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The new College Hill office will be the source of phone calls and canvassers to the Mount Healthy, Northside, North College Hill and College Hill neighborhoods. The Obama campaign already has field offices in East Walnut Hills, Cheviot and Forest Park.
Obama's Republican rival Mitt Romney's campaign has three offices: in Kenwood, Westwood and Colerain. Staff contact Kelsey Romanchik said she didn't know if there were plans to open more.
More than 150 people braved the sweltering Cincinnati humidity for the opening of the Obama College Hill field office. They were greeted by a drum line outside of the office, as well as inside a mainstay of any such campaign event — snacks.
Keynote speaker City Councilman Cecil Thomas sounded off many of the Obama campaign's talking points, attacking Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, his refusal to release further tax returns and Romney's tax plan, which a recent study by the Tax Policy Center says will raise taxes on the middle class by eliminating popular tax credits.
"Why in the world would I vote for someone like that?" asked Thomas.
The Ohio Department of Education is caught in a bit of a mess. This morning, the state auditor's office announced it would be conducting a probe into the Ohio Department of Education over school test and attendance data. Yesterday, Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner said the Ohio Department of Education will be investigating more schools for possible instances of fraudulent data reporting. The superintendent's announcement came on the same day Lockland School Districts were found to be reporting false attendance data for better test results.
Delta Airlines announced it will be closing down Comair, which is headquartered in the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport. The move could have a significant impact on jobs in the region.
Only 6,000 out of 140,000 eligible Ohioans have initiated a foreclosure review process, according to Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. The review could potentially save Ohioans a lot of money.
The Ohio Supreme Court still thinks Ohio's smoking ban is constitutional.
Skype is making chat and user data more accessible to police.
There is now a reason to be jealous of Kansas City. Google will be offering its ultra-fast Internet service in the area for only $70 a month.
Nearly one in five voters thinks President Barack Obama is a Muslim.
Mitt Romney had a bad couple days during his trip to London: An aide allegedly made racist comments about Obama's commitment to "Anglo-Saxon heritage," Romney questioned if London is ready to host the Olympics, and he talked about meeting with the leader of MI6, the British intelligence agency. And he said he's excited to return the "bust of Winston Churchill" to the Oval Office. Whatever that means.
Nobody has a case of the Mondays, according to a new study in the Journal of Positive Psychology.
Scientists have found a way to temporarily restore eyesight in blind mice. But it requires a direct chemical injection into the eyes.
Northern Ohio counties are starting to receive $19 million from Cleveland casino tax revenue. Cincinnati and Hamilton can expect a similar revenue boon next year when the Horseshoe Casino opens on Feb. 2013. Of course, the casino (and its revenue) could have been coming this year, but Gov. John Kasich blocked construction last year to protect his tax plan.
The Enquirer over the weekend did an investigative piece on ER "superusers" — individuals who can sometimes cost the health-care system as much as $1.3 million due to a lack of health insurance. Hospitals have said that this "charity care" could be curtailed by Obamacare's Medicaid expansion and save the state money, but Kasich claims the Medicaid expansion is too costly for the state.
The Ohio Board of Regents is considering banning smoking on all public
campuses. Smoking is already banned in buildings, but health concerns
may lead to a bigger ban.
Toledo Public Schools used "scrubbing" to improve report card scores. The Board of Education claimed such cheating could be a "state-level problem."
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and his Republican opponent Josh Mandel have settled on a day to debate: Oct. 15.
Former Reds shortstop Barry Larkin was inducted into the Hall of Fame Sunday. Here's CityBeat's C. Trent Rosecrans' column offering current players' thoughts on Larkin.
The Great Ohio River Swim was postponed Saturday because of high bacteria levels. Not very surprising.
In science news, a European agency became the first in the Western world Friday to approve a gene therapy treatment for a rare genetic disease.
During a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado last night, a gunman walked into a theater, threw tear gas, and opened fire. Police identified James Holmes as the suspect in the shooting. Twelve were killed and at least 50 were wounded. On Twitter, one witness lamented that "there is no dark knight, no hero, that could save us from anything like this."
Cincinnati Police Chief James Craig will learn later this summer if he'll be required to undergo additional training and take the state police exam. Craig and his attorneys yesterday told the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission about his 36 years of policing experience.
This summer, Ohio families will receive health insurance rebates as part of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. The average family will receive $139. In total, Ohioans will be getting back $11.3 million.
Ohio's unemployment rate dropped to 7.2 percent in June, down from 7.3 percent in May. That's the lowest unemployment has been since 2008.
An Ohio Supreme Court task force approved changes that will help prevent racial bias in death penalty cases.
Gov. John Kasich can't get even his own people to agree with him on his tax plan. An Ohio Tea Party group came out against the plan yesterday.
Speaker of the House John Boehner called the issue of Mitt Romney's tax returns a "sideshow" and said that Americans don't care about it. But Romney apparently disagreed with Boehner's perspective in 1994 when he asked then-Senator Ted Kennedy to release his tax returns.
First giant mirrors, then volcanoes. Now, scientists want to use plankton to help fight global warming.
In the first town hall-style event of the 2012 campaign, President Barack Obama fielded questions on Monday about rights for the LGBT community, what he would do for small business during a second term and which was his favorite Girl Scout cookie (Thin Mints).
Obama — the first Democrat to carry Hamilton County since Lyndon Baines Johnson — held a packed town hall meeting at Music Hall. Cincinnati Fire Department Capt. Joseph E. Wolf estimated the crowd at 1,200 people in the ballroom with an additional 421 hosted outside.
The most recent Quinnipiac University poll from June 27 showed that 47 percent of Ohio voters favored the president, while 38 percent were behind his presumed Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
Mayor Mark Mallory fired up the crowd before the president spoke, saying Hamilton County is the most important county in Ohio, and Cincinnati the most important city in the county.
"The folks in this room are the most important folks in terms of the re-election of President Barack Obama in the United States of America," Mallory said.
Attending the town hall was former Cincinnati mayor and daytime TV host Jerry Springer, who said he and about a dozen other folks had a private meeting with the president earlier in the day.
"I think it would be bad for the country," Springer said of an America that saw Obama lose the November election. He says the Republican-controlled house would run away with our country without a Democrat in the Oval Office to issue a veto.
Just an hour before the president spoke and seven blocks away at Fountain Square, dozens of Romney supporters rallied, carrying signs with slogans such as "Obama Bin Lyin'."
Republican Mike Wilson, who is looking to unseat Montgomery Democrat Rep. Connie Pillich in the Ohio House of Representatives, was among the speakers at the Romney Rally. Pillich defeated Wilson in the 2010 election.
"Ohio seems destined to play a pivotal role. We're used to it," Wilson said.
Wilson criticized the Obama campaign for "playing politics" with Romney's tenure at the head of investment firm Bain Capital.
The Obama campaign has claimed that Romney invested in businesses that outsourced American jobs.
"We're all interested with what Romney did with his money, but we're not interested with what Obama is doing with our money," Wilson said.
He blamed over-regulation and taxation from the Obama administration for companies moving their operations overseas.
Gerry Molt, who attended the rally with his wife Roxanne, claimed that Obama is at war with America and says the focus on Bain Capital is "clearly a distraction."
Roxanne Molt said she's excited about the importance of Hamilton County in this year's election.
"I think this is the premier election of our lifetime," she said. "I think Romney's got a good plan. We need someone who supports capitalism."
The president did a little bit to support Cincinnati capitalism, making a pit stop at Skyline Chili before the town hall, where he ordered a 4-way and two cheese coneys.
The economy was a big focus of Obama's speech, but also of questions he received afterward.
Tony White, who owns a barber shop/beauty salon, asked what the president would do for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
In his response, the president touted the possible savings for small businesses under the health care overhaul, saying they could pool together and receive the same rates as larger businesses. As for moving forward, Obama said he would continue to put pressure on banks to lend to small businesses.
"We've actually been pushing the banks to say, 'look, taxpayers pulled your backside out of the fire, it's now important for you to step up and make sure that small businesses aren't finding their credit restricted, especially if they've been in business for a while," he said.
The president was also asked by a woman who only identified herself as Anna what he would do to further help the LGBT community. Anna's son Adam is openly gay and is looking at attending Miami University in Oxford.
Despite earlier teasing that he wouldn't sing at the town hall, Obama led the crown in singing "Happy Birthday" to Adam, who turned 18 on Monday.
Obama again answered the question by touting his accomplishments so far — ending the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that forbid homosexuals from serving openly in the military and expanding hospital visitation rights to same-sex partners — before going on to say that the federal Defense of Marriage Act needs to be repealed.
The Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage as between one man and one woman. Obama is the first American president to openly support gay marriage.
The theme the president to which continued to return was that America needs to return to being the land of opportunity.
"What really sets us apart has always been that we have the greatest middle class and a basic idea that's at the heart of this country that says if you work hard then you can get ahead. If you're responsive, then you can live out your dreams. You're not confined to the circumstances of your birth."
German Lopez contributed to this report.
A citizen committee has determined that levy-funded Hamilton County social-service agencies need to provide their services with fewer resources, advising that property owners pay the same levy rate despite decreases in property values that will reduce funding for groups that help senior citizens and people with mental illnesses. The decision by the 11-member committee will reportedly affect 30,000 residents who rely on such agencies to provide services such as meal delivery and counseling. In order to keep funding level the levy would have had to increase the cost for the owner of a $100,000 home by $6.
From The Enquirer:
Bosses of the Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio had already agreed to live on less, but argued against some committee recommendations.
Those include:
• Raising the age criteria. Currently 9 percent of clients are between 60 and 70 years old. An agency spokeswoman said that's because services are disability-based. Some "younger" seniors – those suffering from strokes and early Alzheimer's, for instance – have more needs than older people.
• Requiring new clients to meet U.S. legal resident requirements. According to the agency, screening for U.S. citizenship would make the program ineligible to use Older Americans Act dollars, at a cost of almost $1.2 million a year. The spokeswoman said all clients live in the county.
Enquirer reporters Carrie Whitaker and Janice Morse broke from traditional journalistic standard on Tuesday by reporting the names of teenagers involved in an alleged theft and police chase. The three girls, ages 16, 14 and 12, were identified by full name and as being from Avondale and Pleasant Ridge. A follow up story on Wednesday reported two of the girls being released from the hospital. It also included the minors' names and did not include a reporter's byline.
Jean Schmidt sided with Democrats on an attempt to stop Republicans from cutting even deeper the funding for the national food stamp program. The legislation that passed will cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by more than $16 billion over 10 years. GOP lawmakers wanted it cut by $33 billion.
Iran put on a missile show on Friday, demonstrating the accuracy of its long-range missiles and their ability to hit Western bases and Israel.
Headline: "Wells Fargo Posts $4.6 Billion Profit, Up 17%." Big ups, Wells Fargo!
Condoleezza Rice as Romney's running mate? Sarah Palin says it's a good idea.
A nearly complete skeleton of a human ancestor has been found in South Africa.
Mayor Mark Mallory is working to thwart an effort by Cincinnati's own U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) to prevent federal funding from being used to construct a streetcar in the city. Chabot offered an amendment on June 27 to the 2013 Transportation and Housing Urban Development spending bill that would bar federal transportation money from being used to design, construct or operate a "fixed guideway" project in Cincinnati.
Mallory called Chabot's move "nothing but a political stunt." Mallory today said in a press release that he is reaching out to legislative leaders in both the U.S. House and Senate to remove the amendment. Mallory said he's also making calls to the White House.
"Steve Chabot seems determined to stop progress in Cincinnati," Mallory said in the release. "He seems determined to make sure that other parts of the country thrive, while Cincinnati is left in the past. That is not the kind of leadership that we need in Washington, D.C.."
The city has procured a $25 million federal Urban Circulator Grant. That funding would not be jeopardized, as the Chabot amendment would only apply to federal funding for fiscal year 2013.
The U.S. House approved the amendment on a voice vote. To become law, it would have to be passed by the Senate and signed by the president.
"Far from a necessity, the Cincinnati streetcar is a luxury project that our nation and our region simply cannot afford," Chabot said during testimony on the House floor.
Some opponents of the amendment worry that it could prevent funding for other transportation as well.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, fixed guideway refers to any transit service that uses exclusive or controlled rights-of-way. That means the ban on federal funding to those modes of transportation could apply to ferryboats, designated bus or carpool lanes and aerial tramways in addition to streetcars.
Chabot's office did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. (Andy Brownfield)
Local subscribers to Time Warner and Insight cable woke up today without access to WLWT-TV (Channel 5) after the station and companies failed to reach a new retransmission agreement. Instead, the cable companies offered Channel 2 from NBC affiliate Terre Haute, Ind. The Enquirer is all over the story, reporting that Todd Dykes and Lisa Cooney in the morning were replaced by someone named Dada Winklepleck in Wabash Valley, Ind. Don't worry: 30 Rock will still be on your new local Indiana station. Visit mywabashvalley.com for further details about additional programming. Or you can just hook up an antennae and get WLWT in hi-def for free.
Anyone in the market for a school building? Cincinnati Public Schools is adding four closed buildings to a for-sale list in an attempt to raise the capital necessary to complete an overhaul of its in-use buildings as part of its Facilities Master Plan. The new buildings on the list are Central Fairmount, Kirby Road, North Fairmount and Old Shroder schools.
Ohio brought in $23.5 million during the first seven weeks of legalized gambling in the state.
Mitt Romney says he's not hiding anything in his offshore accounts. The proof: He doesn't even know where they are, so they're technically hidden from him, too.
Barack Obama is in Iowa apparently setting up an issue on which to debate Romney later this fall. Obama is pitching an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for households earning less than $250,000, while Romney wants to extend them for rich people, too.
The FDA went against the advice of an expert panel, deciding not to require mandatory training for doctors prescribing long-acting narcotic painkillers that can lead to addiction.
Three-hundred-square-foot apartments in New York City? Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked developers yesterday to try to make them work.
City planners envision a future in which the young, the cash-poor and empty nesters flock to such small dwellings — each not much bigger than a dorm room. In a pricey real estate market where about one-third of renter households spend more than half their income on rent, it could make housing more affordable.
Droughts in 18 states have made the price of corn go up, and the soybeans are hurting a little bit, too.
Sitting less adds two years to U.S. life expectancy.
A new study found that babies are healthier when there are dogs in their homes.
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game will take place tonight in Kansas City. The Reds' Joey Votto is a starter, while Jay Bruce and Aroldis Chapman are also likely to play.
• Court rulings allow the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s heir to own and control his "I Have a Dream" speech to the 1963 march. Anyone wanting to use more than a few words must pay. My first reaction was "WTF? It was a public event in a public place and a public speech to the public. That can be 'owned'? Yup.
• Stenographic reporting of the so-called debate over whether to bomb Syria back into the Stone Age helps build acceptance for a new war. Similarly, assertions that Assad's forces gassed civilians are repeatedly reported as evidence or proof.
As of this writing, reporters have quoted no top Obama administration official willing to offer evidence or proof. Instead, as evidence, we have unverified videos online and interpretations of what the images show. Reporters don't tell us who provided death figures or who provided information that White House is using the claim Sarin gas was used.
• Meanwhile, the constitutional expectation that only Congress can declare war has suffered the same fate as the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable seizures and searches; dying if not dead.
Germany and Japan attacked us. Congress responded for the most recent time: 1942. Russia's surrogate attacked our dictator across the 38th Parallel in 1950 and triggered the still-unresolved Korean police action. LBJ was conned or knowingly lied about reported 1964 attacks on American warships in the Tonkin Gulf and moved us into the undeclared Vietnam War. Luckily, Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait in1990 and started Gulf War I. The CIA's totally mistaken 2002 "slam dunk" assurance about Weapons of Mass Destruction was used by Bush to justify undeclared Gulf War II. After 9/11, Afghans sheltered Osama bin Laden before our allies in Pakistan sheltered him and that was used to justify our unfinished and undeclared war against the Taliban in both countries although the Taliban never attacked us. Let's not even get into the invasion of Panama or Grenada or fiasco in Somalia. All that's missing in this latest rush to bash a hornets nest is a repeat of the New York Times sycophantic reporting that Saddam Hussein had and would use weapons of mass destruction.
• If you want a weapon of mass destruction, how about the AK-47, the totemic Soviet assault rifle that is ubiquitous on every continent or the simple machete/panga with which millions have been and are being murdered and/or mutilated. No chemical, biological or nuclear weapon has killed so many people.
• When will some national reporter ask, "What's surgical about a surgical strike?" Nothing unless we're comparing it to carpet bombing a la Germany, Japan, Laos or Vietnam.
Other than assassinating Assad with a drone-launched guided missile — good enough for Americans in Yemen — any attack on Syria will create "collateral" damage. They used to be called innocent victims, sort of like French civilians killed by Allies' D-Day bombing.
"Surgical strike" is a debasement of the language. I'm surprised that surgeons — whose marketing mavens constantly promote ever-smaller and more precise bodily invasions — don't ask the Pentagon to abandon the phrase, "surgical strike."
However, it's no mystery why news media are willing, even eager to echo this desensitizing insider language. It recalls "RPG," "IED," "smart bombs," "boots on the ground" and similar military language embraced by civilian reporters for their civilian audiences. Except those buzz words weren't for civilian audiences; it was how reporters assured military sources that journalists were savvy and sympathetic listeners.
"Surgical strikes" serves us as badly as reporting unsupported assertions and assumptions as fact. Accurately reported bullshit is still bullshit.
• Accurate reporting requires context. Why is gassing hundreds of Syrian civilians in Damascus worse than shooting and killing as many or more civilians about in and around Cairo? Why is the killing and wounding of thousands in Cairo worse than endlessly raping, wounding, mutilating and killing millions of civilians in the horribly misnamed Democratic Republic of Congo?
• Our selective condemnation of poison gas recalls the 11th-century papal ban of the cross bow; peasant crossbowmen could kill armored knights from an unmanly and impersonal distance. That also was bad for the social order. Welsh bowmen faced no such opprobrium although their arrows killed far more mounted knights.
Jump ahead almost a millennium. There is debate on what is a chemical weapon and not all gasses — think tear gas — are poisonous. Poison gas was used infrequently but without sanction during the past 100 years.
Germans and the British gassed each other during World War I. Communists were accused of using poison gas during Russian Civil War. Italians gassed native troops in Ethiopia in the 1930s in years when colonial powers were suspected/accused of gassing rebellious native troops. Japanese gassed Chinese during early World War II. Egyptians gassed Yemeni forces in the 1960s but Americans denied using toxic/blister gasses in Vietnam and Laos. Iraq deployed lethal gas against its own people and Iranian forces in the insane Iraq-Iran 1980s war. Politicians and UN officials fulminate against gassing civilians but they only remind us how selective agony and journalism can be.
• No less authority than President Obama relegated the comparative to the dustbin of grammar. His speech at the Lincoln Memorial last week praised King and other civil rights activists, saying "Because they marched, America became more free and more fair." True, but I'll bet King would have said, "freer and fairer."
• Everyone's lauding David Frost's evocative interviews with disgraced Richard Nixon after he resigned the presidency. He died after a heart attack on Saturday.
My memory of Frost is different: TW3, the original That Was the Week that Was on BBC TV. It was as irreverent as posh Brits from Oxbridge could be and Frost was a central figure in its creation in 1962 and weekly broadcasts until it was cancelled to avoid criticism as the 1964 general election neared. Two skits stand out in my memory, in part because my Saturday night duties at UPI included watching and filing a story on anything newsworthy that TW3 did/said.
The first showed an otherwise empty set with seemingly naked Millicent Martin, then young and drop-dead lovely, astride and leaning over the back of a curvy, modern Arne Jacobsen chair. It was the same pose call girl Christine Keeler used when photographed during the scandal over her affair with government minister John Profumo. You can see the original Keeler image at www.vam.ac.uk. Martin resembled Keeler just as Tina Fey looked like Sarah Palin. Martin looked straight at the camera and said something like, "John told me I was sitting on a fortune." That was it. Perfect lampoon but there was no way to use that skit on UPI's wire.
The second memorable skit followed the apparent TW3 and BBC late night sign-off. A De Gaulle look alike, right down the uniform and kepi on his head, addressed the Brits contemptuously over some strategic or diplomatic blunder. Then the broadcast ended. That skit was newsworthy. BBC said its switchboard operators — remember, this was the early 1960s — were overwhelmed. Seemed the perfect jab at the Establishment by its children fooled a lot of Brits; they thought BBC really had broadcast a De Gaulle speech.
• On a celebratory note, authorities dropped charges against Tim Funk, religion reporter for the Charlotte Observer, who arrested while he interviewed "Moral Monday" demonstrators at the Statehouse in Raleigh, NC. He was charged with second-degree trespass and failure to disperse.
Tim's a Northern Kentuckian and among the ablest of decades of my undergraduate students. After the local prosecutor came to his senses, Tim told the AP, "It was clear to everyone there that I was a news reporter just doing my job interviewing Charlotte-area clergy about how they felt about being arrested. The reporter's job is to be the eyes and ears of the public who can't be present at important public events like this protest. That's all I was doing."
When his June 10 arrest was reported, at least one respondent noted that Tim was among the first detained, stopping him from seeing how police handled demonstrators.
His editor, Rick Thames, told AP, "This is clearly the right result, and we congratulate the district attorney for making the right decision. Tim Funk was working as a journalist inside the most obvious public building in our state. The videotape of Tim's arrest demonstrates clearly that his only purpose in being there was to provide our readers a vivid firsthand account. He was clearly not obstructing the police. It's hard to understand why he was arrested in the first place."
• Cincinnati taxpayers need to know more about competing — and inescapably costly — plans to overcome years of city council shortchanging the city pension fund. The news isn't good. As the Enquirer's James Pilcher put it Sunday, "if every man,woman and child living in the city of Cincinnati contributed $2,000 apiece, it still wouldn't be enough to fill the plan's current $870 million gap."
There's a timeline with his explanatory story that screams for elaboration: What, if any, roles did mayoral candidates Roxanne Qualls and John Cranley play in council decisions to deepen the pension debt?
And I howled at the quote from state auditor Dave Yost: " . . . the city is in a fork in the road . . . And I'm concerned Cincinnati is not doing enough to avoid going down that fork in the road."
Don't try this at home. Sort of like standing with a foot on each side of a barbed wire fence. Reminds me of a friend who'd look right, point left and say, "Go this way."
Maybe with Yost's sense of direction, Cincinnati should consider the road not taken.
The new chapters, in Cleveland and Columbus, are part of Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), which Giffords and her husband, retired Navy Captain and astronaut Mark Kelly, launched in January.
"People in the Buckeye State know the terrible toll gun violence takes on communities," ARS Executive Director Pia Carusone said in a statement. "We're excited about what the 18,000-plus Ohioans for Responsible Solutions will accomplish because they represent a rich cross-section of the community: gun owners and non-gun owners alike, law enforcement officials, victims of gun violence, faith leaders, moms and voters of all political stripes from every part of the state."
Giffords' organization says it is not anti-gun — Giffords and Kelly are both gun owners — instead arguing that the gun lobby's influence has kept legislators from passing common-sense legislation that most Americans support.
A Gallup poll conducted April 22-25 found 65 percent of Americans believed the U.S. Senate should have passed a measure to expand background checks for gun purchases and ban some semi-automatic weapons, which the Senate failed to pass April 17 because of procedural steps requiring 60 votes to pass. The final vote was 54 in favor and 46 against. Twenty-nine percent of Americans agreed with the Senate's failure to pass the measure, and 6 percent had no opinion. The poll had a margin of error of +/-4 percentage points.
In January — just a month after the shooting massacre in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 children and six adults — Gallup found 91 percent of Americans support required background checks for all gun sales. The poll asked respondents about each of nine key proposals included in President Barack Obama's plan to reduce gun violence. The two least-supported proposals still had majority support, but these issues turned out to be at the center of the legislation that failed to pass the Senate four months later: reinstating a ban on assault weapons (60-percent support), and limiting the sale of ammunition magazines to those with 10 rounds or less (54-percent support).
Giffords has become one of the nation's highest-profile gun violence prevention activists since a shooting in 2011 that left her partially paralyzed. Giffords survived the assassination attempt on Jan. 8, 2011 in Tucson, Ariz., when a mentally ill man shot her in the head at a political event outside a grocery store. The man then fired on other people, killing six and wounding 12 total.
Giffords and Kelly participated in the Northside Fourth of July parade early this month as part of Americans for Responsible Solutions' "Rights and Responsibilities" cross-country tour promoting the organization's goal of advocating for candidates that support responsible gun policies that protect both the public and the rights of gun owners. CityBeat covered the event here.
"Stopping gun violence takes courage. The courage to do right, the courage of new ideas," Giffords told the Northside crowd during a press event before the parade. "I've seen great courage when my life was on the line. Now is the time to come together to be responsible. Democrats, Republicans, everyone. We must do something. Fight, fight, fight."
Americans for Responsible Solutions announced this week that its super PAC has raised $6.5 million so far this year and more than 500,000 members. At this point it has not announced any plans for a Cincinnati chapter.
But boy what a difference a gay son and two years of reflection make.
Portman had to prepare his own coming out speech yesterday, this one to his GOP senatorial brothers and sisters, none of which support same-sex marriage. Imagine how nervous he must have been, sleeves rolled up, flag pin hanging slightly askew as he spoke to reporters in response to the op-ed he published supporting gay marriage. If he stuttered at all it's not because he wasn't earnest — he just really loves his son.Two years ago Portman's son, Will, was a freshman at Yale when he came home and explained that being gay "was not a choice," which seems to have resonated with Dad. Portman consulted with religious leaders and other men who have been anti-gay even though they have close family members who are homosexual, like former Vice President Dick Cheney, who probably said something like, "Dude, it doesn't matter anymore now that Obama is talking about queers in the State of the Union and shit. Roll Tide."
Portman explained his new found interest in respecting millions of fellow humans this way: "[I want] him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have — to have a relationship like Jane and I have had for over 26 years."
Portman says he would like to see congress overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, a redundant and discriminatory piece of legislation banning federal recognition of gay marriage, which he helped pass in 1996. But he still doesn't think the federal government should tread on the states and make them recognize it if they don't want to.
Meanwhile, in Washington Harbor, Md., Republicans at the Conservative Political Action Conference yesterday discussed their bigotry during a panel called "A Rainbow on the Right: Growing the Coalition." The featured speaker was Jimmy LaSalvia, whose Republican gay-rights organization GOProud wasn't allowed to sponsor the conference.
While gay-rights leaders celebrate the support and the possibility of other powerful Republicans realizing that they know and care about someone who is different, the announcement brings attention to other conservatives trying to remove yuckiness from the party's official stance on homosexuality and gay marriage.
NBC News today recapped a few other Republicans who have recently come out in support of gay-marriage:
Jon Huntsman, a GOP presidential candidate in 2012 who had endorsed civil unions, said this year that he supports marriage rights. Furthermore, he framed it in conservative terms.
"There is nothing conservative about denying other Americans the ability to forge that same relationship with the person they love," he wrote.
And Theodore Olson, a former solicitor general for President George W. Bush, has been one of the lead attorneys challenging California's Proposition 8, a ballot initiative barring same-sex marriage in that state. (Portman fretted in his op-ed that a court decision might hamper the political movement toward legalizing gay and lesbian weddings.)
And Fred Malek, a Republican power-broker, told NBC News this week that conservatives shouldn't feel threatened by gays and lesbian couples who wish to marry.
"I've always felt that marriage is between a man and a woman, but other people don't agree with that," he said. "People should be able to live their lives the way they choose. And it's not going to threaten our overall value system or our country to allow gays to marry, if that's what they want to do."
Nearly a quarter of Republicans reportedly support same-sex rights, leaving the door open for plenty more GOP leaders to search for gay family members on Facebook who might offer insight inspirational enough to frame their own stories of new found compassion and respect for other people.
• I'm grateful to the Enquirer for running a story on Sen. Rand Paul's response to the State of the Union Message. It wasn't on NPR or any other network that I could find. His Washington office did not respond to my question of whether the Kentucky Republican offered his remarks to any broadcasters/cable networks.
• Tens of millions of Americans will become eligible for subsidized medical care under Obama's Affordable Care Act. Who's going to treat them? I haven't seen that in the news. And while reporters are working out that story, ask how the required additional primary care physicians will pay off college and medical school debts on the salaries that will be paid to their specialties.
• And once journalists dig into the supply of physicians to handle Medicaid expansion, I hope they'll ask who's going to staff quality preschool education for every American child. Obama can be aspirational, but we're not talking about minimum wage diaper changers. Early learning centers require trained pre-school educators. And while they're at it, reporters should ask where these new early childhood educators will train and who's going pick up the tab. After all, they'll never repay college loans on day care wages.
• Maybe I missed it in the admiring coverage of our government killing American Islamists abroad with drone rocket attacks: What prevents Obama from killing Americans in this country with drone strikes? None of the news stories or commentaries I've read or heard addressed that point.
There would be no shortage of targets. Wouldn't the sheriff have loved a drone-launched missile to kill Christopher Dorner, the rogue ex-LAPD cop? That might have spared the deputy whom Dorner killed during the flaming finale in the San Bernardino mountains. And what prevents our increasingly militarized police from using their own armed drones?
Imagine what authorities could have done with armed drones during earlier, infamous encounters:
A missile fired at armed members of the American Indian Movement at Wounded Knee, S.D., could have avenged inept, vain and foolish George Armstrong Custer and FBI agents killed in the 1973 siege.
No feds would have died if a drone-launched missile incinerated Randy Weaver's family with during its deadly 1992 confrontation with feds at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
David Koresh and the Branch Davidian religious sect were incinerated by the feds' 1993 armored assault in Texas. That would have been a perfect photo op for a domestic drone attack.
• Sometimes, "national security" is the rationale for requested or commanded self-censorship, even when secrets aren't secret.
For instance, British editors held stories about Prince Harry until he returned the first time from Afghanistan. However, an Australian women's magazine reported he was in combat. The non-secret was a secret because no one paid attention.
More recently, the new U.S. drone base in Saudi Arabia was supposed to be a secret. Obama officials asked major news media to hold the story and they agreed. National security, you know.
But it wasn't a secret. Washington Post blogger Erik Wemple said Fox News already had reported U.S. plans to build the facility in Sept. 2011. Three months before that, the Times of London reported construction of the Saudi drone base.
When the New York Times broke the agreement and reported the Saudi drone base, everyone jumped on the story. Now, the Times, the Post and AP are trying to explain why they kept the non-secret from us.
• Gone are the days when senior Israeli government officials could call in top editors and broadcasters and tell them what they could not report. Last week, a tsunami of technology overwhelmed official Israeli efforts to censor the story of Prisoner X. Israeli journalists were not to report his existence or mention the censorship order. National security, you know. However, an Australian network named an Aussie as Prisoner X and said he reportedly committed suicide three years ago in an Israeli prison. Social media and the online world took it from there: "Aussie recruited by Israeli spy agency dies in Israeli prison." Israel dropped efforts to censor the Prisoner X story and is issuing official statements about the case.
• San Bernardino's sheriff asked journalists to quit tweeting from the final gunfight with former LAPD cop Christopher Dorner. Bizarre. If authorities feared Dorner would gain tactical information, they misread his situation: Dorner was surrounded in a mountain cabin, tear gas was being lobbed in and men outside were trying to shoot him. He probably was too busy to read tweets. Moreover, only one reporter was close enough to tweet anything remotely useful to anyone. Most reporters initially or finally ignored the sheriff.
The tweet issue first arose during the 2008 Muslim terrorist attack on Mumbai when invaded the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Some authorities reportedly feared accomplices outside were reading news media tweets and forwarding tactical information about police and army movements to gunmen inside. I don't remember if anyone asked reporters to quit tweeting.
• A new poll says Fox hit an alltime low for the four years Public Policy Polling has tracked trust/distrust among TV networks: 41 percent trust Fox, 46 percent do not. The poll didn't find anything for other networks to brag about. Only PBS had more "trust" than "distrust" among viewers: 52 percent trust, 29 percent don't trust. The poll questioned 800 voters by telephone from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3.
• Garry Wills' new book, Why Priests, sets out to debunk Catholicism's dearest dogmas and doctrines concerning priests, bishops and the papacy. NPR's Diane Rehm gave him an hour last week to say why Catholic ordained clergy are an unnecessary accretion. Then she asked an outgunned parish priest from the Washington, D.C. area for a rebuttal. If she really wanted a lively, informed argument, there is no shortage of priest-scholars who could have matched Wills' credentials and talents as an historian. It was unfair and cringe-worthy.
• It's touchy when an unpleasantry is brought up in an obit: a long forgiven conviction, a "love child," whatever. More often, predictably awkward moments are omitted in the spirit of de mortuis nil nisi bonum. Here's HuffingtonPost on a full-blown omission in the recent obit on former New York mayor and mensch Ed Koch:
"The New York Times revised its Friday obituary . . . after several observers noticed that it lacked any mention of his controversial record on AIDS. The paper's obituary, written by longtime staffer Robert D. MacFadden, weighed in at 5,500 words. Yet, in the first version of the piece, AIDS was mentioned exactly once, in a passing reference to 'the scandals and the scourges of crack cocaine, homelessness and AIDS.' The Times also prepared a 22-minute video on Koch's life that did not mention AIDS. This struck many as odd; after all, Koch presided over the earliest years of AIDS, and spent many years being targeted by gay activists who thought he was not doing nearly enough to stop the spread of the disease. Legendary writer and activist Larry Kramer called Koch 'a murderer of his own people' because the mayor was widely known as a closeted gay man."
• New York's Ed Koch admired Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl's recorded last words before Muslim terrorists beheaded him. Koch had Pearl's affirmation of faith engraved on his own tombstone in Manhattan's Trinity Church graveyard: "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish."
• A former student reporter rarely rates an obit in the national media, but Annette Buchanan wasn't ordinary. In the mid-1960s, she refused a court order to name sources for her story about student marijuana use on the University of Oregon campus. Her story ran in the Oregon Daily Emerald, the campus paper. No shield law protected her promise of confidentiality. The Emerald said she was fined the maximum $300 and the state supreme court affirmed her contempt of court conviction. That led to the creation of Oregon's shield law for journalists. She died recently.
• An unresolved First Amendment issue is whether bloggers can be protected by state shield laws that allow journalists to keep sources secret. The latest case is from New Jersey. Poynter.com said blogger Tina Renna refused to identify government officials whom she said misused county generators after Hurricane Sandy. Union County prosecutors demanded the 16 names, saying Renna wasn't a journalist protected by New Jersey's shield law because she's been involved in politics, her blog is biased and she's often critical of county government.
The Newark Star-Ledger took her side. It said shield law protection "shouldn't hinge on whether someone is a professional, nonpartisan or even reliable journalist. It's a functional test: Does Renna gather information that's in the public interest and publish it? Yes." Renna "can be a little wild, she's not the same as a professional reporter and she drives local officials crazy. But part of democracy is putting up with Tina Renna." A court will probe whether Renna is a journalist as defined by the state shield law; that is, whether bloggers can be included by analogy under protected electronic news media.
• Few ledes — introductory sentences in news stories — are as lame as those saying the subject "doesn't look" like some stereotype. For years, it usually referred to a woman in an unconventional (read men's) occupation or pastime. "She didn't look like a steelworker . . . " or, "You wouldn't think a tiny blonde bagged a deadly wild boar with a huge .44 magnum revolver." Male subjects aren't immune, as in this lede from a recent Washington Post story: "Farmer Hugh Bowman hardly looks the part of a revolutionary who stands in the way of promising new biotech discoveries and threatens Monsanto's pursuit of new products . . . "
What do revolutionaries look like? Lenin was pictured in suit and tie. Gandhi wore a white, draped sari or dhoti, Mandela and fellow ANC rebels often wore suits and ties. Young 1960s American and French student rebels never wore suits and ties and needed haircuts. Today's young North African activists dress the same for class or a demonstration.
"Doesn't look like" wouldn't even fit an androgynous male model in the annual Victoria's Secret fashion show. He'd be there because he looks like a classic, young, leggy "angel."
• Have you noticed how hurricanes, floods, blizzards and tornadoes are morphing from evidence of climate change into photo ops? News media see them as so common that little reporting is required beyond images and stories of hardship: shoppers hoarding sliced white bread, downed trees and shattered homes, marooned airline passengers and days without power. Maybe there's the throwaway quote from some climatologist about change affecting weather, but for the most part, that's it. I'm betting this deliberate ignorance is a Republican Party plot to show that increasingly frequent, dangerous weather reflects the Intelligent Design that gave us dino-riding cavemen a few thousand years ago.
• The Enquirer devoted Page 1 to a dramatic OMG! graphic and story suggesting Cincinnati was terrible because it had no black candidate for mayor. An accompanying list of movers and shakers had few blacks. The presentation suggested the all-white mayoral contest meant amiss in a city where whites are the largest minority. However, whites and blacks told reporters that leadership rather than color was foremost among attributes they sought in a mayor. Moreover, with so many African Americans in visible leadership roles in the city, having a black mayor succeed a black mayor was less of an issue than the paper suggested.
America is a country at war. While the war in Iraq ostensibly drew down in December 2011, the United States has been quagmired in a war in Afghanistan for more than a decade.
But we're also in the midst of a number of other wars — cultural wars. It started with Nixon's War on Drugs, then quickly escalated.
President Barack Obama's environmental regulations on coal mining caused proponents to claim he had declared a War on Coal. The Affordable Care Act's mandate that companies pay for employee contraception caused many faith groups to claim a War on Religion.
Statements from Republican politicians about "legitimate rape" and "binders full of women" caused some Democrats to claim the GOP had declared a War on Women.
And the ever-vigilant conspiracists news hounds at FOX News have exposed a scheme by Jesus-hating liberals to wage a War on Christmas for trying to remove constitutionally questionable dolled-up trees and pastoral scenes of babies in unsuitable barn-life cribbery faith-based displays from public property.
But by far the most heinous altercation being waged originated with Republican Ohio Senate President Tom Niehaus, who has declared a War on Babies.
As first reported by The Enquirer, conservative groups this week sent out a press release vilifying Niehaus for killing tons of babies in a mass effort to wipe out the state's youth population a 17-month old bill that would give Ohio one of the strictest abortion laws in the nation.
Niehaus moved the so-called Heartbeat Bill — which would ban all abortions after the first detectable fetal heartbeat — from the Health Committee to the Rules and Reference Committee to avoid a forced vote on the legislation. He also removed staunch anti-abortion Senators Keith Faber and Shannon Jones from that committee.
"I'm shocked by Tom Niehaus' war on pro-life women," wrote Lori Viars in the news release. Viars is the vice president of Warren County Right to Life and vice chair of Warren County Republican Party.
Viars called for Republicans to remove Niehaus from Senate leadership. Niehaus is term-limited and will not continue on in office after this year.
Niehaus blamed Romney's loss for his decision to kill the bill, saying that the Republican's victory would have increased the likelihood of a U.S. Supreme Court lineup that would uphold it against a likely challenge.
Just two days before the general election, President Barack Obama made his case to 13,500 people packed into the University of Cincinnati's Fifth Third Arena and 2,000 in an overflow room.
Obama cast the race in comparisons to the previous two presidents, comparing his policies with those of Bill Clinton and equating Republican challenger Mitt Romney's plans with those of George W. Bush.
"So stay with me then," Obama said. "We've got ideas that work, and we've got ideas that don't work, so the choice should be pretty clear."
With less than 48 hours before polls open on Election Day, a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll had Obama and his Republican challenger locked in a statistical dead heat. However the same poll showed Obama with a slight edge in Ohio, up 48 percent to Romney's 44 percent.
Obama touted his first-term accomplishments, including ending the war in Iraq; ending Don't Ask Don't Tell, the policy preventing homosexuals from serving openly in the military; and overhauling the country's health care system.
"It's not just about policy, it's about trust. Who do you trust?" the president asked, flanked by a sea of supporters waving blue "Forward" signs.
"Look, Ohio, you know me by now. You may not agree with every decision I've made, Michelle doesn't always agree with me. You may be frustrated with the pace of change … but I say what I mean and I mean what I say."
Nonpartisan political fact-checker PolitiFact on Nov. 3 took a look at Obama's record on keeping his campaign promises from 2008. The group rated 38 percent as Kept, 16 percent Compromised and 17 percent Broken.
Twice during his speech the president was interrupted by audience members shouting from the stands.
The first was a man on the balcony level of the arena interrupted, shouting anti-abortion slogans and waving a sign showing mutilated fetuses before being dragged out by about five law enforcement officers. Both were drowned out by supporters.
Music legend Stevie Wonder opened the rally for Obama, playing a number of his hits, opening up "Superstition" with a refrain of "on the right track, can't go back."
Wonder discussed abortion policy between songs and urged Ohioans who had not already voted to do so either early on Monday or Election Day.
So far, 28 percent of Ohio voters have already cast their ballots. CNN reports that those votes favor Obama 63/35, according to public polling.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Romney campaigned before an estimated crowd of 25,000 in Pennsylvania, according to the Secret Service.
Political rallies always draw a number of the loyal opposition, and this late-evening appearance was no different. Only five people protested near the line to the arena, but what they lacked in number they attempted to make up for in message.
One large sign read "Obama: 666" and another "Obama is the Beast," alluding to a character in the Christian Biblical book of Revelation.
A man who only identified himself as Brooks carried a large anti-abortion sign that showed pieces of a dismembered fetus.
"I'm here to stand up for the innocent blood that has been shed in this land to the tune of 56 million," Brooks said. He said he was opposed to the politics of both major party presidential candidates.
"I pray for Barack Obama because his beliefs are of the Antichrist, just like Romney," Brooks said.
Brooks said his message for those in line was for them to vote for Jesus — not on the ballot, but through their actions and through candidates that espoused Christian beliefs.
"Obama is not going to change things, Romney is not going to change things," Brooks said. "In the last days there are many Christs, but not the Christ of the Bible. The Christ of the Bible is not for killing children, is not for homosexual marriage."
President Barack Obama has canceled scheduled Wednesday appearances in Cincinnati and Akron to coordinate recovery efforts in the wake of super storm Sandy, the White House announced Tuesday.
Obama was scheduled to highlight his second-term agenda from economic growth and the middle class, according to a news release. The release promised a "concrete and specific plan for the next four years." Both Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney have been vague on details of exactly what they would do if elected next Tuesday.
Vice President Joe Biden had also canceled Tuesday appearances in Wooster and Gambier, Ohio, "due to local preparations and response efforts" for the storm.
Meanwhile Romney campaigned Tuesday morning near Dayton, where his campaign collected supplies and donation to be sent to storm-affected areas of New Jersey.
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
Hurricane Sandy slammed the East Coast last night. At least 16 people are believed to have died from the storm, and as many as 7.5 million were left without power. Areas of New York and New Jersey also faced major flooding. It took until 4:30 a.m. for Sandy to go from hurricane to tropical storm.
The Anna Louise Inn will be in court at 9 a.m. today arguing in front of the First District Court of Appeals, which could overturn a May ruling and allow the Inn to move forward with its renovation. CityBeat will have online coverage for the hearing later today.
Hamilton County's probation department is facing sexual harassment charges. The charges are coming from a county worker who said her promotion was denied due to her actions "for opposing discrimination and encouraging others to exercise their right to be free from acts of discrimination."
The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes filed a lawsuit Friday in an attempt to reverse the August reworking of the Blue Ash airport deal. For COAST, the lawsuit is mostly to stall or stop the financing for the $110 million Cincinnati streetcar.
City Council will vote next week to decide whether the city should borrow $37 million to fund development projects and a portion of the Homeless to Homes program. But Homeless to Homes is generating some concern due to its requirement to move three shelters.
Three Cincinnati charity groups are coming together to help veterans with disabling injuries. The organizations will pool available resources to hopefully find jobs for veterans.
Mitt Romney is running a new ad against President Barack Obama in Ohio that says Chrysler is moving Jeep production to China. The ad, which Chrysler says is false, warranted a snarky response from the car company: "Despite clear and accurate reporting, the take has given birth to a number of stories making readers believe that Chrysler plans to shift all Jeep production to China from North America, and therefore idle assembly lines and U.S. workforce. It is a leap that would be difficult even for professional circus acrobats." The Obama team also responded with its own ad. It is somewhat understandable Romney would be getting a bit desperate at this point in the race. Ohio is widely considered the most important swing state, but aggregate polling has Romney down 1.9 points in the state. Romney is up 0.9 points nationally.
State Republicans are refusing to pull an ad that accuses William O'Neill, Democratic candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court, of expressing "sympathy for rapists." This is despite the fact that Justice Robert Cupp, O'Neill's Republican opponent, has distanced himself from the ad. At this point, even the most nonpartisan, objectives watchers have to wonder why the Republican Party can't keep rape out of its messaging. In comments aired first on Aug. 19, U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri said on pregnancy after rape, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." On Oct. 23, Richard Mourdock, the Senate candidate for Indiana, said, "I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."
Ohio is getting closer to the health exchange deadline with no plan in sight. Obamacare asks states to take up health exchanges that act as competitive markets for different health insurance plans. States are allowed to either accept, let the federal government run the exchanges or take a hybrid approach. As part of the health exchanges, the federal government will also sponsor a heavily regulated nonprofit plan that sounds fairly similar to the public option liberals originally wanted in Obamacare.
Meanwhile, Ohio and other states still haven't decided whether they will be expanding their Medicaid programs. In the past, state officials have cited costs as a big hurdle, but one study from Arkansas found Medicaid expansions actually saved money by reducing the amount of uncompensated care. Some states that expanded Medicaid also found health improvements afterward.
An inspector at the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) was caught not doing her job. The inspector was supposed to do 128 site visits for in-person safety inspections, but she apparently never showed up to some of the schools and filed fraudulent reports.
Peter Cremer North America could add 50 jobs in Cincinnati over three years in an expansion.
A San Francisco firm bought a major stake in Cincinnati Bell.
There are only a few more weeks of political commercials, ads, promises and accusations flooding the TV and radio before the Nov. 6 presidential election. While many Americans are tired of political campaigning, Ohio — the most important swing state in the United States — has been showing a great response toward the campaign as it nears its end.
On Thursday, 4,000 people lined up outside of Jet Machine in Bond Hill to hear Republican candidate Mitt Romney speak at 11 a.m.
After flying in to Lunken Airport on Wednesday night, Romney had breakfast at First Watch in downtown Cincinnati on Thursday morning before proceeding to the rally in Bond Hill.
His visit in Cincinnati was the first of a three-stop bus tour in Ohio — along with Worthington and Defiance, Ohio later that afternoon.
At the Jet Machine warehouse, Romney criticized Barack Obama's campaign, foreign policies and plans for America's future.
"The Obama campaign is slipping because he keeps talking about smaller and smaller things when America has such big problems," Romney said.
Romney cheered on small businesses and promised that his businesses experience will help turn the economy around.
In a response to the Cincinnati rally, the Obama campaign explained that Romney's visit was just another attempt to try and convince Ohio workers that he is on their side and will stand up to China, when in fact it's the opposite.
"As a corporate buyout specialist, Romney invested in companies that pioneered the practice of shipping jobs to places like China, shutting down American plants and firing workers — all while he walked away with a profit," Jessica Kershaw, Obama for America — Ohio press secretary, explained.
"These jobs are likely to come at the expense of American workers in cities like Cincinnati, and that's why the people of Ohio will not be supporting Mitt Romney this November."
Romney ended the rally encouraging the Buckeye state to go to the polls and vote early.
"We need to make sure Ohio is able to send a message loud and clear: We want real change. We want big change," Romney encouraged.In an attempt to secure Ohio, President Obama is due in Cincinnati on Halloween. With just two weeks remaining before election day, a new Ohio poll from TIME.com says that Obama is winning 49 percent of Ohio, compared with Romney's 44 percent.


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617 Sloped Cylinder Spotlight Trim
617 slope cylinder spotlight trim comes with a with trim with a white cylinder and white baffle. Features a 45 degree vertical adjustment, and a 358 degree rotation. One 35 watt, 12 volt, MR16 for use with the IC926 housing, one 50 watt, 12 volt, MR16 for use with the TC926 and TC926R housings, lamp not inclued. Trim is supplied with a magnetic transformer. Use dimmers specifically designed for low voltage magnetic transformers.
About Juno Lighting
Juno Lighting Inc. is one of the largest manufacturers of recessed and track lighting including Trac-Master®, Trac 12, Flex 12, Trac 12/25, and recessed downlights. Juno was founded in 1976 with the vision of offering high quality lighting fixtures that are attractive, well-engineered and easy to install. Aculux is a comprehensive series of high-performance architectural-grade recessed luminaires. Juno designs, manufactures and markets track, recessed and linear undercabinet / casework lighting products for a broad range of retail, commercial and residential applications.

subset: commoncrawl


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Governance – who makes the policies and rules (but NOT the technology) on how the Internet runs – is one of the "invisible infrastructure" activities that just happen and keeps the Internet from failing. With the explosive growth of the Web and its importance to the world economy (coupled with the fact that the Internet is global and doesn't recognize national borders), the last decade has seen governments and policy makers start to look more closely at who actually makes the rules that run the Internet and wonder if perhaps there isn't a better way. Things like taxation, censorship, privacy, intellectual property, libel, economic stability, and financial dealings are all aspects of Internet governance the world is coming to recognize. And governments are loathe to grant U.S. based Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) (such as ICANN and ISOC and IETF[1]) the right to make the fundamental rules that impact these sovereign rights.
Part of the reason for this is the importance of the Internet to the world's economic well-being. The global (and globalized) economy depends in large part on the instantaneous communications afforded by the Internet, which are now reaching ever-broader audiences.
However, the major impact of the Internet is on governance of nations – and not just of the individuals of the Internet. The "Arab Spring" movement showed the power of the Internet to galvanize public reaction. This can be a worrisome thing to a government trying to maintain economic or political stability. Wikileaks also illustrated the power of the Internet to disseminate governmentally unfavorable information that impacted governmental foreign policy, and the use of malware (e.g. Stuxnet) has become a tool for both industrial and military espionage and sabotage.
But in the international geopolitical arena, governance has expanded to mean more: It also means that all nations have an equal say and stake in the creation of the rules and deployment of the Internet. Note here that the term is "nations" – not individuals – because how the Internet is governed can have a tremendous impact on a nation's ability to pursue a national growth and governance strategy.
One of the countries most concerned about this area is China. It was noted that the non-regulated nature of the Internet, and what could be viewed as favoritism to the developed countries, poses a long term and large problem for developing countries. On September 18, 2012, the Chinese government hosted an "emerging nations Internet roundtable," where issues of Internet governance, content management, and cyber security were discussed. The governments of Russia, Brazil, India, and South Africa all participated, and together looked at Internet governance so that the needs of developing nations are taken into consideration.
Following the meeting, a statement was released that said that participating governments would continue to meet on a regular basis and that consensus has been reached on the following four major topics:
1. Internet governance must become a governmental mandate, and the impact of social networks on society (good, bad, and otherwise) is of particular concern.
2. Content filtering needs increased regulation and legislation to both protect and promote the interests of developing and emerging nations.
3. The whole area of cyber-security needs increased transnational cooperation and coordination – but this must be balanced with the economic needs of emerging states.
4. Emerging and developing nations offer the greatest opportunity for Internet growth, and these nations must take responsibility for managing this growth.
This conference clearly delimits the debate between those who seek an unfettered (open and based in information technology) Internet and those who would like a more regulated (in the style of the regulated telecommunications industry) model.
The issue of who controls a tremendously powerful communications force is, of course, a matter of high interest to nearly everyone. But the essential issue is that this policy and governance issue is being fought in the standards arena – that is, who has the right and duty to make the rules about the standards that will drive the next generation of innovation in the massively connected world. Currently, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)[2], is proposing to assume an increased role in making rules for the Internet, with support from many of the G-30 nations. And ISOC, the IETF, W3C, and the IEEE are responding with the Open Stand (http://open-stand.org) initiative. Europe is moving to recognize consortia specifications – and the national standards bodies (with implicit support of their governments) are trying to slow and limit this change. And we will see this same type of standards-based activity in policy decisions on privacy, security, accessibility, and others. As the world becomes more and more highly interconnected, the need for and control of who creates and who mandates standards – their creation, implementation, testing, and IPR status – will become major issues in national and international policy. And this is the lesson that is being learned from the internet governance discussions.
(1)Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN); Internet Society (ISOC); Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
(2) The ITU is a specialized U.N. Treaty Organization responsible for Information and Communications technology. It creates standards to regulate telecommunications.


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New York, NY (Sports Network) - The New York Jets could be ready to trade
cornerback Darrelle Revis.
According to multiple reports, including CBSSports.com and the New York Daily
News, Jets owner Woody Johnson indicated that the team needs to address the
situation regarding Revis, who could become a free agent after the 2013
The CBS Sports report said Johnson is uncertain about working out an extension
with Revis and could seek to get maximum trade value for the All-Pro.
However, Revis is coming off major knee surgery after missing most of the 2012
campaign. He suffered a torn ACL in Week 3 against Miami after missing the
previous game because of a mild concussion he sustained in the opener.
Revis has had issues with the Jets' front office in the past. He had a lengthy
holdout in 2010 before signing a seven-year contract that can void after four
years if he doesn't skip training camp again.
The six-year veteran is considered one of the top defensive players in the
league. He has 19 career interceptions.
The Sports Network


text:
Worked With:
Sarah Jessica Parker
Birth Name: Sarah Jessica Parker
Born: 03/25/1965
Birth Place: Nelsonville, Ohio, USA
Born: 03/25/1965
Birth Place: Nelsonville, Ohio, USA
Sarah Jessica Parker was born in Nelsonville, OH on March 25, 1965. She was the youngest of four born to mother Barbara, a teacher and former actress, and father Stephen, an aspiring author. After the couple split, Barbara remarried and welcomed four more stepchildren into the household, now located in Cincinnati. Along with many of her talented siblings, Parker took ballet and singing lessons. By the age of eight, she earned her first paycheck for the TV film "The Little Match Girl" (NBC, 1974), following it up with appearances on New York and London stages in a revival of "The Innocents," starring legendary theatre actress Claire Bloom and directed by Harold Pinter. At the age of 11, Parke... Continue Bio >>
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Welcome to FERC's Open Government Web page. At FERC, we are committed to embrace the three principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration in order to create the foundation for an open government. Transparency: Government should provide citizens with information about what their government is doing so that government can be held accountable. To see examples of what FERC is doing go to eLibrary or our Major Orders sections.
Participation: Government should actively solicit expertise from outside Washington so that it makes policies with the benefit of the best information. FERC consistently seeks outside viewpoints via our rulemaking process, scoping process and technical conferences to name a few examples.
Collaboration: Government officials should work together with one another and with citizens as part of doing their job of solving national problems. FERC has been collaborating with NARUC on both Demand Response and Smart Grid for examples.
|» Open Government Directive
» Provide us your feedback on how FERC can be more open