Callahan's Cleveland Diary

• Healing the wounds

  Evidently the New County Politics is going to to require the same old iron stomach. As opponents of Issue 6 before the election, Democrats FitzGerald, Rokakis and Jones have no business running for executive, said Parma Heights Mayor Martin Zanotti, who was a leading advocate of the reform measure. “It would be [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 8:26am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• County charter will add $700K to top officials’ payroll cost

  Somehow this has escaped the Plain Dealer’s notice, but the immediate impact of our new County Charter will be an annual payroll increase of something like $700,000 for the new array of elected and appointed officials. The new Charter, to take effect in 2011, replaces the three County Commissioners with an [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 2:50pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Role model

  Number of comments: 2
  Q. What city not far from Cleveland has all of the following: A county governed since 1984 by a home rule charter, with an elected County CEO, an Assistant CEO responsible for economic development, and a fifteen-member county legislative branch elected by district? An established downtown casino industry? A downtown waterfront free of [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 9:50am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Finally, time for Ferry 2.0

  The PD wrote its official obituary for the Port Authority’s lumbering version of a Cleveland-to-Ontario ferry back in September. Of course, the project had stopped breathing months before. But look! It turns out that so many people in Lorain are lining up to ride a fast ferry twenty miles to the [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 8:39pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Another try at City wifi for Cleveland

  Number of comments: 1
  It’s been two years since Frank Jackson officially abandoned his first high-profile attempt to create a City-supported wifi network on the ill-fated Philadelphia-EarthLink model. Now he’s quietly giving City wifi another try, this time hoping to pay for it with $15 million in Federal broadband stimulus money. From the Commerce Department’s [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 7:32pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• 3rd-quarter suburban foreclosure filings up 7% over ‘08

  Cuyahoga County’s foreclosure crisis hasn’t gone away. It’s just moved to the suburbs. New, non-tax foreclosure filings in Common Pleas Court were down around 4% in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, according to NEO CANDO. But all of that decrease happened in the city [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 1:14am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Plain Dealer offers to promote suburban flight by city workers

  Number of comments: 5
  Obviously this is making the rounds, since someone emailed me a pdf.  But don’t expect to read about it in the PD. Update 7/25: The PD exceeds my expectations. A July 20 letter from the paper’s real estate advertising department: Update 6:15: PD publisher disavows letter, apologizes to city I got the following [...]
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  Posted: July 24, 2009, 8:09am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Getting real about home rule

  Henry Gomez reports that City Council members like Kevin Kelley and Kevin Conwell “fired a warning shot Thursday at [local] state legislators” who voted for the state anti-residency law that the Supreme Court upheld yesterday: Their message: Start looking out for the best interests of our constituents — or look elsewhere [...]
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  Posted: June 11, 2009, 11:12pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• County charter plan revealed, kind of

  Thanks to Erick Trickey, here’s the draft county charter petition that you read about in the Plain Dealer Tuesday morning. Interestingly, it says “CONSENSUS DOCUMENT 6-4-2009″ right on the front page… which means it’s been floating around since Friday, right? There are no names attached to the document, so we unwashed masses [...]
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  Posted: June 10, 2009, 12:44am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Wells Fargo: “Ghetto loans” to the “mud people”

  In the New York Times yesterday: As she describes it, Beth Jacobson and her fellow loan officers at Wells Fargo Bank “rode the stagecoach from hell” for a decade, systematically singling out blacks in Baltimore and suburban Maryland for high-interest subprime mortgages. These loans, Baltimore officials have claimed in a federal lawsuit [...]
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  Posted: June 07, 2009, 3:38pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Open-Mesh wifi on my block

  Number of comments: 2
  Today is the big twice-a-year Street Sale on Archwood Avenue, where I live.  (Tomorrow, too.)  I’m sitting on my front porch watching the shoppers go by and showing those who ask how our new “Free Archwood WiFi” works. Yes, we now have a free public wifi mesh serving our block.  It [...]
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  Posted: June 06, 2009, 4:12pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Foley foreclosure reform bill passed by Ohio House

  Number of comments: 1
  House Bill 3, the Foley/Driehaus bill to reform the foreclosure process, create state regulation of mortgage servicers and impose a six-month moratorium on most home foreclosures, passed the Ohio House this afternoon by a vote of 54 to 43. Press accounts say the vote was along party lines, but an email [...]
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  Posted: May 20, 2009, 9:38pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Another 550 new foreclosures in Cuyahoga in first half of May

  The Common Pleas Court docket shows at least 550 new foreclosure cases filed against Cuyahoga County properties between May 1 and May 15. At least 268 of them were filed against properties in the city of Cleveland. This brings the county’s total for the first four and a half months of 2009 [...]
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  Posted: May 20, 2009, 9:39am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Breaking: Federal court dismisses City lawsuit against big subprime banks

  Sixteen months after it was first filed, Federal District Court Judge Sarah Lioi has dismissed the City of Cleveland’s public nuisance lawsuit against 21 major financial corporations involved in originating, underwriting, servicing or “trusteeing” tens of thousands of securitized subprime mortgages in the city. Law Director Robert Triozzi says the City [...]
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  Posted: May 18, 2009, 3:07pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• HB 3 floor vote probably next week

  From an email update on the Foley/Driehaus foreclosure reform bill from Cathy Johnston of COHHIO: Sub HB 3 passed the Housing and Urban Revitalization Committee last night along party lines. .. Below is a link to a Columbus Dispatch article reporting on the hearing. [Link] The latest substitute version included several changes. They would: [...]
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  Posted: May 13, 2009, 4:57pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Go buy a copy of Crain’s Cleveland Business

  This week it’s worth the $1.50 for two major articles that aren’t on line. The first is Arielle Kass’ front-page coverage of a Cleveland Federal Reserve study exploring the striking difference in the intensity of the foreclosure crisis between comparable neighborhoods in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The article comes to the un-Crain’s-like [...]
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  Posted: May 13, 2009, 11:02am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Foley/Driehaus foreclosure reform bill sent to full Ohio House

  The Ohio House Committee on Housing and Urban Revitalization has just approved an amended version of House Bill 3, the Foley/Driehaus foreclosure reform bill, and sent it to the full House. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Mike Foley of Cleveland and Denise Driehaus of Concinnati, was rolled out in February as [...]
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  Posted: May 12, 2009, 11:42pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Update on Wells Fargo case in Housing Court

  Number of comments: 1
  Apparently a lot has been happening since the Federal District Court sent the Cleveland Housing Renewal Project lawsuit against Wells Fargo back to Cleveland Municipal Housing Court. (The District Court has also declined jurisdiction in CHRP’s companion case against Deutsche Bank.) An update arrived in my email this afternoon from Frank [...]
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  Posted: May 11, 2009, 2:24pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• PD shows Cuyahoga County government is a bargain

  Number of comments: 1
  The Plain Dealer’s big “analytical” comparison of county agency spending (Cuyahoga County agencies have more workers, less productivity than others in Ohio, Plain Dealer analysis finds) is such a misleading, misdirected mess that it’s hard to know where to start. What can you say about an “analysis” of comparative productivity [...]
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  Posted: May 10, 2009, 2:37pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Cold Lake Erie wind

  You may have heard that the long-awaited feasibility study of the county’s proposed offshore windpower project was released last Friday. Maybe you read the PD story Saturday or the editorial yesterday, both of which acknowledge the project’s “eye-popping” cost but then shift quickly back into cheerleading mode: “If Cleveland wants [...]
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  Posted: May 07, 2009, 12:06pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Bill to help tenants in foreclosed properties passes Ohio House

  Just posted by Jim Otte of WHIO-TV in Dayton. House Passes Protection For Renters Foreclosure Crisis Hits Home Jim Otte, Reporter COLUMBUS, Ohio — Home owners are not the only ones being hit by the foreclosure crisis. Renters are the latest group to suffer. They often are given just a few days notice when the [...]
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  Posted: May 06, 2009, 6:28pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• NYT on Obama failure to fight for mortgage relief in bankruptcy

  What they said. From the New York Times editorial page today: The Obama administration sat by last week as 12 Senate Democrats joined 39 Senate Republicans to block a vote on an amendment that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify troubled mortgages. Senator Obama campaigned on the provision. And President Obama [...]
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  Posted: May 04, 2009, 1:00pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• 550 new foreclosures in Cuyahoga in second half of April

  The Common Pleas Court docket shows 550 new foreclosure cases filed against Cuyahoga County properties between April 16 and April 30. At least 248 of them were filed against properties in the city of Cleveland. This brings the county’s foreclosure total for April to 1,050 new cases, of which 466 were against [...]
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  Posted: May 04, 2009, 12:42pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• ACORN: Philadelphia court’s foreclosure prevention works

  On Tuesday Cleveland ACORN and several City Council members held a press conference on the steps of Cleveland City Hall to release a new report about a successful foreclosure prevention effort led by the Philadelphia, PA Common Pleas Court, and to call on HUD to support similar programs in Cleveland [...]
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  Posted: May 02, 2009, 5:54pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Voinovich’s excuse: I did it for the credit unions

  Our Republican Senator explains his “No” vote on mortgage-relief-in-bankruptcy to Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim: I evaluated it and it harms more than it helps. It’s the precedent that it sets in terms of a lot of people who are out there quite frankly very responsible. Our credit unions were giving money [...]
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  Posted: May 02, 2009, 12:44pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Mr. Voinovich’s neighborhood 2009

  Of course George Voinovich voted to kill the mortgage-relief-in-bankruptcy bill yesterday. Since Voinovich is retiring I’m probably beating a dead horse here, but… Here are the completed and pending Sheriff’s sales in George’s own census tract in the far corner of North Collinwood since January 1, 2009: There have been 27 new foreclosures [...]
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  Posted: May 01, 2009, 1:35am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Mortgage bankruptcy relief bill dies in Senate, Obama sits on hands

  On Day 101 of the Obama presidency, the U.S. Senate killed the mortgage-relief-in-bankruptcy bill that President Obama has repeatedly promised to support. The vote was 51 to 45. All 45 “yes” votes were Democrats… but so were 12 of the “nos”. Here’s what the President did about it: New York Times: President Obama sought [...]
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  Posted: April 30, 2009, 8:42pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• E&P: PD’s daily circulation down almost 12% since last year

  Editor & Publisher today: The Audit Bureau of Circulations released this morning the spring figures for the six months ending March 31, 2009, showing that the largest metros continue to shed daily and Sunday circulation — now at a record rate. According to ABC, for 395 newspapers reporting this spring, daily circulation [...]
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  Posted: April 27, 2009, 10:57am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Five hundred new foreclosures in Cuyahoga in first half of April

  The first half of April saw 502 new foreclosure cases filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, including 218 cases against properties in the city of Cleveland. Here’s how the most recent filings were distributed in the city… Among the biggest Cuyahoga County foreclosers so far this month, collectively accounting for 57% [...]
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  Posted: April 18, 2009, 6:22pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• “FOCUS on Foreclosures Lobby Day” at the Statehouse next Wednesday

  Next Wednesday, April 22 will be “Lobby Day” at the Statehouse for Ohio foreclosure reform advocates. COHHIO and the Ohio CDC Association are organizing the “FOCUS on Foreclosures Lobby Day” to show grassroots support for two bills in the House and one in the Senate. House Bill 9 and Senate Bill 13 [...]
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  Posted: April 15, 2009, 10:07am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• County court still seeing a thousand new foreclosures a month

  New foreclosure cases in Cuyahoga County continued to pile up at a rate of more than 1,000 a month during the first quarter of 2009. 3,060 foreclosures were filed with the county’s Common Pleas Court between January 1 and March 31, according to NEO CANDO. The good news is that this is [...]
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  Posted: April 08, 2009, 9:59am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Doing something about foreclosures: Two stories today from Michigan

  Two stories I just heard on Michigan Public Radio, on my way home from Detroit… Some personal action in a Detroit neighborhood: Then they set their sights on the foreclosed house down the street. “It’s a typical house for the neighborhood,” says Cope, “sort of a working class, wood frame, single family [...]
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  Posted: March 11, 2009, 6:36pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Chickens, meet roost

  Number of comments: 1
  The PD says my Councilman, Brian Cummins, is very upset about the ward redistricting plan that’s being circulated to Council members by Triad Research.  Brian explains why in more detail at RealNEO, where the comments include calls for a neighborhood campaign to defend Brian, the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood, and/or Ward [...]
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  Posted: March 07, 2009, 1:00pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• U.S. House passes bankruptcy foreclosure modification bill

  About an hour and a half ago, the U.S. House of Representatives finally passed the long-promised bill to allow Federal bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages on homes. HR 1106, the “Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009″, passed the House by an extremely partisan 234-191 majority. (See how having a [...]
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  Posted: March 05, 2009, 8:02pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Washington Independent: “Bank-Owned Homes Surge, Communities Stung”

  Number of comments: 1
  A terrific overview of the REO crisis by Mary Kane yesterday. (Disclosure — it quotes this CD post.) P.S. Commenter Susan points out this long story in the NY Times Magazine last Sunday.  Yes, it’s the foreclosure crisis and Slavic Village again — but as usual when a reporter talks to [...]
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  Posted: March 04, 2009, 9:50am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• So, how’s that foreclosure moratorium going? (2)

  On February 13, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup all proclaimed a “moratorium” on foreclosures against owner-occupied homes for a few weeks to give the President a chance to announce and implement his foreclosure program. Last week (February 23 to 27) 262 new civil foreclosure cases were [...]
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  Posted: March 04, 2009, 9:40am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• House Bill 3, Foley/Driehaus foreclosure reform bill, to be rolled out this week

  Number of comments: 2
  Full language of the promised Democratic foreclosure reform bill is set to be rolled out this week in the Ohio House Committee on Housing and Urban Revitalization, chaired by Cleveland Representative Mike Foley, one of the two main sponsors. The proposal will be House Bill 3, reflecting its priority for House [...]
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  Posted: March 03, 2009, 12:57am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• PD: Great Issues of 2007

  Number of comments: 1
  Great.  Now they ask us. This would have been an excellent question in June and July 2007, when the MedMartConCenter sales tax was “under consideration” by the County Commissioners. In fact, some of us asked it.  But not the Plain Dealer. It remained an excellent question through August 2007, when some citizens were [...]
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  Posted: February 22, 2009, 5:09pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• US Bancorp CEO: TARP was meant to fund bank takeovers all along

  From coverage in Wednesday’s Twin Cities Pioneer-Press of a speech by U.S. Bancorp Chief Executive Richard Davis: Davis went on to say in his talk that while government officials marketed the program as a way to entice banks to lend again, TARP actually was designed to give solid banks like U.S. [...]
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  Posted: February 22, 2009, 2:09pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• British newspaper says Charter One is for sale

  The Independent reports yesterday: Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is looking to sell Asian and US assets bought by Sir Fred Goodwin in the two biggest acquisitions he made as chief executive of the now-stricken bank. RBS wants to offload all or part of the Asian operations it acquired when it bought [...]
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  Posted: February 21, 2009, 2:20pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• So, how’s that foreclosure moratorium going?

  Last week Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup all proclaimed a “moratorium” on foreclosures against owner-occupied homes for a few weeks to give the President a chance to announce and implement his foreclosure program In the last two days (Wednesday and Thursday) 125 new foreclosure cases have [...]
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  Posted: February 20, 2009, 1:12am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Obama foreclosure plan Q&A

  Number of comments: 1
  The answer is NO. Here’s why: 1) The majority of the 4,000 houses currently being foreclosed in the city of Cleveland — and the 400+ still being filed on each month — are owned either by landlords, or by people who are really, truly poor (many of whom are unemployed), or by [...]
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  Posted: February 19, 2009, 6:06pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Obama’s foreclosure plan: More carrots, few sticks

  Number of comments: 1
  President Obama won’t deliver his big foreclosure program speech until this afternoon (Phoenix time), but the prepared version is now on line at the New York Times. It looks like there are five concrete pieces to the plan (bold-typed below). Right now, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the institutions that [...]
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  Posted: February 18, 2009, 11:41am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Please define “moratorium”

  Last week Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup all loudly proclaimed a “moratorium” on foreclosures against owner-occupied homes for a few weeks to give the President a chance to announce and implement his foreclosure program. (That announcement is scheduled to take place today in Phoenix.) So… fifty-five [...]
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  Posted: February 18, 2009, 8:17am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Big banks declare moratorium, file 25 new Cuyahoga foreclosures on same day

  Last Friday, February 13, Citigroup issued a press release that said: To reiterate the commitment made by Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit to the House Financial Services Committee on February 11, 2009… Citi has initiated a foreclosure moratorium on all Citi owned first mortgage loans that are the principal residence of [...]
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  Posted: February 16, 2009, 4:06pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• BOA, Citigroup CEOs say they’ll agree to foreclosure freeze… for a couple of weeks

  CNN Money: WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- In the midst of public rage, top U.S. bank executives Wednesday… agreed to work with federal officials to help stem foreclosures and restore public trust. Two executives, in particular, even agreed to stop foreclosures until President Barack Obama’s administration unveils its new plans for easing ongoing pain [...]
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  Posted: February 11, 2009, 9:11pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Cuyahoga County foreclosure watch, Obama Week Three

  Yesterday was the twenty-first full day of the Obama Administration. So far the President has taken no public actions to institute the foreclosure moratorium he promised, or to stop foreclosures in any other way… though the White House has told the press that they’ll let us know about their foreclosure [...]
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  Posted: February 11, 2009, 12:12am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• AMP-Ohio threatens to sue critics of coal plant project

  I haven’t posted about it for nearly a year, but Ohio Citizen Action has continued to plug away at its campaign against the American Municipal Power Generating Station, the state public power association’s planned $3-plus billion, 960-megawatt coal plant in Meigs County. Apparently their efforts are drawing some blood. Citizen Action Director [...]
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  Posted: February 10, 2009, 8:25pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Ohio House Dems’ foreclosure reform: More details

  Number of comments: 1
  Courtesy of Representative Mike Foley’s office, here’s what will be included in the House Democrats’ foreclosure reform bill: 1. An emergency 6 month moratorium on all home foreclosures to allow the defense bar/courts/servicers to prepare for the new rules. 2. Clarifies the Common Pleas Court’s right to modify mortgages as an equitable [...]
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  Posted: February 10, 2009, 9:30am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Ohio House Democrats will push for six-month foreclosure moratorium

  PD Openers: Ohio House Democrats today said they plan to push legislation calling for a six-month moratorium on home foreclosures. The legislation was among a list of priorities for this session announced today by House Speaker Armond Budish, a Beachwood Democrat. Rep. Mike Foley, a Cleveland Democrat who chairs a new [...]
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  Posted: February 09, 2009, 4:12pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Cuyahoga County foreclosure watch, Obama Week Two

  Yesterday was the fourteenth full day of the Obama Administration. So far the President has taken no public actions to institute the foreclosure moratorium he promised, or to stop foreclosures in any other way. Meanwhile, here in Cuyahoga County: In the first eight business days after Obama took office (through last Friday), [...]
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  Posted: February 04, 2009, 1:00pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Cuyahoga County foreclosure watch, Obama Week One

  Yesterday was the seventh full day of the Obama Administration.  So far the President has taken no public actions to institute the foreclosure moratorium he promised, or to stop foreclosures in any other way. Meanwhile, here in Cuyahoga County: In the first five business days after Obama took office, 234 new foreclosure [...]
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  Posted: January 28, 2009, 10:17am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Dear President Obama: Time for that foreclosure moratorium

  Number of comments: 1
  Dear President Obama: Congratulations.  That sure was a great crowd and a beautiful speech. But of course, you’ve stood in front of a lot of crowds and made a lot of beautiful speeches.  Here’s part of one you made here in Ohio three months ago: For those Americans in danger of losing their [...]
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  Posted: January 20, 2009, 4:26pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• “Christmas rush” pushes 2008 foreclosures to 2007 level; December sets monthly record

  If the raw number of entries on Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court’s online docket is to be believed, 1,582 civil foreclosure cases were filed in the month of December.  That’s more than in any previous month, ever. Nearly half of that record number — 741 new cases — were filed between [...]
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  Posted: January 02, 2009, 1:16am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Wells joins Deutsche in request to Federal Court to take over NPI lawsuit

  Wells Fargo Bank has joined Deutsche Bank’s request to the Federal District Court to take over the Cleveland Housing Court suit brought two weeks ago by a subsidiary of Neighborhood Progress. The temporary restraining order issued by Housing Court Judge Pianka, blocking the two banks from selling off three dozen vacant [...]
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  Posted: December 30, 2008, 8:23am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• AT&T starts “U-Verse” deployment in the city

  Number of comments: 5
  Fourteen months ago I wrote this post, which quoted an AT&T sales crew manager to the effect that Cleveland city residents were unlikely to see any “cable competition” from AT&T’s ballyhooed U-Verse service for at least two and a half years, i.e. until mid-2010. I was not at all surprised by [...]
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  Posted: December 29, 2008, 9:48pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• NYT on WaMu: “If you were alive, they would give you a loan”

  Number of comments: 1
  If you want to understand how all those thousands and thousands of bad mortgages got originated by institutions at the top of the US banking industry — or if you still think those institutions were hapless victims of lying homebuyers and government “community reinvestment” pressures — you must read this [...]
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  Posted: December 28, 2008, 3:29pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Cincinnati sues Deutsche, Wells Fargo

  Cincinnati Enquirer Wednesday: Cincinnati wants Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo to pay for what officials say is neglect of foreclosed-upon properties that’s worsening blight in city neighborhoods. The banks own more than 100 properties in Hamilton County. Representatives appear often in local courts to prosecute foreclosure actions against property owners, the city [...]
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  Posted: December 26, 2008, 1:20pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• County’s 2008 foreclosure filings just 3% below 2007

  Those foreclosures just keep on coming. As of December 12, the total of 2008 civil foreclosures filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court had reached 13,073… just 3% fewer than the 13,480 filed by the same date in 2007. (Data is from NEO CANDO.) Will we hit 14,000 again this year? Maybe not. [...]
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  Posted: December 23, 2008, 2:00am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Is Strickland’s movie tax credit veto another outrage against Cleveland?

  Number of comments: 1
  The Plain Dealer sure thinks so.  So does Carole at Cleveland Real Estate News. Carole and I (P.S. and others) have been talking it over in her comments. Update:  Here’s the only coherent explanation of HB 196’s “transferable tax credit” scheme I’ve been able to find.  And also from the Beacon Journal’s [...]
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  Posted: December 21, 2008, 4:59pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Hamilton commissioners call for state foreclosure freeze

  Cincinnati Enquirer yesterday (h/t Spencer and Mike): Hamilton County commissioners Wednesday voted to support a statewide, six-month moratorium on home foreclosures. The Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, among several groups pushing for the moratorium, asked the commission to support the proposal. The group also plans a Dec. 24 press conference. The moratorium calls [...]
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  Posted: December 20, 2008, 12:21pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• County land bank gets final Senate approval, goes to governor

  The Ohio Senate voted 33-0 yesterday to concur with the House version of Senate Bill 353, the bill to allow Cuyahoga County to establish a “land reutilization corporation” that can acquire, hold, and either demolish or rehabilitate vacant foreclosed properties. The bill now needs only Governor Strickland’s signature to become law. A [...]
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  Posted: December 19, 2008, 1:46pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Common Pleas foreclosure mediation: No sign of impact on sheriff’s sales in Cleveland

  Is the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court’s Foreclosure Mediation Program having any impact on the number of sheriff’s sales resulting from foreclosures in Cleveland? No such impact is apparent so far. The Mediation Program was rolled out at the end of June.  Homeowners receiving 28-day foreclosure notices can ask to have their [...]
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  Posted: December 19, 2008, 10:52am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Recommended reading: NPI suit to block post-foreclosure sales by Deutsche, Wells Fargo

  Number of comments: 1
  Courtesy of attorney Kermit Lind, here are copies of the documents filed Monday in Cleveland Housing Court by the Cleveland Housing Renewal Project (a project of Neighborhood Progress, Inc.) asking Judge Pianka to stop the sales of 36 foreclosed houses by Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo. Deutsche Bank (pdf) Wells Fargo (pdf) As [...]
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  Posted: December 17, 2008, 9:31am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Cuyahoga County land bank bill clears House committee, set for passage today

  After a long day of hearings, the Ohio House Ways and Means Committee voted last night to approve a version of Senate Bill 353 — enabling Cuyahoga County to set up a “land reutilization corporation” to acquire, hold, and dispose of foreclosed properties — and send it to to the [...]
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  Posted: December 17, 2008, 8:01am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Detroit Free Press: Frank Jackson a good choice for “urban czar”

  In the Prophets-Not-Without-Honor Department, an editorial in the Free Press yesterday: President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to pursue a serious urban agenda, in part by creating an Office of Urban Policy to coordinate federal efforts to rebuild cities and the metropolitan regions they anchor. The person he picks to head up this [...]
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  Posted: December 16, 2008, 8:00pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Butler County sheriff won’t do “heartless” winter evictions

  AP story: A sheriff in Southwest Ohio has ordered deputies to ignore eviction orders when people have nowhere else to live. Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones says evictions in winter weather and during an economic recession are heartless and those cases should be sent back to the courts and resolved some other [...]
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  Posted: December 11, 2008, 10:31am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• County land bank bill update

  As the PD reported Saturday, the Ohio Senate State and Local Government Committee is expected to report its version of SB 353, the proposal to allow counties to create “land banks” to acquire and dispose of vacant foreclosed properties, for a vote by the full Senate Tuesday afternoon. If this happens [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2008, 9:10am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Cleveland-Ontario ferry still stuck in the mud: Update

  Number of comments: 1
  People in Port Stanley are getting upset about their harbor. Transport Canada wants to divest itself of the harbour it has allowed to clog with silt, making it unsuitable for anything except fishing tugs. But after years of high-level talks in secrecy, fed-up local residents are taking action. “This is a huge [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2008, 3:04pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Charter One on the TARP auction block next?

  Now that its parent Royal Bank of Scotland is 58% owned by Her Majesty’s Government, is Charter One (now a division of RBS’ U.S. subsidiary Citizens Financial Group) next on the TARP auction block? Matthew Wurtzel looks over the possibilities at TheDeal.com.  His list of potential bidders with Federal bailout money: [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2008, 5:36pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Senate hearing on county land bank set for Tuesday morning

  After nearly six months of what can only be called screwing around, the General Assembly has finally scheduled a hearing on Senate Bill 353, the “county land bank” proposal initiated by Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis to create a mechanism for acquiring, holding and using foreclosed and abandoned houses. The Senate [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2008, 6:22pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Monthly sheriff’s sales down from peak, but still exceed 500 a month

  Sheriff’s sales of foreclosed properties in Cuyahoga County are down significantly from their peak in 2007, but still average more than five hundred a month, according to data from NEO CANDO. The monthly average for May through October 2008 was about 550 sales, compared to 770 during the same six months [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2008, 4:41pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Tribune-Review rips PD story: “Pittsburgh is the new Oz”

  Number of comments: 1
  This probably isn’t going to get reprinted where it should be — on the PD op-ed page — so… This morning’s Pittsburgh Tribune Review has a savage commentary on the Plain Dealer’s recent front-page infatuation with their home town: “Potemkin Pittsburgh, perpetuated” . Here’s the whole thing: Like a crack addict in denial, [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2008, 11:02am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Will Charter One become a ward of the (British) state?

  Nobody held any demonstrations on Public Square when Charter One Bank — which the Koch family had grown from a Cleveland S&L to a regional power bank in less than twenty years — was bought out in 2004 by the Royal Bank of Scotland. But now: Goodwin’s $140 Billion Binge May [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2008, 7:30am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Ed Hauser, 1961-2008

  Ed Hauser, the laid-off LTV engineer who became Northeast Ohio’s most important champion of open government — mostly by showing up at meetings of obscure public bodies with his video camera and relentlessly researched citizen testimony — is dead of a heart attack at 47. This is a huge loss to [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2008, 9:25am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• PNC and National City: First draft of history (by the winner, of course)

  The PD’s Theresa Dixon Murray has done some great analytical reporting on the PNC/National City deal in the past week, starting with this piece posted Monday evening (and printed Tuesday morning), and summed up in her article today. The source of most of Murray’s new details is a long SEC filing [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2008, 1:35pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Save National City, save the City? Not so much.

  It’s almost 2009. Think somebody’s getting that mayoral itch again? Of course there’s no arguing with much of the logic of Dan Moore’s op-ed today.  The Bush Treasury obviously did rig the bailout system to create a designated winner, PNC, and target a designated loser, National City. This was a scandalous [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2008, 6:11pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Foreclosure Freeze: No response from our judges

  In its letter delivered to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judges last Wednesday, the Foreclosure Action Coalition asked for a response by yesterday, November 6, to our proposal for a blanket 90-day stay of foreclosure cases involving occupied homes. We provided a telephone number as well as email and snailmail addresses. As [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2008, 3:17pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• At the Sheriff’s Office, life goes on

  On the day before Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, 139 more foreclosed properties were sold at auction by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office. 55 of this week’s Sheriff’s sales were in the city of Cleveland. 84 were in the suburbs. Average weekly Sheriff’s sales, last four weeks (excluding [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2008, 10:38am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Dems take Ohio House majority; Budish probable Speaker

  According to State Rep. Mike Foley, there will be at least 50 Democrats in the Ohio House of Representatives in January. It looks like Armond Budish of Beachwood (whose 8th District includes Cleveland Wards 3 and 4) is in line for Speaker. P.S.  Soon-to-be-Speaker Budish represents Cleveland Ward 3, Cleveland Ward 4, [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2008, 8:52am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Cuyahoga County turnout 40,000 less than in 2004

  687,255 Cuyahoga County ballots were cast in the 2004 general election. Yesterday’s total was 646,994 (in the presidential race, anyway). Maybe there are a few overseas ballots, etc. yet to be counted.   But it looks like one of the reasons things went pretty smoothly yesterday is that the Election Day turnout [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2008, 7:54am EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Sloooow count

  Hey, I know it doesn’t really matter ’cause everyone’s already partying and Jane Platten declared Election Perfection three hours ago, but…  does anyone else find it weird that it’s now 11:08 pm and a grand total of 52 precincts have been reported by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections? Update 11:15 [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2008, 11:11pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Carrie does Gary

  Former Law School Stand-up Comic Organizer Daughter has spent the last week tending lines of voters at the Gary, Indiana courthouse.  Here’s a little story of true love from the early voting line. [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2008, 7:24pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Counting the graves

  Rick Pollack has posted his video of Jim Rokakis and me speaking at last Thursday’s Freeze The Foreclosures rally. As usual, I’m the one reading off depressing numbers. Thanks, Rick. (h/t BFD) [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2008, 4:46pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• A turnout data point

  For what it’s worth: I voted at 12:45 today at Cleveland Precinct 15-F.   I was vote number 156. Total votes cast in this precinct in the 2004 general election: 457. 15-F had 1,150 registered voters at the time of the March primary. If 25% of us voted in advance this year, that [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2008, 2:31pm EST
  by Bill Callahan

• Is PNC’s use of TARP money to buy National City against the law?

  Barney Frank seems to think so. [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2008, 11:07pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• JP Morgan freezes new foreclosures for 90 days

  Number of comments: 1
  (h/t Ed M at BFD) JP Morgan Chase has announced that it will stop filing new foreclosures for the next 90 days against mortgages it owns outright, and will urge “investors” (i.e. owners of shares in securitized mortgage pools) for which it acts as servicer to agree to the same policy.  [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2008, 9:19pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Is Obama-McCain race “tightening” in Ohio?

  Real Clear Politics summary of recent polls. The chart below includes about the last six months.  The last point where the blue line crosses the red line and keeps rising is the end of September. Update 11/1: Ohio tracking polls for the last three days, from TPM Election Central: Oct 30 Natl. Journal: [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2008, 12:08pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Considering the source

  Kevin O’Brien is the Plain Dealer’s deputy editorial page director. Kevin O’Brien asserts that Barack Obama is an “admitted socialist”. Is this because someone has caught Obama saying: “I admit it, I’m a socialist. I believe in government ownership of the means of production”?  Or is it because Obama voted to let [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2008, 9:17am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Jim Rokakis at Freeze The Foreclosures rally

  Number of comments: 2
  Cuyahoga County Treasurer joins in the call for Common Pleas judges to declare an immediate 90-day freeze on foreclosure cases involving occupied homes.  (Click on image for larger photo.) Other elected officials speaking in support of the Foreclosure Freeze: Cleveland City Council members Jay Westbrook, Tony Brancatelli and Phyllis Cleveland, Garfield [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2008, 8:07pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• One last reminder

  4 o’clock today at the Justice Center, Ontario and Lakeside..  See you there! [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2008, 10:09am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Banks will use bailout money to pay dividends; Wells Fargo gets $25 billion

  From the Washington Post this morning (h/t Tim Ferris): U.S. banks getting more than $163 billion from the Treasury Department for new lending are on pace to pay more than half of that sum to their shareholders, with government permission, over the next three years. The government said it was giving banks [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2008, 8:20am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• FDIC, Treasury considering $40-50 billion foreclosure prevention plan

  Number of comments: 1
  Posted late this afternoon at the Washington Post Economy Watch (h/t Calculated Risk): Officials with the Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are crafting a plan under which the government would guarantee the mortgages of as many as 3 million homeowners now struggling to avoid foreclosure, according to three sources [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2008, 8:20pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Tony George makes us an offer we can’t refuse… oh, wait, yes we can

  Does it get any sillier than this?  From this morning’s PD story about Issue 39, the proposal to link the size of Cleveland City Council to 25,000-resident wards: [Westlake/Lakewood businessman Tony] George warned that should Sweeney’s effort fail, he and others will push some more. “If it fails on this [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2008, 2:46pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• They are Joe

  Joe, Jody and Jose the Plumbers from Toledo have something to say. (h/t Ohio Daily) [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2008, 12:31pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Is National City being bought with its own bailout money?

  Number of comments: 2
  By far the most interesting paragraph in this morning’s PD story about Congressional reactions to the PNC/NCC buyout is this: LaTourette also observed that Paulson and Dugan gave PNC more bailout money than it was eligible to receive under the terms of the federal program. He said the bailout law stipulated [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2008, 11:03am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Live by the sword

  Number of comments: 1
  Banks and bank holding companies acquired since 1990 by National City Corporation (Wikipedia): Gem Savings Association, Dayton and Cincinnati Merchants National Corporation, Indianapolis-based holding company. Member banks: Anderson Banking Company; Batesville State Bank; Central National Bank of Greencastle; Citizens National Bank of Tipton; Elston Bank & Trust Company; Farmers National Bank of [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2008, 9:23am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Freeze The Foreclosures rally Thursday: Because enough is enough

  Have you noticed that in all the coverage of PNC’s takeover of National City and what it might mean for Cleveland — in jobs, in office occupancy, in season tickets to the Playhouse and contributions to United Way — not a single reporter seems to have asked PNC: What are [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2008, 2:39am EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• How I plan to vote on the City Charter Revision issues (Issues 35 through 40)

  Number of comments: 1
  A few days ago my former friend and neighbor Mark Schumann (uh, i’m sorry, I mean my friend and former neighbor) sent me a note asking for my opinion about Cleveland Issues 35 through 40 — the Charter Revision issues. Okay, I guess the time has come. Here are the six issues.  [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2008, 7:05pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan

• Using the bailout to buy “our” bank: The PD is disturbed

  So the PD editorial page finds it “disturbing” that the Bush Administration allowed encouraged PNC to use its “liquidity infusion” of $7 billion in bank bailout funds to buy National City, while giving National City a signal that it wasn’t going to get any bailout money so it had better [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2008, 2:51pm EDT
  by Bill Callahan