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Will kids show up if the teacher is a robot? Are we teaching effectively?

Chronic absenteeism is only the symptom

Posted on April 14, 2024 @ 9:35 pm by David Esrati

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From the NY Times:

Nationally, an estimated 26 percent of public school students were considered chronically absent last school year, up from 15 percent before the pandemic, according to the most recent data, from 40 states and Washington, D.C., compiled by the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. Chronic absence is typically defined as missing at least 10 percent of the school year, or about 18 days, for any reason.

The increases have occurred in districts big and small, and across income and race. For districts in wealthier areas, chronic absenteeism rates have about doubled, to 19 percent in the 2022-23 school year from 10 percent before the pandemic, a New York Times analysis of the data found.

Poor communities, which started with elevated rates of student absenteeism, are facing an even bigger crisis: Around 32 percent of students in the poorest districts were chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year, up from 19 percent before the pandemic.

Source: ?Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’ Almost Everywhere – The New York Times March 29, 2024

We’ve been “educating” children in America the same way, on the same schedule, since before the automobile, airplane, nuclear bomb and the internet.

And we wonder why schools are failing in so many ways?

Maybe we’re using the wrong metrics to measure our children’s intellectual and social growth? Perhaps, in an attention economy, we fail to give them the recognition and attention they are screaming for?

Standardized testing works great for those making widgets but fails to measure something as complex as an autonomous- intelligent life form? We’re so enamored with Artificial Intelligence right now, that we seem to have relegated developing real intelligence in our population to low paid, overworked civil servants (ie teachers) who are competing with technology built to engage and entertain non-stop. I’m guessing AI will eventually be entrusted to teach our children, since we don’t seem to value teachers or their products: an educated electorate. Will a robot teacher be a better solution, or just a cheaper one?

The need for critical thinking skills has only grown with the complexity of the information landscape. The ability to discern the important and authentic from distraction and disingenuous is more important than ever since a former leader created the misnomer “fake news” and destroyed the credibility of the Fourth Estate which provided a critical check and balance on our government. A government that relies on trust, in it- and even “in God we trust” to maintain a civil society.

If you wonder what the solution is to re-engage and re-connect with children, it’s to stop trying to manufacture mechanical cogs for an industrial society in the information age. Put more emphasis on arts, culture, athletics, collaboration and team work, and less on individual accomplishments in memorization and the regurgitation of rote learning.

Expand our school year and day- providing a safe, healthy environment to bond and socialize, allowing parents the ability to concentrate on the increasingly difficult job of providing for their families in a society where the wealth gap is expanding faster than ever before. Cut down the instruction hours per day and increase the time spent on things that interest children from making music to movies, or creating software or sewing sleepwear.

I made a video about 7 years ago that addressed this for my local school district, it fell on dead ears. “There Ain’t no “F” in Dayton”

And while absenteeism wasn’t the main issue I was addressing, it was part of the big picture.

America can’t continue to ignore this issue if it wants to survive. Democracy doesn’t work without an informed and educated electorate, trust me, I just lost a primary to a woman who thought a video of her holding a baby was a good reason to vote for her.

My 8.5 minute video “The Power of US” talking about solutions was “too long”

America needs a “Manhattan Project” to solve our educational systems failings now, not later. This may be the most critical test of our system of democracy in a day and age where instant gratification and attention has overtaken substance and successful outcomes.

It’s not just about being there, it’s about being present, engaged, and feeling that there is something bigger and more important to be a part of, instead of just being a participant on something we call social media- which is neither.

While we’re struggling to decide what to do with children who are failing to fit in and are disrupting the classrooms in Dayton- with talks of “alternative schools”- including a possible “military academy” we’re missing the message from this generation that is struggling to find a voice. They want desperately want to be a part of something, to feel empowered, without understanding what true empowerment is. Other than the Marines (the few, the proud) the other military branches are struggling to recruit. It all comes down to the same thing: What’s the point of showing up if it doesn’t mean anything anymore?

What part is there out there for them to play?

Solve that, and we’ll start to see a change.

Michael Harbaugh gets on Ballot for OH-10 congress, Dayton Daily News doesn't mention it

Turner, Cox face independent challenger Michael Harbaugh

Posted on April 10, 2024 @ 9:42 am by David Esrati

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Independent Candidate for Congress, in Ohio’s 10th congressional district, Michael Harbaugh’s signatures were certified by the Montgomery County Board of Elections on Monday, April 8, 2024. This is real news. You read it here first, seeing as the Dayton Daily News doesn’t know what news is anymore.

Harbaugh accomplished the near impossible, turning in enough signatures to get 3000 approved by the Montgomery County Board of Elections that finds fault with at least 20% of all petitions turned in by challengers- and sometimes as high as 50%. His signatures, collected in the three counties that encompass OH-10, all of Montgomery and Greene and a part of Clark, involved all 3 boards of elections. In a conversation on March 28th, he lamented that Greene County was dragging their feet. He claimed only 2-3 signatures per petition (Form 2-E) were getting thrown out according to sources in the BOE. The petition has 32 lines to sign.

Harbaugh, 39 lives in Kettering and is an Ohio University grad. He owns a food truck, and announced his candidacy on Reddit. He has a Ballotpedia entry, a website, and has raised about $3K reported. He also has some past legal issues that will come up and more than likely be ignored by voters.

Congressman Mike Turner will not debate him, or Cox, unless either raises at least half a million. At least that’s been the 20 year history of this seat, since it was abdicated by former Congressman Tony Hall, a pro-life Dem who saw the writing on the wall of redistricting by the Ohio legislature that had been bought by the Koch Brothers. Turner was again aided when they took out Congressman Steve Austria through the redistricting process when Ohio lost a Congressional seat due the 2010 census.

The question of if Cox and Harbaugh will debate, or even attend a forum will be interesting. Cox was evasive at best in the only primary forum, hosted by the South Dayton Dems.

The real question is will one of the national attempts at a third party decide to back him- ie The Forward Party, The No Labels Party. It’s been a long time since anyone has attempted this, although a libertarian or two has slipped on the ballot in the past to no effect.

He posts a “11 laws to introduce on Day 1” on the front page of his site. It’s pretty obvious he doesn’t quite understand how things work in DC. I am only posting these for posterity and in case they change over time (you really should do your own homework and look at his site:

11 Laws to Introduce Day 1

  1. Ranked Choice Voting and Term Limits to stop career politicians
  2. Get Dark Money out of politics, End Citizens United
  3. Make it a felony for members of Congress and their spouses to Buy/Sell Stocks while in office and 1 year after leaving office
  4. Members of Congress lose their Federal Health Insurance until they pass universal Healthcare Coverage for all Americans
  5. Tax breaks and grants/loans small-medium size family farms
  6. All States need to use paper ballots to protect their elections
  7. Spending cuts and transparency reforms to the corrupt military defense contractor system ripping off taxpayers
  8. End the War on Drugs and implement a Harm Reduction/Healthcare Strategy like in Switzerland
  9. Give Americans $100 tax break to vote and make election day a paid holiday
  10. Pay immediately the pensions + damages + interest to the 20,000 non-union Delphi workers screwed out of their retirement during the Bankruptcy of GM in 2009. Attach it as an amendment to must pass Federal spending legislation
  11. Pay all medical bills and buy homes at double market value to compensate every victim in East Palestine, Ohio for the train derailment that poisoned the entire town
https://www.harbaugh4congress.com/

Considering neither party believes in true presidential primaries, at least it’s nice to have a choice for Congress. We’ll have more on Mr. Harbaugh as time and funds permit.

Farewell to the Dayton Daily News

Dayton Daily News on life support

Posted on April 7, 2024 @ 9:25 pm by David Esrati

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If the Dayton Daily News was a patient in a hospital, the doctors would be trying to move it to hospice as fast as possible so it won’t die in their hospital. It didn’t have to be this way, but, there never has been anyone digitally savvy in charge and it’s getting worse (as if that was possible) daily.

The old argument not to argue with anyone who buys ink by the barrel went away when they sold their print center in Springboro and started printing in Indianapolis. That moved the final news deadline to 6 pm. A few months ago, they switched to printing in Detroit- cutting another hour off their deadlines. Calling it the Dayton Daily- when it was more like the Dayton Day-Old was bad enough. But, in a grand cost cutting move, they then killed off the Saturday print edition, and started shrinking the newspaper, little by little.

The problems started long ago, when venture capitalist started to pick the Cox news empire apart. Not, that Cox knew what it was doing- the envious position of having the number one tv station, the number one FM station, the number one news talk AM station and the newspaper in the same market should have been the keys to the kingdom, except, none of the pieces wanted to work together, and there wasn’t a leader that understood the fact that these were no longer multiple entities- but one, just with different viewports.

Instead of doubling down on their extensive multi-media capability, they kept expanding their footprints- with different websites for each. Here’s the sad and honest truth- good websites are hard enough to build and maintain, and doing many is just a giant sucking sound for your resources. There never should have been a Dayton.com, a DaytonDailyNews.com a WHIOTV.com etc- it should have just been Dayton.com and done. Video, audio, news, restaurant reviews, classifieds, obituaries, real estate, legal notices all in one. With all the talent, working around the clock to continue to have one site with the mostest, up-to-datest, latest, greatest coverage of everything from high school sports to the courts and even the old “if it bleeds it leads” news that they still think is the thing for local TV news.

The biggest crime has been their total lack of value in their collective historical content stretching back over 100 years. No, this isn’t just for the little “this day in history” half-page, it’s about unlocking the foundational stories that built this city. Knowing who did what and how it happened is almost as important as today’s news. They’ve seemingly sold off their history, killing one of the best reasons to subscribe and “be a member” of their community.

I tried early on to talk to their then digital genius- Ray Marcano, about the advantages of using the open source content management system- WordPress (the backend of this blog), to manage their nascent digital footprint. He blew me off- he knew what he was doing. Apparently, his overly expensive proprietary system was so much better. Turns out, there’s a little newspaper in New York that not only started using WordPress- but invested heavily in it- you might have heard of that paper- the New York Times.

And while it’s taken the New York Times 2 decades to refine their digital offering, they still haven’t fully figured out how to replace and optimize the advertising revenue that content manufacturers like good news organizations used to depend on. With more choices of where to be “infotained” hiring great talent and making destination worthy content isn’t cheap. You can’t just find writers like Tom Archdeacon on every corner. Sadly, really bad content created by amateurs is raking in the bucks while news organizations are struggling to keep their lights on. You know, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube have all figured out how to monetize their digital sharecroppers who post cat pix and dance videos, while necessary journalism sits sad and brokenhearted on the info highway off ramp, with a sign “will work for food.” And yet, their content is being scraped and marketed with impunity by the Technorati.

Recently Reddit had their IPO- and made a whole bunch of billionaires- all with User Generated Content- while the Dayton Daily still can’t figure it out- and keeps making their content less valuable and desirable.

They’ve had a string of Chief Marketing Officers who don’t understand marketing, editors who don’t know what real news is, and reporters who don’t have enough time or institutional knowledge to tell stories worth reading. I remember campaigns trying to tell people to buy the paper because the coupons are worth more than the subscription. Seriously. The only bread and butter content of value for them now is the state mandated pages of legal advertising (which is absolutely worthless) and the obituary page where they overcharge and under deliver the eulogies to the last of their die hard readers. That realtors still buy ads in the Sunday paper “real estate” section is quaint, as their once proprietary listing database has now been co-opted and their commission structures de-regulated.

So, Mr. Smarty Pants, what’s the answer?

This ship sailed long ago- but, they should have stopped trying to turn bits into atoms. This was explained long ago in a book by Nicholas Negroponte called “Being digital.” Negroponte was leading the MIT media lab- and said don’t take things that are digital- like words and video- and try to turn them into something physical- atoms, dead trees, paper.

They could have saved all that money on paper, ink, printing, delivery and bought every reader a tablet- with full time two way cellular connection and come out ahead by shiploads of cash. This also would have given them real stats on what was consumed by whom- which is the holy grail of targeted marketing in the digital age. You read a lot about gourmet cooking- we sell ads to makers of gourmet products, you read about sports, we sell your eyeballs to online gamblers, you read about politics, we sell your ad space to the political machine etc etc.

The key is, they had the greatest way of developing real user profiles of any media out there- by watching what you click on and how long you connect. Plus, they knew where you lived, and who you were. But that ship sailed long ago- and the social media sites don’t charge you for the right to read and interact- it sure is hard to compete with free, right?

But, they still can’t get over their lack of digital chops, and keep thinking “if we could only build a higher paywall” we’ll win. The Dayton Daily recently broke any last smidgen of usefulness to the world when they broke the “share a story” feature to just deliver a link to the home page of the digital edition. Plus, even if you navigate to the story, they think they’ve made it impossible to cut and paste too, which is only what a moron would believe. The fact is, for the most part, what they publish isn’t worth talking about anymore- and the talking about it- is where the hyperboost is. Comments and engagement have always been the hidden secret to growing a community- which is what a newspaper was supposed to do- be the voice of the collective community.

The Dayton Daily was stupid enough to think that by feeding the masses some tidbits on Facebook- joining the ranks of the digital sharecroppers would somehow be their saving hail Mary. Instead, it’s been a crucifixion of the last of their value. Now people have huge discussions of the Dayton Daily’s content on Facebooks site- not their own. Losing the chance to monetize their engagement.

Others have built communities that do what they could be doing – even better, and know how to steal the Daily’s thunder before the lightning even strikes. With a community and comments, the ability to get people coming back is the secret to being able to run more ads, but, they never figured that out.

The final nail in the newspaper coffin

When the newsroom used to have a hundred people in it- all living fat and happy thanks to the help wanted ads that Craigslist stole, the Real Estate Ads that the MLS, Zillow and Redfin etc stole, the personal ads that dating sites stole, and the sports scores, stock prices and weather that the internet stole, you end up with very few folks left writing and covering a local market that’s gotten bigger and more complicated thanks to sprawl. Think about Dayton before WWII, when there were 250K people inside the city limits, and only a few government meetings that mattered. Now we have 30 political divisions, 18 police forces and school districts, and all kinds of quasi-governmental slush funds all playing around behind semi-closed doors without the guiding hand of the fourth estate. In other words- more to cover with less talent.

Y’all should just throw in the towel right now. But then we’d really be in trouble.

The only real solution left is for government to intervene and realize that without the fourth estate keeping track of the other three, without an educated and enlightened populace, we’re all going to suffer. The NPR/Public Television/non-profit government sponsored news system is long overdue. In fact, it’s probably the only solution left. We’ve seen billionaires buy the Washington Post (Amazon’s Bezos) and LA Times (Patrick Soon-Shiong) and still the bleeding doesn’t stop.

While it’s unlikely that this initiative would come at the hands of the Feds or the State, if the forces of “regional cooperation” were smart, they’d start financing news the way they finance “economic development” with a subsidy. Even better, local government would realize the cost of duplication of so many services, websites, accounting for the public dollars isn’t helping the community grow and thrive. The amount of inefficiency is mind-blowing. The benefit to the community- minimal,.

Take today’s Opinion Piece by the aforementioned Ray Marcano, where he makes a totally arm-chair rant about the firings and investigations in New Lebanon. He suggests that the new Mayor, the new legal counsel, the new interim city manager, all did something wrong by terminating the previous City Manager and her crew. Did he bother to call the Mayor? Nope (I did- he said “Ray who?). Did Ray look into what’s been going on in this banana republic that is totally unnecessary (See Reconstructing Dayton site) he just threw some lazy shade at some people who are actually are doing the work of investigating corruption in their community.

Real journalism wouldn’t let his rant hit the paper. But, so many readers have given up, or lowered expectations. We’ve allowed stupid to suffice for news.

Building back a fourth estate is vital to our survival. WYSO has worked really hard at integrating the community in the production of its content. They’ve got kids doing it, veterans voices, podcast classes, citizen journalism is the start. Yet, the Dayton Daily still ignores those that are doing their own version of citizen journalism instead of embracing them. Creating yet more “Community Advisory” boards and having “community conversations” isn’t the same as creating a safe space for those who are interested and engaged in local politics to have a platform. Filling the paper with press releases pretending to be news isn’t going to win back subscribers- good content is.

And, it has to be multi-media content. Video, audio, words, pushed together through one portal- with comments and discussion managed by the community (see Reddit). And, community isn’t singular- there are sub-communities like those who follow Flyer basketball, or are foodies, or vegans, or movie buffs. If there is to be a successful return of news, it will be because it’s the platform for everything Dayton (as in greater Dayton, not just the city of).

But most importantly, a true news outlet today celebrates the talent and wonder of a community and shares it effectively. With the best writers, videographers, storytellers, connoisseurs and critics helping inform and educate. In an era of micro-payments for advertising per individual view- the secret is to have something people need to go to daily to be a part of their community. Not just the best event calendars- but the place to learn all of what Dayton has to offer.

Doesn’t that sound better than what we have now?

April Fools 2024 WNBA Team to Dayton

WNBA team coming to Dayton in 2026

Posted on April 1, 2024 @ 6:00 am by David Esrati

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April 1, 2024 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The University of Dayton has announced that it has taken the next logical step in the Name Image Likeness competition for college athletes, acquiring an expansion franchise of the WNBA beginning in the 2026 season. Athletic Director Neil Sullivan says “call it the Catlin Clark effect, with a growing interest in women’s basketball, we already have an average draw for our Women’s program equaling that of 4 of the WNBA teams (Atlanta, Indiana, Washington and Dallas) and the Dayton Dragon’s have proved that there is a market for summer pro-sports in Dayton.”

With college teams now recruiting based on promised visibility for its star recruits, having a pro team operating out of the same arena brings new cachet to the Flyers basketball programs and facilities.

Sullivan continued “We have an amazing facility in Dayton that is underutilized in the summer, we’re a hotbed of basketball, and with our current WBB Coach’s connection to the WNBA things all started to fall into place last year. A discussion with our major donors thought that this could not only elevate both of our basketball programs and be a great recruiting tool.”

University of Dayton President Eric Spina was all in from the beginning of discussions, and see’s this as a further step to the Universities investment in the community. “We’ve seen how our investment in the Arcade has cultivated new interest in the university by students from across the globe, being the first to own a Major League sports team will do amazing things for our sports management majors as well as our health and sport science program. This is a trailblazing step by a University and we’re sure that others may try to follow.”

Sullivan said “The $55M commitment to secure the franchise by a team of local alumni and boosters was only logical after we spent considerably more than this on the renovation of the arena. The praise of the building and the success of the First Four play-in series helped us convince the WNBA that this was the right move.” The league has been planning on expansion from 12 to 16 teams by 2028, and while other ownership groups were being asked to ante up for practice facilities and arenas, UD already has all of those in place.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is excited about the speed that this project came together, and believes that the next four years will see the expansion goals reached or exceeded by 2028. “Caitlin Clark has exponentially increased the interest in the women’s game and we believe that we’re poised for explosive growth.” The fact that a group of major investors put an additional $75M into the league currently valued at a billion dollars helped the UD groups buy in on this investment.

In 2023 a group that included Nike Inc., Laurene Powell Jobs, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Columbus Crew and Cleveland Browns co-owner Dee Haslam, and Linda Henry, co-owner of the Boston Red Sox and the Liverpool FC all invested in the league. Sports teams have seen spectacular valuation growth in the last ten years, largely because sports is now the only must-see live programming that major advertisers are looking for.

JP Nauseef, president of Jobs Ohio and an early organizer of the First Four, said that they were contributing $10M toward this effort. “With seven new hotels opening in Downtown Dayton, this can only help create the kind of momentum that moves Dayton up the ladder for site selection evaluation and competition on a global scale” said Nauseef.

While the name of the franchise is still being finalized, Sullivan noted that it was unfortunate that the Dallas franchise had already taken the name “Wings” – “It would have been a nice memorial to one of our greatest supporters, Milt Kantor, who had the short lived WBA Dayton Wings franchise in the early nineties. Milt was ahead of his time, and has meant so much to this program.”

The branding assignment has been given to The Next Wave Marketing Innovation in Dayton according to Sullivan. “They worked with the Dayton Dynamo, the Dayton Bombers and turned around attendance for the Dayton Wings with their 1992 “Dream Team Challenge” stunt – where the Wing’s offered to take on the first US Olympic team to include NBA stars for a charity game.”

With the WNBA season kicking off on May 14th, and the Indiana Fever being the predicted winners of the Caitlin Clark sweepstakes, this announcement solidifies the region as a basketball hotbed. Engelbert recently attended the First Four games in Dayton, watching the arena fill to watch teams with no local connections. The level of excitement in the arena is when she knew that this expansion franchise was the right move. “No other city could consistently bring out fans like this, and we’re sure that Dayton will be a successful addition to our league.”

#30

For additional information, April First only, contact Neil Sullivan at (937) 229-4861 or [email protected]

Let me tell you about the dirty underbelly of Montgomery County Politics

The dirty underbelly of Montgomery County Politics

Posted on March 28, 2024 @ 8:48 pm by David Esrati

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Last Tuesday, Jacqueline Gaines, a magistrate in Domestic Relations Court lost her Republican primary against Jennifer Petrella by a 2-1 margin. You might remember Jacqueline ran 2 years ago as an unendorsed Dem for Common Pleas judge.

Thursday, she lost her job. Judge Denise Cross (an R, I’m told- it’s hard to remember because the party affiliation never shows on ballots and Cross has been there forever) dismissed her. Gaines is an at-will employee, but, the timing reeks of political not professional actions.

Word on the street is Gaines ticked off other magistrates by suggesting that her status as a mother made her more fit to serve. As if getting pregnant isn’t a skill mastered by teens. Considering if she was one of Matt Heck’s employees (John C Amos)- you can get charged with sexual assault and keep your job for almost a year, yeah, I know, I can’t even make stuff up this good.

“Amos was indicted last year on two counts of rape, one count of sexual battery and two counts of gross sexual imposition. Four of the counts were dismissed against Amos in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday.

Amos changed his plea to guilty for one count of sexual imposition, and pleaded guilty to one count of assault, added as a part of the plea agreement…..

Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr. allowed Amos to stay on the job during the years long investigation. Amos resigned from the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office the day of his indictment.”

Former Montgomery County assistant prosecutor John Amos pleads to misdemeanors, rape charges dropped

Of you could work for Mat Heck and steal $90K while working a low wage job- because your wife is Mat’s 2nd Cousin… and now a judge.

But, say something stupid like I’d be a better judge because I have kids… let’s fire you.

The whole judgeship thing in Montgomery County is like getting appointed to the Supreme Court- once you’re in, you’re never opposed after you win your first election (unless you really sucked- then someone like Dick Skelton might come after you).

Besides, most voters have no idea who is a good judge or a bad judge- because most Judges opinions aren’t exactly great reading material, and unless you’ve been in court- you have no reason to dislike a judge (like the way I feel about a few of them).

Other political shenanigans have been taking place under our noses. The Dayton Daily Snooze can’t really tell you what’s going on because they are too busy running press releases for Mike Turner or the Dayton Development Coalition telling you how great a job they are doing at taking the working classes money and handing it to the 1% (Joby Aviation or the Arcade funding for instance).

Word is that Dem party chair Mohamed Al Hamdani called Phil Plummer and tried to do a deal- “you don’t run anyone against Stacy Taylor Benson for Recorder and we won’t challenge John McManus for Treasurer.” This is laughable, the Dem’s have been hemorrhaging candidates faster than Russian convicts have been mowed down by the Ukrainians. (See Jacqueline Gaines above, or former Trotwood Mayor Mary McDonald who will now challenge Debbie Lieberman for County Commission).

Plummer laughed at Al-Hamdani, but he didn’t have any candidates either. A few different ones were asked who declined including a TV journalist, before they settled on a Republican woman named Lori Kennedy who supposedly lives in Florida most of the time to run against Benson-Taylor. Mohamed then had to throw his hat in the ring to take on McManus who will obliterate him (Al-Hamdani barely beat the very qualified Paul Bradley for last place on the Dayton School board- when Jocelyn Rhynard ran her first rogue campaign for School Board against the “Dem Team” of Reverend William Harris, Karen Wick, Mohammed and Paul. Rhynard came in 2nd to Harris. Before he was even sworn in- he was holding illegal meetings and trying to shut down my camera in a school closing task force that resulted in the closing and demolition of Valerie School.

Last but not least, we have the really strange story of Miami Township Trustee John Morris who has recently taken a job in Northern California- where his wife will move to, but he’ll commute back and forth to hold onto his political fiefdom. This makes Jon Husted’s old ruse of owning a house in Kettering and one in Columbus look almost rational when he was a State Rep.

“John Morris, president of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Ohio Valley and executive director for Home Builders Association (HBA) of Dayton, is set to step down from his role at ABC, effective April 1. He will pursue a new role as chapter president of the ABC Northern California chapter while maintaining his position at HBA Dayton. However, the HBA said the decision is still tentative…

Morris said the shift is mainly personal as his son will play football at the University of California, Berkley. His wife will relocate to the sunshine state permanently while Morris will split his time between the two states working for ABC and HBA.

“I’m not completely leaving,” Morris said. “My role at ABC is changing, but my role at HBA is essentially the same. I’ve taken on some new responsibilities which are going to require me to travel. I’ll have a consulting role with ABC and Ohio Valley as they transition and look for a new, permanent president.”

Morris will also maintain his role as a trustee in Miami Township.”

Construction leader to split time between Dayton organization and California group

If I was the folks in Miami Township, I’d be a bit perturbed about this. But, then again, the township may have to declare bankruptcy pretty soon to pay the judgement against them for the wrongful prosecution by one of their police officers.

“Miami Twp. was ordered to pay a $45 million judgment in a civil lawsuit on behalf of a former detective in a wrongful conviction case.”Miami Twp. was ordered to pay a $45 million judgment in a civil lawsuit on behalf of a former detective in a wrongful conviction case.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rose on Wednesday ruled in favor of former Miami Twp. police detective Scott Moore and said the township has a duty to defend Moore against the lawsuit’s claims and must pay the full amount of the verdict against him.

Roger “Dean” Gillispie in November 2022 was awarded the $45 million verdict, the highest in state history, his lawyers from Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law said at the time.”

Miami Twp. ordered to cover $45 million judgment in wrongful conviction case

Maybe this is why we shouldn’t have 30 jurisdictions with 18 police departments in our county- when we could just have unigov- and not hire Barney Fife as a detective. See Reconstructing Dayton for more info on Uni-gov.

A note to new readers- and a hint to old readers

This is my first news post since losing the Dem nomination for Congress. Running for office takes a lot of time and energy, and costs way too much in this country (just ask former Magistrate Gaines). I have been doing this since 2005. I don’t get paid- I don’t sell advertising on the site. I make very long, informative videos (if you clicked on the story about Mohamed and his illegal meeting- you saw one of my favorites- “Goodbye Sunshine”- the one that Judge Dick Skelton pretended wasn’t relevant in court).

There are a few brave souls who quietly support this form of community journalism with recurring monthly donations. They are very much appreciated, as are all the folks who come to me with information that the public needs to know- with my promise of taking their identities to the grave. There are also the anonymous hecklers who like to call me stupid, ugly, and that my mother dresses me funny. Luckily, being in the Army where I jumped out of perfectly good airplanes for a living, made me pretty much impervious to most taunts.

I’ve got a bunch of longer stories to write. This took about an hour. Others can take weeks to write. Someone who I have a love/hate relationship with said this story: The International Man of Mystery, which had to be absolutely correct- should have won a Pulitzer. Instead, the Dayton Daily never covered it- nor did any other major news org- and even after I threatened to file suit against Baguirov if he didn’t resign after he officially changed his voter registration and forced him to resign– it still wasn’t covered. Need proof that this journalism works? Baguirov ran for county recorder- and spent a ton of money to try to stop Google from telling people everything they needed to know about him was on my site- and then, he gave up and changed his name legally to “Al Bagiro.”

So, if you enjoyed this story- and want to keep me going, please consider signing up for a monthly donation. www.esrati.com/donate Thank you.

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