Morning News and Stuff

Ever since Mayor John Cranley’s park tax levy failed, the city has been looking for other ways to fund the highly anticipated Wasson Way bike trail — and it might be through the state of Ohio. Cranley and City Manager Harry Black sent a letter to the Cincinnati Business Committee asking it to ask the state for money to fund three segments of the trail between Montgomery Road and Eastern Hills Lane at Hyde Park Plaza. The four initial phases are estimated to cost $17.5 million, but the city is only asking the state to kick in $4.5 million, the cost of construction. The cost of the total project is still unknown, but some estimates put it around $23 million. The city estimates that with help from Ohio, the first three segments could be ready for biking in 12 months.   

Speaking of bike trails, the city of Toledo presented a $32 million plan for 13 bike paths across the city. The project would disrupt some traffic by cutting a few four lane roads down to two lanes, which upset some Toledo residents, but was seen as necessary by the Toledo Department of Engineering to keep up with the times. One city administrator said bike lanes would help Toledo keep up with the competition between modern cities to offer residents a high quality of life. 

Leaders from the Corporation for Findlay Market and Over-the-Rhine Brewery District say creating a second Over-The-Rhine entertainment district could be good for business. The plan would split the neighborhood in half and double the amount of liquor licenses for business owners. City Council’s Neighborhoods Committee will hear the plan on Dec. 16, but it already has the support of Vice Mayor David Mann and OTR Community Council, which voted in favor of it earlier this year. Liquor licenses in Cincinnati are handed out by geographic area. The current OTR entertainment district has a cap of 15 liquor licenses for its 179-acre area, and there’s currently a long waiting list for businesses to obtain one.  

The number of Arabic speakers have shot up this year for Mason City Schools. This year, 38 percent of its English as a Second Language (ESL) students are native Arabic speakers, up from 8 percent last school year. Most families have come from Saudi Arabia for a program called Destination Excellence at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center that recruits out-of-area patients to the hospital as a way to attract more talent to the medical center. But the program has created a conflict for the school district. The majority of these families hold B-1/B-2 business and tourist visitor visas, which actually prohibits them from enrolling their children in public schools. That law clashes with the federal law that prohibits schools from asking their students their immigration status. The school has followed advice from various state government officials to allow the students to attend, but it is also scrambling to accommodate the cost alongside the influx of Arabic speakers.  

A New Day for America, the super PAC behind Gov. John Kasich’s presidential run, is taking aim at fellow GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. The super PAC recently aired a series of ads against Trump and mailed out fliers to New Hampshire voters criticizing Trump’s comments on immigration. Kasich’s campaign has been focusing on New Hampshire to get ahead, and a spokeswoman for the super PAC said they’re working on targeting “soft” Trump supporters in the state.