Hey all. It’s never a good news day when you start out a morning news update with the phrase “vocal white nationalist and Cincinnati resident…” but here we are.
Vocal white nationalist and Cincinnati resident Matthew Heimbach has identified himself as one of the participants in a heated altercation at a recent rally for GOP presidential primary candidate Donald Trump in Louisville, Ky. between black activists and members of Heimbach’s group the Traditionalist Youth Network. A 17-year-old protester has filed a police complaint against another member of that group, a woman he says assaulted him and other protesters. Videos of the event show Heimbach and others pushing and insulting a black female protester at the event. Heimbach has made statements on his social media accounts admitting he took part in the incidents, but also claims that anti-Trump protesters started the physical altercations. Heimbach has been profiled as a white-power extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center and has expressed anti-Semitic views via the Traditionalist Youth Network. Trump rallies have drawn attention recently due to racial tensions and forced removal of anti-Trump protesters.
• Cincinnati State Technical and Community College has won a state grant to teach more students about cutting-edge technologies like 3D printing. That move comes as the technology continues to expand, with large companies in the region like General Electric embracing so-called additive manufacturing as the “next chapter in the industrial revolution,” as GE puts it. Meanwhile, as the technology becomes more widespread, companies are having a hard time finding qualified workers to operate the complex equipment involved, making Cincinnati State’s move to offer more courses in the industry very timely.
• Here’s another high-tech learning opportunity for Cincinnatians. A new coding school called The Iron Yard is opening up a campus here in the city, its first in Ohio. The school, which currently runs 22 locations across the country, offers intensive 12-week classes designed to get students ready to take on entry-level coding jobs for backend and frontend development. The school hasn’t settled on a location yet, but is aiming to start classes in May.
• Cincinnati is one of the top cities in the country for craft brewing, according to a new ranking by Fortune Magazine. The magazine recently praised the city’s under-the-radar brewing scene, highlighting big names like Rhinegeist and MadTree.
• As you may have been able to predict, Cincinnati is becoming a hotbed of political yammering these days. MSNBC has been filming presidential primary political commentary from Over-the-Rhine’s Coffee Emporium (I know this because one of their anchors accidentally pushed me into another patron while I was waiting for my coffee). Last month none other than former POTUS Bill Clinton was in town stumping for Hillary. And now, the Queen City will get a visit from Vice President Joe Biden, who will appear at a fundraiser for U.S. Senate hopeful Ted Strickland. Strickland still has to make it through the Democratic Primary, where he’s facing two Cincinnatians — Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld and Kelli Prather — but you wouldn’t know it from the timing of the fundraiser Biden is planning to appear at. It’s scheduled for March 22, a week after Ohio’s March 15 primary. If you’ve got $500, you can meet Biden at a breakfast reception. That better be an all-you-can-eat breakfast, and there better be some bacon and mimosas.
• Data shows that the Brent Spence Bridge has seen less traffic in recent years, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be replaced, a story in the Cincinnati Business Courier says. The traffic reduction has resulted from drivers taking alternate routes to avoid construction on I75, according to the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana Regional Council of Governments. But engineers say the bridge is still antiquated and over capacity and will need to be replaced. That’s a $2.6 billion project that has been slow in gaining traction.
• Let’s cross that dangerously-antiquated bridge for a minute and get down to the Bluegrass State for some dangerously antiquated thinking, shall we? It seems Kentucky lawmakers are still trying to fight same-sex marriage. One of 83 bills recently filed in the Kentucky House ahead of the term’s filing deadline would cause the state’s constitution to stipulate that matrimony is between one man and one woman. That bill was filed by State Rep. Joe Fischer of Fort Thomas. Fischer also filed a 454-page bill designed to redefine the parameters of marriage, presumably in a way that would block same-sex marriages as being recognized as equal to “traditional” marriage. This dead-horse beating seems like a great use of a lawmaker’s time.
• You’ve heard about how bad Flint, Mich.’s lead poisoning situation is. A new article in The New York Times brings up a provocative reality — that Cleveland’s is worse. At its peak last year, 7 percent of children in Flint had over-concentrations of lead in their blood, the article reports. In Cleveland, that number is more than 14 percent. Keep an eye on this.
• Speaking of Cleveland, the city has filed plans to purchase 2,000 sets of riot gear for the coming Republican National Convention. The funds for the gear come from a federal grant specifically for security around the RNC. Seems… ominous.
• Finally, the last four remaining GOP presidential primary candidates debated last night in Detroit. The D in Detroit scares me more than anything, but the D doesn’t stand for Donald. It doesn’t stand for Debate. It stands for… uh, a particular slang term for male anatomy, the relative sizes of which the candidates discussed last night. No, really. That’s a pretty good indication of the tenor of the night, during which very few substantive policy points were debated. Ohio Gov. John Kasich tried to act like the dad at his teenage son’s first keg party, while frontrunner Donald Trump stumbled over even the most basic answers to questions and U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz kicked at his ankles the whole night. Good stuff. Despite the complete fiasco and brutal sniping between the candidates, all agreed afterward that they would support whoever wins the nomination, even if it’s Donald Trump.
This article appears in Mar 2-9, 2016.
