Morning Cincy! Here’s your news today.
Former senator and potential Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum visited the Greater Cincinnati area yesterday to speak at a conference on religious freedom in West Chester Township. Santorum wasn’t shy about mixing in some campaigning, telling the crowd that big government is threatening their freedom to be Christian and that the path forward is electing strong Christian leaders like Santorum himself. He threw out some recent headlines, including one about public schools in New York celebrating Muslim holidays, as examples of ways in which the religious right are being persecuted by pretty much everyone else. In his god, guns, no government stumping, Santorum appears to be reprising his role as 2012 Republican presidential primary runner-up. He came in second to Mitt Romney, a guy who has no weird religious ideas whatsoever. Santorum told the Cincinnati Enquirer he is considering running again for the GOP nomination and will make a solid decision in June or so.
• The Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest LGBT advocates, has recognized a local nonprofit for its service to LGBT youth. HRC has awarded Lighthouse Youth Services with its All Children – All Families seal of approval, the organization’s highest recognition of competency with LGBT issues for child welfare agencies. Lighthouse, which does street outreach, residential treatment and other programs with homeless and at risk youth, is the first agency in Ohio to receive the award.
“It’s an honor to receive this recognition from HRC as we work to serve this population of young people who are at such high risk of homelessness and discrimination,” said Lighthouse President and CEO Bob Mecum in a statement.
• As a fan of dark beer, and, really, dark beer exclusively, I’ve sat on the bench watching a number of craft brewers pop up around the city. Those brewers are great and all, but hopped-up IPAs are just not my style and that seems to be the rage these days. However, someone has finally heard my cry and now there’s a brewer coming devoted to my love of the dark, chocolaty richness of stouts and porters. Darkness Brewery is planning to open just across the river in Bellevue in September, focused on the tastiest corner of the beer world. I’ll be camped out at the door come grand opening. Founders Eric Bosier and Ron Sanders are currently funding the enterprise themselves but might set up a Kickstarter campaign in the near future.
• Do courts in Kentucky discriminate against addicts by blocking those on probation from taking anti-addiction drugs like methadone? That’s what a federal lawsuit filed by a Kentucky nurse alleges. Stephanie Watson is an opiate addict who is forbidden from taking medication aimed at easing her off the drugs. Watson’s attorneys say that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The lawsuit targets the state’s Monitored Conditional Release program, which maintains the rules about the drugs, and seeks to have those rules overturned. Officials from the release program have yet to comment on the suit.
• Business groups across the state are signaling they’re not on board with Gov. John Kasich’s tax cut plan, mostly because it includes an increase in sales taxes. Kasich has proposed a $500 million tax cut for the state, mostly achieved by lowering income taxes while raising sales taxes and taxes on specific items such as cigarettes. Many of Ohio’s regional chambers of commerce have come out against the plan, saying it will limit Ohio’s nascent economic recovery. Kasich’s plan has also drawn flack from liberals, who say it makes the state’s tax structure more regressive. It’s also not gotten a lot of love from the Republican-dominated General Assembly, who have signaled they will be making changes to Kasich’s proposed budget.
• Here’s an interesting, and distressing, wrinkle in the ongoing national conversation about police use of force set off by the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Mo. This story explores the little-recognized fact that all the police involved in recent controversial shooting deaths of unarmed black citizens have been remarkably young and inexperienced — all well under the age of 30. While it’s important to realize that a number of systemic issues seem to be at play in the deaths of young men like Tamir Rice in Cleveland and John Crawford III in Beavercreek, officer inexperience seems to be an important, and under-recognized, element to the tragedies.
That’s all I’ve got today. You know the drill: tweet at me (@nswartsell), email me ([email protected]) or comment with news tips or general heckling. Whatever you gotta do.
