Two Ohio Mayors Head For Jerusalem: Dayton's McLin and Cincy's Mallory

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin is on the six-member delegation of U.S. mayors headed to Jerusalem for an international conference about improving urban life that begins tomorrow. Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory is also in the delegation. Both are Democrats.

The conference also gives the mayors a "fresh and open look at Jerusalem, and a new understanding of Israel and its achievements," says Jack Rosen, who heads an organization that helps cover the mayors' expenses. Israel is America's closest ally in the Middle East, so the diplomatic layer of the trip is probably as important as all other aspects put together.

Costs are paid by the American Jewish Congress-Council for World Jewry, and the sessions are hosted by Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski. About 60 others mayors from around the world are coming for the annual conference, whose theme this year is the urban center as the heart of a metropolitan area's economic, governmental, cultural, and administrative influence and importance. The announcement says:

"During the October 14-18 event, the mayors are scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. They will participate in round-table sessions that will explore topics such and intercultural and economic challenges facing cities and the role of mayors in the international arena. The mayors will tour both historic and modern sites in Jersualem and visit Yad Vahsem, the holocaust memorial; the Hadassah Hospital; a high-tech business incubator; and Yad Sarah, a social services facility in Jerusalem."

Cincy Mayor's Dad: I'll Be Peddling Newspapers On City Hall Steps

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Just ran into Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory's dad at a downtown event, and he told me he is so busted up over the coming demise of the Cincinnati Post PM newspaper that he plans to distribute them on City Hall's steps as a eulogy. William L. Mallory Sr., said he's going to buy a $15 bundle for the newspaper's last day on Dec. 31.

"When I was a boy I used to sell them there. They were 2 or 3 cents apiece back in the early 1940s," Mallory recalled. He said somebody tried to chase him off the steps, but the mayor at the time, James Garfield Stewart, intervened. He said Steward told him to stay on the steps for as long as he wanted. "I never forget what he said," Mallory said.

The mayor's father, now retired, was the Democratic Majority Leader of the Ohio House for years. In all, he served 28 years in the Ohio General Assembly before stepping down in 1994. He founded a downstate political dynasty that includes Mark as mayor, Bill Jr. as a Common Pleas Judge, Dale as a state representative in District 32, and Dwane, who is mulling a run for a seat on the Hamilton County Municipal Court.

Cincinnati lawyer Stan Chesley, who hosted fundraisers for President Bill Clinton at his home, recently co-sponsored a gathering that unoffficially launched Mayor Mallory's reelection bid. Gov. Ted Strickland was in attendance when Chesley said the Mallory clan had succeeded the Tafts as the city's preeminent political family.

Said Chesley: "I can remember when everybody wanted to be a Taft. Now nobody wants to be a Taft. They all want to be a Mallory."

The family patriarch said he loved the Post, which leaned Democratic on its editorial pages. He said he considered it a great journalistic enterprise, and added that he once considered becoming a journalist. Instead, Ohio politics beckoned.

Cincy Mayor Lauds SW Ohio Climate Change 'Ambassador'

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Cincinnati's Democratic Mayor Mark Mallory says "global warming is a very serious problem" and nominated a city resident to be trained by Al Gore as a climate-change lecturer to raise concern about the planet's growing environmental crisis. Mallory took action earlier this month, a move that preceded this week's release of a report by the Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change in Paris.

The report, due out on Friday, is expected to present clear scientific findings the Earth has warmed, temperatures will continue to rise, and human activity is overwhelmingly the cause. Mallory wrote a letter of support last October that helped Cincinnatian Mary Clare Rietz be selected for training sessions with Gore earlier this month in Nashville. She will present lectures about the information in Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth across the region.

"Global warming is a very serious problem that affects us all and is going to require a united national response,'' said Mallory, who serves on the U.S. Conference of Mayors council on climate protection. ''The first step is educating people about this crisis and how it can be turned around. It is an honor for her to be selected for this important task. She is a true ambassador, not only for our city, but for the world."

The training was done in conjunction with The Climate Project, a non-profit group that gave 1,000 volunteers from around the nation information to present lectures about global warming. Each of the 1,000 messengers is committed to making at least 10 climate change presentations this year.

Gore's plan to use volunteers has been seen as a savvy initiative to build grassroots support aimed at countering those who say global warming is not a problem, or that it is not connected to human activities.