Speaking to about 60 people at the Rockdale Baptist Church in Avondale, the Rev. Jesse Jackson talked about the many “schemes” used to disenfranchise voters while encouraging Cincinnatians to register to vote and take advantage of Ohio’s early voting days. “Dealing in this state, for example, you think so much about the painful days in the deep South — the overt schemes to deny the right to vote,” Jackson said on Tuesday, the last day to register to vote in Ohio. “We saw Ohio as a kind of beacon of light, the beacon of hope once we ran across the river coming north. This year we’ve seen Ohio and Pennsylvania take the lead in trying to purge voters and suppress the vote to determine the outcome.” Jackson’s comments came on the same day Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court the Six Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to allow early in-person voting on the three days before Election Day. The three days had previously only applied to military personnel and their families. Republicans like Husted have cited cost as the reason to not allow in-person voting on the three days before the election. But in an Aug. 19 email to The Columbus Dispatch, Franklin County Republican Party chairman Doug Preisse said “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine.” Pennsylvania, meanwhile, tried to require voters take a photo ID with them into the polls. A state judge blocked the law from going into effect for the 2012 election. Jackson said restrictions as to who can vote when and where undermine the purpose of democracy.  “Open access, free, transparent voting makes democracy real,” he said. Flanked by a tapestry portraying President Barack Obama, Jackson touted the president’s accomplishments in his first term and urged those assembled to give him a second. Jackson was in Toledo Oct. 5 pushing early voting. He said he was in Cincinnati because “Ohio matters” and he saw it as a way to penetrate Appalachia because “poverty is not just a black problem.”

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted will appeal a ruling that expanded voting during the three days before Election Day to all Ohioans. If the appeal is approved, the early voting issue will be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court. On Friday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with President Barack Obama's campaign and the Democrats when it said voting during the weekend and Monday before Election Day must include all Ohioans. Previously, the three early voting days only applied to military personnel and their families. The appeals court ruling passed the final decision behind the three voting days to the county boards of elections and Husted. Unless Husted enacts uniform rules like he has done in the past, boards of elections will decide whether voting will still take place on those days. If there is a tie vote, Husted will be the tie breaker. In a statement, Husted hinted at setting uniform rules if the appeal is unsuccessful: “Since some boards of elections have already started to take action on hours of operation for the three days before Election Day, I am going to take time to consult with all 88 counties before crafting a directive to set uniform hours should the state not be successful upon appeal.” In the past, Husted argued voting procedures should ideally be “locked down” months before Election Day. But with this appeal to the Supreme Court, the rules will remain up in the air.Ohio Republicans have repeatedly blocked any expansion of in-person early voting, citing racial politics and costs. Doug Preisse, close adviser to Gov. John Kasich and chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party, said in an email to The Columbus Dispatch on Aug. 19, “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine.” Black voters tend to favor Democrats by big margins.

In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here. Tomorrow is also the last day to register to vote. A federal appeals court upheld the decision to allow in-person early voting for everyone during the three days prior to the election. The decision comes as a big win to President Barack Obama’s campaign, which filed a lawsuit to restore in-person early voting on the weekend and Monday before Election Day. Republicans in the state have repeatedly pushed against expanded early voting, citing racial politics and costs. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted said Friday he will decide what to do with the ruling after the weekend. The court ruling means Husted could close down all boards of election on the three days before Election day, eliminating early voting for everyone — including military voters. If Husted doesn’t act, individual county boards of election will decide whether to stay open or closed. The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners is discussing the budget today. It has a few options, but all of them involve cuts. A recently released audit by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (ODRC) found the private prison sold to the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has some serious problems. The prison only met 66.7 percent of Ohio’s standards, and 47 violations were found. CCA says it’s working with ODRC to resolve the problems. The news mostly confirmed the findings of CityBeat’s in-depth look into private prisons.   Schools responded to the state auditor’s recent report that found five school districts were scrubbing data and the Ohio Department of Education did not have enough safeguards. The five school districts generally objected, saying they did not purposely alter any data provided to the state.   Humana will be hiring for 200 full-time jobs in Greater Cincinnati. The University of Cincinnati is turning up its search for a new president this week. First up for consideration: Provost and Interim President Santa Ono.The Associated Press says Cincinnati is a changed city thanks to recent development funding.There will be a bar crawl to support the Anna Louise Inn on Oct. 13. The bar crawl, hosted by Ohioans United to Protect Abused Women, will last from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tickets will be sold for $10 with all proceeds going to the Anna Louise Inn. Participating bars will be Milton's Prospect Hill Tavern, Neon's, The Drinkery, MOTR, JAPS and Arnold's Bar. Mayor Mark Mallory challenged San Francisco’s mayor to a chili cook-off to benefit the city that wins the Reds-Giants playoffs. Mallory touted some fighting words in a statement announcing the friendly bet: “I sure hope San Francisco Chili is as good as Mayor Lee says it is, that way it raises lots of money for Cincinnati’s youth, after the Reds send the Giants packing in the first round.”Meet the chair of the U.S. House Science Committee's panel on investigations and oversight. He says evolution and the big bang theory are “lies straight from the pit of Hell.”

Secretary of State Jon Husted has not had a good year. He’s dealt with his party's early voting policies, which are only defended by racial politics and costs, and he was sued by President Barack Obama’s campaign to restore in-person early voting for the weekend and Monday before Election Day — a lawsuit he lost. Now he’s being sued by two Democratic Montgomery County Board of Elections officials he fired.Dennis Lieberman and Tom Ritchie filed a lawsuit today claiming wrongful termination. The election officials claim they were wrongly fired when Husted suspended then fired the men for refusing to follow uniform in-person early voting hours he established. In a statement, Lieberman said Husted was setting a bad example with the terminations: “We believe SOS Husted was wrong when he unjustly fired us. He violated our free speech and the free speech of other county elections board members. SOS Husted fired us and then dared other election board members to try and stand up for the voters in their community.” The Montgomery County Democrats refused to abide by Husted’s uniform voting hours because they did not include weekend voting. The Dayton-area officials saw the hours as a step back. “Dennis and I did nothing wrong,” Ritchie said in a statement. “We knew that 11,000 Montgomery County residents voted during early weekend hours in 2008. The county has the money to pay for the extended hours. We were only trying to give people a fair chance to vote.” However, the Montgomery County Democrats did break the rules. The whole point of uniform voting hours, which Husted established due to outcries from Democrats about county-by-county voting hour discrepancies, is uniformity. If any county gets more or less hours, the entire premise is broken.Husted's office could not be immediately reached for comment over the lawsuit. This story will be updated if comments become available.UPDATE (4:50 P.M.): Husted's office issued a statement in response to the lawsuit after this story was published, crediting the statement to Husted: “Mr. Lieberman and Mr. Ritchie were fired for breaking election law. They are free to say what they want, but they are not free to do what they want.” Republicans have had a difficult time defending their anti-early voting policies. Doug Preisse, close adviser to Gov. John Kasich and Franklin County Republican chairman, defended the policies perhaps too bluntly when he wrote in an email to The Columbus Dispatch, “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine.” Republicans have also cited costs. But as Ritchie said, Montgomery County has the money to pay for more early voting. A previous analysis from CityBeat also found extending early voting hours comes at a fraction of a percent of Hamilton County’s budget.

Vice President Joe Biden was in town over the weekend. During the stop, he outlined “fundamental differences” between President Barack Obama’s campaign and Mitt Romney’s campaign. Specifically, he criticized the Romney-Ryan plan of turning Medicare into a voucher system. The visit also unveiled a new fake, pointless controversy in the media when a female biker almost sat on Biden’s lap.Secretary of State Jon Husted backed down on telling county boards of elections to not begin implementing in-person early voting for the weekend and Monday before Election Day. On Aug. 31, a federal judge ruled Husted must enact in-person early voting for the extra days. Following the case, Husted sent out Directive 2012-40 ordering county boards of elections to not enact in-person early voting rules until the court case granting extra hours was appealed and re-ruled on. The judge responded to the directive by asking Husted to explain himself in court. But Husted backed down by sending out Directive 2012-42, which rescinds Directive 2012-40. Republicans have consistently attempted to block more voting hours in the past few months, citing racial politics and costs.A CityBeat analysis found cuts in the public sector are partly to blame for the unemployment rate.The identity of the man behind a super PAC supporting senatorial candidate Josh Mandel, lying extraordinaire, has been revealed. The group is Government Integrity Fund, and it is headed by Columbus lobbyist Tom Norris. The group also employs former Mandel aide Joe Ritter.Criminals might face stiffer penalties for gun-related violations due to a new Butler County policy. Critics say the policy will cost the taxpayer more money.The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreclosure sale notices cannot be distributed via websites. The court said institutions have to notify customers more directly.The Enquirer shined some light into its paywall model in an editorial by CEO Margaret Buchanan yesterday. In the editorial, Buchanan acknowledges the newspaper’s duty to “watchdog journalism” to keep organizations and people in check.Cincinnati web designers were quite busy in 2011.The Ohio Board of Education is meeting today and tomorrow. The agenda seems pretty packed, but it’s possible the board could release more details about the search for state superintendent at the meeting. The board will consider how to transition into the third grade reading guarantee recently passed into law by the Ohio legislature and Gov. John Kasich.An ammonia leak caused an evacuation at a food processing plant yesterday.A pizza owner in Florida really loves Obama. Florida is considered a major swing state in the presidential election. However, the race may not be as close as the media’s fairness machine seeks to make it seem. Recent aggregate polling at FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics is moving heavily in Obama’s direction in swing states and the national level. That could be attributed to volatility caused by political conventions, but the trend favoring Obama has been consistent for some time now.The Romney campaign flip-flopped on Obamacare only to flip-flop back in a matter of hours. The campaign has been repeatedly criticized for lacking substance — much to the apathy of both Romney and Ryan — and this does not help.Popular Science scientifically analyzed why former President Bill Clinton is so good at giving speeches.

A federal judge is ordering Secretary of State Jon Husted to appear in court to explain why Husted is ignoring a recent ruling. The judge ruled Friday that Husted must enact in-person early voting for all voters on the weekend and Monday before Election Day. Husted told county boards of elections to ignore the ruling until after an appeal process. Republicans have consistently blocked the expansion of early voting, citing racial politics and costs.After a merger with Progress Energy, Duke Energy will rebrand itself. The details are sparse, but CEO Jim Rogers promised in a letter last week that the company will be going some big changes. Even a name change was hinted at in the letter, which promised the commission “a rollout of the new logo and name-change occurring at the end of the first quarter of 2013 and beginning of the second quarter.” An activist group is demanding the U.S. Department of Labor investigate allegations that Murray Energy forced its miners in Bealsville, Ohio to attend a campaign rally for presidential candidate Mitt Romney. CREDO Action, the group filing the petition, wants the Department of Labor to see if any laws were broken in the process. Murray Energy’s CEO says workers were told the campaign rally “was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend.” But that explanation makes no sense.Cincinnati hospitals and medical centers saw higher expenses and revenues in the past few fiscal years. Urban hospitals and centers in particular were more likely to see higher costs and income, while rural hospitals and centers sometimes saw decreases.Voters First is mocking the redistricting system with a new graph. The graph shows a real email exchange between politicians carving out districts for personal gain. The exchange only lasts 13 minutes and has no questions asked before Republican redistricting officials agree to redraw a district to benefit Rep. Jim Renacci, a Republican. Voters First also held a 13-minute press conference to mock the exchange further and explain the redistricting process.I-75 will be undergoing a massive widening project starting in 2021. The project is estimated to cost $467 million.Three downtown buildings have been sold to 3CDC for $10. The company currently has no plans for the buildings.Ohio is hosting an international venture capital conference. The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds conference is in Cleveland between Oct. 15 and 17. The nonprofit organization has 200 members, and 22 of them are in Ohio. Venture capital has come under fire during the current campaign season due to Romney’s campaign and Romney’s work as CEO of Bain Capital.The Miami University frat that was suspended is dropping its $10 million lawsuit. The frat was suspended after a fireworks battle led to police finding illegal substances inside the frat.Ohio farmers from all counties are now seeking disaster aid after severe storms and drought hurt crops this summer.Former Gov. Ted Strickland got “God” and “Jerusalem” put back in the Democratic Party’s official platform. There was some booing after the pandering addition was made. Former President Bill Clinton made a speech defending President Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention last night. In the speech, Clinton points out that Republicans were in power when the recession began, and Obama inherited a horrible situation from them. But Clinton passed the largest deregulatory law in history when in 1999 he repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, and the severe lack of regulation is often blamed for the financial crisis that helped spur the Great Recession.A scientist is linking global warming to the amount of exploding stars in the sky.

A federal judge ruled that in-person early voting in Ohio must be extended to include the weekend and Monday before Election Day for all voters. The ruling is a result of President Barack Obama’s campaign team and the Democrats filing a lawsuit against Secretary of State Jon Husted to extend early voting. Attorney General Mike DeWine has vowed to appeal the ruling. Republicans have consistently blocked all attempts to expand early voting in Ohio, citing costs and racial politics.Cincinnati manufacturing is on a big rebound, according to a new survey. The Cincinnati Purchasing Management Index, which is used to measure manufacturing in the area, showed some decline in July, but it is now bouncing back. The news could indicate a wider economic recovery.Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was in town Saturday. During his speech, Romney pointed fingers to “cheaters” like China, which Romney believes is unfairly manipulating its currency. (China has not been manipulating its currency for some time now.) Romney also rolled out his plan to restore America’s economy by emphasizing small businesses and cutting government spending. But the Brookings Institute says the unemployment rate would be at 7.1 percent if it wasn’t for government cuts passed by state and federal governments in the past few years. Romney also wants to cut back on the Environmental Protection Agency, which he says is hurting local jobs with too many regulations. Some Democrats are calling for Husted to resign. Dennis Lieberman and Tom Ritchie, both who were fired for attempting to expand in-person early voting to include weekends despite Husted’s uniform rules demanding no weekend hours, said in a press release Husted should resign for missing a critical deadline. The deadline was to establish the ballot language and argument against Issue 2, a ballot initiative supported by Ohio Voters First that would place redistricting in the hands of an independent citizens committee. If Issue 2 is not passed, politicians will continue drawing district boundaries, which typically leads to a process known as “gerrymandering” that politicians use to redraw districts in politically beneficial ways. In Cincinnati, gerrymandering has been used to de-emphasize the urban vote — or African-American vote, according to Doug Preisse, adviser to Gov. John Kasich — by redrawing district boundaries to include Warren County. CityBeat previously covered the redistricting issue here.Competition in the Greater Cincinnati area has allowed some cities to pay less for trash hauling services. Rumpke previously held a stranglehold on the business, but that seems to be changing with the arrival of legitimate competitors — such as CSI and Forest Green. The Obama campaign will open its offices in Cincinnati tomorrow. The Obama team promises to use the offices for a large ground game.The Ohio Board of Regents is calling on some Ohio colleges to continue enrolling military veterans despite a temporary disruption in federal benefits, which was caused by a loss of records.Former Gov. Ted Strickland might run again to knock Gov. John Kasich out of the spot. Strickland is expected to speak at the Democratic National Convention today.Rep. John Boehner of Ohio seems to have his geography confused. At a speech, he said he wants senatorial candidate Josh Mandel of Ohio to win to "run Harry Reid back to Nevada.” Reid is a U.S. senator for Nevada.U.S. home prices rose in July by the most in six years. The news could indicate a recovery in the housing market. The housing crash is generally attributed as the primary cause of the Great Recession.The Democratic National Convention is heading into day two today. The convention is touting the new Democratic platform, which now includes support for same-sex marriage. At the Ohio delegation in the convention, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is often cited as a potential presidential candidate for the 2016 election, criticized Kasich.A cure for baldness could be in stores as soon as five years from now.

In a statement on Aug. 22, Secretary of State Jon Husted said of early voting, “The rules are set and are not going to change.” Husted made the comment in an attempt to end discussion over in-person early voting hours.Unfortunately for Husted, a federal judge disagrees. In a ruling today, Judge Peter Economus said in-person early voting must be restored for all registered voters to include the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before Election Day. Husted will now work with county boards of elections around the state to decide the voting hours for those days. The ruling is the outcome of President Barack Obama’s campaign and the Ohio Democratic Party suing Husted to extend in-person early voting. Before the ruling, only military personnel and their families were allowed to vote, which the Obama team and Democrats argued was unfair to non-military voters. With the ruling, everyone — including military personnel and their families — will be able to vote during  the three days before election day.Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has vowed to appeal the ruling, but, for now, the news comes as a victory to Obama and Democrats in the ongoing struggle over early voting hours.  Recently, Republicans have tried to block any statewide expansion of in-person early voting, citing costs and racial politics. Doug Preisse, chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party and close adviser to Gov. John Kasich, previously wrote to The Columbus Dispatch in an email, “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine.” Republicans defended Preisse’s racially insensitive comment by calling it “background” and saying it was supposed to be off the record. But those defenses didn’t match Preisse’s defense of his own comment, and they didn’t deny the substance of the comment. CityBeat covered the racial politics behind early voting in this week’s issue (“Republicans Admit Racial Politics,” issue of Aug. 29).Mike Wilson, the Republican candidate for state representative in Ohio’s 28th district, also voiced some concerns about the lawsuit. He said extending in-person early voting for everyone could make lines too long for military personnel and their families.