Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 01/23/2007 - 13:01.
About three weeks ago, I received the first "Letter to the Editor" in the history of REALNEO. Lots of people send me press releases and event info and tips on cool content, but never has someone sent an opinion editorial to be posted for them (probably because REALNEO is open for anyone to create an account and post content and comments themselves). The letter to the editor was titled "Lead Paint - You Are Idiots" and was received from someone named Kim Falk (he authorized publication of his name) and the email address was from Sherwin Williams. A little googling and I learned he is an employee there - a very enthusiastic and loyal one, to be sure... he was responsible for Sherwin-Williams donating paint to help in the repair of the Pentagon after 9/11. So I was not surprised to read he is protective of his company in defense of them being sued over lead. Still, I was intrigued by the language he uses in his editorial, published below.
Submitted by Zebra Mussel on Mon, 01/22/2007 - 21:56.
Just in case you missed the international headlines on the subject.. lets break it down for you. But first some local background... Out in Aurora, accross from Geauga Lake, Walmart built its store on class 1,2,and 3 wetlands in some of the most protected wetlands in our state. All it takes is money, right? The developer "Heritage Development" had environmental reserves of 7M$ and only paid a fine of 1.2M$ What a bargin. Nature Bats Last. But go look at nature fighting back. See the cracking pavement sidewalks from the hydric soils... HA HAA. Take note of the isolated pocket of forest in the middle of the parking llot, it was a concession! Then last week I read about the walmart atop cityview landfill. Sky high levels of vinyl chloride, illness clusters covered in a recent free times or scene. With that frame in mind....now onto the latest scoop that is NOT from YOUR back yard:
Submitted by Evelyn Kiefer on Thu, 01/18/2007 - 10:00.
01/24/2007 - 16:00
01/24/2007 - 17:00
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Attend this lecture, the Distinguished Law and Technology Lecture, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, in person or through WEBCAST LIVE. Robert P. George, Princeton University, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director, James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University is a memeber of the President's Council on Bioethics. He previously served as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and as a Judicial Fellow at the U.S. Supreme Court, where he received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. Professor George is author of Making Men Moral: civil Liberties and Public Morality (1993) and In Defense of Natural Law (1999). His most recent books are The Meaning of Marriage, edited with Jean Berthke Elshtain and The Clash of Orthodoxies. Professor George's articles and review essays have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Review of Politics, the Review of Metaphysics, and the American Journal of Juriprudence. He has received numerous awards, including the 2005 Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civic Achievement. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on several boards of directors.In addition, he is of council to the law firm of Robinson & McElwee.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 01/17/2007 - 12:27.
Thanks to Ed Morrison for sending over a link to an interesting analysis of the value of FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) for European businesses and society. From the article: "European companies are saving a lot of money on software investment and development, due to the existence and emergence of open-source software, a Commission-funded study finds." An especially interesting observation is that "The bigger a company is, the more likely it is to use FLOSS." I wonder how NEO stacks up in the FLOSS world - use of FLOSS in business and government... training of FLOSS programmers and administrators... marketing and purchasing of FLOSS solutions in the region... number of FLOSS professionals and firms deploying FLOSS solutions? Read more about this movement in Europe below...
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 01/14/2007 - 20:33.
Three articles in the Sunday, January 14, 2007, Cleveland Plain Dealer really caught my attention. 1. "Power shifts, and a fast-track bill is derailed"; 2. "Gloomy forecast" and 3. "Lost confidence in Bush? So has he" - especially the last one, where Elizabeth Auster writes, about President Bush, that "he now seems shaken by the prospect that his vision of a free and stable Iraq may be fading along with his power to achieve much else." Because of this, despite "Gloomy forecast", I expect most important aspects of the Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, Ohio, US and global economy to improve dramatically over the next 2, 4 and 10 years. In fact, I can't think of an area where there won't be significant improvements. Think of the growth I expect like when an economy is freed from a dictatorship and people are allowed to be free and thrive - markets open up - that is America, now that Bush has been replaced by democracy.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 01/12/2007 - 15:03.
01/14/2007 - 12:00
01/15/2007 - 17:00
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University Circle Celebrates MLK Day - JANUARY 14 & JANUARY 15 Celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in University Circle. On Sunday, January 14, and Monday, January 15, many University Circle institutions will offer free or discounted admission and special programming for visitors. UCI will provide free shuttle buses on January 15.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 01/12/2007 - 14:35.
01/26/2007 - 12:00
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CLEVELAND, OH—Bruce S. Gordon, president and CEO of the NAACP, will discuss economic issues in the African American community at noon on Friday, January 26, 2007, at The City Club of Cleveland. After a 35-year career in the telecommunications industry, Gordon became head of the NAACP in August 2005. Before retiring in December 2003, he was president of the Retail Markets Group for Verizon Communications, where he managed a 35,000-person work force and was accountable for $23 billion in revenue.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 01/09/2007 - 13:43.
What a great rebirth for Ohio. Sunday night, Ohio swore in our new Governor, Ted Strickland, and within 24 hours he vetoed the corporate and lobbyist planted, corrupt, anti-consumer, anti-American substitute bill 117, which was made to order for scam businesses to harm citizens. As Strickland states, " I will not allow this legislation in its current form, which drastically undermines current consumer protections, to go into effect during my administration." A Plain Dealer article on the veto reports " Strickland also said the curb on suits against manufacturers "prevents cities from being able to seek justice on behalf of their citizens."" "Our new Attorney General Marc Dann, who, like Strickland, is a Democrat, said he would "vigorously" defend the governor's veto." The PD article highlights the fact that the Republican lawmakers who were responsible for the corrupt SB117 are acting as lawyers and judges now, and that they plan to waste Ohio taxpayer money fighting our Governor... " State Sen. Tim Grendell, a Chester Township Republican who voted for the bill, also said the veto is void because the governor acted outside his authority. He said members of the legislature and trade groups were likely to sue over the veto." Go for it... concerned citizens are certain to defend Governor Strcikland, and those legislators who think they can keep acting corruptly under our new leadership will quickly be eliminated from office, as suggested in a previous article on SB117 by Plain Dealer columnist Sheryl Harris, which provides "a list of the Northeast Ohio legislators who voted to curtail your consumer rights". In the new Ohio, such corruption will not be tolerated. Read more about the veto below.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 01/08/2007 - 10:29.
I was interested to realize there are two OneClevelands. One OneCleveland is "a nonprofit provider of community-based ultra broadband networking services and applications that improve our community's quality of life and stimulates economic development," and the other OneCleveland is "a group developed for people in the Cleveland area, who are interested in learning about and getting more involved with ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History. We are building a network of grassroots activists to rally Americans ONE by ONE to fight hunger, extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS. The goal of the ONE Campaign is to get an additional ONE percent of the federal budget for poverty focused development assistance programs that would help meet the Millennium Development Goals to halve world poverty by 2010."
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 01/07/2007 - 04:28.
01/11/2007 - 21:30
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I came across this at Steve Goldberg's "What's in the Bag" blog and it sounds excellent. Quote: "The new year has finally arrived, but the Literary Café Poetry Academy is already well 2 months into their new year, and we have lined up yet another amazing evening of poetry and party. This Thursday, January 11 at 9:30pm (very sharp, pleeeze) the veterans, Daniel Gray-Kontar and RA Washington will be the features. These two have worked together before for delicious displays of verbal prowess and promise to give a show of extraordinary magnitude. Come to the Lit at 1031 Literary Road to witness the excitement."
RA Washington is a writer, musician, a teacher, a publisher, an artist, an independent film actor, and member of The Progressive Arts Alliance. Washington authored a number of books of poetry and novellas, published the literary magazine, Fair Trade, and his short films and paintings have been shown in independent galleries across the east coast, as well as, London, England, and Toronto, Canada. He was the Cleveland Museum of Art’s first ever Poet-in-Residence and is now MOCA’s director of community outreach. Sometimes known as King Freeqy, he can be seen holding court at Civilization coffee shop in Tremont.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 01/06/2007 - 16:05.
Cleveland attorney Richard Herman sent me an outstanding analysis (posted below) of a Duke University study released on January 4, 2007, which is attached to this posting and "concludes that foreign-born entrepreneurs were founders of over 25% of the technology and engineering companies started from 1995 to 2005," and surfaces that "Only 14% of Ohio's tech companies were founded by immigrants, well below the national average." "The study further found that Indians have founded more engineering and technology companies in the U .S. in the past decade than immigrants from U.K, China, Taiwan and Japan combined. 26% of all immigrant-founded companies have Indian founders." "Similarly, the study found that Ohio was successful in attracting only 1% of the Indian tech entrepreneurs and only 5% of the UK tech entrepreneurs." Richard offers three excellent suggestions for addressing this problem, and you should read those and his entire Economic Development Advisory and the attached report below.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 01/03/2007 - 01:32.
Building blocks for bridging digital divide in East Cleveland
In a recent article on bridging the digital divide in NEO, "It seems time to open up the OneCleveland network vision of Cleveland Heights, to see if there is value for others", I mentioned "An example of a progressive community building a mesh broadband network environment is found in Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN), which is a world- leader in such grass-roots broadband community service and technology. That is a model we are exploring in trying to help residents of underserved communities of East Cleveland and Cleveland secure access to broadband services, as carriers have underserved their neighborhoods, and poverty there is a significant issue."
Well, I was pleased to start the first work-day of 2007 with the correspondence posted below, from the Executive Director of CUWiN - globally celebrated community computing expert Sascha Meinrath - who is helping us center in on a viable model for East Cleveland and other undersupported urban neighborhoods in the region to bridge the digital divide here. Read on, as we are clearly on the right track and farther along than anyone may imagine. I'll add related insight and next steps as they develop.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 12/30/2006 - 14:38.
In a link on Brewed Fresh Daily today (which has really stepped up to create awareness about lead poisoning in our region), I found an interesting article on former Plain Dealer Cincinnati Reporter Bill Sloat's blog "The Daily Bellweather" titled "U.S. EPA Wants to Fine Midwest Landlord $$$$ Over Lead Paint", which illustrates one of the important steps essential to the eradication of lead poisoning in our region - ENFORCEMENT. In "The Daily Bellweather" report, regarding the EPA, we see "Earlier this month, the agency's Midwestern regional office moved to slap a $52,724 penalty on a landlord for failing to warn tenants and buyers that homes and apartments may contain health hazards from lead-based paint."
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 12/28/2006 - 21:51.
Thank you again, Ohio Republican legislature, for bringing a second city into litigation against Sherwin-Williams and the paint industry in a single day, December 27, 2006, as Canton has joined Cincinnati demanding that those who created the public nuisance of lead poisoning now clean up their mess, that has harmed 1,000s in these communities. From the Canton Repository: "In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Stark County Common Pleas Court, the city says the paint industry knew lead was toxic as early as 1900 but continued to add the metal to paint and even promoted the product as having health benefits. The city wants the companies to pay for the removal of lead paint and for public education about its dangers, as well as reimbursement for money the city has spent dealing with lead-related hazards."
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 12/28/2006 - 16:18.
If we have anything to thank Ohio Republican legislators for, and especially Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, it is that their cloak-of-night passage of Substitute Senate Bill 117, which seeks to outlaw cities suing polluters for public nuisances they cause, and legislate-away other consumer rights for Ohioans, has driven our state capital of Columbus and now huge Ohio city Cincinnati to storm their courthouses to sue Sherwin-Williams and other paint companies over the public nuisance of lead poisoning in their communities, which is a legal position proved valid in the courts of the State of Rhode Island. In Columbus, the Mayor has said it was the action of these Republicans that forced them to sue. Of course, Ohioans' greatest appreciation goes to Mayor Brewer, of East Cleveland, who was the man who brought such public nuisance lead litigation to Ohio to protect his residents, the most effected by lead poisoning in the state, and so he is protecting all citizens of Ohio.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 12/26/2006 - 01:42.
Since late June, 2006, a growing team of innovative community leaders has been working together with Lamond Williams, the owner of Hot Sauce Williams BBQ, and East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer and Community Development Director Tim Goler, and government leadership in Cleveland, to determine how best to redevelop the historic Hough Bakery Complex, formerly the Star Bakery, which Lamond also owns. The objective is to use that redevelopment as a catalyst for transformation of the neighborhoods surrounding that significant property, located on Lakeview, partially in both Cleveland and East Cleveland. On the map above, the Star Complex is in magenta, and the green circle marks a 1/2 mile radius surrounding that - the other colored areas are key neighborhoods and assets within that radius.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 12/18/2006 - 04:09.
One might think when the capital of our state sues one of the biggest companies in our state, Sherwin-Williams, which is based in the Plain Dealer's home town of Cleveland, and is defended by one of the world's most powerful law firms, also based in our hometown, seeking over $1 billion, that story would rank a few real column inches in the local paper... perhaps hit Section One, or Metro. Not in the Sherwin-Williams Plain Dealer...
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 12/11/2006 - 13:51.
Zygote Press, Inc. is Northeast Ohio's only non-profit cooperative fine-arts printmaking facility. In its tenth year, Zygote is located with other arts organizations and businesses in Cleveland's Quadrangle neighborhood, a developing arts district complete with galleries, restaurants and exciting new live-work possibilities for artists and other members of the creative community.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 12/11/2006 - 10:43.
12/11/2006 - 18:00
12/11/2006 - 20:45
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The premiere community screening of Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City, the latest documentary in the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s “Making Sense of Place” film series. This event is in conjunction with University Circle Inc., Cleveland Homebuilders Association and Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 12/04/2006 - 15:46.
12/08/2006 - 18:00
12/08/2006 - 22:30
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1st Anniversary Exhibition - Convivium33 Gallery at Josaphat Arts Hall in cooperation with the Bonfoey Gallery presents: CHRISTOPHER PEKOC- EVOLUTION 1964-2006
Christopher Pekoc, whose mural Night Sky in the main hall of the downtown Public Library is a Cleveland landmark, will be staging a major retrospective [that charts the technical and expressive evolution of his work over the last four decades and that highlights the ways in which photography has remained a constant creative stimulus for his work.] The exhibition, at Convivium33 Gallery in Cleveland will feature over 40 years of work as well as major pieces that have not been seen in decades, such as his grand-scale Kent (State) Triptych, based on his eyewitness experience of the shooting of unarmed student protesters by the National Guard in 1970.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 12/04/2006 - 13:04.
Nothing like seeing a good old lynching by newspaper editor to make people "Believe in Cleveland" and Northeast Ohio. In an editorial today from the power-brokering "We" of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the "editors" make a move everyone in the know has expected from them since September 29th, 2006, when the City of East Cleveland sued "dear friend" of the Plain Dealer Sherwin Williams for making East Cleveland "perhaps Ohio's most troubled city" by creating a public nuisance and economic and health crisis by selling lead-based paint long after it was well known and proved to cause permanent physical harm to humans. In a strong retaliation against the mayor who brought lead litigation to the State of Ohio, Eric Brewer, the Plain Dealer is creating dubious scuttlebutt about a situation in which the editors acknowledge "We don't know where the truth lies." To the Plain Dealer editors, this is personal... from their editorial: "as we've stated repeatedly, we do know Brewer can be rash, reckless and extraordinarily vindictive." The logical observation is that one of the world's most powerful and troubled companies, Sherwin Williams, and one of the world's most vicious law firms, Jones Day, (which have sued East Cleveland for suing Sherwin Williams) have partnered with the region's most powerful media outlet, to which Sherwin Williams certainly pays $ millions for advertising, and they are all attacking the mayor of East Cleveland in as "rash, reckless and extraordinarily vindictive" ways as they may. Is it the duty of a newspaper to focus on facts, and allow due process, even when the publishers fear that bites the hands that feed them? No, the only purpose of a newspaper is to make the owners money. Read the opinion of the editors of the Plain Dealer here and imagine being the PD's next victim, if you ever hurt their feelings or threaten their bottom line:
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 11/28/2006 - 02:38.
On next Wednesday, December 6, 2006, it will have been two years since I proposed to Northeast Ohio that we can easily and inexpensively bridge the digital divide for East Cleveland, and other communities in need in the region, by deploying mesh wifi networks here and distributing recycled computers running open source software (see original posting below, and linked with other related files here). I called this vision ECHO - originally "East Cleveland Homes Online", renamed "Extending Community Home Online". While I've driven some ECHO progress, over these years, especially deploying to people in need recycled computers running Ubuntu, the mesh is still to come. The time has come.