Inside Higher Ed is reporting that “Tension is mounting at the University of Toledo, where administrators are exploring a partnership with a private company known for churning out quick and inexpensive degrees.”

Read the full story here.

Lucas County Republican Party chairman Jon Stainbrook recently said on a FOX Toledo “Talk Back” segment that he often tapes telephone conversations. Stainbrook said these conversations are taped because he is a “journalist.” Putting aside the fact that Stainbrook’s contributions to journalism are on par with my contributions to designer fashion and Arctic exploration, the catch is that the people being “interviewed” apparently do not always realize they are being taped.
This paranoid habit came to light recently when Stainbrook shared with The Blade a taped conversation he had with Republican Board of Elections member Lynn Olman. Olman described the conversation as “private,” a high-road way of saying he did not know he was being taped and did not know his comments would be played for a Blade writer. But many people have been aware for a long time that Stainbrook tapes phone and in-person conversations and carries a video camera to tape everything from former Lucas County GOP director Joanne Wack trash-talking (unaware she was being taped) to his own appearances on local television.
Many people shy away from confronting Stainbrook because he is a career litigant who specializes in nuisance lawsuits. Toledo Free Press has successfully endured two such experiences, but it’s no fun, and it’s costly. Well, it was free last time because the plaintiffs were ordered to pay our costs, but it still takes time and energy.
Now that Stainbrook’s J. Edgar Hoover tendencies have been made public, an e-mail campaign has been started to … blah, blah, blah … it doesn’t really matter, because Stainbrook and his pal, Blade Publisher John Block, have things just the way they want them, which is to say, under a shadow of fear and loathing so thick it could clog a subway tunnel. That the GOP in Lucas County isn’t strong enough to end this situation speaks volumes about its lack of leadership at local and state levels.
It’s easy to imagine Stainbrook in a locked room surrounded by shelves of carefully labeled audio and video tapes, compiled to embarrass people. It’s also fun to speculate what might be on some of those tapes …

• “Jon, uh, Mr. Stainbrook, sir, it’s Carty. Carty Finkbeiner. I, uh, wondered if you’ve heard anything yet from Pittsburgh about that endorsement if I switch back to being a good ol’ Republican. I know J.R. wants Ben Konop in my office, but Jon, uh, Mr. Stainbrook, sir, I tell ya, I’m still the man for the job. I can turn this ship around if I can get four more years. Call me.”
• “Smithers, it’s J.R. Block. All the arrangements for Mud Hens opening day are set. The new scepter should be in by then, and the suite is being recarpeted with the hides of our enemies. I’m disappointed that the Mud Hens couldn’t figure out a way to get our suite to hover over the crowd like a Jetsons car; I was so looking forward to doing the Queen Elizabeth wave during the seventh inning stretch. Anyway, see you then, and keep me posted on who’s seeking endorsements. Oh, and by the way, Satan said no, you can’t have any more cash advances against your soul. He says that’s all tapped out.”
• “Jon, it’s Tom Noe. Just wanted you to know I’ve been reading the Bible a lot in here and learning a lot about forgiveness. The Lord wants me to forgive those who brought about my humbling and those who tried to capitalize on it like leeches clamped on a sunburned leg at summer camp. So, I’m making these calls to let the leeches know I’m working on forgiving them.”
• “Jon, uh, Mr. Stainbrook, sir, it’s Carty again. Just checking in about that endorsement. Call me.”
• “Hey, Stain, it’s Aaron Lewis from Staind. Just calling to remind you there are a number of new T-shirts and items on our Web site. Bottle openers, hats, wristbands, all kinds of good stuff for sale. We’re playing near Niagara soon; stop by for tix at will call and maybe after the show, we’ll all go out to the Falls and stand close to the edge.”
• “Jon Stainbrook? This is Ed Begley Jr. I’m going to have to pass on that offer to play you in your script for ‘Savior: The Jon Stainbrook Story.’ I don’t want to get typecast as wacky.”
• “Jon, are you there? Are you screening? It’s Carty. Come on, pick up. Call me back, damn it!”
• “Hey, pal, it’s Joe Kidd. Any yard signs left if I make another run at council? Could you make me mayor? Call me.”
• “Stainbrook, you @#%@$#, call me back or I’ll launch into your ass like D-Day! Nobody makes me wait! Nobody! I’ve been running this city since you were filling your diapers. I’m Carty Finkbeiner, you @#%@$@. Call me!”
• “Hey, Jon, it’s Jan Scotland. Just wanted to remind you my birthday is coming up. I know you’re not very good with remembering dates.”
• “Jon Stainbrook? This is Michael Miller of Toledo Free Press. I heard you say on Lee Conklin’s show that the Free Press ‘stole your book,’ but I’ve looked all over my office, and I can’t find a copy of ‘OxyContin Addiction for Dummies.’ If one shows up, I’ll get it back to you.”
• “Jon, it’s Carty. Sorry about that last message. I’m just getting anxious for a call from Pittsburgh. Hey, if it helps, I know that Mud Hens hover car thing fell through, but I could give you guys piggyback rides if it would be any consolation. Call me.”
• “Stainbrook, it’s Satan. I need your attorney’s number. And thanks for the Mud Hens tickets. Looking forward to seeing you soon, pal.”

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press. Contact him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

A Spaghetti Dinner will take place March 1 to raise funds for Kyle Cannon at the Bayside Boardwalk.
Cannon’s neck was broken and his spinal cord severed from his neck while playing in the Beavercreek High School Frozen Creek Tournament in November, 2008. He started playing hockey at age four for the Toledo Junior Storm. Most recently, Cannon played for the Clay Eagles at Clay High School in Oregon, Ohio.
Family and friends of Cannon are hosting the event which will have a 50/50 raffle and silent auction. Dinner and raffle tickets will be sold at the door.
Dinner tickets are $10 and raffles tickets are $1 or 6 for $5. The event will be from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Bayside Boardwalk is located at 2759 Seaman Road in Oregon.

The Greater Toledo Convention and Visitors Bureau announced Feb. 24 that Toledo has been selected to host two conventions in 2009 and 2010 at the SeaGate Convention Centre.

• 3DYC is a youth convention sponsored by the East Central, Michigan, and North Central Districts of the Missionary Church. For more than twelve years these three groups have been working together to affect positive change in student’s lives. The convention will take December 27-30, 2009 and will attract an estimated 2,400 youth participants from Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Toledo competed with Grand Rapids, MI for the business.
• The North American Deer Farmers Association (NADeFA) will host their March 17-21, 2010 convention in Toledo. More than 600 participants are expected to attend. NAdeFA is based in South Lakeshore City, MN and is dedicated to the promotion of deer farming and ranching.

“Meeting planners throughout the Midwest are hearing the “buzz” about Toledo,” said Dave Nolan, President of the GTCVB, in a news release. “Our clients acknowledge the perfect harmony we offer with great facilities and superior customer concern. Toledoans can be confident that bringing meetings home will make them proud.”

“We plan to roll out the red carpet to these groups and make them happy they chose Toledo,” said Mike Sapara, General Manager of Park Inn Toledo.

The two conventions are estimated to have an economic impact of nearly three quarters of a million dollars.

Did you know there are more than 2,500 people in Ohio waiting for a new kidney, liver, pancreas, heart, lung or intestine?

The UT chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) has invited two-time kidney transplant recipient Tifiro Cook to share his experience with organ donation for its Do It Now College Challenge for Donate Life Ohio and Second Chance Trust Fund.

Cook will talk about the importance of registering as an organ and tissue donor Friday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Ingman Room on Main Campus.

“So many people’s lives are hanging by a thread with organ donation being their only hope,” he said.

Cook became ill with a renal disease and received one of his sister’s kidneys in 1993. That kidney failed four years later due to rejection.

He then waited 15 years and received his second transplant in 2007 through a new process called paired donation.
Paired donation is a procedure that allows individuals who wish to give a kidney to their loved one but cannot because they are incompatible. The donor and recipient are matched with another incompatible donor/recipient pair and the kidneys are exchanged between the pairs.
National Geographic made a documentary of Cook’s journey through this paired donation process at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

The Do It Now Ohio College Challenge is a competition among state schools in order to increase registered organ and tissue donors. The UT chapter of PRSSA has been challenged to register 10,347 new donors by the end of April.

To register as an organ and tissue donor, visit http://www.doitnowohio.org/ut/ and click on “register now.”

For more information on this free, public event, contact Brittany Black of the UT-PRSSA at (419) 340-5878.

My children went iceskating for the first time this week. It has been quite awhile since I even dressed myself to ice skate, so I wasn’t exactly sure how to prepare them for the big event. I was confident that socks put on in triplicate were no doubt in order, but that is where my dressing confidence abruptly stopped. Did they need multiple layers of other clothing? Should they wear hats and gloves? And then the big question popped into my mind: “Are they supposed to wear helmets now?”
We have Canadian relatives, so they are my model for all things winter sport. I certainly never popped on a helmet to ice skate as a child, but I also never put one on to ride a bike, either. I did vaguely remember seeing a photo of my Canadian nieces iceskating with helmets on, so I thought this might be the new norm. Of course, Canada does lean to the socialist side, so for all I know the government may just hand out helmets as you enter the rink.
I had faced the same dilemma just last month when we took to the sledding hill. Sadly, my high school instinct to not have my kids be the only ones wearing helmets overrode my motherly instinct to throw them on. About ten minutes into the sledding excursion my son came to me rubbing his head and informed me that he had smacked it on the ground. I decided to not let history repeat itself in a more unfortunate way and took the bike helmets to the ice rink.
My husband and I drew the line at ski gloves, however. Our son was sure his hands would be too cold if he wore the knit gloves we had chosen and requested thicker ones. As much as I’d like to wrap my children in insulated bubble wrap when sending them off to do anything with even the remotest possibility of injury or temperature variation, I realize that it would be utterly ridiculous. I also want them to avoid taking on the climatic wimpiness I often exude.
I was raised at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. My own mom took her Girl Scout training to heart and was almost always prepared for anything, especially the weather. Extremely rare was the occasion that I found myself away from home without a pair of shorts under my pants in case the weather turned balmy or a hat and gloves nearby in case Jack Frost arrived unexpectedly. I give her credit, because most people aren’t willing to drag multiple snowsuits to and from Florida “just in case.”
My childhood home was no exception. All seasons involved an ongoing interior tug-of-war between our air conditioner and furnace, humidifier and dehumidifier to see which ones could provide us the ultimate level of comfort at any given time. The first lion’s roar in March still coincides with the first simultaneous roar of my parents’ extensive network of window air conditioners. If global warming does eventually prove itself to be man-made, I know the address of ground zero.
My mom’s insistence upon supreme climate control came with rules that I find difficult to shake even today. For instance, the rule of warm weather was that shorts only came out when the temperature reached 70 degrees. I still can’t witness another human being wearing shorts when its 68 degrees without wondering what is wrong with them and how they can even stand to be outside in such ill-suited attire.
It is no wonder that I feel a lot of pressure to equip my own children with just the right clothing each and every day. Years of public service announcements regarding safety have also guilted me into making sure my children are protected from the world beyond weather. I sometimes wonder if I am the only one embroiled in this daily pursuit of comfort and safety.
Then, I saw a fairly rugged-looking man walking his tiny dog in a doggy rain coat one misty morning. Since when do dogs need raincoats? At that moment, I came to realize that my mom was simply way beyond her time with her comfort and prevention obsession. It is now more American to insulate yourself, your loved ones and, apparently, your pets from any and all possible calamity than it is to take on the world with unadulterated strength and fearlessness.
Part of me would love to raise children with the fortitude of our pioneering days and pop this bubble we have placed ourselves in. However, judging by the fact that my son spent much of his first ice skating experience on the verge of tears because the knit gloves I insisted would be enough seemed to fail to reach his ideal comfort level, I think I may have missed my chance. Oh, well, maybe the next generation.

Shannon Szyperski and her husband Michael are raising two children in Sylvania. E-mail her at letters@toledofreepress.com.

The University of Toledo’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) will host i-donate Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. The event aims to raise awareness about organ and tissue donating. Tifiro Cook, a motivational speaker and patient advocate, will share about his life as a two-time kidney transplant recipient.
The event is part of “Do It Now! College Challenge” and will take place in the Student Union Ingman Room.

The Andersons, Inc. announced it is hosting a Seafood Dockside Sale, with Lipari Food Distributors, on February 28, 2009. The event will take place at The Anderson Store in Maumee from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The event will also take place March 7 at The Anderson Store on Talmadge Road and at the Anderson Market in Sylvania on West Sylvania Avenue from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A seafood expert from Lipari Food will share cooking tips and recipe ideas at the events.
For more information visit The Anderson’s Market Web site. www.andersonsmarket.com.

The Lucas County Commissioners voted 3-0 to adopt a Lucas County Living Wage Policy at an open meeting Feb. 24. The policy raises the living wage to $11.66 per hour for businesses that offer benefits, and $13.78 for businesses without benefits. Commissioner Pete Gerken said the commissioners will continue to be transparent and let the public know which steps they will take.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol announced Feb. 23 that the 1-888-2-OH-ROAD weather/road condition hotline will be discontinued March 1.

A news release said discontinuing, due to the lack of use by the public and lengthy update process for dispatchers, will result in cost savings.

Motorists can use the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Web site (www.BuckeyTraffic.org), call 1-877-7PATROL or contact their local post directly for traffic and road conditions.