Cincinnati may have a deficit estimated to be between $34 million and $40 million, but that didn’t stop City Council from voting 6-2 Thursday to approve
a $23,000 raise and one-time $35,000 bonus for City Manager Milton Dohoney
, the highest-paid city employee. The raise brings his salary up from $232,000 to $255,000. Council members Chris Seelbach and Chris Smitherman voted against the raise. P.G. Sittenfeld also opposed the raise and bonus, but he missed the vote because he was out of town for personal reasons. If City Council balances the budget for the next year and fires someone making $58,000 or less to help do so, the raise and one-time bonus could have meant one person’s job.
City Council also voted 8-0 to encourage the U.S. Department of Agriculture to enforce mandatory labeling of all genetically engineered (GE) food. Alison Auciello, Ohio-based organizer for Food & Water Watch, praised the move in a statement: “Genetically engineered foods are potentially unsafe, and consumers should have the right to decide for themselves if they want to eat GE foods. It took regulation to get food processors to label ingredients and nutrition facts on labels, and now we’re calling for federal lawmakers to require the labeling of GE food.”
6.9 percent in October
, down from 7.1 percent in September, according to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. The numbers were mostly positive with the amount of unemployed dropping by 10,000 and the amount of employed rising by 13,900. The civilian labor force also grew, although it was still below Oct. 2011 levels. Most gains were seen in service-providing industries, professional and business services and government. In comparison, the federal unemployment rate ticked up to 7.9 percent in October, up from 7.8 percent in September.
won another zoning appeal yesterday
. The victory upheld a conditional use permit for the Inn, which will allow Cincinnati Union Bethel, which owns the Inn, to carry on with $13 million renovations. Western & Southern has vowed to appeal the ruling.
wide and growing
. A new study found the gap between the rich and poor is widening, with the lower and middle classes actually losing real income since the 1990s.
After Thanksgiving, the Cincinnati Zoo team will be
studying penguins
off the coast of Chile.
Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble is having no part in the good unemployment news. The company announced
another round of job cuts
as part of a large restructuring program. It’s unclear
how the cuts will impact Cincinnati
.
Hostess, maker of Twinkies, is
going out of business
. The company blamed a workers’ strike for the move, but Hostess has been having problems for a long time. The company has already filed for bankruptcy twice this decade.
The Ohio Board of Regents launched
OhioMeansSuccess.org
, a website meant to place students on a path to college and a successful career.
Russia can get pretty hardcore. While herding sheep, one grandmother
fended off and killed a wolf with an axe
.
retiring its mine-sweeping dolphins
and replacing them with robots.
This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2012.
