Feds: ACLU Wouldn’t Know if It Were Wiretapped

A landmark legal showdown over how much authority the U.S. president has to wiretap the communications of American citizens without congressional or judicial approval played out this afternoon in a Cincinnati courtroom.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Security Agency (NSA) appeared today before a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit [...]

Music Writing in Sports Column

Just a heads up to check out Bill Peterson’s sports column in this week’s CityBeat. One of the better writers going (in my opinion), Peterson takes a detour from what would normally be a pre-Super Bowl column to wax eloquently about the last ’80s/early ’90s Blues scene centered at Cory’s (now the Mad Frog).
He talks [...]

Blabbermouth Chris Comer Pushes Web Site

The hardest working man in Cincinnati radio/music/sound gear, Chris Comer, sent a postcard saying he continues to update his web site chronicling his interviews with the famous and the should-be-famous from recent years. Mike Breen first wrote about it back in October. I haven’t listened to all of them, but I assume most are from [...]

Poetry Instead of Prozac

(Photo: Benyei.com)

How difficult it is to screw up the courage to quit a job when you hate the one you’re in but you don’t have another one lined up!
What about the hassle, expense and hardship of leaving one home for another after the hard work of deciding to move, looking for a new place, going [...]

Jail Vote Hits Roadblock

(Photo: Eatonvillenews.net)

Political in-fighting on Cincinnati City Council continued today when a council member blocked a vote to build a temporary jail sought by his opponents, saying he was unsure if Hamilton County officials approved of the plan — even though all three county commissioners attended [...]

City Hall’s Crime Victims

(Photo: Cityofcalabasas.com)
Underscoring the fact that crime can occur anywhere, the car of a city council aide was broken into at City Hall on the same day earlier this month that Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials stood on the front steps of the building to reveal plans for erecting a temporary jail.
Sometime during the day Jan. [...]

Mallory to Council: Disagree Agreeably

(Photo: Hindu.com)
A day after a nasty debate between Cincinnati City Council factions about allegations that a budget deal was broken, Mayor Mark Mallory said Tuesday he would remind members of rules to keep decorum at public meetings.
At his weekly press briefing, Mallory said he didn’t like the tone of debate that occurred in Monday’s Finance [...]

Bus Fare Increase on Hold

(Photo: Bitsandpieces1.blogspot.com)
A planned increase in bus fares for Hamilton County’s Metro bus system, scheduled to take effect Sunday, has been delayed, as Cincinnati City Council hasn’t yet voted to approve the jump.
The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA), which manages and operates the Metro system, had planned to raise fares 25 cents across [...]

State of Reunions

A couple of years ago, in CityBeat’s summer-previewing “Hot Issue,” I did a story about the rash of inconceivable Rock band reunions called “Cash Heals All Wounds.” Dinosaur Jr.’s original members had reconvened for a tour that came to the Madison Theater in Covington, hot on the heels of the [...]

Hearing on Bush Wiretaps

(Photo: Bugsweeps.com)
One of the defining controversies of the so-called War on Terror takes center stage in a Cincinnati courtroom tomorrow. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled hear oral arguments in a lawsuit that aims to stop warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency (NSA).
Last year a federal judge in Michigan [...]