Porkopolis

Who Is Allowed to Hit Your Kid?

Most parents take issue with anyone striking their child. Partly because many of those same people have already figured out that violence is no more an effective deterrent than it is a way to persuade someone to do what you want them to do.

Violence breeds resentment. Violence in any form might change behavior temporarily, but I’ve never heard anyone say, “I wasn’t going to do what he wanted until he hit me. Now it’s clear to me that he’s 100 percent right and I’ll do it his way because it’s the right thing to do.”

And yet corporal punishment is still allowed in Ohio public schools. More than 600 Ohio public school districts ban corporal punishment, according to the ACLU, which also points out that corporal punishment is prohibited by state law in child care, foster care and institutions for children.

Dann's the Man

The drama in Columbus over Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann is fascinating. I wrote my editorial this week about the scandal that's forced four of Dann's closest associates to quit or be fired and caused the state's top Democrats to call for Dann's resignation or face impeachment ... and the story keeps getting better.

A Republican state rep will be announcing today the steps needed to pursue Dann's impeachment, though Gov. Ted Strickland now seems to be backpeddling about the impeachment thing. The state AFL-CIO union has joined the call for Dann's resignation.

Dann's hometown newspaper, The Youngstown Vindicator, has an excellent micro site devoted to the scandal if you want to catch up on the shenanigans.

LULAC in Town in 2011 ... Maybe

Mark your calendars now for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) national conference coming to Cincinnati in 2011 ... if the Queen City is chose to host, that is.

During the 2008 LULAC National Convention a vote will be held to select the 2011 convention site, and Cincinnati is vying for the opportunity. No surprise the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau is trying to get the gig, and it's encouraging LULAC members to vote for Cincinnati at the July 7–12 convention in Washington, D.C.

“To all my friends of LULAC I invite you to come to Cincinnati,” says Vincente Fox, president of LULAC via the CVB's Web site. “This is the city of my roots, where my grandfather was born. This is a great city that welcomes people. It is dynamic and motherly. Hope to see you here in 2011, please invite me.”

Fox's pitch also comes from a video clip on the site.

FYI, CityBeat's 2007 Person of the Year, Jason Riveiro, heads up LULAC's Cincinnati chapter.

Pop over to the Chamber site at and fill out a quick survey about the potential conference. Your response also registers you for a $300 Macy’s gift card.

— Margo Pierce

Portune: Election Is a Distraction, Job Hopping Not

Never one for beating a dog while it's down, CityBeat has resisted the urge to point out the following until now. Our duty to highlight the inconsistencies uttered by elected officials, however, has won out.

The Cincinnati Enquirer's Politics Extra blog reported Monday that Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune says he's been sounded out about possibly replacing Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, if Dann resigns as many Democrats and Republicans are urging him to do.

Women and Money: Who Knew?!

Did you know that more and more women are the head of their household here in Ohio? Read: No man at the head of the dinner table.

When I read the new press release from Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray, I laughed and rolled my eyes.

“Women today have more responsibility than ever before,” Cordray says. “They are leaders in the home and in the business world. They are making financial decisions that will have lasting consequences for every member of their family. In a volatile economy, it doesn’t take much for the pressures to build from every side. The Treasury’s annual Women & Money program is a way to put the latest information about basic financial planning into the hands of families who can use it every day.”

Trash Talkin'

While city and business leaders go back and forth about whether environmental justice is something Cincinnati ought to get behind in a substantial way (see my related news story "Healthy Businesses, Sick People"), volunteers are needed to pick up the crap littering the Great Miami River.

Dubbed “The Clean Sweep” by Friends of the Great Miami, the trash pick up began at the end of April and continues this weekend. The particulars are:

Event Date: Saturday, May 10
Event Time: 8 a.m.–noon
Clean-up locations: Colerain Township Heritage Park and Shawnee Lookout Hamilton County Park, both in Hamilton County and New Miami Veterans Park in Butler County

RSVP contacts:
Bruce Koehler: 513-621-6300 ext. 112 or bkoehler@oki.org
Brian Bohl: 513-772-7645 ext. 15 or brian.bohl@hamilton-co.org

While you walk the talk of being environmentally friendly, pick up some trash in the process.

— Margo Pierce

Hillary and Terry's Shell Game

When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign chairman gave an interview to CityBeat in late February, he assured our readers the political battle between her and Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination would be resolved by June and wouldn't spill over into the party's convention later in the summer.

"(I)f we win Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, we'll win the nomination," said Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton confidante who also was the one-time leader of the Democratic Party.

Apparently, mathematics isn't one of McAuliffe's strengths.

Still Too High a Number

A retired U.S. Army general who served under Presidents Carter and Reagan believes the media is giving a distorted impression about the number of military service members killed in the Iraq War.

Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry said the media hasn’t put the deaths into proper context and is misleading the public. Curry noted that U.S. military casualties for the first six years of the Bush administration are well below the national average for the 26-year period beginning in 1980.

Monday Beat

Back home again in Indiana: The Hoosier state gets national media attention in May, and it's not even Indy 500 time! If Indiana voters go for Sen. Barack Obama in tomorrow's Democratic primary and he takes North Carolina as expected, the race with Sen. Hillary Clinton could finally be over. If they split, as the polls are suggesting, the campaigns pack up and move on -- with Kentucky getting the spotlight on May 20. Obama was on Meet the Press yesterday, Clinton was on This Week and Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean tried to splain it all on Fox News Sunday.

Related stories of note: Robert Reich on Clinton's "gas tax holiday" gimmick, Talking Points Memo on why the Dems created the whole superdelegate thing in the first place and The New York Times on Clinton's "gritty" campaign style.

Told you so: Kevin Osborne discusses the gas price spike in terms of Greater Cincinnati's disinterest in increased public transit, which could provide transportation alternatives to lots of locals. My editorial this week picks up on a similar theme, saying the current plan for a downtown streetcar line is another tipping point for this community to make a bold, confident decision.

Ohio Attorney General is toast: Bill Sloat and his Daily Bellwether web site has been all over the story of Ohio AG Marc Dann's scandals, so check out his coverage. Looks like Dann will be resigning.

In blogland: Danny Cross reports on tonight's Game 7 playoff battle for the Cincinnati Cyclones and on UC baseball, Larry Gross bids Jackie Danicki farewell and Bart Campolo hangs on in Walnut Hills.

— John Fox

Gas Prices As Karma

It's finally settling in on most American motorists that the days of artificially low gasoline prices are gone for good.

Now that they're faced with the stark realization that prices probably will never again fall below $3 per gallon and likely will continue to rise over the long haul, some motorists are having buyer's remorse about their SUVs and Hummers. Business watchers report that so far this year, compact and sub-compact vehicles account for one in every five automobiles purchased in the United States, up from one in eight in recent years.

Still, modern American society is largely based around the personal automobile — including subsides for oil companies and massive amounts of local, state and federal cash pumped into road construction — which means the nation's options for dealing with skyrocketing prices are more limited than in places like Europe and Japan, where a wider variety of transit options are available.