Cincinnati was abuzz this week heading into the annual matchup between the city’s major collegiate basketball programs, Cincinnati and Xavier. Coming into the game, Xavier was ranked as the 8th best team in the nation and so it wasn’t surprising that as the final seconds ticked off the clock, Xavier was winning by a comfortable margin.
Several years ago, when The Ohio State University gave a new contract to then head football coach Jim Tressel, Case Study examined the terms of the coach’s contract. With Tressel now working as a game day consultant for the winless Indianapolis Colts (and rumored to be under consideration to coach at UCLA), it seems only fair to give the same scrutiny to the contract signed by new head coach Urban Meyer.
The investigation into alleged sexual abuse by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has brought the attention of Americans back to grand juries more clearly than since the days of the grand jury investigation of the actions of then President Bill Clinton. I wrote about the Grand Jury system for one of the first Case Study columns nearly seven years ago and, as more than six years have passed since then, it’s probably about time to address the topic again.
Thanksgiving is behind us and thus a new season is upon us — Michigan season. After all, Thanksgiving was yesterday and Advent doesn’t begin until Sunday, so something has to fill the gap. In Ohio, that something is clearly focused on the football game to be played tomorrow in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Just one week ago I used this space to note a BBC report on the epidemic of child abuse in America which stressed the fact that only vigilance and reporting by the public can help stop the cycle of violence against children. Our child protection services caseworkers and police investigators do a spectacular job of investigating abuse after it has occurred but we perpetuate that abuse if we see the signs of it and fail to report it.
You know that you have a substantial domestic problem when news agencies an ocean away take note of it. It caught my attention, therefore, when the British Broadcasting Corporation recently completed a report titled, “Major Epidemic: The Untold Story of Child Abuse in the U.S.”
By all accounts, what happened Tuesday night and Wednesday in Muskingum County was the largest exotic animal escape in American history. Some 56 animals, most of them large cats, bears and wolves, escaped from a private farm near Zanesville shortly before dark on Tuesday when their owner released them from their cages, cut the cage wires to prevent the cages from being reclosed and then committed suicide.
This past Saturday night found me in one of my favorite places — Gray Chapel — on the evening of a Central Ohio Symphony concert. On the long list of things I love about my adopted hometown of Delaware, the symphony is right up at the top. In particular, I was looking forward to the performance of Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, which would close the performance, and is one of my favorite pieces of music.