This week's issue of CityBeat features a lengthy letter to the editor by Cincinnati Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls explaining why she opposes Ohio Senate Bill No. 5, which limited collective bargaining rights for public-sector labor unions including police and firefighters.

Read More

Local Democrats are counting on a planned statewide referendum on Senate Bill No. 5 to boost Democratic voter turnout this fall, and help restore the party's majority on Cincinnati City Council.

That was the message preached Thursday night by party leaders — along with Mayor Mark Mallory and three of the four Democratic incumbents — during a meeting of the Cincinnati Democratic Committee (CDC).

Read More

Precinct executives with the local Democratic Party will meet Thursday evening to decide on the party's slate of candidates for Cincinnati City Council.

The Cincinnati Democratic Committee will meet at 7 p.m. at the Hampton Inn, 3024 Vine St., near Martin Luther King Drive, in Corryville.

Read More

A Charter Committee leader says the group wasn't aware that one of its endorsed candidates — who also happens to be a Charter board member — was seeking the Democratic Party's endorsement.

But Charter chairwoman Dawn Denno said Yvette Simpson, the board member who's running for Cincinnati City Council this fall, won't have to give up her Charter endorsement. Simpson can remain cross-endorsed in the race because she first sought Charter's endorsement, Denno added.

Read More

As it turns out, Tom Brinkman Jr. plans on running for statewide office. He just doesn't know which one yet.

That's the explanation being offered for Brinkman's recent claim on a mass e-mail invitation that the $50 cost to attend an anti-Obama event could be deducted from taxes as a campaign donation.

Read More

Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are the top choices among 10 Republicans who've expressed interest in seeking the party's presidential nomination in 2012, according to a new poll.

A Harris poll released today finds that Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, tying with Huckabee, the ex-Arkansas governor, among all voters surveyed by the poll. Each received 23 percent when totaling responses from Republican, Democratic and independent respondents.

Read More

Is it because he's tired of being on the losing side of debates? Is it because he doesn't have a party endorsement and also lost his base of conservative, West Side voters? Is it because the boss at his day job with the Bengals is tired of all the negative publicity?

Whatever the reason, Cincinnati voters won't have City Councilman Jeff Berding to kick around any longer. Like Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Berding has chosen to quit the political game before his current term expires.

Read More

Just days after his abrupt firing by MSNBC, some progressive activists and politicians are pushing for Keith Olbermann to run for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat.

Overtures are being made to convince Olbermann to run for the seat being vacated by the retiring Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Olbermann, 51, is a New York City native but has lived in Connecticut before.

Read More

Here's a bit of news that should spoil the day for Sarah Palin, Mike Wilson, Dusty Rhodes and their ilk: A comparison of two polls suggests  that socialism is more popular among Americans than the Tea Party movement.

A new, wide-ranging Washington Post-ABC News poll reveals that 35 percent of respondents had a favorable view of the Tea Party, compared to 36 percent that likes socialism in an earlier Gallup poll. Fifty-two percent of Americans now hold unfavorable views of the Tea Party, which is an all-time high.

Read More

Following a long battle with cancer, former Cincinnati City Councilman and Vice Mayor David Crowley passed away early this morning.

Crowley, 73, had struggled with the illness since leaving City Council in 2009 due to term limits. After a grueling round of chemotherapy that took a toll on his body, Crowley appeared to have beaten the disease but it recently returned. He is survived by his wife, Sherri, four children and six grandchildren.

Read More