Odds and ends, 1/18/08

At a buildingwide employee meeting yesterday, some of us learned that a new reporter is a WVU graduate. Naturally, we had to tease her.

"Are you going to Michigan?"

"I hear you got your degree even though you only finished half the course work."

You get the idea.

Considering what's happened surrounding the selection of a president, the football coaching situation, the governor's daughter, the party school reputation, the history of burning couches and everything else, it must stink to be outed as a WVU grad.

But hang in there. My alma mater has made news in the past couple of years with lax computer security and with a plagiarism scandal in the engineering school. As long as these things are disposed of quickly and with honesty, they will pass and people will forget them.

That second part -- honesty -- is always the hardest part, though, isn't it?

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The First Amendment wins one.

MARIEMONT, Ohio (AP) — Political campaign signs are going to be up in the Cincinnati suburb of Mariemont longer than some people had wanted.

Officials have decided not to fight a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

The village had an ordinance limiting the display of signs in residential yards, and that had been construed to mean that political signs could be displayed for only 30 days before an election. And there was a limit of one sign per yard.

Mayor Dan Policastro says the restrictions actually were aimed at real estate and other commercial signs. He says if somebody wants to keep a campaign sign out all year round, other residents will just have to live with it.

Ron Paul supporters rejoice.