John Kiesewetter reports:

Sheridan and Bart Johnson. Photo by Patty Bamber.

A limited number of tickets remain for a private screening Saturday of “The Christmas Spirit,” the Hallmark Channel filmed in Lebanon last month with Nicollette Sheridan, Olivia Dukakis and Bart Johnson.

People who appeared in the film, or assisted making the film, will attend the private screening at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Kenwood Theatre, 7815 Kenwood Road, followed by a Q&A with Kristen Erwin Schlotman and other members of the Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky Film Commission.

You can make a reservation by emailing Heather at the film commission here. The film commission suggests a $25 donation per ticket.

Sheridan (“Desperate Housewives”) stars as Charlotte, a big city  journalist home for the holidays who tries to stop a developer (Bart Johnson, “High School Musical”) from ruining her picturesque hometown.  When Charlotte is left comatose from a car wreck, her ghost tries to thwart the developer. Scenes were filmed on Mulberry Street in downtown Lebanon, at homes on Mechanic Street and the old Warren County Courthouse, and the old Deaconess Hospital in Cincinnati.

A reception starts at 1 p.m. Saturday at the theater. It’s called a “private screening” because “The Christmas Spirit” premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1, on the Hallmark Channel.

Here’s a link to see more of these photos at The Christmas Spirit site.

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Colerain and Moeller met in the regional final last year at Nippert Stadium. / Enquirer file photo

Mike Dyer reports:

The Colerain vs. Moeller Division I semifinal football game will be played at Mason Saturday as scheduled, both athletic directors told The Enquirer this morning.

Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune made a late push earlier this week to try to get the game at Paul Brown Stadium. Moeller athletic director Mike Asbeck said Portune told him via phone this morning the game would not be at Paul Brown Stadium.

• Take our Colerain-Moeller rivalry quiz
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• More prep coverage

OHSAA spokesman Tim Stried says the game was always at Mason and will stay there unless county commissioners approve a “great deal” for Paul Brown Stadium.

Talks to move the game from Mason High School – which many consider too small a venue – started Monday when Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, a Colerain graduate, publicly pitched the idea.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association had agreed to move the game as long as there would still be $50,000 revenue from the game.

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First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes a high-place finish in the “Super Bowl” of high school marching band competitions.

That’s how the story went for the Mason High School marching band, whose performance of a slapstick comedy about marriage called “‘Till Death Do Us Part” earned the band a sixth place finish at Bands of America Grand National Championships.

• Photos: Marching Comets finish season on high note
• Video: Watch the band perform

More than 90 bands from across the country competed in the prestigious event, held Nov. 14-17 at Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis, Ind.

The 311-member Mason band was the only Ohio band among the top 12 bands to compete Sunday in the Grand National Championship.

This year’s performance saw the band trending on Twitter as #thatweddingband.

The wedding-themed show featured color guard members dressed as brides toting 50 life-sized inflatable grooms in tuxedos and choreography that included hearts, bells and wedding rings, along with the words, “Just Married” and “I Love You.”

“Our show was about the ups and downs of marriage,” explained senior field commander Allie Kenneally.

“The first movement started out with just married, the second is all about the love and the third movement is almost to a funny level where things are being thrown. I could hear the whole crowd cracking up and laughing,” she said.

The light-hearted number proved to be technically challenging for band members, said Kenneally.

After consulting with experts, the band changed significant parts of its show in the two weeks before competition — all while students prepared for final exams.

“This was the most difficult show partly because we learned so much drill in such a short amount of time,” said Kenneally. “We used forms that were hard to get to physically and the music was in two different time signatures.”

While the band doesn’t set competitive goals, Mason band director Bob Bass said members were hopeful for repeat success.

The band, which has held the title of the top-placing Ohio band for the past three years, finished in eighth place last year and in tenth place in 2011.

“The show was slow in development and it all came together in the last two weeks,” he said. “When we got to Grand Nationals, we were stunned at how good it was.”

“It was so much fun watching the kids work so hard and then see what happens when you work that hard,” he said. “It made the show come alive and I could not have been happier.”

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John Kiesewetter reports:

Mason’s Brant Daugherty may have been eliminated from “Dancing with the Stars,” but he’s getting cheers from TV Guide.

From the new TV Guide (Nov.  25-Dec. 8)  “Cheers & Jeers” page inside the back cover:

JEERS to Dancing with the Stars for keeping Bill Engvall around longer than the superior Elizabeth Berkley Lauren and Brant Daugherty.

To borrow a phrase from Engvall’s stand-up pal Jeff Foxworthy, if you think this guy can dance, you might be a redneck.

“Dancing with the Stars” concludes over two nights next week: 8-10 p.m. Monday and 9-11 p.m. Tuesday (Channel 9/ABC).

Related stories:

• Mason actor starts ‘Dancing with the Stars’ journey
• Mason’s Daugherty eliminated on ‘DWTS’

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Julie Simon goes over a shopping list of school supplies with sons Nathan (center) and Ty at the Fairfield Twp. Walmart. A proposed bill would declare the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday in August free of sales tax on back-to-school items. / Enquirer file photo/Tony Jones

Chrissie Thompson reports:

Ohio would offer back-to-school shopping free of state and local sales tax under a GOP state senator’s proposal, intended in part to lure business from surrounding states such as Kentucky.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Bacon, R-Minerva Park, would declare the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday in August free of sales tax on back-to-school items. Qualifying purchases would include school supplies that cost $20 or less per item, clothing that costs $100 or less and school-related electronics, such as computers, that cost $750 or less.

Eighteen states have a sales tax holiday, according to the Economics Center at the University of Cincinnati, but none of them border Ohio.

“Consumers from other states will be incentivized to travel to Ohio to take advantage of these savings, and, while here, will also likely purchase other goods and services that are taxable,” said Lora Miller, a spokesperson for the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants.

The average U.S. family with school-age children spends about $700 on back-to-school shopping, according to the National Retail Federation. So a family shopping in Hamilton County could save about $47 if it can forgo paying the 5.75 percent state and 1 percent local sales tax.

Since shoppers often buy unexpected items they see in a store, the tax holiday wouldn’t hurt the state’s total annual sales tax revenue, according to a study by UC’s Economics Center. Shoppers in stores would likely buy items not included in the tax break: snacks, expensive backpacks and organizational supplies, for instance. That would make up for the loss in sales tax revenue, the study says.

The impact on the economy and tax revenue might be different if a state bordering Ohio, such as Kentucky, were to propose a sales tax holiday, the UC study said. UC recommended that “certain locations frequented by out-of-state visitors be excluded” from the sales tax break, but the bill currently includes all parts of Ohio.

Kentucky lawmakers have considered tax-free holidays, and Gov. Steve Beshear has supported one for back-to-school shopping. But the state has not implemented the idea. A tax reform commission assembled last year by Beshear didn’t recommend a tax-free shopping weekend.

The tax holiday has been proposed multiple times in the Ohio Legislature without becoming law. Now that several other states have created tax-free weekends, Bacon said, lawmakers can consider data, which show sales tax revenues won’t suffer, and retailers will benefit.

Macy’s, a member of the retailers’ group, supports the proposal. In other states with tax holidays, Macy’s customers “eagerly anticipate” the shopping weekend, the Cincinnati-based department store said in a statement.

Enquirer reporter Scott Wartman contributed.

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William O’Leary / Warren County Jail

Days before his trial was set to begin on sexual assault charges, a Liberty Township businessman reached a plea deal with prosecutors.

William F. O’ Leary, 43, pleaded guilty Thursday in Warren County Common Pleas Court to felonious assault, a second-degree felony, and gross sexual imposition, a third-degree felony.

He will also be required to register as a Tier I sexual offender. Tier I offenders are required to report to their local sheriff’s office in person once a year for 15 years.

Prosecutors agreed to drop four first-degree felony counts of rape and two counts of sexual battery.

Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said O’Leary raped a woman both vaginally and anally with “some type of object” near her Mason home in July 2012.

The woman, an acquaintance of O’Leary who lived in Mason at the time, was hospitalized and underwent extensive surgeries, he said.

“The type of injuries she suffered were some of the most severe we’ve ever seen with a sexual assault,” said Fornshell.

In court documents, O’Leary’s attorneys claim he and the victim — both of whom were married at the time — had an ongoing six-year affair.

Both were intoxicated on the night of the incident and neither fully remember what transpired, said attorney Stephan Madden.

“Something happened to this woman, no doubt about that,” he said. “(O’Leary) has accepted responsibility for the fact that something happened to her while they were out at some point.

Madden said that while he believed the case to be a “winnable” one, the threat of 18 years in prison weighed heavily on his client, a father of three.

“He’s an intelligent man and loves his kids. At the end, he just weighed everything and made a decision,” he said.

O’Leary faces more than nine years on the charges when he is sentenced on Jan. 6. He remains free on a $50,000 bond and must wear an ankle bracelet.

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Dan Horn reports:

Companies that do business near Ohio’s capital get far more tax breaks for hiring new workers than companies in Southwest Ohio – or anywhere else in the state.

Known as job-creation tax credits, the state tax breaks can be worth thousands or even millions of dollars to companies that receive them in exchange for expanding their workforce.

An Enquirer analysis found that Franklin County, home to Columbus, gets more tax-credit projects, more promised jobs, more potential payroll and more tax-credit value than any county in Ohio.

• Database: Where the tax breaks go

Over the past four years, Franklin County landed 98tax-credit projects – almost twice as many as any other county. It received more than 20 percent of all promised jobs and payroll tied to the state’s tax-credit program, compared to 5 percent of promised jobs and 7 percent of payroll for Hamilton County.

The potential value of tax credits to business: nearly $70 million in Franklin County, just $25 million in Hamilton County.

“We need to be more aggressive,” said Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann. “It certainly sounds like, because state government is based in Franklin County, they get a disproportionate amount.

“We need to push on the state to let them know we want a fair share.”

County population gap doesn’t explain disparity

The tax credits are one of the most important tools Ohio uses to lure companies from other states or to keep businesses here. The credits allow companies to write off a percentage of their payroll taxes based on the number of new jobs they create and the wages they expect to pay. Not everyone likes them – critics have described them as corporate welfare – but they are routinely part of the conversation when businesses talk about expanding or relocating.

Gov. John Kasich’s JobsOhio is in charge of putting together the tax-credit deals, but final approval must come from Ohio’s Tax Credit Authority, a board of economic development experts from across the state. It’s impossible to know how many applications are considered because the process is secret.

The Enquirer examined every deal approved by the Tax Credit Authority since 2010 and found Franklin County led the way in promised jobs and payroll each of the past four years. Franklin County’s population is about 400,000 greater than Hamilton County, but population alone doesn’t account for the disparity.

Southwest Ohio’s Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties together have 400,000 more people than Franklin County, but combined they still got fewer promised jobs and about $30 million less in tax-credit value. Even Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County, the state’s largest county, lagged well behind Franklin.

“I’m surprised by the numbers,” said Jim McGraw, who leads the economic development arm of Keating Muething & Klekamp in Cincinnati. “It’s difficult to explain why there is such a large discrepancy.”

Growth, location might explain Franklin’s edge

JobsOhio and state development officials say no county receives preferential treatment. “We’re not getting any direction from JobsOhio or the Development Services Agency that says anything other than everybody has an equal opportunity,” said David Smith, a member of the Tax Credit Authority and director of economic development for Duke Energy. Instead, Smith and others say, several factors could play a part in Franklin County’s good fortune.

Some, like Hartmann, chalk it up to proximity. They say businesses in Franklin County are more aware of their options and better connected to state economic development officials, so they get more deals. That doesn’t mean anyone is breaking the rules, they say, only that those in Franklin County are better positioned to take advantage of the job-creation tax-credit program.

“They’re all playing in the same sandbox up there, government and business people,” said Dave Young, a Warren County commissioner and the owner of the Jobs Store staffing company. “When you get into central Ohio, government is so pervasive that I think there’s more of a sense that this is what everyone does, so I’m going to do it, too.”

He said businesses in Southwest Ohio may just be less inclined to seek tax credits, either out of a sense of “rugged individualism” or because they simply don’t know they might qualify for tax relief.

Smith lends some credence to the theory that location matters. “I do think that, if you’re in the Columbus area, just because you’re so much more aware of what’s happening, you are by nature more in tune with those sorts of things.”

Region’s straddling states limits eligible businesses

Southwest Ohio’s closeness to Kentucky and Indiana also might play a role in the region’s performance, because Greater Cincinnati’s economy covers parts of three states. All businesses within a mile of downtown Columbus, for example, are eligible for tax credits and show up in Franklin County’s numbers. A mile south of downtown Cincinnati, businesses aren’t eligible because they’re in another state.

Another possibility is that Franklin County’s growth and local economy make it more attractive to businesses and, therefore, more likely to get tax-credit deals. Franklin County’s population grew 9 percent between 2000 and 2010, while Hamilton County’s shrank 5 percent. Further, because of its central location, McGraw said, Columbus is a logistics and distribution center that attracts large numbers of lower-paying jobs.

Cincinnati and Cleveland, on the other hand, tend to rely more heavily on manufacturing and other industries. McGraw said that could partly explain why Franklin County got more deals and more promised jobs, but also why the average salary of those jobs was lower in Franklin ($46,000) than in Hamilton County ($60,000).

Still, Franklin County consistently gets more deals and more promised jobs than anywhere else, from a lithium ion battery plant with 1,000 jobs to new bank and medical centers with hundreds of jobs. Since 2010, Franklin County has eight of Ohio’s top 20 tax-credit projects.

Hamilton County has none.

Local input sought less: ‘We’re not involved at all’

For some, the tax-credit numbers reinforce a belief that Southwest Ohio’s economic development efforts are lagging. Part of the problem, they say, is fragmentation among local governments, private groups and the Cincinnati USA Partnership for Economic Development, which all work toward the same goal, but not always in concert.

“I wouldn’t just blame state government,” Hartmann said. “I’d blame ourselves, as well. If we get more united in economic development here, we might be more successful.”

Some of the discontent relates to changes in the way the Cincinnati USA Partnership operates since Jobs­Ohio, the state’s private job-creation agency, essentially made it a branch office. The goal was to improve coordination and efficiency, but some say it made the partnership less responsive to local needs.

Andy Kuchta, Clermont County’s economic development director, said local leaders aren’t as involved in the pursuit and vetting of potential tax-credit projects as they once were because JobsOhio now sets the criteria and makes the decisions.

“We used to have a rule of thumb, some guidelines, but we’ve been told they have their own indicators now,” Kuchta said of JobsOhio. “These days, any more, we’re not involved at all.”

Others say they’re fine with the new arrangement. Michele Blair, Mason’s economic development director, said her community goes to JobsOhio only when she knows tax credits are needed to seal the deal, as when Festo U.S. picked Mason as the site of its new plant. If that means Mason gets fewer tax-credit deals than some other communities, city officials don’t mind. “You try to use taxpayer money conservatively,” Blair said.

Leaders at JobsOhio and the Cincinnati USA Partnership say coordination is improving and that job-creation tax credits are not necessarily the best way to gauge their economic development work. “Some of the largest job gains across the region over the last few years have happened without incentives,” said Matt Davis, interim executive director of the Cincinnati USA Partnership.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, for example, has added thousands of jobs in the past 10 years without any job-creation tax credits.

JobsOhio officials, however, acknowledge that the strength of local development efforts influences their ability to land tax-credit projects.

When asked about the disparity between Franklin County and Southwest Ohio, JobsOhio President John Minor said his team relies on local governments and businesses to bring potential projects to its attention.

“We see some at our doorstep more than others,” Minor said. “They’re more focused on that.”

 

Top 10 local projects

These are the largest projects to win job-creation tax credits in Southwest Ohio since 2010, based on the number of jobs companies promised to create:

Company County Jobs Avg. salary Credit value MINTH North America Inc. Warren 418 $30,100 n/a* Koch Foods Butler 319 $25,600 $717,000 Omnicare Inc. Hamilton 343 $74,600 $6 million Festo U.S. Warren 250 $41,200 2.3 million iMFLUX Inc. Butler 221 $79,200 n/a Huhtamaki Inc. Clermont 208 $36,500 $742,000 Paycor Inc. Hamilton 150 $69,300 $1.7 million Southern Air Inc. Hamilton 150 $54,700 $1.3 million E.W. Scripps Co. Hamilton 142 $79,600 $2.7 million Usui International Hamilton 130 $31,500 $213,000

*-not availableSource: Enquirer analysis of records from the Ohio Development Services Agency

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Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley (right), CFO Jon Moeller (center) and Chief Legal Officer Deborah Majoras at the company’s annual shareholders meeting on Oct. 8. / Enquirer file photo/Carrie Cochran

Alexander Coolidge reports:

Procter & Gamble chief financial officer Jon Moeller said Tuesday he wouldn’t “name names” of brands the company is considering selling or spinning off.

Still, the Cincinnati-based consumer products giant continually examines its portfolio of businesses to determine resources are invested in the right places.

“We’re not going to name names,” Moeller told analysts at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer Conference in New York. “We’ll be looking to focus on businesses that play to our strengths.”

Moeller noted P&G hasn’t been shy about exiting businesses that it decides no longer fit. In recent years, P&G has left the pharmaceuticals, snacks, coffee and most overseas bleach businesses.

Newly returned chief executive A.G. Lafley confirmed the company has taken a hard look at all its businesses and will look to exit underperforming businesses.

As reported by the Enquirer, a top candidate for potential divestiture is the company’s pet food business with Iams and Eukanuba brands, based at the Mason Business Center. Other brands analysts believe P&G might look to get out of are Duracell batteries and Braun small appliances.

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Jennifer Baker reports:

A former Kentucky police officer was arrested over the weekend on a 1994 double murder charge, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office announced this morning.

Edward Carter, 43, was taken into custody without incident at the Days Inn motel off Bards Road and Interstate 71 in Deerfield Township early Saturday, said Lt. Eric Johnson.

Carter, who has been living in Mason, was one of three men indicted Friday by a Christian County grand jury in the shooting and stabbing deaths of two prostitutes inside a massage parlor in 1994 in Oak Grove, Ky., where he used to work as a police officer.

Warren County sheriff’s detectives were able to establish, with the use of the License Plate Reader system (LPS), that Carter was in Mason in August of this year.

They tracked his sport utility vehicle to the motel parking lot and responded there with a SWAT team, Johnson said.

Authorities called into the motel room, waking Carter. He was unarmed and alone and surrendered without incident.

He is held at the Warren County jail on two counts of murder, awaiting extradition to Kentucky.

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