New T-Shirts & Hoodies Up at Rust Belt Pop

There are two new designs up at Rust Belt Pop. One for zombie lovers and one for scuba enthusiasts. Feel free to spend some of that Christmas cash your aunt gave you.

'I DON'T HAVE TO BE FASTER THAN THE ZOMBIES...JUST FASTER THAN YOU'

'DIVERS GO DEEP'

Hoodies and buttons are also available.

Fox News Good for a Laugh

As you can see from the picture above and from reading this article, airport metal detectors are useless, I mean just absolutely useless, at detecting explosives. They're really, really good at detecting metal like guns and knives but explosives? Fuggedaboutit.

Is it really news when a tool fails to perform a job that it isn't meant for? Is it any wonder people laugh when Fox News is cited as the source for anything?

The article isn't even written badly. It's basic premise is that a different type of security screening device would have detected the explosive the nutjob used to try and blow up Flight 253 on Christmas Day. The real problem is that the article is preceded by a headline Fox News is using to drum up some sort of controversy, thereby making the article more titillating. I can't wait to see more of these kinds of headlines:

"Calculators can't provide definitions for vocabulary words!"

"Toilet plunger can't loosen bolts on sink faucet!"

"Smoke detectors can't pick up Aunt Trudy's garlic breath!"

Carjackings in Hubbard and Liberty

Folks in Hubbard and Liberty will want to keep an eye out when entering or exiting their vehicles. Three carjackings have taken place in December, two on Westview Ave. in Hubbard and one up the road in Liberty on Ravine Dr. Hubbard usually doesn't have a lot of violent crime but it appears a group of criminals are targeting the area. The full article is in the Tribune today. Keep safe over the holidays, especially if you are opening a trunk full of presents.

Ray E. Lee III, 212 Grandview, told officers that he pulled his black Ford
Explorer to the side of the road and opened the back hatch to get something out.
A white Chevrolet Geo or a Prism pulled into the driveway across the street at
an abandoned house, two men got out, and one pressed a handgun against Lee's
back, police said. The man struck Lee in the face with the gun.

UPDATE: From WKBN TV 27-

Hubbard city police have arrested an 18-year-old Youngstown man on aggravated robbery charges.Police said they believe Lilton Morris is responsible for two carjackings that took place on Dec. 11 and Dec. 13.

Star Wars Weather Forecast: Youngstown is Like...

Hoth, of course. Check out the Star Wars weather forecast here.

Washington Post Article Focusing on Warren's Economy

This Washington Post article focusing on Warren captures the mood of the area with regard to job opportunities and the economy. Reporter Anne Hull did a good job of interviewing a mixed bag of folks, those who had good jobs and lost them when companies moved or went bankrupt and young people in their twenties who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan to find no jobs available.

The recession here wasn't a black hole at the end of a sustained boom, or downgrading from Target to Wal-Mart or cutting out $3 drinks at Starbucks. It was a confrontation with survival.
As other areas of the country start to revive, the recession's full force is still on display here. Winter has descended. Unemployment benefits are running out. New jobs have not appeared.

The article runs down a familiar list of closed manufacturers- Delphi Packard, Indalex, Halsey Taylor and General Electric. She does a good job of capturing just how hard these times are for folks who want nothing more than a damn paycheck.

"I get angry," Debbie Szykulski says. "Not out of jealousy, but that I can't find a job. I don't want a big fancy house. I want to be able to go out to dinner on a Friday night. I'd like to be able to send my grandson a little something in the mail. I would be happy with a minimum-wage-paying job, 40 hours a week, come home, spend time with my husband. And know that the next day, I can go into my job."

It's easy, sometimes, to write this blog and focus on the good things about the area. You want the place where you live to do well. You want others to see that the place you call home has more to offer than high crime statistics and unemployment. We want to shake off the weight of history and say that things can be better if we have learned our lessons well enough. All the things our parents taught us by telling us what was right and even the things they taught us when they didn't know we were watching. But we have to remember that thirty years after the steel mills closed we are still getting our asses handed to us on the economic front. People are leaving the Mahoning Valley because of a lack of opportunity and those who stay are fighting everyday just to have the simple pleasures in life.

We need a better plan. We need to focus on what we can do to help ourselves. There is plenty of this type of sentiment in the area but we need leaders who will come together and address problems as a region. Youngstown 2010 was a good start with so-so results but we need something larger in scope and commitment, something like Mahoning Valley 2020. It's up to us to find the leadership to do it.

The Sebring Deer Story Changes

The Vindicator is now reporting the lost deer in Sebring wasn't beat to death by an angry mob but rather had its throat humanely slit in order to euthanize it as it had become injured. This is in stark contrast to yesterday's article which quoted an Ohio Department of Natural Resources employee as saying that a crowd gathered and things "got out of control".

An injured deer was euthanized earlier this month, not beaten to death as some
claimed, police Chief Ray Heverly said Tuesday...The deer in Sebring hurt
itself, the police chief said. Because a wildlife official was too far away to
get to Sebring, an order was given to those at the scene to destroy it.
The chief said that the animal’s jugular vein was cut, and it quickly bled to death.
The chief did not state who euthanized the deer.

This is either sloppy reporting or spin to control the damage of having your city known as a place where angry mobs deliver beat downs to stray animals. Time will tell.

They're not Helping: Crowd in Sebring Beats Lost Deer to Death

Are you kidding me?

The Vindicator is reporting that a crowd of people in Sebring beat a lost deer to death with a board after it became lost in the city.

The killing occurred shortly before noon Dec. 2 in the 100 block of West
Ohio Avenue.
The deer had gone into a three-sided box created by a building
and two extending walls.
Left alone, the deer probably would have ventured
off, Graham said.
But instead of leaving the deer be, an undetermined number
of people began to gather.

I don't understand. Was the deer menacing people? Was it taking the lunch money of elementary school students? Had the deer made one redneck crack too many? Were these people fans of Euclid resident Dorothy Richardson? She beat a fawn to death with a shovel in October when it was discovered in her garden.

What possessed this group of people to look at the situation and determine the best thing to do was to grab a piece of scrap lumber and pound on this animal until it was dead? If a black bear had wandered into this area would this same bunch of tough guys face it down with nothing more than a 2 x 4?

The Mahoning Valley has a real problem with violence and a terrible reputation because of it. Acting like an out of control mob when Bambi wanders into town isn't helping the situation. Once this hits CNN or Fox the rest of the country will have one more reason to laugh at us.

Proposed Federal Funding Concentrates on Economic Development and includes a New Parking Deck for Downtown

The Business Journal has a nice article on items Congressman Tim Ryan has earmarked for Ohio's 17th district. The almost 8 million dollars in federal funding is aimed at increasing the economic development of the area. Included is $450,000 for a new parking deck to support phase 4 of the tech block downtown. The parking structure would feature a pedestrian walkway attached to the tech block.

Also in the bill is $200,000 to fund the Western Reserve Economic Development Initiative, which hopes to revitalize economy of Trumbull and Mahoning counties:

The goal is to expand the capabilities of the Western Reserve Port Authority to
areas beyond airport administration into the realm of marketing the region,
attracting new businesses, participating in financial deals to encourage new
investments that will serve to retain and create new jobs.

This is good news. The airport has never been properly managed as a tool to draw business to the area. Our geographic location is a postive aspect of the area that we are all familiar with but one I think we have failed to captialize on. Maybe the new head of the Port Authority, Rose Ann DeLeon, can change that. There is no good reason the area cannot be an intermodal transportation hub, given our position along I-80, a viable (and underused) airport and our rail capacity. I believe the marketing has always been inadequate.

A more complete list of projects and funding can be found here.

Forbes Ranks Youngstown as the 25th Best Bang for the Buck City in America

Forbes ranks Youngstown as one of the best bang for your buck cities in America, placing it at the 25th spot out of 100. They say, "Solid housing markets, relatively stable employment, enviable cost of living and quick commutes make these metros among the country's most affordable to live."

I think we all know how good we have it here. Housing is cheap compared to other places, like the south. Unemployment may be high but our geogrphical location lends itself well to commuting if you can score a job in Pittsburgh, Cleveland or Akron. Even our retail prices for food and gas are chepaer compared to some places I've traveled. It was nice of Forbes to notice that there are some positive elements to the city and surrounding communities.

Check the bottom of the Forbes screen in the link for their methodology.

Which Area Business Person Bribed Tsagaris and Cronin?

There's a mystery afoot in the Mahoning Valley. One of the area's successful "senior executives" is handing out no interest loans without a schedule for repayment to local politicians. One of these politicians, former Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas Judge Maureen Cronin has been charged with two felony counts in relation to this "loan" of $18,000. She then presided over several cases this unidentified businessman had before her.

The Feds say this case is related to the conviction of former Trumbull County Commissioner James Tsagaris. He received a "loan" in the amount of $36,551 from an unidentified business man in 2004.

Now gosh darn it, which local businessman has interests in both Mahoning and Trumbull county? Which area senior executive would have no compunction about handing an envelope stuffed with cash to a local politician?

Which local businessman is watching this news and waiting for the other shoe to drop?

I hope we find out soon. But this statement makes it seem like the name won't be dropped by the Feds:

Bill Edwards, a U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman, refused to disclose
the name of the senior business executive or that person’s company.

“We never name people who aren’t charged,” he said.

You see, Tsagaris and Cronin are really in trouble for not reporting the "loans" on state financial disclosure statements. These, it seems, are invaluable for making sure our elected officials aren't taking "loans" that don't need to be paid back.

Hopefully, someone with knowledge of this "senior executive's" involvement will come forth. As we've seen, having a connection to such a scurrilous person could be detrimental to a political career. I imagine it could be especially damaging if one had aspirations to high office.

In fact, this is the sort of thing a politician may want to get out in front of before some enterprising reporter builds a solid case and grabs a big headline.

Have You Seen James at War?

There's not much I like more than satire and a good spoof so I laughed pretty hard when I watched these two videos from James at War. I can't decide which I like better, Popstar, the spoof of Nickleback's "Rockstar" or the Twilight New Moon spoof.