Lots of court action happening in this Monday edition of morning news. Let's see what's on the docket, eh?
One of the nine Greenpeace protesters who broke in to Procter and Gamble’s headquarters this spring will plead guilty today to lesser felony charges, the Associated Press reports. Charles Long of Chicago will take a plea deal to avoid serving jail time and will instead do community service and pay restitution. Long and the eight other protesters entered P&G’s Cincinnati headquarters March 4. The group hung large banners from the side of the building protesting the company’s use of palm oil, which Greenpeace says leads to rainforest destruction. The protesters argue they were within the bounds of the First Amendment when they committed the act. All but Long are fighting the felony burglary and vandalism charges, which carry a possible sentence of nine years in jail.
• One of Cincinnati’s biggest developers is seeking to transform a whole block of Race Street near Findlay Market, as we reported Friday. Check out the details of Model Group’s plan here.
• Though Cincinnati missed out (if that’s what you want to call it) on the 2016 GOP National Convention, the city may still have a shot at another major national gathering. Cincy is still in the running for the 2016 NAACP Convention and is competing with St. Louis, Baltimore and Austin, Texas for the gathering. Cincinnati last hosted the annual convention in 2008. Both Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain spoke at that event, and the coming election year convention will surely be just as politically important. Representatives from the city traveled to Las Vegas in July to make the pitch for Cincinnati, and a site visit here is expected sometime in the fall. The NAACP will make the final decision sometime before the end of the year.
If Cincinnati lands the convention, 2016 could be a big year for Ohio politically. Cleveland ended up with the Republican National Convention and Columbus is competing for the Democrats’ national gathering. There’s some grousing, by the way, that Cleveland ended up with the convention because of the pull and political ambitions of powerful Ohio Republicans Sen. Rob Portman and Gov. John Kasich, both of whom have hinted at possible bids for the party’s presidential nomination.
* New City Manager Harry Black starts today. Black, Cranley's pick for the job, was previously the City of Baltimore's finance head. He replaces interim City Manager Scott Stiles, who will go back to his role as assistant city manager.
• Jury selection for Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter’s trial on nine felony counts begins today. Hunter is facing charges of forgery, tampering with evidence and abuse of court credit cards and faces up to 13 years in prison. The case is politically contentious, with Hunter foe Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters saying that Hunter is partly responsible for two shooting deaths in Avondale due to rulings she made that kept the juveniles involved out of prison. Both sides have long witness lists and attorneys who express confidence they’ll win the day. Hunter’s attorneys and supporters say she’s being railroaded and that she’s faced political resistance since she won a highly contested election for the position in 2010.
• Scientists and doctors are expressing concern over an uptick in hospitalizations for a respiratory illness called Enterovirus EV-D68. The virus causes symptoms very much like a severe cold. Enteroviruses aren’t new, or even all that rare, but recent outbreaks among children in Kansas City, Mo. Ohio, Illinois and other Midwestern cities have raised eyebrows. In Kansas City, up to 30 children a day have been hospitalized with the virus. A hospital in Columbus reported a 20 percent increase in patients with severe respiratory symptoms, and the facility is currently testing the patients to see if they are suffering from the enterovirus. So far, none of the outbreaks have caused any deaths.
• Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson said over the weekend that he will sell his share of the team after it was revealed he had sent racist emails to other team officials two years ago. One email complained about the number of black cheerleaders and fans the team had and said black fans scared away more wealthy whites. Levenson has apologized for the email, saying it was “inappropriate” and “offensive.” Officials for the Hawks have distanced themselves from Levenson.
"Bruce was confronted with this email from 2012, and he decided that instead of fighting it ... he thought it was best for the city, for the team, for his family, to walk away," Hawks CEO Steve Koonin told CNN Sunday.
• Finally, you may have seen some news stories circulating about how someone finally solved Britain’s century-and-a-quarter-old Jack the Ripper mystery using an old shawl and some modern genetics work. Not so fast, Smithsonian magazine says. The magazine and other skeptics say there are still a number of questions about the evidence used to arrive at the conclusion that a 23-year-old Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski was the killer.