You may have noticed in the Plain Dealer this morning that the City of Cleveland will refinance $65 million in bonds for Browns Stadium. You also likely noticed that the interest rate will be going up. Taxpayers get ready.

I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Cheap. Just send along a big check. We’ll tell you how helpful it was some time in the future.

Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich is being singled out to change his vote on President Barack Obama’s health reform measure. President Obama himself pitched to Kucinich, telling him a form of single-payer option – Kucinich’s desire – is in the reform bill.

The Plain Dealer reported Sunday about the troubled downtown commercial properties. Empty and emptying buildings. It's a shame.

The quarter percent sales tax for the medical mart has now cost County taxpayers $87 million. MMPI, Tim Hagan and his Kennedy friends thank you all. Keep it coming, says Tim.

The Cleveland Corporate Corrupters had a big meeting yesterday. They’re already deciding how to spend tens of millions of dollars we don’t have.

Finally, someone talks some sense about the duties of new Cuyahoga County Commissioners under the County reform – candidate Clark Broida. The task of the county government is services, not economic development, he says.

All you need is one crazy Republican to shut down the government these days. And they do it.

The departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers was a blow to the people of Brooklyn, N.Y. but the arrival of a Ratner might be more devastating to Brooklyn citizens.

Think of the irony of it. The Gund Foundation is giving the Cleveland schools $2.5 million of dollars, according to a Page one story today in the Plain Dealer. Isn’t it ironic - or at least amusing - or a dime back on a dollar - that the Gund family took MANY millions FROM the city’s schools.

I’m saddened by the death of former Cleveland school board member Ed Young. His story goes to the heart of why Cleveland is the way it is. With sour and destructive politics. Personally and civically.

County refomer Issue 6 leader Marty Zanotti took gambling trips with convicted County corrupter J. Kevin Kelly.

Okay, the nonsense begins. County reform just took a bad turn with the report in Crain’s Cleveland Business that candidate for County chief executive Matt Dolan wants to cut the County sales tax after backing the quarter percent increase for the Medical Mart deal.

Hey, a magazine - The Nation - with an article on Cleveland that’s positive and hopeful – about the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry and its promising help for our city. Headlined “The Cleveland Model,” it suggests a possibility for other hard-pressed cities, too. With Cleveland as the model.  

How pathetic can you get? Brent Larkin today uses quotes from four City Council members to tell us that Cleveland is in serious, serious trouble.

It’s no surprise but it’s good to have the real data. The top 400 earners saw their tax rates drop as their income soared. No one gives us this information better than David Cay Johnston. He says that these top income households have “soared to a new record high.”

You may have missed, as I did, an important profile of Martin Zanotti one of the leaders in the Cuyahoga County reform saga. Damian Guevara of the Scene gave us a revealing picture of the guy who has taken a lead in the transition stage for the new county government.

Dolph Norton, whose obituary ran in yesterday’s Plain Dealer, was the “liberal” face of the Cleveland Foundation during the late 1960s when corporate leaders needed to deal with, for them, new and scary urban problems.

Republican Gubernatorial candidate John Kasich holds 45,000 share of stock in company that says “Ohio’s business climate is better than ever.” Oops.

Cleveland’s TV station owners are – as are other corporations – taking advantage of the job problems – by slashing the pay of its workers. It’s for no other reason than they can apparently get away with it.

The Gateway Economic Development Corp., the non-profit entity that operates Progressive Field and Quicken Arena, has set a budget of $3,275,873 for 2010.

 REVISED POSTING:

We haven’t heard the next barrage of fireworks from the tiff among the Cleveland Foundation, the Gund Foundation and the Fund for Our Economic Future but I’m wondering how much big salaries have to do with the Cleveland Foundation’s desire for more control.

The Audacity of No.

Let me get this straight. The Cleveland Foundation is now the target of the Cleveland Plain Dealer? You got to be kidding me.