Dick Farrell

Be careful whom you call an irrelevant billionaire

2012-01-31T08:02:00.000-05:00

I certainly didn’t start out to be a media critic, but lately it seems to be my calling.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer removed sportswriter Tony Grossi from his Browns beat last week because of an inadvertent tweet (a tweet is sent from a social media Twitter account) that went nuts on the Internet (viral) with his name attached.

The tweet said that Browns owner Randy Lerner is a “pathetic figure, the most irrelevant billionaire in the world.”

Grossi meant the tweet for one friend and instead it went to all of his followers – all 15,000 of them.

Ooops.

He deleted the tweet from his account feed but by that time it was too late. It’s like the inappropriate photo the teenager posts on Facebook. Once it’s out there, it’s out there.

In the aftermath of the inadvertent tweet, Grossi informed his editors and attempted to call both Lerner and Browns president Mike Holmgren but was unable to connect with either.

Subsequently, editor Debra Adams Simmons, managing editor Thom Fladung and sports editor Roy Hewett decided to remove Grossi from the beat on the grounds that Grossi had compromised his objectivity.

PD reader representative Ted Diadiun, whom I consider a friend from our days as colleagues at Horvitz Newspapers, wrote the company line in a follow-up column, which was published Jan. 28, and received more than 800 online comments. (I didn’t count to see how many of those comments agreed, or disagreed, with the PD’s decision. There were plenty on both sides.)

The Plain Dealer, Diadiun explained, apologized to the Browns organization for Grossi’s tweet.

“But Fladung was still left with a problem: His Browns reporter had revealed to the world his utter disdain for the owner of the team he was covering,” Diadiun wrote. “How would the paper's readers be able to have faith in the objectivity in his reports following that?”

Diadiun quoted Fladung as saying, “In another area, it would be an obvious call. What if the reporter covering City Hall called the mayor pathetic and irrelevant? What if a reporter in the Columbus bureau said that about the governor? They would be removed from the beat immediately. It’s the same with this situation.”

Well, let’s dissect all that. A lot of reporters have disdain for the people they have to cover. And usually they don’t keep that fact well hidden – colleagues know it, friends know it and, in the case of the mayor or governor, political opponents know it. And so do editors. (If they don’t, they’re not paying attention.)

Did Lerner already sense that Grossi had little use for him? Probably. Did he care? Probably not.

Up until this season, Grossi appeared during the fall on a Channel 3 program that focused on the previous weekend’s Browns game. The show also featured former Browns coach Sam Rutigliano and former Browns guard Doug Dieken and was hosted by anchor Jim Donovan. Dieken and Donovan are the radio voices of the Browns and are employed by the team.

Rutigliano and Grossi offered the most honest criticism because, perhaps, they were not bound by the limits of biting the hand that fed them. Dieken and Donovan, meanwhile, seemed like apologists at times.

I’m not sure fans benefit from apologists.

In addition, it is the media outlets, such as the Plain Dealer, that are encouraging their reporters to become social media users and for new hires it’s a requirement. Twitter is fraught with danger, yet reporters – especially sports writers – are not only supposed to write their stories, they’re supposed to tweet, post to Facebook, shoot their own videos, appear on podcasts and so on.

The dullest story on the sports page is the “gamer” – the quarter-by-quarter, objective regurgitation of yesterday’s game. In the era of DVRs and You Tube, “gamers” are the dinosaur on the sports page. But, what the heck, they’re primarily objective.

I’m certain the PD isn’t paying Grossi to write such pabulum or tweet that quarterback Colt McCoy had a good statistical performance on Sunday. That kind of stuff doesn’t sell newspapers. Fans want the inside story. They want the opinions of the writers who cover their teams.

So, Grossi screws up and tweets to the world that the Browns owner, who ultimately is responsible for the team on the field and who charges fans millions of dollars every year to watch mediocrity in action, is a “pathetic figure” and “irrelevant billionaire” and it gets him a reassignment.

Lerner, meanwhile, gets to charge the city of Cleveland for millions of dollars worth of improvements to Cleveland Browns Stadium.

I think that’s pathetic.

OK, Plain Dealer, if you want to reassign Grossi, maybe you do it when it becomes apparent that he is unable to cover the team because no one – the owner, the management, the coaches, the players, the support staff – will talk to him and therefore his reporting abilities are rendered useless.

But I’ve got a feeling that Grossi could have repaired the damage the tweet caused. He didn’t, after all, say anything about Lerner’s mother.

I’m just trying to be objective here.

Also see Sports Illustrated's Peter King's take on the issue here (item No. 4).

Also see Jim Donovan's interview with PD managing editor Thom Faldung here.

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter (dfarrell_dover). This commentary also is scheduled to appear in the Feb. 3 edition of the Bargain Hunter.

Media helped Newt win in South Carolina

2012-01-22T08:06:00.005-05:00

I'm not sure why ABC News and CNN would allow their reporters to inject themselves into a domestic situation such as the angry-ex-wife-vs.-Newt-Gingrich episode that aired on our televisions last week and which eventually led to a Gingrich victory in South Carolina.

It was not uncommon for one side or another in a divorce to ask my newspaper to write a story, reporting how unfair the system or estranged spouse was to the aggrieved party.

Uh, that's a no-win situation. My advice was to let the courts decide and we'll report the decision. Whew.

In fact, even the simplest stories could result in phone calls from angry exes to the paper -- kid wins award, fails to mention that he/she is a son/daughter of angry ex-spouse. (Angry ex-spouse blames newspaper for the omission, goes nuts.)

So, what did ABC and CNN expect when the angry ex-spouse said Newt was a jerk? And who cares anyway? For goodness sakes, we're looking for someone to lead us out of the mess that one side or the other perceives as pervasive.

Last time I looked about half of the marriages in the U.S. fail. So, there's a good chance your favorite politician is going to be divorced and remarried.

So, Newt got the sympathy vote Saturday in South Carolina. In voters' minds, the media crossed the line, getting involved in a divorce when it shouldn't have. Shame on the media.

Former Times-Reporter staffer Kyle Kondik, now with the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, has some immediate thoughts on the Gingrich victory. Check it out here.

***

I think when historians look back at the decade of 2011-2020 they will conclude that it was a decade when everything changed.

We are still early into the decade, but there are obvious signs that life as we know it won’t be as we enter the next decade.

Consider:

–People who read my column in the Bargain Hunter are thankful that I’m back in a hard copy newspaper environment. Few of those people, it seems, are under the age of 40. Recently, a senior citizens group asked me to speak at their monthly luncheon meeting. While I am flattered, I’m also aware of the reality that as we all grow older, the audience will diminish until it reaches the point that it disappears altogether.

It’s a reality faced by all newspapers and it’s only a matter of time before the audience dwindles to the point that it no longer makes sense to publish an ink-on-paper product. I’ve read about all the strategies – the hyper-local, the Web-first, the pay-wall – and they all appeared to be flawed.

The new medium is not paper. It is the smartphone and the electronic tablet. The daily newspaper as you know it is toast – not tomorrow, of course, but soon. People, i.e. loyal readers, are dying.

–Days are numbered for “The Club,” the retreat for the wealthy or for those who think they are. “The Club” used to boast a perfectly manicured, 18-hole golf course where members would spend much of their free time while cavorting with other well-to-doers.

Across the nation, country clubs are folding or allowing the public to partake in the amenities at a reduced cost. In addition, the real estate developments that married golf and housing are tanking. Why?

Well, there’s the thinking that rich people didn’t get to be rich by being stupid. Unless you have a lot of time to devote to golf – rounds take up to five hours – and don’t care how much money you drop – a private membership might cost between $5,000 and $25,000 annually and beyond – more and more people, it seems, are just saying no.

It’s a prudent decision in these tough economic times.

I am not privy to the inner workings of Dover-New Philadelphia’s Union Country Club, but my guess is that there is some consternation among members who are contemplating its future. I’ll leave it at that.

–Buying a house will no longer be a can’t-miss investment. Nope, I think those days are over, at least for the foreseeable future.

Think about it for a minute. The only purchase you could ever make and be assured that you’d make money on was a house. That’s not so today. Housing prices are down 30 percent or more from their highs in 2005, according to figures from the S&P/Case-Shiller index of U.S. home prices.

This fact should give pause to people who are considering a life-changing move and for some it should mean renting rather than buying. Indeed, renting might be a better option for people who are single, who are elderly, or who have no interest in mowing grass.

There is also talk that the feds eventually will do away with the mortgage interest deduction, which might have one of those dreaded unintended consequences such as depressing home sales further.

In any event, owning a home might not be the terrific idea it was a decade ago. And if you settle on a new one, will it depreciate the minute you move in your family of four?

–By the end of the decade we will bemoan the fact that we didn’t send more kids toward some of the more traditional Ohio occupations such as truck driving or welding.

I’ll give Gov. John Kasich props on this issue. He’s aware of it and hopefully his plan to coordinate the programs offered throughout the state will give students some focus on what jobs will be needed by the time they graduate.

“We are still a manufacturing state and those skilled trades that you can get from good programs in high school or two-year trade schools, there is a real need out there,” Andy Doehrel, president of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which published a story on the issue.

“Let’s face it, that isn’t as sexy to younger people today who have grown up with phones in their pockets and computers in their cars and on their desks.”

A recent check of Ohio’s jobs database revealed there are 185 welding jobs available in this part of the state. By the end of the decade, parents just might be advising their kids to try welding rather than law school. Wouldn’t that be something? Lord knows we already have enough lawyers.

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Overload and underload

2012-01-10T22:33:00.000-05:00

I’m happy for the Tuscarawas County Port Authority for finally figuring out a way to pay off its massive debt – from previous projects – by selling non-potable water to drilling-related companies that need massive amounts of water in their fracking operations.

Port Authority Director Harry Eadon announced last week that the plan is to open a well near the entity’s operation at the old Reeves Mill on Oxford St. in Dover and sell water from it.

That means, folks, it’s time to read between the lines.

The local daily newspaper paraphrased Eadon as explaining that water weighs about 8.3 pounds per gallon, “so the 5,500-gallon tankers are about the maximum normal weight of 45,000 pounds allowed on roads.”

“About” is the key word. If each tanker is full when it leaves the site, it’ll be over the load limit by 650 pounds. Here’s hoping the infrastructure can handle that. And given the slow economy around here, which oversight entity would dare make an issue out of 650 pounds? Probably none.

Eadon also said, “We’ve been told that they keep hauling until the reservoir is full at the drilling well site, so they’ll probably be hauling 24 hours per day, seven days each week.”

In other words, it’s going to be very busy at Oxford St. and N. Wooster Ave. when the fracking operations really get fired up.

What’s the overall consequence? Well, I think we’re going to be in a different environment here in the Tuscarawas Valley fairly soon. There are rumors that other large ancillary operations in Tuscarawas County are about to be announced. This is good news for the economy and people who need a job and bad news if you really enjoyed the way things were. Change is never easy and Tuscarawas Countians have always resisted it.

Politicians would be wise to start storing patience now.

***

I found the recent announcement that the local daily newspaper was doing away with its editorial page on Mondays and Tuesdays to be pretty sad.

It also was pretty telling for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s apparent that the size of the paper on those two days is being squeezed because of continuing dismal advertising numbers.

Secondly, it’s apparent the paper is not necessarily concerned about losing its voice – a newspaper speaks from its editorial page – amid the further fragmentation of old and new media. It does not seem to be interested in framing the debate or offering its take on important issues, opting instead to focus on feel-good, pillow-soft news.

Send us your cutest baby pictures, clip our coupons or line your bird cage.

That’s cool, I guess, but not my cup of joe.

I think you need to mix it up a bit.

I agree with a lot of the folks who posted comments on the blog of John L. Robinson, former editor of News & Record in Greensboro, on the topic of how to make daily newspapers more relevant and responsive to their communities.

One had the gall to suggest putting a real person on the switchboard.

“Unleash editorial pages to kick a-- and take names,” said another. “The institutional newspaper editorial voice is often like reading a textbook. I want people to talk about the editorial in the morning paper. Let them hate it – that’s OK. The readers you care about will respect you for saying it.”

I’ve found that to be true. I’m reminded by my readers regularly that they don’t always agree with my commentaries, but they’re happy to read them nonetheless. Heck, I don’t agree with me sometimes, and there are a few I wish I could get back.

These truly are tough times for daily newspapers, and one doesn’t need any more evidence of that fact than the smartphone that came for Christmas. All of the features you once found in your daily newspaper are now at your fingertips – from real estate listings to television listings to classified ads to national and international news.

But there’s still no app for local editorials. I think if I had a daily newspaper, I’d keep those – even on Mondays and Tuesdays.

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Remembering young Tom Farrell

2012-01-10T19:16:00.000-05:00

Well, it’s a lot easier to offer essays about stupid political tricks than it is to write about the characters who play roles in one’s own family.

I’m not sure how we lost my brother, Tom, in the scheme of things, but we did. Tom died at the end of 2011 at the age of 55, five years younger than me and a fact that gives me pause about my own mortality. Anytime you lose a sibling, you know your days are pretty much numbered as well.

Out of five, there are three of us left. I lost my oldest sister, Jean, in 1990.

With my brother gone, no longer can my mother, even in my mind, call the youngest three Farrell siblings to dinner:

“Tom, Dick and Mary! Dinner is served!”

Had a nice ring to it.

Some 10 years ago, Tom was diagnosed with mouth cancer. To rid him of that particular scourge, surgeons removed part of his tongue and jaw.

He never really recovered from that surgery. He couldn’t speak correctly and his appearance was distracting.

Still, he was able to crack jokes, discuss politics and talk about the Beatles – his favorite, all-time rock band. I think Tom would have taken the bullet for John Lennon. I am not exaggerating.

Tom was the king of the cassette-tape era of music. In his basement man-cave in a neat little house in Norwood, a suburb sandwiched on all sides by Cincinnati, Tom would crank out music via 14 speakers hanging from the open ceiling and placed over such elements as a top-loading washer and a 40-gallon water heater.

The basement rocked.

In addition to his music, he found other joy, too, in his wife, Diane, and son, Michael. He’d remind you on a regular basis that Diane was beautiful and Michael, an up-and-coming standup comedian in Cleveland, was talented.

Diane ultimately became his full-time caregiver as his overall health deteriorated. She’d update his condition in daily e-mails to family members. My goodness, the odds were against him – pneumonia, congestive heart failure, kidney issues – always something else using up another of his nine lives.

Still he could laugh, or flirt with nurses, or tell a joke. And for some unknown reason, he became a fan of Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly. I never quite understood that, but I have to believe that fact wouldn’t keep him from entering the gates.

It became apparent early last month that Tom had met his match – too much cancer in too many places. He ran out of options.

Diane continued to send her e-mails.

“Tom had a quiet, uneventful night,” she wrote. “He responded to the nurse this morning with a couple of nods of his head. He’s sleeping now. Love, Diane.”

The last one came on New Year's Eve..

In the subject line, she wrote: “Last e-mail re: Tom (8:02 a.m.)”

And then: “Tom spent his first day in heaven. Love, Diane.”

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter (dfarrell_dover).

Those who would be president fail to impress the next generation

2011-12-27T22:09:00.000-05:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

One of the great things about the holidays is that I get to spend some time with the younger representatives of family and friends – the twentysomethings who are about to become thirtysomethings – who are living in Chicago, or Los Angeles, or Washington or seemingly light years from their hometowns of Dover or New Philadelphia.

Call it a landslide: They are not happy with Mitt or Newt or any of the other Republican choices for president.

Do they like President Barack Obama? Well, not really, but no one has shown them anything better.

The Republicans, they say, seem to miss the point, which is all about the economy and the future and nothing about gay marriage or whether the candidates might have engaged in indiscretions in their youth.

“Who’d want to run for president?” one of the young ones asked during a kitchen table discussion. “Would Jack Kennedy have run for president today? Or Franklin Roosevelt?”

It’s an interesting question.

Franklin Roosevelt with the help of the media did a pretty good job of hiding his handicap from the American people. In the 24 hours after Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt tended to the task of writing a speech while getting treated – with cocaine – for a nasal infection and strategizing that long walk to the podium in the capitol, according to producer/writer/director Anthony Giacchino, whose special “Pearl Harbor” aired on the History Channel earlier this month. Giacchino’s documentary provides an hour-by-hour look at the 24 hours following the attack.

Roosevelt couldn’t walk. But with the help of braces, a cane and his son James he was able to provide to the American people the illusion of walking. Certainly Americans would demand their leader to be strong. And crippled wasn’t strong.

Kennedy’s indiscretions became well-documented in the aftermath of his death, as did his health problems and subsequent issues with the drugs used to treat him (not to mention his ties to the Mafia). While the media didn’t turn a blind eye in the 1950s and 1960s, it was arguably easier to hide such matters in a world not strewn with today’s technological resources.

So, one could argue that both of these leaders might have decided against a presidential run given the same set of circumstances and if their lives were somehow catapulted well into the future.

And despite their shortcomings and/or misgivings, the American people still consider Roosevelt and Kennedy to possess the trait that seems so lacking in Mitt, Newt and even Barack – the ability to lead us as a country and not as members of one political party or another, or of one ideology or another.

The young people are OK. They’re just looking for a leader. And by the way, it’s the economy, stupid.

***

One of my resolutions for 2012 is to quit making fun of all things Ohio. All of us do that, you know, especially those of us who root for those pro sports teams that hail from Cleveland. But beyond sports, we can be pretty downright mean about what we say about the Buckeye State especially during our wonderful winter months. (They’re coming and I’m trying.)

Former Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz alerted her Facebook friends to a piece entitled “The Geography of Stuck” in the online version of Atlantic Cities magazine.

Author Richard Florida said there is a percentage of the population that believes it is stuck in a less than desirable part of the country, which is everywhere except the East and West coasts and the Rocky Mountain region.

Bah humbug to writer-researcher Florida, says Julie Irwin Zimmerman of Cincinnati.

“When I moved to Ohio, which Florida cites as the third most ‘stuck’ state in America, I, like Florida, assumed many people lived here because they lacked the chance to move somewhere better,” wrote Zimmerman in the magazine.

“I thought at the time I’d be here two years, maybe three, before moving onto the next opportunity.

“Fifteen years later I’m still in Cincinnati, which has one of the highest rates of native-born residents in any urban area of the U.S. So many Cincinnatians were born here that when people ask you where you went to school, they’re referring to high school, not college. And in my years here, I’ve begun to understand why so many natives stay put, or leave the area for just a few years and then return.

“They’re not stuck. They're content.”

Zimmerman cites the reasonable cost of housing, relatively short commutes and “the social capital built up by living among the people you’ve grown up with…

“The ties people have to their families and neighbors here are worth forgoing many of the economic opportunities other cities may offer.”

The negative? Zimmerman says change is “maddeningly slow,” which nails my biggest complaint about our little corner of the world. The visionaries seem to be held in low esteem, a problem that hinders our cultural and institutional growth.

Nonetheless, I think we have something to build on in 2012. Perhaps we can get rid of some of that negativity and figure out how to get the important things done.

Don’t ask why. Ask why not.

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No politics, no coupons, no touchdowns

2011-12-27T21:59:00.000-05:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

This being Christmas weekend, I will refrain from discussing whether Mitt Romney would make a better president than Newt Gingrich or vice versa.

The last thing, I suspect, that you want to do during this hectic season is to settle down in front of your nice toasty fireplace – a cup of eggnog nearby – and read about politics.

We could discuss fracking, or the failings of our socio-economic system, or the Occupy Wall Street movement, or North Korea, or even those crazy folks who visit Walmart on a daily basis.

In other words, we could get very serious and just ignore the fact that this is Christmas. But sometimes we should take some time and consider stuff that’s not really important.

“Oh, boy, Farrell’s going to discuss the value of newspaper coupons,” you’re probably thinking.

No, I’m not.

I want to talk about the Browns.

This weekend, on Christmas Eve, the Browns travel to Baltimore to face the old Browns, which are now called the Ravens.

I hate the Ravens.

Next weekend, on New Year’s Day, the Browns host the Pittsburgh Steelers in Cleveland Browns Stadium.

I hate the Steelers.

Now, if the Browns were any good this year, these would have been games to savor. Let’s say the Browns were in contention for a playoff spot and had to win the final two games to get in. Wouldn’t that have been terrific? We’d be getting and giving Browns jerseys and all sorts of Browns paraphernalia for Christmas.

Alas, it is not to be, Santa Claus.

Conventional wisdom has it that it’s probably better for the Browns if they lose both games, thus ensuring a better position in the NFL draft next spring. That’s when Cleveland fans pray that the Browns take that franchise linebacker from USC only to be disappointed when the team announces it has traded down, thus guaranteeing a playmaker like Brian Robiskie.

In the end, I’ll be OK with whatever happens, because I’ll be there next year no matter what – unlike a lot of other Ohioans who have jumped on the Steelers’ bandwagon. I believe they’re called frontrunners.

I’ll cut some slack to the Ohioans who live near the Pennsylvania border or who happen to hail from the Keystone State, which has given the world, among other things, Yuengling beer, which is really good, and a turnpike, which is not.

I have noticed some things about Steelers’ fans over the years. They are a different breed, to wit:

–Steelers fans wear their logo-emblazoned hoodies in the spring and summer. This is probably because the Pirates baseball team is so bad that Steelers fans are too embarrassed to admit that football season actually ends in Pittsburgh.

–In a bar, Steelers fans always seem to infiltrate a Browns crowd and will stay mostly silent until the Browns are on the wrong side of the score. Then Steelers fans become really loud and obnoxious.

–Steelers fans refer to the Cleveland Browns as “the Brownies,” indicating to the faithful that our team actually is comprised of girls. (Browns fans, on the other hand, respond: “Stillers fans are idiots.” And it goes downhill from there.)

–Some Steelers fans are so enamored with their football team that they actually will buy ugly yellow and black pickup trucks and stick the Steelers logo on both doors. (OK, Browns fans paint old milk trucks orange and brown. That’s a draw.)

This year, the Browns added an official comedian, Mike Polk, who earlier this fall coined the term “Factory of Sadness” in a video made in the aftermath of yet another disappointing loss. I hope someday he can revisit that thought and replace it with something a little more positive.

In the meantime, I will keep the faith and hope for a Browns win this holiday season.

Here’s hoping you have a terrific Christmas – no matter what (and even if you are a Steelers fan) – and that your favorite team brings a little cheer to your life. It’s good for us, you know.

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Penn State grad supports JoePa no matter what

2011-12-18T06:29:00.000-05:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

Following up on a couple of things this week…

***

A few weeks ago, I asked and then answered: “Is Joe Paterno (longtime head coach of the Penn State football team) a father figure? Hardly.”

Psu4ster took me to task with his/her online comment posted under my commentary on the Bargain Hunter’s Web site.

“I am a graduate of ‘thee’ Pennsylvania State University and I'd like to first make it completely clear that my thoughts, prayers and biggest concerns lie with the victims and their families,” he/she wrote.

“With that being said, I do not agree with your comment about Paterno not being a father figure. I grew up in Pennsylvania and know the unbelievable amount of good Joe Paterno has done for the state, Penn State students, faculty, staff as well as student athletes he has coached and molded into productive citizens.

“He has donated millions of dollars to the university and the last time I checked, the university figures that Coach Paterno and his wife have helped raise $3.5 billion for the university. You, as well as the rest of the media, have condemned Coach Paterno before any official facts have been brought to light…”

Well, Psu4ster, I didn’t condemn Paterno. I said he was hardly a father figure and I based that on available information – some of it official (i.e. grand jury indictment of alleged abuser Jerry Sandusky) – and some of which came to light in the aftermath.

And last Monday, a team of Associated Press reporters posted a story that concluded the culture of Penn State was to protect its football program above everything else, including, apparently, the rogue ex-coach who was abusing children over at least a 12-year period.

“And while the official allegations, so far, target only three people – Sandusky, along with the school’s athletic director and a since-retired senior vice president, who are both charged with perjury and failure to report a 2002 sexual abuse complaint – an investigation by the Associated Press suggests that blame also rests on Penn State as an institution and the entrenched traditions of now-fired head football coach Joe Paterno,” the AP said.

“In addition, the AP investigation, which included scores of interviews and a review of the limited number of available documents, also reveals new details in the Sandusky case: the special handling of a 1998 sexual abuse complaint by child welfare workers; a clash between investigators over what the evidence showed at that time; extraordinary retirement perks that gave Sandusky access to places on campus where he is accused of abusing children; a determination by a nearby county child-welfare agency that Sandusky sexually abused a boy in 2008 in a case that sparked the state criminal case; and a passionate defense of Paterno's role by his wife and her vigorous assertion that his university superiors are responsible for any mistakes in the handling of the 2002 abuse complaint.”

So, despite Psu4ster’s impassioned defense of Paterno, I remain convinced that JoePa is a rather lousy father figure.

***

It’s in vogue these days to blame the public schools for all the ills in the education system. I have maintained that the anger is misdirected and that by far the biggest problem lies not with teachers or their schools, but with students’ parents and homes.

Or lack thereof.

In other words, all the talk about “No Child Left Behind,” charter schools, district report cards and all those hot button issues politicians are prone to talk about are actually a lot of hooey.

In an op-ed piece in the New York Times recently, Helen F. Ladd a professor of public policy and economics at Duke, and Edward B. Fiske, a former education editor of the New York Times and author of the “Fiske Guide to Colleges,” argue that policy makers have missed the point.

“No one seriously disputes the fact that students from disadvantaged households perform less well in school, on average, than their peers from more advantaged backgrounds,” they wrote.

“But rather than confront this fact of life head-on, our policy makers mistakenly continue to reason that, since they cannot change the backgrounds of students, they should focus on things they can control.”

In fact, Ladd and Fiske point out that poor children do worse academically in all countries than their counterparts who are members of well-to-do families.

“Results of the 2009 reading tests conducted by the Program for International Student Assessment show that, among 15-year-olds in the United States and the 13 countries whose students outperformed ours, students with lower economic and social status had far lower test scores than their more advantaged counterparts within every country,” Ladd and Fisk reported.

“Can anyone credibly believe that the mediocre overall performance of American students on international tests is unrelated to the fact that one-fifth of American children live in poverty?”

And not known to the general public, your typical public school educator in Tuscarawas and Holmes counties is donating hard cash at this time of the year so the most disadvantaged of their students can return to their respective schools in January in shoes that don’t leak, dresses that aren’t torn and a coat that actually zips up.

By the way, those are far more important issues to those children than a good grade on a test. We’re talking about survival here.

And yet the public demands accountability on test scores by those same youngsters who come from homes best described as organized squalor where no one ever read to them before bedtime, or took them to the zoo, or told them they are loved.

No child left behind?

We don’t have an education problem in this country. We have a poverty problem. Why can’t we get that?

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Eminent domain is taking a bad rap

2011-12-11T07:45:00.000-05:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

One of the complaints I heard more than a few times about the Dover Board of Education’s bid for passage of a bond issue for a new high school was that it was considering eminent domain to acquire a suitable property on the city’s north end.

I found that reason for a “no” vote to be rather curious because, in this particular case, eminent domain would protect taxpayers’ dollars.

As I understand it – and I will welcome clarity from those involved – here’s how the eminent domain issue came about.

When Dover first inquired about the parcel, it asked the owners if it could conduct the necessary tests to determine whether the land would be suitable on which to build a high school. The owners agreed. After the land passed the tests, the school board then sought an independent appraisal of the property and subsequently offered $1 million as a result of that appraisal.

The owners of the land turned down that offer. Dover, in turn, asked if the owners recently had sought out their own appraisal, indicating that the board was willing to meet somewhere in the middle. The owners indicated there was no appraisal on their behalf and that Dover should just continue to make offers until it made the right one.

So, the board in its discussions about the ballot initiative said it would employ eminent domain to acquire the land which would guarantee a fair price for not only the property owners but for Dover taxpayers as well. Certainly, Dover taxpayers would protest a blank check handed to the property owners.

The blanket condemnation of eminent domain is not deserved. Certainly, it has been misused in efforts to rid communities of urban blight, but without it, we might not have the interstate highway system or airports that can handle jet aircraft.

And that new north Dover I-77 interchange? Ever read anything about property owners protesting the amounts awarded for their land so the state could construct it? Nope. Most folks are well-compensated in such situations (although there’s some obvious hate for the process along the new Rt. 161 east of New Albany, judging from the messages to the Ohio Department of Transportation that are scrawled on some structures and that apparently were caught in construction crossfire).

***

So, the Dover Board of Education has decided not to put the new school issue on the March ballot, a move that’s understandable given the degree of the issue’s defeat in the November election. But what are the ballot options now?

That’s not real clear, given that Ohio currently has scheduled two primary elections, the other being in June for federal candidates, including president, U.S. senator and U.S. representative. It is not certain whether the two primaries ultimately will kill a date in August for a special election, which might leave the November election as the last possible opportunity for Dover to still qualify for a $9.5 million grant from the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission.

If there is no special election date and you’re a strategist of sorts, which election would you prefer your bond issue on the ballot – June or November?

I suspect both elections will draw plenty of angry voters with or without the Dover bond issue on the ballot and angry voters don’t vote “yes” on much of anything.

***

I still believe that the front of Dover City Park offers the best site for a new high school, but there’s still nary a word from anyone connected to the city about that possibility.

I think it’s because Doverites think the City Park is sacred ground and it should stay just the way it is forever. But if you take a detached view of things, you’ll notice the entrance to the park is underwhelming – where’s the arch? – and that chain link fence around the tennis court seems to play a vital role in the aesthetics.

By the way, we’ve heard of a couple high-level executives recently hired by a Dover company who opted to buy homes in Jackson Township and North Canton because of the inadequacies of Dover educational facilities, especially the high school. Who needs them, right?

(Someone now is preparing to fire off an angry e-mail, telling me that if I don’t like it I should move.)

***

Well, hand it to the Cleveland firefighters for throwing away any good will Ohio public employees received in the wake of the repeal of Senate Bill 5, the collective bargaining law.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, an audit of firefighters’ timesheets and pay records “shows the fire department doesn’t pay close attention to rules that allow firefighters to easily trade work shifts, take time off for funerals and call in sick. The result is a system that is being abused by at least a handful of firefighters.”

One firefighter, the paper said, was “commuting” from his home in California to his job in Cleveland. Another apparently didn’t work in the winter, scheduling all of his vacation days during cold weather, presumably so he could spend time in a warmer climate.

The paper said sick time was inaccurately paid and paperwork screwed up. The list of administrative issues goes on and on. The Cleveland Fire Department has a $38 million payroll and no one, it seems, is watching the firehouse.

And that’s a truism, too.

Apparently, a couple of Cleveland firehouses had to be closed over the Thanksgiving holiday because too many firefighters called off sick. That’s right, even in the wake of news about widespread payroll abuses, the Cleveland firefighters still seemed to be working the system.

Why am I not surprised?

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Yep, I canceled Andy Rooney's column

2011-12-02T09:10:00.000-05:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

Perhaps you’ll remember that the local daily newspaper used to carry a weekly commentary by Andy Rooney, the old curmudgeon who got a few minutes every week at the end of CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

Rooney died recently after a long and distinguished career as a war correspondent, TV news writer, columnist and commentator. Rooney has been applauded as an exemplary example of an American journalist.

Meet the rat who canceled his commentary in the Times-Reporter.

I can’t remember what his last T-R offering was about, but it seemed to me to be so inane that it was a waste of our readers’ time, even if it was being published on a Saturday, when no one read the newspaper anyway.

Details are sketchy now, but I remember saying something like this to our editorial page editor, Jon Baker:

“Jon, what the heck was Rooney’s column about? I didn’t get it. It didn’t make sense. Let’s not use him anymore. See if anyone notices.”

And that was that. Rooney, still wildly popular on TV, disappeared from the T-R’s editorial page. And if my recollection serves me well, no one complained.

During my stint as editor, I canceled a lot of features and columnists, sometimes because of budget cuts and sometimes because we needed to freshen things up a bit.

For example, I was ecstatic that Victor Davis Hanson, a conservative whose writing I followed in the National Review, launched a newspaper column. I bought him in a heartbeat, passing over the blonde bombshell conservative Ann Coulter, whose column I tracked over a long period of time. (Google “blonde conservative writer” and Ann Coulter comes up. True story.)

Couldn’t pull the trigger on her. She seemed to me to have crossed the line more than a couple of times.

Hanson, in my mind, wrote one of the best columns in the wake of 9/11, warning the rest of the world to get on board with the U.S. because “the train was leaving the station.” OK, that was in my wild and crazy conservative days – before so many thousands of our young people lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Funny how a person can move around the political spectrum during the course of a lifetime. I’m somewhere between Fox News and MSNBC at this point.

So, risking my credibility, I offer to you that I have no deep thoughts this week, no criticisms of government, politicos, voters or ideologies.

So, here it goes…

***

My friends at Zoar Village Golf Course repeatedly have asked me to state emphatically in my commentary that golfers need to speed up the course of play.

I tried to explain to them – emphatically – that probably most of my readers don’t care whether golfers speed up the course of their play. I mean, yes, it’s important if you’re a golfer, but if you’re not, well, then you don’t really care, do you?

(This is paragraph No. 3 on this subject and I promise it will be the last one.) So, slow golfers, get the lead out of your pants, don’t play the blue tees unless you drive the ball 280 yards or better and just putt the darn thing instead of fantasizing that you’re playing in the Masters for the championship.

***

Little did I know that the entire world of toys has changed since my kids were toddlers more than 25 years ago.

I’m not sure how you spent your Cyber Monday, but I spent mine searching for something called GeoTrax train sets. (What the heck happened to Lionel, anyway?) Happy to report that I found a couple of GeoTrax sets on eBay after a futile online search at the traditional retailers. Everyone must be buying these GeoTrax sets.

By the way, do not tell my grandchildren that they’re getting GeoTrax train sets for Christmas or I will be really upset. I want this to be a surprise. Great to be young again.

***

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Want Ma and Pa stores around? Shop at them

2011-12-02T09:01:00.000-05:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

I’m not a schmaltzy, small-town newspaper guy who thinks clipping coupons is a groovy thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.

I could never in good faith suggest coupon clipping as a legitimate pastime, but I certainly wouldn’t pass judgment on you if that was your thing. You know, different strokes.

I do, however, buy into the “Small Business Saturday” initiative, which is encouraging shoppers to try finding a Christmas present or two at a locally owned retail outlet. If you take a good look at this newspaper on this Thanksgiving weekend, you won’t find many (if any) ads from the national big box stores.

Regardless, those bully behemoths probably will get most of your money this holiday season. Bet me. Go on.

And even if those big box stores have circulars inside the paper, they’re paying no more than it would cost to send those circulars to you directly by third class mail. In other words, the papers don’t make a lot of money distributing those circulars.

So, here’s the deal. It’s the little guys who are helping to keep me in this newspaper because they buy enough ads to keep the operation profitable, which is good because then the Bargain Hunter can pay me.

This is not rocket science.

OK, I know that’s selfish and I’m certainly not asking you to forego that trip to the “Canton Strip.” (See, I know the lingo.) But I’m telling you, buying from the little guys, too, will help spread the cheer and perhaps keep me in this publication at least for a few more months.

Oh, happy Thanksgiving.

***

U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Holmesville, is at it again. A couple of weeks ago, he sent me another “constituent survey” which asks a number of leading questions, including “Lowering taxes for individuals and small businesses stimulates job creation – agree, disagree, other?”

Hmmm.

Or, how about, “Healthcare reform is needed to lower costs and include coverage for pre-existing conditions, but the government-run programs, included in the Affordable Care Act do not address these underlying issues – agree, disagree, other?”

Double hmmm.

Come on, Rep. Gibbs. You can do better than that.

Seriously, if we all filled them out and sent them back to him, what exactly would it tell him about how we really feel about things?

Would he think he pulled a fast one on us? (“Dumb voters.”)

Would it give him impetus to vote the party line? (“Aha. Just what I thought!”)

What?

And, of course, here’s the big kicker.

He’s not paying for the return postage.

***

Here’s hoping the Carroll County commissioners have nothing but success in operating Atwood Lake Resort & Conference Center. The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District is all but giving the commissioners the lodge and surrounding land, including the drilling rights, in an effort to rid itself of a budget drain.

The MWCD has lost an average of $150,000 annually since it opened the lodge in 1965.

The Carroll commissioners said a key to the gift was the drilling rights, although there will be heck to pay if they approve a gas well within view of the lake.

Meanwhile, the commissioners say they’ll hire a management team to operate the facility and hopefully fix its outdated business model.

***

The city of Uhrichsville has discovered that a foray into a private-sector type amenity – the city’s water park – can be an expensive proposition. Profits have not lived up to expectations. It’s an old story.

In 2009 it had a net $14,000 profit against a $300,000 mortgage payment.

The city is now discussing the possibility of placing a levy on the ballot to help cover the water park’s costs. I’ll go out on a limb here. If 70 percent of Dover voters are against building a new high school with the help of a $9.5 million grant, the odds that Uhrichsville voters would agree to a levy to help fund the water park are slim to none.

Actually, that’s not going out on a limb. That’s the reality of our culture today. Makes a lot of us want to go live on a desert island.

***

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JoePa failed in father figure role

2011-11-20T06:28:00.000-05:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

I feel for the students and alumni of Pennsylvania State University. Through no fault of their own, their school will be forever tarnished by a child abuse scandal that is so appalling that even legendary football coach Joe Paterno couldn’t survive the ensuing firestorm.

And it’s not over yet.

Look for no sympathy for JoePa from this corner. In 2002, a graduate assistant informed the coach that a 10-year-old boy was sodomized in his locker room by a trusted colleague. Paterno then dropped the matter into the lap of his athletic director. Somehow, the report never left the confines of Penn State.

I’d like to think that if I walked in on a child abuser in action that I’d at least go a little nuts on him. Most fathers I know would.

Is Joe Paterno a father figure? Hardly.

And by the way, news media, Paterno is not caught up in a “sex scandal.” Sodomizing a little boy is violent molestation and child abuse. It’s torturing a child’s mind. It’s stealing his innocence.

It is not a “sex scandal.”

***

You have to love Sugarcreek.

In a newspaper report detailing the mayoral victory by Clayton Weller, we learned that repairing the town cuckoo clock apparently is high on Weller’s agenda.

“Weller is a native of the village, and wants to see the cuckoo clock in place, repaired and running,” stated the story.

It went on to quote Weller, to wit: “I hope to do what I can to help the area grow and help our local businesses to thrive and listen to the people and also try to get Sugarcreek on the map for positive things.”

I can’t say that I was aware that the town’s cuckoo clock was out of commission, but apparently outgoing Mayor Jeremiah Johnson failed to give it the priority it was due. He was defeated 576 to 198.

Let this be a warning to other incumbent small-town mayors.

Got a street light that’s burned out? A big pothole on Main St.? A bad cuckoo clock?

Pay attention to the details, folks. Sometimes it’s the little things that count. I’m being serious here. Really.

***

After my last commentary, an online responder wondered why I didn’t run for mayor or city council. That’s a fair enough question.

There are several reasons. I would absolutely hate passing out campaign literature and canvassing neighborhoods, especially on beautiful summer and autumn days.

I’d also hate having to attend chicken and Swiss steak dinners night after night and listen to politicos of every shape and size drone on and on.

And I would hate sitting in that little house on the Square every Christmas season, pretending I was Santa Claus.

A couple of years ago, I congratulated New Philadelphia Mayor Ron Brodzinski on his impending retirement.

“I’m really going to enjoy getting up on Sunday morning and not having to worry about whether my name is in your column,” Brodzinski said.

I was flattered and humbled by his comment. So, I think I’ll pass on the politics thing for the time being and continue offering my take on things right here – well, as long as the Bargain Hunter folks allow.

Dover City Council, you can relax now.

***

I know the ballot issue that proposed a new Dover High School in the north end of the city got absolutely trounced. But there was no call for the cheap shots aimed at members of the Dover City Schools administration and Board of Education, along with community members, who against the odds worked tirelessly in an effort to move the community forward.

Reading a full page of anonymous, venom-infected comments in the local daily newspaper made me about half sick.

Would they prefer the uneducated, uninformed and derelicts make decisions on our behalf?

A friend of mine put it succinctly in an email to me: “The board is made up of citizens who were elected by voters and volunteer their time and make a good faith effort to provide the best educational programs they can for the kids. To read the dozens of printed and online comments, the board is some dastardly mix of arrogant, out-of-touch, elitist, anti-democratic boobs who to a person does not understand the word ‘NO!’

“The undercurrent of class warfare is there as well. From the comments, there’s a lot of jealousy that successful business people were in the forefront of the levy campaign. Who should be doing it – a bunch of minimum wage, underachieving, anti-education boobs?”

This isn’t class warfare. It’s about having a vision for a better community. It’s why there is now a beautiful Performing Arts Center at Kent-Tuscarawas.

I applaud those who stepped up. We need them. I pray they have thick skins.

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Election delivers reality check

2011-11-09T09:36:00.000-05:00

This commentary will appear in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

Ohio voters’ smackdown of Senate Bill 5 – the John Kasich initiative that aimed to do away with collective bargaining for public employees – underscores a reality that many politicians don’t seem to grasp very well.

That reality is that they should never believe, assume or otherwise think that they have some sort of mandate to govern from voters. They don’t. And among what they fail to perceive in their post-election glee is that more voters lost faith in their opponents than believe wholeheartedly in the winners’ aptitude for making wise decisions.

Kasich unseated Gov. Ted Strickland 49 to 47 percent a year ago in the wake of the Great Recession that cost thousands of Ohioans their livelihoods.

Mandate? Hardly.

So, Kasich’s first move as governor was to all but eliminate collective bargaining for public employees, stating on numerous occasions that it was a necessary move if Ohio was going to survive in the new economy, whatever that is. And with that his Republican-controlled Legislature fell into lock-step.

Bad move.

The issue failed Tuesday by more than 20 points. That’s an incredible misread of the public’s mindset.

Many saw Senate Bill 5 as an attack on the middle class by a guy who reportedly made a lot of bucks on Wall Street – wrong message from the wrong guy at the wrong time.

Even Republicans have loved ones who happen to be teachers, cops, firefighters or others who are following various public service career paths. Even Republicans have voiced displeasure with the very wealthy 1 percent, who seemed to have gotten a free pass from hard times.

I think it’s too early in Kasich’s term to declare him to be unelectable next time around. But he needs to lose the arrogance, embrace humility and quit trying to take giant steps when a series of little ones will do just fine.

The collective bargaining law needed to be tweaked, not bulldozed.

***

I’m depressed that Dover City School District voters blew off – 71 to 31 percent – the idea of building a new high school with the help of state aid worth $9 million.

I have been a resident of Dover since 1987 and have heard many times over the years what a great place it is to raise children. Well, that might be correct to a certain extent, but not if you take into account the aged, decrepit high school that we make our young people serve time in for four years.

I have seen the high school up close during my stints as a guest in various classrooms and more recently as a substitute teacher/librarian/you-name-it. The place is woefully outdated and an embarrassment.

When the possibility of a new high school was discussed – when it was tagged by the state as one of the worst high schools in the state – a contingent representing the school district approached Dover City Council with a plan.

That plan called for construction of a new high school in the area in front of Dover Middle School. The high school campus would consume the tennis courts and two youth league ballfields in Dover City Park. For some reason – personalities, perhaps? – the district was rebuffed even though the plan called for construction of new tennis courts by the municipal pool and youth league fields at East and South elementary schools paid for by the school district.

It was good plan in my mind. High school kids actually would have some green space, there’d be plenty of parking and seven classes of students would have a shared learning environment in two separate buildings. In effect, they would have a campus.

But apparently, members of Dover City Council and Mayor Richard Homrighausen thought otherwise. Dover City Park must be as untouchable as the hundred-year-old decrepit high school.

Sadly, there was no further discussion. No back-and-forth. No conversations. No leadership. No nothing.

Get this, Dover City Council (and all those who connect themselves to the city’s administration): Dover is one community. Sit on your hands, if you want, but if the community doesn’t move forward with a shared vision, it won’t move forward. It will dry up.

Take a good look at the corner of N. Wooster Ave. and Front St. How long has that corner sported an abandoned gas station? Some vision, folks. Have you even discussed it?

The good news is that you have a second chance to get it right and, hopefully, newly and freshly elected Mayor Rick can at least help lead the charge.

By the way, the newest part of Dover High, including the gymnasium, might make a nice, new Dover City Hall and replace the dangerous monstrosity called Memorial Hall. Don’t get caught in the basement in case of fire.

***

As we put Election ’11 to bed, some interesting results in Tuscarawas County:

–Longtime New Philadelphia Law Director Democrat Mike Johnson was defeated by challenger Marvin Fete, 2,591 to 2,406.

–Sugarcreek voters soundly defeated incumbent Mayor Jeremiah Johnson, electing Clayton Weller instead. Weller defeated Johnson 576 to 198, or 74 to 26 percent. Jeremiah is Mike Johnson’s nephew.

–New Philadelphia Democratic incumbent Mayor Mike Taylor overwhelmed perennial candidate Tom Gerber, 3,470 to 1,589. Obviously New Philadelphia residents are pleased with Taylor’s performance. I’m not sure why Gerber continues to run for public office. Going door-to-door can’t be that much fun.

–The race for New Philadelphia Municipal Court judge was a close one. Nanette Von Allman edged Kristin Zemis, 10,279 to 9,833.

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Young people aren't jealous, they're just very angry

2011-11-05T17:36:00.000-04:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter

By all accounts Henry Ford, who is the father of the assembly line, was a less-than-perfect American who engaged in anti-Semitism and hobnobbed with Nazis before they got caught up in trying to dominate the world.

But historians give Ford credit for understanding one of the tenets of capitalism – he paid his workers enough money so they could afford to buy the products, primarily the Model T, which they were making on behalf of Ford Motor Co.

In the process of paying those workers enough money, other companies followed suit, allowing their workers, too, to participate in the consumer economy.

This seems to be a good course of action. Everyone benefits if the working public can participate in the economy by buying things it makes. It seems, however, the country – the world – somehow got off track recently, rewarding a small minority, who really don’t make anything other than a deal, with phenomenal salary and benefit packages. CEOs love to make deals.

War was the catalyst for the ’60s protests; it’s spoiled, overpaid CEOs in 2011.

Our work-ethic psyche is damaged. You can toil and sacrifice for your company for years and years – no guarantee that you can hold the pink slip at bay. The suits get the spoils. They always do, not you.

Consider a note from a late-twenty-something son, a product of New Philadelphia High, to his conservative-thinking, work-till-he-drops father.

“I would have to say it is very hard to make an ‘honest’ billion,” wrote the young man.

“For every Richard Branson, Bill Gates, or Warren Buffett I would argue there are untold Richard Fulds. (Fuld was chairman and CEO of the failed Lehman Brothers.)

“Yes, one CEO’s salary wouldn't affect a company, but that one CEO isn’t the only one raking in an obscene salary. The super-rich have gotten super richer on the backs of the bottom 95 percent. While jobs were being shipped overseas, automated, eliminated and outsourced in America, the CEOs and shareholders of those companies raked in ever-growing wealth.

“Is it their responsibility to increase profits? Of course, but by what means? No morality or ethics, that's how – profit by whatever means necessary…

“I'm not jealous of the rich. I’m p----- at them. The rich are the useless nothings in Congress; they're the CEOs of companies like Enron, Lehman and Citi. They’re the trust fund babies and banking ‘Kings of the Universe’ who spend their time boozing, doing drugs and feeling entitled to a life of privilege. The super-rich weren’t catered to back in the day like they are today…”

Add Gene Isenberg to the list of CEOs who are well-compensated underperformers. A week ago, Nabors Industries, an oil driller, said it was replacing Isenberg as CEO but will give him a lovely parting gift of $100 million.

That’s right, $100 million – for keeping the company’s stock flat for a decade.

And therein lies President Barack Obama’s problem. This kind of news keeps on coming.

Is the “hope and change” president losing the generation that helped put him in office? Maybe. But tell me, how does the president – any president – influence compensation packages awarded by executive board members who themselves are part of the club?

Won’t fundamental change have to come from within? Won’t we have to start making things again?

Sadly, Obama has failed to live up to advance billing. Nothing much, including the unemployment rate, has changed since Lehman Brothers went belly-up in 2008.

And the price of gasoline has shot to $3.50 a gallon, give or take a dime or two on either side.

And business has never liked Obama, whose continued calls for higher taxes have profitable companies sitting on their hands, uncertain of the future.

So the campaign for the presidency begins in earnest after Tuesday’s election.

CNBC is touting the 2012 campaign as the most important of our time. I’m not one to buy into TV hype but, you know, I think the network is correct.

“The economy is Topic A,” said the voiceover.

That’s an understatement.

***

Here are some predictions for Tuesday’s general election:

Issue 2 will fail and Senate Bill 5 will be repealed. Gov. John Kasich could have gotten away with tweaking Ohio’s collective bargaining law but missed the opportunity. He does not have the support of most public managers, who have forged decent relationships with their unions. And most unions, at least in our area, have made concessions in the wake of the great recession. Many Ohioans are connected in some way to public employees and feel their pain.

Incumbent mayors will be re-elected in Dover and New Philadelphia. The opponents have failed to make a case for the alternative.

I’m pulling for passage of a bond issue that will pave the way for a new Dover High. It will be an exciting time for a community that hasn’t built a new school in five decades. People who think the old building ought to be remodeled aren’t thinking realistically. That would be like putting new tires on a tired, old clunker. OK, no prediction here, just hope.

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Nice work if you can get it

2011-10-28T20:06:00.000-04:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

So, you suffer a little from paycheck envy, don’t you, Mr. Private Sector?

You’re envious of that teacher down the street who you think is making too much money. He has a nice benefit package and a terrific pension plan, too.

You? Your company has eliminated its pension plan and is making you pay more money toward the cost of your health insurance. In addition, your company is forcing you to take a pay cut, and there’s always the possibility that you’ll lose your job.

I know what you’re thinking.

Darn teacher.

Redirect your anger, Mr. Private Sector.

Meet Craig A. Dubow, who retired earlier this month after six years as Gannett Corp.’s chief executive officer. Gannett owns WKYC-TV, Channel 3, in Cleveland as well as other media outlets, including USA Today and the Cincinnati Enquirer.

According to the New York Times, Gannett’s stock price declined from $75 to $10 a share during his stint. When he took over the company, Gannett had 52,000 employees. Now it has 32,000.

Many of those discharged employees were reporters and editors – the people who cover hundreds of communities across the country for Gannett newspapers. They’re in towns such as Coshocton, Newark and Zanesville.

Dubow, like so many others who direct media companies today, apparently believed that the way to profitability was to eliminate the guts from the product. Just before he announced his resignation, Gannett said it was cutting another 700 jobs.

The Times reported that Marjorie Magner, a member of Gannett’s board, said in tribute following Dubow’s retirement announcement: “Craig championed our consumers and their ever-changing needs for news and information.”

Magner should have kept to herself.

Maybe she should have said this: “During Craig’s tenure, our company’s finances tanked. People quit reading our papers, and advertisers left in droves. Then the economy blew up in 2008 and things got even worse. We couldn’t sell TV ads. We tried to attract younger readers and viewers, but we didn’t have a clue how to reach them.

“Thank goodness Craig finally saw that it was time for him to leave the company. We gave him a 12-week severance package.”

But Magner didn’t say that, and she and other board members ultimately signed off on a $37.1 million golden parachute for Dubow. And that, the Times said, was on top of $16 million paid to him over the last two years.

Wikipedia’s entry on Dubow noted that the severance package amounts to $50,000 for each of those 700 recently discharged employees.

As the Times’ David Carr points out, Gannett’s Dubow is not the only media chieftain to leave the party with plenty of cash and prizes. There are many other examples of media companies gutting their properties while handing off huge bonuses and golden parachutes to the guys in charge.

That’s the real strategy for a lot of the folks in control. It’s not about making anything, as Carr points out, it’s about lining their own pockets.

Craig Dubow and his ilk deserve your scorn, Mr. Private Sector, not the teacher, or the cop, or the firefighter who live down the street.

***

Last week I reported that a source told me that all members of Dover City Council actually support a ballot initiative that if passed would clear the way for construction of a new high school. Dover City Council, as a governmental body, apparently does not intend to endorse the project.

I was told that during routine canvassing by supporters it was learned that at least one council member is not in favor.

On Facebook, I posted an invitation to all Dover City Council members to go on the record with their views on the proposed project. And as I expected, I received no responses.

***

Most Tasteless Commercial of the Campaign Season Award goes to U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton of Cleveland, a Democrat, who champions clean air and fights those nasty energy companies. Her commercial features a child in a classroom wearing an oxygen mask and who apparently suffers from asthma. The rest of the class is reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

I don’t know about you, but I have a problem with politicians using afflicted children in political commercials. Talk about air pollution.

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Silence from Dover lawmakers not so golden

2011-10-19T22:23:00.000-04:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

One of the more curious aspects of the request of voters by Dover City Schools for a new high school is the deafening silence of Dover City Council and Mayor Richard Homrighausen.

One would think that the town’s leaders would jump on board on a project that, if approved, certainly would speak volumes about the worth of the city well into the future.

Through the grapevine I’m told that City Council members – Council President Timothy W. Tarulli, Tony Korns, Don Maurer, Joe Parolini, Greg Bair, Shane Gunnoe, Sandy Moss and Bob Mueller – actually support the Dover bond issue request but have made some sort of secret pact to remain quiet.

If that’s true – and I have no reason to doubt my sources – it underscores the narrow-mindedness rampant in the area that has been fueled by venomous online comments from people who have nothing better to do than make us question the line between free speech and intolerance.

Are Dover City Council members worried about the backlash if they were to actually go on the record supporting the Dover High project? Are they worried about irritating people who otherwise would support their re-election bids? Is this more about adding to their public pension credits than leading the city?

Some history: Representatives of the school district initially went to City Council to discuss the possibility of locating the new high school on land adjacent to Dover Middle School but immediately were rebuffed without a promise of discussion because, well, that land belongs to Dover City Park and apparently is untouchable even for a new school.

There are many advantages to clustering schools, creating a campus-like atmosphere that provides adequate parking and plenty of green space. A good example is the Highland Local School District in Medina County that has located its new high school ($31 million in 2004) on Rt. 94 adjacent to its middle school and one of its elementaries.

I know most of the folks who serve on Dover City Council. They’re good people. But by stepping away from the Dover High initiative, they forfeit the opportunity to be remembered as visionaries. Homrighausen, meanwhile, has voiced support for the project, but that’s about it.

***

I can only imagine that challenger Tony Korns wishes he had a second chance with the questions our local daily newspaper asked him and incumbent Mayor Richard Homrighausen to answer as part of its pre-election coverage.

The paper apparently provided the candidates with questionnaires rather than conduct face-to-face interviews with them. Homrighausen took the opportunity to expound on his accomplishments and initiatives, while

Korns provided short and sweet answers that didn’t necessarily result in complete sentences.

Here’s an example:

Newspaper: What are the two major issues facing the city in the next four years?

Homrighausen: Dealing with all the reductions in income coming back to the city from the State of Ohio that Dover, and all communities across the state, will have to deal with. And the definite possibility that the northern end of the city will grow more rapidly than our projections have planned for.

Korns: Jobs and overall city growth.

OK, the mayor’s grammar might be lacking, but you’d have to give him the nod on that question. It didn’t get much better than that in the follow-up questions. Here’s some free advice to future candidates: To avoid “gotchya” moments like this, hire one of the many former journalists in the area who could help formulate answers that might actually make you look smarter than the incumbent.

To be fair, I think Korns has at least a 2-1 lead over Homrighausen in the yard sign competition.

***

Grand Theft Grandma: I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an outright theft of a campaign commercial like the “Vote Yes on Issue 2” people pulled off when they copied and pasted the video image of the “Vote No on Issue 2” great-grandmother into their own commercial.

Certainly the campaign to keep the collective bargaining law could have found its own great-grandmother to use in its commercials. Heck, it found its own former firefighter (Toledo Mayor Mike Bell) and a school teacher (Fairfield County Republican Chairman Kyle Farmer, a wannabe lawmaker).

I actually expected a better advertising campaign from the “Yes on Issue 2” campaign.

OK, here’s a prediction: Issue 2 will be defeated and as a result Senate Bill 5 will be repealed. It’s just plain wrong to go around stealing grandmothers. People don’t like that.

At least that’s what I’m thinking today.

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter (dfarrell_dover).

Election coverage should have been yesterday's news

2011-10-14T21:52:00.002-04:00

Originally published in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

Although the Nov. 8 general election is a little less than a month away, it is now nearly too late for daily newspapers to issue their customary endorsements.

After searching online at several Ohio newspaper sites, I found little evidence of any concerted effort to get the endorsement editorials completed before the start of absentee voting, which now is under way.

Indeed, my wife and I have our ballots in hand and will be casting them this week. We will make our choices devoid of any input from the people who cover the politicos and the issues up front and personal.

It used to be that newspapers would reserve the month of October for their pre-election stories and endorsement editorials. With early voting now in vogue, all of that should be done by Oct. 1. But it appears that the dailies, with their much smaller staffs, are unable or unwilling to change their ways.

One daily, the Tiffin Advertiser-Tribune acknowledged the dilemma in an Oct. 5 editorial.

“The A-T has reported early and often about local candidates and issues on this year's general election ballot,” said the newspaper. “However, our preview articles about library and school levies and some local races for mayor and city council begin in today's edition and will continue through next week.

“Is that soon enough? A referendum on Senate Bill 5 is expected to prompt Ohioans to vote, although there are no races for statewide office this year. We hope voters inspired by state issues to cast ballots this week are not confronted by races and issues with which they are not familiar.”

There’s been a lot of debate over the years about whether newspapers ought to endorse candidates and offer opinions on issues. I’ve always lined up on the side that believes they should because newspapers ought to lead in their communities. Sometimes that means lining up on the losing side. So be it.

I am not so naïve to think that newspapers actually swing elections. But like an endorsement from the local union, or Chamber of Commerce, or city council, it provides a viewpoint for voters to consider.

Unfortunately, it appears newspapers are shying from the process. Perhaps one reason is because they are afraid of alienating the readers who remain loyal subscribers.

And I think that’s an unfortunate development for not only our community, but for our democracy.

***
Given my years in the news business, I am not surprised by the dumb things that come out of people’s mouths. If I had the inclination, I could probably designate a “Dumb Comment of the Week” award every week.

So, last week’s award would have had to go to Hank Williams Jr., who up until he said his dumb thing was just the country singer who starred in the “Monday Night Football” lead-in on ESPN.

“Are you ready for some football?” Williams asked/sang/shouted every week.

Williams, touting a CD featuring songs by his late father, was a guest on the “Fox & Friends” show on the Fox News Network and offered that he was extremely disappointed by this summer’s golf summit that featured President Barrack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Speaker of the House John Boehner and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

When asked why, Williams responded that it was “one of the biggest political mistakes ever.”

Asked to further explain, he responded, "It would be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli leader) Benjamin Netanyahu."

He eventually offered that Obama and Biden are the enemy.

ESPN did what it had to do. It fired Williams.

Williams, it was reported on Monday, has responded by adding a verse to “Keep The Change,” a song he wrote after Obama was elected president. Here it is:

So Fox & Friends
Wanna put me down
Ask for my opinion
Then twist it all around
Supposed to be talkin’ about my father’s new CD
Well, two can play that gotcha game, just wait and see
Don’t tread on me!

This country sure as hell been goin’ down the drain
We know what we need
We know who to blame
United Socialist States Of America
Don’t you just love that name?

Perhaps Williams can find a job as a poster child for narrow-mindedness after he accepts the “Dumb Comment” award.

***
One would think that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could answer the question: Is hydraulic fracturing – fracking – safe?

Well, no, it can’t. But Ohioans who are concerned about fracking – there seems to be a growing number of them – will be pleased to know that the EPA should be able to answer that question in a couple of years. (Yes, I’m being sarcastic.)

Fracking is the drilling process that goes vertically down into the deep Marcellus shale and then horizontally. It extracts natural gas and oil by injecting millions of gallons of water under high pressure to the rock surrounding the well bore.

The EPA has a lot of verbiage on its website about hydraulic fracturing, but none of it answers that simple question. It is in the midst of an extensive study on the process and does promise some answers down the road.

So, while we could have a definitive source on the issue, we’ll have instead an intense debate featuring science on both sides and horror stories galore.

Nothing seems to be easy in this country.

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter (dfarrell_dover).

DHS Plan Years in the Making -- Guest commentary: Jennifer Jones

2011-10-09T22:46:00.000-04:00

Editor's note: I defer to Jennifer Jones, who originally wrote this for the Times-Reporter. It's not a conspiracy, folks. Dover needs a new high school. Hopefully, the T-R will see that and ultimately endorse the initiative. -- DF

Jennifer Jones's Note: This is the first in a series of editorials addressing the Dover City Schools’ proposal for a new high school. The purpose is to provide a historical perspective of how the Board of Education has arrived at its decision. The number one objective is to create an informed, educated citizenry so that this all-important decision is based on factual information and an understanding of this project’s history. Additional information can be found at www.dover-code-red.org.

On Nov. 8, voters in the Dover City School District will make a choice. Before them is a proposal for a new high school, funded through a 33-year bond issue of 6.4 mills and a ½ mill maintenance levy for a combined total of 6.9 mills.

It is important for the voters to know that the decision to present this choice to the community was not made without close consideration of the conditions at Dover High School; in truth, this process began nearly 12 years ago—not 6 months ago, as many have been led to believe. The conversation about the future of Dover schools began in 2000 with a group of community members, parents, teachers, and administrators focused on curriculum, instruction, facilities, organization, and school/community relations within the district.

In 2001, upon the recommendation of the community group, the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission (OSFC), along with an unbiased team of architects, engineers, and building designers, was contacted to perform an assessment of Dover’s facilities and to offer input on the buildings’ current state.

In 2002, the OSFC’s proposed plan was vast and unlikely a solution that Dover taxpayers would accept. This OSFC plan included multiple changes within the district including the demolition of Dover High School.

Therefore, the Board decided unanimously to present taxpayers a less complex, less costly alternative focusing primarily on the high school. Thus, in 2002, a 4.8 mill 5-year Permanent Improvement levy that would have generated $5.3 million over 5 years was presented to the taxpayers.

That levy would have allowed for construction of a 3-story addition as well as a renovation to the 5^th Street Wing. Also included were ongoing improvements that would have been made to boilers at both East and South Elementaries. This option, which would have cost $147 per year for a homeowner whose home was appraised at $100,000, was defeated by 654 votes.

Knowing the necessity of this levy, the Board in May 2003 again placed the exact same levy before the taxpayers. It, too, was defeated, this time suffering a loss by 69 votes. At that time, due to voters’ reluctance to support any renovations to the high school (and coinciding sentiment to “wait for state funding”), the District chose not to pursue the renovation and addition.

Instead, an operating levy was placed on the ballot that included the renovation of the boilers at East and South Elementaries—that levy passed in November 2003.

In the years since 2003, the stability and educational viability of the high school has continued to be debated. Finally, in 2010, the OSFC strongly recommended that the district apply to the Exceptional Needs Program, placing schools with immediate needs to the top of the school funding list. After five public forum meetings to discuss the building’s condition and with the support of involved community members, the district applied and in May 2011 received notification that Dover High School was ranked #1 in “exceptional needs”; in short, the physical condition of the high school was recognized as one of the worst in Ohio.

Because the OSFC Exceptional Needs Program will not fund a project if the projected cost of renovation is at or exceeds 2/3 of the cost of new construction, the district was at a crossroads: Pay for its own renovation without any state assistance or pursue the construction of a new high school with the state paying $9.5 million. Through a series of public forums and input from staff and the community, the Board of Education determined that accepting the OFSC’s offer of $9.5 million toward the construction of a new high school was the most responsible use of taxpayer money. When that initiative was approved by the Board, the campaign for a new Dover High School began.

The OSFC constructs new schools based on a formula determined by student enrollment without regard to classroom or extracurricular programming. In Dover’s situation, enrollment is steadily increasing, and its curriculum exceeds the state minimums. As a result, the OSFC’s minimum requirements were considerably less than what Dover High School currently offers. Thus, the District faced yet another crossroad: Construct a building that offers less than we have today or build for the needs and expectations of this community? Once again the District turned to the taxpayers for guidance. Public meetings continued through Spring 2011 where options were thoroughly discussed. This group ultimately decided that if the school was going to go forward into the 21^st Century, there was no reason to build a school that would fail to meet Dover’s needs in the present or future.

Dover’s taxpayers should recognize that the decision to ask the community to support the construction of a new high school is not spur-of-the-moment. Rather, it is one that has involved vast input from area citizens, unbiased studies, and economic considerations over a 12-year period. A decision of this magnitude deserves thorough investigation and study. The community can be assured that this issue has received due diligence.

On Nov. 8, we ask voters to vote Yes on Issue 15 and appreciate that it is our school, and it is our choice as to what our educational future holds.

*2000: Community group begins study of Dover High School

*2001: Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) conducts assessment

*2002: OSFC proposes plan for district building renovation

*2002: Dover Board of Education determines OSFC plan would not be acceptable to taxpayers

*2002: Levy request for renovation to DHS 5^th Street Wing and a 3-story addition is rejected

*2003: Second levy request for renovation and addition is rejected

*2008 OSFC conducts assessment of Dover High School

*2009: Community contractors are involved in discussions for high school improvement

*2009: MKC Associates (area architectural firm) provides a facility improvement review

*2010: OSFC determines that the high school needs replaced

*2011: Board of Education conducts six months of communication with staff and community

*2011: Board of Education is rated by the OSFC “Exceptional Needs Program” as the building most in

need of replacement in Ohio

*November 2011: Voters will make a choice regarding a new Dover High School

TWD - There ought to be a law

2011-10-07T09:42:00.000-04:00

This originally appeared in the Tuscarawas County edition of the Bargain Hunter.

It’s probably happened to you.

A couple of Saturdays ago, I was southbound on I-77 heading into Tuscarawas County. I was traveling the speed limit – 60 mph -- or maybe a wee bit faster (but not fast enough to warrant the attention of state troopers) when I had to pull into the left lane to pass a slow-moving SUV, which was drifting precariously over the line that defines the lanes.

Being the defensive driver I am, I passed the SUV when it clearly was back into the right lane. Naturally, I gave the driver a look-see.

The driver, a young woman, was looking at her cell phone, a flip model which was opened to expose the keypad.

She was texting.

OK, I’m not one who believes there ought to be a law so every wrong in this world can be fixed. I think Prohibition is the No. 1 example of a law – in this case an amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- that offered numerous unintended consequences (and a nod to Ken Burns for underscoring that fact in his latest history lesson on PBS) before it was finally repealed.

But in the case of texting and driving? Well, there ought to be a law. And soon.

In June, the Ohio House passed a bill that bans texting while driving. A Senate committee is conducting hearings on the issue and I assume we’ll get the law at some point, but what the heck is taking so long?

Only lives on the highway – including the young woman’s in the SUV -- are at stake. Oh, yeah – and the lives of us who have to share the road with Miss Texter.

Funny how the Legislature took on the issue of collective bargaining and had that long-standing law rewritten and a new bill passed within three months of John Kasich taking office as governor.

Meanwhile, 34 states already have banned texting and driving.

Note to Ohio’s Legislature: Find one of those 34 laws on the Internet and then copy and paste it under Ohio’s letterhead. Vote on it. It’s so simple.

***

I hate to keep picking on the Legislature, but it is an easy mark. House Bill 136 would expand the previously urban-centric voucher program to students in all 613 public school districts. The voucher program, which provides money to students to attend private schools in urban areas, subtracts that same amount of money from the district to which the student belongs.

So, under the new proposal, a New Philadelphia kid who attends a private school would penalize New Philadelphia Public Schools in the amount of $5,783. That’s a lot of money to a district that size.

Needless to say, local school superintendents are against the idea.

State Rep. Al Landis, R-Dover, is a co-sponsor of the bill.

I know I’m being redundant, but the problem in public education in this state is not in the districts that are in Tuscarawas or Holmes counties. It’s in the big six urban districts – Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton and Youngstown.

Kasich and Landis need to remember that as they attempt to answer the school funding question. Perhaps that includes breaking them into smaller districts.

In Cleveland’s case, for example, how does one go about effectively managing a district comprised of more than 50,000 students?

***

Facebook can be a humbling experience.

I posted the announcement detailing a candidate debate sponsored by the Dover Exchange Club and scheduled for last Tuesday night. I asked my Facebook friends – I have a few – what questions they would like to ask, figuring I’d get at least a few responses.

I got none.

Meanwhile, the woman who posted, “I got up this morning and ate a doughnut,” gets a dozen “likes” and a half-dozen comments.

I must be doing something wrong. Or voters really are apathetic.

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Conservative Melvin supports repeal of Senate Bill 5

2011-10-01T11:00:00.000-04:00

My friend, Melvin -- not his real name -- tends to lean conservative on a number of issues. He is a frequent commenter on my posts and provides thoughtful responses on many issues.

Because I really don't have a place to put this comment, I'm giving it its own blog post. Congratulations, Melvin. You're now famous.

Here's Melvin's take on State Issue 2:

I'd been a proponent of the recently enacted limitations to public employee collective bargaining and especially mandates for pension and health care benefit changes. But looking back over a decade that has seen private sector wages barely keep up with even modest inflation... many public employees have seen wage freezes extending over years and most have been paying more and more of their benefit costs, closing the gap that had been very wide at one time compared to private sector workers.

Public employee pension programs are similar to private sector pensions as far as employee contributions. STRS and PERS are changing relatively quickly to require their members to work more years to get their retirement benefits and other reductions are in the pipelines. Even "double dipping" is going to become much less beneficial to the retiree in the near future.

We're talking about teachers, police, fire, and the people that make our lives more pleasant and safe. I don't want to make those jobs so unattractive that only the least capable members of society will be willing to take those jobs because they're not qualified for anything that has better compensation. That why I'm going to vote No on Issue 2.