Carnival #77

Another week of scorching Ohio humidity means only one thing: a new week of submissions from Ohio's bloggers. I felt a picture of a major through way of our state, Interstate 77, would be appropriate for the 77th Carnival. Never a treat to travel on, as most of us know. However, reading posts of Ohio's best should cure your I-77 blues, especially if you were caught on the road in Tuesday's monsoon like conditions during AM rush hour in the Northeast Ohio area.

Bryan at The Virtuous Republic weighs in on the sales tax fight in Hamilton County. The tax was rejected by the voters in November for a new jail, but the tax was implemented anyways in May. Bryan reports enough signatures have been gathered to put this back on the ballot to get the tax repealed.

Columbuser hits on a popular topic this week - at least on the right - Frankie Coleman pleading no contest in an investigation regarding her time sheets at the Ohio Department of Development. The blog thinks her punishment was fair. Brian also sends us two posts about City Center. The first is on Columbus's lawsuit against the owner of the mall, TL-Columbus Associates; Columbuser was not a fan of their management style. The second submission about City Center has to do with the "politics of malls," and how it relates to the current campaign for mayor in our capital city.

Word of Mouth sends us a post on the status of Lorain that has already received many comments. What is needed for a grassroots solution to help take back Lorain and turn it around the post asks? A follow-up post has information about a "rally of just because it is so important," as it pertains to the Lorain City Schools. And of course, when you send in a post talking up the Carnival, it gets a mention. Even when you say that my personal blog needs a new name. Ha, maybe you are right.

From Glass City Jungle, one of my Carnival colleagues, a story that demonstrates how even though the State of Ohio provides the Ohio Revised Code online, how difficult it can be to determine if something is legal or is illegal and why blogging can at times find the answer through a community of connections/research. Lisa also mentions her opinions on bloggers forming a union - she thinks it is silly.

King's Right Side chimes in with three posts as well. First up, King lets us know about the horrible story where a Brecksville woman was killed by a fleeing stolen car driven by a 13 year old. Pregnancy leave a civil right? The Ohio Civil Rights Commission thinks so, and King gives us his thoughts on the subject. He does not agree with the proposed changes. Will liberal bloggers be the downfall of the Democratic Party? Responding to an article in the Plain Dealer, he says all you need to do is see that none of the current Democrats running for president attended the recent DLC function, but they all made time to visit the Kos Convention.

Our own Jill at Writes Likes She Talks wants to ban push polls, especially when they come from Ken Blackwell, who lost the gubernatorial election here last fall. Jill also points out that the Congressional representative of many of our readers, Dennis Kucinich, was the sole Dem in the House to vote against STEM education money due to nuclear energy implications that the same bill contained. Finally, WLST asks if anything was missed; women are bloggers?

As usual, Tom at Bizzy Blog submits three quality posts. First off, Bizzy is miffed that some think our governor (including Ted Strickland himself) deserves an attaboy for doing what anyone would consider the minimum acceptable dealing with the data theft case. Tom has a post along the same lines as the post by the Virtuous Republic about the Hamilton County sales tax the voters rejected in November 2006. Lastly, Tom hits us with a self-explanatory piece, along with a nice graphic, about why he thinks Ohio should abolish the death tax.

New contributor this week Idea Treks fills us in on Toledo's mayor parking in a handicapped spot, which was caught on camera by a local television station. But that is not it. Mayor Finkbeiner also left his dog in the car for over 45 minutes and then tried to use the dog as his excuse for parking there. As Craig's post says, "He tried to cheat the system and got caught NOT following the letter of the law."

More news out of Toledo from Maggie at Thurber's Thoughts. Maggie thinks the new "secret shopper" program in her city testing the services of hotels is a waste. She wonders if residents would be better served by the secret shoppers testing government agencies instead. In response to articles in the Toledo Blade and Toledo Free Press (about levy fatigue), this site also wants to know why wealth is always demonized.

The Chief Source submits a video entry this week on predatory lending, something that has become a hot topic as of late. The video focuses on the Rolling Acres area of Akron, an area that has gone from a can't miss shopping destination to a virtual wasteland in the past decade.

Weapons of Mass Discussion says that our SOS Jennifer Brunner smeared Republican workers at the Board of Elections. One quote in particular by Brunner strikes this blogger as "beyond the pale." Another interesting post sent our way by WMD is titled "We Won't Win the War on Terror if the Story Can't be Told." The argument is that if the truth can't be told, America will never win the War on Terror. Matt also uses his popular site to endorse Eric Minamyer for Ohio's 35th District House seat.

Carnival of Politics Assistant Administrator Pho at Pho's Akron Pages submits a post on the recent Ohio blogstorm about the title of a new blog at Ohio.com that looks a lot like a title which is already used by one of our regular contributers. A second post is regarding a Beacon Journal article that reports a group in Colorado is accusing Akron's David Brennan of "buying" a vote on the Colorado School Board. Pho also chimes in on the formation by Governor Strickland of an Ohio University System, complete with the logo of the proposed new grouping.

The Pullins Report sends in a post regarding his mention in Campaigns and Elections magazine about Ohio's political dining hot spots. Nice recognition for a local blogger to be mentioned in such a publication.

Conservative Culture reports back on a meeting in Lima about a proposed casino. The sentiments were mostly against it. Gambling is illegal in Ohio and Lima officials are bent in changing that for Ohio, we are told. A new word (at least to me) - Depublicans, in the context of the Cuyahoga County Republican Party stance on guns. Bill Bennett gets special recognition from CC. Lastly, CC brings another story to our attention from the border - a topic that he has been following closely.

And fresh off my vacation out West, The Keeler Report was privileged to talk to a class at the University of Akron on Monday Night about political blogging and some specific examples having to do with Ohio.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to send a post or two or three in this week. We had some great entries this week.