Program Directory

Feagler and Friends - Bush on the War

Feagler and Friends

Newsmaker: Thomas Bier, director, Center for Housing Research and Policy, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Public Affairs, Cleveland State University. Dr. Bier is critical of Ohio Department of Transportation's plan for a redesigned Cleveland innerbelt. The project, scheduled for launch in 2009, would reduce the number of on/off ramps and straighten out existing sharp curves on the innerbelt. Bier says the design will squeeze traffic leaving the freeway onto narrow arterials, creating the possibility of horrific jams.

Roundtable: Mark Naymik, politics reporter, The Plain Dealer; Elizabeth Sullivan, foreign affairs writer, The Plain Dealer; Greg Saber, reporter, WTAM 1100.

GOP Convention Committee: Will the Republicans hold their biggest party of all in the state's biggest Democratic stronghold? The GOP's convention site selection committee visited Cleveland this week for a sample of North Coast hospitality and a look at all that Cleveland would have to offer as a site for the 2008 convention. Committee members were feted at the Rock Hall and Quicken Loans Arena. Cleveland is competing with Tampa-St. Petersburg, New York City and Minneapolis.

Newspaper Layoffs: Management of the Akron Beacon Journal announced this week that 39 newsroom staffers will close their jobs as the newspaper seeks to bring spending in line with revenues. The layoffs had been expected since sale of the Beacon Journal to Black Press, Ltd. of Canada. Management says more layoffs are a possibility unless the paper's advertising revenue picks up. Nationwide, newspaper revenue dipped 2.1% in July.

Bush on the War: President Bush told reporters at a news conference this week that the war in Iraq "is straining the psyche of the country." But the President added U.S. troops won't give up the fight in Iraq as long as he's president. Two of the top American generals in Iraq, however, say they've been progress in securing the safety of Baghdad. General John Abizaid says civil war is possible, but it's a far off possibility.

Pluto: If planets had feelings, Pluto would have clear case of Venus-envy. An international group of astronomers has demoted Pluto to dwarf-planet status, leaving our solar system with eight planets instead of the nine learned by generations of school kids since the discovery of Pluto in 1930. The International Astronomical Union says Pluto failed to make the cut because its orbit crosses that of the eighth planet, Neptune.

August 28, 2006