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.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Topics: Education, Politics, Other
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Newsmaker: Michael Schwartz, PhD, president, Cleveland State University. CSU, home of some 15,000 students, is a key downtown institution. Its president is contemplating changes that will solidify the university’s stature as a major player in northeast Ohio’s future and keep it independent—not part of a merger with other institutions. Dr. Schwartz will share with Mr. Feagler his vision of a future that he says will focus the university’s curriculum more sharply on the needs of a growing high-tech economy in northeast Ohio.

Roundtable: Regina Brett, metro columnist, The Plain Dealer; Mark Naymik, politics reporter, The Plain Dealer; Steve Gleydura, editor, Cleveland Magazine.

Local Politics: Despite the decision of Congressman Dennis Kucinich to quit the presidential race and focus on his home district, The Plain Dealer has endorsed one of his opponents in the March primary. The newspaper sided with Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, saying he has shown himself to be an effective and zealous member of council while Kucinich has been as ineffective on Capitol Hill as he was on the presidential campaign trail.

Bamalot: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama picked up a potentially powerful endorsement this week from the nation’s political first family. Senator Edward Kennedy endorsed Obama at a rally in Washington DC and his niece Caroline Kennedy, daughter of JFK, endorsed him in a New York Times op-ed saying the nation needs “a president like my father.” Meanwhile, the race came into sharper focus for both major parties this week when Democrat John Edwards and Republican Rudy Giuliani withdrew.

Spare the Rod? Public school teachers might soon chuck their paddles on the ash heap of history. A bill introduced this week in the Ohio House would ban corporal punishment in public schools. The current law leaves the issue up to local school districts to decide and it’s an option that few use anymore. Sponsors say it’s time paddling was outlawed.

Ohio Keno: If Governor Strickland gets his way, Ohio bars will soon be hosting a variation of a popular Las Vegas casino game. Keno is a kind of lottery with several drawings each day, to be conducted in this case by the Lottery Commission. Winning numbers would be shown on video monitors. The Governor says Ohio Keno would raise $73 million annually for the state treasury and help plug a projected deficit. The proposal is already drawing fire from gambling foes.

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