The Cincinnati-based consumer goods giant gets our thanks for donating 15 pallets’ worth of Iams dog and cat food to help the region’s needy pets. The food will be distributed through the United Coalition of Animals (UCAN) and the Cincinnati Pet Food Pantry. Unfortunately, P&G is making national headlines due to a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami.  

How can you tell when an idea is really, really bad? When it brings together people to oppose it who otherwise are typically political foes, that's how. Mayor Mark Mallory, police union President Kathy Harrell and local NAACP President Christopher Smitherman all are united against City Council's proposal to consider letting the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office take control of policing in the city.  

In decades past, Cincinnati City Council typically would do whatever the Fourth Street crowd would tell it. In the authority-loving, hierarchically driven Queen City, CEOs have ruled the roost, even more so than in other cities. So we’re surprised and pleased that City Council decided to grow a collective backbone and reject a request from the Western & Southern Financial Group to block federal funding for a battered women’s shelter on Lytle Street downtown.  

If you’re going to serve on a public committee that will recommend how taxpayer money should be spent, don’t try to make your decisions secretly. That’s the essence of a lawsuit filed by The Forest Hills Journal against the Forest Hills Local School District. The district’s Facilities Committee allegedly used a secret ballot Sept. 9 to decide on building configuration recommendations to the school board, as well as allowing one committee member to submit a proxy vote for another.   

The nonprofit center in North College Hill that helps blind and visually impaired people find employment and become self-sufficient recently was honored with a major award. The National Industries for the Blind gave its 2010 Employment Award to Clovernook for its success at helping blind people lead more fulfilling lives.   

The death of Jack Horkheimer in August left the hosting duties open for Star Gazer, the five-minute TV show on astronomy seen on many PBS stations late at night. Horkheimer appeared on the mini-show, based in Miami, Fla., for a whopping 34 years. Now producers are trying out potential replacements on a temporary basis and one of the lucky few given the nod was Dean Regas, assistant director at the Cincinnati Observatory in Mount Lookout.  

Mayor Mallory didn't do it. Vice Mayor Qualls didn't do it. It finally was left up to the ex-TV news reporter-turned-city councilwoman — a first-termer — to present hard, cold facts and figures about staffing levels in the Police and Fire departments.  

Even as Cincinnati officials grapple with what cuts to make to avoid a $54 million deficit — cuts that might include laying off more than 100 cops — the city's arrogant, clueless police chief Tom Streicher spent money from the CPD budget for an extravagant, unnecessary junket to Las Vegas.  

The flashy preacher-turned-politician, Charlie Winburn, held another of his seemingly daily press conferences Dec. 17, this time to propose $27 million in unspecified cuts to help ward off a deficit. Winburn suggested how much should come from each department (like $2 million from the city manager's office and $4 million from police administration), but didn't elaborate on what, exactly, should be abolished.  

Let's hear it for the U.S. senator Sherrod Brown from the great state of Ohio. There's a lot of reasons to like Brown, such as the recent video he made as part of the “It Gets Better” project, where he offered encouraging words to gay teenagers who are bullied and harassed.  

Maybe it's easier to stand up for principle when you're retiring in a few weeks, but the Republican U.S. senator from Cleveland has never been afraid to buck his party, when needed. Now George Voinovich is calling out skittish President Obama and dogmatic GOP lawmakers for their deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone — including millionaires and billionaires — for the next two years.  

Cincinnati officials last week approved the city's first “community entertainment district” designation for this neighborhood. The new zoning will make it easier for a nonprofit like the Pleasant Ridge Development Corp. to revitalize its business district and create a “restaurant row” of ethnic-oriented eateries anchored by Emanu, an Ethiopian restaurant.  

Local Democratic Party leaders selected Anant Bhati last week to replace Dr. O’dell Owens as Hamilton County coroner; Owens is leaving to become president of Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. Bhati is Good Samaritan Hospital’s gynecology director and an ex-University of Cincinnati trustee.  

Sometimes the system works. Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Winkler rejected a request filed by Cincinnati Tea Party leader Mike Wilson, who barely lost to State Rep. Connie Pillich, to question the validity of 589 provisional ballots from Lincoln Heights, Forest Park and Woodlawn — all in predominantly black neighborhoods.  

With less than two months left in its tenure, the Democratic majority on the Hamilton County Commission remains divided about how to avoid a deficit in the county's stadium account. Commissioner Todd Portune wants to approve an emergency half-cent sales tax increase for one year, to raise $60 million. Commissioner David Pepper, who's about to leave the group, is opposed.