MICHAEL McINTYRE'S TIPOFF

Cleveland political views & commentary

University School student Evan Harris helps a prosecutor fix a computer glitch: Tipoff

by Michael K. McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Monday December 22, 2008, 6:02 AM

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Kevin Rosenberg had a problem as he was arguing a case recently before Common Pleas Judge Timothy McCormick: He couldn't figure out how to get a projector to play a PowerPoint presentation for the jury.

McCormick asked if anyone in the courtroom could help. Luckily, the courtroom was full of computer experts, otherwise known as teenagers. University School eighth-graders were there on a field trip.

"I know one of you little kids back there can fix this," McCormick said he told them. "And they all pointed at this Evan."

That would be 13-year-old Evan Harris of Chagrin Falls, who strode up as if he were the courthouse IT guy.

"I fiddled with the cables," he said (hey, we could've done that) "and reconnected the computer to the video source (OK, to the what now?) so that the presentation could be projected on the screen," said Evan. "It took less than five minutes. (OK, now you're just showing off.)"

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Tipoff: Praying hip-hop singers, baking nuns and other Cleveland stories

by Michael K. McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Saturday December 20, 2008, 2:51 AM

Matisyahu, the Hasidic Jew reggae/hip-hop singer, had a problem backstage at the House of Blues Sunday. It wasn't that the meal wasn't Kosher or that his throat was too sore to sing. Rather, it was the small matter of John Belushi getting in the way of his evening prayer.

Matisyahu was prepared to pray, facing east toward Jerusalem, with other men in a group known as a minyan. But a huge painted mural of Belushi, in his role as the cigar-champing Capt. Wild Bill Kelso in the Steven Spielberg movie "1941," covered the wall they faced.

"We are stuck here looking at this character and there's actually a law in the Torah that talks about not praying while facing any pictures or images," Matisyahu said as a friend recorded the episode, which was later published on YouTube. "We are actually going to stack up pillows here over the face, no disrespect Mr. Belushi."

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Tipoff: Browns fan cited for couch in motion

by Mike McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Sunday December 14, 2008, 8:30 PM

Two quarterbacks are broken. The star wide receiver has silicone hands. Losses are piling up, and fans are begging for the Steelers' old coach to take over the team.

What else can happen in this bizarre Browns season? Would you believe a loyal fan being slapped with two tickets for driving his motorized couch -- yes, couch -- outside the Muni Lot?

Mike Meredith pleaded not guilty to citations for driving an unregistered vehicle and having expired plates and has a date in Cleveland Municipal Court tomorrow to plead his case.

He usually drives the "Go-Kouch" around the Municipal Parking Lot, hitting different tailgate parties. Meredith and a couple of buddies converted a riding mower into a mobile couch in 2005 because "I was wasting time walking around when I could be sitting here eating hot dogs and drinking beer."

On Nov. 23, he joked around to the officers at the entrance to the Muny Lot that he was driving his buddy to the stadium (he didn't have tickets himself.)

"They laughed and waved me through," he said. "We were like, 'Really? You're going to let us go?' " So he kept driving, past several other cops who laughed, until he was stopped on East Ninth Street by an officer who didn't find it funny.

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Tipoff: Husbands take role in City Council race

by Michael McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Friday December 12, 2008, 8:07 PM

With the big day just two weeks away, it's beginning to look a lot like . . . politics. The big day, of course, being the December 23 election to permanently fill Nina Turner's Ward 1 seat on Cleveland City Council.

Council appointee Terrell Pruitt says he's outraged that the husband of his foe, Tonya Jones, confronted Turner's husband to complain about negativity in his campaign and to warn that Pruitt's campaign manager, Laura Boustani, would be dealt with.

Tonya Jones' husband, Joe, held the Ward 1 council seat until 2005, when he was forced to resign after a felony mail fraud conviction as part of a wider public corruption probe. This is a fact that the Pruitt campaign likes to remind voters about.

That got Joe Jones piqued, and he complained to Turner's husband, Jeffrey, last week. Turner recorded part of the conversation on his MP3 player, which Pruitt played for police.

"I know Laura Boustani," Jones told Turner on the tape. "I know where she comes from. I know where she's at. I know where she started from. I know the whole nine yards. And it's unfortunate that she has to come over here in our neighborhood, a Negro neighborhood . . . She should stay where she's at."

Pruitt considers that a threat.

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Cleveland Councilman Matt Zone wants ward downsizing to be open

by Michael K. McIntyre

Monday December 08, 2008, 5:55 AM

Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone wants the council downsizing process to move out from behind closed doors.

Anxiety at City Hall is high as at least two of the City Council's 21 wards will be eliminated next year as part of a voter-approved downsizing.

The question is: Which two?

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Cleveland Museum of Art gets butterfly brooch back for exhibit

by Michael K. McIntyre

Saturday December 06, 2008, 8:19 AM

A few patrons have broached the subject with staff at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Where, they ask, is the brooch?

The "Artistic Luxury" exhibit features lots of fine jewelry pieces from Faberge, Tiffany, Lalique and other designers. The marketing campaign, which includes a giant sign on the museum, includes a photograph of an opulent, diamond-encrusted butterfly brooch.

But patrons have discovered the butterfly is gone.

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Tipoff: Noted photographer Ron Kuntz publishes a book

by Michael K. McIntyre/Plain Dealer Columnist

Monday November 24, 2008, 12:30 AM

It may be the most perfectly named book ever: "A Cleveland Original: 50 years behind the lens," by former Plain Dealer sports scribe Burt Graeff in collaboration with photographer Ron Kuntz.

It's the story of Kuntz's years shooting pictures in Cleveland for United Press, United Press International and Reuters. The soft cover book ($18.95, published by Cleveland Landmarks Press, Inc. and due out Thanksgiving) contains 192 of Kuntz's remarkable photographs, with Graeff handling the copy. For more information, go to www.clevelandlandmarkspress.com.

If you've ever been to a sporting event in Cleveland, chances are you've seen Kuntz on the sideline. He has been shooting Indians games since 1953. He has shot photos on every continent, covered the Kent State University shootings, the Hough riots, the Glenville shootout, 10 Olympic Games and 38 Kentucky Derbys.

Kuntz -- whose son, John, is a Plain Dealer staff photographer -- also has visited more than 2,000 prisons around the world as part of Bill Glass Ministries, preaching to inmates.

A Cleveland Original? Good title. A Cleveland Treasure might have been better.

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Tipoff: Suspended firefighter lends Bay Village mayor a helping hand

by Michael McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Friday November 21, 2008, 9:00 PM

Bay Village Mayor Debbie Sutherland, drained from her unsuccessful campaign to unseat Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, passed out in her home Tuesday night. Apparently, her potassium levels had dropped dangerously. Her husband called 9-1-1.

"I have a vague recollection of being lifted," said the mayor, who is fine now. "Next thing I know, I'm on the gurney in the back of the squad and I open my eyes and look right up at the firefighter I'm locked in battle with."

That would be firefighter Ron Westmoreland, who complained at a Sept. 15 council meeting that budget cuts may have hampered efforts to rescue two children who drowned off Huntington Beach. Sutherland smacked him with a three-day suspension, saying his comments were "fabricated, insulting and inciteful." She upheld the suspension earlier this month, just after Westmoreland sued the city in federal court.

"So I closed my eyes and opened them again," she said. "And he was still there!"

The mayor said she was impressed by Westmoreland's professionalism and appreciative of the care he gave, inserting an intravenous tube as she was transported to Fairview Hospital, where she was admitted for the night.

"I'm glad it wasn't Lakewood," the mayor joked, "because our firefighters union president is also a nurse and he was on duty there at the time."

Sutherland, who knows how to laugh at irony, thanked the firefighters with doughnuts Friday morning.

"We're all laughing. My law director called and I told him this story and I said, 'Gary [Ebert], I'm going to write a book.' "

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