Good morning all. Here’s some news on this wet and dreary Monday.
Cincinnati’s mayoral primary is tomorrow. If you haven’t yet, go check out what candidates Mayor John Cranley, former UC Board Chair Rob Richardson Jr. and Councilwoman Yvette Simpson think about gun violence, transit, affordable housing and other topics of interest in the city, then go vote. After tomorrow, only two of the three will advance to the general election in November. Hamilton County officials have forecast higher voter turnout than the 2013 mayoral primary’s abysmal level of 5.7 percent, judging by the number of early and absentee votes cast, but are still expecting only 15 to 20 percent of registered voters to actually enter a voting both or send in a ballot. Prove them wrong!
Any guesses on who comes out of the primary? Here are some clues as to the way the race is going: Incumbent Cranley has spent big bucks on TV and radio ads — almost $700,000, in fact — and late entry Richardson has also dumped thousands into TV ad buys in an attempt to get more name recognition and spread his message that he’s an outsider here to shake up City Hall. Some politics watchers critical of Cranley have taken the big spending as a sign that the mayor feels the heat this primary season, while Cranley supporters say he simply isn’t resting on his laurels. At least one of Cranley’s ads takes on Simpson directly, a sign that he views her as the bigger threat. (Or maybe he’s shy about directly punching at Richardson, since the two used to pal around on the weekends as part of a regular poker group).
Richardson raised slightly more money than Cranley in the last campaign finance reporting period, and both Cranley and Richardson handily beat out Simpson in that game. But 70 percent of Richardson’s money came from out-of-town donors and union chapters, opposed to 34 percent of Cranley’s haul and 22 percent of Simpson’s, so it’s tricky to use his numbers as a gauge of local support. Richardson’s father, Rob Richardson Sr., is a major labor leader, and Richardson himself is well known in the union world. When that out-of-town money is taken out of the equation, Simpson and Richardson are about even when it comes to local contributions. Prediction: Because he jumped into the race later, Richardson is an underdog — but a feasible surprise survivor — in this race. Low turnout could well skew the results, and a group of motivated supporters of one candidate could tip the scales for that person. As we’ve seen in recent elections, it’s hard telling what’s going to happen when folks head to the voting booth.
• Is the disciplinary process too lax for Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies on duty in the county jail? WCPO investigated use of force incidents in the Hamilton County Justice Center and found some disturbing examples in which deputies got warnings and written reprimands for behavior that internal investigations found were excessive uses of force. In one case, a deputy’s fourth use of force violation was so serious that it triggered a referral to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, though the prosecutor did not present the case to a grand jury. You can read more about the incidents here.
• Earlier this month we told you about an innovative effort to empower refugees in Camp Washington — a store, restaurant and apartment building called simply “Welcome.” The art boutique portion of that endeavor by non-profit Heartfelt Tidbits and art gallery Wave Pool opened for the first time yesterday. The boutique’s products are made by refugee and immigrant women from a number of different countries and is co-managed by Guatemalan asylee Lourdes Santos. In the coming months, a café run by a Syrian chef will join the boutique, and housing for refugee families will eventually go into the upper floors of the building on the corner of Rachel Street and Colerain Avenue.
• A rally in support of worker and immigrant rights is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. tonight at Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine. The rally is part of celebrations for International Workers Day, or May Day. The event is one of dozens being held in cities around the country. Cincinnati’s rally was put together by and will feature speakers from groups like the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center, the AFL-CIO Labor Council of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, the faith-based group the AMOS Project, Planned Parenthood and other groups.
• There may be some competition for public funds between proponents of a convention center and downtown hotel expansion and the owners of U.S. Bank Arena, who are pushing for tax money to help replace the 40-year-old structure. Officials for the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau say that without an expansion of the Duke Energy Convention Center and neighboring Millennium Hotel downtown, the city could lose valuable bids for big events and the millions in visitor dollars they generate — to the tune of 100,000 hotel room rentals a year by 2022. But, on the other hand, the arena just won a conditional bid to host first- and second-round games in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament that year, as long as the building is updated by that time. Plus, soccer team FC Cincinnati is looking to join Major League Soccer in 2020, but would need its own stadium to do so. Meanwhile, city and county taxpayers are still paying on a 2006 renovation of the convention center, $65 million of which remains. The project won’t be paid off until 2033. The county is also still paying down millions in debt on two stadiums for the Reds and Bengals. City and county officials have expressed deep reservations about pitching in public money on a new arena.
• A Greater Cincinnati nonprofit will receive a $4.5 million federal grant to become a community health hub. The Health Collaborative will partner with the United Way of Greater Cincinnati for the grant from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation under the center’s Accountable Health Communities Model. The Collaborative will coordinate work between other agencies to make sure health and community services are available to patient needs in Cincinnati communities.
• A Kentucky judge won’t hear adoption cases involving same-sex parents, despite the fact that state law allows for those adoptions, the Washington Post reports. Judge W. Mitchell Nance presides over courts in Barren and Metcalfe counties. Nance issued an order late last week saying that he won’t hear adoption cases from gay couples because he believes that “under no circumstance” would allowing “practicing homosexuals” to adopt children better those children’s lives. The 43rd Circuit Court, where Nance sits, has two divisions. Another judge will hear those adoption cases, and Nance’s refusal to hear them won’t slow down adoption proceedings for gay couples.
• Facebooking is strongly frowned upon at the dinner table at my house, but a family in Ohio got the most Facebook experience of all time IRL last week. Imagine you’re eating dinner and Facebook’s founder drops in to ask you why you voted for President Donald Trump. The social media site’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg dropped in on the Moore family in Newton, Ohio Friday to eat and chat about the election and other topics, including presumably how much they like cat videos and various memes. As part of an effort to speak to people in all 50 states, Zuckerberg asked Facebook staff to find a family who identified as Democrats but who voted for Trump. In addition to talking politics, the Moores also spoke with Zuck about their charity trip to an orphanage in Uganda, for which Zuck is now planning a fundraiser.
• Finally, Ohio Gov. John Kasich suggested Friday that the United States “eradicate” the leadership of North Korea to counter that country’s potential nuclear threats. Kasich said he thought such a targeted raid would be more effective and less risky than all-out war (phew) and that he believed the Trump administration could be looking into such a move. Trump warned about a potential “major, major conflict” with North Korea Thursday in response to announced nuclear tests by military leadership there. But experts on the isolated country say trying to topple its top government officials, including dictator Kim Jong-un, via quick, targeted raids could have very drastic consequences. Those include missing key figures, who would then ramp up retaliation against the U.S. or allies like South Korea, inflaming deep distrust of the U.S. among North Korean citizens and legitimizing assassination of world leaders as a tactic, which in turn could open up the U.S. and its allies to such assassinations by other countries.
“While that is not an entirely ridiculous thing to consider, it would have huge problems associated with it,” said Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.
This article appears in Apr 26 – May 3, 2017.
