News: Top Cops Oppose Reform
Nobody said this was going to be easy. Any serious effort to change the Cincinnati Police Division will generate resistance. Civil-service reform — Issue 5 on the city ballot — will enable the city manager to fire future police chiefs for cause and to hire new chiefs from outside the city. It will not,…
Flagging Interest
Dear Neighbor, The fact that you, along with everyone else on the street, are flying the American flag has not escaped my attention. I suspect that my failure to do the same might also have attracted yours. Please allow me to explain why my display of patriotism is so lacking: 1. I burned all my…
Diner: A Good Bet
Italians have a gift for making art out of life, and eating in Italy is essentially a family art, practiced for and by the family. The greatest accomplishments of the Italian cook are not reserved for special occasions or for impressing guests, but are offered daily for the pleasure and happiness of the family members.…
News: Get with the De-program
Rebecca Lomax Members of Mustard Seed House include the McBrides (left), the Bells (right) and Ken Oster (back). In a coffee shop in Northside sits a man whose arms and legs are a rainbow of tattoos. Among Tawd Bell's piercings are large circular pieces stretching his lower ear lobes and three evenly spaced studs…
Cover Story: ‘She’s the CEO’
Jymi Bolden Like her father and grandfather before her, Katie Brown Blackburn watches the Bengals practice on weekday afternoons. Floating atop the pile of stuff on Katie Brown Blackburn's desk is a heavy binder titled NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement 1993-2003. A table nearby is cluttered with her daughter's artwork from the day before, when…
What Good Are These Tax Levies, Anyway?
Two Hamilton County tax levies — one to care for neglected and abused children and another for hospital care for the poor — are up for five-year renewals Nov. 6. Why shouldn't property owners vote no and save themselves a few bucks? Because doing so would remove 40 percent of the budget for the…
Witch Season in Cincinnati
The witch-hunt led by Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen hit its targets on Oct. 16. On a blustery fall afternoon, jurors in the trial of assistant coroner Dr. Jonathan Tobias, 31, and photographer Thomas Condon, 29, announced their verdict. Tobias was found guilty on two of 12 counts of gross abuse of a corpse, and…
Local chanteuse Mary Ellen Tanner still has the good stuff
Mary Ellen Tanner Mary Ellen Tanner and I are very different people. I'm a puppy dog when it comes to audiences. I take liberties with melodies, rhythm, only asking the band to trust me. Mary Ellen, is always, always in control. When I saw her perform recently at a golden wedding anniversary party, I…
Puttin’ Out the Bone
Broken glass has been brushed into piles and scooped into garbage cans.Windows, once boarded in defense, are clear again. A miracle mile of window boxes line streets that for a time were hazed by smoke and tear gas. The dust of racial unrest has settled back just as it did 33 years ago during my…
News: Morbid Subject
Jymi Bolden Thomas Condon could receive eight years in prison. As if the case of the morgue photos could not be more bizarre, it ended with a prosecutor's chilling warning that a defense witness will be "dealt with." The conviction of photographer Thomas Condon on eight counts of gross abuse of a corpse and…
Relationships
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the letter I received from my old beau, Campbell. The burning question many people have asked me since the very day it hit the stands is, "Are you going to call him?" Indeed, in his letter Campbell makes it very clear that he wants to hear from…
Ohio Supreme Court Fails Kids
Both the Ohio and Michigan constitutions require the state — not local governments — pay for public schools. In a case that closely resembled DeRolph v. State of Ohio, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled the state relied excessively on local property taxes to fund public schools. Michigan's lawmakers struggled for years to resolve this constitutional…
Shares and Shares Alike
You won't see Mary McCoy rubbing shoulders with the big boys of social service funding on the morning TV shows. They were all there recently because it's that time of year again — time to give 'til it hurts. Well, considering the notorious strong-arm tactics of the Untied Way (heretofore known as "those other guys"),…
Fantomas: Director’s Cut
There are many things in life that are just plain scary: haunted houses, graveyards, watching horror films alone in the dark, just to name a few. They dig up a primordial fear from deep within the bowels. It's a fascinating feeling; an inescapable intensity that keeps bringing you back for more. Add The Director's…
Humor Is Good Medicine
I find myself laughing more. The commercials aren't funnier, I don't think. We just need them to be funnier. After hour upon hour of near continuous news coverage of events surrounding Sept. 11, its horrific aftermath, the subsequent rescue stories, the eventual retaliation and the somehow impossible return to normalcy for America, we need something…
