When do we shut it down?

The latest tax figure for collection of that quarter percent sales tax for the Medical Mart & Convention Center cost Cuyahoga County taxpayers totaled $3,479,373.20 in November.

Despite the recessionary impact on consumption, the tax continues to be higher than predicted. The November figure is a bit higher than the $3,427,717.90 in September.

The total collected since January when the tax started is $38,712,692.71. That’s $38 million extra in sales taxes paid by Cuyahoga consumers this year thus far.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority – better known as RTA – apparently has trouble knowing the purpose of its business.

Hint. It’s transportation. Not parking. Not tourism. Not beautification.

Ed Hauser’s death was a tragedy that didn’t have to happen. It was a death that should not have happened. In many other countries, it would not have happened. The circumstances of his death may be the reason many more will die today and tomorrow. Ed died because America doesn’t have the decency to protect its own citizens with the health care that’s basic in all other industrial societies. The American aversion to universal health care is killing people by neglect. It must be corrected. Ed didn’t have health insurance.

Below is a message that has been sent to Steve Esrati, a former Plain Dealer copy editor. Esrati distributes comments, gripes and memories of former Plain Dealer editorial people to others.

The following is an honest appraisal, in my opinion, of the demotion of Rosenberg from his position of music critic at the PD, with the help of PD editor Susan Goldberg and the management of the Cleveland orchestra.

The writer, Bob Finn, is retired and the highly respected former music critic of the Plain Dealer.

Here’s a report from an organization in Brooklyn, N. Y., about Cleveland’s Forest City Enterprises and the real estate company’s activities in New York.

Why is it that Cleveland and Cuyahoga County citizens are NOT as active in protecting its citizens, for example, on the debacle being pushed by Forest City around the Medical Mart and Convention Center, a project made at Tower City’s executive offices.

No one can argue that Cleveland City Council needs better public grooming. Anything that can make the city’s legislative body look a bit better these days should top the legislative body’s Christmas list.

So that’s likely why PR-troubled Council President Marty Sweeney – who might be the most needy Council member – has hired political consultant and former Plain Dealer political editor Mary Anne Sharkey for some helpful advice.

I told Sharkey that she should use as her corporate name “Mission Impossible.” She laughed.

Has it been 30 years already?

Cleveland’s default, I was reminded by a call from WCPN, has an anniversary tomorrow - 30 years since the city was taken over the brink by Mayor Dennis Kucinich, Council President George Forbes, the Cleveland corporate community and the Plain Dealer.

A call from WCPN program host Rick Jackson sent me to check some old articles on the news of those days in Point of View, the newsletter I wrote to try and counter the propaganda of the Pee Dee and its corporate string-pullers. WCPN will have a report on the default Monday morning.

The late Ed Hauser - who in death has become a symbol of responsible citizen action - reached out yesterday to seriously question the motives of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority’s operations via a letter based on a conversation he had the day before he died.

County Prosecutor Bill Mason yesterday dropped $50,000 into the lap of one of Cleveland’s premier political law firms – Climaco, Lefkowitz, Peca, Wilcox and Garofoli.

The firm also is a heavy political contributor via a political action committee (PAC). The Climaco firm PAC is typically prominent in political filings of campaign contributions.

When Squire-Sanders & Dempsey boss Fred Nance presented the report on the site selection committee for the medical mart and the convention center I thought the Greater Cleveland Partnership paid for the study.

Any reasonable person would.

The press conference (some four months ago) was held under the auspices of the Greater Cleveland Partnership and run by Nance.

Mayor Frank Jackson in his latest “Cleveland – It’s Our Time” sends us a piece written about Pittsburgh that gives the lie to the Chamber of Commerce article on Cleveland’s rival city as presented by the Plain Dealer on its front page recently.

  Are there any citizens left in Cuyahoga County. I mean real CITIZENS.  If there are, please show some civic responsibility. Please raise your voices.

In a discussion on Friday’s Dick Feagler TV show, Plain Dealer editor Susan Goldberg mentioned the possibility that newspapers might drop Monday and Tuesday editions, starting the week with Wednesday when they have ads, usually from the supermarkets.

I’ve thought of that too.

IT IS TIME TO REDUCE REGRESSIVE TAXATION IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY; IT IS TIME TO STOP TAXING LOW INCOME PEOPLE FOR HIGHER INCOME DESIRES.

 We are too busy to remember that the taxes discussed below are relentlessly collected every day, hour and minute on required purchases by all of us. 

They didn’t have to do it that way, did they?

Editorial people from two newspapers sent e-mails to me about how layoffs were handled at their newspapers.
It differed from how the Plain Dealer handled its exit for loyal employees.

In both case layoffs, they said, it was done by seniority. (Somehow the newspaper guild at the Plain Dealer gave away its seniority rights.)

You could watch two of the most pathetic Americans of our time on television tonight trying to evade responsibility.

President George W. Bush tell us, “We are in a recession…This is in large part because of severe problems in our housing, credit and financial markets, which have resulted in significant job losses.”

Can you say, “Let’s give some money away?!”

Apparently, the Ohio House of Representatives, particularly Republican members, love to say it.

Now they want to give “film makers” tax credits, capped out at $100-million.

Hey, what’s $100-million anymore when we taxpayers are giving away tens of billions of dollars to thieves on Wall Street?

How badly handled was the layoff plan at the Plain Dealer?
Very badly, I’d say.

It seemed designed by lawyers to set tensions at the high level.

See addition below article (also note that Damian Guevara took the buyout and wasn't relieved of his job, as also taking buyouts were April McClellan-Copeland and Jesse Tinsley).

Plain Dealer editorial staff dressed in black today, according to staff members, as the news dribbled in that colleagues had gotten the dreaded call that they were no longer needed.

It may seem odd that there’s so much attention paid to those being laid off at the Plain Dealer when so many others are losing their jobs by the hundreds and by the thousands.

However, there is something different about the news media because of the importance of news to a democracy. We are dependent upon these sources for the information as citizens.

The following is the message to Plain Dealer reporters from Editor Susan Goldberg that will mean 27 people will find out with a phone call that their services are no longer required.

It gives privacy, says Goldberg, not to mention a cold message of job loss. Couldn't it have been handled more humanly?

Here's the message:

Colleagues:

“There’s bad blood in the city room” says a veteran Plain Dealer reporter as the PD editorial staff awaits more employee cutbacks.

No wonder, the ranks soon will be much thinner. Many are looking over their shoulders, not knowing which will soon not be employed by the newspaper.

The City of Cleveland has extended the lease for the I-X (Convention) Center until, with options, until 2039.

Does this mean there won't be a new convention center and medical mart? Naw. 

Council passed legislation recently at the behest of the Jackson administration. 

Do you notice how the Plain Dealer is so quick to praise Sen. George Voinovich and typically so quick to kick Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

In an editorial today, the Plain Dealer went out of its way to praise Sen. Voinovich, who apparently woke up late to the crisis in the auto industry.

Gosh, gee we have to do something about this crashing crisis.

The Medical Mart being pitched to us is an old idea, an old failed idea. Ask Baltimore.

Cleveland has been excited about the unique development of a Medical Mart here for some time. The movers and shakers have been pushing for the concept and Cuyahoga County Commissioners Tim Hagan and Jimmy Dimora have voted us a sales tax to fund it.