Porkopolis

Dole Campaign Plans Kickoff

An organizational meeting is set to launch the campaign of a Democratic candidate who is running as an independent for a seat on the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners in defiance of a backroom deal by party leaders.

Chris Dole will hold the meeting to coordinate his grassroots campaign at 7 p.m. June 11 at Sitwell's Coffee Bar, located at 324 Ludlow Ave. in Clifton's Gaslight District.

S.O.S. Art '08 Starts Tonight

"An art show and event of sociopolitical expressions for peace and justice" is how Saad Ghosn describes his annual S.O.S. Art program, which returns next week. What can I add to that?

For background on S.O.S. (Save Our Souls), check out my interview with Ghosn from April 2006. Also see previous CityBeat coverage here, here and here.

S.O.S. opens tonight and runs through June 8 at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, 1212 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine. All program events are free and open to the public.

Gallery hours are 9 a.m-6 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m-midnight Friday-Saturday and noon-6 p.m. Sunday.

Interestingly, the S.O.S. show and related events are running at the Art Academy at the same time as Visual Fringe, the visual art component of the 2008 Cincy Fringe Festival. So you can experience alternative art — both political-based and apolitical — with one visit to the Art Academy over the next week or so.

At Death's Door

"At death's door" is both literal and figurative in this case.

Jeff Hill, who was convicted of murdering his mother and stealing $10 form her while high on crack (see "Killing a Family", issue of March 1, 2006), is sitting on Death Row and facing death by lethal injection. His family doesn’t want to lose yet another person, and neither do a lot of people who believe any murder is wrong — even executions committed by the state. That’s why the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center is collecting signatures for a clemency petition on Hill’s behalf.

“We received a good response from folks,” says Julie Przybysz, a staffer for IJPC. “Another good place to petition this summer is at Findlay Market.”

Przybysz is seeking volunteers any Saturday (for one or two hours) to sit at a table for IJPC's Anti-Death Penalty Committee and for the Jeff Hill Clemency campaign. Contact her at 513-579-8547.

State Budget Generous to Pet Projects

What qualifies as an important project and what qualifies as pork barrel spending depends on your perspective.

In the past few days State Sens. Bill Seitz and Eric Kearney and State Rep. Tyrone Yates have all issued press releases touting the $14.2 million allocated for Hamilton County projects in a capital construction budget bill that was approved Wednesday. The bill, which totals $1.3 billion overall, is for fiscal year 2009-2010 and includes $773 million in cuts elsewhere in the budget sought by Gov. Ted Strickland to avoid a possible deficit.

Local projects both big and small are earmarked to get cash in the spending plan.

Oyler Elementary Revisited

Nothing like a little finger pointing to get something done, right? At least that's what has happened as a result of my article "A Path Through Weeds" in last week's CityBeat and an e-mail sent to the Mayor and members of City Council inquiring about the abandoned building and vacant lot referenced in the article that are adjacent to Oyler Elementary School in Lower Price Hill.

I received an e-mail response from Mark Manning, aide to Mayor Mark Mallory, that said nothing of substance; to his credit, he did look into the situation. Jason Barron, Mallory's communication director, provided “an update on Oyler Elementary.”

It turns out that the city's Department of Community Development has been quick to respond and the code enforcement people are going to try to track down the owner of the abandoned building, which is listed with the city as vacant. They'll be boarding up be windows on the property as soon as possible, and maybe they can do a better job than the boards already there. But a fence to block access to the area where Oyler students hide from teachers isn’t going to happen.

“There’s only so much we can do,” Barron said. “We can’t build on someone’s property, but we’ll do what we can.”

Hillary Pushes On at Her Own Peril

Desperation is never pretty.

It's becoming ever more apparent that the increasingly erratic statements and bizarre antics of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband in the last days of the Democratic presidential nomination process threaten to harm her reputation and destroy what's left of his legacy.

Although the media dust-up over Hillary’s poorly chosen comments last week about Robert F. Kennedy were overblown, the underlying point she was trying to make about staying in the primary contests doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

Chesley Passes the Hat for 'Mean Jean'

Local attorney Stan Chesley, who's made millions of dollars from tort lawsuits, is known as a big cash contributor to Democratic politicians, though he's also given generously to conservative Republicans such as Phil Heimlich. His latest fund-raiser, however, is even raising some eyebrows in the GOP.

Chesley is hosting a brunch fund-raiser at his Indian Hill mansion for Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R-Miami Township), better known as "Mean Jean" in local political circles due to her penchant for making harsh and bizarre statements that gain her less-than-flattering headlines.

The posh fund-raiser will be held June 8 and costs $500 per person or $1,000 per couple.

Cintas Faces Another Safety Violation

Although the Cintas Corp. is quick to issue press releases about items like its "best corporate bathroom" contest, the Mason-based uniform supplier managed to keep quiet until now the latest in a long series of fines imposed by workplace safety regulators.

The Indiana Labor Department in mid-March cited Cintas for two violations at its Fort Wayne industrial laundry facility. State regulators imposed a $1,625 fine, which the company is likely to appeal.

City 'Support' for Schools

In the outside stairwell leading to the basement of an abandoned building behind Oyler Elementary School, there's a trashed television and a pile of leaves, trash and who knows what else. Principal Craig Hockenberry picks though the mess "looking for new places" where the kids might hide "their stash of marijuana."

“I’ve been fighting to get the city to clean this for a while,” Hockenberry says. “I don’t bother with the cigarettes any more. But the marijuana…”

This situation doesn’t seem like anything he might have learned in a teacher training class (see my feature story in today's CityBeat, "A Path Through Weeds"). But the 36-year-old has spent 10 years as the top administrator at the Lower Price Hill school, which now includes pre-kindergarten classes through grade 12, and he says making sure the kids, parents and others in the neighborhood know he’s watching is important.

Changing of the Guard at BOE

When Pamela Swafford began working for the Hamilton County Board of Elections, Ronald Reagan was president and gasoline cost about $1.40 per gallon.

A Democrat, Swafford has served since March as the board’s executive director after swapping positions with John Williams, the Republican who took her old job of deputy director. That all ends next week, when Swafford will retire after 26 ½ years serving in various positions at county election headquarters.