Morning News and Stuff

Have any questions for City Council candidates? Submit them

here

and CityBeat may ask your questions at this Saturday’s candidate forum.

Early voting for the 2013 City Council and mayoral elections begins tomorrow. Find your voting location

here

. Normal voting hours will be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., although some days will be extended.

Tomorrow is also the first day of open enrollment at Obamacare’s online marketplaces, which can be found at

www.healthcare.gov

. At the marketplaces, an Ohio individual will be able to buy a middle-of-the-pack health insurance plan for as low as $145 a month after tax credits, while a family of four making $50,000 will be able to pay $282 a month for a similar plan, according to

Congressional Budget Office numbers

. Starting in 2014, most Americans — with exemptions for religious and economic reasons, the imprisoned and those living outside the country — will be required to buy health insurance or

pay a tax penalty

. Organizations from around the state and country will be working over the next six months to help insure as many Ohioans and Americans as possible, but some of those efforts have been obstructed by Republican legislators who oppose the president’s signature health care law, as CityBeat covered in further detail

here

.

Meanwhile, the federal government is

nearing a shutdown

because of Republican opposition to Obamacare, including local Reps. Steve Chabot and Brad Wenstrup.

A report from the conservative Buckeye Institute

echoes claims made by both sides in Cincinnati’s pension debate

: A tea party-backed amendment, if approved by voters, would reduce retirement benefits for new city employees by one-third. At the same time, the city’s unfunded pension liability might be $2.57 billion, or three times what officials currently estimate. The amendment would semi-privatize Cincinnati’s pension system by forcing future city employees to contribute to and manage their own individual retirement accounts, which would imitate private 401k plans commonly seen in the private sector. Under the current system, the city pools pension funds and manages the public system through an independent board. The pension amendment is backed by tea party groups, some of who

may reside outside Cincinnati and Ohio

, and

will appear on the ballot as Issue 4.

To celebrate early voting, Vice Mayor

Roxanne Qualls

, who’s running for mayor against ex-Councilman

John Cranley

, will name her vice mayor today. Qualls is expected to select Councilman Wendell Young. Cranley and Qualls are both Democrats, but they’re heavily divided on the streetcar project and parking plan, both of which Qualls supports and Cranley opposes. The mayoral candidates mostly focused on the two issues in their first post-primary mayoral debate, which CityBeat covered

here

.

Jeffrey Blackwell, Cincinnati’s new police chief,

starts on the job today

. He’s replacing former Police Chief James Craig, who left in June to take the top police job in his hometown of Detroit. The city has praised Blackwell for his 26 years at the Columbus Division of Police, where he reached out to youth and immigrants, advanced the use of technology, worked closely with community members and helped reduce operating costs.

Cincinnati Councilwoman Pam Thomas today announced that she’s introducing a motion to hire a 40-member police recruit class. The motion addresses a drop in the amount of Cincinnati police officers in recent years: Staffing levels since the last recruit class have dropped by 15.2 percent, according to Thomas’ office. “Our police staffing levels are dangerously low,” Thomas said in a statement. “We cannot afford to sacrifice our public’s safety by not hiring this recruit class.” In this year’s budget, the city managed to prevent cutting public safety jobs by slashing other city services, including city parks. But Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan argues that Cincinnati’s public safety forces, which are proportionally larger than most comparable cities, need to be “rightsized” and reduced over time.

The amount of local children and teens going to the hospital with a concussion

massively increased

between 2002 and 2011, and the number is expected to increase further because state law now requires medical clearance to continue playing sports after a concussion.

Ohio gas prices are back below the national average

.

AdvancePierre Foods, Cincinnati's largest private company,

got a new CEO

.

Earth may have stolen its moon

from Venus.