Hey, hey all. Here’s the news today.
Is an ongoing argument between the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County about to cost users of the region’s Metropolitan Sewer District millions? That’s what City Manager Harry Black says. Black fired the next salvo in an ongoing tussle between the two governments yesterday when he announced that delays in a $3 billion ongoing sewer revamp ordered by federal courts could lead to a $1.4 million fine for MSD. Black laid blame for those delays on county officials, who recently filed in federal court alleging the city was in violation of a 2014 court order because it was ignoring county requests. Black says the county has been too slow to act in approving projects that need to be launched. County commissioners contend that’s inaccurate, and that the city is to blame for the delays.
• More stuff about pipes: Following the incredibly alarming revelations that the water supply of Flint, Mich. has been giving residents there lead poisoning, concerns have been raised about the water supply in Cincinnati. While the city has been steadily replacing lead pipes for decades, and a Flint-scale lead panic seems unlikely, there are places where residents are more likely to have lead pipes on their private property leading into their homes. Here’s a handy map of places with the highest concentration of the pipes.
• Philanthropic group People’s Liberty, which is funded by the Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation, announced the next recipients of its $100,000 grants yesterday. Brandon Black of Silverton will get one of those grants to launch a home rehab and repair apprenticeship program between Millennials and Baby Boomers. Northside’s Chris Glass will spend a year documenting Cincinnati neighborhoods with photography and creating programing around his work. The two were picked from 116 applicants and their fellowships will start April 4. People’s Liberty focuses on grants to individuals with change-making ideas in the Cincinnati area.
• I’m an idiot. Here’s why. A bit ago, a friend called me saying he had some extra tickets to the Xavier game last night and wondered if I wanted them. I’m a UC guy. I said no. Now, leaving out the fact that I could have sold those tickets, there’s another reason I’m really bummed. Bill Murray was at that game. I could have met Bill Murray. It’s not a huge surprise — his son Luke Murray is a coach for the team, but still. Oh, also, Xavier is in the middle of one heck of a season and won against No. 1 Villanova, which is nice and all, I guess.
• The following should make campaigning in Ohio easier for serial fabulists like a certain reality TV star running for president. A federal appeals court yesterday knocked down an Ohio law banning people from knowingly making false statements in campaign advertising. The 6th Circuit Court agreed with a lower court that said that the law violates citizens’ constitutional right to free speech. The case arose from a suit by anti-abortion group the Susan B. Anthony List, which in 2010 got in hot water with the Ohio Elections Commission after it made statements linking President Barack Obama to abortion in misleading ways.
• A lot of folks are calling on Ohio Gov. John Kasich to get out of the GOP presidential primary after disappointing results in the last few states where party members have laid down their votes. Kasich is running behind Donald Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz consistently, and establishment types think he’s siphoning valuable votes away from their only viable candidate at this point (that’s Rubio, btw). But at least one senior GOPer thinks Kasich should hang in there: former U.S. Sen. George Voinovich. The popular former senator predicted yesterday that Kasich would win Ohio’s March 15 primary and responded to questions about whether Kasich should bow out with a “hell no.” Voinovich did give Kasich some pointers on sharpening up his message, but didn’t really provide any insight on ways the Kasich campaign could win other states besides Ohio, which is, uh, looking to be a challenge.
I’m out. I’m hitting up Lexington for a conference starting tomorrow. Any cool places worth checking out? Hit me: Twitter. E-mail.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2016.
