Oscar G. Mayer, the third Oscar Mayer in the family that founded Oscar Mayer Foods, died at the age of 95 on Monday. According to his wife Geraldine, he died of old age at Hospice Care in Fitchburg, WI.

His grandfather Oscar F. Mayer died in 1955, and his father Oscar G. Mayer Sr. Died in 1965. He was the third Oscar Mayer in the family that founded the company, and was named president of Oscar Mayer Foods in 1955. He worked for a total of 41 years at the company, and served as chairman of the board until he retired in 1977 at the age of 62. During his time at the company, Mayer oversaw tremendous growth at the company, and retired just after Oscar Mayer recorded its first $1 billion year. During his reign, the company went national and implemented the iconic "Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener" ad campaign.

Three years ago today, on July 4, 2006, The Cleveland Leader was born. Or actually that should be, re-born. When we launched The Cleveland Leader, our goal was to become the voice of independent local news, providing better coverage than what was already available through the traditional, established media.

In a nod to the past, we decided to call our new venture "The Cleveland Leader", giving homage to the late Cleveland newspaper of the same name which was launched in the mid-19th century and later gobbled up by The Plain Dealer in 1917. 89 years after it's demise, The Cleveland Leader returned to the Cleveland news scene and it hasn't been the same since.

The first big story we broke was in reporting the death of Gerald Levert in 2006, after we received a tip from a regular reader who also happens to a friend of the late singer. After breaking the story, we were bombarded with calls and emails from all around the country. The Cleveland Leader had gone national. Since then we've broken more stories than we can count, and have added to our staff the likes of Cleveland Hall of Fame journalist Roldo Bartimole, and others, who share in our goal to be the best source for Cleveland news.

Comedian Drew Carey, who grew up in Cleveland, is a proud supporter of public libraries in Ohio. In 2000 he donated all his winnings ($500,000) from an appearance on a special celebrity edition of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" to Ohio public libraries, and was also at the same time working on a series of public service announcements for the Ohio Library Council. While these days he is living out in California and working on "The Price is Right", Carey still keeps up with the goings-on back in his hometown. Needless to say he was rather disheartened when he heard about Governor Ted Strickland's plans to slash library budgets by nearly 50 percent.

We recently caught up with Drew, and asked him about his thoughts on the crippling blow that Ohio public libraries could soon be dealt:

"I hate these library funding cuts but it looks like the Gov has his heart set on it," he said.

So what does Drew propose Ohio libraries do if the devastating cuts do in fact make it into the biennium budget?

"This would be a good time for local community leaders to come up with creative money-raising plans of their own. Yep. It's come down to this. Car washes for libraries," he continued.