The move by some area bar owners to repeal the state ban on smoking in small neighborhood taverns sure is interesting, and it's not likely to be overturned without a court case. And a court case might be just what the doctor ordered.

Maybe some people were just born with the ability to talk effectively to the media. If so, then Brian Vogt, a vice president at American Coating Specialists in Norwalk, is one of those people.

Fired Sandusky police Chief Kim Nuesse's civil service hearing is a dog-and-pony show costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter is the dog, and retired judge Joseph Cirigliano is the pony.

Kevin Baxter will testify this month in the Kim Nuesse civil service hearing, and I expect he will allow the cameras to roll when he does. That would be the best way to assure residents get the best and most complete information on this important topic.

Kim Nuesse’s not the only police chief fighting gender bias. In Youngtown, Ariz., an arbitrator ordered police Chief Kimberly Johnson reinstated, dismissing complaints from her subordinates that she “created a hostile work environment.”

His testimony in the Nuessegate hearings is laughable, but here's a comment from a reader that accuses Charlie Sams of being a dead-ringer for famous 1960s humorist Tommy Smothers.

Fired police Chief Kim Nuesse's civil service hearing had only just begun this morning when I got booted out of the hearing room before any witness took the stand.

Wow. The five charter officers are doing a bang-up job for the city of Sandusky, according to the personnel evaluation forms recently completed by city commissioners. It's as if there was no housing scandal, no police department issues, no firefighters threatening to shoot the fire chief.

All four candidates for Erie County commissioner have agreed to take questions and blog on our new online special section Decision '08.