In an article in today's Cleveland Plan (Plain) Dealer titled "Issue 3 will hurt businesses near casinos, group of restaurants, bars says", it is written "The Ohio Licensed Beverage Association commissioned the study by four professors from Hiram College to blow holes in Issue 3, the constitutional amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot backed by Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert." The wording makes clear there is a conspiracy between the Beverage Association and Hiram College, or some of their dishonest professors, to harm Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert... a crime in NEO as great as attacking LeBron James or the Ohio State Flag. The Plan Dealer goes on to write "The Hiram study is a direct attack on a study from the University of Cincinnati released in June, which supports the job-creation and local-revenue claims pushed by casino supporters and is highlighted in Issue 3 advertisements."

The Plan Dealer neglects to mention THEY are completely sold-out supporters of Gilbert and his Casino plan, as is "Positively Cleveland" and all else incompetent, sold-out and corrupt in Northeast Ohio.

One of these universities, or at least their highly paid and supposedly respected affiliates, is wrong. The Plan Dealer indicates one or both may be wrong on purpose, meaning one or both may be corrupted by gambling interests, already.

As I've never had a reason to respect either university, now I only have reasons to distrust both. Do they receive any state funding, that should be investigated as well?

My kids will not be considering paying to go there.

More important, is there a university in Ohio that may be trusted to provide real, intelligent, trustworthy economic data and analyses on such a huge, politicized, corrupt public interest as legalizing casinos in Ohio? Considering taxpayers pay so much for the staff, educators, researchers, students and even Presidents at these supposed institutions of public good, you would expect much better.

Or, is Ohio just plain last in university research quality, as well.

What do the researchers and academics in Northeast Ohio schools like Case, CSU, CCC, Kent, and Oberlin think about the economic impact of casino gambling?

As an economist, I project the cost of corruption from just the attempts to bring casinos into Cleveland already far exceeds any positive economic impact gambling may have here, ever, and I defy any university to disprove that - Ohioans are already losers, for the corrosive impact of this issue on once responsible journalists, academics and business executives, who haven't even started taking gamblers money.

What does LeBron James think about Issue 3? His opinion matters, as I am concerned the Gilbert-owned team may be used as a pawn in this battle, which may be an attempt to control odds for gambling already happening for Gilbert, on basketball.