Thumbs up and down in NKY

Thumbs Up: To all the high school graduates and the inspiring stories we've been reading about young people doing spectacular things and overcoming odds. For example, there's Luke Chaney, (right) co-valedictorian of Silver Grove School, who has enlisted in the Navy after a high school career filled with achievements and community service. Then there is Highlands High School grad Alan Hutchison, who is headed to Yale University to study physics. He's a self-described "regular guy" who went above and beyond Highland's course offerings. You'll find more grad stories here.

Thumbs Down: To Brandon Hall, a former Newport High School math teacher, who received a $500 fine and three years' probation. Newport police taped him offering a lighter to juveniles smoking what appeared to be a hand-rolled joint. Hall had no past criminal record, which is partly why he got such a light sentence. Still, when his attorney said Hall was "no threat to anyone," we're not so sure the parents of Newport would agree.

Thumbs Up, sort of: To Boone County and Florence officials who assembled to talk about mutual issues and concerns this week -- for the first time in six years. There was plenty to discuss. Do y'all have schedule books that are really that full?

Readers are invited to submit their own “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” items by replying to the “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” post at this blog. We’ll publish some of the best ones on the Community Forum page of The Kentucky Enquirer as well.

No pity for poor Amy

Norm Aubin, court-appointed attorney for Amy Baker, in discussing his client’s extradition to Kentucky for helping her lover dump the remains of little Marcus Fiesel in the Ohio River, is quoted in Thursday’s Enquirer saying, “She doesn’t understand why this happened… And it’s hard to explain to her why this happened when myself and the (Ohio) prosecutors are also at a loss to understand why this happened.”

That has to be one of the most specious lines in the history of criminal defense.

It’s happening because Baker played a major role in what happened to a helpless 3-year-old while exhibiting all the maternal instincts of a hungry Norway rat.

Baker escaped prosecution in Ohio by agreeing to testify against Marcus’ foster parents and her lovers, David and Liz Carroll. The Carrolls got the life sentences they deserved, but the general public never bought Baker’s claims of powerless innocence or thought she deserved to get off just because she was willing to point the finger at two other hungry rats. Obviously the prosecutor in Kentucky feels the same way.

It wasn’t the Ohio prosecutors’ responsibility to make sure she was immune from prosecution in another jurisdiction. That was up to Baker and the lawyer representing her when the deal was made.

The potential price of not buckling up

When you have a 15-year-old daughter who can't wait to drive -- she knows the exact date in 2008 when she can start -- stories like today's piece on this accident in Colerain Township chill you.

"Three teens were trapped inside the car with the lifeless bodies of their two friends as they waited for emergency crews to rescue them," wrote Enquirer reporters Quan Truong and Cliff Radel. The photo shows twisted metal that used to be a car. Miraculously, three of the five in the car survived, including the two boys in the front seat.

Well, maybe it wasn't so miraculous. Both the boys were wearing seat belts. The deceased girls weren't. Perhaps it wouldn't have made a difference, but that seems unlikely.

So, I'm thinking about this and watching the "Today" show this morning. Matt Lauer is interviewing presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the back seat of a moving car. Neither man is wearing a seat belt. This is only weeks after New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was nearly killed in a crash because he wasn't wearing a belt. Lauer apologizes after the piece and reads a statement from the Romney campaign. The gist: Sometimes Mitt forgets. Click here to see the interview.

What was everyone involved thinking, particularly following Corzine's accident? It's so stupid, I immediately wonder if Romney has the judgment skills to make the decisions a president has to make. And I think about how my wife and I have to constantly remind some of my daughter's friends to buckle up. If you're a regular seat-belt user, you know that forgetting to buckle is as unlikely as not turning on the ignition key.

Don't tell me belts aren't cool, or they bother you, or that it's a matter of your individual liberty. Here's how I feel at this moment: I want police to start ticketing every single car they see where people aren't wearing seat belts. I want the parents of these 14-year-old girls in Colerain Township to not have to bury their daughters.

The 'right' thing to do on immigration?

Sometimes I think we’re living in a political bizarro-world, where left often is really right and up is actually down. Take the issue of conserving energy – a quintessentially conservative position that somehow has become totally identified with the political left. Or take immigration reform, where some critics of Congress’ proposed compromise say that anything short of hauling 12 million people away in boxcars is “amnesty.” Most would label that kind of position by people such as Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., as “conservative.”

But that’s not necessarily so, writes Alvaro Vargas Llosa.in an essay titled “Conservatism has always been pro immigration” on the libertarian-leaning Tech Central Station web site.
He argues that U.S. immigration law is not rooted in economic reality (actually, that’s been obvious for decades). “Whenever there is a disconnect between the law and reality, reality finds ways of making the law irrelevant,” he writes, saying it is time to make the law relevant, reflecting how the market – and thus society – really works. And that’s a job for conservatives.

Throughout history, Vargas Llosa writes, “conservatives have understood that spontaneous social interactions and institutions are what make nations healthy, prosperous and peaceful. It is those social customs – and not bureaucracies detached from reality – that make the law. For conservatives, a real legislator is someone who pays close attention to social norms and tries to adapt to them.” And as Vargas Llosa notes, even Ronald Reagan, the patron saint of modern conservatives, had no problem in 1986 supporting what was called an amnesty. The proposed reform has serious issues – not the least of which is a lack of fairness to legal immigrants who have been waiting for years for permanent status. But it ought to be discussed rationally.

Vargas Llosa makes a provocative argument. I wouldn’t be nearly so cavalier with the rule of law, although his suggestion that government has been living under the “illusion that the laws of supply and demand can be obliterated by an act of political will” rings true. At least this kind of discussion should remind us that we ought to stop oversimplifying what “the” conservative position – or liberal position, for that matter – is on major issues of our day such as immigration reform.

Walk the walk

This post is meant to match up with our walking project that will be on the cover of this Sunday's Forum.

Basically this Memorial Day to Labor Day project has three objectives:

1--Get the editorial board out into the community at the ground level. We're going to come to you, and you can talk to us about anything that's on your mind, as long as you do it while we're walking. If you have something going on in your part of the region you want us to come walk and talk about put a comment on this post.

2--Get off your hind ends and get some healthy exercise. The number of overweight kids in this country has more than doubled since 1987 (the 1987 fat kids are now very likely fat adults). This has all kinds of negative health ramifications for society in general and the best way to deal with it is to get moving. So take our pledge to walk at least 2 miles a day for the 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Again--you can comment here or send us an email at letters@enquirer.com. We want to know who you are, how to get in touch with you and where you walk. We would prefer you keep walking after Labor Day, but hey, 200 is a round number and...

3--...it coincides roughly with the distance from Frankfort, Ky. to Columbus, Ohio, homes of our state legislatures. Those bodies need to get busy and create a health and fitness curriculum for schools in Ohio, which has none, and a stronger one for Kentucky, which has a weak one. Kentucky's governor is a doctor who knows the importance of such a move. He should make it a campaign pledge. Ohio legislators need to tell the state department of education to stop being so afraid of sex education that they refuse to deal with health education in any form. We'll be talking to the legislators and talking to you about talking to the legislators and they should take your pledges to hoof 200 miles this summer as symbolic of your willingness to march on the capitols to urge this action.

Get cracking and kill those e-mails

Maybe it was inevitable: The backlash against the high-tech ideal of staying connected 24/7 – with its constant e-mailing, texting and phoning – has begun. Friday’s Washington Post reported on the growing phenomenon of “e-mail bankruptcy” as individuals struggle to stay afloat in an ocean of electrons screaming for their attention.

It works like this: You reach a point where you’re overwhelmed with an inbox of thousands of e-mail messages you haven’t been able to read, much less respond to. There’s no way you’ll ever dig yourself out of e-mail “debt.” So you simply declare e-mail bankruptcy, saying you intend to make a "fresh start" with a clean, empty inbox. How do you declare this? By sending out a mass e-mail, naturally. Probably to a lot of people who won’t have time to read your e-mail, either. Ain’t technology grand?

It’s not a new concept. As the Post reports, MIT prof Sherry Turkle came up with the phrase in 1999 while doing research for a book about technology’s effect on people. Turkle still hasn’t finished the book – probably because she spends so much time reading e-mail, she jokes.

Many of us know how she feels. I routinely come into work to find about 100 e-mails – most from hucksters, wacko conspiracy theorists and other types of liberals. Come back from lunch, and there’s another 30 or so. At home, I may get another 50-100 a day. Most go unread, piling up. Thank goodness for free Web mail accounts with 2-gigabyte storage.

Good thing the powers that be here at the Enquirer haven’t supplied me with a Blackberry so I can check e-mail while I’m walking the dog or brushing my teeth. Then I might have to take advantage of Rick Ueno’s services. Ueno, general manager of the Sheraton Chicago, created a stir last summer by offering to take over-connected guests’ Blackberrys – fondly called “Crackberrys” by some users – and lock them up in the hotel safe, free of charge. Presumably, if their owners demand them back while they’re still checked into the hotel, desk personnel will refuse them for their own good – like you might do with any addict.

And addicts they are. When Yahoo! tech blogger Christopher Null posted an item about Ueno’s gambit, his readers posted (probably via Blackberry) comments like this:
“I often check my phone for the heck of it … and often times I feel it vibrating when its not even in my pocket … is something wrong with me???”
“Got it so bad I’m out in the middle of a stream Trout fishing last week fishing and reading my emails!”
“I have been threatening to run my boyfriends crackberry over since he got it. Sometimes I feel like cracking him with it!”

Whew. Ueno must be onto something. I think I’ll write him a nice note. Just as soon as I finish killing out all these e-mails.

P.S. In the time it took me to write this, 16 new e-mails hit my inbox.

Giving that really matters

My Webster's dictionary defines philanthropy as "works .. intended to increase the well-being of humanity." You could change the definition to just say "R.C. Durr and Richard and Lois Rosenthal."

Durr (left), who died earlier this week at 88, was a successful businessman who gave back much of his wealth, particularly in his native Northern Kentucky. His R.C. Durr Foundation was ranked in 2000 as one of Kentucky's top 50 in giving. Always modest, he had to be convinced to to let a new YMCA in Burlington be named the "R.C. Durr YMCA."

The Rosenthals, long-time patrons of the arts throughout the Cincinnati region, have given $1.5 million to endow a faculty chair in Northern Kentucky University's theater department. It's the largest private gift to an academic department in NKU's history. And it goes to a department that has become a regional gem and magnet for theater students under the leadership of department chair Ken Jones.

In our story, Jones said the money will be used to "teach, inspire and challenge" students.

That's philanthropy at its best.

Troubling scores for KY students

The KY Dept. of Education released a new round of test scores of high school and middle schools Thursday. To me, the Northern Kentucky results are troubling for two reasons. First, way too many schools are performing under national averages. Second, the results imply we're losing ground with students from middle school to high school.

In the EXPLORE exam, which tests high school readiness for eighth graders, only 9 of 21 NKY schools exceeded the national average. In the PLAN exam, which is a pre-ACT test for 10th graders, only 4 of 17 high schools exceeded national averages.

I didn't bother to count how many schools did better than the KY average. The tally would make more schools look better, but it's irrelevant. All our schools need to be better than the national average -- that's at a minimum.

The Alliance for Excellent Education, a non-profit group that focuses on secondary education, has a report card for Kentucky high schools with statistics such as these: 35th out of 50 states in graduation rates, 40th in the nation in average per-pupil spending, 35th in the nation in teacher pay.

Money only is a piece of the puzzle, of course, and kudos go to the states that spend less and achieve a lot. Unfortunately, that doesn't describe schools in Kentucky.

Do any of you have thoughts on what's happening and why? If so, post a comment.

A purple bridge, but where are the people?

I'm one of those 30,000 Greater Cincinnatians whom marketers thought would climb the Purple People Bridge. I meant to. I had friends who made the climb and liked it a lot. I just never got around to it and now, like so many other unique experiences in our region, the opportunity is gone.

The bridge climb sounded pretty interesting to me, but to be honest, the main reason I would have made it was simply to keep the option open for everyone else. Each time something distinctive and colorful leaves Cincinnati, I worry. I mourn the loss of one-of-a-kind restaurants, movie houses showing foreign films, family arts events, neighborhood festivals,unusual shops, special recreational events.

I hope the Purple People Bridge Climb isn't gone for good. If it returns, I'll climb, simply out of civic-mindedness. But having a reason to make the climb -- a party at the top, for example, as some people have suggested -- would entice me, as would reasonable costs so I could take my whole family and visiting guests.

The best business plans hit it dead-on when it comes to setting a price, creating a sense of excitement and giving people a reason to return again and again. This round of the bridge climb didn't get all those things right, but the next round might. Meanwhile, we all should be grateful for people who stick their necks out to make this a richer and more interesting place to live.

KY election reflections

Ernie Fletcher

Bill Clinton might have to give up his Comeback Kid title. Key Republicans, including NKY's own Jim Bunning, were mouthing last rites for Gov. Ernie Fletcher as his popularity sank amid an ethics mess that was of Fletcher's own making, despite protestations to the contrary. Memo to Democrats for general election: Fletcher won't be as easy to beat as you think.

What does it mean to NKY? If re-elected, Fletcher will remember that he owes the region for a lot of support. He'll continue to support local projects, but it's time for political courage as well as a big checkbook. I will expect both Fletcher and Democratic nominee Steve Beshear to commit to real leadership on two major issues. First is the urgent need to tackle the state's unfair formula for school funding. Second is the need for Kentucky to do more to make sure the Brent Spence Bridge project gets funded someway, somehow.

Attorney General

You'll never find a sharper contrast between two candidates than Republican Stan Lee and Democrat Jack Conway. Lee, a state rep from Lexington, is a social conservative for whom the word "zealot" might fit. Conway is a trial lawyer (boo, hiss) with union backing. These two already are taking shots at each other. One blog poster noted this morning that the GOP probably will paint Conway as someone ready to sanction marriage between animals and people. And the Dems will make Lee look like the leader of the Christian Taliban. This race could be X-rated on the negativity scale.

Lost in the shuffle will be the importance of the attorney general's office. Under KY law, not only does this large department defend criminal convictions and protect consumers, it's the guardian of your right to know, reviewing complaints about violations of open records and open meetings laws.

State Treasurer

OK, normally you wouldn't care, but Republican Melinda Wheeler appears to have won her party's nomination by about 1,000 votes after campaigning on a platform to abolish the office as an outmoded job with duties that can be readily absorbed by other state agencies. That sounds like a discussion worth having. The runner-up, State Rep. Lonnie Napier says he will ask for a re-canvass of votes.

The Montessori mystique

Montessori education is 100 years old this year, a cause for celebration especially here in Cincinnati, which is a hotbed for the approach and home to strong Montessori schools and professional training.

If neither you nor your child attended a Montessori school -- sewing buttons onto felt squares or building literacy skills by tracing sand-paper letters -- then the word conjures up mystery or perhaps confusion.

And even if you or your child did attend Montessori school, there still may be some confusion on how and why the philosophy and painstakingly particular educational approach works.

But does it work? We'd like to hear from you Montessorians out there. What impact did Montessori education have on your life or the lives of your children? Did it instill certain work habits, particular thinking skills or even a Montessori way of looking at the world?

Please send your comments to kramsey@enquirer.com, and feel free to blog about it as well. Thanks!

When Sgt. Pepper met Aunt Ethel

I was struck by a Wall Street Journal story on May 19 taking note of the 40th anniversary, in June, of the release of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.

"When 'Sgt. Pepper' appeared, it was as if a massive block party had appeared outside your window," wrote Russ Smith in the Journal article.

It's interesting to think back on the freeze-frame moments of your childhood. Less than four years earlier, in 1963, I had returned to Mr. Fry's sixth-grade classroom after lunch. He was holding back tears, and he told us JFK was dead. The Beatles blossomed in a world every bit as weird as the one we find today. Today it's hard to imagine what an event an album release by a major artist represented -- let alone the Beatles at the height of their fame and artistic power.

I still have my "Sgt. Pepper" album -- in mono, not stereo, sound. And I clearly remember the first time I heard it, on the hi-fi in my Aunt Ethel's and Uncle Ed's living room in Bloomingdale, Ill. Forty years later, there are some albums I like more than "Sgt. Pepper," but it still stands out; still sounds fresh.

And slap me if I get too caught up in windy social significance -- I just love the music. For my money, no one has ever written a better bass line than the one Paul McCartney plays in "A Little Help from My Friends."

Crowd-sourcing Ohio's new 'land rush'

By Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray’s count, the State of Ohio owns 53,010 parcels of land, from tiny, odd-shaped fragments to large parcels in the hundreds-of-acres range. The problem is, no comprehensive inventory of these parcels exists. With many of them, it is not clear who exactly holds the titles and how they are being used. This means the land is often under-utilized or improperly used and may be contributing to blight, which costs us all in potential economic benefit and quality of life.

Enter, as it so often does these days, the Web. Cordray has taken the inventive step of listing all those known parcels on his department's Web site for Ohioans to peruse, sorting by county and size. He says the idea is to “empower Ohio citizens” to investigate the properties, check other sources such as county auditors’ offices, and report on their status by clicking on their entries online. Cordray is inviting the public to offer ideas on how to identify and use these properties.

The state will use the information to determine whether the pieces of land should be used for commercial development, annexed to adjoining properties, reclaimed for public use or simply sold. Once that’s decided, an interested citizen may even be able to purchase a property from the state.

The idea of using the Web to gather information from a large group of people isn’t new. It’s been called “crowd-sourcing” in the computer business, with firms such as Procter & Gamble, and more recently by the newspaper industry – an effective tool when an organization doesn’t have the resources to do the exhaustive research/data-crunching itself.

In Ohio’s case, it is vastly more efficient and less costly than a “top-down,” government-staffed inventory of lands that could wind up as a taxpayer-gouging, bureaucratic mess. Consider how big a chore is involved: Hamilton County alone has 3,120 listings. Cordray’s Web-based inventory is a smart use of government’s online resources, and it increases Ohioans’ access to public information to boot.

It's called vacation

Americans are good at many things, but vacations aren't one of them.

Summer is nearly upon us, yet 40 percent of us have no plans to take a vacation within the next six months. Rising gas prices are killing road trips, which are projected for a 30-year low. Nearly 60 percent of Enquirer readers said they'll take fewer weekend trips this summer than last summer.

But fuel costs are just an easy excuse. We're conflicted about vacation. We don't plan vacations because we're not really sure we want to take one, or don't remember how.

Work pressures have built to the point that it's easier to just stay at our desks. That way we won't have to catch up on all those blasted emails and phone calls. Besides, bosses think eager vacation-takers are slackers or disloyal. So, though we receive only half the vacation days most Europeans do and fewer than almost any developed country, we end up leaving three on the table every year.

This is a loss, not a gain, for the workplace. Workers who take vacation say they return rested, rejuvenated and more creative. An even more important loss is to the family. Children wait for months to have downtime with their parents, to do more than synchronize schedules and brief each other on daily activities. Couples used to use long, leisurely road trips as an opportunity to reconnect. Now frantic workers shrink two week vacations to one "power week" or even a "power weekend," and even then a quarter check emails and phone messages while away.

Let's take a break. Vacation days aren't just an earned benefit, they're a mental and physical health benefit. Effective work requires effective rest and effective recreation.

If you've forgotten how to play, how to talk to your kids, how to nap, how to do nothing, the upcoming three-day weekend is a great time to get in some practice.

More "Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down" in NKY

A reader asked in a recent post how to nominate "Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down" candidates. Just do so by replying to any of these posts in the blog. We’re publishing some of the best ones on the Community Forum page in The Kentucky Enquirer as well. Reader submissions are more than welcome.

Here are some that caught my eye in Northern Kentucky in the past few days:

Thumbs Down: To lax procedures with inmates. A Boone County prisoner failed to return to jail from St. Luke Hospital West. Timothy Iles of Walton had been allowed to leave on an unsecured bond on the condition that he go to St. Luke for treatment and return immediately to the jail. Now he's on the loose, wanted for that as well as his original assault charge. This follows a recent report of a prisoner who was freed after an accomplice faxed a phony release order to a state prison.

Thumbs Up: (Speaking of St. Luke's) To the Children's Advocacy Center of St. Luke, which is turning 20 years old and is two years into a $1.5 million fund-raising drive to move into a new, 4,000-square-feet facility that's sorely needed. The new facility will provide a lot more privacy and support for more than 500 children who are alleged victims of abuse in eight NKY counties each year. It's an astounding number that shows the need. Call 859-572-2406 to donate.

Thumbs Down: For a weird situation in the Campbell County schools, where Superintendent Anthony Strong wants to fire Campbell County High School Principal Ginger Webb, but refuses to answer the most basic questions about why. Since Kentucky law gives principal-hiring power to school councils, an even weirder scenario is that Webb could get her job back if she reapplies. State law regarding personnel matters should not stand in the way of the greater need for the public to know what's going on in their school district.

Thumbs Up: To Greg Owens, a 32-year-old Cold Spring man who dropped more than 90 pounds from a 300-pound frame and ran the Flying Pig Marathon. He feels better and some health problems have disappeared. Co-worker Ted Jaspers of Fort Thomas calls him an inspiration. We agree and remind folks that obesity is a regional problem, not just an individual issue. It's not too late to learn more about healthy weight loss and join our weight-loss challenge at www.nky.com/gethealthy.

Thumbs Up: To all the school graduates in our midst right now. Our pages have been filled with inspiring stories. Consider the tale of Laura Shelton, 39, of Fort Mitchell, who spent years in a variety of low-paying, long-hour jobs. Then she was in a terrible car accident in 2005, causing significant brain damage. She regressed to a fourth-grade reading level and had to learn to write again. On May 17, she received her degree in massage therapy from Gateway Community & Technical College. "Finally I have an education to believe in myself," she said. "What a great next 40 years."

Handling rumors of school violence

Journalists and school administrators can agree about this: No situation is more vexing to handle than matters of school violence or rumors of school violence. Once people's children are involved, the stakes get higher. And everyone's passion and intensity magnifies.

Newspapers generally try to be careful with these stories. Our reporters frequently get tips and questions about bomb threats, hit lists and all manner of other potentially violent acts in schools. We often don't report these stories, because they turn out to be unfounded, and the perpetrators don't need any encouragement from the news media.

However, each situation has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. I wish news judgments were black and white, but the difficult ones never are.

I think we made the right decision today to write about threats -- or, to be more precise, the fear of threats that might lead to violence -- at Grant County and Conner high schools, because rumors had gotten so out of hand that we had a role to play in rumor control. In both cases, it appears school officials and law enforcement did an excellent job of getting to the bottom of these situations. Plus, news is defined in part as what interests people. I can tell you that there was no topic of more urgent interest in the Hebron-Burlington area yesterday than what was up at Conner High.

I should disclose that I'm also speaking here as the parent of a Conner student, and I hope the Boone County school officials -- good people doing a tough job -- review how communication was handled. I learned details that I needed to know as a parent in this morning's paper, and the detail and candor were helpful. However, mixed messages and lack of official information sparked more angst than necessary for two days. Thus, a lot of parents kept their kids at home. In this Internet/text message age, where rumors spread even faster than facts, rapid response time from officials is critical.

GIVE me some peanuts and CrackerJack

The Los Angeles Dodgers may be bitters rivals of our Cincinnati Reds, but that doesn’t mean the Reds couldn’t learn a thing or two from the BlueBleeders from La-La Land. Like this idea, reported by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday: To get people to fill seats in the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium, the team is offering all-you-can-eat hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, nachos and soda to fans who buy $20-$40 tickets to those seats (previously priced $6-$8). Depending on their eating habits, that could seem to be a good deal for fans. But you can bet the Dodgers aren’t losing on that deal – especially if fans opt for a beer or three. During the Dodgers’ first 18 home games, the WSJ reports, the pavilion was sold out eight times.

Now, I know the nutrition/obesity worrywarts among us are going to wring their hands over this (think of the message this sends to our children, tsk-tsk!), but very few of us center our diets on ballpark fare. And very few of us are going to eat all that much during the course of a game (ever wait in line at those concession stands?)

So this is the sort of creative, enterprising move the Reds – who have been filling around 16,000 of Great American Ball Park’s 42,059 seats in recent weeknight home games – could use even more than Dodgers, who have second-best attendance in the majors. It’s sort of the flipside of something I suggested during the post-strike season of 1995, when the Reds and other teams struggled terribly to regain fans: Offer free admission to the cheap-seat sections. It would have spurred fan interest, and the team at least would have picked up revenue from increased concessions sales.

To sweeten the deal, this year’s Reds could pick a lucky fan from Nosebleed Alley to pitch the eighth inning. That couldn’t hurt, either.

Hardly anyone clamoring for this story

More news on foster care today -- or maybe not.

Hamilton County Job & Family Services hosted a reception at Krohn Conservatory to honor the county's foster families. Dozens of foster parents and children were there, taking in a butterfly show, enjoying snacks and having the kids' faces painted. The Hamilton County Commissioners, Judge Tom Lipps and Cincinnati City Councilman Cecil Thomas were there, thanking the foster families and encouraging others to consider taking on the role.

But although an invitation had been widely distributed to media, only a couple of reporters were present. Where was everybody?

The murder of a child in foster care is an evocative and compelling story. So, too, is the story of a wounded child who enters a loving foster home and comes back to life.

Spitting on Falwell’s grave – before it’s even dug

I certainly was no fan of the Rev. Jerry Falwell. While I recognize his contributions, I think he was greatly, often comically wrong on many issues from Tinky Winky to 9/11. But I am disgusted by the vile reactions that so many were willing to indulge in after his death Tuesday.

Falwell’s heart had barely stopped beating that morning when groups opposed to the televangelist’s politics issued statements all but popping the champagne corks. American Atheists, Inc., after a perfunctory nod to the “grief of friends of relatives,” said it’s glad he’s headed for the nonexistent afterlife because he “worked against many of the key values underpinning our secular American democracy.” The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force lambasted him as “someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation” – which probably could be said about some people the Task Force agrees with, too.

The instant, pile-on nature of those responses was tacky and tasteless, but still they represented legitimate comment – unlike what appeared on an Enquirer blog (not this one) Tuesday afternoon, in response to a post simply asking for reaction to Falwell’s death. Dozens of readers posted such thoughtful epithets as “a Christian Hitler,” a “freak,” “a cancer,” “a boy-toy for satan” (sic). One commenter wished for more deaths: “Now if the other 20 or so Christian Bigot Powerbrokers would finally kick the bucket we’d be in good shape.” Well now, there’s religious tolerance for you. (I’m not going to link to this blog, or any of the others nationwide that had similar “discussions”; if you want to go slumming, find it yourself.)

The problem is, there’s plenty of room – and a real need – for intelligent, informed discussion about Falwell’s career and how he helped change the political dynamics in this nation, for good or ill. He was instrumental in the emergence of what is generally called the “religious right” – which is nowhere near as monolithic, simple-minded or easily defined as its opponents seem to believe. And certainly, you could argue he inspired greater political participation by some on the left as well as the right who traditionally had shied from the public arena. Instead, we got a bunch of he’s-evil-and-I’m-glad-he’s-dead nyah-hyah that seemed to be a proxy for a deeper anti-evangelical hostility.

Think about this: If the subject Tuesday had been another controversial minister such as the Rev. Al Sharpton, God (hey, deal with it, American Atheists) forbid, how would we regard advocacy groups that jumped to smugly gloat about his passing? And if that Enquirer blog had been politically incorrect enough to enable a bilefest of comments on Sharpton the way it did on Falwell, what would we think about those who exploited that venue to spew their acrid rants? We’d think they were hateful, mean-spirited bigots. Enough said.

Inventive spirit is alive and well

Invention too often is the mother of necessity. Our lives are filled with gadgets we didn’t know we needed until we were cajoled into buying them (take car GPS devices – please). And coming from megacorporations, they’re more about marketing than innovation. So it’s refreshing to see that there’s still a place for individual inventors tinkering around in the garage, coming up with devices – often startling in their simplicity – that fill important, even life-saving functions.

Like the CPR glove developed by Corey Centen and Nilesh Patel, students at Ontario’s McMaster University – one of 10 new home-built devices singled out by Popular Science magazine this month in its 2007 Invention Awards. Casting about for an engineering class project, the duo came across statistics that showed most would-be rescuers do not do CPR properly – and that the number of lives saved through CPR could quadruple if proper techniques were used. So they developed a glove with electronics sewn in (by Centen’s aunt) that, when worn by a rescuer attempting CPR, measures the victim’s heart rate, tells the rescuer how often and how hard to perform chest compressions, and even indicates when the rescuer should stop and breathe into the victim’s mouth. If this glove goes into mass production, it’s something every office, school, store and ballfield could use. It could save tens of thousands of lives a year. And it took them only $2,500 to create.

Among the other inventions cited by PopSci:
-- Racecar builder Bruce Crower’s six-stroke gas engine uses the heat from the first four strokes to steam-power the last two strokes, making a gallon of gas go 40 percent farther. Development cost: $1,000.
-- Engineer Paul Gierow designed an ultra-portable satellite antenna that looks like a big beach ball and could be set up quickly to create communications at a disaster site – and you can run it off a car battery.
-- Engineer Richard Glasson designed a kevlar/steel net that can keep rocket-propelled grenades from hitting a helicopter. Think of the lives that would save in Iraq.

These are all products of individual initiative, trial and error, and hard work. They show that the spirit of invention is still alive and well. As the magazine puts it: “Inventing is about solving problems, and not stopping until your solution becomes real.”

Add another charge

Hamilton County Municipal Judge Nadine Allen was faced with a suspect arrested Saturday on traffic and crack possession charges while in her car with a 2-year-old in the back seat. Why, asked the judge, wasn’t she charged with child-endangering as well?

Good question.

I think child-endangering ought to be an automatic add-on charge anytime somebody is arrested on DUI or a drug use charge with a kid present. Even if such a charge ultimately wouldn’t add extra time to a sentence, the point should be made that such behavior isn’t just a danger to the person being arrested.

They're having an election. Who cares?

Political reporter Pat Crowley had a story in today's Kentucky edition of The Enquirer that I found profoundly depressing. I say that even though articles about low voter turnout have become cliches in America. Predictions now are that turnout in the May 22 KY primary could be in single digits in some precincts.

Pat's story quoted a number of people who said something like this: "Why, between the kids and my job, I'm just too busy to pay much attention, and it doesn't do any good to vote anyway."

Let's dissect this logic for why most Americans don't fulfill their most fundamental obligations as citizens.

First, consider "I'm too busy."

I haven't met a single person who says they're too busy who doesn't find time to watch DVDs, read books and magazines, play Sudoku, go to online chat rooms or do myriad other discretionary things even though, jeepers, every single hour of the day is just filled up.

And you can't blame the media for this one. The race is getting plenty of coverage. And anyone with access to a computer can click a mouse and learn all they want to know about the candidates for KY governor in a matter of minutes.

Then there's this: "It doesn't matter."

The next governor could profoundly affect all of these subjects that apparently don't matter:
Decent, quality schools
Affordable, accessible health care for ourselves, our kids & our parents
Whether we have good jobs in our community
How we regulate things like gambling and abortion in this state
Whether we have a clean environment and affordable energy
How much we pay in taxes

A governor has a lot more to do with what happens in the place where we live than any President of the United States. People in Africa stand in line all day in the baking sun to vote. Given a chance for democracy, thousands of Iraqis voted despite threats to their personal safety.

We'd wonder why the rest of the world thinks we're hypocritical, but we're too busy.

Beat it, bullies

Today some colleagues and I discussed teenage pranks and how things that in the past were cause for a parental scolding or eyeball-rolling are now cause for criminal charges, suspension from school and other zero-tolerance responses.

We adults sometimes do enforce rules too rigidly, so afraid to make an exception that we end up with consistent but ridiculous consequences. But there's one topic I'm glad to see adults taking seriously. That's bullying.

The idea that merciless teasing, intimidation and physical abuse is normal adolescent hazing is warped. Nobody learns to be "strong" that way, and there are far better means to learn to stand up for one's self. The victim is scarred by the behavior but so too, in less obvious ways, are the bully and onlookers.

No one is ever going to entirely prevent kids from being mean to each other, but making one kid a target and repeatedly harassing or intimidating him cannot be tolerated. On Tuesday, the Ohio State Board of Education will adopt anti-bullying guidelines, and local school districts will be expected to subsequently adopt their own version.

As with any rules for children, there's a need for common sense. But "kids will be kids" should never be a license for adults to look the other way or for children and adolescents to make a peer's life miserable.

End of 'Coingate'

“Boneheaded” just doesn’t quite cover it.

Crooked would be better. Or dishonest. How about criminal?

Boneheaded is when you lock your keys inside your car. What Terrence Gasper, former chief financial officer of Ohio’s Bureau of Worker’s Compensation did was a lot more like stealing a car.
Gasper, who described his actions to a judge as “boneheaded,” received five years and four months in a federal prison Thursday for accepting bribes in exchange for steering millions of dollars of agency investments to favored companies. This was at the center of the state corruption scandal commonly referred to as “Coingate” because one of the key players was Toledo coin-dealer and Republican fundrais-er Tom Noe. One of the bribes Gasper took was $25,000 from Noe. The scandal made Ohio a national joke and is widely attrib-uted with helping the Democrats take over most of the statewide offices.

Noe is now doing 18 years for stealing from a $50 million state investment he managed. Federal prosecutors originally hoped to get Gasper ordered to repay $13 million, the amount the state lost in Noe’s rare coin deals, but the fines eventually were knocked down to about $60,000.

So far 16 people have been convicted in the associated scandals, which ranged from the $300 million lost by the bureau to the misdemeanor non-contest plea then-Gov. Bob Taft made for failing to report free golf outings and gifts on his financial disclosure forms.

Gasper “was the rot at the core of the apple,” according to one prosecutor. His federal sentence will coincide with five years he has to do in state time for similar charges. He could have gotten up to 20 years, but got off easy in exchange for testimony against others in the scandal. Maybe he wasn’t such a bonehead after all.

It's school -- leave the phone at home

How will they survive?

A judge ruled this week that New York City schools' ban on cell phones is both legal and rational. Teenagers don't have a constitutional right to have a cell phone at school, he ruled. This is no doubt news to the district's 1.1 million students who surely see cell phones as a birth right.

The schools' case against the phones is that they're disruptive, annoying and handy tools for cheating and taking embarrassing photos in the restroom. The biggest case for them is parents' contention that kids need them for emergencies.

It would be great to think there's room for compromise. Boston schools, for example, officially allow students to have cell phones but only if they're turned off and stored during the school day. My guess is that that works in, oh, about 35 percent of all cases.

I think schools should have the right to ban cell phones. Teachers face enough obstacles to getting students to learn; they don't need a Black-Eyed Peas ring tone disrupting a lesson.

Feel free to chime in.

Buddy, can you spare a dime's worth?

I generally agree with Dennis Hetzel’s impressions (below) of how the Kentucky gubernatorial candidates fared at Tuesday’s AARP forum in Frankfort, but I’d add this:

In 1968, when George Wallace said there isn’t “a dime’s worth of difference” between the two major parties, he could have been talking about this race. At least, that’s the way it seemed to me Tuesday. The sponsoring group made sure the candidates discussed health care and seniors’ issues, but even so, there was either a surprising sameness in their positions -- or a lack of clear party identification. You almost could have put all eight of them (right; empty seat in the middle should have been filled by Gov. Ernie Fletcher) in a box, shook them up, and slapped R or D labels on them at random.

Who was the candidate who beat the drums for early childhood intervention, saying the lack of good education is the root cause of a wide range of social and economic ills? A Republican, and the one who identifies himself as the most fiscally conservative, Billy Harper. Who was the one candidate who came out advocating tort reform? A Democrat – Steve Henry. Sure, he’s a doctor, but so are half the other folks running for statewide office, or so it seems. Even in the closest thing to a defining issue in this race – whether to support expanded gambling or “enhanced gaming,” or the latest euphemism du jour – it’s hard to see a real party-line difference. Only Democrat Steve Beshear seems to advocate it unequivocally.

Kentucky politicos are a different breed. Party fervor seems to be even less about real ideology than in other states. It’s more like a generations-long feud between two neighboring families who have long since forgotten what the fight was about.

The race’s quick-witted gadfly, Gatewood Galbraith, says the parties have turned their rivalry into a “blood sport,” and that the other candidates are like a tube of Pringles – “not a ruffle or ridge among them.” Galbraith’s a Democrat. I think.

Is there a doctor in the house?

Enquirer Assistant Editorial Editor Ray Cooklis and I made a road trip to Frankfort today to take a last look at the Kentucky governor candidates. We wanted to see them again as part of The Enquirer editorial board's decision on which candidate to endorse in the May 22 primary. We plan to do this in plenty of time for readers and candidates themselves to respond.

Today the candidates were appearing before a gathering of Kentucky AARP members.

There are two physicians in the race. One of them, incumbent Gov. Ernie Fletcher, didn't show. Too bad, because Dr. Fletcher missed a chance to be a hero.

Midway through the candidate forum, one of the audience members took ill. A voice from the crowd spoke up, saying "We need a doctor," or something pretty close to that.

It was like a scene from "E.R." No sooner were the words uttered when Steve Henry, a physician and Democratic Party contender, bolted from his seat like someone had sent a charge through his seat cushion. Fellow Dem Gatewood Galbraith was in mid-sentence. He stopped and said, "I defer to the situation." Meanwhile, Henry ran into the crowd and attended to the fallen AARP member, who was taken away by ambulance about 10 minutes later. The crowd was told it appeared she would be fine.

Like everyone else, I was glad to hear she was OK. But one side of me kept wishing Fletcher had been around. Would he have beaten Henry to the fallen voter? The governor would have been at a disadvantage, because his seat was a row behind Henry's. I wondered if he would hang back or leap over the table, elbowing Henry out of the way like an NBA center, to prove he's the quickest doctor in the house. Now we'll never know for sure.

As for the forum, I thought Anne Northup was the winner on the Republican side, but it wasn't as interesting with no Fletcher and Billy Harper as an opponent. On the Dem side, I'd score it a close call between Bruce Lunsford, Steve Beshear and Dr. Henry with a slight edge to Henry. House speaker Jody Richards came across as a decent, caring and well-informed candidate, but he didn't project as a leader with vision. Otis "Bullman" Hensley's candidacy is a joke. And you have to hand it to Galbraith. He has the best one-liners, a populist's vision and some interesting ideas. He's worth having around.

Cincinnati School Board follies

Following up on yesterday’s post about the bickering Cincinnati School Board and its inability to figure out that Superintendent of Schools Rosa Blackwell’s “annual” review is supposed to be given every 12 months:

At a Monday meeting the board settled the question of when to give Blackwell her next review – August – seven months after her last “annual” evaluation. A couple of interesting twists in the August review are that it will cover the entire 2006-2007 school year – in other words it will cover a period going back five months before her last review. The review also will be based on criteria that won’t be finalized until later this month. I wonder if one of the criteria the board will set for the superintendent will be mind reading.

In a footnote to my previous post on this subject, Board Member Melanie Bates called to argue about my characterizing the board as “bickering.” Bates said in the past such discussions were usually held in closed-door executive sessions, but she has worked hard to get the board to have such discussions out in the open. Bates felt the board deserved credit for openness. I am all for openness, but I think moving from private bickering to public bickering is only a small sign of progress.

Copyright and copy rights - Apple calls the tune

Sooner or later, the major recording companies are going to have to face the music – literally – and give consumers what they want: legal music downloads without copy-protection schemes. It can’t happen soon enough. For years, music lovers have been struggling with the awkward digital rights management (DRM) systems imposed to thwart “unauthorized” copying from one device to another of songs they’ve legitimately bought.

It’s a mess. The copy protection software itself can cause problems. It’s a hassle for consumers, many of whom own multiple devices for playing back digital music. And it takes away their rights. All copying is not illegal, although the companies would like us to believe that. There still is such a thing as “fair use,” though that concept has been gutted in recent years. The restrictions have driven many consumers away – to file-sharing sites where they still can download files illegally. Record companies are losing sales they’d otherwise get from music lovers, that vast majority of whom wouldn’t think of making illegal copies.

So it’s good to see that Apple Inc. has joined the fray recently. CEO Steve Jobs is pushing the record companies to stop using copy protection on songs it sells on its extremely popular iTunes service. Britain’s giant EMI record group has agreed to such a deal with Apple. This is pretty extraordinary: It would allow consumers to play those songs not only on Apple’s iPods, but on any digital music player. The sound quality would be better than on DRM-laden tracks. In return, the tracks would cost about 30 cents more each – which Apple believes consumers would be willing to pay.

I think Apple’s right. People in our increasingly online digital society, especially young people, regard schemes such as DRM as an intrusion. The technology carries with it a presumption of guilt, implying that we’ll “pirate” music if we get a chance. That’s no way to treat your customers. “Shifting” is not piracy.

So here’s what will happen: EMI will find that its sales increase, not decrease, when it removes copy protection. That will give Apple even greater leverage with the other companies, and they’ll eventually have to follow suit. After all, it’s supposed to be about the consumers.

The battling 'Bickersons' of Cincinnati schools

The Cincinnati Board of Education – also known as the Bickersons for their resemblance to the classic radio show about the eponymously named family – argued for 75 minutes last week about something as basic as giving the superintendent her review.

As Ben Fischer’s story noted Monday, the finger-pointing and back and forth “disrespecting” accomplished exactly nothing. The board is expected to do the same thing again this week.

All this revolves around giving Supt. Rosa Blackwell her annual performance review. Bear in mind that she has a contract that spells out that she is supposed to get an annual review. Annual means once a year. Blackwell didn’t get her first review until she had been on the job for 16 months. She had been on the job a full eight months before the board could even provide her a set of goals (on which her annual review would be based).

The board hasn’t even gotten around to arguing about whether to give the superintendent a good review or a bad one. What they are bickering over is how to read the calendar. President Eileen Cooper Reed suggests honoring a pledge for quarterly progress reports on how Blackwell is doing, with a full review next March. That would be only 14 months after her previous “annual” review. Member Catherine Ingram argued that would put the review too close to when the board has to decide whether to extend Blackwell’s contract. Won’t the review be the basis for that decision?

Can you just imagine the disciplinary chaos we would have in the district’s kindergarten classes if we let the kids see how well the grown-ups running the schools play together?

Some thumbs up & thumbs down in KY

Thumbs Down: To Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who faces a tough battle to be nominated for a second term. Politicians have been known to say contradictory things, but it was a bit hypocritical for Fletcher to say he doesn't see the Kentucky Derby as political and then have campaign literature that, guess what, shows him at last year's Derby. And they're off and running.

Thumbs Up: To Lindy Blankenbuehler, who is retiring after 13 years as swimming coach at Covington Catholic High School, where her teams won six straight regional championships and sent many individuals to the state tournament. But that's not all. She also was English department chair, producer of several school plays and the assistant tennis coach. (Thanks for this suggestion goes to Enquirer reader Rick Robinson of Fort Mitchell.)

Thumbs Up: To the idea of a Mental Health Court to serve Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties. Regional cooperation is an efficient, productive way to address a need. Such a court not only can deal more effectively with accused people who are mentally ill but also has potential to reduce the overcrowded jail population. The proposed court would be Kentucky's second and the first to cross county lines.

Readers are invited to submit “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” items by replying to the “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” post at this blog. I’ll suggest some in this space from time to time. We’ll publish some of the best ones on the Community Forum page of The Kentucky Enquirer as well.

And in the Strange Bedfellows Dept. ...

Well, now, isn’t this interesting? Here’s one issue on which card-carrying ACLU members and card-carrying NRA members may end up carrying the same card. The National Rifle Association has urged the Bush administration to withdraw its support for a bill by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., that would let the attorney general – whoever that might be by the time the bill passes – block gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects.

The key phrase here for the NRA, of course, is “gun sales.” The key word for the ACLU is “suspects.”

NRA director Chris Cox objects to the bill’s “arbitrary denial of Second Amendment rights based on mere ‘suspicions’ of a terrorist threat.” I’d wager that most civil libertarians, even those loath to admit that the Second Amendment addresses an individual liberty, would agree that this could infringe the rights of innocent people. It would give the Justice Department power to deny a gun sale to anyone by putting him on a secret terror watch list – the sort of wide discretion in the name of national security the ACLU has been fighting since the Patriot Act was passed in the wake of 9/11. Due process goes out the window if you are a “suspect.” Sound familiar?

As we’ve discovered often during the past few years, a suspect does not necessarily a terrorist make. And as we’ve discovered recently from the FBI’s overzealous issuance of “national security letters,” such powers have a natural tendency to be abused. Literally anyone could end up on such a secret list. “We cannot tear up our rights under the Constitution in the name of fighting terrorism,” writes the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre. Now where have I heard that before?

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down in NKY

We’re starting a new feature here and want you to contribute.

“Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down NKY” is an opportunity to give credit where credit is due to people and organizations that have done positive things in Northern Kentucky. And it’s a place to point out efforts and events that didn’t work out so well.

Readers are invited to submit “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” items by replying to the “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” post at this blog. I’ll suggest some in this space from time to time. We’ll publish some of the best ones on the Community Forum page of The Kentucky Enquirer as well.

For example, here are a few I’ve collected recently. You get the idea.

Thumbs Up: To Kirsten Allen, a junior softball player at Ryle High School, who broke a state record with her ninth career perfect game.

Thumbs Down: To officials at the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in La Grange. They set a prisoner free after receiving a phony fax ordering his release. According to the Associated Press, the fake court order contained grammatical errors and wasn’t on official letterhead. Policies didn’t require checking the source of a faxed order to release a prisoner. It took two weeks to catch the error; then the prisoner was captured at his mom’s home in Lexington.

Thumbs Up: To Covington police Detective Ron Wietholter. He was named police officer of the year by the Kentucky State Fraternal Order of Police’s associate lodge. Another “thumbs up” goes to his son, Justin, who recently joined the Covington force after graduating first in his class in the Kentucky police academy.

Thumbs Down: To CSX Transportation for suing Covington to avoid fixing railroad bridges that are becoming hazardous eyesores. CSX maintains it has no legal responsibility for maintaining the bridges and overpasses. CSX just reported first quarter earnings of $240 million on revenue of $2.4 billion. Seems like there ought to be a way to work this out.

How many Wal-Marts does Florence need?

We've had a number of interesting reader comments about Wal-Mart's plans to build a second Supercenter in Florence. This one would be near Weaver Road and Route 42, less than 2 1/2 miles from the new mega-store the company opened on Houston Road a year ago.

The comments show the type of concerns usually seen when such plans are launched, particularly regarding increased traffic and congestion in an already-congested area. And there is no doubt that congestion concerns are valid with this site.

Anytime Wal-Mart is involved, reaction takes on another edge. The mammoth company has become a lightning rod for a number of issues, including the way it treats its workers to just a general unease that the company's appetites are insatiable. Wal-Mart often fights this perception when expansions are announced, and it appears that will be the case here.

On top of all that, this land must be re-zoned from an industrial usage to accommodate the new store, and Florence is being asked to annex the parcel.

The Florence City Council will have its hands full with this one. And the voices of all concerned need to be heard as this unfolds -- before the votes are counted.

Who should be the next KY guv?

The editorial board is circling around an endorsement decision in the May 22 Republican and Democratic primaries for Kentucky governor. While politics is a contact sport everywhere, it's more like a demolition derby than an NFL game in Kentucky.

So, which candidate do you like and why?

And, just so you know, I've been asked to join The Enquirer editorial board from my vantage point as the g.m. for The Kentucky Enquirer and NKY.com. That won't keep me from commenting about other subjects from time to time. First of all, I won't be able to help myself. Secondly, I think we have to try to hang together as a successful region. Everyone has a stake in Cincinnati surviving and thriving, and that includes people in Alexandria, Independence, Mason and West Chester.

But that's a subject for another day.

The best memorial to Marcus

On Friday, our region will say a sad good-bye to a little boy we never knew in life.

The remains of Marcus Fiesel, a three-year-old murdered by his foster parents, will be buried, an act of compassion and dignity in a life that knew so little of either.

No one can forget Marcus, but the question is how should he be remembered? Memorial ideas are pouring forth, from a benefit for programs for autistic children to a wall replacing the chimney where his body was burned. Well-intentioned people have suggested everything from a designating a Marcus Fiesel bench in the park where his foster mother falsely said he went missing, to naming the Cincinnati Zoo's new baby rhino in his honor.

Those acts may make us all feel a little better, but the best tribute to Marcus would be a way to keep more children safe -- and that would be for more kind, responsible, child-loving people to volunteer to be foster parents.