John Eby : Safety and Security

The Editorial board Asked:

If you are elected, what will you consider the most important issue for the City council to address immediately?

My Response:

The overriding issue in this campaign is Safety and Security. We must create arts and entertainment districts. We must build the Banks. We must revitalize the core of the city. We must create a feeling that Cincinnati is safe. We must have clean safe streets. We must have family friendly neighborhoods or young professionals will not buy homes in the city. The safety and security of our citizens means we must combine new technology with stronger community relationships between the police and our citizens. New forms of technology would include data mining (predictive analysis). Data mining will allow our police department to effectively predict where and when crime may occur. Armed with this knowledge our police commanders can effectively deploy their resources to address and resolve crime. Digital ticketing will allow officers to perform traffic stops in less than 7 minutes. The time reduction will decreases offices exposure to roadside danger, decreases clerical errors, and increases the amount of time the officer is on the beat. Traffic safety, officer safety and community safety are all increased.

We must continue the work of the collaborative agreement as we have made strides in creating greater interaction, trust and mutual respect between our nationally recognized police department and our proud citizens. I will push for the creation of an auxiliary police force. I will return the neighborhood police officer. I will call for regular police and community meetings. We can build a Greater Cincinnati by combining the best of modern technology with the best Cincinnati tradition of hospitality in family friendly neighborhoods lined with clean safe streets. Please visit my website at www.JohnEby.com and see my easy to understand safety and security plan.

Readers, council candidates: This blog's for you

Newspaper political endorsements tend to follow a familiar formula: Candidates visit the paper's editorial board for endorsement interviews; board members discuss and decide which candidates to support; editorials announcing the board's choices are written and published in the weeks leading up to the election.

Well, this fall we want to turn that formula upside-down -- or at least tweak it. And we're asking you to help. Starting now, we will devote most of this blog to the Cincinnati City Council race. We've asked all 25 candidates to be guest posters here for the next two or three weeks. Their task: To answer questions on the issues that voters as well as editorial board members want them to address. We've already held preliminary interviews with all the candidates, during which we outlined how this will work.

In brief, each candidate is being encouraged to make posts outlining their positions, answering specific questions and contrasting their views with those of other candidates. Members of the public will be able to add their comments to any of the posts.

Some of the questions we pose to all the candidates will come from the editorial board. Others will come from you, the readers and voters. To pose your own question, use the special online message board, "Ask the Cincinnati City Council candidates," that we have created on our Community Conversation page. Fill out all the information on the message board's form so we can contact you to verify who is asking the questions.

To get the ball rolling, we've sent out the following question via e-mail to all the candidates:
If you are elected, what will you consider the most important issue for City Council to address immediately?

Check back on this blog for the candidates' posts, and feel free to add your own comments and spur the discussion among voters and candidates alike. As we said, this blog's for you.

Iraq vs. what else we could have bought

Should we think very carefully before we add 4 million children to the State Children's Health Insurance program rolls? Should we have frank and cool-headed discussions about entitlement, dependence on governmental support, expansion of services to families and individuals who in the past would have been considered middle-income?

An estimated $7 billion annual increase for the next five years is a huge sum of money, and worthy of our scrutiny and prudence.

It all makes sense to me until I lay it alongside the figure of $577 billion spent on Iraq and Afghanistan, and the $190 billion more that's being requested.

Addressing the health needs of children is an investment, not a gamble. It is putting money toward prevention, not dragging out a cause that, each day, becomes clearer it is one we cannot win.

Sure, let's be prudent before we expand care to children who might have other means of coverage, or before we commit ourselves to long-term health spending we may not be able to sustain. But let's apply that same prudence to military spending that seems to be without boundaries or benchmarks.

You can't take $577 billion out of the budget without thinking about what else it could have bought.

Stir crazy

Why is it that some people in Newport are complaining about a proposal to rent out some empty jail beds to Hamilton County?

A story in Wednesday’s Enquirer noted that Campbell County Jailer Greg Buckler is catching grief from some of his constituents over his offer to let Hamilton County lease up to 100 empty jail beds for the same $43.48 Campbell County gets for housing federal prisoners.

One complainer in the story said it is somehow not a proper use of Campbell County tax dollars. Huh? Would he prefer letting the beds sit empty? How would that help Campbell County, which must pay for the jail, whether it is occupied or not? The new county lockup was built with extra capacity to meet future Campbell County needs. Renting cells to Hamilton County, or anybody else, seems like a responsible use of resources until such time as Campbell County needs the space for prisoners of its own.

Critics also have said they worry about a security risk. Do they really think that the people who commit crimes in Hamilton County are that much more dangerous that Campbell County’s crooks? Buckler noted that 11 percent of the prisoners jailed for committing crimes in Campbell County actually come over from Hamilton County to commit their offenses. I’m confident his officers have what it takes to keep Hamilton County convicts locked up as securely as the homegrown variety.

The state legislatures and the Campbell Fiscal Court have to approve this idea before it can become a reality anyway. They should all do that as soon as possible. Empty cells in Campbell County and a crowded jail in Hamilton County aren’t enhancing the safety of anyone in the region.

Public defenders rarely a priority

You don't become a public defender to get rich. Most do it for one of three reasons: it's a calling, it's an opportunity to start a career or it's the only job a young lawyer can find.

They get scant support for the work they do. Most of us agree intellectually with the premise that everyone charged with a crime deserves adequate legal representation and that people are presumed innocent. But there's little political gain to pay for it. On an emotional level, any defense attorney can recite conversations that start with, "How could you represent that scumbag?"

But, if you believe in the things that America represents, it's wrong to short-staff, underpay and overwork public defenders. Such is the case in Kentucky, where recent reports describe numbing caseloads -- about 500 per year per public defender in Boone County, for example. In Fayette County, caseloads average 651. The Legislature added funding to hire more public defenders in 2006, but the problem persists.

One idea that might help is to offer student loan forgiveness for lawyers who enter public service law. The Courier-Journal recently wrote about Ted Shouse, a state public defender with about $100,000 in student loans. Kentucky public defenders and legal aid lawyers start at about $34,000 to $38,000 annually. Obviously this is not much of an attraction for the sharpest minds graduating from our law schools with an interest in criminal law.

Reality isn't the same as "CSI." Mistakes and even wrong, bullheaded prosecutions do happen. Innocent people do get arrested and imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit. Guilty people do get harsher sentences than those who have the financial means to hire the best lawyers money can buy. We need good public defenders with the time to do their jobs correctly.

More important than good grades. . .

It's report card day for the nation's public schools, and the news is generally encouraging. Math scores are up on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, younger students are reading better, more students with disabilities and limited English proficiency are in the pool and overall performance is slowly rising.

But year-to-year gains or losses are only part of the reason why this testing program matters. More important than how states did in a given year is the fact that we now measure their progress annually, report it by a common yardstick, and give policymakers and citizens a way to compare states' performance. The NAEP results also give us ongoing feedback on the achievement gap between white and minority students, information that should goad us to get to the heart of the disparity.

Standardized testing has brought both benefit and detriment, but its greatest good is an insistence on reliable and consistent data by which to measure performance and direct improvement.

Thou shalt keep fighting

Should the Ten Commandments be displayed in the Rowan County Courthouse in eastern Kentucky? A federal judge ruled last week that the display doesn't violate the Constitution. The display is part of a "Foundations of American Law and Government" exhibit in the courthouse. In 2001, the American Civil Liberties Union sued, claiming the display was unconstitutional.

The display also includes the Mayflower compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta. Thus, U.S. District Court Judge Karl Forester said the display isn't endorsing a particular religion. The ACLU says the display is just a device to get the Ten Commandments in front of the public. Maybe so, but theTen Commandments are a legitimate part of what influenced the legal system we know (and sometimes respect) today.

But I'm bored and annoyed by these endless battles. How much time, energy and taxpayer money have been spent in these fights throughout Kentucky between social conservatives and the ACLU?

In that spirit, I looked up a few facts about Rowan County. Despite the presence of Morehead State University, you wouldn't define Rowan County as economically prosperous. Its population of about 22,000 is stagnant. Median household income is more than $13,000 under the national average. Its per capita income of $13,889 lags Kentucky and national averages significantly. Educational attainment is below average. More than 21 percent of residents live below the poverty line.

So, maybe there should be a new commandment for public officials and the ACLU: Thou shalt pick important battles. Arguing about Biblical references in the local courthouse doesn't make my list.

Swapping principle for power

I’ve long suspected that when people look back at George W. Bush’s presidency a generation from now, they’ll view as his greatest failure not the Iraq war, but his inability – or refusal – to rein in spending and slow the federal government’s expansion. Comments this week by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan (right) simply have helped confirm my suspicions. In his just-released book, “The Age of Turbulence,” Greenspan rails against “the president’s unwillingness to wield his veto against out-of-control spending. … Most troubling to me was the readiness of both Congress and the administration to abandon fiscal discipline.” He elaborated on that theme in news interviews: “(Bush had) better start vetoing certain stuff because we are going to go into the demographic issues" (namely, millions of baby boomers about to retire) "wholly unprepared.”

In response, Bush pointed to this year’s budget deficit, which is now – finally – smaller than the 30-year average. But that’s small potatoes. Overall, spending has exploded upward during Bush’s watch, with Republicans in full control of Congress most of that time. By 2004, federal spending had gone up 23.7 percent from 2001, including 31.5 percent growth in discretionary spending. Federal spending now is at 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), up from 18.5 percent of GDP at the time Bill Clinton left office. The use of earmarks – pork spending items – became an epidemic. And trillions have been added to Washington’s long-term obligations. The GOP-engineered Medicare drug benefit alone is projected to cost $18 trillion long-term. Please don’t try to tell me Bush’s tax cuts are responsible for the deficits. It’s Congress “spending like drunken sailors,” to quote Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio – and Bush letting Congress get away with it.

Then there’s the political fallout. Free-spending Republicans have managed to obliterate many of the key qualities that, in most Americans’ minds at least, have traditionally differentiated them from Democrats – limited government, fiscal discipline, reluctance to expand federal power. The result? Poll after poll shows that Americans don’t trust Republicans to control spending. The effects of this shift in perception may last for decades. And when Republican leaders, as they did this week, rise up to bash Hillary Clinton’s health care proposal with its $110 billion-a-year price tag, their objections now sound hollow and hypocritical. Only $110 billion? That seems like pocket change after years of GOProfligacy.

Nearing the last year of his presidency, Bush finally is threatening to use his veto for fiscal reasons – he’s reportedly targeting 10 of 12 pending appropriations bills – but it may be too late. “The Republicans in Congress lost their way,” Greenspan wrote. “They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose.” Or as Bill Clinton might say, “It’s the spending, stupid.”

Dueling dispatching is no regional model

Northern Kentucky gets a lot of credit for regional cooperation, which often gets cited as a major reason for the region's economic development. That makes the dueling dispatch centers in Kenton County all the more puzzling.

It just seems like a silly waste of the taxpayers' money and a bad example that both Kenton County and the City or Erlanger are on parallel tracks in providing emergency dispatch services to the quilt of agencies throughout the county. Neighboring Edgewood is the first to sign up with Erlanger, and it appears Crestview Hills, Fort Mitchell, Fort Wright, Lakeside Park, Ludlow and Park Hills will follow.

Officials say no offense is intended to Kenton County, but Erlanger simply is geared to do it better, particularly in terms of modern technology for dispatching, records management and communication. If that's the case, that's an embarrassment for Kenton County. And if there are motivations related to power and turf, that's even more embarrassing.

There's one issue everyone should embrace: Land-line phone users are paying a tax to support emergency dispatching and cell phone users are paying nothing. Land-line rates in Edgewood, for example, will go to $2.76 per month in October and rocket to $4.25 in May when six more cities join the Erlanger system. State law needs to be changed so cell-phone users pay a fair share.

Compromise on Iraq? Not likely

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, takes pride in being a key player in a Senate “centrist coalition” trying to steer a middle ground on various issues. His latest effort, Tuesday’s proposal for a compromise on Iraq policy, is an interesting attempt to give both parties what they want – but it's probably doomed to failure. Voinovich’s resolution, which he’s “shopping around” for support before it’s introduced, calls for a troop reduction in Iraq but doesn’t set deadlines for withdrawal, and states the U.S. must remain there for the foreseeable future. It calls on the United Nations and allies to take larger role in diplomatic and economic issues, and calls on the U.S. to limit its efforts to protecting its own interests, supporting Iraqi security forces and conducting targeted counterterrorism operations.

“I’ve been meeting with leaders on both sides of the aisle,” he told the Enquirer’s Malia Rulon. “What I want to do is move the ball down the court … get a consensus.” Sounds eminently reasonable. The problem is, few in that deliberative body are in a mood to be reasonable these days. The presidential campaign is in full swing, like it or not, and it doesn’t appear that either party considers it in its interests to strike a conciliatory tone, because that might further alienating its already disgruntled ideological “wing.” In particular, you don’t have to be much of a cynic to see that Democrats, realizing U.S. troops still will be in Iraq next year no matter what Congress does, would rather not have reached an accommodation with Republicans on the issue when the two parties battle for the White House and Congress in the fall.

Sure enough, Voinovich had barely finished a conference call to explain his proposal Tuesday when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced that Democrats were abandoning their plans to lure some Republicans with compromise language on Iraq bills, and instead would take a hard line on mandating a withdrawal timeline. As some bloggers and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, pointed out, Reid’s announcement came just one day after he met in New York with antiwar activist groups that have been, shall we say, impatient with congressional Democrats’ efforts to force an end to U.S. involvement there. Complicating the issue is the debate over a proposal by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., to mandate a period of stateside leave for all troops there, thereby forcing a withdrawal without setting a timetable. In that kind of political environment, Voinovich’s compromise may have little more than a snowball’s chance. In fact, this doesn’t seem to be a good time for “centrists” in either party.

Lack of support

Prosecutors in Hamilton County called the numbers former Bengals linebacker James Francis put up “obscene.”

They weren’t talking about sacks, but about child support. According to Jeffrey Startzman, director of the Child Support Enforcement Agency, Francis owes $900,000 in back support for two children, a local record.

Now the county has Francis in jail and means to collect of keep him locked up. He is due for a hearing Wednesday. He had plenty of chances to pay up, but apparently ignored previously warnings and warrants.

Child support can be contested or modified, but it cannot be ignored.

Flying low

Has Delta Air Lines finally yielded to the anguished cries of Cincinnati travelers who yelp at the ticket prices for a trip out of Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport?

The airline announced Tuesday that it has lowered fares in about 60 percent of the domestic markets served from Cincinnati.

In making the announcement, Delta Executive Vice President Glen Hauenstein said the reductions were made because fares out of Cincinnati had become “uncompetitive.” The cuts don’t exactly make rates cheap. Hauenstein said they still reflect the “continued investment required to operate one of the nation’s 10 largest hubs in Cincinnati.” Having a hub here is convenient until it comes time to pay for the tickets.

An example of the new fares cited Tuesday was a 21-day advance ticket roundtrip to Seattle and back for $478, plus taxes and fees; down from $620. If you want to drive the extra half hour to Dayton’s airport and are willing to take a flight with a stop in Atlanta for $278 plus taxes and fees. Start in Dayton, hop to Cincinnati for a 1 hour, 50 minute layover and the trip to Seattle and back is $343, all according to Delta’s Web site. Maybe the drive to Dayton isn’t such a steep price to pay.

Reversing the drain of young professionals

It wasn't one of those news stories that strikes an emotional chord for most -- just a short article saying that Legacy, Northern Kentucky's young professionals group, had formally approved a merger with the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

But it is news worth noting. A documented concern on both sides of the river has been the drain of talented young professionals to other regions. There has been a sense that there aren't enough opportunities for them to thrive; that the cultural and lifestyle opportunities might be more exciting elsewhere.

Legacy is one of those reasons that this perception is changing. These young professionals are engaged in everything from social events to community voluteerism to sponsorship of major forums -- such as an Oct. 3 debate between Kentucky governor candidates Steve Beshear and Ernie Fletcher at Northern Kentucky University.

Getting young, energetic people into the pipeline of local leadership not only benefits Legacy and the Northern Kentucky Chamber, it benefits the whole community.

Legacy represents another piece of the puzzle of future prosperity.

Why bike trails matter

If you've ever lived anywhere with a public commitment to bike trails and roads with wide enough shoulders for bikers and walkers, you understand why it's not just some warm-and-fuzzy indulgence for eco-freaks and yuppies.

The rational reasons are pretty compelling, though. Anything that encourages people to get out of their cars and walk or bike not only consumes less petroleum but keeps us healthier. There's even an economic development reason -- companies with good paying jobs like to locate in communities that care about quality of life.

Forget rational for a second. Taking a bike ride, a walk, a jog or even a horseback ride with family or friends on a gorgeous fall day simply is an awesome thing to do.

That type of commitment to trails and bike paths hasn't described Northern Kentucky. I think about that whenever I drive along Highway 237 near my Hebron home behind courageous bicyclists. The traffic logjams for the motorists and fear factor for the cyclists mean less satisfaction for both groups.

The Vision 2015 plan for Northern Kentucky's development addresses this. For example, a group is working to create a "Licking River Greenway" that also could link with Ohio-side trails.

Then, in a story in today's Kentucky Enquirer, I read how two Northern Kentuckians, Steve Wilmhoff and Dave Zimmer, have been working for two years to create a bike trail around the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

At first blush, I thought the airport idea seemed pretty weird, in part because of security. But there's a 5.6-mile trail around Lunken Airport in Cincinnati and a 12.5-mile trail around an airport where security has to be paramount because of its proximity to Washington, D.C. -- the Baltimore Washington International Airport. So, obviously, it can be done without too much worry about jogging terrorists getting closer than they could otherwise.

If you've been around CVG, you don't have to squint much to see that such a trail would be a regional asset. It would be 22 miles around the airport perimeter, on a plateau of mostly level land. Parts would feel rural and open, and parts would be an easy ride away from Turfway Park and the restaurants and stores along Houston Road in Florence. The Boone County Parks Department would manage it, and the trail could be a great enhancement to a countywide trail system that officials hope to have someday.

These are important efforts that should be studied, encouraged and, yes, funded through some combination of public and private dollars.

Salmon a la surrogate

A story Friday on how fish are being engineered to produce other species is both fascinating and sort of creepy.

"Surrogate broodstocking," as it's so poetically known, begins with designing a sterile breed of fish, then injecting those fish with stem cells that will grow into sperm of another species. Voila -- when they're grown, these highly manipulated, designer fish can fertilize eggs and produce a different species.

One of the goals is to raise the number of the endangered sockeye salmon, which seems like good news to all of us who like nothing better than a dinner of grilled salmon. But now we will be forced to wonder about its lineage and if we're actually getting a little rogue dogfish mixed in.

Maybe, as with oil, we should just cut down on our consumption. . . . .

What did you learn from the Slaby tragedy?

I'm not looking for more heated debate over the actions of Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, whose 2-year-old died after being forgotten in her mother's vehicle. But I am interested in hearing if the tragedy changed YOUR life in any way.

Did any of your start rethinking your own priorities, or have even a moment of pause over how the demands of your job compromise your family life? Do you wrestle with being "everything to everybody," pressure Mrs. Nesselroad-Slaby said may have contributed to the tragedy?

If you are grappling with these issues, do you feel you have the power to change things, or is the struggle to do it all simply the reality of modern life? Please share your thoughts.

Bye-by, WiFi, don't forget to write

Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney’s decision this week to put plans to develop citywide wireless broadband Internet access (WiFi) on indefinite hold is a smart but hardly surprising decision. Dohoney’s office, which in May announced a goal of turning the entire city wireless in three years, spent $18,000 (out of $50,000 advanced by City Council) to study the plan’s feasibility.

Dohoney was right to explore the issue. WiFi is tempting for many reasons -- connecting government employees for greater efficiency, extending Internet access to residents of all socioeconomic levels, having gee-whiz amenities to attract tech-savvy young professionals to live and work in the city. But municipal WiFi systems, built as a government function instead of by private firms in response to free-market demands, have numerous downsides.

In a May editorial, the Enquirer urged caution, citing reports of problems other cities were facing with WiFi rollouts, including the fact that leading provider Earthlink is restucturing – one of the major reasons Dohoney cited in his decision this week, four months later. Imagine that. Then last month, I updated the situation in a blog item that detailed further reports indicating that the economic model just wasn’t working – and that there were signal coverage problems, lower-than-expected usage, higher-than-expected infrastructure costs, and private firms’ reluctance to risk building such systems. The city’s study confirmed those reports.

“It’s not smart right now. The market is too volatile,” said Meg Olberding, spokesperson for Dohoney’s office. “WiFi providers haven’t decided what model works for them.” Or if there’s a municipal WiFi model that works at all. So it was a prudent decision by Dohoney to step on the brakes now, instead of going forward with a costly build-out that may make a splash now but could sink like a rock a year from now.

As for the rationale behind spending $18,000 to find out what a good Google search (or maybe an editorial) could have told it, the city is using what I’d call the “Cialis argument”: It’s so we can be ready when the moment finally is right. The research, Olberding said, will stand the city in good stead later on when the WiFi market improves.

Well, maybe. Technology continues to evolve rapidly. In a few years, conventional WiFi may seem as hopelessly archaic as a 14.4Kb modem. Meanwhile, there are many free or low-cost wireless Internet options out there that do not require taxpayer subsidy. As Olberding said, the city should keep looking for ways to increase government efficiency, widen residents’ access to information and innovate to attract young residents. That may someday include a comprehensive Internet system. When the moment finally is right, of course.

If you held the city's purse strings. . .

I'd like to hear your thoughts on a question we recently posed to the hordes of candidates running for Cincinnati City Council: faced with budget cuts, how should the city set priorities and funding levels for various services and programs?

Is the rationale of 'growing the tax base' enough to make economic development the city's over-arching priority? Should it and crime top the list, or is better funding of social services and education the long-term answer to the city's problems and key to its growth?

Many candidates brought up the issue of the lack of a current strategic plan for the city. Do you think city leaders lack a framework for making budgetary decisions?

And finally, if you held the red pencil, what would YOU cut?

Disarm trigger-happy youths

An exasperated Mayor Frank Jackson of Cleveland on Monday called on Ohio lawmakers to prohibit anyone under 21 from possessing a firearm.

Jackson went ballistic over the Sept. 1 slaying of 12-year-old Asteve'e "Cookie" Thomas, who was caught in a crossfire during a gun battle between two Cleveland men.

Mayors in many U.S. cities, including Cincinnati, are fed up with innocent residents getting shot up by would-be Billy the Kids not much older than the Cleveland 12-year-old that was hit by a stray bullet.

But there are a few pesky problems with Jackson's proposal, not least of which is finding enough lawmakers to back such a ban here in NRA territory. Another is that current Ohio and Kentucky laws, which require gun buyers to be at least 18, haven't kept under-age urban teens from packing heat or using it.

One shooter in the Thomas homicide was age 20; the other, 35. The 35-year-old claims he was defending himself from being robbed at gunpoint.

But Mayor Jackson must figure he'd be happy just to improve the odds a little for surviving in the inner city. He told the Associated Press that Cleveland police statistics from 2004 through 2006 showed that 70 percent of those arrested for gun crimes were younger than 28.

From state to state we have never managed to all agree at precisely which age young people suddenly become rational enough to drive a car, drink alcohol or buy a gun. But we do say you must be 21 to carry a concealed firearm. Go figure.

Any chance under heaven the mayor's proposal can avoid an early death?

Setting their Seitz on the Senate

Who would turn down a chance at a part-time job that pays nearly $60,000 a year, offering oodles of perks, benefits and travel, not to mention instant popularity? Every qualified resident of Ohio’s state Senate District 8 except one, that’s who. Friday’s deadline to apply for appointment to the seat being vacated by Sen. Patricia Clancy, R-Colerain Township, passed with only one hopeful signing up for an interview. Actually, he’s a lot more than a hopeful. He’s state Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township, and he’s a dead-lock certain pick to succeed Clancy, given that the powerful House majority whip says he’s running for that Senate seat next year anyway, and Republicans would much prefer for him to run as an incumbent.

It seems clear that Clancy was, uh, persuaded to make way for Seitz, who was ready to take her on in a bruising primary fight. But couldn’t some outsider have applied for the seat to at least make it interesting? It’s obvious that all too often the fix is in, and legislative appointments are made with little regard to what constituents might want.

Maybe that’s why so many are apathetic about the prospect of serving in public office. As the Enquirer reported last month, communities around our region are struggling to find enough candidates for local elective posts. In many cases, if you simply file for candidacy, you win the seat. Some find no candidates at all.

Next time a seat in Ohio’s legislature “suddenly” becomes available, I’d like to see, say, 1,000 or so district residents throw their hats in the ring, just so the party bigwigs would at least have to sort through the resumes and hold a few perfunctory job interviews. Meanwhile, Statehouse watchers are holding their breath to see who state GOP leaders will appoint to Clancy’s seat. Bill who?

Food, TV and ADHD

A host of new studies about attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder may prove both comforting and discomforting to parents whose children have the diagnosis.

The studies put some context around the disorder that affects more than 2.4 million American children and continues to perplex and frustrate their parents.

New Zealand researchers found that young children who watched more than two hours of TV a day were far more likely to have problems with concentration and attention in adolescence. And British researchers, in a widely praised study, found solid evidence that food additives, including food dyes, cause children to become more hyperactive and distractible.

The 'comforting' news is that the studies may not only offer more clarity on a fuzzy disorder, but provide alternatives or at least supplemental treatment approaches to families who don't want to rush to medication. Many parents have suspected that excessive TV and food additives had some effect on their children's behavior; the studies justify their concerns.

But taking the new findings to heart could mean making major lifestyle changes for some families. Two hours of TV viewing fly by pretty quickly. Even parents who don't think they use the television as babysitter may, upon an honest appraisal, see that their kids are in front of the set more than is healthy. And reducing the level of additives, preservatives and food coloring in their kids' diet may mean taking away just about everything they eat.

But even moderate adjustments here are likely to do their children some good. If, in a worst-case scenario, the new studies prove unreliable, families who switch to healthier, more natural foods and less time in front of the tube are sure to do their kids no harm.

What would we do without grandparents?

Grandparents Day has never really caught on big in this country. It seems cloying and commercial and, besides, don't grandparents have a pretty sweet deal all the time? They get to fuss over the grandchildren, show them off to their friends,then send them home to their parents for tooth-brushing, homework-doing and all the other fun-sucking stuff.

But the notion of grandparents simply as playmates and confidantes is long outdated. For 5.7 million American children, grandparents are the primary caregivers, whether they can afford to be or not. More than 900,000 grandparents have had that responsibility for at least five years, according to the U.S. Census.

Nearly a half-million grandparents who care for their grandchildren live below the poverty line. Better than 1.4 million are raising grandchildren and holding down a job as well.

While they might have planned their retirement years quite differently, grandparents step in to support their grandchildren in the most difficult of situations -- a parental death, divorce, abandonment, incarceration, illness, emotional or financial crisis.

They open their homes, gather their energy, postpone their dreams, learn school bus schedules and rebuild their schedules around 'Meet the Teacher' days and band concerts. Whether they know it or not, they are their grandchildren's heroes and deservedly so.

This coming Sunday is as good a day as any to send kind thoughts -- and maybe some flowers -- to Grandma and Grandpa. Whether they're the ones who sign a child up for football and wash his jersey every week, or simply the ones who drop by to cheer him on at a game, they're performing one of life's most important roles.

For whom the tolls swell

If our different levels of government function properly, replacing the Brent Spence Bridge will be the primary responsibility of the feds and the states of Ohio and Kentucky.

With that in mind, I have a lot of questions about the idea being pitched by Kentucky Senate President David Williams to allow local governments to form finance authorities to pay for big, expensive projects such as replacing the Spence -- whose $3 billion replacement price tag keeps mounting -- and possibly paying off the debt by charging tolls.

The idea seems well-intentioned. Officials have to do something to get the bridge replaced, and other prospects seem to get dimmer. And I don't have a problem with toll bridges, as long as tolls are reasonable, modern technology is used to avoid stopping at toll booths to pay and there is a free bridge alternative route.

But the idea implies that the bridge replacement is primarily a local problem. Replacing the Licking River Bridge between Covington and Newport fits my definition of that sort of problem.

That doesn't describe the Spence. While every commuter knows there's a local stake in the Spence, the bridge also is part of a major thoroughfare that's critical to commerce from the Canadian border to the Deep South. It matters for national security and disaster response, too.

Williams says the right things about not letting state and federal governments shirk responsibility to pay a fair share of bridge replacement costs. Still, you just know that every dollar in debt that local government will incur to pay for this is a dollar that Ohio, Kentucky and the feds won't contribute. And what happens if toll revenue to pay the bonds falls short? Local governments already are being crushed by pension costs and numerous other unfunded mandates. Will local taxpayers be subsidizing regional truckers and Michigan vacationers?

If I were a local government official, I'd make sure I read the fine print in this bill before offering support.

But maybe it must be done this way. The feds say they lack the capacity to pay for fundamental infrastructure improvements important to regional economic development and national security. Do you find that scary and depressing?

After decades of approving programs we can't afford, outright deceit and accounting mumbo-jumbo from the federal government, this is where we're at.