Emmy Award-winning Feagler & Friends is a lively, weekly half-hour television discussion of local and national issues impacting lives in Northeast Ohio. Hosted by award-winning journalist and former Plain Dealer columnist, Dick Feagler, Feagler & Friends explores the various issues behind today's news. With a changing ensemble of "friends" ranging from journalists to community and political leaders, Feagler & Friends takes on issues from many different perspectives. Always entertaining and never boring, Feagler & Friends is the program for people "in the know" in Northeast Ohio.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Topics: Arts, Economy, Politics
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Newsmaker—Bonita G. Teeuwen, P.E., deputy director, Ohio Department of Transportation District 12: The Strickland administration has made Cleveland a priority for the distribution of federal stimulus money intended for transportation projects. $200-million in stimulus money will be earmarked for the Inner Belt bridge project to get underway next year. When it’s complete, there will be five lanes of traffic in each direction. Work begins next year.

Roundtable: Elizabeth McIntyre, deputy managing editor, The Plain Dealer; Mark Puente, reporter, The Plain Dealer; Kevin Heard, editor, Call & Post Second Edition.

McFaul’s Fall: Longtime Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul has resigned the position he held for 32 years. He’s Ohio’s longest-serving Sheriff, but has been caught up recently in allegations of mismanagement and wrongdoing. The most recent reported by the Plain Dealer had him accepting large cash gifts from his employees. Another recent report said McFaul rarely came to his county office.

State of Black America: Despite the election of Barack Obama as President, the Urban League says the lives of black Americans still need improvement. The organization’s annual State of Black America says blacks are far more likely to be unemployed, poor or incarcerated than white Americans. The group fears the historic election of a black President will give rise to a sense of complacency about issues grounded in race.

Discordant Note for the Orchestra: The troubled economy is making sour music for the storied Cleveland Orchestra. Orchestra leaders, including conductor Franz Welser-Most, have taken salary reductions, the ensemble is cutting back its performance and touring schedule and Severance Hall’s operating hours will be reduced. Hard times have depressed the orchestra’s ticket sales and sapped its endowment.

Hard Times for Newspapers: Non-union staffers at the Plain Dealer were ordered this week to take pay cuts and ten unpaid days off in the paper’s drive to stay afloat in challenging times. The paper’s publisher recently called “baseless” an internet report that the Plain Dealer would be publishing on-line only by next year. The Washington Post has announced a new round of buyouts and last week, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ceased publication of its print edition.

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