Wednesday, September 30, 2009

500 Ryle High students ill

UNION - About 500 of the 1,560 students at Ryle High School were home sick Tuesday, many of them with a low-grade virus, according to Superintendent Randy Poe.

Poe said what many of the students are suffering from is similar to what kept about 200 Gray Middle School students home last week. Gray is next door to Ryle, and many siblings of students at Gray attend Ryle.

Poe said attendance was up by about 100 students on Wednesday morning.
Poe said there are no plans to close Ryle, and whether extracurricular events will be postponed this week will be determined on an event-by-event basis.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Cincinnati City Council Wanna-Be's Face Off

This morning on Channel 12's NewsMakers, four people running for this year's Cincinnati City Council seats squared off.

On today's program, Laura Quinlivan, Charlie Winburn, Bernadett Watson, and Tony Fischer all went tete-a-tete on issues facing the Queen City. From budget cuts to debate on the reamifications of bring a casino to Broadway Commons were all placed on the table.

Though Fisher and Watson made an acceptable appearance, the real fireworks came when Issue 9 and the street car was brought to the forefront.

Quainlivan made a valid and passionate argument about the necessity of an established transportation system, found in the street car, in addition to her publicly denouncing her approval for Issue 9.

This sentiment was also heralded by Fisher and Watson. The only opposition came from Winburn who repeated harped in the violence and crime that was prevalent in the proposed street car route.

In my opinion, here are my grades on the City Council Candidate's Sunday morning appearance:

Laure Quinlivan: A-

Charlie Winburn: C-

Bernadett Watson: B

Tony Fischer: B

If you mised it, form your own opinion by watching what you missed here.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

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Is CIRV Really Worth It?

Read the entire article here.

CINCINNATI -- Oralen Buckner was robbed and murdered while waiting for a ride outside the Faye Apartments in June. More than a month went by without an arrest.

So the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence, or CIRV, offered to get involved.

Oralen Buckner's homicide was solved thanks to help from CIRV.
Kenneth Buckner, Oralen’s brother, was skeptical. He didn’t think CIRV’s involvement would make any difference.

“No I didn't,” Buckner said.

But Buckner agreed to let CIRV hold a vigil for his brother, encouraging people to come forward with information about who killed him.

Read the entire article here.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

My Newly Published Article 'How To Save Money In This Tough Economy'


Read it here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2169857/how_to_save_money_in_this_tough_economy.html?cat=9
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Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary dies


 
As Reported by The Associated Press
DANBURY, Conn. — Mary Travers, one-third of the hugely popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, has died.

The band's publicist, Heather Lylis, says Travers died at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut on Wednesday. She was 72 and had battled leukemia for several years.

Travers joined forces with Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey in the early 1960s.

The trio mingled their music with liberal politics, both onstage and off. Their version of "If I Had a Hammer" became an anthem for racial equality. Other hits included "Lemon Tree," ''Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "Puff (The Magic Dragon.)"

They were early champions of Bob Dylan and performed his "Blowin' in the Wind" at the August 1963 March on Washington.

And they were vehement in their opposition to the Vietnam War, managing to stay true to their liberal beliefs while creating music that resonated in the American mainstream.

The group collected five Grammy Awards for their three-part harmony on enduring songs like "Leaving on a Jet Plane," ''Puff (The Magic Dragon)" and "Blowin' in the Wind."

At one point in 1963, three of their albums were in the top six Billboard best-selling LPs as they became the biggest stars of the folk revival movement.

It was heady stuff for a trio that had formed in the early 1960s in Greenwich Village, running through simple tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

They debuted at the Bitter End in 1961, and their beatnik look — a tall blonde flanked by a pair of goateed guitarists — was a part of their initial appeal. As The New York Times critic Robert Shelton put it not long afterward, "Sex appeal as a keystone for a folk-song group was the idea of the group's manager, Albert B. Grossman, who searched for months for 'the girl' until he decided on Miss Travers."

Their debut album came out in 1962, and immediately scored a pair of hits with their versions of "If I Had a Hammer" and "Lemon Tree." The former won them Grammys for best folk recording, and best performance by a vocal group.

"Moving" was the follow-up, including the hit tale of innocence lost, "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" — which reached No. 2 on the charts, and generated since-discounted reports that it was an ode to marijuana.

Album No. 3, "In the Wind," featured three songs by the 22-year-old Dylan. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Blowin' in the Wind" both reached the top 10, bringing Dylan's material to a massive audience; the latter shipped 300,000 copies during one two-week period.

"Blowin' In the Wind" became an another civil rights anthem, and Peter, Paul and Mary fully embraced the cause. They marched with King in Selma, Ala., and performed with him in Washington.

In a 1966 New York Times interview, Travers said the three worked well together because they respected one another. "There has to be a certain amount of love just in order for you to survive together," she said. "I think a lot of groups have gone down the tubes because they were not able to relate to one another."

With the advent of the Beatles and Dylan's switch to electric guitar, the folk boom disappeared. Travers expressed disdain for folk-rock, telling the Chicago Daily News in 1966 that "it's so badly written. ... When the fad changed from folk to rock, they didn't take along any good writers."

But the trio continued their success, scoring with the tongue-in-cheek single "I Dig Rock and Roll Music," a gentle parody of the Mamas and the Papas, in 1967 and the John Denver-penned "Leaving on a Jet Plane" two years later.

They also continued as boosters for young songwriters, recording numbers written by then-little-known Gordon Lightfoot and Laura Nyro.

In 1969, the group earned their final Grammy for "Peter, Paul and Mommy," which won for best children's album. They disbanded in 1971, launching solo careers — Travers released five albums — that never achieved the heights of their collaborations.

Over the years they enjoyed several reunions, including a performance at a 1978 anti-nuclear benefit organized by Yarrow and a 35th anniversary album, "Lifelines," with fellow folkies Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Dave Van Ronk and Seeger. A boxed set of their music was released in 2004.

They remained politically active as well, performing at the 1995 anniversary of the Kent State shootings and performing for California strawberry pickers.

Travers had undergone a successful bone marrow transplant to treat her leukemia and was able to return to performing after that.

"It was like a miracle," Travers told The Associated Press in 2006. "I'm just feeling fabulous. What's incredible is someone has given your life back. I'm out in the garden today. This time last year I was looking out a window at a hospital." She also said she told the marrow donor "how incredibly grateful I was."

But by mid-2009, Yarrow told WTOP radio in Washington that her condition had worsened again and he thought she would no longer be able to perform.

Mary Allin Travers was born on Nov. 9, 1936 in Louisville, Ky., the daughter of journalists who moved the family to Manhattan's bohemian Greenwich Village. She quickly became enamored with folk performers like the Weavers, and was soon performing with Seeger, a founding member of the Weavers who lived in the same building as the Travers family.

With a group called the Song Swappers, Travers backed Seeger on one album and two shows at Carnegie Hall. She also appeared (as one of a group of folk singers) in a short-lived 1958 Broadway show called "The Next President," starring comedian Mort Sahl.

It wasn't until she met up with Yarrow and Stookey that Travers would taste success on her own. Yarrow was managed by Grossman, who later worked in the same capacity for Dylan.

In the book "Positively 4th Street" by David Hajdu, Travers recalled that Grossman's strategy was to "find a nobody that he could nurture and make famous."

The budding trio, boosted by the arrangements of Milt Okun, spent seven months rehearsing in her Greenwich Village apartment before their 1961 public debut.

Travers lived for many years in Redding, Conn.



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Obama scrapping missile shield for Czech, Poland


 
 
By Karel Janicek And William J. Kole, Associated Press Writers

PRAGUE — President Barack Obama has decided to scrap plans for a U.S. missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland that had deeply angered Russia, the Czech prime minister confirmed Thursday.

NATO's new chief hailed the move as "a positive step" and a Russian analyst said the move will increase the chances that Russia will cooperate more closely with the United States in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

Premier Jan Fischer told reporters that Obama phoned him overnight to say that "his government is pulling out of plans to build a missile defense radar on Czech territory."

"The same happened with Poland. Poland was informed in the same way about this intention," Fischer said.

Under the plan, which had been proposed by the Bush administration to defend the United States and its European allies against a possible missile attack from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East, 10 interceptor rockets were to have been stationed in Poland and a radar system based in the Czech Republic.

But Russia was livid over the prospect of having U.S. interceptor rockets in countries so close to its territory, and the Obama administration has sought to improve strained ties with the Kremlin.

A top Russian lawmaker praised the move.

"The U.S. president's decision is a well-thought and systematic one," said Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. "It reflects understanding that any security measure can't be built entirely on the basis of one nation."

Fischer said Obama assured him that the "strategic cooperation" between the Czech Republic and the U.S. would continue, and that Washington considers the Czechs among its closes allies.

Fischer said after a review of the missile defense system, the U.S. now considers the threat of an attack using short- and mid-range missiles greater than one using long-range rockets.

"That's what the Americans assessed as the most serious threat," and Obama's decision was based on that, he said.

In Poland, officials declined to confirm Fischer's remarks, saying they were waiting for a formal announcement from Washington.

Obama took office undecided about whether to continue to press for the European system and said he would study it. His administration never sounded enthusiastic about it, and European allies have been preparing for an announcement that the White House would not complete the shield as designed.

Alexei Arbatov, head of the Russian Academy of Science's Center for International Security, told a Moscow radio station Thursday that the U.S. was giving in on missile defense to get more cooperation from Russia on Iran.

"The United States is reckoning that by rejecting the missile-defense system or putting it off to the far future, Russia will be inclined together with the United States to take a harder line on sanctions against Iran," he said.

The Czech government had stood behind the planned radar system despite fierce opposition from the public, which has staged numerous protests.

Critics fear the Czech Republic would be targeted by terrorists if it agreed to host the radar system, which was planned for the Brdy military installation 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Prague, the capital.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates scheduled a news conference Thursday with a top military leader, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, who has been a point man on the technical challenge of arraying missiles and interceptors to defend against long-range missiles.

The decision to scrap the plan will have future consequences for U.S. relations with eastern Europe.

"If the administration approaches us in the future with any request, I would be strongly against it," said Jan Vidim, a lawmaker with Czech Republic's conservative Civic Democratic Party, which supported the missile defense plan.

___

Kole reported from Vienna. AP Writer Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Anne Gearan and Desmond Butler in Washington and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this story.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

H&M Comes To The Tri-State

How did this store sneak under my radar?
The first time that I visited this was in Philly and I fell in love.
It wasn’t until a year ago when I was visiting Indy that I was able to take in their wares again.
Just yesterday, I found out that this ultra hip store has a location in Kenwood AND in Florence Y’all…who knew?

Let’s just say, I will be there for their end of the month sales.

How to Save Money In These Tough Economic Times

Read the entire article here:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2169857/how_to_save_money_in_this_tough_economy.html?cat=9

The last time that our country has seen this much financial distress the American people were getting ready to be thrown into the midst of The Great Depression. It can be proven with the recent nationwide debate on healthcare reform and the all time high in unemployment.

To combat the effects of the Great Depression, this county enacted the National Industrial Revitalization Act by the Federal Government, which completely shut down some financial institutions, in order to change its practices and protocol, leaving Americans with little or no access to the hard earned money that they entrusted.

Now that our economy is multi faceted and so intertwined, the government has power to make small changes in our economic recovery (i.e. Cash for Clunkers and the recent Bailout of some of the major banks), but a far reaching financial overhaul which was enacted in 1933 is almost impossible in this day and age.

This being said, most of the economic recovery responsibility falls on use, the regular citizens. We have to not only rely on our government to spur economic growth, but we must take it upon ourselves to take actions within our own economic situation in order to ensure financial stability and growth.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2169857/how_to_save_money_in_this_tough_economy.html?cat=9

The 'B' Is Buzzing

Over the past few years, the Ohio River banks have been in renewal mode. Despite the fact that it is still not complete after two decades of progress, it has not dampened the spirits of Greater Cincinnatians.

The latest river side community to take advantage of the renaissance along the mighty Ohio is Bellevue, KY. This city mimics that of a developing 3rd world county in both charm and rate of economic growth (that’s a good thing so you know).

Read the following article to find out more:

http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20090916/ENT01/909160343/Bellevue+s+restaurant+row

Monday, September 14, 2009

Movies U Gotta C This Fall

This past summer was one of the first times in a while that I was excited about going to the movies. Though I am a film buff, I reserve my trips to the cinema for films which have amazing special effects or high in action content.

This summer I was very impressed with G.I. Joe and the last installation of the Harry Potter series. But some of the softer films, I will wait until they come out on video.

This Fall is no exception.

There is a myriad of films in which I am interested in seeing, but right now, I definitely want to see the following in the theatres

Avatar

Surrogates

Where the Wild Things Are

And

I Can Do Bad All by Myself

The latter of the four, I want to see in the theatre just for sheer laugh appeal.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The Last Mac & Cheese Recipe You'll Ever Use

That is, if you are a single gay man.

Despite our area's great grocery stores like Kroger and Whole Foods, Trader Joe's seems to always come out of my mouth first when anyone asks me where buy groceries.

I have stumbled on the perfect Mac & Cheese recipe which all ingredients can be purchased with products at Trader Joe's

Enjoy!

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Riverfront Plans To Bring Back The Beer!

So who said that Cincinnati abandoned its beer brewing heritage?

As The Banks project trudges along,

Greg Hardman, Christian Moerlein Brewing Company owner announced that he will be heading up The Moerlein Larger House (or should it be Hause) which will anchor the Central Riverfront park Development plans.

The restaurant/bar plans to be located and the bottom of Main Street just on the East side of the Great American Ball Park. It plans to include indoor seating for 500, including a 600 seat outdoor space.

Not only does it plan to be a great place to hang out and have a beer and grub, the building plans to be LEED certified , 3 stories in height, complete with a green roof, balconies and terraces with views of the new Central Riverfront Park, Ohio River, Roebling Suspension Bridge and Great American Ball Park.

Can’t wait to see it come to fruition!

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Job Expo Aimed @ Vets

As repored on nky.com

FLORENCE - An event designed to help veterans of the U.S. armed forces and their spouses find work, start a business or further their education will be held Thursday at Turfway Park.

More than two dozen companies, organizations and schools are expected to participate in the RecruitMilitary Opportunity Expo. The free event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is open to all veterans and military spouses.

"A lot of civilian employers don't understand quite fully what these veterans can offer them," said John Lundberg, a national career fair representative with RecruitMilitary and a retired Marine. "But they know what they do bring to the table is a great work ethic, the understanding of accomplishing a goal in a timely manner and being able to work with less than desirable resources and coming to work every day.

"Once they realize what skill sets they do have and how it's transferable it makes them then even more valuable."

RecruitMilitary is a Loveland-based firm owned and operated by veterans. It matches veterans with employers and has 68 career fairs scheduled throughout the country this year, Lundberg said. The events are produced in cooperation with the American Legion, HireVetsFirst and the Military Spouse Corporate Career Network, according to a news release.

Sharon Cohany, an economist with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, said Wednesday that the jobless rate last month for all military veterans was 7.7 percent. That translates into 933,000 unemployed veterans, she said. The jobless rate was even higher for those who served at any time since September 2001. That figure rose to 11.3 percent, or 185,000 veterans, in August, Cohany said.

Read the full article here.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Would You Kick President Obama Out Of Your School?

Over the past few weeks, we have heard opposition about President Obama’s speech to the young school children of this country.

Never mind the fact that the United States spends the most money per child in the world to educate them, yet we still fall severely behind the rest of the world in education, does anyone see the necessity of this Presidential proclamation to our schools?

Carter did it.

Bush Sr. did it.

What makes this time so much different?

To put icing on the cake, both the former 1st Lady Bush tagged teamed with Newt Gingrich to question the county’s opposition for the President speaking with the county’s children.

That says it all.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

ION Consultants – New Website Announcement

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A great new comment and question feature has been added to our site for fast and easy communication.

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