Glass City Jungle

The fact checker in me was happy to read the following from the Cleveland Plain Dealer – (link):
Starting today, The Plain Dealer officially kicks off PolitiFact Ohio, a new way to examine the claims, ads and statements of players in the political world. Once distilled, the newspaper’s findings are posted on the fanciful Truth-O-Meter, whose [...]

Erosion issues are starting at the land that was supposed to be the marina project. We have people in our community who need assistance when it comes to food and even the Department of Agriculture realizes the importance of urban agriculture. WTOL’s Bob Chirdon feels that Councilmen Joe McNamara and Mike Craig’s idea [...]

My “Shredding the Curtain” column, Patterns of precedents in this week’s Toledo Free Press is an attempt to raise awareness as to the precedent related to the City of Toledo paying the employee portion of the pension pick up. Some members of Toledo City Council have been advocating for having their own private legal [...]

The video of what happened to Don RedFox when he was injured by Louie the elephant at the Toledo Zoo back on July 1 was released to the media today – most of our local media has a copy of the video on their websites, FOX Toledo as one example. Earlier today I received [...]

Breaking news message from Politico moments ago – (link):
Ending weeks of stalemate, the Senate cleared the way Tuesday for Congress to extend federal jobless benefits through November’s elections for millions of long-term unemployed.
Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins were the sole Republicans to join Democrats on the 60-40 roll call, the outcome of which [...]

A reader of the Jungle wrote me an e-mail asking basically where was Ohio education funding at since it had been declared unconstitutional over a decade ago. She suggested it might be an interesting topic to cover here, and I agree. It’s actually been covered recently in some of the media outside of [...]

The Sandusky Sheriff department was contacted by the family of Bryan Jones because he was under the influence of alcohol, had at least one weapon and had threatened to kill his mother. After Jones refused to come out of the house, a flashbang device was set off and when the SWAT team entered the [...]

I recommend reading the report in full from the Center for Community Solutions – (link). For those of you looking for a summary of what the report covered, I recommend John Michael Spinelli’s article on the report – (link). He does an excellent job in summation so there’s no need for me to [...]

The environmental concern aspect of a recent oil spill at Heilman Ditch was referenced by Councilman Rob Ludeman at the July 13 agenda review, Councilman Collins shared some of what he knew at that time, Ludeman requested a referral from the administration as to more information about the contamination. WNWO reported on this story, [...]

Reverend Donald Perryman and Lafe Tolliver focus on LeBron James in the Sojourner’s Truth, but the story I was drawn to this week is neither. While Perryman makes some relevant points about education, (link):
Yet the greater but least recognized insight emerging from “The Decision” is the lesson of economic independence. As we strive [...]

Recommended bio-type article by Christopher Kirkpatrick (link) for those of you interested in learning a bit more about Jerome Pecko, the new TPS Superintendent. Some of the challenges his former district faced are similar to ours, though TPS is much larger:
Summit County’s Springfield Local Schools, where he was superintendent from 2003 to 2007, couldn’t [...]

When I sat down last Wednesday to decide what I was going to focus on the “Shredding the Curtain” column I write for the Toledo Free Press each week, I had few different topics I could have focused on. The Maywood Project caught my attention since it’s been something I’d been following when [...]

The cover story for the Toledo Free Press this week is the result of an interview with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur done by Kristen Rapin of the Toledo Free Press – “Kaptur criticized for circumventing new earmark ban” (link) is a recommended read for those of you interested in more of the story than what was [...]

I guess it comes down to how you measure the word “success” though when I read the Blade headline – GOP chief: Reform petition drive a ’success’ (link) for a brief moment I thought that Stainbrook had actually pulled off getting the required 14,289 signatures.
The story doesn’t state how many signatures were collected – the [...]

Last night I watched the FOX Toledo story on the increase in arson in Toledo, 27 in the past month, (link). As reported by several media outlets, WTOL as an example, last night three more fires took place, (link). Most of the fires are taking place on the East Side and in the [...]

Several releases were sent out yesterday on the passage of the Wall Street reform bill, below are the ones I received, John Michael Spinelli has a recommended article (link) that references them and a few others that I did not receive yesterday:
Governor Applauds U.S. Congress for Passage of Wall Street Reform, Rebukes Republican Calls [...]

This Cleveland Plain Dealer article on John Kasich’s fundraising (link) shared this that I found interesting:
The event’s special guest is Republican rising star and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. But the real entertainment might be a conversation between Kasich and Mixon.
Kasich sits on Invacare’s board of directors and has been extremely critical of Ohio’s business climate, [...]

As an update to those of you following this story, reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, (link):
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Daniel Burns, former chief operating officer of the Cleveland school district, was sentenced this morning to six years in prison.
He also was ordered to pay more than $223,000 in restitution and fines
Burns was convicted in June [...]

After writing Looking through the windshield in the Toledo Free Press that came out Sunday, the thoughts that inspired that column are still with me. As I wrote at the time, it really didn’t matter which superintendent candidate TPS selected, the question raised in my mind by the comment made by Tom Watkins exists [...]

For those of you who are a bit younger, a quick refresh on how the whole expletive issue became an issue. In 1960, Congress authorized the FCC to impose civil forfeitures for violations but the FCC did not make an “indecent but not obscene” finding until 1975. George Carlin’s “Filthy Words” monologue, a [...]

Wonder how some of those who contact you to sell you insurance and other stuff knows so much about you? The State of Ohio has been selling that information since 2005 according to this Cleveland Plain Dealer article (link). One of the most disturbing aspects is your social security number is not blocked, [...]

June 28 Dayton Daily news among other media sources reported the “Baby come back” video/message to try to urge Ohio General Assembly members to go back to work, (link)
Their video message:

Today it’s being reported by John Michael Spinelli (link) a new effort that includes a new video and a six foot bullfrog:

It’s not surprising that women are still earning less than men in state jobs in Ohio, but the title of this post is one tidbit of the information shared in the Columbus Dispatch piece (link) — “Pay gap for state jobs is shrinking.” While it’s recommended you read the piece in full, one part:
An [...]

The Blade reported on June 29 that Libbey Inc. received a 40 percent tax credit for six years, valued at $82,567 (link). The Columbus Dispatch references that tax credit as part of an article looking at how transparent and successful these tax credits are, (link).
I recommend reading the article and checking out the data [...]

Zoo officials are still not sure why Louie attacked Don RedFox, the story has brought the debate over elephants being kept in Zoos into the pages of the daily paper – (link). One of the interesting parts of the debate revolves around “free contact” and “protected contact” — the Toledo Zoo uses both but [...]

I understand the symbolic gesture that is the motivation behind Toledo City Councilman Adam Martinez’s resolution, the text of which was shared here before (link). Since the City’s FTP server is still down, I have not yet listened to the three hours worth of audio to determine what was said at the committee meeting [...]

Referring to certain groups within our community as “pimps” has created attention in the past, (link) but the headline of this blog post is the title of an article in this week’s Sojourner’s Truth by Rev. Donald Perryman — Pimpin’ The Game II: Black Leaders and Leading Blacks. I recommend reading it in full [...]

I’ve been watching the whole hoopla over LeBron James, the outrage on Facebook, the staged jersey burning for the media, the politicians pandering, the cute titles, King Shames, the vitriolic letters, the comparisons to Art Modell though describing James as “He was the fabulous curiosity, the bearded lady, the dancing bear.” made me [...]

There are moments when I feel as Joe Hallett expresses in his column a few days ago where he asks the question – Wouldn’t it be nice if politicians focused on what matters?. It’s one that has been asked here, more than once and the challenge is to not become so entrenched into what [...]

13abc reports on a story (link) covered back in February 2010 (link).
David Millhoan, Sr was the commissioner of the S.T.A.R.S. League (South Toledo Area Recreation Society) and the coach for the Colts team, which recruited players from Jones Jr. High and the Jones elementary feeder schools. He was indicted on nine charges, 3 [...]