Call it stacking the deck for sweeps or setting a man up to make an example... or to topple dynasties... I believe the PD intentionally endorsed McFaul to keep him in office to take him down after the election... to continue and escalate the "Crisis at Cuyahoga County". When I reminded my 70-something mom that the PD had just endorsed McFaul, knowing how old, frail and dysfunctional he was, she became disgusted... clearly this was a set up. She completely agreed - no rational paper would fal to know about such a man, nuch less endorse him.

I thought the endorsement was insane, and I didn;t vote for a County Sheriff at all... I'm not stupid.

I'd like proof the PD didn't hold the McFaul investigation and story back - that nobody at the PD has any inkling McFaul would fall, before they endorsed him a few months ago. I don't think this was a hard story to dig up - I bet they have a file on McFaul six boxes deep going back as long as Puente has been alive... McFaul was their Joker in the hole, who they could use any time they wanted to turn up the heat - and where they want to turn up the heat is toppling Cuyahoga County government... the only remaining "Democratic" stronghold in the region.

Henry... nobody there had a clue McFaul was unqualified for endorsement in 2008? No hushed rummors he was insane... didn;t go to work... shook down staff... all invisible to the media?

Of course, considering the PD Sutherland endorsement, I'd say you guys were snoozing in left field quite a bit last year...

Sneaky political tactics harm the entire region.

Disrupt IT

Roldo: You're priceless. Once again, as always, you knew all about it, right? Yet somehow, in the last two decades, I never read the McFaul expose you wrote. Thanks -- AGAIN -- for not reporting what you knew.

You must have been doing a whole lot of that over the last couple decades, judging by the incalculable number of times over the last couple decades that you've berated "The Pee Dee" for missing "obvious" stories that were right there waiting to be exposed but which we instead missed or "covered up" and yet you never reported. Until we did, of course. At which time you invariably chided us for having sat on or ignored the story that everyone else knew about or that any good journalists would've dug up long before.

Norm: How would you know what is or isn't a hard story to dig up? You've never dug up a single one. Oh, wait: Maybe you dug up this one and sat on it. Prove that you didn't. C'mon. I want the proof.

Was our editorial page supposed to endorse Falzone? Look at what's happened with him. Was the ed board supposed to withhold endorsement? Remember how you reacted last time we did that?

Instead of simply spreading your hatred and bile, and ripping on the impressive journalism highlights that my colleagues produce, under most unfortunate circumstances, why don't you actually do some? C'mon -- you've been saying it's so easy as long as I've been dropping by this site. All you gotta do is lift rocks and follow hunches. Right?

You folks claim to be the New Vanguard. You claim all of these stories we do are low-hanging fruit that should've been plucked long ago. Well, get off your butts and start plucking. We in the Dead Tree Media are obsolete and irrelevant, after all -- supplanted by the pure, enlightened Citizen Journalists of the blogosphere and the Next Wave. Right?

I guess not, because the circle of folks on this site never do much of anything but comment on PD -- er, Pee Dee -- stories. If you ever decide to pick up the mantle, we'd certainly welcome you to the fray. Democracy depends on you, because with every passing day, there are fewer of us non-poseurs remaining to actually do journalism. The citizenry needs to send some reinforcements -- not just nihilist cranks and malcontent pretenders.

Jim Nichols

I'm actually not a journalist and being one has never entered my mind. I haven't even taken an English class since I graduated from US, and placed out of those requirements at Tulane.

Laura is a librarian... dbra is a grad student... Martha and Susan are farming, I believe... Jeff Buster is defending his property rights in Boston... Jeff Schuler is a budding IT entrepreneur... I have $20 million in proposals before the county... Quest is a veteran... who else are you calling bums?

What do you do?

No... you take care of keeping everyone informed... keep those politicians in line... its going great here in NEO!

Disrupt IT

Okay, this endorsement goes back a year, and only part is found on the McFaul08 website... the rest of the endorsement is linked but not foiund on Cleveland.com... perhaps someone from the PD can provide that so we man see exactly how and why McFaul was endorsed, besides being 73... it is the number one feature of his endorsements page...

So perhaps a year ago all this McFaul and Falzone and other corruption was unknown to reporters, editors and executives at the PD and in other media here... and at that strange moment in time electing important leaders in their mid-70s was thought rational... never again!

If any of it was known, it should have been exposed and in this case neither candidate should have been endorsed, and the Republicans should have been attacked for not fielding a worthy candidate... who was their play?

It's increasingly appearing part of the problem with politics here is just starting to be explored, which is that the Repubican party just doesn't have any good people to run in most races, so we are really being left with unacceptable choices for too many offices...

But all that still would not explain the PD endorsement of clearly unqualified Sutherland versus clearly well qualified Jones... that is what made me question your paper the most deeply, ever.

So, even considering bad candidate pools in both parties, I still don't get your endorsements, and that leaves me, as a CITIZEN, questioning all of you!

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Editorial: McFaul for Cuyahoga County Sheriff

Thursday, February 07, 2008

"Already the longest-serving sheriff in Cuyahoga County history, Gerald McFaul is closing in on some other longevity records. If McFaul is elected to, and serves, an eighth four-year term, he would surpass the late John T. Corrigan, who served as county prosecutor for 34 years - leaving McFaul behind only the late Samuel Gerber, who was the coroner for a mind-boggling 49 years. McFaul, 73, was first elected sheriff in 1976 and has been re-elected handily ever since. On March 4, he is opposed in the Democratic primary by Paul Falzone, 62, chief of police in Bratenahl since 1994, who previously served for 27 years as a policeman in Cleveland." [more...]

Disrupt IT

Jim: No I didn't cover McFaul.

I was busy with other matters. If you care to look you can check 32 years of Point of View, four or five years of The Edition, 10 years of the Free Times, and years of a number of other weekly/monthly newspapers, along now with several years of web stories.

However, I still an one person. The Pee Dee, as I do like to call it at times to denote some contempt, is a newspaper, has a staff, covers various government offices, including the Sheriff's office for the past 30 years. It's what the public depends upon.

I'll match those years of what I covered with the Plain Dealer any day of the week.

Sorry you're so angry and so resentful of criticism. Maybe you can get together with Tim Hagan and talk over the disrespect you guys get.

 but I haven't that privilege.

I didn't vote for McFoul though, because I had read too many things about his nasty behavior. Was it Dan Harkins who was writing some plain facts about McFoul around the last election? And, I suscribe to the idea that if you treat women like crap, you probably don't have very good character, overall. 

Anyway, I think the point is the peedee has a history of currying favor. I do like their more recent change of tone in some respects. I think they could bring it up a notch, but I also understand corporate allegiance. We all have made decisions in life about what we will do and won't do for the buck. 

Let's just say i like being poor.....

And you are right, Jim, I wish there were more independent thinking journalists. Maybe with the demise of corporate journalism, more independent press and reporting will emerge. Is the peedee considering that path?

There's so much opportunity with the bottom falling out of the bucket -- the revolution will not be televised.

I'll try to reply the best I can...

Reporters do not sit on the editorial board. We are not involved in the decision-making process when endorsements are made or when editorial positions are formulated.

Mark Puente is a good friend of mine and one of the hardest-working reporters in The Plain Dealer newsroom. Mark and I talk about stories constantly. We share ideas regularly. We help each other when we can. We worked together last year to uncover some of City Councilman Joe Santiago's work on behalf of bars like La Copa and to expose the mysterious job that Rosemary Vinci had on the Cuyahoga County auditor's payroll.

I remember the phone call from Mark last month on the night he obtained audio tapes of McFaul telling a witness in a sexual harassment case against him how she could dodge a subpoena. A few days later, after Mark transcribed the tapes himself, I accompanied him to McFaul's home, where Mark confronted the sheriff with the tapes.

I am sharing these details because I hope they show that when Mark catches a whiff of something, few reporters work faster to confirm it and get it in print. I was nothing more than a momentary wing-man on this story, but I know for a fact that Mark was reporting details as quickly as he was getting them. To suggest that he worked in concert with PD editors to set up McFaul is insulting.

As a reporter, you regularly hear tips. Some are good tips that are worth more investigation, and then they lead to paydirt. Some are bogus tips that lead to dead ends. I have received tips from several frequent contributors to this site and have been a better reporter because of them. Considering that Mark's work on the sheriff began less than three months ago, I marvel at how quickly he was able to unravel all of the threads.

I enjoy this site, Norm. But I think you owe Mark Puente an apology.

I can tell you personally Henry Gomez and Mark Puente are very hard working guys that will follow leads like pitbulls. I have watched the progress. I want to thank them personally along with a group of new personnel shaping the future of the PD. We all need to support the PD for folks like these guys. 

It is a different PD than two years ago. I cannot wait until the heads start rolling in County and City Government. I listened to WCPN yesterday on their website. I hope the Building and Housing story explodes. Some of these people were involved in the Giglio debacle. I am sure some of them will go down for signing off to get final Certificates of Occupancy in Tremont.

 I've been thinking about whats been going down here for the past week or so. Some of our writers have been letting it rip and have faced criticism as a result.  Laura's comment regarding the mayor, in particular, stuck with me. 

I've heard Mayor Jackson speak numerous times. The first was in front of a very small group in a graduate planning class. He prefaced his presentation with the announcement that many people criticize him, and he expects that to happen. But, he went on to say that in trying to understand them, he came to the conclusion they were "clinically depressed". I remember thinking, "wOw. Thats an effective way to silence dissent." Jackson went on to give a dynamic and heartfelt presentation about the state of the city that swayed even me. I went home and told my husband I had a complete turn-around in my opinion of him.

Then I heard him speak again and it was almost verbatim duplicate of the first time. Then there was a short third one. Then I attended a public hearing regarding the closure ("brown-out") of Fire Station #21. He told the audience that his team of experts examined the situation and there was no lapse in safety for the residents served by Station #21. We could rely on that because his experts assured him and he would nEVEr jeopardize the health and safety of a SINGLE Cleveland resident.

I waited my turn to speak. I pointed out that this same team of experts had decided to close the district 1 police station, and no one had anticipated a rash of break-ins. In fact, it took them several weeks to adequately respond and abate the situation. Given this history, I asked, how are we to trust them with our lives? Henry can vouch for me here - I was constantly interrupted. I barely got the preface and question out and it was diluted by Jackson's constant interruptions. And, he never answered my question, except to say he would nEVEr jeopardize the safety of a single Cleveland resident. I might add that I was very calm and spoke in a friendly manner.

My question now - since when are public officials above reproach? We pay every single dime of their salary and expenses. we are their bosses. Say your boss gave you a review and it wasn't favorable, would any of you dare to respond to her that she is clinically depressed???

And Hagan's response to WCPN as to why it is ok to conduct all the Med Mart business behind closed doors and in complete secrecy - "we are a representative democracy, not a participatory democracy." we elected him and he is doing what he thinks best. If voters don't like it, they can vote him out of office. Are you fricking kidding me???????

So with attitudes like those prevailing in our public offices, I say "Bitch On!" We need MORE of it, not less.

This news makes me ill.

State to commit $400 million to Cleveland's Inner Belt Bridge

One way, westbound (Columbus bound) bridge to be paid for with stimulus money. And the other way? Who will pay for that? Can we please recall that these dollars are our dollars, local, state and federal?

The opportunity corridor has not even been defined yet. Toll road, highway, boulevard? What speed, what access, what economic development? Is it really shovel ready?

Yes, this is not the first criticism I have leveled at public projects. I openly criticized the BOCC's plan to tear down the Breuer in exchange for a new administration building, I think the public financing of the medcon is a con, I think the port move is a bad idea, I think Whiskey Island should be a public greenspace and I'm not altogether sure about letting it go to the Metroparks with their unsustainable golfcoursitis and seemingly endless paving. Can we reclaim the Doan Brook already instead of diverting those funds for another sidewalk moving project?

So I am full of questions and not full of time, money and tenacity for public records requests and research. I am tired of asking and being placated with reveries of things to come. I am not a journalist and like so many others I depend on the newspaper and other sources to know how my contributions to the region are being spent. But as questions go unanswered and projects barrel forward I am increasingly dismayed. I think it must be difficult to be constantly reporting on corruption and greed. I'm ready for the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

While away in Florida I thought that I would return to hear that the opportunity corridor, the innerbelt boondoggle (which will take more historic buildings), the port move, the opening of the coffers of public money to private interests (medcon) would have secured their places in our historic fabric.

I do want to live in a green city on a blue lake, but I'm not sure our elected officials have the same idea. Chickens in the city, great but they come with more regulations than a CAFO. Money for market gardeners, great, but try to get a lot to farm - more hurdles than Olympic trial. One step forward, two steps back. Doing the Clevehoga dance marathon... It is enough to make one pack up and move on. Politicians have been successful at moving the homeless away from Public Square, but they have also cleaned the slate of businesses along Euclid Avenue with their slow Healthline process. The banks have cleaned the slates of neighborhoods with their foreclosures and shady lending practices. Is it as Naomi Klein says, clean slate, move in the developers? Is this shock and awe I am experiencing? I feel like Chrissie Hynde who wrote, "I went back to Ohio, but my city was gone... there was no train station...  there was no downtown...." A, O, way to go, Ohio.

  Yes--Mayor Jackson, I am clinically depressed by the representation and the lack of transparency in Cleveland.

Thanks Debra for letting me acknowledge a reality.  You are dead on in the description of how city officials dilute the truth being served up, and often turn the tables around with that psychological twist...making you question your sanity and your ability to analyze a situation. 

Chris Warren annoyed me, when he asked why I was opposed to the NRP project.  After, I had chronicled the checkered ethical history of NRP and the serious environmental concerns with the Denison Ave. location to him, he queried..."do you have a problem with low-income housing? (!!!#$#@$%@%$).  No, Chris, I don't have a problem with low-income housing, and, significantly, THAT is not how the project is being sold in Brooklyn Centre.  Bitch on...is right.

Yet, despite so many reasons to be depressed, there are many good days, when neighbors help neighbors without a hidden agenda.  I will post the photos soon.

Let's put that 'political platform' for  transparency and (two-way) accountability machination to work.  Tess was on point.  When to meet?   Will Citizen Dashboard be the one to lead?

  Hmmm...who got the brains in my family?  My youngest sister and I duke it out all the time, but I have to concede that she is the smart one.  As I contemplate the role of the SPIRIT in the city...she is already one step ahead of me--referring us to:

http://unionproject.org/About_Us

We should all plan a road trip to Pittsburgh sometime :)

Don't sell yourself short Ms. McShane - maven of realneo, lol.   You're a pretty smart cookie yourself.     :-)