Morning all! Here’s all the news you need today.
The trial of Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter begins today after two days of jury selection. It promises to be a wild ride. Hunter has been indicted on nine felony counts, including misuse of a court credit card, records forgery and other offenses involving the firing of her brother, a juvenile court employee who allegedly punched a juvenile inmate. But supporters say she’s the victim of politics. Some, including Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke, suggest that statements made by Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters are unethical and could taint a jury pool. Deters last week placed blame on Hunter for crimes defendants in her court committed later. Opening statements from both sides of the case will be heard today.
• The city is moving forward on an updated land use plan, which has been underway since 2011 and is part of the city’s overall comprehensive plan. But the plan’s first draft has left some folks in Mount Adams livid. Some community members there are upset because the new plan would allow buildings up to eight stories tall to be built there. The hilltop neighborhood has a number of historic homes with great views of the river and downtown, and residents worry that buildings that tall could destroy those views, and even worse, the character of the neighborhood. Officials say their concerns will be addressed in the plan’s upcoming second draft, but some in Mount Adams want a revision sooner.
• Here’s some good news. Last week, the Bengals scored some major nice-guy points when they hired Devon Still on for their practice squad after he was cut from the regular roster. Why’s that so nice? Still’s daughter is battling cancer, and the team hired him on in a practice role so he could keep his insurance coverage. The news got better for Still today when the Bengals announced they’ve hired him back onto the active roster. A practice squad player makes about $100,000 a year–not too shabby, but a paltry sum compared to the $400,000 minimum salary an active roster player gets. The team is also donating proceeds from sales of Still’s jersey to his daughter’s cancer fight. His jersey has quickly become the top seller for the team.
• Someday soon there may be a lot of droning going on in Hamilton County, and for once, it won't be coming from county commissioners. County officials have said they’d love to get some of those flying robot drone things to do cool stuff. Some of that stuff sounds innocuous enough–inspecting roofs on county-owned buildings, etc., but some of it, like searching for criminals, sounds a bit more dystopian. No worries just yet, as federal regulations prohibit drone usage in highly-populated areas. But new, clearer rules on drone usage may be adopted by the end of this year, and that could open up all kinds of possibilities for the county and even private companies to utilize the tiny unmanned aircraft. Personally, I’d really like a drone that could airdrop a Bearcat pizza onto CityBeat’s roof once a day. Where do I file for that permit?
• Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, responding to protests and online petitions, again refused to release security footage of the Aug. 5 police shooting that killed John Crawford III in a Walmart in the Dayton suburb. DeWine said releasing the footage to the public would be “playing with dynamite” and could compromise the investigation into the shooting. Meanwhile, the city of Beavercreek is totally working to address the issue. Or wait, actually, the city is just mulling hiring a public relations firm to manage the attention it’s getting as a result of controversy around Crawford’s death. Crawford, a 22-year-old black male, was carrying a pellet gun he found in the store when police shot him. Officers were responding to a 911 call saying a man with an assault rifle was in the store. Crawford’s family and their lawyer have viewed the security footage and said it appears Crawford was not given adequate time to drop the weapon and was “shot on sight."
• Meanwhile, outrage continues in Ferguson, Mo., where 18-year-old Mike Brown was killed in a similar police shooting last month. More than 600 residents took to the city's first council meeting since the shooting to express their frustrations with the slow-moving investigation into Brown's death.
* DiGiorno, a bake-at-home pizza brand, has taught us all a very unfortunate lesson. There are actually times when pizza is not appropriate. The brand used the domestic violence awareness hashtag #WhyIStayed to promote its delicious, I-can't-believe-it's-not-delivery pizza, tweeting "#WhyIStayed You had pizza". The uproar was of course immediate. The brand's social media team apologized, saying they hadn't read what the hashtag was about before posting. Always read about the hashtag. Always.
• Finally, on the national/international stage, the group of fundamentalists calling themselves the Islamic State, or ISIS, has continued to run rampant across large swaths of Iraq. They’re exceptionally brutal, torturing and killing Iraqi men, women and children and others who have resisted them or who they feel are not sufficiently committed to their ideology. They’ve also beheaded two American journalists. President Obama has ordered airstrikes against the group, and has indicated more action may be forthcoming. But do Americans really want another conflict in Iraq? This Washington Post story explores that question in depth.
