Rich people HATE to pay taxes. They pinch pennies. The squeeze real hard.

This is what passes as news at Ch. 8, Fox’s WJW-TV these days.

I didn’t really know until today that the Pee Dee endorsed torture.

I’ve been stirring memories as I look through memorabilia as I near 50 years of news reporting. I came across two long interviews with Dr. Benjamin Spock from 1967.

Here’s how honest Jeff Jacobs is.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is planning to drop “Transit” from its name. You can tell that because it keeps eliminating transportation for people. In fact, it can change its name to the Greater Cleveland Downtown Pleasing Authority.

How pathetic can you get, Pee Dee?

Read the comment by East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer on the Plain Dealer. He's responding to an article on county reform by the Pee Dee.

It's amusing and informative.  See here: http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/entrenched_interests_are_fight.html

Now is the time for those who believe Mayor Frank Jackson isn't the Mayor Cleveland Needs. PREPARE. Not for election 2009 but for the next election in 2013.

RTA has decided to cut the services to the most transit-dependent. Not enough money, they say. Can’t you just accept that? What are you crying about?

This is not a summer reading list but a list of reading for anyone who wants to know more about Cleveland, its people - the good and bad - and its history.

Mayor Michael White almost helped derail tax abatement in the late 1990s when his brutal attacks to portray Cleveland teachers as greedy backfired.

Can this be catching on? Parma Heights turns down a tax abatement request by Tony George, a political connected guy.

Enough! This is how cities should greet greedy, hands-out corporate interests that want to play one off against the other. Home Depot doesn’t deserve welfare.

I was passing by the Park Building on Public Square and Ontario recently and stopped to ask about the new condominiums promoted for the old office building.

The Plain Dealer did an excellent job of displaying and explaining the divisions of the County Reform ballot proposal the newspaper supports. But I’m wondering if “division” isn’t the operating word in its presentation.

You could hear the envy in his voice as he grumbles that when Jeff Johnson walks into a room all eyes moved to him. He takes the air out of the room, said a friendly rival.

Editor Susan Goldberg of the Plain Dealer called to say that the attempt to lure resident out of Cleveland by an “over aggressive” salesperson was sent to only one mayor – in Rocky River and has been stopped.

The Plain Dealer should desist and apologize for trying to lure city employees to the suburbs.

Civic corruption comes in many forms. We have been hearing a lot about corruption these days. However, the focus is very narrow. Unnecessarily so.

The Cuyahoga County Public Library system’s threat to close libraries on Sunday - which they say is its busiest day – makes no sense at all.

Cuyahoga County Commissioners dug themselves a big financial hole by purchasing the Ameritrust property from Dick Jacobs. Now they are getting ready to dig a bigger hole for the Medical Mart.

Sometimes you try to put people into boxes they don’t fit into. Mayor Frank Jackson is one of those people difficult to place. At least for me.

Is RTA taking us on another ride? As a transit system, it seems more like a servant of the same old special interests when it should be taking care of transit-dependent citizens.

He’s slipping. But Public Enemy No. 1’s portrait still makes the front page of the Plain Dealer this morning.