At least one person who used to be close to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her family believes he knows why the prickly ex-vice presidential candidate is resigning before her gubernatorial term is completed.

Levi Johnston, the former boyfriend of Sarah Palin’s daughter and the father of her grandchild, said the governor wants to cash in on the lucrative deals being offered to her, including ones for a book and a reality TV show. Johnston, 19, held a press conference Thursday to give his views on the situation, according to an Associated Press article.

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A recent blog item by Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Peter Bronson has generated plenty of national attention for the newspaper, all of the negative variety.

Bronson posted comments July 1 on his ironically titled blog, Bronson is Always Right, which criticized the long-delayed appointment of writer and comedian Al Franken as one of Minnesota’s senators. Accompanying the item was a photograph of Franken wearing a diaper, bunny ears and holding a stuffed animal. Bronson wrote, “There must be some great ads to be made from Franken’s clips and quips."

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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is exiting stage left. Praise the lord.

In a surprise announcement today, Palin said she not only wouldn't run for reelection as governor next year, but also won't even finish her first gubernatorial term. Palin will resign her office in the next few weeks.

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If you made in to D.C. for the inauguration, let everyone know how it was. Drop some comments below about your experiences.

If you have photos you'd like to share, send them to our web guru, Cameron Knight: cknight@citybeat.com. He can organize them into a gallery on our photo page or even a multimedia show and we can create a new photo link on our inauguration section, Road to the Presidency. Cameron has a slide show there from last night's celebrations in Northside.

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CityBeat's inauguration page now includes a link to our alt weekly colleagues in D.C., the Washington City Paper, which features a huge inauguration guide for the millions of people already descending on their city. City Paper staffers are sending out constant updates on Twitter and a group blog, Inbloguration, including this multimedia gem from about an hour ago: "Here's a semi-live feed from my basement in Petworth, where whiskey-swilling guests collaborated on an unconscionably patriotic version of 'The Weight.' "

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As we head back to work and school today after the holiday break, Barack Obama's inauguration as president is just two weeks away. The much-promised and long-anticipated change is almost upon us, and we'll finally get what we've been hoping for after "catching the car" we were chasing.

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It’s kind of like peeling an onion. Once you begin twisting, more and more layers are revealed.

Ever since CityBeat cited a letter last week written by a Hamilton County Probation Department employee listing the work she’s done for the local Republican Party as a reason she should get a promotion, other county workers have weighed in via telephone calls and posts on local blogs about how common the practice is and what exactly is permitted under the law.

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Anyone familiar with Hamilton County government knows that a large segment of the jobs are essentially political appointments, given to cronies of whichever party controls the particular office doing the hiring.

Still, the political quid pro quo is usually kept somewhat discreet and hidden from public view. Not his time.

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I've been amused by the ads and notices running in The Enquirer lately promoting increased availability of the Nov. 5 Enquirer featuring the front page announcing that Barack Obama had won the presidency. Apparently they've had to go back and reprint more copies of that issue due to local folks' interest in having the paper as a keepsake.

The funny part, of course, is that The Enquirer endorsed John McCain for president. In other words, they told us not to vote for Obama, and after we ignored them and voted for him anyway they now want to sell us the paper that announced they were wrong and we were right. They're also selling coffee mugs and T-shirts printed with that Nov. 5 front page.

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Our own guy from West Chester, House Minority Whip John Boehner, is criticizing the selection of Rahm Emanuel to be President-elect Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff.

Boehner says Emanuel, currently a Democratic congressman from Illinois, is the wrong choice from a president who promised to return civility to politics.

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