Did anyone else notice the difference in tone, style and content between two Plain Dealer columnists on Sunday speaking about the dilemma of the Ohio state budget?

I did.

Larkin zeroed in on Gov. Ted Strickland for the financial mess - $1 billion shortfall - in Columbus using strikingly different language than long-time State House watcher Tom Suddes.

Larkin rapped Strickland with such wording as “breathtaking ineptitude” and depending on legal advice from the firm of “Barnum & Bailey” and describing Strickland’s attempt to balance the budget with slots as “pathetic performance,” something I might join with him.

Descriptive language but hardly even-handed. Particularly when you consider Larkin was the PD editorial boss during the truly pathetic Taft years.

Larkin even had the nerve to contrast Strickland with former Gov. Bob Taft, citing a job producing effort. I guess Larkin hasn’t noticed that jobs pour out not into Ohio in gusher style under Taft. Here’s Larkin’s take:
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/09/gov_strickland_is_sinking_fast.html

Suddes rapped Strickland, too, after the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling that the slots issue had to go to the voters.

Plain Dealer management people now face the same fate as union editorial staff and reporters – job loses – despite a long-standing promise called the “Newhouse Pledge” of no layoffs.

According to a piece in Poynter web site by Mark Holan the Pledge will go out of business on Feb. 5, 2010.

Nolan reported, “The so-called ‘Newhouse Pledge,’ named after the family that founded and controls the New York-based media company, guaranteed that in most cases, employees would never be laid off. The pledge, which according to a recently filed lawsuit has been in place for at least 25 years, applied to all full-time, non-union employees. Newhouse has a reputation of being an anti-union company, and some believe the pledge was intended partly to discourage employees from organizing.”

Holan adds, “But like hot type and afternoon editions, the pledge has become a relic.”

The PD has had significant job lost in its editorial staff, some 40 percent of the editorial staff, according to some reports.

Many notice that the Plain Dealer has reduced its size and content in recent times.

A publisher at the Newhouse’s Mobile Press-Register has decided to use the pledge as a means to sue Newhouse for his dismissal.

As the Pee Dee propagandizes for the Casino industry, the Columbus Dispatch editorially says, “No Thanks!”

At the same time, the Pee Dee has a cartoon front-page heralding a poll saying Ohioans want the casinos.

The Dispatch said that casinos COST a community $3 for every $1 of benefit.

In an editorial today the Columbus Dispatch reminded voters that allowing casinos into their communities invites “corrosive influences.”

The Dispatch noted that casinos would pour money into buying the allegiance of state lawmakers with campaign contributions.

The paper also cites the fact that the Ohio Fraternal Order o Police, which is backing Issue 3, has been promised 2 percent of receipts by the casinos for “police training,” suggesting a payoff.

The paper also has reported that the casinos have promised annual contributions to Experience Columbus – the city’s convention bureau.

Experience Columbus has endorsed the casinos.

The suggestion is that the city’s convention center has been bought off by the casino, which will have a monopoly in Columbus as it would in Cleveland if Issue 3 passes.

In Cleveland Positively Cleveland – this city’s convention bureau – has endorsed casinos.

If you don’t have enough reasons to vote against gambling casinos, Brian Rothenberg, director of ProgressOHIO, has some gems. As the fact that in the first three years of legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City it went from 50th in crime to NO. 1.

Oh, just what Cleveland needs, right?

He also notes that casino licenses in the U. S. typically go for from $300 million to $500 million. Why not, it’s a license to take someone’s money. In Ohio the price tag for a casino monopoly: $50 million.

Cleveland does everything on the cheap, why not this?

He’s got more info on his site here:

When the Pee Dee editorial board gets Dan Gilbert, Mayor Frank Jackson, Council President Marty Sweeney, Greater Cleveland Partnership boss Joe Roman and Squire-Sanders managing partner Fred Nance in one room you know the bullshit is knee high or higher.

The result of the meeting: a free Page One ad for Gilbert’s desired casino and a lot of pap about he’s not going to build a hotel immediately and the Cleveland police therefore favor the casino issue.

Please!

The cops are in favor because they’ll have lucrative second security jobs, much preferable to the jobs they’re hired to do for the people of Cleveland. But who cares about them. Nice also to put cops and gamblers closer together. A civic favor, huh? Thank you Pee Dee for helping.

Billionaire Gilbert isn’t going to build a hotel so he won’t compete with other hotels, even though he says that other downtown hotels are only half filled. Likely, he’ll wait until the Medical Mart and Convention Center are built then ask for public funds because downtown NEEDS a hotel to satisfy a great need for Cleveland. Not my pocketbook, you understand but for the betterment of Cleveland. Have we heard these lies before? The Pee Dee prints them by the ton.

For some of us the recession is nasty but for minorities it’s a devastating Depression.

That’s the real conclusion of a study by the Center for American Progress.

The report notes that the “severity of the recession has erased most of the modest gains that families experienced in a few areas during the past business cycle from 2002 to 2007, such as homeownership.”

“The decline in economic security during the recession is much sharper for minorities than whites,” the report said.

The report notes poverty at 9.1 percent for whites, 31.2 percent for African-Americans and 28.4 Hispanics.

Those latter figures for minorities show a Depression, not a recession.

Special efforts need to be made on a national level to address these disparities.

Every day in every way, Mayor Frank Jackson is a disappointment.

Jackson today endorsed casinos – Issue 3 – as an economic development gain for downtown Cleveland. It will take money out of Cleveland, that’s what it would do.

Vote NO on 3.

“Mayor Jackson’s vision of revitalizing Cleveland is having 25,000 people living downtown, thousands of people working downtown and 150,000 additional people visiting downtown. ‘Although not a panacea, I believe this casino will go a long way in helping to achieve that vision,’ said Mayor Jackson,” a press release by e-mail said.

Not a panacea is the line the casino people are pushing.

Bruce Ratner and Forest City Ratner made a deal with Russia’s richest man for the New Jersey Nets and a major Brooklyn project called Atlantic Yards.

The project was facing financial difficulties.

A Brooklyn community organization, headed by Daniel Goldstein, which has been fighting the development, sent out an e-mail message denouncing the deal. The project includes a proposed arena for the Jets team, owned by Bruce Ratner.

Goldstein in a blistering analysis labeled the Atlantic Yards now as “Oligarch Field.”

The organization is named Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and its reaction to the deal follows:

NEW YORK, BROOKLYN, MOSCOW — Enter the oligarch. Start the vetting.

Just when you thought the Atlantic Yards project couldn’t get more corrupt, developer Bruce Ratner has announced a partnership with Russia’s richest oligarch, Mikhail Prokhorov, in an attempt to rescue the floundering Atlantic Yards project. The precise terms of the deal, in a signed letter of intent, are not clear, but the oligarch's Onexim Group would invest $200 million and make certain contingent funding commitments to acquire 45% of the arena project and 80% of the NBA team, and the right to purchase up to 20% of the Atlantic Yards Development Company, which would develop the non-arena real estate (16 proposed skyscrapers).

If there’s going to be an investigation of the integrity of commercial property appraisals here, we ought to also probe tax reductions awarded to downtown property owners by official County and State of Ohio agents.

County Treasurer Jim Rokakis, concerned about the validity of commercial property appraisals because of the corruption charges involving County Auditor Frank Russo, has requested a probe by state officials. Rokakis apparently doesn’t trust the values on commercial properties. Who would?

The values given properties, of course, provide the measure of the taxes property owner’s pay. The lower the value the lesser taxes are due to be paid.

Commercial property owners are expected to seek large reductions in property values next year. They have lawyers and ability – far greater than ordinary homeowners – to pursue reductions. This could have a serious impact on Cleveland schools and the city. Cleveland schools get the majority share of property tax revenue.

It will be most important for the news media, particularly the Plain Dealer, to closely follow and report request by the big property owners for reductions. The slow economy suggests that many commercial entities will seek reductions by claiming tough economic circumstances.

A watchful eye provides needed oversight of both public agencies and private interests.

The fact that Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the National Basketball Association will own casinos is reason for a NO vote against the casino issue on the November ballot.

I can’t understand how NBA chief David Stern can look the other way when one of his franchise owners combines basketball in Cleveland with a casino.

The NBA and Stern were marred when the FBI investigated and found that NBA referee Tim Donaghy was betting on games he officiated.

It seems to me that not only does it put the NBA in a ticklish situation but it also puts Cleveland Cavalier players in a bad position.

Would LeBron James, for example, spend some time in Gilbert’s casino after Cavs games? Would he be barred? If he were barred, why would he be barred? Or Delonte West?

It raises serious questions. If he were barred one reason obviously would be that he’d likely be rubbing shoulders with bettor on Cavs games.

Now you wouldn’t expect that James would have to ingratiate himself with gamblers but you never know, do you?

Stern admitted that half of NBA referees violated the league’s no gambling rule by visiting casinos in one year. Stern took the violations lightly, saying that the rule was “overly broad.”

Awfully lenient of Stern.