Morning News Archives
July - September 2001

• September 2001
• August 2001
• July 2001

Terrorist Attacks - The Youth Response
The attacks of September 11 sent a wake-up call throughout American society. How to protect the nation from future acts of terrorism has become a dominant concern for many of us. High school and college students across the country have also begun thinking about what a war against terrorism might mean for them. Many echo their parent's resolve to support some kind of military action, while a few say they want no part of war. But apparently most do not see the events of the last two weeks as an immediate call to arms. 90.3 WCPN®'s Karen Schaefer reports. Aired September 28, 2001.

Cleveland Security
America lost more than lives and buildings following last week's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The country also lost its sense of security. As individuals, many here in Cleveland are still dealing with fears about traveling by air or working in buildings that could be targets for terrorism. Others remain shaken by the mere fact of a direct attack on American soil. But as we move towards regaining our sense of safety, most of us recognize that some things may never be the same again. 90.3 WCPN®'s Karen Schaefer reports. Aired September 20, 2001.

A National Trauma
The surviving victims of disaster scenes can carry hidden wounds that only surface with time. Now that the initial shock of the World Trade Center collapse has passed, some local psychological counselors are concerned about the after-effects of September 11th on individuals - and on the nation as a whole. 90.3 WCPN®'s David C. Barnett prepared this report. Aired September 19, 2001.

Ethnic Intimidation
Cleveland's Arab-American community has been the target of some of the anger generated by the tragedies of last week. There have been several reports of general harassment and vandalism, a firebombing at a Bedford Gurdwaras, or Sihk place of Worship, and last night a car slammed through the entrance of the Grand Mosque in Parma. Arab-Americans are pleading with the community not to link them with the senseless acts of a few Muslim fanatics, and community leaders are backing them up. 90.3 WCPN®'s Bill Rice reports. Aired September 18, 2001.

Conversing With Children About Terror
Cleveland's teachers are facing new challenges this week as they deal with student questions and reactions to last week's terrorist attacks. And as 90.3 WCPN®'s Renita Jablonski reports, conversation is key. Aired September 17, 2001.

On-Site Clinics at the Workplace
Some large corporations are finding employees can get more work done by having a doctor's office right at the job site. After all, sick workers want to stay home or must leave early to get medical help. But how safe are your medical secrets when your boss pays the doctor's bill? 90.3 WCPN®'s Mike West examines the issue. Aired September 13, 2001.

Cleveland Reacts to the Terror
Streets in Cleveland were kept as clear as the skies last night as Mayor Mike White urged people to stay away from downtown. Police remained on high alert. While Cleveland is far away from Washington and New York, 90.3 WCPN®'s Janet Babin reports that the miles were not enough to insulate the city from the impact of the country's tragedy. Aired September 12, 2001.

DeRolph Decision Local Reaction
Local reaction to the Supreme Court's latest decision on school funding has been, for the most part, cautious, but preliminary assessments indicate only marginal satisfaction with the ruling. 90.3 WCPN®'s Bill Rice has more. Aired September 7, 2001.

Ohio Lake Erie Conference
The Ohio Lake Erie Commission held its annual conference in Mentor yesterday. Among other business, the Commission released its first progress report on a strategic plan to restore and protect the Lake Erie watershed. But it may be the upcoming work of a Commission subcommittee that will have the greatest impact on the future health of the Lake Erie ecosystem. WCPN®'s Karen Schaefer has this report. Aired September 7, 2001.

Mayors and the Media
Cleveland's mayoral candidates are on the prowl, looking for coverage and endorsements from local news outlets. It may be a bit early to say how well the candidates are doing, getting their message out, but it's already clear most of them are working on presenting themselves as approachable. Whoever inherits the front office at 601 Lakeside will inherit a press corps toughened by 12 years of Mike White. The new mayor's relations with these reporters will set the tone for the next four years. 90.3 WCPN®'s April Baer reports. Aired September 6, 2001.

Adding the Arts to Cleveland's Political Agenda
With a month to go before Cleveland's primary election, mayoral candidates are putting out position papers on their building blocks for a better city. Stronger schools, safer neighborhoods and more jobs are common themes. But, members of the local arts community think that their needs are being ignored. 90.3 WCPN®'s David C. Barnett reports on a call to add arts and culture to Cleveland's political agenda. Aired September 5, 2001.

Police Manhunt Ends Empty-Handed
A convenience store robbery led to a full-blown manhunt in mid-town Cleveland yesterday. 90.3 WCPN®'s Karen Schaefer was on the scene. Aired August 31, 2001.

Solidarity and Support
Thousands of older Clevelanders are finding themselves with unexpected lifestyle changes and new responsibilities. They include a myriad of physical, personal and emotional challenges - an outgrowth of having to become a parent all over again. Kinship care is on the rise, and as 90.3 WCPN®'s Renita Jablonski tells us in our continuing, in-depth series "They Call Me Momma: Relatives Raising Children," grandparents are looking for solidarity and support. Aired August 28, 2001.

Kirk Middle School Debate
An East Cleveland School slated to open this week will be closed until further notice. School officials voted last night to close Kirk Middle School because of lingering problems with black mold and asbestos in the auditorium. The school is finding itself in the middle of a nationwide debate over aging schools. Historic preservationists treasure many of these older buildings, claiming they could become national landmarks, but many school officials say new buildings are cheaper and more practical. Is Kirk Middle School an historic wonder that should be restored to glory, or a dilapidated eye sore? 90.3 WCPN®'s Janet Babin has the story. Aired August 28, 2001.

An Environmental Agenda for Cleveland's New Mayor
This year's slate of candidates will have to deal with an extensive agenda of pressing issues, not the least of which is the environment. While not everyone will agree that environmental concerns are the most urgent ones facing the city's new chief executive officer, there are many who believe that a clean and healthy environment is key to the city's ability to attract new jobs and encourage economic growth. 90.3 WCPN®'s Karen Schaefer has this report on an environmental agenda for the next mayor of Cleveland. Aired August 22, 2001.

Community Concerns in Ward 3 Race
Despite a drop in crime and efforts to revitalize the community, Ward 3, Cleveland's Mount Pleasant neighborhood, continues to struggle with it's image. And with the council race just a few months away, residents who find themselves alienated are looking for a leader to help restore that sense of pride. 90.3 WCPN®'s Tarice Sims reports. Aired August 21, 2001

Welfare Reform Hits Home
Welfare reform efforts in Cuyahoga County have taken a big hit since the new state budget went into effect. Earlier this summer the legislature axed more than $65 million from the last budget's allotment to the county for welfare-to-work programs. That nearly 65% cut is being felt right now as local community organizations trim or suspend their programs. 90.3 WCPN®'s Bill Rice reports. Aired August 20, 2001.

Police and Fire Unions Ask Council for Help
Safety activists were pleased this week (August 15, 2001) to see City Council override a mayoral veto, and support a resolution on the city's fireboat crews. Council wants to see fireboats in the Flats staffed full-time; City Hall says on-call staff would meet safety needs along the Cuyahoga - and cost taxpayers less. This week's vote was not binding, but council members believe it will send a strong message to Cleveland's next mayor that fire safety should be a priority. Some safety advocates were disappointed, however at what was not on Council's agenda this week. Officials representing police and firefighters hoped council would vote to strengthen their position in negotiating city contracts. The controversial proposal has pitted union against union, and may provide fodder for opponents of sitting council members. 90.3 WCPN®'s April Baer reports. Aired August 17, 2001.

African American Women's Agenda For Next Mayor
More than 240,000 African Americans live in the city of Cleveland and over half are women. Recently a group of these women organized to try to translate the sheer numbers into political power. With the changeover in the mayoral office a given this election, these women are saying now is the time to propose their agenda ultimately offering a choice to potential candidates: meet our needs or lose our vote. 90.3 WCPN®'s Tarice Sims reports. Aired August 10, 2001

Sheriden Cave Revisited
Earlier this summer, we heard a report about one of the richest North American discoveries of fossils from Ice Age mammals found right here in Ohio. Sheriden Cave near Findlay, Ohio has yielded not only the bones of these extinct animals, but a cache of ancient hunting tools left by one of the first groups of people to cross the Bering Land Bridge to the New World. Archaeologists and paleontologists are still working to interpret these finds and their significance in the massive extinctions that took place at the end of the last glacial period. But now the question is how to preserve and interpret this site for future generations. From Sheriden Cave, 90.3 WCPN®'s Karen Schaefer reports. Aired August 9, 2001

Brook Park IX Center Vote Passes
After almost 11 years in the making, Brookpark residents sealed the deal on a land swap that will allow the expansion of Hopkins Airport to take off. Under the plan, penned by Cleveland Mayor Mike White and Brookpark Mayor Tom Coyne, Cleveland will buy the IX Center, as well as 135 acres of undeveloped land, and nearly 500 Brookpark homes, making room for a new runway. In exchange, Brookpark gets the NASA Glenn Research Center and ten years of IX Center taxes. 90.3 WCPN®'s Renita Jablonski has more on the story. Aired August 8, 2001

Protecting Ohio's Isolated Wetlands
Ohio has a new law that protects wetlands, but environmentalists aren't happy with it. In January of this year, a federal court in California overturned the U.S. EPA's authority to oversee isolated wetlands - those that don't connect directly with lakes and streams. Since then, states have been scrambling to enact their own laws. In July, Governor Taft signed a piece of legislation backers claim will protect thousands of acres of wetlands in the state. But environmentalists say the new law favors developers and will only increase the rate of destruction. 90.3 WCPN®'s Karen Schaefer reports from an isolated wetland in Lorain County called Camden Bog. Aired August 7, 2001

Local Residents Steer Clear of Lake Erie
It's always nice to take a dip on a scorching summer day. You can go any number of pools scattered throughout Northeast Ohio communities, or take a jaunt out to one of Lake Erie's beaches. So which will it be? The pool? Or the lake? For some area residents, it's a clear choice. 90.3 WCPN®'s Bill Rice reports. Aired August 6, 2001

Brook Park IX Center Vote Set
Brook Park residents will vote next week on a controversial land swap deal penned by Mayors Mike White and Tom Coyne. If it's approved, the IX Center settlement would end a legal battle between the two cities that started nearly 11 years ago, costing both sides at least $11 million. The plan would allow Cleveland to construct a new runway at Hopkins International Airport by 2016. Brook Park voters have been lobbied by campaign committees with different agendas, but it's unclear which side is winning. Some are calling Brook Park's Issue 1 too close to call. 90.3 WCPN®'s Janet Babin reports. Aired August 3, 2001

Health Issues for 2001 Mayoral Race
The campaigning has begun for this fall's mayoral race in Cleveland. When voters cast their ballots this fall, one issue they may be keeping in mind is the health of the city. During the past 12 years of Mayor Mike White's term, City Hall has taken on an entirely new role in public health. The person who succeeds him will inherit a set of responsibilities and expectations that are unlike any in recent history. 90.3 WCPN®'s April Baer reports. Aired August 2, 2001

Shaker Heights Condo Concern
Since 1990, Cuyahoga County has lost over 40,000 of its residents due to urban sprawl. Those communities that took the biggest hit lie in the inner ring suburbs. Shaker Heights is looking at a way to combat the problem. Buying into the phrase "If you build it, they will come" - community leaders announced recently they are developing new town-homes and condos to "woo" empty nesters and single professionals back. But as 90.3 WCPN®'s Tarice Sims reports, not everyone is buying into this new housing alternative. Aired August 1, 2001

The Future of Cleveland Public Health
Cleveland's mayor-elect, Jane Campbell, is in the process of formulating a transition team to fill key positions at City Hall. Ms. Campbell says one of her first priorities will be to set the city's troubled health department in order. Dr. Carla Harwell, M.D. is a physician with University Hospitals Health Care System. This summer, we asked her where she thought the next mayor's focus should be for public health. Click here to read the interview. Aired July 31, 2001.

Ohio's Gold Rush
When gold was found at Sutter's Mill in 1849, Ohioans were among those who joined the California Gold Rush, hoping to strike it rich. Most came home empty-handed, but a few returning '49ers tried panning Ohio streams. To their surprise, they found tiny flakes of gold. Today that discovery is still celebrated by a group of dedicated amateurs from the Gold Prospectors Association of America. Every Labor Day Weekend they sponsor an Ohio Gold Rush near the site of the state's first gold strike. As 90.3 WCPN®'s Karen Schaefer reports, there's gold in these Ohio hills. Aired July 30, 2001

National Auto Mechanic Shortage
The people who repair cars and trucks can earn a good living. Today's vehicles are loaded with technology and are getting more complicated all the time. Trained professionals are required to fix modern vehicles, but fewer people are learning how. The industry is facing a shortage of 60,000 mechanics workers and is forced to go to great lengths to find help. 90.3 WCPN®'s Mike West reports. Aired July 24, 2001

Ohio Party Politics: The Democrats
Being in the minority is often no fun, and perhaps no one in Ohio understands that more than Democrats occupying state government seats. Democrats have been out of power for a good decade now, and party leaders are itching to regain at least some of their former clout in Columbus. While elections for state offices are still more than a year away, Democratic strategies are beginning to take shape. In the second of two reports on party politics in Ohio, 90.3 WCPN®'s Bill Rice looks at what Democrats see as their best chance for success in 2002. Aired July 20, 2001

New Information On Our Bipedal Ancestors
Recently in the journal Nature, paleontologists working in Ethiopia announced the discovery of some new human fossils that push back the date for the origin of our species to nearly six million years ago. The finds also show that walking upright - a trait researchers have long used to distinguish humans from other primates - is as old as humankind itself. 90.3 WCPN®'s Karen Schaefer reports. Aired July 20, 2001

Ohio Party Politics: The Republicans
The Ohio state government is firmly under Republican control, but it wasn't that long ago when the reverse was true. In 1986 Democrats held majorities in both the House and the Senate, and democrat Richard Celeste held the governor's seat. Less than a decade later Republicans had taken over both legislative chambers and the governorship, and today they hold virtually all the elected executive offices as well. But no one - Democrat or Republican - takes it for granted that the GOP's dominance is here to stay. Ohio politics is volatile, and both sides say any number of things could turn the political tide by the 2002 election. In the first of two reports on state party politics in Ohio, 90.3 WCPN®'s Bill Rice looks at how Republicans are preparing to maintain their control in Columbus. Aired July 19, 2001

The Streak Stops Here
American baseball battle competed with European war reports for a couple of months in the spring and summer of 1941. A nervous nation on this side of the Atlantic was at least temporarily distracted by one of the most impressive feats in the history of baseball. 90.3 WCPN®'s David C. Barnett reports on how that history came to a climax in Cleveland, 60 years ago. Aired July 17, 2001

The Tall Ships Set Sail
The majesty of 14 tall ships recently graced the Cleveland waterfront, attracting thousands of visitors to the coast of Lake Erie. This collection of ships, part of the Tall Ships Challenge Race Series, brings back an old-time sailing era to today's spectators. 90.3 WCPN®'s Paul Cox has this report. Aired July 13, 2001

The Effects of Foot-and-Mouth Disease
The sight of gaunt cattle, wasting away on British farmlands presented a disturbing sight for American TV viewers this past February. So far, no instances of Foot-and-Mouth or "Mad Cow" disease have shown up in Ohio. 90.3 WCPN®'s David C. Barnett reports on efforts keep it that way. Aired July 13, 2001

Catching Up With Camelot, Part Two
Cleveland developers are moving forward this week with plans to demolish the abandoned Ward Bakery building. But as the wrecking ball does its work reducing the building to rubble, an unresolved conflict still stands tall: the fate of a dozen homeless people who lived in this building, and called it Camelot. Aired July 12, 2001

Catching Up With Camelot, Part One
Demolition continues this week on a building that once was a haven for downtown Cleveland's homeless. The abandoned Ward Bakery near East 55th and Chester was slated for redevelopment by the city last summer. But that redevelopment project became a battle for squatters' rights last August, when about a dozen squatters refused city orders to leave the crumbling building, which they affectionately called Camelot.

Also, April Baer interviewed Dan Kerr, a member of the local activist group, Food Not Bombs, which advocates for homeless and low income families struggling to make ends meet. Aired July 11, 2001

Preserving Sheldon Marsh
An important state nature preserve appears threatened by development. Over a year ago, Barnes Nursery in Huron dredged an irrigation channel to Lake Erie along the edge of Sheldon Marsh. Owners say once complete, it will actually replace lost wetland habitat. But some local residents and at least four government agencies don't agree. They want the preserve to be restored to its former state. 90.3 WCPN®'s Karen Schaefer brings us this report on the battle over Sheldon Marsh.
Aired July 9, 2001

Rare Skin Cancer in African Americans
Most people believe skin cancer is caused by over-exposure to the sun and not enough sunscreen. And for the most part that's true - exposure to ultra-violet rays from the sun is the number one cause of skin cancer - but it's not the only cause. For the most part, those with darker skin pigmentation have a natural sun protection factor, so when a skin cancer diagnosis is made it's a horrible surprise. 90.3 WCPN®'s Tarice Sims reports one African American victim who is struggling to understand this rare illness. Aired July 6, 2001

The Thrashing Popularity of Skateboarding
The economy may be slowing, but skateboards are rolling out of stores quicker than ever. Over the last 40 years, skateboarding has withstood safety concerns, insurance issues and recessions to become one of today's hottest individual sports. Chances are you've seen neighborhood kids jumping off the curbs in area parking lots or taking advantage of the local skatepark. As 90.3 WCPN®'s Renita Jablonski reports, it's media attention that has the wheels of skateboarding spinning at record speed. Aired July 3, 2001.