Profits, not love, will get Delta's attention

The timing seems good for business and consumer groups to join ranks over Delta's high fares out of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Part of that is starting to happen, as witnessed by the story in today's Enquirer about efforts in the business community to pressure the now-profitable carrier to give the region some relief.

It's important: Delta's fares can impede the region's ability to attract and retain good jobs. And the fares are big barriers for anyone thinking of coming here as a tourist, convention-goer, friend or family member.

People appreciate that we have so many non-stop flights to so many places, and everyone I know is willing to pay a bit more for convenience and service that far exceeds many regions our size. But it's hard to buy Delta's claim that maintaining the CVG hub justifies fares that are routinely double (or more) the cost of flying out of Dayton, Louisville or Indianapolis. Delta doesn't have a hub here as a public service. Show me the accounting that justifies $1,200 round trips from Cincinnati to Washington when non-stops from Dayton are under $300.

Of course, Delta is in business to make money, not take pity on us. CVG spokesman Ted Bushelman often points out that whenever discount carriers have come to CVG, consumers haven't supported the newcomers, flocking back to Delta once the airline matched the introductory prices. Then the competitor leaves and the prices go back up.

This region has shown Delta a lot of love over the years, but -- as Tina Turner sang -- what's love got to do with it? The case has to be made on the most fundamental level. Nothing will change until Delta believes it will make more money, not less, by doing what the region needs Delta to do.

Politics and rhetoric align in Craig case

Republicans seem to be falling over themselves to separate themselves from Idaho Sen. Larry Craig in the wake of the disclosure of his guilty plea to disorderly conduct for allegedly seeking gay sex in a Minneapolis airport bathroom. (How could you make this stuff up?)

I found this item in today's Washington Post, and it got me to wondering:

"Any resignation would clear the way for Gov. C.L. 'Butch' Otter, a Republican, to name a replacement who would serve until the end of Craig's current term in 2009. Lt. Gov. James Risch and Rep. Mike Simpson were among the possible replacements, according to the GOP activists, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly."

My question is this: Given the razor-thin margin that Democrats have to control the U.S. Senate, would the GOP be so quick to treat Craig like toxic waste if, say, Idaho's governor was a Democrat who likely would appoint a "D" to replace Craig?

Just wondering.

OK, but Darby STILL sucks

I've long thought that a civilization’s doom is sealed when it loses its sense of humor. If that’s the case, we're in big trouble. The latest evidence comes from Hilliard, Ohio, where high school student Kyle Garchar was suspended this week for tricking football fans from a rival school into holding up 800 stadium flip-cards in a pattern that read “We Suck.”

Garchar, a senior at Hillard Davidson High School, took about 20 hours creating a grid of black cards and white cards that were left on stadium seats for fans of Hilliard Darby High School to raise after halftime of last Friday’s game between the two schools. The fans thought they were spelling out “Go Darby.” They weren’t. The result turned up on YouTube, as does seemingly everything else of questionable significance these days. It was a typical juvenile prank, although more ingenious than most and fairly harmless. And it was far from original: Remember the 1961 Rose Bowl, when Washington fans were tricked into spelling out "CalTech" in flip-cards on national TV? But Garchar’s principal wasn't amused. Saying it violated his expectation of sportsmanship from his students, he gave Garchar three days of in-school suspension and banned him from extracurricular activities for a semester. Swell. That’ll give Garchar plenty of free time to think up new tricks.

The irony is that if Karchar had devoted those 20-plus hours trying to do something more subversive like, say, unlock the iPhone for use on other networks, as New Jersey teen George Hotz did early this week, he too might have parlayed his efforts into a “sweet Nissan 350z” and a cool job with a cell-phone firm. Instead, he gave an administrator yet another excuse to squelch student ingenuity, individuality and enterprise, not to mention the God-given right to do silly, juvenile things (remember “Bong Hits 4 Jesus”?).

Maybe the principal thought that holding up the cards hurt Darby fans’ self-esteem or something, but I suspect that many of the “victimized” rivals found the whole thing hilarious. Indeed, two Darby students helped Garchar set up the stunt. They got the same punishments after the two schools’ principals coordinated their zero-tolerance game faces. And after all, Darby won the game 21-10, beating last year's Division I state champs, so they couldn’t have, well, sucked that badly.

“We just thought it was all in good fun,” said Jen Trimmer, one of Karchar’s indicted co-conspirators. Sorry, Jen. Evidently there’s no such thing anymore.

New candidates for parents of the year

It’s been a while since I nominated anyone for this award, but the headline on the Enquirer's Web site this afternoon just spoke to me: “Police: Couple brought child to drug deal”.

it was a news brief about Tyrone Burke, 24 and Melanie Lykins, 20, of Forest Park, charged with trafficking in drugs and child endangering. Police say they took their 1-year-old daughter with them when they went out to sell marijuana.

Maybe they couldn’t find a sitter.

The story struck a chord because I had just finished reading a story on the front page of the New York Times about Kenneth Foster, a man awaiting execution Thursday in Texas. He was an accomplice in a 1996 robbery/homicide.

That story quotes his father, Kenneth Foster Sr., described as a former heroin addict, talking with regret about how he used to take his baby son along on drug runs.

In the local case Hamilton county Municipal Court Judge Ted Berry Jr. set Burke’s bond at $7,500 and released Lykins, who is expecting another baby, free on her own recognizance.

Do these kids have any chance at all?

Cecilia Slaby's death

Cecilia Slaby died a horrible death last Thursday, strapped in her car seat left by her mother, Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, in a closed car left in the searing heat for eight hours.

For the past week there have been thousands of comments, in letters to the editor, on Internet chat sites, on the radio, from people trying to comprehend how something so senseless happens.
An unfortunate reaction to horror is that it brings out a sense of real savagery in some people. Cecilia had to be buried in a private ceremony at an undisclosed location because her grieving family feared the public reaction. The school where her mother worked, and where the car was left parked, reports receiving threatening calls.

Whether Nesselroad-Slaby will face criminal charges has not yet been determined. The county prosecutor said all indications were this was an accident.

Many people say they can’t comprehend how any mother could forget her child, not just for a few minutes, but for an entire day. They say this was clearly negligence. That’s a reasonable question for a grand jury to decide.

But a substantial number of people insist on twisting the story, focusing on such irrelevancies as the fact that the car involved was a Mercedes-Benz. A luxury car, they suggest, means the mother must be especially uncaring. How people equate car make with parental love is beyond me.

The truth is the car was 10 years old, bought used after a wreck and restored by the dead girl’s father so her mother would have a solid, reliable way to transport the kids.

The truth of this situation is almost horrible beyond description. There is no need to make it worse with threats and distortions.

Comair crash creates lawsuit parade

News item from the Louisville Courier-Journal: "The co-pilot of Comair Flight 5191 -- the lone survivor of last year's crash -- is suing the company that designed the runway lighting at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington."

According to the story by James Carroll, James Polehinke's attorneys claim that Avcon Inc.'s negligence caused the accident.

This is not the place to rehash all that's known about the causes of the crash, but it's hard for a neutral observer to conclude anything other than that the primary causes were Polehinke and Capt. Jeffrey Clay taking off from the wrong runway after failing to follow cockpit procedures and process rather-obvious information available to them.

That doesn't deny secondary blame for others involved. It's a long list, which includes Comair, Avcon, Blue Grass Airport and the FAA. The airport and the FAA seem lawsuit-proof, so the lawyers must hunt for other deep pockets. Most air crashes are like that -- a cascade of events that lead to tragedy and lawsuits.

On one level, you can sympathize with Polehinke's pain and suffering and the potential financial hardship he faces through a long, difficult recovery. But it smacks of blame-shifting that adds to the pain of the other victims for someone who was the lone survivor and major cause of a tragedy to join the lawsuit parade.

After all, if a stoplight is broken at an intersection, you're expected to use extra caution and still avoid an accident, not make flippant comments to your seatmate and keep moving.

UPDATE: Additional lawsuits were filed last Friday by Polehinke and by Amy Clay, widow of Comair Capt. Jeffrey Clay. Click here for the story.

Today's dinosaurs walk with tourists

I don't have any problem with the taxpayer-supported Northern Kentucky Convention & Visitors Bureau's Web site listing the Creation Museum as a local attraction. One thing is for sure about the museum -- it's an attraction that draws tourists.

But I also understand why scientists, taxpayers and others who don't accept the fundamental premise of the Creation Museum have a problem with the way the attraction is portrayed on the site. (Here's a link.) That premise, you'll recall, is that dinosaurs and humans were together on the Earth only a few thousand years ago. This is, at best, a controversial belief that even many Christian skeptics of evolution reject.

What stirred Daniel Phelps, head of the Kentucky Paleontological Society, was the statement on the site that "this 'walk through history' museum will counter evolutionary natural history museums that turn countless minds against Christ and Scripture."

Pat Frew of the convention bureau countered that content comes from the attractions themselves since they know best what is at their venues. Here's a link to our story, which also contains links to comments from both sides.

Frew's point makes sense probably 99 percent of the time. But this isn't just any attraction either. Because there is no attribution, the wording makes it sound as though this is the position of the convention bureau on this controversial subject. And it's hard to imagine the Cincinnati Museum Center having a promotional paragraph attacking another museum.

The answer seems pretty simple. The bureau should say on its Web pages and in its other promotional materials that venue descriptions are provided by the attractions.

I've met some of the Creation Museum leaders. They're bright people who feel genuinely called to do what they do. They respond openly to criticism and obviously are savvy marketers. They've earned some grudging respect from their critics. And, because this is America, I definitely appreciate having the right not to accept all the Creationist views.

Bringing home a better report card

Ohio gets high marks in my book for the newest changes in its school report card.

It lists a wider range of measures of student and school performance, such as mean scores for the SAT and ACT, the percentage of students taking the college boards, the number taking Advanced Placement tests and how they performed.

The new indicators can help parents and taxpayers see, not only performance gains on state proficiency tests, but also gains in students' aspirations. A high-performing school should have more and more students who take rigorous courses and who apply to college. As a parent and a taxpayer, I'd gladly see some test scores dip if it meant a widening of the pool of students willing to challenge themselves to tougher classes.

And providing more information can lead communities to ask deeper and more thoughtful questions about their schools. If a district's Advanced Placement enrollment is low, for example, it may lead parents to ask how many AP courses the school offers and how that number compares to those of other districts.

Students' performance on standardized state tests -- such as the Ohio Graduation Test -- is only one measure of how well the school is doing. Find a school that keeps deepening and broadening its curriculum, and that encourages students to take a risk with tougher courses and to aspire to more prestigious colleges, and you'll see a school that is poising itself for long-term, substantive progress.

Hit 'search' for 'Google government'

Remember last summer, in the height of the debate over lobbying scandals and pork spending, when Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., proposed a giant, searchable online database giving citizens access to data on virtually all federal spending? The proposal, hailed by both the left and the right, led to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, co-sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. It passed, despite a “secret hold” put on the bill by Senate porkmeisters Ted Stevens of Alaska and Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who were “outed” by conservative bloggers.

Letting Americans see who’s getting federal contracts and for how much would encourage openness, and accountability and, ultimately, confidence in government. The Office of Management is designing the Web site, which is supposed to be online and active by January 2008. But it's received little public attention – until now.

The libertarian Reason Foundation is leading a coalition of 36 organizations that’s trying to make the database an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. They’re trying to get candidates to sign a pledge that if elected, they’ll lead “the most transparent administration in American history” and make the online database an integral part of government culture. Americans could use a simple online search tool to find all sorts of information that until now has remained out of reach. Reason calls it “Google government.” So far, three candidates have signed the pledge, Reason announced Friday – Obama, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas. The others are mulling their options – or maybe checking with their big campaign contributors.

Candidates are often, and understandably, loath to sign pledges that might lock them into specific positions on issues. Unfulfilled or unfulfillable pledges have a way of coming back to haunt politicians. But this one is, to quote Paul, a “no-brainer.” The bill passed overwhelmingly, and the idea has support across the political spectrum. Conservative groups like it because they think the database will prove that government spends and wastes too much. Liberal groups want to expose hidden interests and show the benefits of an activist government. Already, there are signs that the concept is forcing government to become more responsive and interactive.

Open government is not just a good idea – it’s our right as citizens. Candidates for office on all levels ought to understand that.

The trouble with term limits

Lots of old familiar faces in the Cincinnati City Council race following Thursday’s filing deadline.

Roxanne Qualls, Charlie Winburn and Minette Cooper all want their old positions back, having been previously term-limited and forced to sit out at least four years as required by the city charter.

I’d say the chances are pretty good for at least two, possibly all three, getting back on council. If that happens it will confirm the fallacy of the whole term-limit philosophy. As former councilman and term-limit advocate Nick Vehr explained in a story the other day, the idea behind term limits is to let new blood circulate through the political process. Council members can serve eight consecutive years but then have to leave, even if they want to stay.

I think it’s a bad idea whenever you take voters out of the political process. The idea that incumbency somehow makes council candidates invulnerable just isn’t true. Just ask Christopher Smitherman and Sam Malone, both of whom were voted out of their seats two years ago well before they reached term limits.

On the other hand, Jim Tarbell, forced off council by term limits this year (and now migrating over to the school board race) probably could easily have kept his council seat for another term if the decision had been left up to the voters.

Sunday booze OK at Speedway, but not at winery

Tricia Houston of Gallatin County -- home of the Kentucky Speedway -- is among a number of Northern Kentucky entrepreneurs pursuing the idea of growing grapes and making wine. While the idea of Kentucky wine might sound funny to some, you don't have to squint to see parts of Northern Kentucky that look a lot like Northern California. And state officials think grape-growing can be a logical alternative in many locations to a product with no redeeming social value -- tobacco.

Unfortunately for Houston's Cat's Meow Vineyard, Gallatin County officials appear poised to reverse a ruling to allow Sunday alcohol sales -- a move that Houston says could cost her 35 percent of her business based on the weekend business that most wineries do. Instead, she'll try alternative crops to make up the difference.

Maybe that's OK. If it's true that most residents of Gallatin County really don't want Sunday sales, officials can say they're responding to the will of the people.

But it doesn't seem fair to me. Houston doesn't have the clout to get what the state legislature gave Warsaw and the Speedway: a special exemption to sell alcohol on race days. A wild guess is that there is more potential danger on Gallatin County's roads from selling beer to 50,000 race fans than from a few wine buffs showing up at a vineyard on any given Sunday.

And Gallatin County residents can't have it both ways. Don't wish for economic development and a healthier tax base if you send a signal that the county isn't a friendly place for entrepreneurs to take risks with reasonable ideas.

UPDATE: County magistrates on Thursday night voted 3-1 to repeal their 2-year-old measure allowing Sunday alcohol sales. Houston is quoted in an Associated Press story as saying, "I'm absolutely astonished that I could be sitting there and listening to people's personal religious preferences as an indicator of the county's ability to move forward."

Dog days in Butler County

Has Butler County Judge Rob Lyons' decision on a dog named China come back to bite him?

China, aka Shadow, was a neglected pooch whose owner was found guilty of letting a chain collar get so tight that it was embedded in the flesh of the dog’s neck.

Lyons convicted owner Otis Clark Jr., on Aug. 2, of animal cruelty and having an unlicensed dog. But after Clark paid his fines and fees, Lyons allowed him to have China back; a move that outraged lots and lots of dog lovers in the region and prompted County Auditor Kay Rogers to say on a radio talk show that Lyons’ own three dogs didn’t have up-to-date licenses.

Actually by then Lyons’ son had registered the dogs – Cocoa, Allie and Ike – although they hadn’t been registered at the time of Clark’s conviction. All dogs are supposed to be registered by Jan. 31 every year, which means Rogers was technically correct that Lyons had been in violation.

The judge has defended his handling of China’s case, noting in his own radio interview that he has ordered Clark’s probation officer to periodically check on the dog’s welfare.

It’s fair to wonder why the judge was willing to give the dog back to somebody convicted of animal cruelty, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was convinced the Clark family will take better care of China now that the whole world and the county probation department are watching.

I do wonder about the county auditor ratting him out on the radio. The fact that he had belatedly gotten the licenses apparently has not softened her attitude toward the judge. The Enquirer reported she said Tuesday that she still considered the judge a dog law violator for having been late with the registrations, a matter she said she would have her staff bring to the attention of the county prosecutor.

Even with public outrage about animal cruelty rightly raised by the horrors of the Michael Vick case, I think that’s going a little far. If Rogers keeps gnawing at this bone, I think somebody should yank her chain.

So why are kids in school in August?

Is it hot out here or what? With the temperature inching toward 100 degrees this week, the real point is that it’s hot in there – for already-back-to-school students sweating it out in area schoolrooms, most of which are about as far from air-conditioned as you'd ever want to get.

How hot is it? It’s so hot (drumroll, please) that a number of area school districts released their students early on Wednesday, and will do so for the rest of the week. But the real punchline is that schools were in session in the first place. I don’t imagine kids get the joke.

Although more extreme than in some years past, this heat wave is all too typical of mid- to late-August in Greater Cincinnati – and all too predictable. Which begs the question: What in blazes are schools doing hauling kids back into their hotbeds of learning for, in some cases, virtually the entire month of August? Can you say "heat stroke"? I knew you could.

I know, I know. The complexities of modern education – bus scheduling, testing calendars, athletics, logistics, contracts, whatever – make it necessary, school officials say. But many of us can remember the days when the school year was neatly and logically framed by the holidays that traditionally define American summer as well – schools let out right after Memorial Day, then called students back in right after Labor Day. You avoided the sweltering and/or dry-roasting heat. Kids concentrated better and learned more, I’d bet. Don't dismiss this as the artifact of an antiquated agrarian educational model.

The next education reform ought to be called No Child Left Behind in the Mojave Desert in August.

A fatal inability to get the job done

Add the names Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino to the list of 9/11 victims. The two New York firefighters were killed Saturday in a fire that spread through the Deutsche Bank building in lower Manhattan. That building, you may remember, was heavily damaged by the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and was abandoned. Yet nearly six years later, it was still standing. Correction – it IS still standing. The process of demolition, or “deconstruction” as they like to call it now, was just underway.

Why six years? The building has been the focus of arguments, lawsuits and political posturing ever since 9/11: who would pay for its demolition and how; a tangled insurance liability mess; worries about hazardous materials in the structure such as asbestos, dioxin, lead and more; concerns from 9/11 victims’ families that some tiny fragments of their loved one’s remains might still be in or on the building. These are all legitimate issues, but the intransigence of the “stakeholders” on those issues led to a failure to accomplish a vital task.

And so a fire standpipe and a valve in the long-abandoned building failed Saturday. Firefighters had to haul hoses up 17 floors full of plastic curtains and “negative air pressure” plywood decontamination stations. Two of them didn’t make it down from a building that should have been razed long ago. The chairman of state corporation that owns the site said Saturday’s fatalities were caused by a “perfect storm of misfortune.” Yes, that, plus incompetence, narrow thinking and a lack of common sense.

We see too much of this paralysis these days, in places such as Cincinnati as well as New York. Projects don’t get done because too many interested parties have too many agendas and issues that have to be satisfied before anything happens. If our society eventually collapses, it may well be from a chronic inability to look at the whole picture, consider the optimum common good and just get it done.

Thoughts on gas, coal, trucks and ethics

Random thoughts on a Monday morn:

Keep researching coal: Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., is a big booster of coal-to-liquid fuel technology. He asserts the technology, including environmental concerns, is a lot more settled than others seem to think. But I agree that coal must play a role if America ever will be less energy dependent on the Mideast. Bunning says we have a 250-year supply. Everyone made fun of President Jimmy Carter when he put on a sweater, sat by the fire and warned us about this. But imagine what a different world we’d have if we had taken this seriously in the 1970s. Imagine if President Bush had made energy independence a national goal on par of landing a man on the moon.

The ethanol myth: Bunning shares my skepticism of ethanol as a long-term solution. In a talk last Friday to the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, he pointed out that vehicles fueled by ethanol actually get lower mileage than gasoline-fueled vehicles, and the energy required to produce ethanol is significant. It’s mainly a boon for corn farmers, which is why senators from Iowa get as excited about ethanol as senators from Kentucky get about coal technology.

Ethics, Kentucky style: The Kentucky Ethics Commission has ended its investigation of Gov. Ernie Fletcher without bringing any charges. Fletcher, facing a difficult re-election battle, released a letter last week from June in which the commission’s director, Jill Lemaster, said the panel voted to end the probe of the chief exec.

The investigation was in connection with the administration’s role in the hiring and firing of state civil service workers for political reasons. The commission has pending charges against five former Fletcher administration members. Recall that the governor pardoned almost everyone but himself from criminal liability, admitted mistakes were made, called it a Democratic-inspired witch hunt and steadfastly blocked the investigation in most ways possible.

Here are some things you need to know about the ethics commission:

Fletcher appointed four of the five members. Several have contributed money to him. The commission voted in a secret session and refuses to release how the individual members voted, citing state law.

Maybe the commission made the right decision, but this process is so flawed and tainted that it has no credibility. The governor shouldn’t have the power to appoint all the commission members, and the votes of individual commissioners certainly should be subject to public scrutiny.

Keep on trucking: There is lots of debate about whether to keep big rigs off the Int. 71-75 corridor through downtown and Northern Kentucky, forcing truckers to go around on Int. 275 or take other alternate routes.

Covington Mayor Butch Callery would disagree, but the more I read, the more I conclude this doesn’t seem realistic as a permanent move. However, when the Brent Spence Bridge is finally replaced, it’s certainly a temporary measure that must be considered to avoid gridlock.

One idea I haven’t heard anyone suggest is to ban large tractor trailers during weekday rush hours. You could enforce it by providing some sort of special, magnetic placard for trucks that are making local deliveries. And it would help if police enforced the laws we have. Has anyone ever seen a truck pulled over for using the outside two lanes going up the cut-in-the-hill?

Kentucky energy

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher is calling the General Assembly into special session Monday to deal with an energy bill.

Let’s hope the lawmakers exhibit a little energy of their own and at least engage in a little debate before voting to go home.

The bill includes tax breaks for a proposed $3 billion coal gasification plant, but election year politics mean the Democrat-controlled legislature doesn’t have much patience with Republican Fletcher.

The bill was part of the agenda for a special session Fletcher called last month. But the House decided to go home as soon as members got there, saying most of what the governor wanted them to do could wait until the next regular session in January.

This time the energy bill is the only thing on the agenda, which means it shouldn’t be too much trouble for lawmakers to focus their attention on its merits.

Municipal Wi-Fi - More reasons Wi not

Recently, an Enquirer editorial urged caution on Cincinnati’s plan to offer citywide wireless Interent (Wi-Fi) access within three years. It cited an Associated Press report that outlined the problems other cities have encountered in setting up such systems – inflated costs, wasted tax dollars, unfinished systems and lack of usage by residents. And it posed a question: With the competitive market already offering an array of free or low-cost wireless access points locally, wouldn’t a government-sponsored system be more of a bragging point than a practical utility?

A story Thursday in the Wall Street Journal ought to heighten that question. It also reports that cities such as Philadelphia are struggling with cost overruns of 30 percent or more, while use of the service is below expectations. Even when cities partner with tech firms that build and operate the systems, the economic model just isn't working. There are privacy and environmental concerns as well. A potential deal with Google and EarthLink has become a hot political issue in San Francisco, which has put the proposal onto the ballot for November.

Besides, the 90-plus existing citywide systems could become co-opted by a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs that is proposing to offer free wireless broadband Internet service to 95 percent of the nation within a decade, despite current opposition from the Federal Communications Commission. And rapidly changing technology could make current Wi-Fi obsolete in a few years. Who better to adjust to changing technology – government bureaucracy or the free market? Cincinnati could get ahead of the curve here by not joining the herd.

Wi-Fi is not analagous to fixed, traditional infrastructure services such as sewers or water or street repairs. I’m an avid Wi-Fi user, but I’m becoming more convinced that this is not one of the things that government does well – or should do.

Keep watchdog off the leash

A watchdog that can’t bark doesn’t offer much protection.

That’s why the proposed ombudsman for Hamilton County’s Department of Job and Family Services should not have to filter reports through the department director or the county administrator.

Commissioner Pat DeWine proposed the ombudsman to act as a public whistle blower at JFS, an agency that has been plagued with high profile disasters recently – including a financial audit that questioned the department’s accounting practices involving millions of dollars, the murder of a child in a placement arranged by the department and the failure of department personnel to follow the direct orders of a Common Pleas judge.

DeWine was dismayed when County Administrator Pat Thompson came back with a job description for the ombudsman that would require the person to consult with him before reporting on any problems in the department.

That would be a watchdog with a muzzle.

Commissioner David Pepper agreed that the ombudsman needs independence and the matter has now been scheduled for a work session to come up with a job description everybody can live with.

If this is to be a truly independent position, it needs full access to everything JFS does and complete independence from the county bureaucracy.

'Spirit of the law' usually means you've lost

Whenever someone says someone else should follow "the spirit of the law," it's code for: "I don't have a legal way to force you to do what I want you to do, but you should do it anyway."

Take it from me. I'm a veteran user of that line from myriad disputes with public officials over open records and open meetings. If you have a reasonable case and can lay enough of a guilt trip on the officials involved, sometimes it even works -- but not very often.

I doubt that attorney Eric Deters will get much traction with that position as he represents Independence residents in the fight over where a new Kenton County Jail should be located. Deters, as quoted in our story in today's Kentucky Enquirer, said Kenton County Judge Executive Ralph Drees should "follow the spirit of the law" because the controversial site of the new jail is 1,336 feet from Summit View middle and elementary schools. State law sets a 1,000-foot limit on how close sex offenders can live to a school.

Regardless of how you feel about the jail site, this seems like a grasping-at-straws ploy to touch the emotion engendered any time you say "sex offender."

First of all, Kenton County Attorney Garry Edmondson said Deters has measured to the property line, and the jail itself would be more than 4,000 feet from the campus.

Secondly, Edmondson doubts that prisoners would be considered residents under state law. When was the last time you heard anyone being described as "residing in the county jail"? It's not like they can come and go as they please, and they're not registered sex offenders until they leave incarceration.

Using stronger, more rational arguments would be in the spirit of healthy debate.

What happens in Vegas may end up on Google

If you think Americans still have some control over their personal privacy, it may be time to think again. Lately, camera-bearing Google Maps trucks have been driving around Southern California, taking street-level photos to be incorporated into the Web service’s online maps – and stirring up controversy as well. With Google’s new Street View feature, now available in nine metropolitan areas (but not Cincinnati), you can take a virtual drive up New York’s 5th Avenue or across Los Angeles’ Wilshire Boulevard. It looks cool, and it’s highly useful, for example, for potential home buyers, or for travelers who want to become familiar with the route they’ll be taking.

But it has brought unintended consequences, the Los Angeles Times reported last week. As soon as the new Street View sequences had been released for the San Francisco Bay area, for example, bloggers had posted shots they had found of recognizable individuals “caught in the act” by Google’s cameras – sunbathing, getting traffic tickets, walking into an X-rated book store. One man was caught sitting on a park bench picking his nose. Instances of nudity and public urination were taken down. Finding unusual images on the Google maps has quickly become a sort of voyeuristic sport among California bloggers.

Google promised to take “inappropriate” images off the site if people complain – even though it really doesn’t have to. Legally and practically, you can have no real expectation of privacy on public streets. If you’re embarrassed when friends drive by while you’re getting a speeding ticket, that’s just tough.

The difference here is that these random little actions are documented for posterity – and may come back to haunt you. Imagine a prospective employer seeing a shot of you sauntering into a porno shop. Attorney Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who was caught sneaking a cigarette in a Google street shot, told the Times: “My life will go on. But it makes me worry about the people exiting Alcoholics Anonymous, an abortion clinic or a controversial religious or political meeting.”

Bankston and other privacy advocates want Google to blur all the faces caught on its Street View maps. “We expect some degree of anonymity in our lives. How does one maintain a free society when all of your activity is scrutinized?” he asked. He may be overstating things – it’s not “all your activity” but a frozen moment – yet his point is valid. Google’s project is just one of a growing number of creeping intrusions by public and private entities to document what we do. In total, they can threaten our increasingly fragile concept of a free society. Then again, if that quote attributed to Mark Twain is correct, Cincinnatians won’t have to worry about being caught picking their noses on Google until 2027.

Talking down to our children - and to ourselves

Those popular “build-a-brainy-baby” videos simply don’t work, according to a new study by a group of pediatric researchers in Washington state. In fact, they may hinder verbal development of children between the ages of 8 and 16 months: For each hour a day watching videos such as Disney’s “Brainy Baby” series, the study concluded, babies know six to eight fewer words than babies who do not watch them. So instead of building vocabulary, these pre-fab productions with carefully cultivated word lists expose young children to fewer words and ideas than interaction with parents and others can provide.

I’d say it’s evidence that children, even (or especially) very young ones, shouldn’t be “talked down” to. Human beings need challenges to make them stretch and grow – intellectually, physically and spiritually. And it’s yet further evidence of the harm that’s done when TV watching replaces real-life experiences for young children. The American Academy of Pediatrics says children should not watch television until they are at least 24 months old. Hmmm. How about 24 years old? “I would rather babies watch ‘American Idol’ than these videos,” said researcher Dimitri Christakis, a University of Washington professor of pediatrics.

Speaking of “Idol,” maybe there’s a message in this for the rest of society, which is being pumped full of increasingly dumbed-down fare on the tube. The newest crop of reality and game shows appears to be even more mind-numbing than the last crop, if that’s possible. Nothing there to challenge us to stretch and grow, by any means. Nothing there to enrich our thinking, much less our vocabulary. We are what we watch – and we’d better watch out.

Of Knothole, grease thieves, fen-phen & Fletcher

Thumbs up to Knothole baseball on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. Greater Cincinnati Knothole reached an all-time high of 37,000 participants this year in 27 districts. As Enquirer reporter Shannon Russell put it yesterday in an excellent group of stories, "Knothole is thriving based on tenets that haven't changed in decades: community, camaraderie, life lessons and fun." Dozens of our readers also contributed marvelous memories of Knothole.

Now that's some good news. Check it out here.

Thumbs down to grease thieves, of all things. According to a story by Enquirer reporter Scott Wartman, "the rising price of ethanol and increasing popularity of biodiesel fuel have spurred more people to take grease from traps behind restaurants to convert it to biodiesel or sell it on the black market."

A Cold Spring-based firm, Griffin Industries Inc., works with law enforcement around the country. Griffin renders restaurant grease for resale, and says thieves can sell grease for between 10 and 15 cents a pound.

Of course, these thieves aren't even close to playing in the Big Leagues of Greed. That honor likely will go to the fen-phen lawyers who are accused of pocketing a huge unfair percentage of the take from a $200 million settlement from the makers of the discredited diet drug. Last Friday, a federal judge threw lawyers Shirley Cunningham Jr., William Gallion and Melbourne Mills into jail, saying they're a serious flight risks as they await trial.

The victims --400 Kentucky residents -- should have received $133 million but got $45.5 million instead. Talk about some serious grease.

And money is the grease of politics, too. Thumbs down to politicians who simply can't bring themselves to say, "Yep, I've modified my position and wanting to get re-elected is part of the reason."

Consider Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who used to be against casino gambling but not against letting Kentuckians vote on it. Now, he's against it totally. It certainly is no coincidence that he faces an uphill struggle to win against gambling advocate Steve Beshear.

This has been reinforced by reports that in past campaigns, Fletcher took money from casino interests, including Harrah's, which is part owner of Turfway Park.

However, Democrats were off base to blast Fletcher for signing a proclamation designating last week as "Responsible Gaming Education Week." While one could argue the usefulness of government proclamations, it's not hypocritical to be against gambling while urging those who do bet to be smarter about it.

Karl Rove's leaving

Karl Rove, President Bush's leading political strategist, described in the title of a book by James Moore and Wayne Slater as "Bush's Brain," has decided to leave the administration by the end of the month. Read Paul Gigot's interview with him in the Wall Street Journal here.

Rove has been demonized by many as a sort of evil Rasputin character who pulls the President's strings. He was the the guy who dreamed of a "permanent majority" for the Republicans. His leaving will be a cause of joy for administration opponents.

His official explanation is that he wants to spend more time with his family, but there are two basic lines of reasoning about why he is going now:

#1--George Bush's political life is essentially now over. He's a lame duck president with no more elections to look forward to, so it is time for Machiavelli -- er, Rove -- to seek another prince.

#2--Although he didn't get indicted in Plamegate, there are plenty of Democrats now controlling Congress who still want to bring him down, so he is leaving town one step ahead of the posse.

What's everybody think?

Drinking stupidity

Two places where you really ought to know not to drink – at the local firehouse and in the driver’s seat of an ice cream truck. Yet two recent Northern Kentucky cases featured idiots doing both of these things.

Case #1: Assistant Chief Frank Hicks and a buddy were hanging around the Crescent Springs/Villa Hills Fire Station at 2:30 a.m. July 21, quaffing a few brews. They apparently felt uninhibited enough to start playing around on a new $700,000 fire truck they were untrained on. The result, one guy goes to the hospital, Hicks gets fired and the truck suffers $10,000 in damage before it ever gets near a fire. Crescent Springs/Villa Hills reportedly is one of the few fire departments in the area allowing alcohol in the station. Don't be surprised if that changes.

Case #2: A yellow Captain Tom’s ice cream truck gets pulled over in Florence Monday evening because it is being driven erratically. Driver Shelby Dunigan II smelled of booze and failed a field sobriety test. There was a cooler full of empty beer cans on board and a passenger told police Dunigan had been popping them since noon. A really smart thing to do while driving a truck designed to bring children running to the curb.

A worthy Endeavour

Godspeed to Barbara Morgan.

Not only was the elementary teacher-turned-astronaut gutsy to blast into space on the Endeavour after being back-up to Christa McAuliffe's ill-fated Challenger flight, but she was doing what all great teachers do -- inspiring kids to go after their dreams.

Morgan rode in the lower center seat that McAuliffe had occupied on Challenger. It took her 21 years to earn that seat, returning to teaching after the Challenger tragedy then becoming a full-time astronaut in 1998. Who says a teaching career doesn't provide for upward mobility?

Safe travel, Barbara -- and thanks to every teacher who lives out his or her dreams in a way that inspires a child.

Who's mentally fit to vote?

Periodically, an election-year issue arises about the mental health status of a candidate. Now there's a small but growing national debate about the mental health of voters.

Various states are debating the issue of just who is mentally competent to vote. Is a person with dementia? A person declared criminally insane but found not guilty of a crime? How about a person with Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, brain injury?

Some advocates for people with mental disabilities say interest and willingness to vote are enough; other voters aren't subject to special tests for voting "fitness." But others say the voting system is compromised if voters don't understand the basics of the process. Some worry that people with disabilities can be manipulated to vote in particular ways.

How do you feel? Should voting be open to everyone, or should there be some determination of competence to vote?

There must be more we can do to stop child abuse

The last year has produced some of the most brutal and revolting stories of child abuse I can remember -- babies beaten so badly their tendons pulled away from their bones, burned with cigarettes, flung against walls, kicked to death because they weren't walking. How a human being could do that to a toddler -- to his or her own child -- is something most of us will never understand.

It is tempting to avoid these stories, to go home, hug our own kids and feel it's the most anybody can do.

But is there a sliver of space in which to intercede -- that interval between a child being beaten and a bad moment being passed by, between an adult reacting violently and an adult being able to handle the frustrations of child raising without hurting a child?

Here are three possibilities:

Have more places where a parent could get quick, temporary help or respite. In many abuse cases, a single parent ended up leaving a child with someone he or she didn't trust. Is there a way that communities, social service agencies, religious organizations or joint efforts by all three could offer safe, well-supervised, emergency childcare? Such services exist out there in pieces, but is there a way for a more integrated effort? It's one of those ideas that sounds impractical and impossible until somebody actually does it.

Find more ways to impart good child-development information. In many abuse cases, adults clearly lacked understanding on what young children can do and can't do. Trying to force potty training, for example, simply doesn't jibe with toddlers' development. Adults often view children's resistance as being disobedient, but it's not only normal and healthy behavior, it's necessary. Sure, some parents who abuse may be the last ones to avail themselves of the information, but the more they hear good advice from grandparents, uncles and aunts, friends and co-workers, the more likely they may be to follow it.

Work even harder to get teens to postpone pregnancy. This week a couple -- both 19 -- pleaded guilty to child abuse that left a 5-month-old with a fractured skull, cigarette burns, broken ribs and a torn tongue. Many of the worst abuse cases have involved teen-age parents, boyfriends or other caregivers. Any adult can be abusive, but adolescents who know little about child development or are easily overwhelmed by the needs of a child are at high risk for becoming abusers.

NKY's riverfront development earns kudos

"The Lane Report," a Lexington-based magazine that focuses on Kentucky business and economic development, features Northern Kentucky in its July issue, including a flattering cover story built around the recent history of riverfront development. The article particularly focuses on The Ascent condominiums going up in Covington and another Corporex effort, the Ovation project proposed in Newport.

"Riverside Resurgence," the article headlines. "The Ascent and Ovation projects are transforming Northern Kentucky into a regional capital."

The article goes on to say this: "What once was the sleepy, slightly tattered 'southern side of Cincinnati' has morphed into a real regional capital for the Bluegrass state, featuring a world-class convention center, a plethora of new hotel rooms and Class A office space with some of the most spectacular views in the country. "

It only can help Northern Kentucky to get that kind of free publicity, and it's a deserved validation of hard work by visionary people over a period of years. Nothing like this just happens. Kentucky is a slow-growth state with some positives, such as relatively low labor costs and affordable housing, that employers seek. But the state also brings negatives such as low levels of educational attainment, a general lack of racial diversity and one of the unhealthiest populations in America. On top of that, Northern Kentucky is not a traditional urban center but a region in the shadow of a major city, Cincinnati, with great assets but also great problems.

Debates on the merits and funding mechanisms for individual projects always are needed, but the hard work and foresight that turned Northern Kentucky into a success story must continue, too. Both sides of the river can benefit from that success.

The article also revisits the vision for the Ascent shared by Corporex CEO Bill Butler and noted architect Daniel Libeskind. As the swoop-like Ascent building nears completion, I'm convinced that architecture experts and students from around the world will be adding Covington to their lists of places to see, just as they have visited Racine, Wis., for decades to see the S.C. Johnson headquarters designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Ascent's value to the region will far exceed its considerable worth to the people buying condos there.

Tarbell's 'retirement'

Jim Tarbell has never been mayor of Cincinnati, but he always served as the city’s First Citizen. Saloonkeeper, entertainer, cheerleader, councilman – Tarbell has done it all. He is not someone who needs to be presented a key to the city because he’s always had that key in his vest pocket.

He announced Tuesday that he is resigning from council on Sept. 3. He would have been term-limited at the end of the year. By stepping down three months early he allows some other Charterite to be appointed who will then be able to campaign as an incumbent. That’s just plain old city council politics, but Tarbell was always more about the city than politics.

He was a genuine character, from his signature bald head and top hat, to the antique medals that he loved to collect and pin on his chest.

He presided over Arnold’s and Grammer’s for years, keeping them as authentic drinking and dining spots in Over-the-Rhine. (Arnold’s he sold years ago). The Reds have no bigger fan although he still regrets the decision not to build Great American Ball Park at Broadway Commons.

He has been a staunch defender of the arts on council, understanding and preaching that art can be seen in everything from the fine museums to the flowered window boxes over-hanging the streets in urban neighborhoods.

Defender is a word that often has been applied to him in another, more traditional context as well. On several occasions over the years, once as recently as last March, he has taken on thieves and muggers. Once he used a broom to chase a prowler found lurking outside his Over-the-Rhine home.

What he plans to do next is unannounced – for the city’s sake I hope Tarbell’s “retirement” will be enjoyed in Cincinnati.

Damages and ego

Unsuccessful politicians often blame their opponents, the media, their staff – sometimes even themselves. Stephanie Studebaker blames her father-in-law.

A year ago Studebaker, a veterinarian from Montgomery County, had easily won the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Mike Turner in Ohio’s 3rd Congressional District, which takes in Montgomery and much of Warren counties. But her political prospects self-immolated on Aug. 13, when she and her husband, Sam Studebaker, signed domestic violence complaints against each other following a fight at their home. The brief but splashy story at the time noted that police went to the house after receiving separate 911 calls from Stephanie Studebaker and from her father-in-law, James Studebaker. The story said James Studebaker reported getting a call from his son claiming his wife was hitting him.

Stephanie Studebaker dropped out of the race a short time later, the couple divorced and Turner beat a substitute candidate. Studebaker was a rookie candidate, and her chance of unseating Turner was probably a long shot in everybody’s mind but hers.

In a suit filed last week in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, she argues that the only thing that kept her out of Congress was the 911 call made by her father. She claims that in the call, James Studebaker told police she had a history of violence and alcohol abuse, which she denies. According to the suit, he must have known the call would be recorded, and as a public record would ruin her campaign.

I’m not making this up. Included in the damages the suit seeks are the $337,000 salary she would have received had she been elected, plus $52 per hour for the 2,000 hours she spent campaigning and $7,678.71 in out-of-pocket campaign expenses.

This is the first time I've heard of a candidate with an hourly rate.

New teen driving rules create new mess to fix

You've got to wonder. Does the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet get management advice from the U.S. State Department? State is the place where no one reacted strongly or fast enough to a huge rise in passport applications that easily could have been anticipated.

Enter the Transportation Cabinet, which has implemented new rules for teen drivers. One of the rules is that teens who want to start driving must meet a new minimum grade requirement that includes a form signed by the school. Teens can lose their licenses if they don't pass at least four classes each semester, if they drop out or if they have too many unexcused absences.

Trouble is, no one bothered to tell private schools -- which serve 20 percent or more of the school-age kids in Northern Kentucky -- that they would have to give forms to the students. Thus, a student such as Jennifer Scanlon of St. Henry High School (pictured) was out of luck on what should have been an exciting day -- obtaining her first temporary driver's license. Regulations even go so far as to require the form to be on the high school letterhead, and that the principal's signature be in blue ink.

Is someone actually getting paid in Frankfort to make sure the ink color is correct?

Oh, and many schools haven't yet received the username and password to report the names of failing students to a secure Web site. It's yet another unfunded task for the schools to perform -- let alone the Orwellian implications of a Web site that lists "failing students" for all in the bureaucracy to see. Will students who turn things around be removed from this list as fast as they're added?

Here's hoping the Frankfort bureaucrats are still waiting for passports.

Goodbye to John Gilligan

John Gilligan’s decision to retire from the Cincinnati School Board closes out one of the most varied political careers in Cincinnati history. He’s pretty much done it all.

Starting in 1953 he has served on Cincinnati City Council, then Congress, then back to Council, then to the governor’s mansion and finally, starting eight years ago, on the school board. Between times he managed two fit in service in the Navy, a university academic career teaching at Xavier and Notre Dame and a stint running the Agency for International Development in Jimmy Carter’s administration.

As with any Ohio governor, he was occasionally mentioned for a spot on a presidential ticket. For political trivia buffs, he also is the elder half of a father/daughter gubernatorial combination. His daughter, Kathleen Sebelius, is governor of Kansas.

He’s 86 now, and as he told reporter Ben Fischer, it’s time to go.

The first press conference I ever covered featured Gilligan in 1974, when he was running for a second term as governor against Republican James Rhodes. He and Rhodes were served up on a twin bill at a seminar for college journalists in Columbus.

Gilligian was a studious wonk. He ticked off detailed answers defending every action his administration ever took and offered to have staff members research the answers to anything he didn’t have at his fingertips.

Rhodes came in and said he could balance the budget, feed the hungry, clothe the poor and fill the state with good-paying jobs.

When asked for details, Rhodes lectured us that such questions were naïve because campaigns were won on strategies and no politician would let the opposition in on details of his strategy. I remember thinking nobody could buy this blowhard’s baloney and that Gilligan should coast to re-election. Gilligan then lost by about 11,000 votes.

Four years ago I was interviewing Gilligan as he ran for his final term on the school board. I told him I couldn’t believe people actually voted for Rhodes. He said he still couldn’t believe it either.

Where's the courage to fix school funding mess?

School officials in Northern Kentucky have been complaining for years that the state's school funding formula must be fixed, because it unfairly penalizes fast-growth districts. More money goes to Frankfort from these areas than ever comes back.

You'll never get a better illustration of the problem than a situation Enquirer reporter Brenna Kelly described in today's paper.

It all started when former Boone County Property Value Administrator Ron Burch committed suicide. It turned out tax assessments were a mess in Boone County, and the state ordered an emergency assessment review. A review of Boone's commercial property resulted in a $1.2 billion increase in the overall value. That's not a typo. $1.2 billion.

So, here we have an 18,000-student district that is growing at the equivalent rate of having to build a new school each year -- 600 to 700 new students are expected later this month when Boone schools open. Facilities and staff are stretched to the max. You'd think this huge assessment increase would be great news, since property taxes provide a big chunk of school funding.

However, because of the way the state aid formula works, Superintendent Bryan Blavatt says that this will mean a net loss of $5.2 million to the district. A hike in local property values causes the formula to send less from the state. And the school district can't reap the windfall increase in property value because a state law limits tax revenue hikes to no more than 4 percent a year. Larger increases are possible but subject to a voter recall.

Here's why the state funding formula has been too hot for politicians to touch: No legislator from a poverty-stricken area of Eastern Kentucky can go back home and say it's OK to cut their local funding so Boone County can get more. But the answer is obvious, and everyone knows it: Fix the formula to stop penalizing fast-growth districts and find the revenue to benchmark everyone's funding at current levels.

Political courage might be helpful at home, too. Boone's board chairman, Steve Kinman, says there is no way the board will consider raising tax rates to generate more than a 4 percent revenue increase. If all other means are exhausted, the board could take the political risk of telling the public how much it will need to raise taxes to at least make up for the shortfall. Otherwise, the implication is that the district never really needed the money, right?

Nobody enjoys paying taxes, but Boone's parents and taxpayers also aren't supporting public schools the way people do in some neighboring districts.

Even if Boone raised its tax rate by 8 percent, its rate would go from $5.24 per $1,000 of assessed valuation to $5.66. For comparison, here are tax rates of some nearby districts: Kenton County $5.56; Fort Thomas, $8.56; Covington, $9.22; Beechwood, $7.01; Walton-Verona, $10.06. (Here's a link if you want more detail on local taxes.)

You either care enough about the students to take some political risks, or you don't.

Predictable outcome for triple-celling

The Hamilton County Commissioners, claiming the are unable to continue renting cells in neighboring Butler County’s jail, are asking the federal court to let them jam three miscreants to a cell in the Hamilton County Justice Center.

If the court says OK, and that is a big if, predicting how this will work out is as easy as saying night will follow day.

*Step 1 – The commissioners will say they have “no choice” and start triple-celling.

*Step 2 – The county will get sued on behalf of prisoners claiming cruel and unusual punishment.

*Step 3 – The court will decide the prisoners are right, the county will lose and end up paying prisoners and lawyers more than it saved by not paying Butler County.

The commissioners – Todd Portune and David Pepper anyway – claim they are looking at a deficit and can’t afford the Butler County rent. The only way out, they say, is to pass the half-cent sales tax increase that will fund an additional jail and significant (and badly needed) treatment and rehabilitation plans.

The triple-celling, they say, will just be temporary, until the tax hike passes or the come up with some other permanent solution.

Wait – didn’t they say there is no other permanent solution?

Commissioner Pat Dewine says there is another alternative – deeper cuts now that will cover the cost of the Butler County rent.

This is one where both sides are right. Cut the budget enough in the short term to pay the rent. The commissioners are having meetings Thursday and Friday to study the possibilities. They need to do more than study; they need to make the short-term cuts and keep the prisoners in Butler County. Then they need to make sure the tax increase passes – something that will be a lot more likely if Dewine gets behind it.

Putting three men in a cell will be a disaster. The Justice Center was designed for one person cells. It took a federal court order more than a decade ago to let them double-cell. Three to a cell will cause more fights among prisoners and problems for the guards.

There are people in this county -- people who don't have to work in jails -- who think it would fine to crowd prisoners in like sardines. They are wrong. The commissioners and the sheriff know better.

Putting three prisoners into the same cells will be like trying to put size 12-feet into size 9-shoes. It just won’t work.