willyboy

Uh Oh, I know these type of rumors are always flying but......... and I thought we had to worry more about Key... (until recently) WSJ: National City seeks a buyer National City Corp. 1:29 pm, March 13, 2008 The Wall Street Journal is reporting that beleaguered National City Corp. is looking for a buyer. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” The Journal states that investment bankers for National City are shopping the banking company around. The Journal said a National City spokeswoman told the newspaper the company doesn’t talk about merger speculation. National City’s woes have been well-documented. The company has taken significant writedowns on the value of its loan portfolio because of its volume of mortgages tied to the subprime lending mess. It reported a fourth-quarter loss of $333 million, and in January slashed its quarterly dividend by 49% in an effort to conserve capital. National City also has been looking to line up additional capital to shore up its ailing finances. In the last few months, National City has been hit with at least nine lawsuits that seek to represent as a class investors or employees who have lost money as the company’s stock has tumbled over the last year. The company’s stock closed on Thursday, March 12, at $14.71, down 62% from its 52-week high of $38.32.

Just a verbal agreement so far... County reaches verbal pact on medical mart By JAY MILLER March 13, 2008 There is a deal — at least a verbal one — for a medical mart in Cleveland. Cuyahoga County commissioners heard Thursday from attorney Fred Nance, their chief negotiator, that Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. of Chicago has agreed in principal to invest $20 million to operate a medical mart that will be built here in conjunction with a new, publicly financed $400 million convention center. The private investment was critical to the deal and was extracted from Merchandise Mart Properties only after the negotiations got down to the wire... More at: http://www.crainscleveland.com

Yeah I know, but what Im saying still applies... incorporating what should be an asset into the concept, instead of figuring out hodge podge uses for something that wont have one. If they came up with some grand plan for production studios and incorporated the Public hall spaces into things associated with that, (movie premieres etc..) then I would feel better about it. We shall see....

I kind of figure as much. It just dont like the thought of something that is already there being abondoned, and I really think that along with some of the positives of the current site, that the current public hall complex could have been very complementary to the MM and convention center in that it is connected and could maybe host special exhibits, or used for demonstrations of new inovations by the Clinic, or even entertainment. I just hate to see those facilities just sit there, and further have uses taken away from them instead of being embraced and incorporated into something that would give them more of a purpose. We have something unique in place that I think other and bigger cities would kill for, so I hate that they wouldnt take advantage of that.

And the few UO people that post there seem to at least try to set them straight about their negative un-educated views (and at least show another view point that they obviously havent considered) But still depressing to read. I saw where the MM wasnt really requiring all that much room.. Was it something like 50,000 sq. ft. initially? Also, on the Tech Czar blog, he stated that the Higbee building was an awful location. I wonder what his reasoning was here... (maybe would be too separated from the C.C.?)

Agree... Probably not a racist, but a moron.

cle2032, maybe I wasnt reading your post right, but what was wrong with Brothers?

Somehow I think the original point was lost...

It is a Latin Brand selling Latin food. In South Florida Im pretty sure that would be the market.

If your saying, they advertise to generic audiences, and you would see the same commercial on a spanish channel that you would with a white family, all that says is they are advertising their product which is Latin foods to the different segments that would buy Latin foods (Traditional Latin families as well as others that buy Latin food) So I would see your point if there was a comapany that sold Latin food with non-generic ads, that didnt cater to Latins but only whites saying something like "Latin food for the rest of us" The main difference is that the wine ad is not generic in those terms. The keyword being "generic"

"Yes and they advertise to "generic" audiences. The same commercial you would see on a spanish TV channel would be done on broadcast tv with a "white" family in english." Which is also why I dont see it as the same.

OK, I guess I didnt initially read it that way because they were also saying "the wine industry has historically overlooked the African-American community" MTS, I dont see it as the same difference as GOYA, dont they specialize in Latin foods and therefore market as such?

You pretty much have to click on the link to see what ForeverGlow is talking about. I now see what your saying. If nothing else, some of it does seem to target African Amercians (and "Our Wine" kind of gives the impression that its strictly targeted that way), which is fine if they want to do that. But it also says "while maintaining elements and character loved by traditional wine drinkers" and "wine lovers from all walks of life can appreciate" I just wonder where they came to the conclusion that "the wine industry has historically overlooked the African-American community", I agree this is some strange language.. (hasnt the wine industry targeted the wine drinker?) The two decided to create a wine brand that embraced African-American culture, while maintaining elements and character loved by traditional wine drinkers. Their passion for fine wine and discovering that the wine industry has historically overlooked the African-American community, led to the formation of this brand. Wine lovers from all walks of life can appreciate the brand of wines created by Markell-Bani. Whether you are a novice wine drinker or connoisseur, Markell-Bani fine wines can be experienced and enjoyed by all. Regardless of your socio-economic status, occupation, or lifestyle, Markell-Bani has the right wine for the right occasion. Consumers should not feel intimidated when it comes to selecting a wine. They should be able to make the choice with confidence. Choose Markell-Bani with confidence. It’s our culture, our style, and our wine.

It started out in the Warehouse District, I believe where Liquid is. It does have corporate feel to it though, and they did open an outpost in Cincinatti that I believe didnt make it.

Fat Fish Blue is a Cleveland Independent (born and bred). But Hullihans is a corporate place.

On this very topic, here is an intersting article/opinion written by an African American (oops, Canadian). Some good points, but obviously rather one sided, so I dont necessarily agree with all of it. Note the comments that follow it. http://allafrica.com/stories/200803100828.html

While I agree with some of the reasoning behind Ohio's stance on candidate's, I think this would be a similar case in any similar blue collar type State (ex. Michigan would likely have the same outcome). There is definately a prevailing blue collar mentality that would prevent some people from voting for an African American, but the same mentality also would prevent others from voting for a woman. I think we all have seen where some have decided not to vote for Obama based on what they may have heard without educating themselves and doing their research. For many it was based on what they didn’t know about Obama, and maybe they're own laziness to actually educating themselves about him (then making an educated decision (although I have also argued it the other way for other demographics (young adults/college age kids and African Americans). It is a rather broad assumption and sweeping generalization to say that "the only reason not to vote for Obama over Hillary is based on extraneous reason, most obvious being the color of his skin." (doesnt that mentality equally weaken X's argument of what he views of Hillary supporters as "anyone who is supporting Obama is somehow not in their right mind".) How much do you think that the African American support for Obama is based strictly on him being African American as opposed to anything else (in a similar but opposite way that others in your argument would not vote for him)? And where do you think this puts the proportion of voting/do you think this balances the argument in any way?

Clvlndr As amusing as the Daily Kos is to read, you have to take much of it with a grain….. The reason there was little outrage for the purposed shading is because it has been found to be unsubstantiated and frankly un-true (which apparently you have chosen to ignore). So no other legitimate publication would have picked it up as news. It’s not likely you are going to find the most rational or factual interpretations on a very liberal or very conservative blog. (I find it just as amusing when my born again military brother sends me things from the ultra conservative blog that he subscribes to that says Obama is “connected to terrorists” (you can only laugh). You may want to believe the worst in somebody just because you don’t like them, but you should employ some sort of logical standard when doing so. There is a lot of good, balance reading out there based on factual information. On Power's resignation: Power most immediately resigned to not draw controversy to a campaign that is supposed to be priding itself on running a hopeful campaign “free of gratuitous negativity and name calling". I also think this will be good for the Obama campaign in the long term since, (and I know that he is supposed to have a better team then Hillary). There has been some contradicting language from some of Obama’s senior campaign workers and what Obama is saying on the campaign trail. (Power, expressing her doubt that he would be able to carry through his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months, while other advisor's have contradicted Obama’s campaign stance on things like NAFTA). I know some on here see Obama as being constantly attacked from different directions, but this is likely to only increase when you have contradicting things coming out of the campaign (possibly further bringing into question his ability to make an educated decision) as well as not having the history where this has already happened, and of course going up against a Republican opponent. . Finally, I only saw further controversy on the horizon with Power’s position as an important foreign policy advisor to Obama when you look at some of her controversial views. Here is a good example of that: “Among her more controversial positions has been avowed support for intervention against Israel to secure a Palestinian state. In a 2002 interview at Berkeley, Power proposed that instead of encouraging negotiations between Israelis and Arabs, the United States should spend "billions of dollars" to send a "meaningful military" force to effect the "imposition of a solution" and create "the new state of Palestine" beside Israel. Probably best that Obama steers clear of that.

More Tower City news: Store lineup changes again at Tower City Posted by Zachary Lewis March 07, 2008 17:58PM Categories: Breaking News Just as people come and go at Tower City Center every day, so do the retail shops. Especially now, when retailers everywhere are folding or contracting. The latest changes at the downtown mall were announced Friday More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com

Yeah, just a little bit larger. :-o

Oh, and heres a much more detailed analysis of the same findings. http://www.newsweek.com/id/119073

Nice try... Factcheck.org: Clinton Camp Did NOT Darken Obama's Skin in Ad March 06, 2008 1:43 PM Our friends at Factcheck.org assess the claim made by some liberal bloggers that the Clinton camp appeared to have darkened Obama's skin in a TV ad. They find the claim to be without merit, saying "without further evidence to the contrary, we see no reason to conclude that this is anything more than a standard attempt to make an attack ad appear sinister, rather than a special effort to exploit racial bias as some Obama supporters are saying." Factcheck.org acknowledges that the "Obama frames from the ad do appear darker than other video of Obama from the same event" but say a digital recording of the ad as it actually appeared on TV shows Obama as lighter than the Youtube clips the bloggers were using. "Furthermore, our analysis of the Obama frames, using Photoshop, shows a fairly uniform darkening of the entire image including the backdrop. It is not just Obama's skin color that's affected...nearly all the images in the ad are dark, including those of Hillary Clinton. And dark images are a common technique used in attack ads." A lot of people commenting to my original post said that Obama was playing the race card. As I stated then, Obama's campaign had nothing to do with the question being raised, it was liberal bloggers -- Obama supporters, perhaps, but not the campaign.

And while I think any supporters can say plenty of idiotic things, this has definitely overwhelmingly been my experience as well, but I guess I was partly attributing it to maybe Obama's "broader" base of support. "I'm seriously considering not supporting Clinton in the general election if she becomes the candidate because of the _sshole attitude that her supporters have projected. Suggesting that all Obama supporters are hypnotised, starry eyed, sheepish or cult like isn't winning me over. Let's not forget who has gone negative here, as well." And X, you might want to rethink that line of reasoning, with todays news of the Hillary "monster" comment. Its one thing to have idiotic supports saying stupid things, but its quite another to have it coming from people in your campaign.

Did you not try the "Osborn Building"

I was actually just thinking the exact same thing..