Morning News and Stuff

• GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson is making his first public appearance this morning in Cincinnati after his controversial remarks that a Muslim should not be president and that Islam goes against the U.S. Constitution. Carson, who will be rallying in Sharonville this morning, disappointed Muslims everywhere when he told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he “would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.” The Cincinnati office of the Council on American Islamic Relations recently stated that Carson should probably read the Constitution a little closer. Carson, a devout Seven-Day Adventist and retired neurosurgeon, is currently a close second behind Donald Trump in polls for the GOP nomination. He will speak at the Sharonville Convention Center to rally support in the Ohio presidential primary, which takes place on March 15, 2016. 

• Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s son, Pat, will be running for the one of the two empty seats on the Ohio Supreme Court next year. The younger DeWine is a Republican and currently on the 1st Ohio District Court of Appeals. He is also a former Hamilton County judge. There is no announced Democratic contender yet. Two current justices are retiring next year because they have hit the mandatory age limit of 70. 

• The U.S. Department of Justice will give the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department a grant for just under $140,000 to purchase body cameras. The grant requires a 50/50 match with department funds, a “robust” training and was part of a $23 million program to get body cameras in 73 other agencies across the country.  

• The Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board is considering a recommendation to put Cincinnati’s Heberle School on the National Register of Historical Places. The school, located in the West End, was build in 1929 as an elementary school to serve and aid the low-income population in the area. It was one of the schools developed during the Progressive Movement in the 1920s to fix some of the social issues caused by the industrial revolution. The board will review the property on Friday to decide whether to pass it along to the State Historic Preservation Office. 

• Last weekend was a great time to celebrate all things German, but probably not the best time to buy a certain German-made car. Volkswagen is in big trouble for cheating after U.S regulators found that some of its 2015 diesel cars were equipped with software that gave false emissions data. The company revealed today that the problem is not just in its U.S. cars, but also in 11 million of VW cars worldwide. In the two days since the scandal erupted, VW‘s stock has dropped 20 percent and the company has told U.S. dealers to halt the sale of some 2015 diesel models. The problem looks like it will be a hefty cost to the German automaker. VW has set aside $7.3 billion to cover the cost of fixing the cars and could face fines of up to $18 billion from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

• Pope Francis will be making his first visit to the U.S. today after wrapping up his time on the Cuban beaches. The Pope will be here until next Sunday and then will visit Washington D.C., New York City and Philadelphia. He will reportedly give a speech to Congress addressing climate change, a move that is throwing off some Republicans lawmakers, like Rep. Paul Gosar, a Catholic from Arizona, who support one and not the other. Gosar plans to boycott the speech. 

That’s all for today. As always, my email is nkrebs@citybeat.com.