Cincinnati native Kathleen Sebelius is leaving her job as Kansas governor to become the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. President Obama announced her appointment this afternoon at the White House.

She fills the cabinet spot originally intended for former Sen. Tom Daschle.

Read More

U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus, about two months into his new job representing Ohio's 1st District, is one of 18 Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee to send a letter to the CEO of Northern Trust in Chicago warning him to stop spending federal TARP bank bailout money on golf tournaments, parties and posh hotels. Committee Chairman Barney Frank initiated the letter to "insist" that the CEO "immediately return to the federal government the equivalent of what Northern Trust frittered away on these lavish events."

Read More

The Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) along with many other abolitionist groups say it does. Over time the public in Ohio has voted to eliminate one round of death penalty case appeals and the inadequate funding of defense in these cases has been eating away at the “super” due-process required by the U.S. Supreme Court. The intent was to put safeguard in place to make sure a fallible system implemented by fallible people wouldn’t result in the death of innocent people. But those same fallible people are destroying that system little-by-little.

Read More

Referred to as the "Stir the Pot" series, a film/discussion series at Grace Episcopal Church in College Hill (5501 Hamilton Ave. 45224) will show The Freedom Files on Feb. 22 at 4:30 p.m.
According to the ACLU, producers of the video series, the Freedom Files focuses on issues on some of the most volatile issues of our day including surveillance, sex education, freedom from abuse of power, school to prison pipeline and lesbian/gay families.

Read More

As if the tightly wound Jean Schmidt hadn’t embarrassed Greater Cincinnati enough with her odd remarks sparking a Saturday Night Live parody in 2005, this weekend it was John Boehner and Mitch McConnell taking their turn in the satirical spotlight.

In SNL’s opening skit, Dan Ackroyd portrayed Boehner (the congressman from West Chester) and Darrell Hammond played McConnell (the U.S. senator from Louisville) as the pair plotted the Republican Party’s misguided comeback and debated whom the GOP should take advice from, Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh.

Read More

Jailing juveniles as a form of “rehabilitation” comes with an expensive price tag. More than money, the criminal justice system costs kids their rights and that state seems to be OK with that.

Read More

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, born and raised in Cincinnati, appears to be the frontrunner for Secretary of Health and Human Services. She supported Barack Obama's presidential run early on and campaigned for him, including in Cincinnati.

This position was originally to be filled by former Sen. Tom Daschle, who dropped out when it was revealed he hadn't paid all of his taxes. Stupid taxes! There's no word yet on how good Sebelius' CPA is.

Read More

...do people in Washington D.C. not get the concept of economic stimulus?

Read More

Republicans made a lot of fuss about Barack Obama’s associations during last year’s presidential campaign. Now that same standard might come back to haunt them.

Because Obama attended church where the Rev. Jeremiah Wright preached, the GOP told us it must mean that Obama shared all of Wright’s incendiary beliefs about the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the origin of the AIDS virus. Because Obama lived near ex-‘60s radical William Ayers and attended some of the same events, they breathlessly added that it must mean Obama approves of blowing up public buildings.

What, then, does that say about Rob Portman, the former GOP congressman who is the odds-on favorite to run for George Voinovich’s seat in the U.S. Senate in 2010?

Read More

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.

Read More