Regardless, life is all about the choices we make. Now this guy is out his funeral home driving pay.

No charges in corpse parked at school

CANTON — A prosecutor said no charges will be filed against a school janitor and part-time funeral home driver who left a bagged body in a parked van outside a school.Prosecutor Ty Hauritz in Canton said Wednesday the action by the janitor at GlenOak High School lacked criminal intent.The van driver was sched­uled to take the body last month from a hospital to a funeral home but was afraid of running late at his school job.He parked the van and body outside the school for 4½ hours.The funeral home has fired the driver. The Plain Local school district won’t discuss any disciplinary action.

via The Chronicle-Telegram – Lorain County’s leading news source.

So, this morning I was happy to see Queen City Discovery’s post exploring the demolition site of The Cincinnati Friar’s Club in Clifton Clifton Heights.

“…the Cincinnati Friars club dated back to 1860 and serves as an organization that provides outreach to disadvantaged children through physical activity. The club relocated and abandoned this structure in 2006. Demolition had just begun earlier that week as “Cincinnati’s 8th Precinct” began climbing over the rubble into what remained of the Friars Club.

via Queen City Discovery: The Clifton Friars Club.

There are some great photos on their site. Click over and check it out.

(NOTE: There are a couple references in the blog post that make no sense to me. “Cincinnati’s 8th Precinct” would one. Is this an inside joke? A reference to themselves or the Friar’s Club as a place for troubled children? I have no idea. Would be nice if the author(s) cleared that and a few other things up.)

I got this shot in Mariemont over the weekend. Liked it, so wanted to share.

I was checking out an old, what appeared to be, foundry near the tracks which I discovered just driving around checking out parts of our town that I have never known before. It’s a hobby and feeds my insatiable curiosity.

Abandoned and laden with graffiti, the building is about half covered in green-leaved vines. The kids I ran into said they had no idea what it used to be, suggesting either a water tower (which seemed unlikely because of all the windows) or a train station (which also seemed unlikely because it is probably 50-feet high from the foundation – which is elevated about 20 feet from the tracks – with no easy in and out points).

Anyone have an idea or actually know the building’s former or intended use?

NOTE: Please do not call the school or the principal directly through tomorrow. Please call Joe Wessels.

Just a few quick updates/notes:

• We have been informed by The White House that an announcement is forthcoming at 11 a.m. EDT tomorrow, Tuesday, May 4, 2010. At this time we are unaware how the news will come to us.
• The White House said it will make an announcement at or around 11 a.m. on its Web site at this address: www.whitehouse.gov/commencement
• The 88 students making up Clark’s Class of 2010 have asked repeatedly that the message be conveyed that no matter what happens tomorrow, they feel they have already won. Though this is a competition they are very proud of the other schools vying for the President of the United States as their commencement speaker, including the two others making into the final three with Clark, Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, Mich. and Denver School of Science and Technology in Denver, Colo.
• An announcement on media availability will be made tomorrow morning at least a couple hours prior to the 11 a.m. announcement. Students will be in class and doing coursework before that time.
• Schools not winning the President as their commencement speaker will have a member of the President’s Cabinet speak at the commencement instead.
• Rep. Driehaus spoke to students today for about 30 minutes, answered questions and shared his support for the school and said he had encouraged The White House to pick Clark.

This all happened while I was riding a bus downtown from the University of Cincinnati:

While a Cincinnati Metro bus was stopped for a traffic light at West McMilan Street and Clifton Avenue, a man got out of a car heading eastbound on McMillan and walked up and snatched the bike on the bus’s front bike rack off the rack. The man who put the bike there and was riding the bus, saw this happen, immediately got off the bus and confronted the guy who was taking the red, silver and black bike away.

At that exact moment, a Cincinnati police officer was heading south on Clifton, about to turn west onto McMillan. The man from the bus, now in a tug ‘o war struggle with the man who brazenly took the bike off the bike rack, flagged down the police officer, who stopped.

“This is my bike,” the man who took the bike said to the officer.

“No, it’s mine,” the man from the bus said.

The bus driver exited the bus and spoke to the officer. After a few minutes the bus rider, now in possession of his bike, took it and put it back on the bike rack. The officer got each partys’ name and the bus rider boarded the bus. Riders on the bus applauded him as he took his seat. The man who attempted to take the bike continued to talk with the officer outside, appearing frustrated.

The man who re-claimed his bike, got back on the bus and, out of breathe, took his seat.

“He said that I stole the bike. I had that bike for 10 years,” the bus rider announced to the bus, after someone shouted for him to explain what happened. “He told me he got it some place else. There’s a Montgomery Cyclery sticker right on the bike. That was pretty (bold) to do that.”

A younger woman on the bus, who identified herself as a frequent bus rider,  said she had never witnessed someone try to take a bike off a bus’s bike rack before.

“I’ve seen people snatch an iPod and run out the back door as the bus pulled away,” she said. “But never anything like (what just happened).”

She said she has watched as  someone sitting in the seat nearest the rear bus door had their iPod stolen right out of their hands. She said another person exiting the bus snatches it from their hands – from behind their back. The thief then runs off before the driver is alerted a crime has occurred.