Strange happenings at City Hall: Council’s rules and audit committee spent about two hours yesterday going over a dispute between a Columbus law firm and former council member Sam Malone, who received payments for consulting on Cincinnati’s Metropolitan Sewer District.
The Columbus firm, Bricker & Eckler, says someone in the Cincinnati administration threatened to pull its contract with MSD, which has amounted to more than $2 million, if it didn’t pay Malone $55,000 for consulting work that Bricker & Eckler was unaware he was even doing.
There are plenty more odd details in this Enquirer rundown. The issue will come up again today in front of the full council meeting.
• Frisch’s Big Boy unveiled a new logo for its iconic burger dude, and local media is extremely interested and concerned. WCPO noted that the restaurant chain will not be bringing Coke back anytime soon (it has an exclusive Pepsi deal). The Business Courier published a story, photos and video of the news, noting, as did The Enquirer, that Big Boy has slimmed down and looks a little bit buff.
• More bad news for streetcar and bike lane haters: Urban Sites received more than $1 million in tax incentives for a mixed-use project in the former Warner Bros. building on Central Parkway in OTR. An executive with Urban Sites said the streetcar and bike lanes were key to moving forward with the project, according to The Business Courier. The project, called Film Center, will be renovated into 46 apartments with street-level commercial space. City Council has consistently wrangled over Central Parkway’s protected bike lanes, spending $100,000 to reroute a section onto the sidewalk after complaints from businesses about parking and this year bringing up the possibility of spending more to scrap the whole thing.
• Clifton’s long-awaited co-op grocery store, Clifton Market, is set to open its doors to the public by the end of September. Construction is ongoing after 1,200 “owners” raised the capital to renovate the former Keller’s IGA on Ludlow Avenue in the Gaslight District.
• Which modern international company had a worse week? Volkswagen is set to pay owners of U.S. diesel cars up to $10 billion and a $5 billion environmental penalty related to its emissions scandal. Ikea recalled millions of dressers because they tip over, sometimes tragically on top of children, if they’re not secured to a wall.
• A new poll says whites and blacks don’t agree on the state of race relations in the U.S.
• A committee tasked with investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed four Americans released a report yesterday faulting the military’s response after President Barack Obama and then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta sent “clear orders.” Anything new about Hillary Clinton or her emails? Nope.
The report had harsh findings about the military but little new about the role of Hillary Clinton, whose response as secretary of state had been thrust into the spotlight by the committee’s investigation.
• The Reds lost by five runs in extra innings last night, which is difficult to do. But even more strange was Cubs manager Joe Maddon using a pitcher in left field, then switching him with the pitcher on the mound during an inning. The Cubs were out of position players but still found a way to take the lead and then hit a grand slam off Reds relieve J.J. Hoover, who has given up a team record six in his career.
This article appears in Jun 29 – Jul 6, 2016.