CityBeat | February 22, 2023

PUBLISHER TONY FRANK EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASHLEY MOOR

MANAGING EDITOR ALLISON BABKA

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An Explosive Time in Ohio

As East Palestine grapples with the fallout from a hazardous train derailment, Cincinnati officials are determining the incident’s environmental and financial ramifications here.

BY MADELINE FENING AND ALLISON BABKA

Normally, a derailed train near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border would be of little concern to the people of Cincinnati, but then East Palestine happened. After the train exploded, a connection developed between the village of 5,000 people and the health and financial future of Cincinnati within a matter of days, and now questions about how Cincinnati will respond to the disaster are just getting started.

The explosion

According to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation, at 8:54 p.m. Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern Railway freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, a village in a relatively rural area that is about 280 miles northeast of downtown Cincinnati and just miles from the Pennsylvania border. About 50 freight train cars went off the track or were damaged in a fiery explosion. In total, 20 cars were tankers carrying hazardous materials including vinyl chloride, which is used to make a hard plastic resin used in a variety of plastic products. Of those tankers, 11 derailed, the NTSB said on

Feb. 14.

Additional chemicals emanating from the disaster included butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and ethylhexyl acrylate. The chemicals are used in industrial processes, including the production of lacquers, enamels, inks, adhesives, paint thinners and industrial cleaners and plastic manufacturing.

In an effort to protect residents and prevent further explosions, crews vented five rail cars containing vinyl chloride and completed a controlled burn of the area.

The train had been traveling from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, Norfolk Southern said.

The safety concerns

The incident and subsequent venting and burns released chemicals into the environment, causing concerns about air, water and soil quality both near East Palestine and down the Ohio River in cities like Cincinnati.

Fumes and smoke covered East Palestine so severely that it warranted a week-long mandatory evacuation of thousands of residents, with village mayor Trent Conaway calling a state of

emergency. On Feb. 6, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine ordered residents to evacuate (many have since returned to their homes).

Vinyl chloride, a colorless gas that the train was carrying, has been associated with an increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute.

The tankers' other chemicals also can have harmful effects if inhaled or ingested, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

The EPA said hazardous materials were found in samples taken from waterways near East Palestine, including Sulphur Run, Leslie Run, Bull Creek, North Fork Little Beaver Creek, Little Beaver Creek and the Ohio River. But the agency also said that as of Feb. 15, it had screened nearly 300 homes and reported no detection of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride.

East Palestine residents already have said they’re experiencing skin rashes, nausea, burning eyes and other

symptoms after the explosion of toxic materials, and some have started to meet with scientists and sign up for independent soil and water testing for their homes. Others have talked about seeing dead fish and animals nearby, shared concern for downriver towns and likened the entire incident to the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl.

On Feb. 15, Greater Cincinnati Water Works said that contaminated water from the explosion would reach the Greater Cincinnati area just days later. But Jeff Swertfeger, superintendent of water quality at Greater Cincinnati Water Works, told CityBeat that as of press time, only one chemical had been detected about 220 miles upstream from Cincinnati, and it would not be enough to harm the health of those who consume tap water.

GCWW closed its Ohio River intake on Feb. 19 "out of an abundance of caution," the agency said, but it reopened the intake on Feb. 20 after finding no contaminants.

Greater Cincinnati Water Works closed its Ohio River intake on Feb. 19.

PHOTO: COREY WILLETT, FLICKR

East Palestine in Columbiana County is about 280 miles northeast of Cincinnati.

PHOTO: 636BUSTER, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Authorities still are investigating the cause of the train derailment, but surveillance footage appeared to show either a wheel bearing or an axle overheating, NTSB said. According to KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, the train had traveled at least 20 miles with that part on fire.

Long before the incident, reports indicated Norfolk Southern lobbied for lighter regulations on train safety. Documents showed that the company pushed for a more narrow definition of what constitutes a “high-hazard” train, making many trains hauling dangerous materials exempt from the high-hazard safety requirements.

Norfolk Southern lobbyists also pushed back on requirements from the federal government to swap out Civil War-era brake systems for safer electronic brakes on trains that carry hazardous materials, saying the requirement would “impose tremendous costs without providing offsetting safety benefits.”

The rail sale

In November, Cincinnati mayor Aftab Pureval announced that after more than 140 years of exclusive city ownership, Cincinnati could sell the Cincinnati Southern Railway to

Norfolk Southern for $1.6 billion to fund the city’s infrastructure maintenance needs. Cincinnati is the only city in the country to own its own multistate railway.

The 337-mile freight railway runs from Cincinnati to Chattanooga. Pending rule changes from Ohio’s legislature, Cincinnati voters will ultimately decide whether or not to sell the railway in an election, likely in November.

During a budget and finance committee meeting on Feb. 13 – 10 days after the derailment – Cincinnati City Council members raised safety and financial concerns to railway representatives.

“Given the issues going on in East Palestine, is the sale, the purchase of this railroad, still a top priority?” council member Liz Keating asked. “Does [Norfolk Southern] have all the resources available to continue on with this sale?”

“The purchase of the [Cincinnati Southern Railway] is a top priority,” replied Darrell Wilson, assistant vice president of government relations for Norfolk Southern. “And we do have the resources to follow through with the transaction in the proposed time frame of 2024.”

As of Feb. 13, Norfolk Southern is reportedly worth around $55.26

billion.

Council member Mark Jeffreys said he would request that the city manager’s office convene a forum during which community members could ask questions of Norfolk Southern representatives.

The celebrity involvement

Erin Brockovich, a consumer advocate who had built her reputation by winning a case against a corporation that contaminated water in a California village, said she’s been looking into the environmental effects of the incident in East Palestine.

“I’m trying to gather information on this very serious situation in Ohio involving a train derailment with hazardous chemicals,” Brockovich tweeted on Feb. 11. “What I will say is this. Trust your eyes, ears and nose and get the hell out of there if your senses are telling you too [sic]”

In a Feb. 14 report titled East Palestine: The Place You Don’t Want to Be!, Brockovich noted the news so far and what residents had been saying.

“These chemicals are serious. They are in the air and water, animals are dying. That’s a very scary situation for any resident and all the folks in neighboring communities,” Brockovich

wrote.

In 1993, Brockovich battled Pacific Gas & Electric Company, a utility company that, a court found, had contaminated the water near Hinkley, California, with a carcinogen. Through her employer, law firm Masry & Vititoe, Brockovich proved a connection between PG&E’s actions and the cancer and other illnesses that Hinkley residents had endured. Her investigation was the subject of the highly rated 2000 film Erin Brockovich, which won Julia Roberts an Academy Award for her role as Brockovich.

Brockovich has chastised numerous officials for their lack of urgency addressing the East Palestine situation, including U.S. Senator and Middletown native J.D. Vance. The senator tweeted on Feb. 4 that his team was “monitoring the situation” but didn’t share an update until releasing a statement on Feb. 13.

In that press release, Vance, a Republican, acknowledged that federal agencies, the Ohio National Guard and Northern Suffolk Railway said that their air and water tests in the area have been clear but added that he’s heard “alarming anecdotes about contaminated waterways and effects on wildlife.” He said that his office had been in contact with various agencies.

Local officials are considering selling the Cincinnati Southern Railway to Norfolk Southern Railway.

PHOTO: NYTTEND, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Deadly Batches of ‘Flesh-Eating’ Drugs Reported in Downtown Cincinnati

BY MADELINE FENING

Deadly batches of drugs continue to sweep the state of Ohio, but harm reduction advocates told CityBeat that life-saving steps might not be enough in some recent cases in Cincinnati.

The SOAR Initiative (Safety, Outreach, Autonomy, Respect) alerts subscribers via text or app about deadly batches of drugs, often laced with unknown amounts of fentanyl. But an alert that went out on Feb. 14 warned drug users about batches of “pink fentanyl” downtown that contain little to no fentanyl and were laced with something else entirely: xylazine, also known as “tranq-dope.”

“Pinkish chunky/powder. Contains little to no fentanyl; suspected to be veterinary xylazine,” the alert read. “Maybe packaged in paper East Coast style, may not.”

Xylazine is a non-opioid veterinary tranquilizer meant for sedating animals. It’s a central nervous system depressant that can cause drowsiness, amnesia, slowed breathing, heart rate and blood pressure, and can cause scaly wounds on all parts of the body, known as eschar.

The effect has given the xylazine the “zombie drug” nickname, and coroners in various corners of the country are starting to see more people killed by the drug.

Jessica Collier is a harm reduction and outreach specialist at SOAR. As someone who has dealt with substance abuse disorder herself, Collier said she’s seen the up-close effects of xylazine.

“You can snort, smoke and inject and still get these sores anywhere on your body,” Collier told CityBeat “Wound care is super, super important, but there’s not a lot of places out there that offer it. And this is really nasty in that they’re not able to care for it very well themselves. They really need to get into the hospital, but how many IV drug-users are going to be going to the hospital every day to have a dressing change?”

When left untreated, eschar can lead to amputation of the limbs. Xylazine also poses an increased risk for overdose death because it is not an opioid, meaning the nasal spray naloxone (name brand Narcan) cannot reverse an overdose.

Collier said that unlike fentanyl, there is currently no test strip available to detect xylazine in a drug supply.

“We’re essentially going into this completely blind with no resources,” she said.

Xylazine is most commonly found cut into fentanyl, but it also can appear in party drugs like cocaine. While fentanyl is commonly used to cheaply bulk up a drug supply, Collier said she wasn’t sure why drug distributors would be adding Xylazine to the mix.

“Sometimes I think that they’re just trying to create the perfect drug-user,” Collier said. “Someone who comes as often as stimulants and is sick every day and faithful, like opioids.”

Collier encouraged people who think they may use drugs to download the SOAR app or sign up for text message alerts for bad-batch drugs. The service is free and anonymous and meant for everyone, from casual drug-users to those struggling with substance abuse disorder.

Harm Reduction Ohio, an organization that equips people to fight overdose deaths and aggregates overdose data, has forecasted that overdose

deaths might actually be on a slight decline in the state.

“At the current pace, overdose deaths in Ohio will fall 5.7% from the record pace of 2021 and drop below 5,000 for the first time since COVID,” a recent report published on Harm Reduction Ohio’s website said.

Harm Reduction Ohio pulls overdose data from coroners all over the state, and investigations into some deaths can take time, meaning it’s still too soon to say exactly how many Ohioans died of an overdose in 2022. Data from Harm Reduction Ohio shows that around 5,300 Ohioans died of an overdose in 2021.

The organization offers free online naloxone, shipping Narcan and fentanyl test strips to people who sign up for free.

In overdoses where naloxone does not work, Collier said CPR is the only option to save someone’s life.

“All you can do is rescue breaths and CPR until first responders get there,” she said. “There isn’t much else to do.”

Unlike with fentanyl, there is no test strip to detect xylazine in drugs.

PHOTO: MART PRODUCTION, PEXELS

Cincinnati Bengals Legend Ken Riley Finally Earns Pro Football Hall of Fame Acceptance, Will Be Inducted Posthumously in August

BY ALLISON BABKA

It only took three decades, but the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton has finally decided that yes, the late Cincinnati Bengals legend Ken Riley was HOF material.

The Hall of Fame announced its class of 2023 inductees during the NFL Honors ceremony on Feb. 9, just three days before Super Bowl LVII. Riley was selected by the seniors committee, which chose players whose careers ended during or before the 1996 NFL season. Seniors finalists needed 80% approval from the committee during a January vote.

Riley will be enshrined in the hall during an induction ceremony on Aug. 5 in Canton, becoming just the second longtime Bengal to receive the honor.

Riley, widely considered one of the sport’s greatest cornerbacks, died at age 70 in 2020, and his son Ken Riley II received the Hall of Fame’s call on his father’s behalf. Former Bengals offensive tackle Anthony Muñoz, who already is in the hall and whose tenure on the team overlapped with Riley’s, called Junior with the news.

“I am calling you to say congratulations,” Muñoz told Riley Jr. on a call

shared by the Hall of Fame. “Your dad is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2023.”

“Wow,” Riley’s son said, clearly emotional. “I was praying for this call. It’s kind of surreal. I thank you for your support and appreciate you.”

“Honored to call you, and I am so excited and thrilled to be able to do this,” said Muñoz, who has voiced support for Riley’s inclusion over the years.

Riley’s son has been campaigning for his father to be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame for decades, with the honor finally happening in Riley’s 35th year of eligibility. Riley’s grandson –an athlete like his father and grandfather – also has been vocal about the cornerback’s inclusion.

Via the Bengals’ social media channels, team owner Mike Brown remarked on Riley’s selection.

“Ken Riley was a wonderful person. Everyone at all levels with the team respected him. Ken looked out for others. He was known as someone who would help,” Brown said. “Had he lived, Ken would have delighted in being selected to the Hall of Fame. Now the extended

Bengals family will have to do that for him. We miss him and we celebrate him.”

Including Riley, a total of nine players and coaches were selected as part of the class of 2023. Joining Riley are:

• cornerback/safety Rondé Barber

• coach Don Cornell

• linebacker Chuck Howley

• defensive end/defensive tackle/ nose tackle Joe Klecko

• cornerback Darrelle Revis

• offensive tackle Joe Thomas

• linebacker Zach Thomas

• linebacker/defensive end DeMarcus Ware

In August, Riley was announced as a seniors finalist for induction, along with Howley and Klecko. The selection committee had whittled down a list of 25 semi-finalists to 12 finalists before selecting the trio to move forward. At one point, the hall said in a press release, the selection committee reviewed 127 former players.

Riley spent his entire career with the Bengals between 1969 and 1983 and is considered one of the team’s best all-time best players with 65 interceptions — fifthmost in NFL history. Nicknamed “The

Rattler,” Riley played 207 games over 15 seasons with the Bengals, both in the AFL and the NFL. With Riley, the team went to the playoffs five times and had its first Super Bowl run in 1982.

Riley later became head coach and athletic director at Florida A&M, the alma mater where he had been a starting quarterback, had been selected for a Rhodes Scholar Candidacy and later would coach his son, Ken Riley II.

Riley was excluded from the NFL’s “In Memoriam” segment during the Super Bowl in 2021, just months after he had passed away. The snub incensed fans and increased the calls for his enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame even more. After the Bengals tweeted about the brush-off, Ken Riley II replied, “Thank you @Bengals for the support, it was truly disappointing! My father Ken Riley Sr is part of the NFL History. He is # 5 All Time on the Interception list but he was an even better Man!!! It is truly a crime he never got the recognition he deserved.”

When the hall’s selection committee called Riley’s son in August to say that his father had finally gotten to the final round, Junior said, “Oh, wow! Really? That is awesome. I told [my father], ‘One day, you’re going to do it.’”

Former Bengals right tackle Willie Anderson was a finalist on 2023’s modern-era ballot in his 10th year of eligibility but was not selected for enshrinement. Anderson spent 12 seasons with the Bengals before finishing his career with the Baltimore Ravens. Cincinnati selected Anderson in the first round of the 1996 draft, and he started 116 consecutive games between 1999 and 2007.

Former Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson was under consideration as a senior but did not make it to the committee’s final vote. Anderson played for the Bengals for his entire 16-season career. Along with Riley, he led the team to its first Super Bowl in 1982 and was crowned the Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year. He’s one of just five players to have earned four passing titles. Anderson remained connected with the Bengals even after his playing days were over, serving as a quarterback coach and radio broadcaster. His lack of selection to the Hall of Fame thus far is widely considered an egregious snub among sports experts, as Riley’s had been until this year.

Both Riley and Ken Anderson were inducted into the Bengals’ own inaugural Ring of Honor class in 2021. Willie Anderson joined them in 2022.

It's official: Ken Riley finally is recognized as a Pro Football Hall of Famer. PHOTO: TWITTER.COM/BENGALS

The New Blue Line

Police chief Teresa Theetge is embracing the city’s recent anti-slur policy for officers, but the police union may not be fully on board.

BY MADELINE FENING

The Cincinnati Police Department.

PHOTO: AIDAN MAHONEY

Teresa Theetge is just starting to move into an office that’s been hers for almost a year.

“I didn’t want to jinx it,” she tells CityBeat while shuffling around papers to clear her desk.

The office at the Cincinnati Police Department’s district one headquarters was technically Theetge’s starting in February 2022 when she was appointed interim chief after former chief Eliot Isaac announced his retirement.

But now, after months of community feedback and careful consideration from city manager Sheryl Long, Theetge has transitioned from the temporary position to the official chief of CPD, the first woman to hold the job. And beyond picking a new paint color for her goldenrod office walls (she’s thinking gray), Theetge is looking ahead after a year plagued with headlines about officers saying slurs – particularly the n-word, the racist term for Black people – while on the job.

New policies, new views

It was the year of the reveal, it seemed. 2022 brought not only new cases of CPD officers saying the n-word at work, but also court cases about previous incidents in the not-so-distant past. According to a records request filed by CityBeat:

• Detective Joehonny Reese, who is Black, was briefly suspended of his police powers during an investigation into his use of the n-word while working an off-duty detail at Energy Nightclub in

September. Reese was dealing with a drunk teenager who was repeatedly calling him the n-word until Reese responded to the teen saying he “wouldn’t be an n-word.”

• Officer Rose Valentino, who is white, was fired in August after body camera footage from April caught her saying, “Fucking n******s, I fucking hate them!” while inside her cruiser outside Western Hills University High School. As interim chief, Theetge recommended her termination.

• Officer Kelly Drach, who is white, was suspended for yelling “Sand n****r!” to telemarketers on two known occasions in November 2021 while working the desk in CPD’s Real Time Crime Center. Drach’s case came to light in August. She was handed a sevenday suspension, which District Four commander Mark Burns had recommended to Isaac.

• In 2018, officers Donte Hill, who is Black, and Dennis Barnette, who is white, sued the city, saying Isaac disciplined them in different ways when they were both caught on video using the same racial slur. After a jury deadlocked in Hamilton County, the officer’s case ended up being settled out of court in December 2022. Each officer received $25,000 in the settlement.

According to records, these were the only documented cases of officers using

slurs on the job since January 2013. There may be other instances that were undocumented.

Documented or not, slurs won’t fly in Theetge’s camp, she says.

“There are things that are maybe shocking but acceptable. If I drop the f-bomb because I’m stressed, that might be shocking to some people but it’s acceptable. If I were to drop a racial slur, that would be shocking and unacceptable,” says Theetge, who is white. “I’m proud to say I’ve never said the word.”

To help rein in slur usage and other misconduct, Theetge says the department employs a standard rigorous background check and implicit bias training for new officers. The CPD also is now working with a vendor to develop a new digital process for more quickly identifying officers who exhibit concerning behavior.

“We’re working on a system now – an early warning system,” Theetge tells CityBeat. “It will be more real time.”

CPD’s current system for tracking officer performance and concern focuses on categories such as use of force, citizens’ complaints, use of sick time, vehicle crashes, civil lawsuits and others. Not every activity in a category is misconduct on its face, but Theetge says keeping an eye on these areas helps to identify officers in need of intervention.

“We compare officers to their peers, and if somebody is above the threshold [of a high number of warning signs] compared to their peers, that sends a red flag to us. Then our inspections section monitors that type of activity and they

then push out to the district commanders, ‘Hey, here’s somebody under your command that is above the threshold to their peers, you need to take a look at them,’” Theetge says. “And every quarter, we get together as a group – the command staff – and we talk about the outliers and what kind of an intervention plan we need to put them on.”

The new tracking tool, which will be developed after the CPD completes its vendor bidding process, will add a realtime layer to the department’s system that Theetge says will alert leadership to red flags as they appear, not just quarterly.

“This system would say, “Hey, captain, just FYI, officer Smith got involved in a use-of-force over the weekend and now he’s above his peers’ a little bit more real-time.”

Theetge also says she is embracing the city’s new policy that requires quick and consequential investigations into officers who say the n-word on the job.

In August, the uptick of slur-use cases prompted city leaders to announce that they would seek to amend Administrative Regulation 25, the city’s nondiscrimination policy, to move toward a zero-tolerance policy for racial slurs. Before this, the city’s policy gave supervisors the leeway to discipline employees who used slurs based on the circumstance of the slur and the history of the employee. Supervisors considered things like prolonged stress or a clean disciplinary record.

By Oct. 20, Long, the city manager, announced final edits to Administrative Regulation 25.

Cincinnati Police Department chief Teresa Theetge is looking ahead to more officers adhering to the city’s new anti-slur policy. | PHOTO: MADELINE FENING

The new policy reads:

“If any employee uses the n-word, the department shall conduct a fair and thorough investigation and determine whether the employee used the n-word or a version of the n-word. For usage of the n-word, the presumptive penalty is termination, except in those very rare circumstances where mitigating circumstances are evident. City Officials involved in the disciplinary process (i.e., the hearing officer, agency head, Human Resources Director, and City Solicitor) issuing a recommendation to an Appointing Authority that is for a penalty less than termination should document the mitigating circumstances in writing at all steps of the disciplinary process and why such usage should not result in termination of employment.”

If caught using the n-word, most officers will be terminated from their jobs, pending an investigation. For other slurs, it’s the city’s policy to place the employee on leave while an internal investigation is conducted, and the employee could possibly be fired.

Theetge, who says she welcomes fair and thorough investigations into officer conduct, emphasizes that circumstances could dictate the outcome.

“First and foremost, I think it’s important to understand, from my perspective, that context matters – what they said, when they said it, who they said it to,” Theetge says.

But Dan Hils, the president of the local Fraternal Order of Police union that

represents Cincinnati police officers, has been critical of Theetge during internal investigations. In the case of Reese, Hils says he was outraged that the officer was relegated to desk duty while the department conducted an internal investigation regarding his use of the n-word. In September, Hils told local media outlets that Reese should never have been suspended for “longer than an hour,” calling on Theetge to immediately reinstate the officer or face a vote of no confidence from the union. Reese’s suspension ultimately ran Sept. 2-20.

“I don’t think it’s fair at all. I don’t like racial slurs, I don’t use racial slurs,” Hils, who is white, tells CityBeat. “It’s wrong, but I can tell you in the real world and how police officers work – they hear the most damning word of all. We know what it is – the n-word. That’s the one that seems to create the greatest reaction with people.”

But Hils may be forced to reckon with the fact that, should an officer find themselves caught saying a slur on the job again, a formal investigation process will be required by the city manager’s office because of the revised policy. According to Theetge, officers who conduct themselves well won’t have anything to worry about.

“I think the people who might be upset about the [investigation] length are probably not well versed in what the process entails,” Theetge says.

Theetge says that contrary to assumptions, internal investigators do not approach one case at a time, instead often balancing multiple cases at once, which slows the process down.

“I know some people think, well,

they saw the video, and it is what it is, here’s what should happen to the officer. There’s more to it than just watching a video,” she says. “But what I have done with each one of them is when it’s brought to my attention that these occur, [I] suspend the officer’s powers, send it to internal, tell internal to fast-track it, make it a priority, and bring me all the facts.”

Searching for reasons

Being a member of law enforcement can be difficult. But does that play into why an officer might say forbidden, racist words or phrases?

Hils tells CityBeat that the union agrees that none of the officers who were caught saying slurs on the job in 2022 should have been fired. He also says stress and exposure to the n-word need to be considered when deciding potential punishment.

“[Officers] might hear that word a dozen times on a single radio call,” Hils says. “And, you know, I can’t speak scientifically about how the brain reacts in crisis or in anger, but as a lay person, I think there is this momentary thing that happens to all sorts of people, you know?”

The excuses of stress and exposure dominated the defense for officers Drach and Valentino in 2022. According to internal documents, Drach told investigators that “the effects of the pandemic, health issues with her father, the loss of two children, her husband losing his job, and her eldest son who suffers from mental health problems,” caused her to say a word she says she doesn’t believe.

Valentino also cited stress as the reason for her outburst but added that she’d become “desensitized” to the n-word from interacting with citizens on the job.

Theetge says she doesn’t see stress as justification for using slurs.

“I do believe this is a stressful job. There is no doubt about it. That’s why we focus so much today on officer wellness, because society as a whole now recognizes law enforcement is a very stressful profession,” Theetge says. “But I know officers who have been in extremely more stressful situations than some of these officers who used racial slurs and they never used it, so I’m not buying stress as a reason.”

Stress can be a factor in outbursts, but experts say it’s not necessarily the only one. During her postdoctoral fellowship in social neuroscience at New York University, Jennifer Kubota worked on projects related to the neural foundations of racial bias. She is now an assistant professor and co-director of the Impression Formation Social Neuroscience Lab at the University of Delaware, where she routinely publishes research about interracial interactions between police officers and civilians.

Kubota tells CityBeat that stress doesn’t change a person’s character overnight, but it can impact their ability to make clear, thoughtful decisions.

“Not all people react to stressful situations in the same way. Over time, we become used to it – what is called habituated – and perform just fine,” Kubota says. “To that person – say an emergency responder – they may not view that situation as stressful but rather as part of their job.

Like all city employees, Cincinnati police officers must abide by an October policy that prohibits using racist slurs on the job. |

PHOTO: AIDAN MAHONEY

“The exception is when they feel directly threatened, which is a day-today experience for some,” Kubota continues. “Extreme stress from a direct threat on your life can undermine expertise and training, and people may not react optimally.”

Kubota says racial biases can leak out with stress, especially when someone doesn’t have control of their environment, but she adds that these biases are picked up from their environments.

“It is important to note that implicit racial biases are cultural associations that people soak up from their environment. They are not necessarily

representative of what someone would typically do or say or even what they truly believe,” Kubota says.

For officers who have been fired – including for using slurs – The Fraternal Order of Police’s grievance board provides a chance to appeal the firing with the help of the union’s resources. Hils says Valentino will seek reinstatement “very soon” from a three-person panel of independent arbitrators from the American Arbitrators Association, adding that the arbitrators have the ultimate authority to reinstate Valentino through the FOP’s labor agreement. The city manager’s office and Cincinnati

Police Department do not have a say in the reinstatement decision.

“I am not commenting on what I believe officer Valentino should receive because we’re still in progress in that, but obviously the union feels that – and has voted that – the across-the-board dismissal on that case was not justified,” Hils says.

Iris Roley has some thoughts on that. A founding leader of the Cincinnati Black United Front, Roley is the city’s consultant for issues related to the Collaborative Agreement, a set of policecommunity relationship values outlined between the Cincinnati Police Department, Cincinnati Black United Front, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and community members in 2002. The agreement was created after the 2001 shooting death of 19-year-old Timothy Thomas, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of a CPD officer.

Roley, who is Black, tells CityBeat that she’s concerned about Hils’ view that Valentino’s firing wasn’t justified.

“It says a lot about who he is. It says a lot about who votes him in,” Roley tells CityBeat. “You have half of the population of this town that can be identified by a racial slur. It is unacceptable. It is so critical that we understand who these people are because your language will dictate your behavior.”

Roley was at the forefront of revising Administrative Regulation 25, working closely with the city to submit the first round of proposed edits. For Roley, there is no gray area for using slurs on the force, and no circumstance is worthy of exception.

“When you use a racial slur, it is not in the context of teaching or the context of a term of endearment. A racial slur is a racial slur is a racial slur,” Roley says. “If

you use a racial slur, everyone should be held to the same standard. There should be no exceptions in the process of figuring out what exactly happened. That is giving people the due process.”

“I’m just glad Dan Hils isn’t the one who makes decisions around policies that dictate behaviors of city employees,” says Roley, whose work includes watchdog advocacy for the CPD and its union.

Roley won’t have to worry about Hils much longer. In December, Hils will wind down his fourth and final term as president of Cincinnati’s Fraternal Order of Police having served eight years total. He says he’s cautiously optimistic about the year ahead with Theetge, despite having preferred a different candidate for chief, but adds that he’s being realistic.

“The decision’s been made. I want to go into every relationship I have with an administrator with a glass half full. It’s a relationship between labor and management and it’s going to have hiccups,” Hils says. “It’s not in my best interest to say we’re going to get along great – it would be a false prediction. It’s not in my best interest to say that we will fail to get along because that would be negative. There will be highs and there will be lows.”

Theetge, herself, is prepared for the highs and lows of her new role, including the possibility of another officer revealing some form of racial bias.

“Do I think some of that exists? Yeah, we would be naive to think that it doesn’t exist. I’m not that naive,” the new chief says. “This year was rough for us with these racial slurs, but I’m optimistic that out of that, maybe came – something where maybe people are more aware of what they’re doing, what they’re saying and how they’re being perceived.”

Chief Teresa Theetge wears her Cincinnati Police Department badge with pride. | PHOTO: MADELINE FENING

Local Fraternal Order of Police president Dan Hils says not all union members support the city’s new policy. |

PHOTO: AIDAN MAHONEY

ARTS & CULTURE

Jeepers, Creepers

Slated for March 4, the new Frogman Festival celebrates the four-foot-tall cryptid that allegedly has roamed Loveland for decades.

BY KATIE GRIFFITH

Ohio is weird. Several books have been published on topics that explore Ohio’s hauntings, myths, legends and lore.

Weird Ohio details abandoned places like “Hell Town” in Summit County; local connections to the famed Mothman; ghosts in the woods of Old Xenia; random Bigfoot sightings; origin stories of the “Hollow Earth Theory” and its founder John Cleves Symmes and, of course, unidentified flying objects.

But if Ohio is a weird state, then Cincinnati is its cryptid capital, and local folklore enthusiast and cartographer, Jeff Craig, aims to put the Queen City on the map, literally.

Craig is the creator of Map in Black, a map of North America that pinpoints Cincinnati for a little-known reason. The map examines places known for aliens, hauntings, native lands, sacred geography, cryptids, ecology, unexplained mysteries, strange occurrences and Cincinnati’s very own legend of the Loveland Frogman.

There’s a whole subculture of pseudoscience dedicated to the unknown, extinct, fabled and sometimes controversial animals called cryptozoology.

Animals believed to inhabit earth but never scientifically proven to exist are cryptids.

According to Craig, there’s no cryptid quite like Cincinnati’s Frogman.

“The Frogman is a reptoid that lives in the Little Miami River and has been seen a couple of times since probably the 1950s,” Craig tells CityBeat. “It is very elusive in its nature and is just so unique to our area. No matter where I go, if I’m in Iowa, or I’m in West Virginia, people are like, ‘Oh, Frogman, I know the Loveland Frogman.’ And that’s our local cryptid. It’s not seen anywhere else.”

“There’s been some other lizard-type creatures that people have seen other places,” Craig continues. “But the Frogman is so specific to the Cincinnati area.”

An inaugural event celebrating the legend is coming to Cincinnati March 4. Co-created by Craig and John Stamey, the Frogman Festival will feature speakers, vendors, games and other entertainment at the Great Wolf Lodge Conference Center in Mason. It’s designed to celebrate and popularize the legend while exploring the importance of

storytelling, creatures like Mothman and Bigfoot, the Frogman’s habitat, local supernatural phenomena and more.

Craig says that the Frogman Festival wasn’t created to prove the creature’s existence – it’s more about the fun of speculation and the celebration of a legend Cincinnati can call its own. Some questions are better left unanswered, he says.

Craig adds that he’d hoped for the event to be held in Loveland – home of the Frogman – but the most accessible event space turned out to be the Great Wolf Lodge. But no matter where, it was time to pay tribute to the Frogman, Craig says.

“I just felt like we weren’t celebrating it or honoring the legend, really at all,” Craig says. “And there’s just people in the cryptid community who have been talking about it for the last couple of years. And it’s like, yeah, why don’t we do anything?”

Erin Shaw, a speaker at the Frogman Festival, will inspire speculation on the Frogman’s diet as she discusses flora and fauna of the Little Miami River. Shaw is a park ranger and naturalist at

Caesar Creek State Park.

Sometimes called the Loveland Lizard, the Loveland Frog or simply Frogman, the creature is said to walk on its hind-legs, stand 4 feet tall, possibly wield magic and live in the river — maybe under a giant rock or a colossal lily pad. Craig says the Frogman probably has a typical amphibian’s diet of insects or small fish.

The Frogman has only been spotted a handful of times, first in the 1950s and then in the ’70s. That’s when it allegedly had a run-in with authorities: a local police officer shot at it when it was crossing the road, Craig says. A more recent claim was in 2016 when a man playing Pokemon GO spotted it on Loveland Madeira Road.

“The vibe of the Frogman in the cryptid community, I think, is one of love and adoration for this strange, little creature,” Craig says. “Maybe not so little, but a strange creature that minds its own business. It’s probably kind of ugly in the sense of being a reptile, though many of us find frogs and toads and lizards adorable in their own way. But it’s just the slimy creature that comes out every decade or two. I’ve not

The Frogman has been known to roam the Little Miami River off of Riverside Drive.

PHOTO: JEFF CRAIG

really heard of anyone being threatened or scared by it.”

The Frogman Festival will feature Frogman merchandise like T-shirts, posters and art made by local artists. Cartridge Brewing will host an afterparty during which it will debut its Frogman IPA, on tap for a limited time.

At the festival, visitors can also purchase Craig’s Map in Black as well as books about Ohio and Cincinnati oddities like 2022’s Southern Ohio Legends and Lore by James A. Willis.

Willis – who is a guest speaker at the festival – is an author and paranormal researcher who founded The Ghosts of Ohio, a nationally recognized paranormal research organization. He’s also co-author of Weird Ohio and other Ohio-related, research-based tales of strangeness.

Southern Ohio Legends and Lore includes a narrative on the Loveland Frogman. It also details Willis’ experiences at The Loveland Castle, explores the infamous local bootlegger George Remus and accounts for a headless motorcycle ghost that roams a rural

roadway among many other topics.

Willis describes himself as a “middle of the road” theorist and researcher. He studies and collects empirical data, organizes ghost hunts and even debunks all kinds of alleged tales.

“I personally believe the reason ghost stories or myths are so important is that they are part of our history,” Willis tells CityBeat. “If you take out the logistics of, ‘Is that ghost really there?’ – for me, I don’t want to say I could care less, but what’s more important is the idea that ghost stories, even urban legends and folktales, become a part of our own history.”

“And a lot of the stories, even the urban legends, have actual history nuggets within them, as well as a bunch of made up elaborated things,” Willis continues. “But it’s those little nuggets of actual history that work to keep history alive.”

The Frogman Festival runs 10 a.m.-6 p.m. March 4 at the Great Wolf Lodge, 2501 Great Wolf Dr., Mason. Info: frogmanfestival.com.

Art Academy of Cincinnati graduate Easton Hawk created Frogman fan art.

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY JEFF CRAIG

Local Theaters to Stage Battle(s) of the Sexes This Spring

PREVIEW BY RICK PENDER

“I think it’s a feminist play, which I realize is a controversial statement. If you read Shakespeare’s text carefully and if you know his works in general, he consistently writes women who are the smartest person onstage,” Levy said. “That he would write about a woman who was meek and abused would be crazy to me. If you read carefully, you realize Katherine is the smartest person in the play by far. She’s smarter than Petruchio, and he falls in love with her because of that. But he doesn’t know how to make it work, since he’s used to women who are meek and mild.”

When Levy staged Shrew the first time, she belonged to a book club populated by professional women. When they learned she was directing it, they were shocked, perceiving that it as misogynistic. She urged them to read it, discuss it, and see her production. Their minds were changed.

just as hard as he goes after her.”

Perrino believes Shakespeare’s comedy is turned into a true farce.

“It’s almost more Midsummer Night’s Dream sometimes than Taming of the Shrew because of the backstage antics. It is truly a musical theater classic,” Perrino said. “It has everything, including ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare,’ one of the best songs ever written!”

Perrino says she loves how the action flips back and forth between backstage hijinks and efforts to stage a theater piece, almost a tug of war between the story from 1590 and the reality of the 1940s.

“That’s a big part of the fun,” she noted.

The battle of the sexes has often been fought theatrically with men and women vying for the upper hand. Perhaps the purest example of this classic contest is to be found in Shakespeare’s 1590 comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, one of his earliest plays. It’s the story of a hot-tempered woman, Katherine, whose need for a husband is obstructing several lovers in pursuit of her younger sister. Petruchio, a highly macho fellow, is recruited to win her over, which he pursues with a battle of wills.

The story ends with Katherine making a speech of seeming acquiescence, an ending that didn’t sit well with critics or audiences for years. It wasn’t until 1887 that a production of Taming of the Shrew was mounted in the United States. In the 20th century, it became a star vehicle for famous married actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Their rough-and-tumble, farcical 1925 production played for over a year on Broadway and then toured. But even then, many people were put off by the show’s overt misogyny.

The reality behind Lunt and Fontanne’s performances, however, was that their marriage was coming undone, and they were often truly battling backstage. That situation became the impetus for the Tony Award winning 1948 musical, Kiss Me, Kate, which told the story of two recently divorced actors, Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, playing Katherine and Petruchio in a

musical adaptation of Taming of the Shrew. About a third of the show, which features some of Cole Porter’s greatest songs, is scenes from an out-of-town tryout of the musical based on Shakespeare’s play. Many scenes and songs are underscored by Fred and Lilli’s antipathy that constantly creeps into their onstage performances.

Kiss Me, Kate features a secondary plot, a pair of gangsters in pursuit of a gambling debt that another player has assigned to Fred. Fascinated by the ins and outs of theater and the classic play, they perform the hilarious lowbrow song, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” offering advice about using classical titles and lines to win women’s affections.

In March, thanks to two Cincinnati theater companies, playgoers can see both shows: Cincinnati Shakespeare will present The Taming of the Shrew and Cincinnati Landmark Productions is staging Kiss Me, Kate. Interestingly, both productions are staged by women, and they have opinions about their respective shows.

Jemma Alix Levy is staging Shrew for Cincy Shakes. A veteran director who teaches theater at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, Levy is working on the play for the fourth time. In a recent phone conversation with CityBeat she confessed that it’s one of her favorite Shakespeare plays. Despite some scholars’ negativity about it, “I do not shy away from it all,” she said.

“I issue an invitation, not a warning, about this play: People have misconceptions of what it is,” Levy said. “I was so pleased to have these women say, ‘That was not what I thought it was going to be at all.’”

“By the end of the play, it is one of the happiest relationships that Shakespeare wrote,” Levy continues. “I think the audience is intended to believe that this was going to be an incredibly happy and very equal marriage. You don’t have to change much to make that happen.”

Directing and choreographing Kiss Me, Kate at the Covedale is Genevieve Perrino, a Cincinnati native who’s performed in Chicago, New York and elsewhere. She’s back in town and working for Cincinnati Landmark Productions. To prepare to put this production together, she not only spent time rewatching the show’s 1953 movie but also took in recorded versions of The Taming of the Shrew to understand how it fits within Kiss Me, Kate

She said she learned more about the 1925 Lunt-Fontanne production of Shrew, since it inspired the creators of the musical, especially book-writer Bella Spewack.

“The musical is definitely an amalgam, not straightforward Shakespeare,” Perrino said in a phone conversation with CityBeat. “But the lines between Shakespeare and people who really existed were definitely blurred.”

“Reading Kiss Me, Kate for the first time, I had some feelings about the way women are treated,” she continued. “We will be leveling that playing field. Lilli and Fred will definitely go after each other, one on one. She goes after him

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Cincinnati Landmark Productions are collaborating on ticket sales. Purchasing a ticket to see one production will be good for a discount on a ticket to the other.

The Taming of the Shrew, presented by Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, will run March 3-25 at the Otto M. Budig Theater, 1195 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. Info: cincyshakes.com.

Kiss Me, Kate, presented by Cincinnati Landmark Productions, will run March 16-April 8 at the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, 4990 Glenway Ave., West Price Hill. Info: cincinnatilandmarkproductions.com.

Both Kiss Me, Kate and Taming of the Shrew are staged by women.

PHOTO: TAMMY CASSESA

A real romantic unraveling became the impetus for Kiss Me, Kate

PHOTO: TAMMY CASSESA

Cincinnati Prepares for the Return of One of the World’s Biggest Ceramics Conferences

BY KELSEY GRAHAM

[and] which also speaks volumes to the fact that there is so much talent here,” Kravetz says.

While part of the conference will take place at the Duke Energy Convention Center for paying attendees, the event’s reach goes far beyond downtown Cincinnati. Aside from the conference events at the convention center geared towards practicing and professional ceramic artists, regional arts havens such as the Carnegie in Covington, the Cincinnati Art Museum in Mount Adams and Wave Pool in Camp Washington will host free events and exhibits that are open to the public.

“We think that’s the biggest change with what Pam and I are doing compared to past NCECAs, as really this is all about our city and uplifting the talents and people that are here and making sure that the residents feel included and see that they can be involved in ceramics as well,” Cullen says.

To Cullen and Kravetz, the conference is an opportunity to showcase the booming Cincinnati arts scene for the local community and visitors. While the Ohio River Valley has a rich history in the ceramic arts, which Kravetz and Cullen feel is essential to highlight during the event, they also want to focus on the current work happening in the city.

“We want to talk about history,” Kravetz says. “We want to talk about Rookwood. We want to talk about indigenous art. But we also want to talk about where we are now.”

their locations.

There’s even a chance to explore drinkable and wearable art, including at Ombré Gallery, which will host an event for jewelry makers to sell their pieces.

“It’s all levels,” Kravetz says. “You’re going to be able to go into a coffee shop and buy a $25 mug and get to have that and drink out of something handmade. Then we’ll have monumental sculptural art pieces at different galleries and museums.”

While Cullen, Kravetz and the NCECA board have been busy planning the event, a team of more than 100 local volunteers will help make the conference’s vision a reality.

“There are so many people helping to make this possible,” said Cullen, noting Ben Clark of Queen City Clay, who is hosting five exhibits and events at Queen City Clay’s Norwood location and supplying the ceramic equipment for Lugo’s event at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

“The city has just risen to the occasion,” Kravetz adds

Cullen and Kravetz say they’re excited about the conference, both as an opportunity to connect with other artists and also to show off their city.

“We just can’t wait for people to come and experience this city and leave and say, ‘Wow, Cincinnati!’” Kravetz says. “It’s going to be really exciting for the city and all the artists coming to be a part of it.”

Amajor ceramics conference soon will return to Cincinnati for the first time since the 1990s, and it’s poised to draw thousands of artists to the Queen City.

The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts’ (NCECA) 57th conference, Current, will take place at the Duke Energy Convention Center and throughout Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky in March. An annual celebration of the national and international ceramics community, the event is open to professional artists and the general public.

NCECA was founded in 1966 and has been a long-standing reputable source of engagement and education for the ceramic arts community. Each year, the conference is held in a different city and features speakers, presenters, exhibitions, and an opportunity for the ceramic arts community to connect and grow. And this year’s local conference liaisons – longtime multi-disciplinary artist Pam Kravetz and founder and executive director of Wave Pool Calcagno Cullen – aim to further that reach

to the entire Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky community.

This year will be the first time the national conference has been held in Cincinnati since 1990, with a 2021 date turned into a virtual event due to COVID-19 restrictions. But Cullen and Kravetz say they’re excited to finally show off the region’s artists and makers, both past and present.

“We wanted to bring this to the city,” Kravetz tells CityBeat. “We wanted to highlight our incredible ceramics community and open it to people living here, and NCECA was also ready for that.”

Conference speakers and presenters are chosen through an international open-call process where the board reviews hundreds of applications. And while the artists and presenters featured come from across the globe – including keynote presenters Rose B. Simpson and Roxanne Swentzell – local artists are included throughout the program, too.

“There are a lot of Cincinnatians that have been selected, which is huge,

More than 90 free communityfocused exhibitions and events are planned throughout the city, including over 20 window displays in Over-theRhine featuring work from Cincinnati high school students and artists.

The Cincinnati Art Museum is hosting artist Robert Lugo in a residency and turning gallery space into a ceramic studio throughout the conference dates. During this event, visitors can explore an array of Lugo’s completed works in one room. In an adjacent gallery, they’ll interact with Lugo, who will create ceramic pieces on-site and host lectures.

The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden will join the festivities by hosting Emergence, an exhibition celebrating the changing seasons with blooms and ceramics. Emergence will open during the conference dates and run through Aug. 31.

Bars, restaurants, and boutiques, including The Elusive Cow in Bellevue and Idlewild in Over-the-Rhine, will engage with the ceramics community through events and exhibits hosted at

NCECA’s 57th-annual conference, Current, runs March 15-18 throughout Greater Cincinnati, including at Duke Energy Convention Center, 525 Elm St., Downtown. Info: nceca.net.

“Bond (Details)” by Eugene Ofori Agyei.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF EUGENE OFORI AGYEI

“Bottle Form, 2021” by James Watkins.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF JAMES WATKINS

FOOD & DRINK

Kind and Generous

REVIEW BY PAMA MITCHELL

I’ve had a soft spot for Nicola’s since I met the original owner and restaurant’s namesake Nic Pietoso a few years ago. Aside from the fact that the Over-the-Rhine place is beautiful, with one of the loveliest dining rooms in the city, I was charmed by the man’s kind attention at a time when my husband was ill. Writing about the restaurant, I interviewed Nic, a committed Buddhist who personified the tradition’s emphasis on generosity and patience, and I probably learned as much about his faith as I did about the operation of his kitchen.

A little under two years ago, Nic’s son Cristian Pietoso replaced his father at the helm of Nicola’s. Cristian was a wellrespected chef/owner in his own right, with three successful restaurants here: Via Vite with its prime Fountain Square presence as well as the more casual Forno Osteria in East Hyde Park and Montgomery. According to Cristian, when he purchased Nicola’s, his dad had hit a rough patch in his life, facing not only the death of his beloved wife, Maureen, but also a cancer diagnosis. Happily, though, Cristian now says that Nic is doing just fine and is still active at

Nicola’s. More about that later.

Cristian Pietoso’s social media announcement of this winter’s truffle season lit a fire in me to get back to Nicola’s. What better place to indulge in the fleeting pleasures of the world’s most delicious fungus? We made a reservation right away and it was a good thing, too, because the restaurant sold out of its shipment of white truffles within about a week and discovered that it couldn’t get any more this year.

“The season is over,” Pietoso said the supplier told him.

On a chilly January night, I was a little disappointed that our party of four wasn’t seated in the main dining room, with its vaulted ceiling, spectacular chandelier and enchanting artwork. Instead, we were in a glassed-in side room that felt a bit like an isolated cave. When they added a group of six talkative folks to the space, we started having to shout a bit to hear each other. Next time, I’ll be sure to request another location, perhaps the expansive upstairs dining room or the recently refurbished, heated side patio.

Our meal started with the restaurant’s deservedly famous bread basket.

The impressive variety of tender, tasty rolls, buns and breadsticks went beautifully with cocktails, and we even had a few bites left to go with our first course. Our server shared her enthusiastic suggestions for that and every subsequent course, and most of her recommendations were spot on. I did think her pick of the salads – a bit of melted goat cheese buried under a pile of field greens – was no match for its sister offering: a gorgeous concoction of endive, radicchio and frisée with candied walnuts, pears and creamy gorgonzola dressing. It’s called Insalata Alpina and should not be missed. The Hamachi crudo also was delightful, with refreshingly tart chunks of marinated fish accompanied by velvety morsels of avocado and touches of citrus and chili.

Cristian Pietoso told me later that his father now runs the restaurant’s wine program. Meanwhile, Cristian, a level one sommelier, is studying for the level two certification awarded by the awesomely named Court of Master Sommeliers. That adds up to a lot of wine-savvy, as evidenced by an especially broad and deep representation

of Italian red wines. Nicola’s website updates the wine list on a regular basis, making it easy for grape lovers to do a little pre-dining research. But if you’re a more casual wine drinker, there’s always a staffer on duty to help select the perfect accompaniment to your meal.

Between courses, I took a stroll around the place, where I hadn’t dined since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything looked comfortingly familiar, with a few new enhancements after Cristian came in, such as all-new lighting, major renovations to the private dining room/event space and upgrades to the bar. On the night we were there the bar was quiet, but a staffer told me it gets busy on weekends and is packed on Monday nights, when the weekly dinner special fills the house (for $17, you get a big plate of pasta with beefand-veal Bolognese sauce and a salad).

Neither I nor my companions had the appetite for Chef de Cuisine Josh Brenner’s five-course tasting menu, but I’d be tempted to go back sometime for it after fasting all day. Instead, we gravitated toward pasta and seafood for our main course.

Just as his father Nic did for many years, Cristian Pietoso provides delightful, thoughtful wine-and-dine pairings at Nicola’s in Over-the-Rhine.

Nicola’s features several dining areas for patrons.

PHOTO: AIDAN MAHONEY

I made sure to get to Nicola’s while they still had the season’s allotment of fresh truffles, ordering the white truffle risotto – a simple, creamy and decadently rich dish. Alas, the restaurant is not likely to offer that again anytime soon, but you can add black truffle shavings to most of the pastas. Another hit at our table was the Spaghetti “Alla Chittara” Lamb Ragu, an egg-based pasta that was a bit thinner than regular spaghetti. The pasta came out slightly chewy – the way I like it – and the meaty sauce was perfect for a cold winter night.

Wild caught red snapper was the lightest dish among our entrees. The fish was oven-roasted and served with braised escarole, olives, caramelized onions and black pepper beurre blanc – a lovely blend of flavors. The winter menu included several other pastas, such as the Bolognese and the restaurant’s renowned crispy potato gnocchi with four-cheese fondu and black truffle shavings. There were also

Alaskan halibut, rack of lamb and prime center-cut beef filet for those not in the mood for pasta.

For dessert, we tried both the chocolate caramel panna cotta and Nicola’s carrot cake, which was a creative riff on the old standby. It really wasn’t that cakey, but its vanilla mousse, rum raisins, praline pecans and ginger carrot jam sent my taste buds into happy overdrive. And I’m never one to turn down panna cotta, one of my favorite desserts.

Cristian Pietoso said his father is cancer-free now and in a happy relationship: music to my ears. And after a lengthy phone chat with Cristian, I got the same great vibes from him as I did from his dad. After 27 years on Sycamore in Over-the-Rhine, Nicola’s looks to be in great hands for many more years to come.

Nicola’s, 1420 Sycamore St., Over-the-Rhine. Info: nicolasotr.com.

Cristian Pietoso now leads Nicola’s after his father Nic stepped back from the business.

PHOTO: AIDAN MAHONEY

Nicola’s take on carrot cake includes ingredients like vanilla mousse, rum raisins and praline pecans.

PHOTO: AIDAN MAHONEY

Former flow Coffee Shop Employee Claims Owner Altered Documents, Shortchanged Wages

BY KATIE GRIFFITH

Aformer employee of a local coffee shop is raising questions about the business owner’s ethics.

In a CityBeat interview and in a recent Reddit post, Kay Ratliff, who had been an hourly employee at flow (stylized in lowercase letters), alleged that owner Rhys Watkins had altered her paychecks, provided no overtime pay and required unpaid training periods.

But after denying the allegations, Watkins told CityBeat that Ratliff’s claims have affected his business, saying that since early January, he’s been forced to close all flow locations except for the original in Newport. He also closed Full of Bologna, his Newport deli, he said.

Watkins opened flow coffee shop in Newport in February 2022, promoting his “scientific coffee” and unique coffee extraction method. The brand added two locations – in Northside and in Over-the-Rhine –within the first year of opening the original.

Ratliff’s claims

Ratliff told CityBeat that Watkins repeatedly altered her pay stubs to reflect fewer hours than what she worked and did not pay her or any other employee for training. Ratliff said she quit flow in January and has since consulted an attorney and filed a complaint with both the state and federal departments of labor.

Ratliff, who made $12.50 per hour at the coffee shop, posted publicly on Reddit and detailed her complaints.

Ratliff began working at flow in September and said she resigned on Jan. 30 because she was consistently not compensated correctly or for overtime. She added that her combined regular and overtime work sometimes amounted to 60 hours a week.

Ratliff said that flow uses the payment platform Square to record employee time and compensation.

She provided documents to CityBeat that recorded her hours and compensation between Jan. 16 and Jan. 22.

Ratliff’s time card tracked when she clocked in and out, while her pay stub showed what she was officially paid.

Those documents revealed discrepancies, CityBeat found. Ratliff’s Jan. 16-22 time card reflected 52.10 regular hours, but her pay stub showed 40 regular hours. CityBeat’s review of Ratliff’s records for other weeks showed additional errors

“[Watkins] did it all in Square,” Ratliff told CityBeat . “You clock in and out on Square. It’ll track your hours, your pay stubs and everything like that. It’ll show me how many hours I worked that week and what I’m owed because of the hours based on my $12.50 an hour pay, and then he’ll send me my pay stub, because he pays you weekly.”

“So I’ll get my pay stub, and then it’s $300-$400 less than what my timecard shows. It’s very clear, he alters the pay,” Ratliff continued. “And he claims he doesn’t do it, but it’s very obvious that he does. And even the lawyer was saying that. He was like, ‘Oh, yeah, he very clearly is changing the pay on everybody’s pay periods.’”

Watkins disputed Ratliff’s claims in a conversation with CityBeat

“We have never altered pay cards,” Watkins said. “We have never changed clock-in information. We have never done that. That is not something that I do. The hours that are clocked from an employee are logged automatically

Rhys Watkins opened flow’s Newport location in 2022.

PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

“After the first two weeks, I had asked [Watkins] about a paycheck, and he said that I was still in the training period and that you don’t get paid for training,” Ratliff said. “And I was like, ‘Okay, I don’t get back pay or anything?’ And he was like, ‘Nope, not for training.’”

when they clock in and out. The only time an employee has not been paid overtime is when they have been in a salaried, overtime-exempt position that was agreed upon with the employee before they started working those hours.”

Ratliff said that an attorney at Finney Law Firm advised her to file a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor and to continue to make her claims public. She said that the lawyer advised against a lawsuit, though.

“The problem is with this situation, there’s a likelihood that [Watkins] can just flee,” Ratliff said. “[The lawyer] said that he’s currently on two different cases where someone sued a business owner for similar issues and they fled and nobody’s getting any of their money.”

Ratliff said that she is more concerned with stopping Watkins’ alleged actions from recurring than with receiving money.

“I just really don’t want him to hurt anybody else,” Ratliff said.

Watkins’ response

Watkins reacted to Ratliff’s Reddit post and accusations in an interview with CityBeat

“I work extremely hard to make sure that any issues any employees have, that have worked for me in the past, are taken care of as soon as they’re

brought to my attention,” Watkins said. “And I am sorry, to anyone who ever feels that actions that I’ve taken in any way wronged them were misguided. It was never my intent in any way possible. I am looking at this information, I am working on myself, my approach and my execution of working with my employees working in my business, and it has never been my intent to ever hurt or offend.”

Watkins lives in and owns the building that flow inhabits in Newport. He also rents a storefront there to plant and vintage retailer Fleurish Grounds, which operates as a separate entity.

Brittany Hale, the co-owner of Fleurish Grounds, told CityBeat that foot traffic has been slow since Ratliff made her allegations public. The building was vandalized Feb. 7, and “Be better” was written in graffiti on the side of the building, Hale said.

Since Ratliff’s resignation, Watkins is the only worker at flow, he said. He added that he is working to keep the Newport location open, but backlash online and physical damage to his property are interfering with his work.

“I would like to inform you that the situation has gotten entirely out of hand, as my building where we live was vandalized yesterday evening,” Watkins said in a Feb. 8 email to CityBeat

This is a developing story.

Tktk

PHOTO PROVIDED BY KAY RATLIFF

Former flow employee Kay Ratliff says her time card (left) and pay stub (right) for Jan. 16-22, 2023, show discrepancies in hours worked.

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY KAY RATLIFF

MUSIC Lighter than Air

BY ALAN SCULLEY

Early in their partnership in Air Supply, guitarist Graham Russell and singer Russell Hitchcock got a harsh lesson in how fleeting success can be in the world of music.

The two met in Sydney, Australia when they landed gigs in the chorus for a touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1975. They hit it off so famously that almost immediately, they began spending time between Superstar rehearsals and performances working together on songs Russell had been writing.

“We both said together, are you interested in creating a band together?” Russell recalled during a phone interview. “And we said let’s use our time in Superstar to create a band, so when Superstar ended, which would be 18 months down the line, we had something to go to.”

Their first year-plus was nothing short of magical for the duo, who will play Cincinnati’s Hard Rock Casino on March 4.

While they toured in Jesus Christ Superstar, they were restricted from promoting themselves. But Russell and Hitchcock wrote and recorded songs and played some gigs while keeping their identities on the down low. They even released a single, “Love and Other Bruises,” which caught on with radio in Australia and became a chart-topping hit in 1976. This led to recording a self-titled debut album, which went to the top of the country’s album charts just as the duo was wrapping up their stint in the musical.

“It was so bizarre. We just left Superstar a couple of days [earlier]. We have the No. 1 single, and the next week we had the No. 1 album,” Russell said. “And one of our very first shows, because it was at the end of the year [1976] and we had this big hit single, they asked us to perform at the [Sydney] Opera House on the steps for 90,000 people.”

“We hardly had put the band together. We didn’t know what we were doing,” he added. “We had a good set. We played all of the songs from the first album, which at that point had only just come out. So for

us, we thought ‘Oh my, this is great. This is how it happens all the time.’”

That good fortune continued. Rod Stewart had an Australian tour booked and noted that Air Supply had the country’s No. 1 single and album, so he asked Air Supply to open for him. Things meshed, and soon Russell and Hitchcock were off to America and Canada, extending their run as openers on Stewart’s tour.

Then came the reality check.

“We toured with Rod and we thought we’d come back to a hero’s welcome, ticker tape and the whole thing,” Russell said. “But they had forgotten about us.”

The pair couldn’t get gigs. Russell tried to sell some of his songs, to no avail, and before long they were basically dirt poor.

“But the great thing about that, which we didn’t realize at the time, was this: it made us dig in,” Russell said. “We didn’t give up and say, ‘Oh, that was great, playing with Rod, we had a big album, a big single. And now we’re going to get a regular job.’”

“No, we dug in,” Russel continued. “We dug in the trenches and we said, ‘No, we’re going to get back there’ because we’d already been to the U.S. with Rod, obviously, and we wanted to get back there. We didn’t want to be the biggest band in Australia. We wanted to be the biggest band in the world.” Russell set out to write new songs, and that group of 15 or so included familiar tunes like “All Out of Love,” “Chances,” “The Woman You Love” and “Lost In Love.” The latter song was released as a single in Australia in 1979, and the magic returned.

“It was a big hit again [in Australia],” Russell said. “But we still didn’t make any money. It wasn’t until Clive [David] heard the record, and unknown to us, bought the record, bought the rights, and released it.”

Davis is a record-industry legend known for helping to launch the careers of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston and numerous others. He was president of Arista Records at the time and had yet to contact Russell or Hitchcock, so

Nearly 40 years after meeting, Air Supply’s Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock are still floating in their success.

Russell took the initiative.

“I called him up and I said ‘Is this Clive Davis?’ He said ‘Yes.’ I said ‘This is Graham Russell from Air Supply.’ And I actually reversed the charges. I didn’t have any money,” Russell recalled. “He said ‘Where are you?’ I said ‘I’m in France because I went to a publishing convention,’ which I missed because I got sick. He said ‘What are you doing there? Get back to Australia. We need that album straight away.’ And that was my introduction to Clive.”

It turned out Davis had big plans for Air Supply. On his way back to Australia, Russell stopped in Los Angeles to meet Davis in person, and that’s when he began to sense the magnitude of what was about to happen.

“He [Davis] said, ‘Lost In Love’ is going to be the biggest song of the year,’” Russell said. “I couldn’t really believe that, but he said it. He said ‘Get back there. Your career is about to take off.’”

And did it ever. The anthemic pop ballad sound of “Lost In Love” registered worldwide, starting a string of hits that turned Air Supply into one of the biggest acts of the ‘80s.

Over the next six-plus years, Air Supply followed the double-platinum 1980 Lost In Love album with four more studio albums, three of which went platinum or gold. The duo spun out hits like “All Out of Love,” “Every Woman in the World,” “The One That You Love,” “Here I Am,” “Even the Nights Are Better, “Two Less Lonely People in the World” and “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” of which went to No. 5 or better in the United States.

The hits dried up toward the end of the ‘80s, but Air Supply kept touring with new albums and had major success over the decade-plus that followed in Asia, South America, India and elsewhere.

Over the past ten years or so, Russell and Hitchcock have seen a resurgence in their popularity in the United States. They continue to perform roughly 130 shows each year in a six-piece band format, surprising fans with a live show that’s more robust and energetic than the studio versions of their songs might suggest.

“It’s a rock-and-roll band in whatever form. We just play a lot of big, epic ballad songs, but we play a lot of other stuff, too that everyone knows,” Russell said. “But in essence, it’s a rock-and-roll band, and it’s loud and powerful. For the people that think it’s going to be Peter, Paul and Mary, they’re very much surprised.”

Air Supply plays Hard Rock Casino at 8 p.m. March 4. Info: hardrockcasinocincinnati.com.

Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell of Air Supply will play Cincinnati in March.

PHOTO: DENISE TRUSCELLO

SOUND ADVICE

simmering keyboards intermingling as if they have a life of their own. “Pyramid Theme,” with its clanging rhythms and eerie mood, brings to mind a narcotically dosed version of something off of Radiohead’s Kid A. The most haunting tune here is “Smothered Inside,” which features Taylor’s most straightforward vocal delivery ever, a yearning ache backed only by droning electric guitar.

The remaining Brainiac members have booked a series of live shows in celebration of the EP’s release, including a stint opening for Scottish indie rock masters Mogwai in Europe and a trio of U.S. shows culminating with a stop in Cincinnati, which has long counted the Daytonians as enduring area heroes.

“For us, this is a way to still be in awe of Tim, to honor him, or else we wouldn’t do it,” Tyler Trent said in a recent interview with The New York Times. “And I wish people could see how much joy and life and healing Tim’s mom gets out of this. Tim was one in a million.”

Brainiac plays Woodward Theater at 9 p.m. Feb. 25. Doors open at 8 p.m. The Serfs will open the show. Info: woodwardtheater.com. (Jason Gargano)

BRAINIAC WITH THE SERFS

Feb. 25 • Woodward Theater

Has it really been more than a quarter century since Brainiac infiltrated the ear canals of adventurous listeners across the Midwest and beyond? The Dayton-based quartet existed for only five years, but what a run it was, delivering three fulllength albums (1993’s Smack Bunny Baby, 1994’s Bonsai Superstar and 1996’s Hissing Prigs in Static Couture) and an EP (1997’s Electro-Shock for President) before a car accident took the life of dynamic frontman Tim Taylor in May of 1997.

Rumor has it Brainiac was on the verge of signing to a major label at the time of Taylor’s demise, which is hard to fathom today given that the band’s jittery brand of electro rock was moving into an even artier and more atmospheric direction as they went along. It’s nearly as hard to believe that Brainiac’s surviving members — bassist Juan Monasterio, guitarist John Schmersal and drummer Tyler Trent — are finally reuniting for the release of an EP of previously unreleased demos titled The Predator Nominate. The nine-song effort features a curious array of musical sketches, all under two minutes, representing the last of Brainiac’s recorded output. The instrumental title track sounds like an emission from another planet with

BRANDEE YOUNGER

March 2 • Greaves Concert Hall

Contemporary harpist Brandee

Younger’s major-label debut Somewhere Different features her composition “Beautiful is Black,” which earned her a nomination for Best Instrumental Composition at the 2022 Grammys and made her the first Black woman nominated in this category. The album also received a nomination for Outstanding Album at the NAACP Image Awards.

Younger’s sound mixes jazz, funk, R&B and classical, often simultaneously. The exploratory music also has some psychedelic touches, similar to one of her influences, Alice Coltrane. Ravi Coltrane, the son of Alice and legendary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, is a collaborator and is featured on her 2019 release Soul Awakening. In addition to Coltrane, Younger has worked in different genres with big names such as Pharaoh Sanders, The Roots, John Legend, Common, Charlie Haden and Lauryn Hill, amongst others.

Younger has been written about by the New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine. Her composition “Hortense” was featured in Beyoncé’s Netflix concert documentary Homecoming

In addition to writing and performing, Younger has served as a curator for concerts and festivals and is on the teaching artist faculty at both New York University

Brainiac

PHOTO: FACEBOOK.COM/3RA1N1AC

Brandee Younger

PHOTO: FACEBOOK.COM/HARPISTA

and the New School College of Performing Arts.

After past performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Apollo Theater and the Museum of Modern Art, the dynamic and rising harpist’s stop at Northern Kentucky University will be free and open to the public.

Brandee Younger plays Greaves Hall at Northern Kentucky University at 7 p.m. March 2. Info: nku.edu/events. (Brent Stroud)

CRASH TEST DUMMIES

March 3 • Ludlow Garage

With one of the most distinctive voices in pop music, Brad Roberts brings his band Crash Test Dummies to Cincinnati for a career retrospective show.

After a 17-year touring hiatus due to Roberts’ back problems and several members leaving the band, this veteran Canadian group reunited and began hitting the road again several years ago, despite not releasing a new record since 2010’s Oooh La La! But with a solid American fanbase, the three-time Grammy-nominated Dummies have embarked on an extensive Midwest concert road-trip and will release their first single “Sacred Alphabet” this spring.

Debuting back in 1991 with their folk/ rock gem The Ghosts That Haunt Me, the Winnipeg-based Dummies quickly established their quirky, popular sound: songwriter and lead singer Brad Roberts’ coal-deep baritone and a rollicking musical cast supporting him with acoustic piano, accordion, guitar, violin, and mandolin. They even covered the Replacements’ prescient “Androgynous” with a stirring homage.

But it was their second record, God Shuffled His Feet, that gave them a higher profile, eventually selling more than five million records. With the help of radio’s then-new alternative rock format, they scored a huge hit with “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm,” which shot to No. 4 on the Billboard chart.

Roberts’ resonant voice always stood out on radio amongst the more common tenors. “My voice was stuck way down in this bass range, and I had to learn how to use that, and use it effectively. And in the end, instead of it being a barrier, it was rather an avenue, because people find it refreshing instead of alienating,” music blog Ear of Newt reports Roberts as saying in a 1991 piece in The Georgia Straight Crash Test Dummies play Ludlow Garage at 8:30 p.m. on March 3. Doors open at 7 p.m. Info: ludlowgaragecincinnati.com. (Greg Gaston)

DAWES

March 8 • Taft Theatre

Dawes just can’t stop, never going more than two years without releasing new material. The Los Angeles-based quartet’s eighth studio album, the evocatively titled Misadventures of Doomscroller, dropped last summer. Sure enough, it’s another tuneful set in the Jackson Browne realm of self-reflection and cultural assessment, backed by a tastefully rendered mix of rock, pop and folk, as well as a previously underutilized experimental streak.

“The more I’m honest with myself about whatever I want as a creative person — and when I’m making no concessions to what I think someone’s going to want or what a label might say, or a manager, or a friend — I’m rewarded for it every single time,” frontman Taylor Goldsmith told Paste about Dawes’ current creative direction in a July interview.

The nine-minute-plus album opener “Someone Else’s Café/Doomscroller Tries to Relax” veers off into jammy, jazz-infected territory via soaring guitars, dexterous rhythms and atmospheric piano and keyboard work. The next song, “Comes in Waves,” is equally searching, a wistful, meditative journey into the philosophical as Goldsmith sings, “I think I’ve found something in common/With nothingness and God/You stare at either in the face too long/They’ll do each other’s job.”

Nine-minute album closer “Sound That No One Made/Doomscroller Sunrise” all but confirms Dawes’ dive into Grateful Dead worship, as Jerry Garcia-worthy guitar excursions mingle with cosmic lyrics about life, death and everything in between.

And, of course, there’s inevitably a tour to match each new effort, another chance for Goldsmith to deliver his earnest lyrical observations and modest but often affecting vocals in a live setting. The band confirmed their latest tour with this Twitter post: “Happy to announce the Misadventures of Doomscroller headline tour. 2 sets. Just us. Long nights. Full hearts. Come early. We’ll have to break out the catalogue master lists and bingo cards as we try to get to every song we’ve got.”

No word yet on how many of Dawes’ more than 80 tunes will make the cut, but let’s hope the majority of the new — often otherworldly — stuff is explored.

Dawes plays Taft Theatre at 8 p.m. March 8. Doors open at 7 p.m. Info: tafttheatre.org. (Jason Gargano)

Crash Test Dummies

PHOTO: CRASHTESTDUMMIES.COM

Dawes PHOTO: FACEBOOK.COM/DAWESTHEBAND

CROSSWORD

Across

MAD SCRAMBLE

BY BRENDAN EMMETT QUIGLEY WWW.BRENDANEMMETTQUIGLEY.COM

1. They work on a case-by-case basis: briefly

4. Bottled water named after a nation

8. Billboard fodder

14. Kingston coll.

15. Computer with an M1 chip

16. Sarcastic diacritical added to beef up the “metalness”

17. *18, in most places

19. Minor gaffe

20. Like some lenses

21. *Metal alloy strip used in electronics and decorations

23. Inventor Howe

24. Transaction ___

25. Romantic getaway spot

26. Prepare leather

27. *Court records

31. Suddenly rather expensive part of breakfast

33. “Could’ve Been” R&B singer

34. Dog with a regal name

35. & Schuster (publishers of “The Cross Word Puzzle Book” in 1924)

37. “Carmen” composer

39. Indian colonial rule

40. Grad school hurdle

41. Help for those who get butterflies?

43. *Group with the 1989 hit “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)”

47. “___ Wiedersehen!”

49. Woman’s middle name, often

50. Army member that makes tunnels

51. Thumper’s friend

53. *Floor model setting

57. “Animal House” dean

58. Gave for the time being

59. What the starting halves of each starred clue’s answer are, compared to their second halves

61. Deal with

62. Big party

63. Wrist band?

64. ___ Pieces

65. “Roar” singer Perry

66. Between-albums releases

Down

1. Sweet and soothing, as some sounds

2. Anatomical rings

3. *Some sports news regarding acquiring new players

4. Folder material

5. It has a big screen

6. Trevor Lawrence, e.g.

7. Brew that was frozen during production

8. Camagüey’s country

9. Certain insurers, briefly

10. Church coverings

11. Year of the (2023)

12. New Orleans university

13. Rear positions

18. Palindromic woman’s name

22. NWA rapper MC ___

24. PC key in the top row

27. Japanese sliding screen

28. Projecting window

29. Partie du visage

30. Beasts in a yoke

32. Ipanema resident in song

36. Avril’s follower

37. Sparkling wine specification

38. *Bench sharer

40. “Leaving the computer mid-chat” message

42. Underground diagram

43. NASCAR drivers Elliott or Hermie

44. Typical soccer draw score

45. Like rumpled beds

46. :(

48. Record book accomplishments

51. Masters flub

52. Sheet music abbr.

54. Heavy burden

55. French mother

56. Pindar’s verses

57. Light bulb measurement

60. “Just & Equitable Schools” org.

LAST PUZZLE’S ANSWERS:

Bertha G.

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