Weekend in review: Best stories, multimedia

11/25/2009

Kate Weathers hauled herself in a car with no heat, driving for more than an hour last night from north of Detroit with two goals in mind: Get to Toledo. See Puddle of Mudd. The 18-year-old arrived early and quickly blended in with 2,000 others already at the Erie Street Market's Toledo Civic Theatre for the same reason. "It'll be a great show." Ms. Weathers said barely listening to the opening band that she could not name.

LIBERALS think of themselves as being a good deal smarter than conservatives. An example is this e-mail I received after last week's column: "Mass support behind the conservative movement in America comes mostly from lower-middle-class voters, many of whom are poorly educated and inarticulate.

With more than two minutes remaining in last night's Division II state semi- final game between Southview and Akron Archbishop Hoban, confetti started to fill the air in the student section on Southview's side of the field. And chants of "We're going to the show" began to increase in volume by the Cougars supporters as the final minutes ticked away.

Four more high-ranking employees of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services were punished yesterday for their roles in searching Joe the Plumber's background. Gov. Ted Strickland previously disciplined the agency's chief. Doug Thompson, the agency's director of child support, has been suspended for four weeks without pay. He was chastised by Inspector General Tom Charles on Thursday for encouraging a subordinate to send a misleading e-mail to the state's privacy officer claiming that a database search of Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher's name had been for legitimate child support purposes.

D.J. Bork sat motionless, paralyzed with pain over the death last month of his 3-year-old daughter, Kaycie, who had been severely abused. He uttered only a few words about how she used to run through the house looking for her daddy. "I miss that the most," Mr. Bork said, wearing a T-shirt and button adorned with a picture of the little girl relatives called Peanut. Kaycie Bork died Oct. 23 in St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, four days after she arrived with severe head injuries, police said. Her death was ruled a homicide.

They don the same colors as they did the last time they met on a football field, but this time the venue was just a bit larger for Ohio State sophomore wideout Dane Sanzenbacher and Michigan freshman tight end Kevin Koger. Sanzenbacher was wearing the scarlet and gray for Central Catholic back on Oct. 20, 2006, when his then top-ranked Irish met Koger's maize and blue Whitmer Panthers for a key City League battle played at Waite's Mollenkopf Stadium.

With four minutes left in the third quarter, it was safe for Jim Tressel to pick up his cell phone and place a call to the jeweler. The Ohio State coach knew then that he needed a bunch of tiny gold football pants - the same order he placed last year ... and the year before ... and the two years before that. By that point in yesterday's game, Ohio State had secured a fifth straight victory over rival Michigan, a 42-7 victory that secured a fourth consecutive Big Ten championship.

Whoever the next University of Tennessee football coach is, he might have a serious bone to pick with Bruce Pearl when he lays his eyes on Aaron Craft. Pearl, the Volunteers men's basketball coach, scooped up the Liberty-Benton junior before the football season even started, but Craft continues to make fans wonder what he could do on the gridiron at the next level.