Good morning all. Hope you enjoyed your weekend and got an extra day off, either thanks to past presidents or present precipitation. I went sledding in memory of Abraham Lincoln on my President’s Day holiday.
Anyway, here’s the news today.
Speaking of past presidents: Former commander in chief Bill Clinton came to Clifton Friday to campaign for his wife, former senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s visit comes about a month before Ohio’s March 15 primary, where Hillary is facing off against U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. You can read more about Bill’s pitch to Cincinnati voters, and how they responded, in our coverage here.
• How are policing reforms at University of Cincinnati coming along? So far, community members and police reform advocates are skeptical. A town hall discussion Monday night with UC’s police force and an outside organization contracted to help with the reforms, called Exiger, revealed that distrust in the department is still high after the July 19 shooting death of unarmed black motorist Sam DuBose by then-UC police officer Ray Tensing. The university will pay Exiger $400,000 to complete a review of the force. The company will issue its report in June, but activists say that shouldn’t be the end of the conversation and that rebuilding trust will take years.
• So, the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium just got a big renovation. It cost $86 million. Now, UC is trying hard to get into the Big 12 Conference, which may or may not be looking for new members. UC President Santa Ono is confident the school is an attractive choice for the conference, though, and if it does tap UC, that means… spending millions again to expand Nippert’s capacity by 10,000 to 15,000 seats. But, hey, it’s not like the university already subsidizes its athletic program by $27 million or anything. Wait, it does? Oh. Ono says Big 12 membership would make the school’s athletic programs more profitable and could reduce those subsidies. But first, UC has to get into the conference and drop some serious dime on getting its stadium up to size.
• Here’s something terrible: The general store in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky has burned down. The structure, built in 1831, was a landmark in the small town that once elected a dog for a mayor. It carried food, beverages and gifts and also hosted both live music and the unquantifiable spirit of that funky town. I remember some great bike trips to Rabbit Hash. Bummer. Plans to rebuild are in the works, but the historic shack was in some ways irreplaceable. The owners say they’ll be hosting music in a neighboring barn until then.
• I’ve always had a fantasy that someday I’ll have a birthday party at Union Terminal where guests can play old-school Nintendo on the enormous domed Omnimax screen. That will probably never happen, but assuming it’s possible, I’ll still have to wait a while. Soon, the Omnimax will close for two years as part of the terminal’s large-scale, $200-million-plus renovation process. The last film to screen there before that process starts, National Parks Adventure, just opened and will run until the theater shuts down this summer. I haven’t been since I was a kid so I’m probably going to check it out even though they won’t let me play Tetris on that dome.
• Former Ohio governor and U.S. Senate hopeful Ted Strickland yesterday held a news conference outside the Hamilton County Courthouse to blast incumbent Sen. Rob Portman over the senator’s refusal to consider a new Supreme Court justice appointed by President Barack Obama. That statement came following the death of ardent conservative Justice Antonin Scalia Saturday. Senate confirmation is a vital step in the process of naming a new justice, and the court will have only eight justices until that happens. Immediately following Scalia’s death, many Republican senators, including Portman, said they would not consider an Obama appointee and called on the president to wait until after the 2016 election so the next president could make the appointment. That’s not really how it works, but I guess they figure it’s worth a shot.
That’s it for me. Tweet or email your news tips or improbable birthday party suggestions.
This article appears in Feb 10-17, 2016.