Recently, Mittal Steel quietly admitted to the Ohio EPA that it spewed 3.2 million more pounds of pollution into the air over Cleveland in 2006 than it had the year before. For those keeping count, that brings the annual weight of the shit blasting out of the factory to a whopping 44.2 million pounds. That includes carbon dioxide, soot, volatile organic compounds and lead.

"I am especially concerned with the cardiovascular risks from fine-particle air pollution," wrote Dr. Robert Bahler, a MetroHealth cardiologist in a letter to Mittal's Cleveland plant manager in March. "The population surrounding MetroHealth Medical Center is especially at an increased risk for cardiovascular disease in view of their proximity to Mittal Steel."

Liz Ild, Cleveland Program Director with the local activist group Ohio Citizen Action, says the news of more pollution coming from Mittal Steel is especially disconcerting now that summer is upon us and people are spending more time outside. According to Ild, over 1,000 residents downwind of Mittal have placed signs in their yards that read: "Mittal Steel: Clean Up for Real."

But she adds, "Mittal's Cleveland managers have yet to respond to the signs or to meet with community members to discuss ways to begin solving the problem of air pollution shared by residents and the steel mill."

Some advice for Mittal Steel managers: It's probably best to meet with these guys before some Tremont hippie sprouts a third arm. - James Renner

FULL, ROLLING BREUER

The City of Cleveland Planning Commission got a little talking-to from former planning director Hunter Morrison last Friday as they considered whether to let County Commissioners Tim Hagan and Jimmy Dimora knock down the only existing high-rise building designed by the eminent brutalist architect Marcel Breuer.

Morrison said he came to the meeting because he'd heard the "disturbing dialog" between the city and county over the issue, and because he'd been in similar positions - when demolition threatened the Allen Theatre on Cleveland's Playhouse Square, for example. Morrison said he started with a bias toward saving the tower, but warned the commissioners against making a decision until they had all the information.

It had become clear through the input of architects who addressed the commission that the county commissioners don't actually have a complete picture of basic technical information about the building - including the height of ceilings - or funding sources, and therefore additional cost savings that could go along with a renovation.

As the hearing progressed, architects and contractors shed light on the issues. A contractor for the county explained that demolishing the tower would more accurately be called "dismantling." Because it's a reinforced concrete structure adjacent to a somewhat fragile, neo-classically domed Cleveland Trust rotunda, they can't just swing a wrecking ball. Rather, they'll erect scaffolding, cut the concrete into chunks, and lower them one by one from cranes. No wonder demolition will cost $10 million.

Architect David Ellison reminded the commission that demolition is wasteful (like throwing away a recyclable bottle, no deposit, no return, except that in this case it's a prominent office building) which more than cancels out any savings attainable from even the most cutting-edge green building designs, materials and features. "Hypocrisy" is the term Ellison used to describe that kind of "green" architecture.

The previous week, Doug Hoffman - a local architect who worked with New York firm Davis Brody Bond on a proposal to adapt the building for re-use - presented plans. Friday, the public comment session included a former senior vice president of Cleveland Trust, who decades ago had a hand in choosing Breuer as the architect. He urged the commission that what really ought to happen is the completion of Breuer's design - the construction of the second tower envisioned in his drawings.

Local American Institute of Architects chapter president Anthony Hiti again urged the planning commission to preserve the landmark work of modern architecture. And Morrison noted that the controversy has arisen because the county hadn't been through an adequate public process.

Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones called the debate "a disagreement among friends who agree 98 percent of the time."

In the end, planning commissioner and former planning director Norm Krumholz moved to deny the demolition permit. His motion was denied 4-3, which means the commission will have more time to gather information. If that eventually does lead to denial of the permit, the county could override the city's authority and demolish it anyway - which would be chapter 227,000 in the ongoing tale of Cleveland/ Cuyahoga dysfunctionality. - Michael Gill

WHISPERS CAMPAIGN

Fearlessly homophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant and possibly libelous, the newsletter Urban Whispers demands attention. It claims to out the skeletons of the players in Ward 6: Forest City's Sam Miller. Al Ratner. Ward 6 Councilwoman Pat Britt. The Irish. The Hispanics. Don't forget the Jews. And why not? It's all written anonymously.

The recently released Spring 2007 edition (the first was distributed a year ago) is filled with rumor, hearsay and innuendo mixed with facts gleaned from area newspapers, including this one. The top story of the four-page, double-sided, stapled pamphlet is "Cleveland's Three Mile Island for Black Youths Only." It's about an issue previously reported in Free Times: The county building a juvenile justice center on contaminated land that it bought from Miller ("Tainted," October 4, 2006, www.freetimes.com/stories/14/24/tainted).

The newsletter makes frequent reference to Miller's supposed "pressuring Vel's on the Circle to sell in order to save Landerhaven Party Center, a Jewish owned business." So we called Don Scott, who sold his University Circle party center, Vel's on the Circle, to the Cleveland Clinic in 1996 for $2 million. Scott's wife also ran against Britt in 2005.

Scott admits contributing to the "community paper," as after all, he was forced out of his business, he says, "by the Cleveland Clinic and their hatchet man, who was Miller at the time."

But a number of people were involved in the publication, Scott says, and the remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation. But Scott doesn't mind saying that Britt was Miller's puppet, and that Ratner loves the Mexican border crossings because he can use them as "a shield to usher in Jews from Israel and Europe."

Um, ok.

"It may sound scandalous to you, but to the black community it's all true," Scott says. "It's putting stories out there that you won't do."

Local black talk has hardly mentioned the pamphlet. And Britt's office says that not a single constituent has called about the allegations. So we have to wonder how big the community that believes all this stuff really is. - Charu Gupta

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION, A POUND OF MANURE

Late last month, state Democrats introduced the Ohio Prevention First Act. Its basic assumption: increase access to and funding of contraception, and watch the numbers of unintended pregnancies and abortions fall.

Statistics repeatedly prove that women with easy access to birth control have fewer unintended pregnancies. Poor women of color, however, disproportionately choose methods that fail. It's this latter fact that opponents of Ohio's first sensible abortion-reduction bill keep folding into their argument: more contraception doesn't always mean less abortion.

When the Free Times first wrote about this bill ("Wrong Again," February 28, www.freetimes.com/stories/14/45/wrong-again), it was being proposed by Senators Sue Morano and Teresa Fedor, and Rep. Tyrone Yates. Ohio Right to Life's Denise Mackura, who wanted nothing to do with the bill, said she could be persuaded if the numbers proved its case. So the Free Times called up the researchers whose data Mackura was citing.

"Those states that do invest in contraception [with the exception of California] are all in the low teens [for abortion rates] - contrary to the claim that Ohio Right to Life is making," said Rebecca Wind, the spokeswoman for the Allan Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit data analysis center that emphasizes reproductive choice.

Still, Mackura wants none of it. "I disagree with the person you spoke with at the Guttmacher Institute," she says.

Besides, Mackura says, the whole abortion quagmire goes beyond contraception anyway. She's also upset by Ohio Prevention First's inclusion of access to the morning-after pill and because it only lets pharmacists refuse to fill birth-control prescriptions on professional grounds, not moral or religious ones.

Why can't abortion opponents just admit that it's not ending pregnancies that freaks them out, it's sex? - Charu Gupta

RUST BELT REPORT

Shaker Heights plans to hold July 4th fireworks display near natural gas well.

Isn't this how that show Jericho started?

Lt. Governor Lee Fisher criticized for giving sister-in-law job at Lottery Commission.

"It's not patronage," says a spokesman. "He'd promised her something cooler, so now she frickin' hates him."

43 percent of Cleveland high school seniors fail graduation exam.

District pleads with state for extra credit assignments.

Columbus courts sentence men caught buying sex from hookers to "john school."

Good news, mom! I got that diploma after all.

NASA lab in Sandusky will test new rocket to the moon.

"Dude, this is the Maverick," says slightly pretentious young Cedar Point manager. "Now please step behind the yellow line."

City leaders in Parma Heights ask Cleveland to clean their water pipes.

Cleveland quickly growing tired of city leaders' late-night booty calls.

Most Ohio voters favor an alternative plan to finance schools.

Plan hinges on Lebron James agreeing to play for John Marshall High next year.

First Mormon church opens new 12,000-square-foot visitors center in Kirtland.

Concession stand serves nachos on bunch of golden plates someone found in the basement.

Mittal Steel may build wind turbines near smelting plant.

Noxious air will soon be kind of windier.

Local actors portray famous dead people near their burial sites at Riverside Cemetery.

Sam Miller impersonator getting very anxious just hanging out on sidelines.

Stores sell baseball caps featuring names of Cleveland gangs.

Now I have a hat to go with my Goonies lunchbox!

Scott Wolstein may settle eminent-domain suit with business owners in Flats.

"Okay, I've got some money for you right here," says Wolstein, reaching into his pocket then pulling out hand with extended middle finger.

14,000 fans pay to watch Cavs game on 3-D TV at the Q.

And in a nod to typical 3-D fare, the Cavs played zombies.

YOU ROCK

Eric Linden: Your portrayal of Adam in a short video for the Creation Museum near Cincinnati made you a star in the Christian community. But your recently unearthed porn Web site BedroomAcrobat.com and your connection to a clothing line called Sirfuxalot International prove you were a better actor than we ever suspected. Eve has never looked so satisfied.

YOU SUCK

Frankie Coleman: You were given a cushy job at the Department of Development because your hubby is the mayor of Columbus. No big deal. Both parties award favors to friends and family all the time. But you can't be stupid about it. If you had actually come to work a few times, you might not have gotten so beat up in the press after they found out you were getting paid $70,000 a year. Next time, at least pretend to be useful.