A week ago Sunday, Cincinnati Enquirer reporter and chief University of Cincinnati apologist Cliff Peale managed to write an over 600-word column about what might be involved in turning around UC’s dreadful financial situation (commented on previously here) without mentioning:

• The University’s so-far disastrous off-campus real estate ventures, featuring, among other things, an eminent-domain smackdown.
• University President Nancy Zimpher’s name.

What is it, Cliff — Does Nancy get a pass because math is hard?

If it has such a capacity, the Enquirer should be ashamed. It ran a pitiful puff piece by Peale after the eminent-domain rebuke that actually praised the development consortium as a “development powerhouse” — so powerful that UC’s endowment has been raided to the tune of $75 million to fund the consortium’s problems.

The town’s business weekly, the Cincinnati Business Courier, has run circles around the Enquirer on the UC financial-situation story (the articles involved are now mostly behind the publication’s subscription firewall). But even the Courier is too kind to Zimpher and UC’s board in a June 29 editorial:

UC President Nancy Zimpher would like to characterize much of our reporting as old news to anyone paying attention.

The UC board, lax in its oversight of UC’s operations before Zimpher’s (October) 2003 arrival, needs to be held accountable even as it holds Zimpher’s administration responsible for the march toward better financial footing.

Why isn’t Zimpher being held accountable for NOT “paying attention” for at least three years?

Talk about “lax oversight” — Why was Nancy’s 5-year contract extension whipped through in late March, when the University’s tenuous financial position had to be pretty obvious to insiders? Did the Board of Trustees do it to protect her in advance of the bad news? If so, aren’t they forgetting who they work for?

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UPDATE: An e-mailer reminds me that Enquirer Publisher Margaret Buchanan is on UC’s Board of Trustees, and that she was appointed by Bob Taft. That would make her paper’s operation and coverage subject to across-the-board conflict-of-interest concerns when reporting on UC — from finances and internal politics to its sports teams’ positioning in the Sports section relative to other, ahem, recently more successful programs.

Fellow SOBer Justin at Right on the Right got some nice and deserved free pub at the Youngstown Vindicator.

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Who could possibly be surprised at this?

Or this? Or (excluding the hopelessly naive Jerid) this? Candidates of both parties desperately want to control their messages, and especially who gets to hear what. Whether they still can is the big question mark of the 2008 elections.

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John Edwards’ haircuts, apparently ranging in price from about $400 - $1,250, are a lot less than Hillary Clinton’s reported “$3,000 in fees and travel for two sessions with stylist Isabelle Goetz.” Yet Edwards is taking the hits. You would think that for as much as Hillary is spending, that she’d loo- ….. never mind.

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The young man written up in this story probably hasn’t really surprised his parents. I wish all involved the best in working through it, but it may be too late to avoid paying the piper.

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First quarter 2007 bankruptcy filings, at 193,461, came in pretty close to the 800,000 high end of what I projected late last year. The level of filings is a bit over half of what it was in the earlier part of this decade. But when combined with rising foreclosures and punitive lending, I’m not at all convinced that “Bankruptcy Reform” has accomplished what it intended. The more they go past my projected peak, if that indeed happens, the more suspect the law’s success will be.

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File this story (”Obama’s Campaign Headquarters Burglarized — 2 Laptops and Campaign Literature Taken”) into memory in case you see a negative story about BHOO (Barack Hussein “Obambi” Obama) that seems to have come out of nowhere between now and the first couple of presidential primaries.

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Republicans across Louisiana have to be praying that this comes true:

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin might be making a run for the governor’s mansion.

….. “There’s a wide open governor’s race, and we’ll take a look at it,” Nagin said, when asked to clear up rumors about a possible bid.

The radio station reported that Nagin could announce his candidacy in the next seven to 10 days.

Emergency shipments of antacid tablets were reportedly on their way to the offices of US Senator Mary Landrieu.

From New Zealand:

Jul 2, 2007

The survival of a truck driver who plummeted off a 150 metre cliff at Port Waikato, south of Auckland, is being described as a miracle.

Ross Hanson not only survived the crash but also a wait of more than 30 hours in the wind and rain before he was rescued.

His workmate tracked him down using the truck’s GPS system.

Recovery crews struggled through a boggy, swampy valley to reach the wrecked truck which was being driven by the father of two when it plunged off the road. The 29-year-old was thrown from the cab and landed on soggy ground at the base of a 150 metre cliff.

“He was suffering from hypothermia but he had neck, back and leg injuries…he was a big man which was a factor for him and he was thrown out of the vehicle, which was lucky,” says Ted Ngata from the Tuakau Volunteer Fire Brigade.

Hanson was lucky to be thrown from the truck because the cab was completely crushed. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.