We're moving: See you at our new blog

After 20 months and 845 posts (including this one), we're winding down Today at the Forum and moving to a new, retooled Editorial Board blog called Thinking Out Loud on the Enquirer's updated Web site. You can get to the new blog here. Please update any bookmarks, favorites, etc. you may have to this address: http://news.cincinnati.com/tolblog. If you subscribe via RSS, the new RSS feed can be found here. If you have any questions or comments on the process, feel free to e-mail me here.

We hope you'll join us on Thinking Out Loud, where we'll not only present each Editorial Board member's personal viewpoints, but will include some new features and occasional surprises as well.

Dann's free lunches

A story in Thursday’s Dayton Daily News said former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann let his campaign donors pay for 300 of his meals in the barely 16 months he stayed in office.

Dann resigned in disgrace last week after an internal investigation accused his top aides of sex harassment and obstruction of an official investigation, which was quickly followed by articles of impeachment being introduced against him. Along the way he admitted having an affair with a young female subordinate and being “unprepared” for the job when he took office.

All told, Dann charged $18,500 in such expenses to his campaign while in office – everything from a late night bar tab to 35-cents at a McDonalds, according to receipts filed with the Secretary of State’s office. What can you buy at McDonalds for 35-cents?

Gov. Ted Strickland is said to be mulling over at least 40 possibilities for appointment as interim AG, until a special election this fall. He said he wants someone with “maturity,” which would set them apart from Dann. Don’t take too long governor. While you’re at it, find someone willing to pay for his own lunch.

Definitely not just horsing around

Kentucky’s greatest natural resource may be one that relies largely on image, perception and emotion – the horse. “Our label of ‘Horse Capital of the World’ is real,” John Nicholson, board president of the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, told the Enquirer editorial board Thursday. “White fences and green grass, horses are happier here – everybody knows that.”
Nicholson and other officials with the 2010 World Equestrian Games – set for Sept. 25-Oct. 10, 2010 at the park – met with us to outline their preparations for the event, which could be the biggest economic and image boost for the Commonwealth in decades.
Organizers are expecting an attendance of about 800,000 for the 16-day event, which will be televised in 150 countries with a global viewership of 500 million households. It’s the first time the quadrennial games have been held outside of Europe.
They also estimate it will have an economic impact of at least $150 million in Kentucky.
Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky will feel some of the benefit – notably from hotel reservations, tourism and entertainment. The competing horses from other nations will fly into Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and will be kept in the area for mandatory quarantines, which can last anywhere from 48 hours to two weeks.
The Games are nearly 2½ years away, but the Lexington facility is being modernized, expanded and reshaped. The state is pitching in with $40 million for an indoor arena, $24 million for an outdoor stadium and $13 million for road upgrades – but park officials say those improvements were part of its master plan anyway. They will enable the park to bring in additional events year-round long after the Games are over.
Kentucky also hopes to leverage the games to tap into America’s growing attraction to the horse-owning lifestyle There are about 9.5 million horses in the United States, up from 6.5 million a decade ago.
Landing the World Equestrian Games is an impressive coup for the state and, as Nicholson put it, “a wonderful way for Kentucky to reintroduce itself to the world.”
After all, horses are happier here – everybody knows that.

The race card still plays in KY

Northern Kentuckians can take some faint pride in apparently not having as many racist tendencies as some of their brethren elsewhere in Kentucky.

That's something I took away from a Courier-Journal story today on how racial prejudice appears to have played a part in voter preference for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in the Kentucky Democratic primary Tuesday.

Many voters deserve credit, in a weird way, for at least being honest enough to tell pollsters that Obama's race was a factor in their vote for Clinton. About one in five white voters told pollsters that, so you can be sure the real number is even higher. (Here's a link to an interesting Newsweek column on how our emotions & biases influence our voting.)

The C-J included a county-by-county chart that showed percentage of minority population in each Kentucky county and percentage of vote Obama received. Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties appeared to give Obama his greatest support (more than 30 percent of the Democratic primary vote) among counties with 6 percent or less minority population. You could theorize that more voters here seemed to look beyond skin color in making their choice.

A boisterous debate on the KY primary results also has broken out on our CincyMoms.com Web site. Click here to check it out.

Apathy reigns at North Pointe

"How's the turnout?" I asked at North Pointe Elementary School near Hebron when I voted just before 5 p.m. today.

"Very light," was the reply from the poll worker, which was somewhat obvious since I was the only voter present at that moment.

I thought to myself that part of it was that Democrats tend to be lonely people in Boone County, and the Clinton-Obama race was getting all the attention. That wasn't very relevant in a Republican primary.

Still, the Republicans who didn't vote were missing an interesting, close race for the State Senate between Charlie Walton and John Schickel. There is no Democrat running. This is game, set, match. And I guarantee you that Charlie Walton or John Schickel will affect lives in Boone County more on a daily basis than the next president. Or maybe the eligible voters don't care about schools, roads, economic development, casino gambling, toll bridges or taxes.

If you were a registered Republican, you had to be aggressively apathetic to ignore the race -- unless you depend on broadcast television for all your information. The Enquirer and Community Recorder both covered it. Candidate forums were throughout the district and aired on cable channels. Signs were up all over. Automated phone calls were ringing throughout the district. Mailboxes were flooded with direct mail, particularly from Charlie Walton, a school principal who had a lot of overt support from fellow education professionals.

So ends my annual "we take voting so much for granted/we deserve what we get" rant.

Changes are coming

Changes coming to this blog: Starting later this week, it will be published in a new blog tool on a brand-new Cincinnati.Com website.

It still will include the thoughts and opinions of individual members of the Editorial Board rather than the institutional position of the Enquirer. But we also will have some new features. We want to share a lot more of the reasoning (and arguing) that goes into formulation of the editorials. We will link you up to other interesting opinions and we will offer Q&A sessions with people in the news. You also will get an insider’s view of our editorial board interviews and a chance to talk to us about who and what we should be talking about.

We will still link back to discussions we’ve had on this forum and links to this blog will take you to the new one. Once we start posting to the new blog, you’ll be able to get in and get a sneak peek at the new website before anyone else.

There will be some administrative changes: You will have to register (it’s free.) You will have a unique registration name under which you can post comments and become regular contributors to our discussions.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Say it here or email me directly at dwells@enquirer.com.

Why I'm still taking the bus

A couple of weeks ago, I pledged to ride Metro to work for a week to goad high school students to park their cars and take the school bus.

I'm still shuttling along a month later, about three days a week.

A friend tells me that fuel-consumption guilt isn't enough to make most people try the bus, that there has to be a personal payoff. I'm easily guilted so I don't know, but maybe he's right.

I do know that three factors make me willing to put up with some inconvenience (frizzy hair, longer days, a constant search for $1 bills) to keep boarding that bus.

First, I realize that when I drive myself downtown, I scurry right into the parking garage as if I had blinders on. What I never knew I was missing is a city waking up. I like the three-block walk to my office and seeing people duck into Starbucks for a latte or greeting a friend on the way to the office. There is something downright charming about watching Jeffrey McClorey, owner of Bromwell's, calmly sweeping the sidewalk in front of his store while the shop cat, Cinders, stretches and shakes herself awake in the front window.

Second and related, taking the bus has made me feel I've made my peace with working in the city. I've embraced it. Until now, I saw my life as a dichotomy: I live my "real life" in the suburbs, but spend my days in the city -- without ever totally engaging with it. Now I see my life much more holistically, recognizing how much I enjoy the urban experience and not feeling that I cross into a parallel universe when I hit my downtown exit.

Third, as I watch all the cars carrying a single person make their way downtown, I am struck by the inefficiency of it and by the enormous waste of natural resources. It just looks odd, like putting one egg in a carton. I don't judge those drivers -- I've been one of them for more than 20 years -- but I do see the collective impact of my preference for convenience and autonomy when collaboration and mutual dependence would be better for the planet and even for my own state of mind.

When family needs clash with workplace needs

Judging from a lively discussion on CincyMoms (http://cincymoms.cincinnati.com/f/ShowThread.aspx?tid=49780&cid=15&fid=94&pid=1), the issue of how family commitments are treated in the workplace is a very hot topic indeed.

Last week I wrote about what's known as 'maternal profiling,' discrimination based on presumptions that mothers won't be as committed or as conscientious as other workers.

CincyMoms bloggers shared experiences of being told by employers that mothers shouldn't be in the workplace, being warned by law professors not to wear their wedding ring to an interview, and of working through lunch hours and taking work home so nobody would think they were slackers.

Just as painful to read are instances of childless workers who felt they were exploited because they were expected to work late when colleagues left to pick up their kids or who were invariably asked to work holidays or otherwise pick up the slack.

These are issues that pit people against each other and leave festering bitterness and resentment. They lead good employees to leave jobs they need, and force employers to play air-traffic controller in juggling schedules and needs of employees with competing interests.

Difficult, but worth the trouble of establishing fair policies and practices -- bloggers who felt their employers cared about their personal situations and tried to be fair to everyone were grateful and loyal.

A man worth remembering

This story brought a tear to my eye. I bet it will for many of you, too.

Our Kentucky-based reporters take turns doing features called "Lives Remembered" based on obituaries we receive. Bill Croyle was struck by one that seemed to suggest the deceased led a very uneventful, obscure life. No family around. No visitation scheduled.

Everyone has a story to tell. And so it was for Charles Cooke, 85, of Erlanger.

Bill's story made me think about my dad. By the time Paul Hetzel died at 89 in 1998, there weren't many of his family and friends around to come to the small funeral. But the local paper took note and wrote a nice story about how he was a founding member of the Hoffman Estates, Ill., Volunteer Fire Department and how he won a Bronze Star during World War II.

Charles Cooke served, too. Like my dad, he was in the Army during WWII. He loved to garden and stayed outside from dawn to dusk. That described my dad, too. Rest in peace guys.

Harvesting votes on the taxpayers' backs

There's nothing like an election year. President Bush has discovered fiscal responsibility during his lame-duck tour since he no longer has to run for anything. But politicians running for re-election think the gravy train is still running.

A news release landed in my inbox from Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the most powerful Republican in the United States Senate. He is running for re-election. Among other things, we learn that Mitch is in favor of school kids eating healthy food. He apparently is less concerned about how farm subsidies hurt taxpayers -- not to mention how farm policy helps drive up the cost of food. This puts him in the same camp with Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the house and big advocate of the bill. Maybe fewer people would need food stamps, which is most of the cost of this legislation, if food prices weren't shooting up.

Here's Mitch's press release:

Senate Passes Farm Bill; Helps Kentucky Farmers
“Kentucky farmers will benefit greatly from the many important programs that are promoted and preserved in this bill”

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday the Senate passed the Farm Bill conference report, which contains several important provisions to benefit the hard-working farm families of Kentucky.

“Kentucky farmers will benefit greatly from the many important programs that are promoted and preserved in this bill,” McConnell said. “I was pleased to support it on behalf of Kentucky’s farmers and their families who do so much for our commonwealth and the nation.”

Agriculture generates $4 billion for Kentucky’s economy every year. The commonwealth is the largest beef-cattle producing state east of the Mississippi, produces a diverse array of crops, and ranks fourth in the nation in the number of farms per state. In fact, 54 percent of Kentucky’s acreage is farmland.

The conference report contains a wide array of conservation efforts which will lead to improved air quality, cleaner drinking water, and less soil erosion, among other environmental benefits to our commonwealth.

It also includes a provision authored by Senator McConnell calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to survey what schools are serving to our children. This information will help USDA provide guidance to schools to serve healthier meals. This provision is sorely needed because USDA’s most recent data on this question is over a decade old.

“Educating our kids about the food they eat has been a top priority for me,” McConnell said. “In the last 30 years, the childhood obesity rate has more than tripled. Today over 4.5 million American children are facing a lifetime of all the increased health risks that obesity causes. This nutrition provision can be the first step towards reversing that unfortunate trend.”

The conference report also contains a provision authored by Senator McConnell to support Kentucky’s largest agricultural product, the horse industry. It would ensure that all race horses are depreciated over 3 years for tax purposes - regardless of when the horses start training. The current tax code does not accurately reflect the length of a horse's racing life.

“The horse industry employs 50,000 Kentuckians and contributes $3.5 billion to our economy year-round,” McConnell said. “By adding this provision to the bill, we have ensured that this important part of our farm economy is treated fairly.”

The Farm Bill conference report is supported by the Kentucky Farm Bureau.

==================

I'm no expert on the tax advantages of depreciating race horses, so maybe that's a fine idea. But here's a dose of reality on the farm bill from USA Today, the New York Times and other sources:

-- It is expected to cost $289 billion over five years.
-- It is larded with earmarks added by lawmakers in election fights.
-- It maintains subsidies for corn and other crops despite the fact that prices are at record levels and many farmers are doing quite well these days.

Even the president can't stomach the bill for the way it rewards big-time farming. He noted that couples making as much as $2.5 million a year could qualify for payments.

This is classic Congressional behavior: Take something that needs to be done and make it cost far more than it should. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill. Members of Congress are confident they can override. And, by the way, according to the Times, neither Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama nor John McCain bothered to show up and vote.

Contraception bill in state House

Ohio state Rep. Dan Stewart, D-Columbus, has re-introduced a bill to guarantee that sexual assault survivors are offered emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms. The abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio praised the bill Thursday. Here's what NARAL said about the Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies (CARE) Act in a press release:

• “This commonsense legislation affirms that members of the Ohio House hear voters’ call for policies that empower women and protect their privacy, instead of the divisive attacks that defined previous Congresses,” (NARAL Executive Director Kellie) Copeland said. “State Representative Dan Stewart and his colleagues who have co-sponsored this legislation have once again demonstrated their steadfast leadership by authoring this thoughtful legislation.”
  
  The CARE Act would ensure that survivors of sexual assault are offered emergency contraception (EC) in the emergency room. Each year, approximately 25,000 women in the United States become pregnant as a result of rape. Many of these pregnancies could be prevented if sexual assault victims had timely access to EC. Polls show that nearly 80 percent of American women want hospitals – religious-affiliated or not – to offer EC to rape survivors.
  
  Emergency contraception is a concentrated dose of ordinary birth-control pills that can dramatically reduce a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant if taken soon after sex. EC does not cause abortion; rather it is a safe and effective way to prevent pregnancy and was recently approved for over-the-counter sales for adults.
  
  NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Foundation conducted two surveys to examine the availability of EC in hospital emergency rooms across the state. The first survey in 2004 showed that nearly 60% of all Ohio hospitals did not guarantee access to EC for sexual assault survivors, almost 25% said they never give it out. In 2007 the picture had improved slightly with nearly 20% of hospitals who responded to the survey not guaranteeing access for sexual assault survivors (only half of Ohio hospitals participated in the second survey). Unfortunately these studies also showed that there is a lack of knowledge about this medication among emergency room staff, with both reports finding instances of ER staff confusing EC with the abortion inducing medication Mifepristone (or RU-486). Our research confirms that legislation is necessary to protect access to critical reproductive health care for sexual assault survivors in our state. You can view these studies at http://www.prochoiceohio.org/.

So what do you think about Rep. Stewart's bill? Do you think it will get anywhere in the current General Assembly? Do you think it should?

A replacement for Dann II: Widen the field

With Wednesday’s resignation of Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, pundits statewide are busy speculating on which Democrat is most likely to be chosen by Gov. Ted Strickland to replace Dann. As David Wells says below, Subodh Chandra would be an excellent choice. He was an impressive candidate when he ran against Dann in the 2006 primary. But the party backed Dann -- an awful lapse in judgment, obvious even at the time -- and Chandra didn't have a prayer.

But I’d like to look at the underlying assumption here: Why does it necessarily have to be a Democrat? Strickland should at least look at all the most qualified possibilities, regardless of party, to make sure Ohioans get the best possible person in that office. And if that happens to be a Republican, the governor’s bold, unconventional gesture could even help Democrats this fall by burnishing their clean-government, fair-play image. I know that’s impossibly naïve – that no party in its right mind would give up control of such a powerful office. But it can’t hurt to at least ask the question.

As for the issue of violating the voters’ mandate: If Ohioans had had even a sliver of an inkling about Dann in 2006, it’s a safe bet that Republican Betty Montgomery would have won, despite the Democratic landslide. In fact, maybe Strickland should consider Montgomery, the state's first and only female AG, if she’s willing to give the office another go. Montgomery won more votes than any statewide candidate every time she ran except in 2006, when she lost to Dann – and even then, she was the top GOP statewide vote-getter. She says she wouldn't run for AG this fall, but if Strickland were to appoint her now, who knows?

And if folks like Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune are being mentioned, why not, say, state Sen. Bill Seitz? If you’re talking party strategy, Strickland could do worse than to remove a GOP incumbent from the legislature during an election year in which control of both houses may be up for grabs. Or why not U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Columbus, who may run for the post this fall anyway?

The one thing Strickland should not do is, as is widely rumored, move Treasurer Richard Cordray over to AG. The people elected Cordray to be treasurer. We didn’t like it when Republicans played musical chairs with the statewide offices. Why should it be more acceptable when Democrats do it?

A replacement for Dann

Bill Sloat, former Plain Dealer reporter in Cincinnati who now authors the independent Daily Bellwether blog, makes a good point about who Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland should be considering as a replacement to disgraced Attorney General Marc Dann – Subodh Chandra, the very capable former Cleveland law director who Dann beat in the 2006 primary.

Dann resigned Wednesday, one day after fellow Democrats introduced articles of impeachment against him for his gross mishandling of the office, including turning a blind eye to sexual harassment and misconduct by top aides while he conducted his own extra-marital affair with a subordinate. The Ohio Inspector General is now investigating Dann, and Strickland must select an interim replacement who will have to stand for election in November.

Chandra ought to be at the top of Strickland’s list. He’s smart, experienced in managing a large legal operation, a former assistant federal prosecutor and possessed of a reputation as a highly ethical lawyer. In short, he’s pretty much everything Dann was not. That had a lot to do with why the Enquirer endorsed him for the nomination two years ago.

Don't worry your pretty little head about it ...

So Sen. Barack Obama has a thing for calling women "sweetie." Maybe Sen. Hillary Clinton is on to something. All she has to do is wait for Obama to call her "babe" or say she "did good for a girl," and it's a whole new ballgame. Of course, this item is from the Clinton News Network ...

That's the ticket ... maybe

Note to print shops that specialize in posters and bumper stickers: Is it time to start gearing up for a run of Obama-Edwards items?

‘The defining issue of our time’

“Plastics.”

Remember that classic one-word piece of career advice from the 1967 film “The Graduate”? Well, the likely hot tip for 21st century Ohio does it one word better: “Fuel cells.” To a large extent, the state’s leaders are pinning their hopes for an economic boom on this technology – a notion that House Speaker Jon Husted confirmed in a speech Wednesday at the University of Akron.

“Fuel cells are an important part of a new energy strategy. They are an important part of an economic development startegy for Ohio,” the Kettering Republican told the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition symposium. “Energy will be the defining issue of our time.” One of the most promising new energy technologies is the fuel cell, which produces electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen, leaving as its clean byproduct – you guessed it – water. The Edison Materials Technology Center lists 79 Ohio companies and institutions involved in fuel-cell component research and development. The state is poised to become a big player in this field.

And for once, it appears that state government has actually helped instead of getting in the way. As Husted pointed out, recent steps include former Gov. Bob Taft’s Third Frontier high-tech initiative, business tax-code reform, funding for math and science education, Gov. Ted Strickland’s new jobs initiative and his recently passed energy/utility bill. Husted deserves credit for improving that last item, particularly on alternative energy requirements.

Dann must go -- day 12

The Marc Dann watch drags on.

On Wednesday, 12 days after he released an internal report outlining gross mismagement and admitted he wasn't up to the job, Ohio's embarrassing Attorney General was out to lunch, according to an aide, when agents from the Ohio Inspector General showed up and began going through his files and hard drives. Security guards reportedly were doing bag checks on anyone leaving Dann's office to make sure nobody made off with potential evidence of mismanagement, sexual harassment, doing private work on state time or any other malfeasance outlined in the articles of impeachment introduced against Dann in the Ohio House on Tuesday.

As I have said before, Dann should resign and end the spectacle. Of course with this much blood in the water, the spectacle probably will continue. But he should resign anyway.