Morning News and Stuff

Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls and ex-Councilman John Cranley

focused most of their disagreement on the streetcar and parking lease

at yesterday’s first post-primary mayoral debate. No matter the subject, Cranley repeatedly referenced his opposition to the streetcar project and his belief that it’s siphoning city funds from more important projects and forcing the city to raise property taxes to pay for debt. Qualls argued the streetcar project will produce economic growth and grow the city’s tax base, which the city could then leverage for more development projects; that claim has been backed by studies from consulting firm HDR and the University of Cincinnati, which put the streetcar’s return on investment at three-to-one. On the parking lease, Qualls claimed money raised through the lease could be used to leverage economic development projects, while Cranley said the lease would hurt an entire generation by shifting control of Cincinnati’s parking assets from the city to the unelected Port Authority and private companies.

State Rep. Denise Driehaus and Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, both of Cincinnati,

called on the state government

to reverse its decision to not give local company Pure Romance tax credits. Pure Romance, a $100 million-plus company whose product lineup includes sex toys, was planning on moving from Loveland to downtown Cincinnati with local and state support, but because the state declined the tax breaks, the company is now considering moving to Covington, Ky. Gov. John Kasich’s administration has said Pure Romance doesn’t fit into the traditional industries the state invests in, but Democratic legislators argue Kasich’s social conservatism is getting in the way of keeping jobs in Ohio.

Ohio House Speaker William Batchelder says he has

“literally no thoughts”

about the possibility of the state expanding Medicaid without the legislature and through the state Controlling Board — a possibility that Kasich hinted at earlier in the week. Kasich has been pleading with the Ohio General Assembly to take up the federally funded Medicaid expansion, but Republican legislators have so far refused. If the Controlling Board does expand Medicaid, Batchelder said the state legislature will likely pass some protections in case the federal government reneges on its funding proposal. Under Obamacare, states are asked to expand Medicaid to 138 percent of the federal poverty level; if they accept, the federal government will pay for the entire expansion through 2016 then phase its payments down to an indefinite 90 percent.

Documents uncovered by USA Today further show the IRS, particularly through its offices in Cincinnati, targeted tea party groups by looking at “anti-Obama rhetoric,” inflammatory language and “emotional” statements made by nonprofits seeking tax-exempt status.

Cincinnati’s newest police chief

will be sworn in on Sept. 30

. The city manager on Friday

officially picked Jeffrey Blackwell

, deputy chief of the Columbus Division of Police.

The Cincinnati area’s economy

grew by 2.7 percent

in 2012, slightly higher than the country’s 2.5-percent growth in the same year.

In perhaps another sign of growing local momentum, venture capitalists

appear to be investing more in Cincinnati’s entrepreneurs

.

Following two high-profile suicides at Ohio’s prisons, an expert on inmate suicides will

inspect the state’s facilities and protocols

.

Saks Fifth Avenue

might move

to Kenwood Collection.

Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble and TriHealth are among the top 100 companies for working mothers, according to the magazine

Working Mother

.

A very rare genetic mutation

makes subjects immune to pain

.