News: Getting What They Pay For?
Jymi Bolden E-Check inspectors are hired without backbround checks at a starting pay rate of $6.50 an hour. It started out with complaints about long lines, high fees and damaged cars. Next came complaints about errors and inaccurate results that led to a shut-down. Then it was re-implemented. Then came criminal charges against an…
Aesoptional
The Mouse and the Elephant One day as Miles Mouse was walking home from his job at the lab, he suffered shortness of breath and severe chest pains. I thought the lab guys were injecting my brain with caffeine to grow cancerous tumors; this feels like a heart attack, he thought just before he lost…
Rewards for Residential Electric Customers?
Sen. Bruce Johnson, R-Columbus, has projected that electric deregulation will save Ohioans 10 to 30 percent on their electric bills. Citizens for a Sound Economy, a government spending and policy watchdog group, is even more hopeful, estimating consumer savings of 43 percent. But Adrienne Mitchem, legislative counsel at Consumers Union — the consumer advocacy organization…
Film: Novel Ideas
Robin Wright Penn in Message in a Bottle Robin Wright Penn doesn't fit the image of Theresa Osborne, the romantic journalist of Nicholas Sparks' novel, Message in a Bottle. With her short, blonde, tousled hair, Penn's look is decidedly different from Sparks' description of his heroine: "Her hair was dark brown, cut just above…
The Vision of Rail
Cincinnati City Councilman Todd Portune's multiphase commuter rail line proposal is meeting some resistance from the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI). Portune held a public hearing Feb. 4 to discuss the plan and get input from community leaders and residents. Portune's proposal calls for the first phase…
Diner: Mardi Gras Mambo
I've never been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and probably never will. It seems best done under the age of 30, before hangovers have really serious consequences. For my Mardi Gras celebration, I'll settle for New Orleans food in festive surroundings closer to home. Several local restaurants feature Louisiana cooking which fills the bill…
News: More Choices, More Giving?
Greater Cincinnati Community Shares now has payroll deduction at 35 companies and organizations, including the University of Cincinnati, several law firms and state and federal agencies. But the group has been trying for three years to get into City Hall. Ron Wahl, assistant to Mayor Roxanne Qualls, said charitable giving campaign guidelines were presented to…
Pooped from Potty Debate
These parents would deny that they'd ever consider appearing on the Jerry Springer Show. But I wouldn't believe them. From what I've seen, they've been clamoring to tell all to everyone about how they potty trained their children. Perhaps preoccupied with trying to top everyone else, they apparently haven't considered how they're playing right into…
NRBQ
NRBQ There's at least two reasons why the past two out of three albums by veteran pub rockers NRBQ have been live albums. First, in concert is where the band shines, the great songs befiting the ragged and loose glory of the quartet's live energy. Secondly (and this is just a guess), the venerable…
