Cranley strikes director from cuts

CINCINNATI - Cincinnati Police Academy director Ted Schoch's job is safe - for now. City Council eliminated 18 middle management jobs from the city budget Wednesday, but Finance Committee chairman John Cranley removed the police academy director's job from the list of cuts just before the council vote. Police Chief Tom Streicher proposed eliminating Schoch's job - a civilian position - as part of council-mandated budget cuts to pay for the curbside recycling program. Streicher's proposal would have a sworn patrol captain take over the academy. Cranley said he wants a committee hearing on that proposal.

Bid for center subject of suit

DOWNTOWN - A second low bidder has filed suit against the city of Cincinnati after being passed over for a contract on the $145 million convention center expansion project. Cleveland Construction of Mason bid $8.9 million to do drywall work at the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Canter. Valley Interior Systems of Walnut Hills got the contract for $10.1 million. The city awarded the bid to Valley because it used more small businesses as subcontractors, under a 2002 affirmative action ordinance. The Thomas J. Dyer Co. filed a similar suit in February.

Author to sign book on hazing

KENWOOD - Ricky Jones, who wrote Black Haze - Violence, Sacrifice, and Manhood in Black Greek Fraternities, will sign his book 2-4 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble, 7800 Montgomery Road, Kenwood. Jones, who examined five major black Greek-letter fraternities across the country - Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Phi Beta Sigma and Iota Phi Theta - argues that hazing rituals within these groups are more deeply ingrained, more violent and mean more to participants than initiation practices of other ethnic groups. Jones was a fraternity member and past chapter president of Kappa Alpha Psi while a student at University of Kentucky. He is an associate professor, chairman and political science specialist in the department of Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville.

TRAFFIC WATCH

Beckett Street in Hamilton will be closed from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. for curb and road replacement starting Monday. The work is to be completed by April 16, weather permitting.