Blogs

If these guys lived in Brecksville, could they attend the prom?

On a recent sunny afternoon, C-Notes headed out to the real life Pleasantville that is Brecksville to find out if the rumors were true: Was Brecksville High really banning gay students from its prom?

According to our spies – well planted at a certain North Royalton beauty salon – the suburban school district has a longstanding rule that decrees students can only attend prom if they have a date of the opposite sex. The reasoning went that the school couldn’t actually ban just gay students, so it had to make an all encompassing rule that would readily exclude dateless wall flowers and mathaletes too. That way, no one could be accused of being a homophobe…

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The mark of the devil.

Unsightly accoutrements have long been a part of TV viewing. The satellite dish. The cable box. Rabbit ears. But as technology has progressed, the eyesores have only gotten bigger. Enter the fourth-generation of cable TV’s aesthetic nightmare: the AT&T U-Verse box.

“It’s like having an outhouse on your tree lawn,” says Lakewood City Councilman Kevin Butler of the refrigerator-sized hazards that are springing up in front of homes...

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Is it time to call an Amber alert or something?

The coveted title of Creepiest Guy at the Cleveland Schools has long rested with Nick Jackson, the mayor’s brother and longtime patronage appointee. Two female employees -- one at City Hall and one at the school district — have accused him of sexual harassment. It got so bad that one woman, Helen Piffard, quit after the district’s investigation of him turned into a smear job about her.

But lately, Ron Kisner has been giving Jackson a run for his money…

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Okay, so David Caruso is way cooler than us. Especially when he's wearing sunglasses. But we knew about swatting before he did. So there.

When we first reported in January about a new troubling phone prank known as “swatting,” the trend was so new it wasn’t even on Wikipedia yet.

As we wrote back then, swatting was started by a group of “frenemies” who participated in a phone chat room. To prove their superiority, they would play practical jokes on each other.

At first, the pranks were silly, such as calling in fake pizza orders for their enemies. When that got tiresome, a chat line participant figured out a way to get people’s water and electricity shut off. Soon, people were going whole weekends without air or heat. But four years ago, the pranks grew dangerous…

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Look, we’re sorry we unleashed Jim Brown upon the nation. But this time, Ohio shouldn’t be blamed for the negligence of others.

A story in yesterday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune wonders aloud if the buckling of our state’s I-90 bridge 12 years ago was a warning sign that failed to go off.

In 1996, structural engineers blamed the failure of some steel gusset plates for the buckling of the I-90 bridge over the Grand River, forcing it to shut down for five months. But nobody told Minnesota – or, in all likelihood, anyone else -- about the dangers of corroding steel gusset plates. Of course, a decade later, a Minneapolis bridge fell into the Mississippi, killing 13 people and injuring 145.

“It is unclear exactly what MnDOT officials knew about the Ohio incident,” the Star Tribune writes, although it seems pretty clear: not enough. ...

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The jury believed that owner Jerry Forstner inflated the value of his poisoned alpacas.

In 2003, Magical Farms owner Jerry Forstner sued Purina Mills after the company delivered a contaminated shipment of feed to his alpaca farm, killing off over 100 of his 1,600 alpacas and permanently damaging the health of hundreds more.

Forstner, whose Litchfield farm is one of the biggest in North America, claims that Purina Mills owed him over $12 million in damages. He says that was just enough money to cover what he paid for all his dead and damaged animals – not lost profits or potential offspring.

But a federal jury didn’t agree…

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Countries are demanding works be returned -- whether they have proof they were stolen or not.

Last Friday, officials at the Cleveland Museum of Art were shocked to see numerous wire stories reporting that they had agreed to give back 16 artworks to the Italian government.

The problem with the article: The story is completely false.

As Scene reported in March, the Italian cultural ministry is on a mission to retrieve hundreds of works it believes were stolen from Italy. For years, most American museums simply laughed at requests like these. But they were forced to rethink their stance a few years ago when evidence surfaced that Robert Hecht, one of America’s most prodigious art dealers, had been selling pieces looted from Italy…

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With all the hullabaloo surrounding our soon-to-be former Attorney General Marc Dann, Case Western Law School officials decided that Dann might not be the best person to give the commencement address.

Last week, Dean Gary Simson sent out an e-mail to students telling them not to worry. He was in talks with other potential speakers, all of whom were equally fabulous. On Thursday, the school announced the new speaker: Case graduate Stephen C. Ellis.

“Who is he?” students asked…

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For months now, a debate has been raging in the Jewish community about whether its bedrock agency, the Jewish Community Federation, should move its headquarters from Euclid Avenue downtown to Beachwood.

The non-profit organization is basically a United Way for Jews — sponsoring social events, fundraising for Israeli causes, and doing charity work. Since 1965, its main office has been planted firmly in heart of the city. The question now is whether the group should mimic the mass exodus of its people to the eastern ’burbs. And it’s forcing people to acknowledge some uncomfortable truths…

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It’s been a rough year for Cleveland teachers. Even by the standards of one of America’s most chaotic districts, students are beating on them at unprecedented rates.

The district has responded with the usual crime fighting solutions. It’s increased security and installed video cameras and metal detectors. Each day, students pass their way under the all seeing door frame. The theory goes that punches are far less harmful than gun shots or, say, sword wounds. So by making it harder to get those things inside the school, the place will become a safe haven for learning…

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Buy a Bluestone "luxury loft" in Cleveland Heights, and you'll get a "free" smart car.

As the real estate market tanks in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis, ripple effects are being felt throughout the industry. Even in the ’burbs, builders are having trouble selling their wares — and their desperation is making them sound a lot like care salesmen.

In Lakewood, for example, Forest City is offering Browns season tickets to buyers of its Rockport Square townhouses. And in Cleveland Heights, the first five purchasers of Bluestone “luxury lofts” will get free Smart Cars, the cute little two-seaters that look as if they belong in a Paris alley…

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The county has narrowed down the potential sites for its infamously inept Medical Mart project, a project pushed through with less thought than what goes into choosing your cheese on a $5 Subway foot-long. Of the sites, one stands out. It’s the prospect of building the site to the west of Browns stadium, directly alongside the lakefront.

A PD article broke the news yesterday that Commissioner Jimmy Dimora is pushing for this site, the current location of Port docks. That site will be totally vacated by 2014 if everything with the port’s East 55th project goes as planned.

Let’s just hope the idea doesn’t get further than a guttural belch from Dimora’s furry mouth. ...

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The $522 million redevelopment of the East Bank of the Flats was sold to Clevelanders just like so many other publicly-subsidized projects: It will revive downtown! Create new jobs!

Hardly anyone could argue with the wisdom of turning a bunch of dilapidated strip joints into thriving offices, shops and condos. In fact, Port Authority leaders thought this project was so important that they sued, threatening to take the existing Flats properties by eminent domain – which is French for “We’re here to take your stuff...”

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The Cleveland Clinic has taken a lot of flack lately for the way it treats its 35,000 employees — first banning smoking on its campus, then vowing not to hire anyone who lights up. Some saw this health and wellness kick as a bit overzealous, considering how stressed-out Clinic workers might desperately need a delicious American-made tobacco product.

Then in March, a Medicare report about “patient experience” seemed to suggest that Clinic nurses were overworked and unhappy. Patients were complaining about being housed in noisy rooms and having to wait a long time for help using the bathroom — gripes that nurses would normally help ease...

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Governor Ted Strickland is certainly making a statement by demanding the immediate impeachment of Attorney General Marc Dann.

On Monday, Dann refused to resign after he admitted to having an extramarital affair with a 28-year-old aide. It came just after two female AG workers accused one of Dann’s top managers and roommate, Anthony Gutierrez, of sexual harassment and generally acting like a pervert. Dann’s communications director was also fired after it was revealed that he tried to force the women to lie to investigators....

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