Uptown Cincinnati is home to some of the city's largest employers, best known attractions and entertainment spots. In the right spots you'll see vibrancy, potential and even a little charm. But like in so many areas of the urban core, other parts are run down, prone to violence. The nonprofit Uptown Consortium has promoted the revitalization of these urban neighborhoods since 2004.  

Next Wednesday I'll pursue a favorite past time: introducing a class of University of Cincinnati undergraduates to the ambiguities of journalism ethics. We'll talk about virtues and vices, standards and seducers. Our first session probably will include the threatened burning of the Qur'an by a Florida pastor. And in October I'll teach a similar class for UC's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. It's freewheeling — no text, exams or grades.  

When Aubrey Berg goes to Broadway, he has a hard time forgetting his day job. That's actually a point of pride for the professor and department head at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. Berg, who has taught at UC for 23 of the program's 40 years, has been honored by the League of Cincinnati Theatres with its 2010 Continuing Achievement Award and will be inducted into the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards Hall of Fame Sunday.  

Cincinnati has a long history in education. Did you know the Art Academy of Cincinnati is one of only five museum schools in the U.S.? Read on to learn about UC, Miami, Xavier and other schools in our area. You can even learn which local program, despite our economy, has had 100% job placement for the last 15 years.  

Say "University of Cincinnati" in a crowd of locals, and someone is bound to reply with colors: red and black. But there's a growing push on campus to have people start associating the school with another color: green. UC is one of five Ohio universities (and the only public institution) to earn mention in the recent 'Princeton Review's Guide to 286 Green Colleges.'  

Days after four Kent State students were shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970, UC closed the campus indefinitely. Students from other closed schools had been spotted on campus mingling with UC protesters, and disruption was feared from "outside agitators." Students simply went home, and few graduating seniors attended commencement. Forty years later, the UC Alumni Association is holding a special anniversary commencement for the Class of '70.  

Richard Russo's latest, 'That Old Cape Magic,' returns to the novelist's longtime topic of choice: family, and all the endlessly fascinating narrative and dramatic tension that topic allows. Its very Russo-ian protagonist Jack Griffin is going through an existential crisis of sorts, set off by the death of his mother and the marriage of his only daughter.   

Karen Finley, the New York-based performance artist who's appearing at the University of Cincinnati this week and presents her latest piece, "The Jackie Look," March 10, isn't satisfied with operating in a single field. Her unique, wordy performances blithely overstep the lines between fine art, theater, literature and social anthropology. She's willing to try an idea or context on for size to see what a new activity might symbolize.  

It was a time when politics were upside down, when elites were rarely mentioned and a backlash had already occurred when Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968. It was a time when college campuses were battlegrounds, when the angriest voices were found there and on urban streets and had faces and names.  

CINCINNATI REDS: With the Bengals blowing their playoff game against the Jets, local sports fans thought they'd spend the long, cold months of winter grumbling over their Hudepohls. Instead, Reds management gave them something to be happy about with the signing of Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman.