Now that my family has land that we may use for a while, we are growing our own food... and enough for many other families, it seems. One $1.07 packet of radish seeds planted in May is already many pounds of crisp, bright, beautiful, healthy fresh veggies... and eating my first fresh radish of my life taught me radishes are actually delicious. Same for Kale, and all the varieties of lettuce covering our farmland... really fresh pesto is to die for... can't wait for the carrots and shallots!

Arabs and tyrants aren’t the only people getting rich on the recent run-up in oil prices.  Ordinary people in North Dakota are getting rich too: In less than a year, Stohler and his wife, Lorene, 82, have become millionaires from the production of one well on their land near Dunn Center, a mile or so from the sod [...]’

I love art, and much in the Cleveland Museum's collection, and the old and newish CMA, but I am not convinced the current reengineering of the museum is economically positive for the region, and I am very displeased with their new slogan "art is back" as shallow and disrespectful to the real NEO arts community, which has never left. The museum needs to better explore its identity and role here, as so many arts organizations, our population and economy transition, and the CMA takes a proportionately larger share of the arts funding pie. If CMA is spending $100s millions constructing new edifices for old mold and cobwebs, I will be very disappointed. I'm waiting to see Rubb put his shine on anything, other than proclaiming art is back in a place it never left. What do you think... did art leave?

As this Blade article points out it’s not just the actual worker who is temporarily laid off that has an affect on the economy:

Last week, Chrysler LLC announced that it was shutting down the factory making Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro through Aug. 25 at the Toledo Jeep Assembly complex.

The move idled over 2,200 Chrysler workers and will affect thousands of others in local parts manufacturing, analysts said.

“It’s not going to be pretty,” said Joseph Phillippi, an industry analyst with AutoTrends Consulting in Short Hills, N.J. Production cuts at Chrysler, General Motors Corp., and Ford Motor Co. will have a “nasty effect” on the automotive supplier industry, Mr. Phillippi said.
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From NBC4i:

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal Weekend Special Edition [written by Dayton resident and president of the pro-charter school Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Chester E. Finn, Jr.] painted a grim picture of Ohio’s economy.

…

The article started, “Once known as the Mother of Presidents, Ohio is now getting poorer, older and dumber –- and making all the wrong moves to reverse the situation.”

Governor Ted Strickland’s office was drafting a response Monday, NBC 4’s Mikaela Hunt reported.

The office will ask the paper to write a follow-up, too.

A spokesperson for Strickland called the op-ed piece a “very hard-edge partisan political attack” and cited the state is creating a job atmosphere that has a lot of potential, Hunt reported.

You can leave a comment to the question NBC4i asks, “Do you agree with the op-ed piece or with Gov. Strickland’s office?” the only problem being that there is no “piece” from the Strickland office yet, but you know what they mean, I think.

For an interesting take on the proposal made by Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop, I recommend reading this Toledo Journal article. Unfortunately they don’t archive their stories so the link will most likely not be live after next week. Some of the points made:

While the ”Job Corps” Mr. Konop proposed would have paid below the living wage threshold, Eric Walker, the county’s director of workforce development, said The Source job placement center has 530 enrollees willing to work for $7.50 an hour. The program would have been run by the Workforce Development Agency.
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This is Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. He is also the smiling face of inflation. I have written before about the reasons for high gas and food prices — see here, here, here and here. Numerous commenters and I have noted that dollar inflation is also a significant factor in rising oil [...]

This in via email from the office of Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz:

Lucas County Treasurer Mails 2nd Half Real Estate Tax Bills
Bills for Second Half of 2007 are due July 31, 2008

Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz announced today that his office has begun to mail the real estate tax bills for the second half of 2007, which are due by Thursday, July 31, 2008. There are roughly 208,000 parcels in Lucas County, and Kapszukiewicz said that his office mails roughly 140,000 tax bills, with the remaining parcels billed electronically. He said that all bills should be in the mail by the weekend.
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UDAG HEAVEN FOR JACOBS, RATNERS

Will Cleveland Council members let Mayor Frank Jackson, Chris Warren and developers steal away UDAG repayments in the millions of dollars from depressed, declining and diminishing neighborhoods?

The Phoenix Lander recently arrived on Mars.  NASA thinks that the lander may have discovered ice.  Here is a snapshot of the Martian landscape from the Phoenix Lander: Ooops.  My mistake.  That is actually the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  The “pristine” wilderness — described by those who have actually been there as a mosquito infested bog — that Democrats [...]

Update: Diane Rehm’s first hour this morning was dedicated to this topic. You can listen here.

I was just thinking about this while driving thousands of miles over the last few days: we read about the mergers and proposed mergers of airlines, of $15 fees for any checked bags, fees for ticketing, fees for changing, and for my Israel trip? We’ve been hit with two increases, per person, for fuel surcharges, a few weeks apart, after having paid in full.

We just had a death in the family and my parents had to move around plane tickets. Although I still don’t get exactly why, my mother reports that they had to go to the airport, an hour away, to make the changes.

And, of course, here in Cleveland, we’ll be the recipients of flights that Continental will be discontinuing.

So, for once, here’s a survey I’m glad was conducted.

From the Center for Media Research:

According to the Travel Industry Association (TIA), deep frustration among air travelers caused them to avoid an estimated 41 million trips over the past 12 months at a cost of more than $26 billion to the U.S. economy.

…

[President and CEO of TIA, Roger] Dow noted that the 41 million avoided trips during the last 12 months rippled outward across the entire travel community:

• Costing airlines more than $9 billion in revenue
• Hotels nearly $6 billion
• Restaurants more than $3 billion
• Federal, state and local governments lost more than $4 billion in tax revenue

Additional findings of the study:

• 28% of air travelers avoided at least one trip over the past year (2.1 trips on average) due to the problems in the air travel process.
• Over the past 12 months, approximately 112,000 trips were avoided per day; a total of 12 million business trips and 29 million leisure trips.
• More than 60% believe the air travel system is deteriorating
• 33% of all air travelers are dissatisfied with the air travel system, and 48% of frequent air travelers (5+ trips per year) are dissatisfied
• 39% of all air travelers feel their time is not respected in the air travel process, and among frequent air travelers that number surges to 51%.
• Nearly 50% of all air travelers do not think it is likely that the air travel system will be improved in the near future.

Any thoughts on how the stats coming from the TIA might make them more or less reliable?

Times are tight, fuel prices are up and I think we all can understand that at times when companies consolidate services that jobs can be lost. That said, there is a huge amount of concern that the recent decision by DHL to consolidate services with UPS will eliminate 8,000 jobs directly in Wilmington, Ohio with a total number of up to 30,000 possibly being affected according to this press release from Senator Sherrod Brown.

Just four years ago, there was cause for celebration when DHL announced it was not only not leaving Wilmington but expanding. In 2005 DHL announced they introduced a new landing system at its U.S. hub airport facility in Wilmington, Ohio.
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Just a short time ago I participated in the first telephone conference held by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation with David Walker, it’s been creatively titled, “How Screwed R U” and is an additional method of getting information out in addition to their recent townhall tour series called the “Fiscal Wake up Tour.” The information provided is a real wake up for not just our elected officials but for us. As David stated during his presentation, what we need is for the first three words in the Constitution, “We the people” to come alive.

I highly recommend visiting the website and also downloading this Citizen Guide as it shares some very important information as to where the problem is and what actually can be done. Since the numbers when they get into the trillions can seem difficult to put a realistic face on, an example given the $52.7 trillion dollar “federal fiscal hole” that translates to:

$175,000 per person living in the United States
$410,000 per full-time worker
$455,000 per household
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We all know that taxpayers were very, very generous to the owners of Major League sports teams in Cleveland. It has cost Cuyahoga County taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars since the 1990s.

What we don’t realize is that the subsidization continues for hundreds of ball games in Progressive Field and Quicken Loan Arena each year. The subsidization also suggests that city taxpayers in their neighborhoods are being deprived of services as the wealthy sports team owners are provided with the safety force protection.

Two weeks ago, City Fresh's Maurice Small met with friends in East Cleveland to discuss City Fresh, urban farming, and how we may convert a typical urban convenient store, Brown's Market, into a pilot City Fresh local foods market. During our discussions, Maurice mentioned that a dedicated urban farmer may earn more than $30,000 per year from sales of food grown on one typical urban lot (say 1/10th an acre). That being the case, and considering our ever-growing need and realigning demand for locally grown food, and the fact food may be grown locally as cost effectively as elsewhere in the world, it occurred to me that the highest and best use for most of the land now cleared, abandoned, blighted and wasted in our urban neighborhoods is for urban farming. So that is a use we are now planning to be core to redevelopment of the Star Neighborhood. Intrigued? Discuss and plan for this reality with Maurice and friends this Tuesday, from 6-7 PM, at that house on Roxbury, in East Cleveland. Please RSVP if you plan to attend.

It’s been quiet on the medical mart & convention center front of late. However, no news may not be good news.

Wonder why it’s so quiet since the Cuyahoga County Commission voted (privately) to pass a $40 million a year tax to go, go, go.

I received this media release through the news service that I’m subscribed to that I use for my national blog, since it involves Michigan and is stated to be a 300 million dollar project that would create 3,000 jobs I thought it might interest some of you:

DETROIT, June 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Labor groups led by the United Auto Workers (UAW), Building Trades and Operating Engineers are urging the U.S. House of Representatives to pass HR 4115, which would create more than 3,000 good jobs for Michigan by settling a century-old land claim for the state’s largest Indian tribe.
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Two weeks ago, City Fresh's Maurice Small met with friends in East Cleveland to discuss City Fresh, urban farming, and how we may convert a typical urban convenient store, Brown's Market, into a pilot City Fresh local foods market. During our discussions, Maurice mentioned that a dedicated urban farmer may earn more than $30,000 per year from sales of food grown on one typical urban lot (say 1/10th an acre). That being the case, and considering our ever-growing need and realigning demand for locally grown food, and the fact food may be grown locally as cost effectively as elsewhere in the world, it occurred to me that the highest and best use for most of the land now cleared, abandoned, blighted and wasted in our urban neighborhoods is for urban farming. So that is a use we are now planning to be core to redevelopment of the Star Neighborhood. Intrigued? Discuss and plan for this reality with Maurice and friends this Tuesday, from 6-7 PM, at that house on Roxbury, in East Cleveland. Please RSVP if you plan to attend.

Not content with stifling every effort to tap our massive domestic oil resources, Congressional Democrats now want to further increase gas prices by nationalizing America’s oil refineries: House Democrats responded to President’s Bush’s call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live. Among other things, the Democrats called for the [...]

According to the Renewable Energy Policy Project, more than 20,000 new manufacturing jobs can be created in Ohio in the coming years with investment in and from the “green” economy. Four town hall meetings – on June 23 in Cincinnati, June 24 in Findlay, June 25 in Canton and June 26 in Cleveland – will [...]

This in via email from the Ohio Democratic Party:

Toledo Democrats and Labor Leaders to Hold Press Conference on John McCain’s Address to the Economic Club of Canada
Leaders Will Challenge McCain’s Support for the Failed Bush Economic Policies That Have Severely Damaged Toledo’s Economy

WHO:

Toledo leaders including City Council President Mark Sobczak, Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz and members of Teamsters Local 20.
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The Reverend has written many posts on oil prices, the futures market gambling houses, how both political parties have helped to bring about our current high oil prices through refusal to regulate those gambling houses, and so on.

On June 2nd I wrote about the Phil Gramm family, their close connection to John McCain, and the integral role the Gramms played in producing today's 4 dollar gasoline prices.

Last night, June 18th, on Keith Olbermann's Countdown, it seemed as if Keith was channeling The Reverend. If you really want to understand why America is in a recession and why in the hell we're paying 4 dollars a gallon….take the time to watch the following clip…..

If you paid close attention to the one individual in the clip…..he's predicting a 25 percent to 50 percent drop in oil prices…..if the "Enron loophole" for the benefit of commodities traders is closed.

No matter what bullsh?t you've heard about drilling….and drilling….and offshore drilling…..and then more drilling….and ANWR…and drilling…..the reason gas prices are through the roof is because of gamblers, unchecked, betting on the price of our next fillup.

Interest rates are low…..the dollar is sh?t…..the stock market has been in decline since last year and treasury bonds aren't attractive…..sooooo…..gambling on what the price of our next fillup will amount to has been the best bet in town. AND THAT'S WHY GAS PRICES ARE AT 4 DOLLARS.

For those who think I'm just being simplistic about an oh-so-complicated methodology of pricing….I invite you to read some of my other posts about this issue.

From Nixon forward on energy policy.

Oil at 100 dollars.

Hedging bets.

If you've seen the Enron scam…..you've seen the current oil futures market scam.

We're paying 4 dollars a gallon, truckers are paying 5 dollars, the economy is heading south, inflation is looming mightily….Why?…..so that a handful of greedy sons of bitches can enrich themselves clicking buy and sell buttons on their goddamn computer screens.

I am so sad that I will not be able to attend this conference, which is part of the Coalition of Labor Union Women’s National Executive Board meeting, which is being held this year June 19-21 in Cleveland at the Crowne Plaza. I urge bloggers to get there if you can and take advantage of the press availability and interview Ms. Ledbetter.

Here are the details:

On Friday, June 20, Lilly Ledbetter, Plaintiff in the Ledbetter v. Goodyear Supreme Court case will be speaking at the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. After her speech, there will be a press availability with Ms. Ledbetter.

Lilly Ledbetter was hired as a supervisor at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in Gadsden, Alabama in 1979.  For the next 19 years, she was not only paid less than her male supervisors, but she was also paid less than her
male subordinates.  She first learned of this pay discrimination in 1998.  In 2007, in a 5 - 4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that her court case was untimely - that the time limit started when the pay discrimination started instead of when the discrimination was discovered.  Since many victims of pay discrimination don’t learn about this discrimination until years later, and this Supreme Court ruling guts the equal pay provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was introduced.  On April 23, 2008, while Sen. Sherrod Brown voted for this bill, Sen. George Voinovich voted against it.

After the conference there will be a rally encouraging Sen. Voinovich to change his mind and oppose pay discrimination.

The event is open to members of the press.

A detailed conference agenda is below:

NATIONAL HEALTH CARE AND PAYCHECK FAIRNESS  “IT’S BEYOND TIME”

FRIDAY, June 20, 2008
Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre Hotel, Cleveland, Ohio

SPONSORED BY:  CLUW’S Legislative and Political Action and Women’s Health and Wellness Committees

AGENDA

9:00 AM - 12:15 PM     Opening Plenary (Fuldheim Ballroom)              

Opening:
Marsha Zakowski, (USW) National President CLUW

Greetings:
Ann Converso, (UAN) National Vice-President-Elect, Liaison Women’s Health and Wellness Committee

Welcome:
Jeanette Mauk, Political Director, Ohio AFL-CIO
Harriet Applegate, North Shore Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Health Care for America Now!
Katie Gjertson, National Field Coordinator, AFL-CIO Health Care Reform Campaign

Introduction:
Millie Hall, (OPEIU) Co-Chair, CLUW Health and Wellness Committee

Working America!
Joseph Clark Jr., Ohio Outreach and Mobilization Coordinator for Working America

Introduction:
Bonnie Oakes, (OPEIU) Co-Chair, CLUW Legislative and Political Action Committee

AFL-CIO 2008 Voting Rights Protection Program/ National Political Action Program!
Pierrette (Pettee) Talley, Secretary-Treasurer, Ohio AFL-CIO

Introduction:
Carol Censki, (AFSCME) Co-Chair, CLUW Legislative and Political Action Committee

    Equal Pay for Working Women!
Lilly Ledbetter, Plaintiff in Ledbetter v. Goodyear and 2008 Recipient of the Winn Newman Award

12:15 - 1:45 PM    Lunch On Your Own

1:45 PM        March to Rally - Gather in Hotel Lobby

2:00 - 3:30 PM     Rally to End Pay Discrimination, Federal Building/Willard Park, East 9th Street & Lakeside Dr.

Please, if you go, try to either use Cover It Live or otherwise write it up. Thank you!

The Wall Street Journal has a good article online with selected portions of a Q&A with Obama that shed some light on his plans for his Presidency, and how he plans to go about business. WSJ: I wanted to talk about long-term economic growth, sort of following on your speech. I noticed that in an interesting [...]

I created my own definition today. HOUSE WHORE: VERB; 1. The act of buying up homes by a “so-called investor”, not getting, or misrepresenting building permits, allowing unlisensed, unregistered, or unqualified individuals or companies to work on these homes,not getting required inspections on the work that the individuals mentioned above performed, then either renting, leasing, or [...]

This in via email from the office of Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop:

Konop Urges Colleagues to Vote Yes on Creating Jobs in Lucas County Lucas County Jobs Corps to put people to work at non-profits serving community

Toledo (OH) — Responding to the urgent need for jobs in our community as well as the shortage of workers at non- profits serving Lucas County, Commissioner Ben Konop will today propose a resolution creating Lucas County Jobs Corps. The resolution will be voted on at today’s 9:30 A.M Commissioner’s hearing at One Government Center.

Konop’s proposal would create 40, six-month jobs for Lucas County residents at non-profit family and community centers. The jobs would be filled by The Source in conjunction with the United Way which would provide the job postings from its affiliated agencies.
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This in via email from the office of Ohio Senator Mark Wagoner:

Wagoner Announces Funding for Small Business Incubators

Columbus – In an effort to provide continued support for small, start-up businesses, State Senator Mark Wagoner (R-Toledo) announced today that the state Controlling Board approved the release of $1 million in Thomas Edison Program grants for two Lucas County partnerships working to assist in the development of new small business ventures.
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Ed Hauser's sure to be there, but you should be too if you care about the waterfront.  The scary sentence in the PD notice observes that the Port's "move would free port docks at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River for commercial and residential development".  Depending on what these latter developments turn out to be, we, the public, are likely to be no nearer Lake Erie than we are now with the Port taking up prime space.

The Ohio 21st Century Transportation Priorities Task Force is bringing all Ohioans to the table to explore the broad spectrum of transportation issues facing the state. With your input, ODOT will prioritize how the state balances the movement of people and freight, promotes safety and reduces congestion, creates jobs and encourages responsible growth, helps to build sustainable communities, and links all modes of transportation - connecting highways to rail, aviation, water ports, and transit.

From Liza at Culture Kitchen:

Rogers Cadenhead, founder and publisher of The Drudge Retort, has been Cease and Desisted by AP News for publishing fragments of their syndicated news articles and reports.

Yes, fragments, not the whole articles. Go to Rogers’ site to read the reasons given by AP.

Adding a quote to a blog post is very much like the sampling of a hook or a beat on a song. It’s why so many people were opposed to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. It’s not only that albums like Beck’s Odelay or Public Enemy’s Fear Of A Black Planet would never had happened. Documentaries, archival works, opinion or scholarly writing would be all but non-existent if it means that now journalists, bloggers, historians and scholars would need to pay publishing houses for every single quote and/or sample they need for their work.

Wow. We’re talking about some very serious slippery slopes here, depending on what happens. I’m not up on all this but I’m hoping some more with it lawyers than myself (inactive for four years now, I can hardly believe it) can chime in.

Here’s what Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine has to say (his words, not mine, of course):

FU AP

I talked to a reporter this week about the embattled Associated Press and said three times that I didn’t want it to die. I might take that back.

The AP has filed truly noxious takedown notices against Rogers Cadenhead’s community-created Drudge Retort, arguing copyright violations for quotes from 33 to 79 words long.

For shame, AP.

Read the whole post by Jarvis but here’s a bit more in which he says NICE things about Ohio’s media!

This complaint comes from an organization that leaches off original reporting and kills links and credit to the source of that journalism. Yes, it has a right to reproduce reporting from member news organizations. But as I point out here, the AP is hurting original reporting by not crediting and linking to the journalism at its source. We should be operating under an ethic of the link to original reporting; this is an ethic that the AP systematically violates.

What would be better for journalism would be for aggregators — Daylife (where I am a partner), Inform, Google News, Pro Publica — to link directly to original reporting without rewriting it through its mill. That is what is happening in Ohio, where newspapers are now sharing original stories. If the AP doesn’t watch out, that is what could happen everywhere.

What to do? Here’s Jarvis’ suggestion:

So let’s fire back. I urge bloggers everywhere to go to the AP and reproduce a story at length in solidarity with Cadenhead and Drudge Retort. Here’s mine:

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The Cedar River poured over its banks here Thursday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 homes, causing a railroad bridge to collapse and leaving cars underwater on downtown streets.Officials estimated that 100 blocks were underwater in Cedar Rapids, where several days of preparation could not hold back the rain-swollen river. Rescuers had to use boats to reach many stranded residents, and people could be seen dragging suitcases up closed highway exit ramps to escape the water.

“We’re just kind of at God’s mercy right now, so hopefully people that never prayed before this, it might be a good time to start,” Linn County Sheriff Don Zeller said. “We’re going to need a lot of prayers and people are going to need a lot of patience and understanding.”

About 3,200 homes were evacuated and some 8,000 residents displaced, officials estimated….

That’s just the homogenized AP version of the news.

Here’s original journalism: a story from Gazette Online and another; aerial photos; users‘ photos (not the property of the AP, I’ll bet).

…

Who needs the AP tapioca when we can get reporting like this from the source wtih no more than a link? Isn’t it a better service to reader and journalist to link directly to the original reporting?

So, bloggers, unless the AP recants and apologizes to Cadenhead, I urge you to avoid linking to the AP and to link to reporting at its source.

Sigh. The dinosaurs really did die and they really did live before humans. For the love of life, AP, come into the 21st century.

In 2006, politicians of certain political persuasion — including Sherrod Brown and Betty Sutton — successfully imposed a massive increase in the minimum wage at both the federal and state levels.  Nationally, Congress raised the wage from $5.15 to $7.25 by July 2009 (currently set to rise to $6.55 next month) — a whopping 40% increase.  In Ohio, a constitutional amendment enacted [...]

Recession or economic slowdown. Whatever you call it, it’s a timely topic of discussion. We’ve covered it several times here already at Small Business Trends — here are just a few of the more popular articles:

Whip the Recession into Submission

Franchise Industry Feeling The US Economic Slowdown - Part Of a Cycle

Four Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in a Recession

Now we also have a radio show with tips for how to not only survive, but thrive during slow economic times.

David Rudofsky, Founder of Rudofsky Associates  shared some recession survival tips and some valuable insights in a recent Small Business Trends Radio episode.

Here is a brief overview of just a few of the topics discussed:

• An Internet presence is crucial — as Internet sales are likely to see a significant increase due to rising fuel costs and a desire by consumers to consolidate excess travel spending.

• Grow your business through acquisition — because a recession is a good time to acquire property and assets at very reasonable prices. Your investment is likely to increase and your business can benefit from the growth and expansion.

• Consider taking your business global — because small businesses can receive assistance from the U.S. government to expand into foreign countries. David says, “With the weakness of the dollar, now is the opportune time.”

David is in his fifth year advising small businesses on financial strategy and he shares many of his tips and survival insights.

To hear David’s interview about recession survival strategies, click the arrow below:

Small Business Trends Radio is sponsored by: JumpUp.com and Infusionsoft

This is a post from: Small Business Trends

Recession Survival Strategies for Business

Maurice Small is the most economically and ecologically sensible planner I know.

Joe Stanley, Sudhir Kade and I have been brainstorming with City Fresh's Maurice Small about "I GRO EC" - Independent Green Republic Of East Cleveland. City Fresh already operates a Fresh Stop at Huron Road Hospital - which Maurice reports is doing great - and is active in community farming in East Cleveland. Recently, we've been discussing City Fresh having an involvement converting Brown's Convenient store into a pilot City Fresh Market, which could offer a paradigm-shifting model for bringing local food, farming and their economies into very needy urban neighborhoods, in very innovative and important ways.

This in via email from the office of Scott A. Ciolek who is the attorney representing the Midwest Retailers Association:

Today, the City of Toledo responded to the Midwest Retailers Association request for a preliminary injunction on the Toledo “Convenience Store” Ordinance. In its response, the City of Toledo explains that the “Convenience Store” Ordinance actually governs all Food and Beverage retail stores smaller than 5000 sq ft. of floor space and that only a portion of the establishments governed by the law have received their applications. The vast majority of these establishment are unaware of their impending obligations.

City of Toledo wrote… (Beginning page 8 of attachment)
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The newspaper business, as readers here probably know, isn’t what it used to be.

The economic crisis for newspapers now will be felt strongly in Cleveland.

Top Plain Dealer executives – Publisher Terry Egger and Editor Susan Goldberg -  told worried editorial staff members yesterday that the business climate is so bad that the paper plans to cut 35 pages a week from its news pages and 20 percent of its workforce.

Here’s an item that should be thoroughly described in tomorrow morning’s Plain Dealer.

  Let’s see if the PD gives us ANY   description about what the public cost of this will or could mean given the desire of Mayor Frank Jackson, Marty Sweeney and the Plain Dealer to keep the public fully informed about public business.

Lorain Catholic Hail Thy Name! The $30 million project will start next month with a $1.5 million renovation of the building at the corner of Tower Boulevard and Falbo Avenue, according to owner Todd Roby. MJ: “We need to realize big corporations don’t bring jobs anymore,” he said. “The only way to get jobs and bolster the [...]

From MarketWatch: December crude oil futures rose for a fourth day and closed at a record high of $93.53 a barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday, after bad weather forced a halt to production in Mexico and the...

This in via email, having had the opportunity to meet Michael in the past, I’m looking forward to hearing more in the future since not all of NWO is urban:

Rural Issues Advocate Named for Ohio Michael Wood to be State Director for My Rural America

COLUMBUS, O. : Michael H. B. Wood, a veteran of several Ohio political campaigns, has been named by My Rural America as its State Director for Ohio, it was announced today. My Rural America Action Fund, based in Washington, D. C., is a grass-roots advocacy organization that specializes in promoting the interests of citizens who live in rural communities.

“We’re thrilled to have Michael join our leadership team as we prepare for the crucial 2008 election,” said Barbara Leach, founder and president of My Rural America. “He brings years of experience and great enthusiasm for communicating ‘bread and butter’ issues such as health care, access to broadband, good schools and rural development,” said Leach.
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James Levin (seated) with the Brew Crew at Carnegie Hall - photo by Sandy Kish