If anyone is to blame for the controversy over why Councilman Chris Bortz ignored an Ohio Ethics Commission advisory opinion regarding his votes on the city's streetcar plan, it's Bortz himself. Why ask for an opinion at all if he wasn't going to follow it? And once the opinion has been issued, it would be better to come clean about it rather than wait for the slow burn of its release almost a year later, which makes the whole affair look sordid.  

Once completed between Cincinnati and Cleveland via Columbus, the 250-mile corridor will travel through 12 economically distressed counties and help create thousands of direct and indirect jobs, supporters say. The rail line will serve more than 6.8 million people, or nearly 60 percent of Ohio's population.  

We at WWE! realize that in 17 years things will be a lot different — technology will be increasingly difficult to use and people who are 10 right now will be able to kick our asses. Another thing that’s going to suck is that the $1.9 billion Cincinnati Retirement System is going to be broke unless fundamental changes are made soon.  

ALAN KALMANOFF: Local political junkies will remember Kalmanoff as the city of Cincinnati's first federally-appointed police monitor, hired in 2002 to oversee the implementation of dozens of reforms to the Cincinnati Police Department.  

As Mayor Mark Mallory and the new City Council are sworn in this week, the city says goodbye to two of its trusted progressive allies, David Crowley and Greg Harris. With the return of hard right-winger Charlie Winburn, council's conservative coalition now owns a 5-4 vote margin. It's now time for them to step up and offer a more inspiring plan than their current "No."  

I’ve been covering City Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz as a reporter and columnist since her first council campaign back in 2005. On a personal level, she can be funny and intelligent and prone to uttering newsworthy quotes. Like every public official I've covered, sometimes I agree with her, sometimes I don't. During this campaign season, unfortunately, Ghiz presented herself as a much harder-edged, angry and occasionally rude candidate.  

Scaring voters shitless is a classic political tradition. Whether it's convincing us to fear crime, poor people, public transportation, African Americans, foreigners, gays, nuclear power or the flu, politicians often win elections by playing to the darkest human instincts. "Vote for me or die" is the underlying message of these sorts of campaigns. Instead, if you value hope over fear and progress over the status quo, you'll join us in rejecting political candidates and organizations that prey on our fears. Plan to vote the CityBeat ticket.  

For decades, Cincinnati's leaders have bemoaned the loss of people and businesses to distant suburbs and other cities. Cincinnati City Councilwoman Roxanne Qualls thinks an important part of restoring vibrant city living is by appealing to those who want to do more than just drive through the Queen City. "If you design streets for traffic, you get traffic," she recently told an audience at the Mercantile Library.  

On July 8, an interesting private meeting will occur that could influence who sits on Cincinnati City Council next year. At the request of Mayor Mark Mallory, a high-powered group of Democratic officials will convene behind closed doors to discuss growing discord on council. He called the session after CityBeat's blog reported last week that some Democratic Party precinct executives were angry about recent actions taken by Councilman Jeff Berding, a Democrat who's running for his third term. Those precinct executives are trying to build support for calling for a special meeting of the party's Executive Committee to rescind Berding’s endorsement.  

I joined about 200 politically-minded people at Xavier University April 15 to hear eight of the 12 living former Cincinnati mayors explain how the more things change the more they stay the same. Even former mayors of Cincinnati find that moving our city forward can be as challenging as getting a barge to hop over the Suspension Bridge. And, damn, Jerry Springer still is funny. And Bobbie Sterne can still put men in their place — politely, of course.