Odds and Ends ..

I was out sick yesterday (Thursday) and am still under the weather, but I'm back in the newsroom to push through today .. and have a few tidbits to push along.

The following notice was sent out this afternoon to all local media: "The Akron Board of Education and Superintendent Dr. Sylvester Small will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. on Monday, November 5, 2007, to discuss the future direction of Akron Public Schools. The press conference will be held in the Board room at the Administration Building located at 70 N. Broadway."

With phrases like "to discuss the future direction of ...", makes you wonder how significant this press conference will be. I'm checking around, but considering time timing of the announcement is the day before the election (one in which there's no APS levy), this must have some teeth to it.

I was pleased to have David Giffels make his debut on NewsNight Akron today. The ABJ columnist added a lot of great insight to our usual Friday pot luck session. NNA airs tonight at 9 p.m. on PBS 45/49 ... or if you miss it, you can pull it up on-line on video-on-demand at the 4549 web page.

The election literature floating around in the Cuyahoga Falls Muni Court race is down right dirty. The most recent one (thanks to Ed Esposito for his visual aid) shows Lisa Zeno Carano in a picture with embattled war mother Cindy Sheehan. Politics or not, using a picture of someone who lost a son in Iraq -- regardless of how you see her views on the war -- as some kind of negative stigma aimed at your opponent will likely polarize the folks who view it.