Porkopolis

Does Colombia Want Lindner?

With the Colombian government continuing to press U.S. officials for the right to question certain Chiquita Brands International executives in connection with an admission they made payments to terrorist groups, there’s been no media report on whether the executives sought include Carl Lindner Jr. and his sons.

A federal judge recently fined Chiquita $25 million for making payments to drug traffickers and terrorist groups in the South American nation to protect its banana plantations there. Chiquita paid $1.7 million to the groups over the course of several years.

Colombian prosecutors are mulling whether to file an extradition request for the executives, which the U.S. government probably would oppose. The Lindner family still was involved with managing Cincinnati-based Chiquita at the time of at least some of the payments, so exactly who is the subject of the Colombian inquiries should be a hot topic for local media outlets.

Pronounced ‘B-o-n-e-r’

U.S. Rep. John Boehner (R-West Chester) has pulled a series of boners in Congress lately that are drawing the ire of his GOP colleagues.

The liberal blog, Think Progress, reported the following about a presentation made Thursday during a congressional ceremony by Boehner, the House Minority Leader, to honor the Tuskegee airmen, the U.S. military’s first group of African-American fighter pilots who served during World War II.

A person who attended the ceremony wrote, “During his short speech to those in attendance, Boehner six times mispronounced the group’s name as the ‘Tusk-E-gee,’ eliciting audible groans from the front to the back of the Capitol Rotunda. One woman standing in front of me leaned to her companion and whispered, ‘This is so embarrassing, and he’s from my state.’

Make the Cops Put it in Writing

Here’s a simple, common sense way for Cincinnati City Council to begin holding the police department to the same standards that apply to other city departments — and in a method that should be easy for police and involves no political risk for council.

When Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. or other police supervisors appear before city council to give a presentation — or what police refer to as a “report” — have the police click the “print” button on their computers and actually produce a hard copy of the document.

It’s a routine practice for police command staff to appear before city council and give a Power Point presentation on a computer projection screen, then depart, leaving no official record of what was claimed in the “report.” Such a practice isn’t tolerated by other municipal departments, who must leave hard copies of any documents with the clerk of council’s office for public scrutiny.

Marijuana is Medicine; Council is a Dope

Despite statistics indicating they aren’t effective, Cincinnati’s tougher penalties for marijuana possession will indefinitely stay on the books.

After a one-year trial period, which was set to expire soon, city council voted 7-2 today to extend the penalties. Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell and Councilman David Crowley opposed the extension.

Bengals Lawyer Fumbles

This week’s issue of CityBeat contains a lengthy letter from Stuart Dornette, the longtime lawyer for the Cincinnati Bengals, objecting to several items reported in a March 14 cover story about team owner Mike Brown and his threat to move the Bengals to Baltimore in 1995.

The sheer length of Dornette’s letter, which was four pages long, left little space for CityBeat’s reply to its many assertions. The letter contains 1,603 words — almost half the length of the original article’s 3,893 words, which had background information and interviews with multiple sources.

The Bengals must pay Dornette either by the word or by the hour; some of the points in his reply already were covered in the article.

UPDATE: New Playhouse Location

CityBeat’s report Tuesday of a possible theater development at Fifth and Race streets downtown was confirmed this afternoon in an article at cincinnati.com. The Enquirer’s theater critic, Jackie Demaline, interviewed Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park producing artistic director Ed Stern and Port Authority chairman Jack Rouse, who confirmed the rumors reported yesterday by CityBeat that influential business leaders are floating a plan to build a multiple-theater complex downtown to house the Playhouse, Children’s Theatre and possible events from Cincinnati Ballet and Cincinnati Opera.

— Kevin Osborne

Ken Blackwell and Other Hits of Long Ago

From the “Now That He Has A Lot of Time on His Hands” Department: Ken Blackwell, the ex-Cincinnati mayor and former Ohio Secretary of State who was resoundingly defeated in his gubernatorial bid last fall, will serve as a guest DJ tonight on WEBN-FM (102.7). Blackwell will spin an old disc from Steely Dan on the station’s Album Archives show.

Since his defeat, Blackwell mostly has kept a low profile. He recently took on fellowships with two conservative policy think tanks, the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., and the Buckeye Institute in Columbus.

Last week Blackwell criticized Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, the Democrat who defeated him in November, for cutting state funding to teach abstinence-only sex education programs for schoolchildren. He made the remarks during a luncheon speech before the Healthy Marriage Collaboration of Central Ohio.

We’re not sure what Eddie Fingers, Bob the Producer and the rest of the Dawn Patrol would make of that stance.

At least Blackwell has good taste in music.

— Kevin Osborne

Charter Backs Two Women

She first went to City Hall to protest the police chief’s cavalier attitude about the shooting death of her husband. Now she might be joining Cincinnati City Council and become one of the chief’s bosses.

The Charter Committee announced endorsements this morning for this fall’s city council elections, and Cincinnati School Board Melanie Bates was among those given the nod. Bates, whose husband, Philip, was shot and killed Aug. 27 while sitting on the front porch of their North Avondale home, said she would focus on public safety and neighborhood development if elected to council.

Other candidates endorsed by the Charter Committee are incumbent Chris Bortz, who is seeking his second term, and Joan Kaup, who has been involved with organizing various community activities over the years.

COAST Tries to Stop Film Subsidy

front for partisan political activity, according to Todd Portune, president of the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners.

Portune is blasting the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), stating the group’s threatened lawsuit over tax money earmarked for the Cincinnati Film Commission is without legal merit. Earlier this week COAST let officials know that it would sue over a plan to use $75,000 in excess revenues from a hotel/motel tax to fund the film commission unless the effort was stopped. Such a notice is legally required before a suit can be filed.

Under state law, money from the hotel/motel tax increase passed by Hamilton County voters in 2002 must be used for constructing, expanding, maintaining, operating or promoting a convention center in Hamilton County. COAST has said giving some of the revenue to the film commission violates the provision.

Portune, however, noted the money actually is going to the Northern Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau, which will work with the film commission on how the money will be spent. The arrangement meets the legal restrictions of the tax, he said.

Congressional Hearings Aren’t Only for Presidential Blowjobs

As the current political battle over the fired U.S. attorneys reveals, the operating philosophy of many diehard conservative Republicans is “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Tony Snow, the former Fox News commentator who now serves as President Bush’s press secretary, today angrily defended his boss’ offer to let key White House staffers involved in the firing scandal speak to members of Congress, but only in private, not under oath and with no recording or transcriptions allowed. Snow appeared on The Early Show on CBS this morning to spin the White House’s position, which basically involves Bush trying to extend executive privilege to his staffers.

Bush is adamantly opposed to congressional requests for public testimony under oath, Snow said. Referring to lawmakers, he added, “What they’re not going to get is the ability to create a show trial atmosphere because, you know what, people are tired of that.”

This is the same Tony Snow, of course, who as a journalist during the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998 wrote that President Clinton should be forthcoming about details and not invoke executive privilege. At the time, Snow wrote in The Detroit News, “Most of us want no part of a president who is cynical enough to use the majesty of his office to evade the one thing he is sworn to uphold — the law.”