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, April 3, 2009

Topics: Arts, Politics, Other
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Newsmaker—Terry Stewart, president and CEO, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum: This is the weekend of the annual Rock Hall induction ceremony. For the first time in the new century, the ceremony is being held in Cleveland, the city that’s the home of rock music’s shrine. Cleveland-born singer, songwriter, guitarist Bobby Womack leads a list of inductees that also includes heavy metal rockers Metallica, rappers Run-D.M.C. and singers Little Anthony and the Imperials.

Roundtable: Bob Dyer, columnist, Akron Beacon Journal; Harry Boomer, reporter, 19 Action News.

Foreclosure’s Human Face: Addie Polk, 91, became a national figure last October when she shot herself rather than comply with eviction from her Akron home. This week, she died in a nursing home. The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) foreclosed and sold her home at auction. But after the shooting, the agency decided to forgive the loan and return Polk to the home she’d occupied since 1970. She didn’t live long enough to move back in.

Death Row Inmate Wins More Time: A federal appeals court has granted an indefinite stay of execution for Brett Hartmann, who was scheduled to die next week for the 1997 murder and mutilation of Winda Snipes of Akron. The judges said issues raised by the defense created some uncertainty over Hartmann’s guilt. Defense attorneys want time for DNA testing not done in Hartmann’s earlier trial. Investigators will also try to determine if a prosecution witness lied on the stand.

Cigarette Crackdown: Federal taxes on cigarettes rose 62 cents-a-pack this week. Similar increases were applied to other tobacco products. The extra tax money will be used to provide health insurance to children. Backers say the tax increase will force more people to quit smoking. Critics say the higher taxes will be an unfair burden to the poor who statistically are more likely to smoke. The House has also voted to give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco.

Newsmaker II: Thomas Bier, executive-in-residence, Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University: Bier wrote a recent op-ed in The Plain Dealer critical of ODOT’s plan for restructuring Cleveland’s Inner Belt. Bier says the road will both smother and divide the downtown for decades to come.

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