Morning News and Stuff

Early voting for the mayoral primary election begins today. The top two winners of this round of voting will go head-to-head in the Nov. 5 election. The candidates: Vice Mayor

Roxanne Qualls

, a Democrat who supports the streetcar and parking lease ; ex-Councilman

John Cranley

, a Democrat who opposes the streetcar and parking lease; Jim Berns, the Libertarian who

attempted to withdraw from the race

but changed his mind a day later; and Sandra “Queen” Noble, an eccentric Independent candidate who

sent an F-bomb-laden email to debate organizers

.

Cincinnati Council’s Budget and Finance Committee

approved the construction of Over-the-Rhine headquarters

for Cintrifuse, the startup incubator. The company has been working from a temporary location downtown, but it claims it needs a better space to continue attracting businesses, particularly those in the tech field. Cintrifuse will be joined in its new home by CincyTech and the Brandery. Although all council members voiced support for Cintrifuse, Councilman Chris Seelbach disputed using Focus 52 funds to build the new headquarters. The city administration previously told Seelbach that the Focus 52 money wouldn’t be used to further develop Over-the-Rhine, which has received a disproportionate amount of city funding to spur the neighborhood’s revitalization.

The committee also

approved changes for the next phase of The Banks

, which will include retail space and a nine-story apartment building with about 305 apartments. The first phase of The Banks filled up fast and

won a top award

— two big positives the city and county obviously hope to replicate with the next leg of the project. It’s now up to the development team behind the project and the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners to approve the next phase.

Council members and city officials

voiced opposition yesterday to a tea party campaign to change Cincinnati’s pension system

. Council members acknowledged the current pension system has problems, but they called the campaign, which is currently gathering petitions to get a proposal on the November ballot, misguided and flawed. The proposal would change the city’s pension system to use a defined contribution model similar to 401k plans that are common in the private sector. But just like private sector plans, the new system might require paying into Social Security, which would make the plan more expensive for Cincinnati.

Ohio House Republicans are being asked to

hold oversight hearings

for JobsOhio, the state-funded, privatized development agency that has been mired in controversy in the past few weeks. Most recently, Dayton Daily News discovered that some members of the JobsOhio board are employed by, on the board of or stockholders in companies that are receiving state aid through JobsOhio. Republicans say JobsOhio’s privatized and secretive nature allow it to move faster with deals that attract businesses and jobs to the state, but Democrats argue the agency is too unaccountable and might be wasting and misusing taxpayer money.

Billy Slagle, the convicted murderer who apparently hung himself over the weekend,

died without knowing of a plea deal

that could have prevented his scheduled execution. CityBeat wrote about Slagle’s case in further detail

here

.

The Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is upset that

charges have been dropped

against an allegedly abusive Amish dog breeder

. The group had pushed for charges against Jonas Beachy, the breeder, after 52 dogs were pulled from his central Ohio farm with dental disease, feces-smeared coats and paws mangled by wire mesh cages. Circleville Law Director Gary Kenworthy conditionally dismissed the charges because of problems securing veterinarian records for the dogs.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) announced in a statement today that the Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force, the Ohio Department of Public Safety and ODJFS will be working with the Ohio Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers to help minors who are victims of human trafficking. The new collaboration is seen as another step to stop human trafficking in Ohio, an issue that has

haunted the state

in the past.

Metro’s bus service is adding routes and changing connections

on Aug. 18.

BuzzFeed has a list of “

31 Ways To Tell You’re From Cincinnati

,” but the list reads like something from 2001. Who’s avoiding Over-the-Rhine with all its new restaurants and after LumenoCity?

Popular Science has

a rundown

on how 3-D printing body parts will revolutionize medicine.