Western-Star.com

What? No eggs?

By Dave Greber | Tuesday, October 7, 2008, 07:48 AM

Apparently, some guy from Georgia thought it would be funny to send a mysterious package to Congressman John Boehner’s office this week.

The grease-stained letter posed no immediate threat to Boehner or his staff, despite the fact his West Chester office was evacuated. (No immediate threat, unless you have extremely high cholesterol.) It was, after all, just bacon.

Here’s the story.

According to Boehner’s spokeswoman, the meat was meant to symbolize pork barrel spending, for which the sender believes Boehner is at least partially responsible.

There are no suspects at this time.

The package was sent in the wake of the past two weeks’ up and down (mostly down) stock market that responded to the nation’s $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

Thoughts on this? Much ado about nothing? Or is a threat a threat?

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment More: crime, courts and police

Roadwork

By Dave Greber | Monday, October 6, 2008, 09:40 AM

In the past week or so, we’ve had a couple of stories having to deal with Butler County roads.

The first was how a mysterious road salt shortage (that officials say is a result of a heavy winter last year) will be affecting the work of local maintenance departments.

One interesting quote from that story by Scott Bressler, operations deputy with the Butler County Engineer’s Office: “People will just have to learn how to drive on snow. They’ll just have to wait until the snow tapers off, and we plow it off. Then we’ll use the salt.”

Still, officials from West Chester and Liberty townships say they will operate normally … that is if and when the salt supplies run dry.

And here’s a story that ran in the Journal-News today about I-75 construction updates. (By the way, Kyles Station Road overpass opens today; Princeton Road overpass opens Oct. 13.)

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment

Election season in full swing

By Dave Greber | Monday, October 6, 2008, 09:29 AM

October means two things to me: Post-season baseball and election time.

(Unfortunately, it also typically means the Bengals are already out of the running.)

Click over to our new special election page, which includes voter and candidate profiles, local election stories and more.

Here’s the latest story about the race for the 55th State House seat, between incumbent Republican Bill Coley and Democrat Tony Klimek. See anything you like?

And Butler County reporter Josh Sweigart makes a good point about the race for state Senator in “that both incumbent Republican Sen. Gary Cates and Democratic Challenger Kathryn Bridgman are from West Chester Twp.” Does this say anything about where the power lies in Butler County?

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment More: 2008 Election

Stoker: Reynolds latest action political move

By Dave Greber | Thursday, October 2, 2008, 01:43 PM

West Chester Twp. Trustee Catherine Stoker said today, Oct. 2, she won’t believe Butler County Auditor Roger Reynolds’ desire to lower property valuation next year until she sees it.

Reynolds promised today to drop appraised home values in 2009, something he said the state forbid him to do this year during the reappraisal.

Here’s an excerpt from the news release:

“Reynolds has made several requests upon the State Tax Commissioner for an extension of the 2008 property reappraisal. The extension would allow time for the market to stabilize. Reynolds has been consistently told no. Therefore, Reynolds is taking the matter into his own hands on behalf of county property owners.”

See today’s response from the state and Reynolds’ opponent in the auditor’s race this November, Democrat Jack Zettler here.

Continue reading "Stoker: Reynolds latest action political move"...

Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment More: township government

Early voting draws early crowd in Butler County

By Dave Greber | Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 08:25 AM

There’s still more than a month to go before that fateful day in November, but Ohioians have been able to cast their ballots for the past 24 hours.

Early voting has been permitted in Ohio based on Monday’s decision by U.S. District Court Judge James S. Gwin, which allowed Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to issue a directive that residents can register and vote at the same time.

Early voting continues through Oct. 6, and can only be done at the Butler County Board of Elections. (By the way, the BOE has a new location, at 1802 Princeton Road. Here’s a map.

Here’s a first-day story we ran in the Journal-News. And the story about the decision by the Associated Press.

As a result of the decision, the Butler County BOE has extended its hours for the next month:

• Wednesdays, Oct. 1, 8 15, 22, 29: 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

• Saturdays, Oct. 4, 7, 11, 18, 25: 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

• Monday, Oct. 6, 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Voter registration deadline)

Here’s what I want to know: Will you be using the next five days to vote early? Does this make voting more convenient? Is it fair?

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment More: 2008 Election

Race, racism in the 2008 General Election

By Dave Greber | Monday, September 29, 2008, 08:48 AM

UPDATE: This morning, Sept. 30, employees of the JournalNews in Hamilton found this sign taped to our front door. Click on the photos to enlarge.

The sign, featuring the words “Stop the Hate,” was signed by “Yolanda Spradling Hughes,” who was clearly expressing her distaste for the story that appeared in Sunday’s JournalNews and Middletown Journal. For more on that, see below.

Thoughts on the sign?

We are being bombarded by readers’ reactions to a story that appeared in the Sunday, Sept. 28, JournalNews and Middletown Journal.

And most of it centers around one local woman’s response to a question about what issues will effect her vote this November.

In the story, 84-year-old Julia Ward — a poll judge for the past five decades — says that race will play a large role when she punches her ballot a little over a month from now.

Ward, a white Middletown resident, says “black people aren’t smart enough to rule the country. No one should vote for (Sen. Barack) Obama.”

“They just don’t think like the white. I would hate to see (Obama) in office because blacks just aren’t qualified,” she said.

Of the reactions we heard from dozens of you since yesterday morning, the word “appalled” has been the most often used.

Some say it’s a generational disconnect, that such a mentality exists in folks because of the time in which they were raised, and that “things are so much better now than they were.”

That’s true. Equality in our country, among women, people of color, people with disabilities and other historically disenfranchised segments of our population, has come a long way, since, say, the 1950s.

But such a comment, regardless of the mouth from which it emanates, should remind us all that racism continues to exist, perpetuated by our peers, family members, the media, advertising, etc.

We now know that race will (inhibit) influence Ward’s vote this election season. Will it affect yours? What do you think about comments like this?

Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment More: locals in the news

From ‘extinction’ to expansion

By Dave Greber | Friday, September 26, 2008, 01:19 PM

WEST CHESTER TWP. — Less than two months before Partners in Prime leaders said their satellite centers would be forced to shutter their doors if they lost a key contract, the agency’s chief officer sent a letter to trustees here requesting support for an expansion.

On Aug. 21, Partners in Prime lost a multimillion-dollar contract to control intake and assessment services for Butler County seniors to Hamilton-based LifeSpan Inc. In the weeks leading up to that decision, Partners in Prime Executive Director Stephen Schnabl said “the loss of this contract would mean that our organization and these other senior centers could face extinction in the next five years.”

But in a June 25 letter, Schnabl told West Chester Twp. Administrator Judi Boyko that it was the organization’s desire to move its current facility, a 3,000-square-foot space off Cox Road, to the nearly 16,000-square-foot library, also on Cox Road, when the township moves it to a new building late next year.

(See the letter and the rest of the story by clicking below)

Continue reading "From ‘extinction’ to expansion"...

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment More: township government