Former Buddy’s Carpet Bosses Involved in Tax Fraud
Can still hear that voice after all these years. Generations of radio listeners and TV peepers have suffered through the commercials for Buddy’s Carpet & Flooring, the rug chain with kitschy spots featuring Buddy himself, aka the late Burton B. Kallick. Distinct for his ceiling-scraping whine, Buddy would berate his way through ads like an…
Governor Kasich Weighs In On Kelley Williams-Bolar Case
The tale of Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Akron mom who lied to get her kids into Copley district schools instead of Akron city schools, has become a national topic of conversation. Who doesn’t want to weigh in on a mom convicted of a felony just for doing whatever she could to send her children to a…
Concert Review: Tapes ‘n Tapes at the Grog Shop
Tape ‘n tape ‘n tape ‘n tape Despite the looming snow and ice catastrophe, the Grog Shop was packed with eager Tapes ‘n Tapes fans last night. Local band Filmstrip began the evening with a series of psychedelic rock songs, complete with simple, repetitive lyrics. They were energetic enough, with the bassist as the focal…
Teen Crossdresser Admits to Bank Robbery
A 17-year-old boy admitted to assisting in a November bank robbery yesterday, but this was no simple heist. Just a few of the bizarre details: The teen felt forced to rob the bank with his friend, 28-year-old Dezmon Lawrence. How so? Lawrence suggested boosting cash from a bank and the teen flatly turned him down,…
Family Bonding Activity: Boosting Scrap Metal
Just keeping the fam together. We’ve all been there, right? Your mom packs you and your siblings off on some lame family excursion and you’re stuck, no way out, a license-less teen shanghaied away to an early A.M. crafts fair or to boost scrap from a Mentor metal yard. Exactly, who hasn’t been there? Such…
The Quality of Cleveland Life Index
A Job Is a Job, Most Times: Monster.com proclaims Cleveland the 7th best job market in America, though it doesn’t specify how many of the posted positions require sporting an Uncle Sam costume outside of a tax office. Nostalgia Doesn’t Beat the Twins: Mike Hargrove and Sandy Alomar Jr. figured prominently in the Indians’ recent…
Teachable Moment: An Update on the Weems Charter School Story
In December, we offered a peek inside the confused innards of the Weems School, a Tremont charter that shut down in 2008 amid a flurry of unpaid bills and angry employees (“The Weems Way,” December 29, 2010). At the center of the collapse was the school’s boss, Ruby Weems. Since the story ran, the Weems…
John Kasich Regime Brings Fox News to State TVs
Fan of the Fox. New Ohio Governor John Kasich and his team are bound to make many changes as he takes over the reins of the Buckeye State. Taxes, transportation, budgets — all will be reassessed and perhaps altered. But no edict will be as entertaining or minute as one dictating, allegedly, that TVs in…
Clevelanders Are Practical, And Quite Possibly Horny
We particularly liked this gem from Texts From Last Night today. Horny? Perhaps. Practical? For sure.
Making the Footballs for the Super Bowl in Ada, Ohio
When the Super Bowl kicks off on Sunday night, Ada, OH will be well represented. That’s because all the balls for the game come straight from the Wilson plant, as do all the other footballs used for NFL games. ESPN’s Uni Watch extraordinaire Paul Lukas took a trip to Ada to get a close-up view…
FirstEnergy Fights Environmental Group’s Supreme Court Appeal
To save, or not to save? The battle is heating up over what Ohio utility companies can use as renewable biomass fuel to stoke their power plants. We reported two weeks ago that the Ohio Environmental Council filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court in November (“Dead Wood,” January 19, 2011). It’s their attempt…
Ohio Prisoners Make Pricey Goods
The Golden Years of Prison Work. Gone may be the days of the traditional chain gang, dust and pick-axes a la Cool Hand Luke, but Ohio’s incarcerated aren’t out of work options to fill their jailhouse hours. In fact, the state has an entire branch of the prison system devoted to Big House-based capitalism, an…
Pic of the Day: Homemade 25-Foot Ice Sculpture
WARREN DILLAWAY / Star Beacon What drives a man to build a 25-foot-high ice sculpture in his front yard using nothing more than string and a garden hose? Who knows, but we’re glad Mark Mihalik did just that in Harpersfield Township. The Star Beacon reports: Last year he saw a story about a man in…
High Court Rules Nancy Smith and Joseph Allen Must Return to Jail
Update: Nancy Smith spoke with the Morning Journal this weekend. Few courtroom dramas in Northeast Ohio have rollercoastered as erratically as Lorain County’s infamous “Head Start case.” In the mid-’90s, Nancy Smith and Joseph Allen were tried, convicted, and sentenced for molesting a pack of four- and five-year-olds in Lorain. The salacious case drew attention…
John Boehner Will Continue Smoking, Thank You Very Much; Please Stop Asking About It
There seems to be only three things that reporters want to ask John Boehner about: his propensity for shedding tears, tanning, and his smoking habit. He will not apologize for for any of those, and in fact, seems more interested in talking about, ya know, substantive issues than his orange complexion or appetite for cancer…
Video: Alex Mack, Browns Center, Scores Fun Touchdown in Meaningless Pro Bowl
If you missed the Pro Bowl yesterday, which means 99.99999% of you, you missed Browns center Alex Mack scoring a touchdown, which sounds totally awesome until you remember it’s the Pro Bowl and no one tackles during the game, lest the twist an ankle and are unable to enjoy the fine spa at their Hawaiian…
Get Ready For a True Cluster$#&* of a Winter Storm
Cleveland, are you ready for some snow? And by some, we mean a lot. For three days. Yippee. The lake may have finally frozen and lake-effect snow may be done for the winter, but it looks like the Forest City will be smashed by a huge storm for the next three days. How big? Here’s…
Kelley Williams-Bolar, Convicted Akron Mom and School Employee, Will Retain Her Job
Kelley Williams-Bolar’s story went national last week, with ABC News and others covering the story of the Akron mom who lied about her residency so her kids could attend Copley schools instead of Akron schools. An investigation by Copley turned up the tampering, a process similar to ones they’ve initiated dozens of times lately to…
Bernie Kosar Could Work For An NFL Team Not Named The Browns
Bernie Kosar, for all his travels and various travails around the country, has remained a mainstay in Northeast Ohio and around the Browns. He’s buddies with Randy Lerner, has been a confidant and friend to various members of the front office throughout the seemingly endless staffing changes, and appears on a WKNR talk show approximately…
Review of Jessica Lea Mayfield’s New Album
Kent singer-songwriter Jessica Lea Mayfield has a new album coming out on February 8. Tell Me is her major-label debut. Since she pals around with the Black Keys (Dan Auerbach produced and plays on the new album), who are also on Nonesuch Records, we’re guessing they had something to do with her record deal. Mayfield…
Alex Cucu Sues Channel 19 Over Emma Nahas Coverage
Alex Cucu owned the boat off which 20-year-old Emma Nahas dived into Lake Erie and never surfaced. Her tragic death rocked the summer of 2010, with questions lingering about who was on the boat and how she drowned. 19 Action News has been all over the story from the beginning. Their coverage, which has continued…
More Setbacks for Proposed Hostel in Ohio City
Mel Lalich, outside his Ohio City vandal magnet. In December we shared the story of Mel Lalich, the small-time real-estate investor who bought a ramshackle mansion on Franklin Boulevard with dreams of seeing it become the youth hostel that Ohio City boosters have long envisioned. Lalich plunged tens of thousands of dollars into fixing up…
Gas Odor Being Investigated in Downtown Cleveland
Via Jason Murphy and NewsNet5 For the second time in two months, fire crews are downtown in Cleveland because there’s a strong smell of gas in the air. St. Clair is reportedly shut down near W. 9th as the investigation into the mysterious odor continues. NewsNet5 reports: The Cleveland Fire Department has received numerous calls…
StrEat Mobile Bistro Hitting the Streets of Cleveland
“We are a little different from the other food carts out there,” explains Izzy Schachner, owner of the soon-to-debut StrEat Mobile Bistro. “Technically, we are considered a mobile restaurant, not a food cart. This is a full kitchen on wheels.” The larger and better equipped rig features all the necessary sanitation, prep stations, and refrigeration…
These Fellas Tossed a Molotov Cocktail at a House
If you’ve ever wondered what people who throw Molotov cocktails in suburban neighborhoods look like, now you know the answer. The trio of Nicholas Dahms, 18, Alexander Alcala, 18 and Mitchell Leibold, 21, were arrested and are now charged with aggravated arson after allegedly sending the homemade explosive into a house. Police say that the…
Pic of the Day: Michael Douglas as a Cleveland Indian
Via Uniwatch, here’s a photo of Michael Douglas in an Indians uniform for reasons unknown and at a date not specified. Still, pretty cool.
Woman Assaults Boyfriend With Ham Sandwich
Police were called to a domestic disturbance in Columbia Township after a woman allegedly hit her boyfriend with a ham sandwich. Go head, take a minute and read that sentence again. The comestible combat began after 47-year-old Corrine Gattarello told Robert McDaniel she wanted to break up because he drank too much. That’s when the…
Morning Brew: Traffic Tickets Up, Drugmaker Upset With Ohio, Another Huge Storm, and an Algae Attack
Good morning, Cleveland. Here’s some stuff to read while you wait for the cop to finish writing the ticket. — Traffic citations are way up this month compared to January 2010. We’d make a snarky comment, but then the chances of us getting pulled over on the way home would be 50% higher. (Cleveland.com) —…
Post-LeBron Cavs Worth A Lot Less
What happens to the value of your team when your superstar departs, attendance and interest dwindle, and your win totals straight plummet? Yes, millions and millions of hypothetical dollars are lost, like driving a mint Ferrari off the lot and promptly crashing it into a wall. Forbes did their annual breakdown of the NBA’s most…
Don King On Killing a Man: “Those are the things that happen.”
Yahoo! has a pretty intense piece on Cleveland’s own Don King up today that runs through the unmatched and unyielding craziness that has ruled King’s life from the time he ran numbers in Cleveland, to when he killed a man in a fight, to his continued frenetic pace today. That middle part, the whole killing…
Terry Brooks, Channel 5 Sports Anchor, Charged with Rape (Updated)
Charged with rape, attempted rape, and kidnapping Update II: Brooks was found not guilty on all nine counts this afternoon. (WEWS) Update: Brooks has stepped forward to deny the allegations of rape, according to his employer, WEWS. “I am innocent of these charges,” he told Channel 5. Some more details also have eked out of…
Cleveland Ranked 7th Best Job Market
Cleveland may still be in the throes of a deep economic collapse, and jobs may still be hard to come by, but according to Monster.com, Cleveland sports the 7th best job market in the country right now. Really. That’s what they say. Cleveland’s a hot destination. Really. There are, hypothetically, jobs out there, and presumably…
Philomena’s Ristorante Closes
Back in November, the Plain Dealer offered a glowing review of Philomena’s Ristorante (7503 Granger Rd.) in Valley View, which had opened a few months earlier in late summer. I am in no position to comment on the restaurant because I never had a chance to eat there. Just before the first of the year,…
Plank Road Tavern Now Open in Old Riviera Spot
When Bar Symon closed this past fall, former employees spread across the Cleveland dining landscape like so many fennel seeds. At least two landed at the newly opened Plank Road Tavern (16719 Detroit Ave., 216-221-5900, www.facebook.com/plankroadtavern). Located in the old Panini’s at the Riviera spot in Lakewood, Plank Road gets its moniker from the old…
Pic of the Day: Captain Frank’s
A little nostalgia on a gloomy day: Captain Frank’s on the East Ninth pier. (Via this tremendous Flickr pool of old Cleveland photos)
Lakewood High School Sweatpants Controversy Continues
Controversy. The curtain has dropped on the Great Lakewood High School Sweatpants Controversy. The recap: 16-year-old Stephanie Milligan was told by doctors she could wear sweatpants to school after a back injury. The sartorial suggestion, however, was counter to the school’s dress code. As a result, Stephanie and her family locked horns with the school’s…
Video: The West Side Market Never Looked So Beautiful
It’s easy to take the West Side Market for granted, even if you love it as much as we do. Which is why we loved this short film about Cleveland’s grand institution. It brings the majesty and vibrancy of the market into stark view, capturing the landmark’s beautiful and lyrical and simple and busy existence.…
Morning Brew: 6-Cent Water Bill, Akron Mom’s Story Goes National, Ohio Politicians Got Boost From Bush, and Teen Drinking
Good morning, Cleveland. Here’s some stuff to read while you get the margaritas and vaporizer ready for the PTA meeting.— An elderly couple can’t finalize the sale of their North Royalton home because the Cleveland Division of Water has a 6-cent water bill they won’t clear, despite repeated calls from the couple. (Cleveland.com) — The…
Man Shoots Wife While Showing Off Safety Feature On Gun
There’s not much more to the story than the headline, but this ironic tidbit from the Parma police blotter was too good not to share. ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE OF A FIREARM, STORMES DRIVE: A Parma man, 60, accidentally shot his wife in the ankle at 6:52 p.m. Jan. 18. The man was showing his wife a…
Downtown Cleveland Car Break-Ins Way Up from 2010
Downtown cars are not enjoying 2011. There’s bad news for fans of not getting your crap stolen: Downtown Cleveland vehicle break-ins are up by 377 percent over the same period last year. Through the first three weeks of 2011, 66 break-ins were reported. According to Cleveland cops, at least that many more break-ins have taken…
Mom Charged With Providing Pills, Pot at Underage Party
Celine Nesselrode, the fine lady pictured to the right in what has to be our favorite mugshot of the week, is in a spot of trouble. It seems she wanted to be the cool mom. You know the one — the parent that lets her teenage daughter brings some friends over for a night of…
Dennis Kucinich Suing Cafeteria Over Olive Pit
Just when we begin to think that Dennis Kucinich couldn’t possibly bring more joy to our lives, he does. Gawker reports that Kucinich has taken a break from seeking UFOs and begging for a new congressional district long enough to file a lawsuit over a rogue olive pit. Kucinich is suing the company that runs…
The Most Elaborate Plan to Steal a Pizza You’ll Read All Day
If you’re jonesin’ for a pizza but your current hard-luck status leaves you cash-poor, you might just find something else to eat besides a pizza. Ramen, perhaps? Maybe some buttered noodles? Not for one Brunswick mastermind. He really, really wanted pizza and really, really didn’t want to pay for it. His solution was brilliant and…
Video: Cleveland Public Library Security Guard Punches Homeless Man In the Head
In a bit of pretty disturbing video, a security guard at the Cleveland Public Library’s Carnegie West Branch was captured punching a homeless man in the head. The guard in question, employed by Tenable Protective Services, has been removed from the job. The problem began inside the Fulton Rd. branch when the guard alleges the…
Cleveland Schools Were Aware of Pervert Teacher, Lawyer Says
A lawsuit filed this month alleges that a Cleveland schoolteacher sexually assaulted one of her students in 2007. The suit also charges that the district should have flagged the teacher as a danger before the alleged incidents took place. Reyon Coleman was a student at East High School when he passed through the classroom of…
Ohio City’s New Turkish Restaurant — Alaturka
Like slow-rising pita dough, Alaturka (1917 W. 25th St., 216-298-9001, http://alaturka25.com) has taken its good sweet time to reach completion. It was originally slated to open this past summer. But Ohio City’s newest ethnic eatery, a Turkish restaurant, opened this week on W. 25th Street. Operated by Yashar Yildirim, who introduced Clevelanders to Turkish cuisine…
Morning Brew: Emergency Calls Fail, New Execution Drug, Missing Remote Leads to House Fire, and Board of Revision Staffing
Good morning, Cleveland. Here’s some stuff to read while you think about pie. — When automated emergency phone calls went out to warn residents in Fairport Harbor to evacuate their homes, many never connected. Why? Because tons of people have ditched their landlines. Cell phones: good for nude pictures from your girlfriend, bad for receiving…
Video: OSU Sings Miley Cyrus
Um, stick to basketball, fellas.
Local Band in Focus
Herzog Meet the Band: Brian Hill (bass), Dave McHenry (guitar and vocals), Dan Price (drums), Nick Tolar (guitar and vocals), and Tony Vorell (lyrics) History: Nick Tolar started Herzog as a solo bedroom project, but welcomed his friends to bring the full band to life in 2010. What They Do: Messy but highly melodic guitar-centric…
Stay In!
CULTURE JAMMING TOP PICK – VIDEO GAME LittleBigPlanet 2 (Sony) The sequel to one of the best games ever made for the PlayStation 3 is just as fun as the original. The basic concept remains the same: you explore and create levels where your environment is your springboard. But there’s more of it this time…
Film Caps
Black Swan (R) — Nina (Natalie Portman) has finally scored her big break with the New York City Ballet. But a new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), goes deeper and darker, threatening Nina’s star-making turn. Director Darren Aronofsky’s most psychologically unhinged film is one of the most twisted thrillers of the decade. (Michael Gallucci) Blue Valentine…
Meet the DJ
Mark McGuire plays guitar in Emeralds, one of Cleveland’s best bands. But in his spare time, he digs deep for classic disco, funk, and soul cuts as DJ Road Chief. “I toured Europe, which exposed me to a lot of great records and DJ styles,” he says. “Since I’ve been back, I’ve been trying to…
Outside Looking In
Think Cleveland gets a lot of snow? Last month, Josh Grier — frontman for Tapes ‘n Tapes and self-proclaimed budding weatherman — got snowed in under more than two feet of the white stuff in his hometown of Minneapolis. The city even had to buy a Snow Dragon — a biodiesel-powered machine capable of melting…
Soul Mates
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings get all the attention, but Fitz and the Tantrums do the retro soul thing with more heart. That’s not to take anything away from what Jones and her ace band of R&B stylists do. It’s just that there’s something more real running through the grooves made by Fitz and his five-member…
On View This Week
Goin’ Old School Lesko Gallery honors Cleveland’s master artistsLike fine wine, does good art get better with age? Judge for yourself at The Cleveland School 2011 exhibitition, now on view at the Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery. According to gallery director Ross Lesko, “Cleveland School” refers to a cohesive collection of area artists and craftsmen active…
Get Out!
Thursday | 27 Top Pick: Raising the Dead The Grateful Dead’s rep as one of rock’s premier live acts didn’t come easy. The legendary jam band played more than 2,300 concerts from the mid-’60s until frontman Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995. That doesn’t mean that your chances of seeing a live Dead set are kaput.…
At the Arthouse
Funny Face The Cinematheque series “Audrey Hepburn: Sophisticated Lady” continues this week with Stanley Donen’s 1957 musical. If it’s not a great movie, it is a great-looking one. Hepburn plays a nerd who catches the eye of photographer Fred Astaire, who promptly turns her into a famous model. The sets, costumes, and songs are all…
Concert Calendar
Young the Giant Changing the name of your band halfway through the game doesn’t sound like a very good plan, especially if your fan base is still growing. But it actually seems to be a good move for California indie rockers Young the Giant, who used to be known as the Jakes. They’ve prepped for…
We Get Mail
A Charter School in Flames The Weems sisters have always been full of shit [“The Weems Way,” December 29, 2010]. This whole charter school thing was a scam from the beginning to end. I can still recall them as subs at East High School: They were the worst. No teaching was going on. These women…
Bites: The Umami Moto Food Truck
Jae Stulock and Sandy Madachik were planning a move to Boulder to launch a food truck business. The business partners had heard how difficult it was to set up shop in Cleveland, so they had no intent of even trying. Before skipping town, however, they learned about the City of Cleveland’s program to encourage mobile…
Fallen Angel
At night, Marine Lance Corporal Annie Dryden would sing to her unit in hopes of blunting the anxiety of Iraq. Fellow soldiers at the Al-Asad airfield called the 22-year-old North Canton native the “Fiery Angel” because she was tough and sweet. A product of Camp Pendleton in California, she had trained as a packaging specialist,…
Talkin’ Turkey
It took us a few moments to process the music playing over the restaurant sound system. At once familiar and exotic, the tune toyed with our memory until we finally nailed it: “Hotel California” by the Eagles. Only this version was instrumental, and the instrument was a Turkish folk guitar. In hindsight, there may be…
Speed Demon
Wes Orshoski first met Lemmy Kilmister backstage at a concert at the Richfield Coliseum in the late ’80s. Well, the native Clevelander didn’t actually meet the Motörhead frontman. “They were on a bill with five other bands,” recalls the co-director of the new Kilmister biopic Lemmy: 49% Motherfucker, 51% Son of a Bitch. “And Lemmy…
CD Review: Cloud Nothings
By the sound of things, you’d never guess that Dylan Baldi — the 19-year-old Westlake native who records as Cloud Nothings — made his full-length debut in a real studio. And it sounds a lot like his earlier records: no polish, no gloss, and few signs that the album wasn’t laid down in one whirlwind…
On Stage This Week
South Pacific With a slew of awards tucked beneath its billowing grass skirts, the 2008 revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific sweeps into the Palace Theatre on Tuesday, February 1. Performed by the Lincoln Center Theater’s national touring company, the lavish production features a cast of 34, accompanied by the largest orchestra of any…
Home Movies
Red (Summit) Bruce Willis heads a cast of veteran actors (including Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren) out to settle one last score with their double-crossing old bosses. Willis used to be in the CIA, but some snaky government folks want him dead for knowing a little too much about a covert operation he…
