Sometimes you come to work, fire up the ol’ coffee maker and get straight to all the funny websites you like to read before you get started. Other times the boss calls a staff meeting and informs you that you work for a different company now and that new firewalls are going to block your fantasy baseball league during work hours.

Today CityBeat employees were notified that effective immediately we are all part of SouthComm Inc., a Nashville-based publishing company that owns and operates alternative weeklies in six mid-sized Midwestern and Southern markets.

The change is a good thing for a number of reasons. Many of us at CityBeat are already fans of the nearest SouthComm paper — LEO Weekly in Louisville. It is obvious that SouthComm values the creative presentation of local arts, music and culture and the thoughtful news coverage readers have come to expect from CityBeat. SouthComm’s other award-winning publications include Nashville Scene, The Pitch in Kansas City and Creative Loafing papers in Charlotte and Tampa.

We’re actually quite proud that our editorial history and relevance to the community were valued by SouthComm. The company offers access to expanded resources currently not at our disposal, and the SouthComm owners go way back with CityBeat’s founding editor and publisher, making this situation more like “Join our fun team and successful business model,” than “Give us the keys and let us control you.”

While CityBeat will no longer be locally owned, the autonomy SouthComm has offered its other publications and its continued interest in expanding its portfolio is exciting as we continue to build upon our recent staff changes and the success of other entities we operate, including the MidPoint Music Festival and A-Line Magazine.

SouthComm CEO Chris Ferrell noted in the official press release CityBeat’s body of work and the potential of the Cincinnati market:

“CityBeat has a long history of covering the local government, music, arts, and culture scene in Cincinnati,” Ferrell said. “We look forward to having them as part of the SouthComm family of publications. We are excited to expand into Cincinnati, which is a very good city for us to build out our model of having multiple niche publications in each market.”

The immediate change will be noticed very little by our general audience, as Dan Bockrath will continue to serve as CityBeat Publisher and we will continue to be locally operated. As part of the acquisition, John Fox, one of the founding owners, will serve as a consultant with SouthComm. Fox was CityBeat's Editor and Co-Publisher from its inception in June 1994 until the end of 2010, when he became Director of CityBeat Events. He leaves day-to-day responsibilities at CityBeat and will be announcing an exciting new venture soon.

Also as part of the acquisition, founding owner Thomas R. Schiff departs as CEO of Lightborne Publishing, the official owner of CityBeat, A-Line Magazine, MidPoint and all of our other entities. We would be extremely remiss in failing to recognize Tom’s unwavering support of CityBeat over the past 18 years — without it the CityBeat enterprise wouldn’t be what it is today.

It’s no secret that Cincinnati presents a challenging media landscape, with the country's largest daily newspaper chain (Gannett, owner of The Cincinnati Enquirer) and largest radio station chain (Clear Channel, owner of multiple AM and FM stations) poking their publicly traded practices into every corner of our town. But their existence presents a rare opportunity to stand out by continuing to offer readers the thoughtful and personal experience they have come to appreciate from CityBeat. If the quality of SouthComm’s other publications is any indication, this acquisition is part of a new and exciting future for us.

It will be headed to the riverfront, after all.

U.S. Transportation Ray LaHood will hold a conference call Thursday afternoon with media to announce that Cincinnati's planned streetcar system is getting a $10.92 million grant. The announcement is set for 12:15 p.m.

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After spending several weeks reviewing requests for proposals (RFPs) from seven energy providers as part of Cincinnati’s initiative to power homes using energy aggregation, a decision has been made — and it’s a green one. Cincinnati has selected First Energy Solutions (FES) as the city’s new electricity provider, which will make it the first major city in the U.S. to use a 100 percent “green” electricity supply.

The aggregation process works like this: All eligible individual customers “pool” their buying power to form a larger unit, which holds more leverage to negotiate lower prices on electricity. Cincinnati voters passed a ballot in November 2011 to approve the city's efforts to choose an energy aggregation provider.

The designation of FES's energy supply as "green" energy doesn't mean that residents will see windmills and solar panels popping up across the city's landscape; rather, the energy will be designated "green" based on non-tangible renewable energy credits (RECs), which each represent proof that one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity has been sourced from a "renewable" energy resource. FES will provide the city with enough RECs to power all interested consumers' homes, meaning no home opted-in to the aggregation power will use electricity sourced from non-renewable resources such as coal. The city's possession of those RECs will represent the commitment to sourcing electricity in residents' homes from renewable, green resources.

Some of the RECs provided to the city by FES will reportedly be sourced from local energy sources, including the University of Cincinnati's generating facility and the Cincinnati Zoo's Solar Canopy Project, although those sources will be a small component of the overall REC collection, according to Larry Falkin, Director for the Office of Environmental Quality.

“Not only will we be able to put real money back in people’s pockets, but this establishes the city as a leader in supporting green energy choices,” said Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, who spearheaded the push to provide consumers with an energy aggregation option nearly two years ago.

Over the next several weeks, Cincinnati will work to negotiate a contact with FES, and residents will receive information about FES’s services.  

Residents who aren't interested in participating in the city's green aggregation efforts will be required to opt-out before the services are implemented. FES will notify all eligible customers and those who don't want to participate must reply to be opted out. There will be no cost to enroll in the FES program.

According to the city’s press release, FES will save the average household about $133 each year on electricity bills. The switch could become effective by June.

Coming soon to a Great Lake near you: giant, evil fish out for blood. OK, hopefully not, but it's possible, wildlife experts say, if the new plan to control Asian carp, a pesky freshwater fish with a penchant for destroying some of the U.S.'s greatest natural water habitats, doesn't end successfully. 

The fragile ecosystem of the Great Lakes is nothing to be tampered with, and the Obama administration is taking steps to make sure it's not. On Thursday, officials announced that $51.5 million would be invested this year to protect the Great Lakes from the destructive Asian carp.

In case you're wondering, these aren't the same gentle giants that are swimming around in your local pond — these babies grow up to as large as 110 pounds and are capable of eating up to 20 percent of their body weight each day. To put that in perspective, for a 150-pound human, that's 30 pounds of food a day. That's not even Takeru Kobayashi material. There are three species of Asian carp that are considered invasive and a severe threat to the Great Lakes: the bighead, silver and black carp. These species eat plankton, algae, mollusks, mussel and sturgeon in large quantities, which strips the ecosystem of food sources for other types of fish. Think Lake Placid of the carp world.

Say they're just fish, but beware: Asian carp have caused whiplash, broken jaws and noses. Concussions and severe boat damage are some of the "charges" alleged by boaters caught off guard. The fish literally "jump" as high as 10 feet in the air, causing swarms of volatile flying fish. Not kidding.

The money will implement strategies to control the fish, including DNA testing, underwater cameras, trapping and netting, scent testing to "lure" the carp to a capture area, development of an acoustic water gun to scare carp from endangered areas and poisons to directly target Asian carp without harming native species.

What's most interesting about the investment is that we're the ones who brought these fish foes to U.S. waters in the first place; they were imported from Southeast Asian in the '70's to control algae in water treatment facilities and farm ponds. Not surprisingly, the species escaped confinement and found their way into the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri rivers. The Illinois River is also connected to the Great Lakes system. Should the carp invade the Great Lakes system (it's possible some already have), scientists say it could cause up to $7 million in damages to the fishing industry, not to mention adversely impacting the Great Lakes' tourism industry by detracting from the safety of recreational lake activities.
 
The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee advises people who come across Asian carp to freeze the fish in sealed plastic bags and immediately contact their state's Department of Natural Resources or Environmental Conservation.  

 When Asian Carp Attack:

Phil Burress' obsession with other people's sex lives is continuing unabated.

Burress, the head of Sharonville-based Citizens for Community Values (CCV), is upset that this year's Cincinnati Equinox Pride Festival is being held downtown on the Fourth of July and could potentially intrude on some Independence Day events. CCV has sent a mass e-mail to its followers, asking them to write letters of protest to companies sponsoring the event.

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An animal rights group had one of its members question executives of the Kroger Co. grocery store chain at its annual shareholders meeting held here Thursday.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had member Lindsay Rajt, who also is a Kroger shareholder, ask during the meeting whether Kroger has plans to move toward a less cruel method of poultry slaughter, called "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK), instead of its current practice.

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This morning, social conservatives around the world dug themselves into Armageddon-resistant bunkers, preparing for what they knew was coming. Today, marijuana and same-sex marriage were being legalized in Washington state.

But the bunkers may have been a waste of time and money, considering the end of the world didn’t occur. In fact, it seems like a lot of people are happy with the legal changes, which voters approved on Nov. 6.

From the perspective of this CityBeat writer, same-sex marriage would be great. It’s something I wrote about extensively before (“The Evolution of Equality,” Nov. 28 issue). As a refresher, not only does same-sex marriage bring a host of benefits to same-sex couples, but it also produces economic benefits for everyone. A recent study from Bill LaFayette, founder of Regionomics LLC, found that legalizing gay marriage would grow Ohio’s gross domestic product, which measures economic worth, by $100-$126 million within three years.

Marijuana has similar benefits. Not only does it give people the freedom to put a relatively harmless plant into their bodies, but it also provides a big boon to state budgets. For Washington, it’s estimated the marijuana tax will bring in as much as $500 million a year. 

Legalization also creates jobs and economic growth as businesses pop up to sell the product and customers buy the plant to toke up. Washington State’s Office of Financial Management estimates the marijuana market will be worth about $1 billion in the state. Considering the state is about 2 percent of the U.S. population, that could be extrapolated to indicate a potential $50 billion nationwide market.

Still, public use of marijuana and driving while intoxicated remain illegal. In a press conference Wednesday, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said, “If you're smoking in plain public view, you're subject to a ticket. … Initiative 502 uses the alcohol model. If drinking in public is disallowed, so is smoking marijuana in public.”

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) seems a bit friendlier. In an email today, SPD told officers to only give verbal warnings until further notice. The warnings should essentially tell people to take their marijuana inside, or, as SPD spokesperson Jonah Spangenthal-Lee put it on the SPD Blotter, “The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a ‘Lord of the Rings’ marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to.”

The Washington law also faces possible federal resistance. Even though the state legalized pot, the drug is still illegal under federal law. That means the feds can still shut down marijuana businesses and arrest buyers, just like they have with legal medical marijuana dispensaries in the past.

In fact, maybe the limitations are what’s keeping the apocalypse at bay. Maybe social conservatives will get to make use of those bunkers if the rest of the country catches on to Washington’s example.

Humana announced Wednesday that they'll be adding 700 jobs to their Cincinnati operations by 2010. With the struggling economy, this is welcome news.

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Congressman Steve Chabot could give Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci a few pointers about doing quick backflips.

Less than three days after Chabot prohibited the use of cameras at a supposed “town hall” meeting in North Avondale and used the services of a Cincinnati police officer to stop offenders, the congressman is rescinding the rule for future sessions.

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Hoping to beat the flood of candidates who will jump into the race next year, local Democratic activist Chris Seelbach announced today he will run for a seat on Cincinnati City Council in 2011.

Seelbach, 30, is an Xavier University graduate who helped lead the successful effort in 2004 to repeal Article 12, the anti-gay law that cost Cincinnati more than $25 million in lost business, according to the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

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