Barbara is challenging Dennis Kucinich for his seat in the US Congress. These are her thoughts on the Ingenuity Festival:

George Nemeth: Yes. First off, I want to thank you for spending the last hour with us and answering those questions, and my question is going to be about the Ingenuity Festival. Talk about the Ingenuity Festival, because you are one of the very few candidates who has been very articulate about the whole Arts and Economic industries and things like that, so go on and take a few minutes, talk about the Ingenuity Festival, talk about specifically what you can do on a federal level to get money here to support the Arts.

Barbara Ferris: Oh, well, first let me say that the Ingenuity Festival was wonderful. It was wonderful for us as a community. It was wonderful for us from the creative side. It was wonderful from what I see as enormous economic potential down the road as we develop it. And when I went to the opening, they did this great opening of a traffic jam down at Public Square, and I was with a few friends from New York City, and at the end of it they said, �??Barb, that was fabulous!�?� I said, �??Oh, we have very hip people in the Art industry here, trust me,�?� and I said, �??And it is only going to get better.�?� And from the federal level, there are opportunities to support these kinds of initiatives as economic development, and I see the Ingenuity Festival as a wonderful engine for that type of thing to happen, and if you look at other places around the country, you know, South Carolina had this __ Festival for how many years?

George Nemeth: Like 30.

Barbara Ferris: Thirty years, and it was huge economic driver. You go down to Miami Beach, down to South Beach, they have the Art Deco Festival, four days, walking tours. It is fabulous, and it is a fabulous piece of economic development that really fuels it. So I think four days was a good time. They blocked off roads. It was really hospitable. It was diverse. There were lots of different opportunities for lots of different people interested in very many different pieces of arts and media and technology, and it was a great infusion, and I am really very, very excited about it, and it has my full support, and I will do whatever I can to help it grow and to help expand it, because I do, I see it as an opportunity for economic growth, because we are known around the country as an Arts town, number one. Cleveland, we are recognized for our Orchestra, for our museums, for our Hall of Fame, for our Great Lakes Science Center. We have all the components to grow these kinds of things, whether it be leisure tourism or however you want to frame it.

The other piece is, and it goes back to my goal to help us be the live/work capital of the nation, and what the Ingenuity Festival says is, if you are a techie, if you are an artist, or you are an entrepreneur and you want to go outside the box, we welcome you, and that to me is a very hospitable statement that the creators of the Ingenuity Festival have made. Yes.

Brian goes back for more:

I, again, asked [Matt Greenwald, the owner] (specifically) where the coffee was roasted. He got defensive.

He says, “The coffee is roasted all over the place, it’s from out of state. I use two or three roasters”

I said, “so it’s not local or…?”

“No, no WAY, I’ve been in the coffee business for a long time and I don’t buy from any local (regional too) roasters”.

I say, “No Phoenix, or…”

He goes on to list off four or five names which he doesn’t like.

I say, “So, you don’t like them or…”

“No, there are enough people around here doing that kind of thing, I want something different”.

Puzzled, I pay for the coffee, thank him, look around the joint some more and leave.

BB’s is still dimly lit and sparsely decorated. It’s enormous…huge in fact. The coffee was mediocre at best. Ok…it was bad.

You’d think that if you were marketing your coffee, you’d figure out a better angle then “I want something different” and bad…

Link

Hannah Fritzman on last night’s Red Room Dialogs for Young Professionals:

Interested Clevelanders mingled through the first floor of IdeaCenter’s beautiful space before entering a unique studio space for Cathy Panzica’s (long)presentation. Overall, I was very impressed. Any initiative and/or person dedicated to improving our region receives props from me. My criticism of the event would be that I didn’t sense a call to action. The Red Room Revolution wants to make a sudden and momentous change, but I’m not sure how I can help. A large portion of the program was devoted to explaining how the Revolution will attract international technology businesses to Cleveland. While I think this is a great goal, things going through my head as Panzica spoke included: 1) How does this impact our LOCAL technology businesses? 2) How is this a young professional dialogue, as the event was coined? 3) What does this have to do with me/how can I get involved?

Thus, I came home and went to the website (which they didn’t really ask their impressive, nearly 400 guests to do). I found out how to help…

I bagged out on the RRD4YP, opting to go to #1 Pho then coming home and watching Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela, which was probably more enlightening…

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Bill Callahan’s reaction to yesterday’s State of the City from Jackson.

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Ok, first it was search. Cleveland businesses didn�??t get it 3 1/2 years ago when I was out there trying to sell them on search engine optimization. Now they�??re all playing catch up, hiring search firms like crazy in order to get in the game. Why didn�??t you listen to me back then???

So here we are, 3+ years later, and I see the same thing happening again, except this time with blogging. So I ask you BFD readers, and Cleveland business people alike�?�

Why do Clevelander�??s take so long to drink the techy kool-aid? It’s good.

I�??ve lived here my whole life, and from experience, I notice we are perpetually years behind the rest of the world on all big trends, good or bad. For example, blogging. We have some very smart and creative bloggers in town, yes, but maybe I�??m not seeing it, where are all the big business blogs?

Top of my head, let me think of some of Cleveland�??s biggest name businesses.

Keybank �?? I don�??t see any blogs.
Progressive �?? Should be blogging, but I don�??t see it.
Sherwin Williams �?? Unbelievable, no DIY blogs that I can see.
Ernst & Young �?? Nada.
Moen �?? Zip.

Shall I go on? Are you feeling me Cleveland? Anyone care to prove me wrong? Please?

Consider it my new mission to get at least one large Cleveland business blogging by the end of 2006.

From Henry Gomez:

Aside from the OneMayfield announcement, the rest of the evening was light on news — things that have actually happened — and heavy on things that Cathy Panzica vows will happen. But at times I felt like the emphasis was more on who should get the credit for these projects than on the results they will deliver.

Panzica herself is involved in at least five facets of the Red Room Revolution. Her law firm, Thompson Hine, started the Revolution. She and her husband launched their own investment fund and technology office park to sit alongside the Revolution. And then the investment fund launched Euphonyx Ltd., which is part of the OneMayfield project and a tenant of the tech park.

Yes, it’s Cathy’s money — and she deserves credit for, as she’s fond of saying, putting her money where her mouth is, but as folks such as Bryson and Fordu observed, it seems that so much of what the Red Room does (or takes credit for, anyway) comes back to benefit Cathy Panzica.

After listening to some strong opinions from those in attendance last night, here’s what will make the Red Room a success in their eyes…

Any other reflections?

Regarding the blog, is it really a 13yo who’s blogging about the RRR? Could it be Cathy’s infamous daughter who cusses out commenters here @ BFD?

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From Scott Piepho:

Akron Bloggers: Don’t forget tomorrow is the inagural session of Meet the Bloggers in Akron. Betty Sutton, candidate for Congress in Ohio 13 will meet us at Cafe Momus. We will start at around 9:30.

Anyone with a blog is invited, not just political bloggers. And if you have a blog, I’d appreciate a plug.

Given the proliferation of candidates, the best bet for a campaign interested in participating is to contact me rather an wait for a call. Just so everyone knows who we’re talking about (and so campaigns Googling their candidates maybe find this) the declared candidates are…

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An email reprinted with permission:

Dear George–

Recently, one of our neighbors and area professionals, Roger, posted the latest progression in the discussion that began with Ladder 42. It is located here.

The entry prior to this contains the letter hand-delivered to select elected and appointed people at Cleveland City Hall earlier this week, prior to their finalization of the budget.

As you can see, the Ladder 42 dialogue has blossomed into an inquiry into the safety criteria of the entire city. Further, residents have begun to realize that, if we make ourselves the Safest City in the Country, we will have no trouble attracting jobs, new businesses, travelers, and events. Our property values will advance. Our school system will be adequately funded. Developers will pay us for the privilege to come here, and not the other way around There is a premium placed on being safe and secure, being a pleasant and congenial destination where there is no “attitude” save one of graciousness and hospitality.

As the dialogue is proceeding, it’s turning out that safety is the #1 priority, and the #1 deficiency, and the #1 blind spot.

Stay tuned.

Tim Ferris

Meet The Bloggers [Cleveland]: Peter Rea and Alan Kolp

Originally uploaded by GeorgeNemeth.

Wonderful interview with the authors of Integrity is a growth market. The audio is up here. Big shout out to Jim Kenny of The Full Cleveland blog for putting this together.

If you’re a consumer of these podcasts and their transcripts, please consider supporting their creation by sending a check to:

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• Columbus Meet the Bloggers
  Joe Decker on the Joe Sulzer interview
  (tags: Ohio Politics MeetTheBloggers)
• Red vs. Blue: A Plague on Both Your Houses
  Tina Vance�??I�??ll stick to reading the national and international news and reading local blogs. I can form my opinions without Kos�?? or Armando�??s help or �??encouragement.�?�
  (tags: Politics Blogging)
• Plunderbund » The Hand of Connie Schultz
  Well, is it? Especially since after the ODP dustup the only place Brown’s bloggers are supposed to be posting is GrowOhio
  (tags: Politics Ohio)

History Mike muses:

Despite a coveted induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, punk band the Sex Pistols refused to participate in the ceremonies.

They did so in characteristically punk fashion, as well; the band posted a handwritten, crudely-worded decline to the invitation on their website, The Filth and the Fury.

“Next to the SEX PISTOLS rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain,” the statement reads. “Your museum. Urine in wine. Were [sic] not coming. Were [sic] not your monkey and so what?”

The ceremonies are to be held March 13 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. The band lashed out at the fact that main floor tables are selling for $25,000 apiece, while “to sqeak up in the gallery” requires the payment of $15,000…

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From Jack Ricchiuto:

“In inverse paranoia, we have a belief that there are people out there intending good to us, and we can’t exactly predict who.”

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From David:

From The Plain Dealer:Wal-Mart and McDonald’s top a new state list of Ohio employers who send the most people to the Medicaid, food stamp and welfare rolls…

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FamineHorse with blow-by-blow @ Cafe Momus:

9:43: Sutton starts with brief biosketch. Political career started with Barbertin City Council. Won hard fought primary (8 people). Won that election. Next step: Summit County Council. Ran next for OH state legislature with tough Dem primary & won. Worked the grassroots. Served for 8 years in OH House. Not afraid to take lonely stands in legislature. Term limited out. Continued advocacy representing labor as a labor atty in NEO. Labor unions represented: fire fighters, teachers, etc. Impetus running for Congress: making important policy decisions that make working people’s lives better.

Pho: 3 Issues you focus on: 1) Jobs & Trade; 2) Education; 3) Health…

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Tomorrow, Sunday, February 26th, at 2:00 PM, the Meet the Bloggers salon crew will be talking to Dennis and Georgia Althar at their loft at 5432 Broadway Avenue, ZIP code 44127. This is the second in the “salon” series, the point of which is to feature people of interest who make a difference–to the city, the region, humanity, and/or civilization. We recently met Dennis at one of Frank Mills’ Urban Repair mixers, at The Flying Monkey. He is a man of character and of many diverse interests: an inventor, a businessman, a developer, and a pioneer. One of his most recent unique ideas is that safety is of paramount importance–without it, you have no real sustainable development, no economically mixed population, no increasing tax base. He says that, if we merely and simply focus on making Cleveland The Safest City in the Country, all else will follow, effortlessly & naturally.

One of Dennis & Georgia’s current causes is The Broadway Free Library. This is located near the Hruby Conservatory and the Jednota Building, and they all play a part in Dennis’ plans for resurrecting a marvelous Cleveland.

All bloggers and interested parties are invited to attend the salon, the free exchange of ideas. For this event, it is important that you be at the site, 5432 Broadway Avenue, near the intersection of East 55th and Broadway, not later that 5 minutes prior to 2 PM, at which time Dennis will admit us to the parking area behind the rolling iron gate and escort us to the loft area above. If you have questions, please leave a comment here or call Gloria direct at 216-351-0254.

After the salon recording session, Dennis thinks there may be time for a tour of some of the properties.

From The Conservative who blogs @ BMD:

General thoughts on the format and structure:

1. This was a very informal conversation. While Ms. Sutton concentrated on answering the questions in a way that played to her strengths / expertise, that’s only to be expected. That’s what politicians do. She showed up, and interacted with the group in a sincere, non-condescending way. That’s a big plus for her – unscripted press conferences with folks not sucked into the professional press culture, but with growing readership, can be a risky business.

2. Due to the informality & wandering nature of the discussion, we probably missed some follow up questions and opportunities. This was also a function of time, but since Ms. Sutton spent close to 1 ½ hours with us, you can’t really blame her. My suspicion is that every one participating in an interview feels this way. I have some follow ups I’ll email to her staff, and see if I can’t get some answers.

3. Transcription is very, very, important. We’ll all have a public record of what was actually said.

4. I needed to put in more prep work than I did (see point #2 above), and be more assertive about follow up. Next time, I need to probably spend at least ½ a day with my research assistant, Dr. Google, to get more background info and question preparation ready.

Overall, I’m glad I went, and will do more if time & circumstances allow…

Link

Again, this is another example of the sort of commentary I hope we’re achieving with Meet The Bloggers. From Scott Bakalar:

She may not have the name recognition of, regionally let’s say, Capri Cafaro, or the home town familiarity of a Bill Grace or Craig Foltin, but mark me here, Betty Sutton will be a major contender for this seat if given the opportunity to share her message, views and goals.

Betty Sutton stated that she believes she can win this open seat, and frames herself as the voice of ordinary people and ordinary workers. That is what struck me the most about her. Given her biography, one would have to say that she is a career politician, having successfully scaled several rungs of the political-office ladder. However, Sutton did not impress me as a career politician. In fact, if she hadn’t introduced herself to me before we got started, I would have never guessed who she was.

Too many times the politicians I’ve had contact with take over a room with their personalities and their presence. Indeed this has been one knock against Ms. Sutton, that she is not the grand orator. While she may not fire up a room with an over-the-top stump speech, her abilities to confidently educate and persuade may be her trump card. With the typical politician I have met in the past, they were always the central focus - it was always about them. With Betty Sutton this morning, I got the distinct impression it was all about us.

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Sounds to me like what the mayor wants is control:

According to Monique Lewis of The Daily Times of Salisbury, Maryland, Salisbury Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman said “the back-and-forth postings and comments on sites — known popularly as “blog sites” or “blogs” — have caused city staff a lot of frustration…”

Madame mayor, they are already involved. Otherwise, why comment about the grief they are giving your staff. They are just not involved in the way you want them to be. And from reading their blogs, I seems they are doing public service by discussing community issues. Maybe the mayor and other city officials should get their own blogs.

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*gasp*

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Jim Lawless on the barrier to entry for the poor to the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

Reminds me of both Jack Ricchiuto and Joe Cimperman, who as children were able to visit the Cleveland Museum of Art. The impact of this free attraction is something that both speak about. I doubt their parts could have afforded to take the to an attract that cost as much as the CBG does now, then.

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Minnesota is lived and well in Cleveland, OH. At least the spirit of Paul Welstone lives on in a training camp for Progressives…I don’t think that Paul would have liked that word, he viewed himself as a Liberal but words are only semantic or are they?

I found out about this workshop from Cindy’s blog our notorious Height’s Mom. The workshop has three tracks, one for people who want to run for office, one for people who want to run campaigns or volunteers for people who want to run for office and and finally one track is for citizen activists.

It might be a great opportunity for real time blogging or podcast, anyone interested in attending and documenting grassroots from the people who believe in electing good candidates on the issue.

link

From this week’s PostSecret, Samsa.

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• Am I the only one who thinks this amount of $$ is obscene?
  Capri Cafaro will spend $2M on tv ads in the primary…
  (tags: Politics)

From Ed Morrison:

The President of Colorado State University has issued a white paper that argues the connection between economic growth and expanded funding in higher education.

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Jeff Hess on around the clock happenings:

I used to enjoy hanging out at the Phoenix on West 25th when it was open all night. It was a fascinating crowd. Chuck’s on Lee Road also used to stay open all night. Then there was ordering a 4 a.m. breakfast at The Big Egg on Detroit. The only place I know of that’s open now is the IHOP at Severance. Not even irony can make that cool.

Where are Cleveland’s afterhours clubs? Where do musicians go after they finish their bar gigs? Where do shift workers stop to unwind? Where can a writer with a severe case of gloom go to brood and pen dark thoughts? Is there a White Night culture in Cleveland?

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SBUX

Originally uploaded by GeorgeNemeth.

Valdis emailed me this. It was not photoshopped. I seriously doubt that the sign is malfunctioning. Culturejamming is more likely…

The Brain Drain claims another. From Scott Bakalar:

Shawn actually called me up; he wanted my story and patiently allowed me to tell it. Sure the Cleveland TV stations came out, but the nature of TV is shock and awe - 5 second film clips of people on their hands and knees scrubbing polluted basement floors. Shawn actually wanted a story, and by talking to him I found my voice.

He enabled me to begin articulating my thoughts, feelings and emotions into some form of expression that helped me make sense of all that was happening - he also unknowingly gave me the notion to start this blog “word of mouth”…

I’ve talked to a few other young journalists who like it here, but don’t know if they’ll be around for very long. How can we make it a better market for them?

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From Henry Gomez:

Let me get this straight. It already costs $40 to $50 for mid-range seats at The Q for a Cavs game, $5 for a draft beer and several bucks more for a hot dog. And now eight bucks for … Wi-Fi?

Personally, I’d never bring my laptop or PDA to a basketball game … and I’m sure the ones who do are the ones who can afford the $7.95.

But if the Cavs really want to make The Q a cool, unique entertainment venue, I think the front office can splurge and pay AT&T so the Wi-Fi is free for guests.

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Roldo writes:

Paul Krugman this a.m. in the N. Y. Times gives a disturbing insight into the economic situation regarding education, everyone’s solution to solve the problem of low incomes.

Krugman writes: “Highly educated workers have done better than those with less education, but a college degree has hardly been a ticket to big income gains.”

He cites a report of the 2006 Economic Report of the President http://www.gpoaccess.gov/eop/ revealing that real earning s for college graduates “actually fell more than 5 percent between 2000 and 2004.” Add that to the cost of a college education and the problem is even worse for our young college graduates.

I went to college under the GI Bill in the 1950s. Between my GI Bill income of $110 a month, I believe, and working during summers, I was able to pay for my education, support myself and leave college without a dime of debt. I feel for young people today who have to heavily burden themselves with debt for their degree.

Krugman centers in on the real problem: The serious problem in the U. S. of income inequality…

Please click thru for the rest and the links.

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Make sure you drop by MeetTheBloggers.net soon. Just posted are Meet The Bloggers Salon podcast: Dennis Althar and also an interview with Northeast Ohio bloggers in Akron and Betty Sutton.

While you’re there, check out the Upcoming.org schedule. This week, we’re interviewing Bill Pierce, a Republican challenging Mike DeWine.

Leave your questions for Pierce below and your comments on the podcasts over @ MTB.

If you find our work valuable, please consider:

or by check to this address:

Meet The Bloggers LLP
10104 Burton Ave
Cleveland, OH 44108

• Sherrod Brown’s Liberal Problem
  �?� Mr. Brown, the party-endorsed Democrat in the Senate race, scored 84.2 on the “liberal” scale, meaning he voted more liberally than 84.2 percent of his colleagues.
  �?� Mr. Brown ranked in the liberal-most 20 percent of the House; as the second-mo
  (tags: Politics Ohio)
• Kotkin v. Florida: Round 17
  Commentator Joel Kotkin does not like the theories of Richard Florida much. Here’s an overview of why Kotkin sees that “cool cities” are not enough to assure prosperity. Ed Morrison disagrees with both.

• Poverty: the disease of disconnection
  “Poverty is a disease of disconnection: within families, communities and regions. Here’s an good report from the Urban Institute on the disconnections among disadvantaged youth…”
  (tags: EconomicDevelopment)
• One Horse’s Take: Betty Sutton the Day After
  *SMH is new PBD shorthand for Cafaro, aka Shopping Mall Heiress. Hey, if the MSM trots it out everytime they mention her, so can we. In fact, we like it. It’s…kinda illuminating, don’t you think?
  (tags: Politics Ohio)
• Raise All Boats
  Chas Rich: A very interesting post on Starbucks, coffee snobbery and libertarian perspective. At least it’s interesting to me since I identified strongly and agreed with a lot of it — not to mention I have spent time pulling shots at a coffee shop…
  (tags: Coffee)
• Utility-Scale Wind Monitoring Commences on Eastern Rim of Cuyahoga Valley
  Chris Varley on Green Energy.
  (tags: Sustainability)
• It Was Brewtastic!
  Brian recounts his weekend in Downtown Cleveland and includes pictures.
  (tags: Cleveland)
• WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT
  Roldo: “Andy Young has signed up as a sort of good will ambassador for Wal-Mart. What a disappointment.

  Young, one of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s top lieutenants, worked in Cleveland on poverty issues. I’d see him at the Inner Church Council of

  (tags: Poverty)

Loretta departs from the typical murder story to dive into The New Pearl Harbor by David Ray Griffin.

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Evelyn Kiefer writes:

Never heard of a king cake? I first learned about them when I visited New Orleans for the first time a few years ago. The cakes are usually a ring of pastry covered with purple, yellow and green sugar or icing. Hidden inside is a little Baby Jesus figure (the king).The average king cake is not particularly delicious, though I made one from an Emeril recipe once that was very rich with a cream cheese filling.  The cakes are made after the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6th) and continues until the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. (The pre-Lent carnival season last several weeks in some parts of the world.) According to tradition, if you find the Baby Jesus in your piece of king cake you have to make or buy the next one, and this cycle continues until Lent begins.
If you have any advice on where to find a king cake locally please let me know! 

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MAGNET includes existing services to manufacturers provided by the nonprofit CAMP Inc. However, it also will be a clearinghouse for firms seeking assistance with productivity improvements and global access to markets and resources. It also will work with schools to help provide worker training and education.

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An excerpt of this weekend’s JumpBackBall:

The next morning, some people on the Jump Back committee went to breakfast (difficult in itself. The Diner on 55 was closed (WTF?), Pickwick got slammed with about 150 people right before we got there, so we ended up at The Harp (which, incidently, didn’t have regular pancakes, only had blueberry pancakes. I was inconsolable.)) Anyway, we were telling stories about Jump Back, and most of them started with “so and so was so wasted and….” I mean, how many black tie affairs end in someone getting escorted out of the event, and an ambulance coming?

Much more. Click thru.

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From Frank Mills:

In the past couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to visit several different neighborhoods Northeast Ohio and to reflect, comparably. on my visits to other neighborhoods throughout North America. As I reflected I kept asking myself, what is it in a given neighborhood that brings people to the streets, while in another neighborhood the streets are empty?

As I wandered, two of the neighborhoods with people walking the streets were without question run down and seedy, and one of them has a reputation of being dangerous, even in the daylight. On the other-hand, other neighborhoods bustling with new, trendy housing — certainly less seedy and appearing far safer — had fewer people, if any, actually walking along the sidewalks. What limited foot traffic there was, was essentially between automobile and destination.

Reflecting, I got to thinking about what it is in my neighborhood, a semi-inner-ring suburban downtown, that brings people to the streets. What brings about the foot traffic on my street?

While my street provides pass-through to the commercial district for foot traffic, being a purposefully created dead-end, it does not do so for cars. Thus, it makes for an ideal observation post of foot-traffic destination. Observing, I learned…

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Visit RAB for the links. Take a wild guess where Ohio ranks before you click through:

Here are the 10 states with the best business tax climate:
1. Wyoming 2. South Dakota 3. Alaska 4. Florida 5. Nevada 6. New Hampshire 7. Texas 8. Delaware 9. Montana 10. Oregon

Here are the 10 states with the worst business tax climate…

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Excellent post from Tina Vance!

Yesterday, during one of the brief moments where I felt well enough to get off my posterior and do something, my husband and I were bandying about the idea of Batman in Cleveland. It started off as a joke, and then got the “I’m so going to blog this, you know that, right?” We started talking, as only comic book geeks can, about whether or not Bruce Wayne (Batman, for those of you uninitiated to the comic books, cartoons or movies) would ever live in Cleveland.

Sure, there’s plenty Bruce and his Dark Knight alter ego could do here: we’ve got the industrial thing going for us, not to mention biotechnology and plenty of opportunities for charity and non-profit work, so Bruce can make his money (maybe) and throw galas for good. He could put his industrial complexes out in Independence with the other industrial complexes. Just think — he’d bring more jobs to Cleveland than that Quicken guy! We’ve also got plenty of crime and not enough cops, so Batman would have ample activity anytime he wanted it. But it’s not just about the accommodations, it’s also about the city…

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Two things. First, some PR professionals are trying to get ahead of the disruption. Second, what’s the MSM going to say about online advertisers? Can you see a columnist or editor writing: “That darn [insert website name here]. They’ve taken away all our classifieds, and now the car deals are leaving too. What’s next, cell phones?”

It’s not blogging that is disrupting the legacy media establishment–it is online advertising that is causing all the damage.
Foremski also said “Blogging is going to disrupt the public relations industry.”

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Steve Goldberg is asking for contributions to get here:

The First National Summit for Community Wireless Networks was a seminal event and helped launch the Community Wireless Networking Movement. Building on this momentum, on March 31-April 2, 2006, the Second National Summit for Community Wireless Networks at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO.

The Summit is the largest gathering of community wireless networking developers, implementers and allies focused on building the alliance of technologists, policy experts, and implementers, and encouraging participants to discuss the great variety of challenges and opportunities facing the movement.

As the TWifi representative, I brought back a ton of information, both organizationally and technologically…

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From Matt. Visit his site for the links:

A few days ago, Pete talked about a South Dakota law that limits access to abortion services. Obviously, as soon as something like this happens, people start talking as the bitter-girl did recently. Both of them make important points.

Pete pointed out that restrictions are logically inconsistent. Bitter-girl points out that this is all just about power. Both reasons - a lack of logical consistency and unequal treatment - are good reasons to oppose laws like this.

I have one more reason: legal restrictions on abortion lack integrity.

I believe integrity is a think-act-do cycle, in the simplest terms. To explain why abortion restrictions lack integrity, we have to connect what the pro-life view seeks: stop all abortions from happening. Restrictions on the access to abortion services don’t do this.

Economically, there is a demand for abortion services. Outlawing the supply will not make the demand go away. Outlawing the supply simply means that the supply will be more costly. And, as we’ve already seen in the United States, if the restrictions are relaxed the use of the service quickly returns.

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Pardon me for being cynical, but Congress is at it again. Today’s Wall Street Journal has the real story behind the Dubai ports deal. A private Florida company that was in a dispute with the selling partners, manipulated Congress for its own ends. Sorry I can’t provide a link; it’s a pay-only site.

Behind the furor over the proposed takeover of five U.S. ports by a Dubai-owned company is a small stevedoring outfit caught up in a legal spat with its partner at the Port of Miami, Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co….

…P&O’s proposed takeover has been in the works since late last year, but received no attention on Capitol Hill until Eller lobbyists began to brief key lawmakers in both the House and Senate, including Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of N.Y. He has since led the charge against the deal, along with other prominent Democrats such as Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Bob Menendez of New Jersey….

…An Eller subsidiary in South Florida, Continental Stevedoring & Terminals Inc., operates terminals at the Port of Miami in a partnership deal with P&O. Well before the Dubai bid arose, Continental and P&O were locked in a legal feud about allegations that P&O was trying to increase control over Continental’s portion of the port operations. That spat then became the core of a lawsuit that the Eller subsidiary filed Feb. 17.

So much for the high road.

From John Booth:

Thanks to a groundswell of local support, Cleveland�??s the first city in the country to warrant a custom brew, North Coast Roast, from Equal Exchange, a Massachusetts-based coffee and fair trade-promoting company.

�??It�??s specifically for Cleveland,�?� said Deepak Khandelwal, Equal Exchange�??s sales representative for the region. �??We�??ve never done anything like this. For us, Cleveland is very special. There�??s just a lot of support, a lot of demand for the product, and just a lot of energy on the consumer side, as well.�?�

Equal Exchange promotes fair trade to benefit farmers in Latin America, Africa and Asia…

Nice. Click thru to the article to find out where to buy yours.

Pssst. Don’t tell Thomas, but when the newsletter comes out tomorrow, it has an amazing article by Linda Eisenstein on an event you won’t want to miss.

Fabulous pictures of talented Cleveland artists.

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