The economy is down and money is tight for a lot of families, and Cleveland State University understands the hardships that students are facing. In light of this, CSU has announced a new $3,000 scholarship available to incoming freshman that's renewable up to $12,000 over four years.

The new scholarship, called the Freshman Scholars Program is awarded to new full-time freshmen entering beginning in Fall 2010 with a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA and an ACT score of 23 or a combined SAT score of 1060. The last day to apply for the Freshman Scholars Program is February 1, 2010, and incoming freshman can apply online at www.engagecsu.com.

The $3,000 scholarship is renewable by maintaining a 3.0 cumulative GPA for full-time students. CSU tuition is about $8,000 per year, and this scholarship can reduce annual tuition by 36%.

Clevelanders over the years have taken over the Yankees, the Knicks, the Nets, the Rangers, Madison Square Garden. If sports, why not the book industry. Well, not quite that ambitious but Bill Gunlocke who gave Cleveland the alternative paper The Edition, has started a blog and wonders if New York City is really a Book City.

Bill, who also ran a book store in The Arcade when was The Arcade, questions whether it’s true that N. Y. C. is the Book City. Maybe it’s Cleveland, he wonders.

Anyway, Bill has always had the ability to bring maybe a quirky, but wise and different view. It is what he brought to Cleveland with The Edition and I wish he was still here and not in New York.

His love of school kids comes through. It’s a passion that keeps him looking for a new way to inspire and provoke.

Take a look at his first blog entry here. You won’t be disappointed:

http://acityreader.blogspot.com/

I haven’t read the 300 page plus consulting report on management and efficiency of Cleveland government and I probably won’t. I'll leave it to others.I know it won’t touch the one revenue source that Cleveland should tap if it had any concern for its citizens. It is out of the question. Won’t happen.

The so-called city income tax – the city’s largest revenue source by far - is really a payroll tax. It’s a tax on your wage income. It’s a regressive tax that takes from the first dollar someone earns. It’s a tax that hits people so poor that they don’t pay federal income taxes but must pay this tax. The feds at least tax somewhat progressively though the rich still get away with tax robbery.

If we really wanted a fair tax the so-called city income tax would be progressive. In other words, the guy who makes $150 a week would pay far less proportionally than the guy who makes $150 or $500 a day, or more.

It’s an obvious source of more revenue for cities. But it’s ignored. Why? Because wealthy people decide who gets taxed and by how much.

It’s legal theft calculatedly devised by professional hired thugs. Sometimes called lawyers or legislators.

One summer afternoon, in must have been in 1956 or ’57, as my father was totaling up the money from the day shift waitress in the tavern he owned on Scovill Avenue, he saw my eyes grow wide at the stack of bills he was counting. Growing up, I must have seen him perform this tallying ritual many times before — the difference that time being, I was entering puberty and with a growing interest in the opposite sex, I needed to dress better … thus my growing interest in money. There was this cool pair of Stetson shoes that I wanted to be the first in my school to own. “Son,” he simply said, “those folks down in Washington print way too much of this stuff for a sucker not to have a pile of it.” That was all of the economic advice he ever gave me … and it proved to be all I ever needed.

Were there failures or absence of institutional and community structure that helped make the mass murderer of Imperial Avenue get away with the killings so easily? Yes, there were.

People ask the question, why didn’t someone notice what was happening? How did this happen right under the noses of the police and the community? Where’s the “community?” What’s the matter with people?

Cleveland neighborhoods have been deprived of many things but likely most destructive has been the purposeful neglect and sometime suppression of community activism over a long period of time here. It has worked its destructive way.

You can’t have an aware, alive community that’s a repressed community.

Cleveland in the 1970s enjoyed strong community activism. There were many problems. But there was some fight in people! Neighborhoods formed their own power bases and community development corporations (CDCs) received federal and foundation funding for neighborhood improvement. People were feeling their power.

But there were flaws that eventually led to failure. It didn’t have to be.

Cleveland is a town with heavy upper institutional power. Lots of wealth. It rules. Not timidly at times.

I read in The Plain Dealer that the City of Cleveland will waste $5 million to build a pedestrian bridge at the opening of North Coast Harbor and I ask, why a bridge hardly anyone will use?

This is to span a little bit of water behind the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, from the tip of a pier on the west to Voinovich Park on the east. Not many people go back there, a few in the summer, none in the fall, winter and spring.

There are a few concerns about the height of the bridge because it will open in the middle and rise 135 feet high to allow boats to pass through. Among the concerns is that it will reach into the glide path of Burke Lakefront Airport.

I'm guessing that it also will be a gathering spot for gulls, whether the bridge is open or closed. Be careful walking across that bridge. You might slip and fall off due to the gull droppings.

The reason we don’t know why the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority dumped its chief executive Adam Wasserman is because the real leader of the board – John Carney – believes it’s none of your business.

The Port Authority is one of those governmental bodies set up to avoid public input. It has an unelected board. The public, in fact, knows little if anything about its members. Probably cares less.

One aspect of the board has remained rather fixed over the years – the name Carney.

The political head of this powerful family, the late James M. Carney, twice unsuccessful candidate for mayor (once dropped out, once defeated), was chairman during the Port’s early years.

Presently, his nephew John Carney, son of the late judge John Carney, has been on the board for some years. He was chairman. To avoid the limelight or the spotlight, Carney resigned as board chairman. However, it seems he’s still in control. He is civically connected. Many boards. His wife, Tana, is a Cleveland Foundation board member. She was a judicial appointee, meaning political connections and power.

The 2010 U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships will take place Dec. 14-19, 2010, at the Hoover Arena, operated by IceLand USA, in Strongsville, Ohio. Approximately 300 figure skaters from across the country are expected to compete at the four-day event, which is being hosted for the second time since 2007 by The Greater Cleveland Council of Figure Skating Clubs.

Qualifying rounds begin Wednesday, Dec. 16 in the West Rink. The intermediate compulsory dance competition will kick off the championship events Thursday, Dec. 17 in the West Rink. Competition concludes Saturday, Dec. 19 with the intermediate ladies and juvenile boys free skates in the West and East Rinks, respectively.

Advance event tickets may be purchased by completing the order form on the event web site, www.clevelandskating.com/jrnationals, and submitting it via fax at 440.777.1706 or e-mail at info@clevelandskating.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the arena box office during the event. Individual event tickets begin at $15. All-event passes are $50 (Wednesday-Saturday) and $35 (Thursday-Saturday). Discounted tickets are available for senior citizens and children ages 6-12. All seats are general admission.

On Monday, Cleveland police confirmed that the Cuyahoga County Coroner had identified the eighth victim in the Imperial Avenue murders. The family of 49-year-old Janice Webb was notified by police that she was amongst the 11 slain womens found at the home of Anthony Sowell.

Webb's family said that she disappeared in June.

Other victims that have so far been identified include: Amelda Hunter, 47; Crystal Dozier, 38; Michelle Mason, 45; Tishana Culver, 31; Nancy Cobbs, 43; Telacia Fortson, 31; Tonia Carmichael, 52. All were from Cleveland with the exception of Fortson who was from East Cleveland and Carmichael who was from Warrensville Heights.

On Monday, Sowell was indicted by a grand jury in connection with the assault and rape of a 36-year-old woman in September. The investigation of this attack led to the discovery of the eleven bodies at Sowell's home.

Ran into an old friend this morning at University Hospital where we older people are likely to meet. Boy was she angry. At Dennis Kucinich, a favorite of hers.

Kucinich, as you may have noted, vote NO on the health care bill the other night. He gave good reasons. It squeaked in by a couple of votes. So his NO vote was a typical Kucinich vote.

But this fan said she had given him her last dime. And I’m sure she’s given him a lot more than that.

I don’t know if Kucinich would have voted NO if his was a deciding vote. Maybe not.

But his NO vote isn’t a surprise to me. Kucinich is playing to the crowd. His crowd. And he’s a hero with his crowd.

They respond. They love the little fighter. Kucinich drew immediate attention on the local Cleveland Leader web site. Today there are nearly 7,500 hits on the posting about his vote. Most I’ve ever seen. I assume that many people around the nation have Dennis Kucinich on a Google alert. Every time his name appears they get a Google alert. They click and read about their hero.

It attests to his national drawing power as a political celebrity.