OKAY, COVINGTON, WE'VE AIRED OUR DIRTY LAUNDRY. NOW, LET'S WASH IT.

by Michael Monks
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http://www.stevebeshear.com/



Finally, this divisive budget battle in Covington is over and we can all start to -

Wait, what's that? It's not over? What's that? We're going to court now?

Oh, for the love of William Goebel! You're killing me, smalls!

Has there ever been an issue more difficult to understand than the one our City has spent the past six months debating? There are Michener novels less challenging to follow.
I've gone to the Commission meetings. I even sat in on almost every line-by-line budget analysis in which I was convinced that Gateway College's urban campus had already opened, inside City Hall, and the commissioners and administrators were the wide-eyed freshmen filing in for Accounting 101 praying to God that Professor Bob Due wouldn't call on them.



I've talked to union members facing health care and worse, job cuts. I've listened to their confusion over how the people who patrol, respond to and improve our streets found themselves as the villains in this overwrought play.
I've done all of this for months now.
AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN MY HOMETOWN!

AS HEAT INDEX PUSHES 110, EMERGENCY SHELTER'S A/C BROKEN

by Michael Monks
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UPDATE Monday July 25: Per community activist and volunteer Candance Witte, Kenton County Judge-Executive Steve Arlinghaus has taken swift action. Shelter administrator Rachel Winters confirms that a new air conditioning unit will be installed immediately on the roof of the Scott Boulevard building.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The Northern Kentucky Emergency Cold Shelter keeps its guests warm in the winter, but very hot in this brutal week of summer. The Kenton County-owned building's air conditioning unit broke down last summer and has been since using a portable one.

LEAK AT CITY HALL LEADS TO BOILING CONFUSION

by Michael Monks
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The Covington public workers facing layoffs as early as Wednesday via the recently passed budget contigency plan learned their fate last week. That is earlier than most of the city administration had planned. Following an executive session between the mayor, commission and city administration Tuesday where an actual list of names selected for layoff was presented, the contents of the list got out to the three public unions.

That prompted a special meeting the following day, Wednesday, between city administration and members of AFSCME Local 237.

"Certainly, the negotiation team for AFSCME Local 237 was surprised last Wednesday to be notified that certain positions covered under our working agreement were slated for layoffs, as we continue to meet weekly and exchange proposals, including multiple healthcare proposals, in an effort to stave off these union-busting job reductions," said Michelle Robinson-Wilson, a member of the AFSCME negotiating team.

SHOOTING IN MAINSTRASSE "UNUSUAL"; SEVERAL SUSPECTS CONTAINED

by Michael Monks
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Just as bars were letting out around 2:30 Monday morning, a man was shot at the corner of 7th & Main Streets in Mainstrasse. An off-duty officer was nearby at the time of the shooting and responded to find a sole victim lying in the street with a gunshot wound to the back. That victim was sent to University Hospital in Cincinnati.

Covington Police had a foot patrol near 6th & Bakewall that spotted a car believed to be involved in the shooting and when the officers approached, multiple suspects fled the vehicle on foot into the 5th Street center parking lot. Those suspects then ran into more Covington Police officers who were on bar-closing duty. Each fleeing suspect was apprehended and the vehicle was taken into custody.

As for the shooting, it is "very unusual" for such a crime to occur in the popular Mainstrasse entertainment dustrict, according to Lt. Col. Spike Jones of the Covington Police.

If you have any helpful information about this shooting, call Covington PD at 859.292.2222 or Crimestoppers at 513.352.3040.