Ohio’s State Family Assistance Grant (i.e. TANF) of $32,758,872 …” State officials said the consultant would do analysis to increase work participation rates “in accordance with federal requirements.”  Nobody is suggesting that work participation requirements be ended. The consulting firm says it knows how to help a state win a waiver, which is an alternative way to assist TANF recipients into the workforce. The waivers are what Romney and Ryan have denounced as killing welfare reform. (So far, Ohio hasn’t asked the consultant directly to develop a waiver plan.) But the consultant Ohio is hiring is clear that waivers don’t end work requirements and they could actually help achieve better employment outcomes. “The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) recently issued a challenge for states to develop and test new and innovative strategies that will improve employment outcomes in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program,” the consulting firm says. It sees the change as opening up “thoughtful and innovative approaches that connect TANF participants to jobs in a more effective and less administratively burdensome way.” Again, the consultant being hired by the Republicans at the Statehouse in Columbus doesn’t say Obama is gutting welfare reform. The consultant says, “The waiver authority specifically allows states to test new ways of helping achieve better employment outcomes within the TANF program by offering flexibility on how work requirements and work participation are defined, administered and measured.”

President Barack Obama will visit Cincinnati Monday. No details were given for the event. Last time Obama was in Cincinnati, he held a town hall meeting to tout his support for small businesses and the LGBT community. Ohio is considered a vital swing state for the presidential election, and it’s widely considered a must-win for Republican candidate Mitt Romney. However, after the Democratic National Convention, aggregate polling at FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics hugely favors Obama, establishing many paths for the Democrat to clinch the presidency. Obama could lose Ohio, Virginia and Florida and still win the election, which shows how many options he has to victory.A new index lists Cincinnati’s economy as one of the strongest in the nation. The On Numbers Economic Index ranked Cincinnati No. 15 out of 102 metro areas with a score of 67.65. Oklahoma City was No. 1 with a score of 91.04. Cincinnati also touts a lower unemployment rate than the U.S. and state average. The area’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 7.2 percent in July in comparison to the state’s 7.4 percent unadjusted rate and the country’s 8.6 percent unadjusted rate.The 2013 Hamilton County budget process is “challenging,” says Commissioner Greg Hartmann. He says the county is dealing with a $200 million budget instead of the $300 million budget of six years ago, which is presenting new problems. Hamilton County Sheriff Si Leis said budget cuts could lead to up to 500 jail bed cuts. CityBeat previously covered the county commissioners’ inability to tackle challenging budget issues — sometimes at the cost of the taxpayer. State Auditor Dave Yost says his investigation into attendance fraud at Ohio schools could last well into the year. The investigation, which began after Lockland Schools in Hamilton County were found of attendance fraud, is slowed down by the state’s data-reporting system, according to Yost. Schools may falsely alter their attendance reports to improve grades in the state report card.Secretary of State Jon Husted has been sued again. This time he’s being sued by the Democratic Montgomery County election officials he fired. The officials tried to expand in-person early voting hours in Montgomery County to include weekend voting, but the move violated Husted’s call for uniform hours across the state.The Ohio EPA will host a workshop in Cincinnati on Sept. 25. The workshop will focus on the Ohio Clean Fund and other tools and incentives to help individuals and groups embrace clean energy.For the first time since December, Ohio's tax collections were lower than expected. The state was $43 million below estimates in August.Eighteen percent of Ohio mortgages are underwater, according to a new survey.A study found wind power could meet the world’s energy needs. Wind currently supplies 4.1 percent of the United States’ energy needs. Obama greatly boosted the production of wind energy with tax credits. Romney vowed to repeal the tax credits in a brief moment of substance.