Roldo Bartimole writes: You have to wonder whether our politicians look ahead or think at all. Or whether it’s just too convenient to keep their heads in the sand and not worry about what they’re doing. I’m talking about Cuyahoga County’s new form of government. It doesn’t seem a bit of an improvement on the [...]

[Update 1031: I just go back from my bike ride and, Scout's Honor, there was a Metroparks employee weed-whacking the edge of the woods WHERE NO ONE WALKS, EVER!] Looking at my backyard from my desk, I see a doe browsing in a, mostly untouched, bit of clearing. I mow my front yard, but not [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: Add them up: The Imperial Avenue atrocity of 11 women raped and murdered by Anthony Sowell; The gunning down of Timothy Russell and Melissa Williams by out-of-control Cleveland police; and now the revelation that three young women have been held captive for years in a home on the city’s near West Side [...]

NED WHELAN – HE COULD TELL THE TRUTH By Roldo Bartimole How do you do aggressive, honest reporting? Ned Whelan, who died Wednesday, days after an accidental fall, showed exactly how. He died in Phoenix, visiting his daughter. He was 70. As a Plain Dealer reporter in 1970, Whelan covered a meeting of the Bluecoats, [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: Okay Plain Dealer reporters: the outlook is dark and tragic. No easy way to put it. So take advantage of the Newhouse family’s bad situation of caring more about making money than serving the public. If they’re going to go to three days start now producing some hard hitting stuff that tests [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: There was one time I felt sorry for Art Modell. It was in a court room. I’ll get to that. What bothers me now of the attacks on Modell by our sports writers and fans are that they for so long kissed his ass. He was the Big Dog. Just as they [...]

*That would be Reform Sex-Offender Laws…

Roldo Bartimole writes: The carpetbagger from Tennessee didn’t take long find a way to fleece northern sports suckers. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, one of society’s takers, will pocket the $100-million naming rights on a property-tax free stadium built, owned and maintained by taxpayers. He already had a sweet deal for a pittance of rent ($250,000) [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: The attempt to add an assistant to each of the Cuyahoga County Council members is the first step in the creation of a new public Monster. It should be cut off RIGHT NOW. Kill it dead. It’s unfortunate that the very public officials who should be protecting the public are the ones [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: County Executive Ed FitzGerald is going to park $100 in the bank for every kid in Cuyahoga County for some 20 to 25 years? At five years old. Some 15,000 of them. Until they’re, if unused, in their mid twenties. Sounds like a good deal for banks. Not sure about children. Or [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: As I remember it when I first came to Cleveland and had the occasion to visit Cleveland City Council, the 33 members used a room outside the committee hearing chamber as their office. One office fit all. There’s a reason I’m telling you this. They called it “the bullpen,” says a former [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: Guess who won’t be paying an extra penny of the school 15 mill tax Cleveland voters approved on Nov. 6? You are right. The same guys who haven’t been paying the school taxes for years now. Some of the richest guys in town. Doesn’t surprise you, does it? The entitled takers. Freeloaders [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: The County Council recently caved to County Executive Ed FitzGerald’s desire to satisfy downtown interests by directing its casino revenue for the first two years to the downtown area. It’s as if the rest of the city doesn’t exist. Though it is overflowing with poverty and problems. County residents already provide literally [...]

Via What’s Up: WHAT: Save the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Telling Mansion Library WHERE: 4645 Mayfield Road, South Euclid WHEN: Saturday, 27 October at 1 p.m. EMAIL: Save South Euclid-Lyndhurst Telling Mansion Library Please bring your family and friends to a peaceful rally on behalf of the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Telling Mansion library. We are going to show [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: You have probably read about the scandalous spending of $6.4 million for a kitchen (restaurant) in the Justice Center (jail). For jailbirds! What you never read about, nor heard a single complaint about in the daily cover-up was the $7.5 million spent on what I called “Two lavish, upscale restaurants at Gateway…” [...]

[Update: Note time change from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.] Via What’s Up: WHAT: Stop War on Iran, Yes We Can! Demonstration WHEN: 12:30 p.m. Friday, 5 Oct. WHERE: East 17th and Payne Ave. The Cleveland Peace Action Middle East Committee invites you to attend the first of at least two “Stop War With Iran” [...]

Via What’s Up: WHAT: Stop War on Iran, Yes We Can! Demonstration WHEN: 10:15 A.M. 12:30 p.m. Friday, 5 Oct. WHERE: East 17th and Payne Ave. The Cleveland Peace Action Middle East Committee invites you to attend the first of at least two “Stop the War on Iran” demonstrations to coincide with presidential candidate’s visits [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: How wise are the smart guys who take the rest of us to the cleaners because we are sports fans – and maybe suckers, too? It’s not so much a matter of cleverness as influence peddling. They OWN the politicians and the news media. They are a corrupting force. With a property [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: Why won’t a big city newspaper as the Plain Dealer total up what Cleveland and Cuyahoga County taxpayers have paid in taxes for the real demonstrable deadbeats (as Romney misidentifies them in his Lonesome Rhodes moment)? Why is the Plain Dealer so reluctant to post what we have given a handful of [...]

Roldo Bartimole writes: The George Forbes story that he and County Commissioner Tim Hagan offered to build a stadium for Art Modell at the same time the push was on for Gateway’s stadium and arena doesn’t pass the smell test. And never will unless Art comes back to verify. Mark Naymik in today’s Plain Dealer [...]