Roundtable: Brian Tucker, publisher & editorial director, Crain’s Cleveland Business; Laura Johnston, managing producer, Northeast Ohio Media Group; David Arredondo, vice-chairman, Lorain County Republican Party.
Castro’s Suicide
Just months after his reign of terror over three young Cleveland women ended, Ariel Castro added a final postscript to the story by taking his own life at the Orient prison near Columbus. Castro hanged himself as he awaited transfer to a prison where he would have served out the remainder of his life term. Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty scoffed, “This man couldn’t take, for even a month, a small portion of what he had dished out for more than a decade.”
Ex-May Co. Building May be New Apartments
Downtown’s explosion as a residential center may soon get a huge boost if developers can consummate plans to turn the former May Company building into apartments. The Public Square building has been largely vacant since the department store shut down 20 years ago. Developers say the apartments will be part of a $100-million project if they can secure the funding and requisite tax breaks.
Medicaid Expansion
A group of Medicaid expansion backers hopes it’s come up with a way to force the Ohio General Assembly to take a vote on expanding Medicaid. Either that or the group will get enough signatures to take an initiative to the statewide ballot in 2014. The group this week filed the paperwork necessary to begin the petition drive.
Syria Developments
The Obama administration is putting pressure on Congress to back a plan for a limited military strike on Syria. It has made limited headway. House leaders, including speaker John Boehner of Ohio, indicated broad support. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted narrowly to support limited intervention. Obama still needs to scale a wall of cynicism on Capitol Hill and on Main Street America where polls show most opposed to U.S. involvement in Syria.