The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 1

YOUR LIFE B6 TELEVISION 'DOCTORS' PUT PATIENTS AT EASE THE ClIClNm ENQUIRER MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2009 75 CENTS HOME BUILDERS OFFER INCENTIVES SUPER BOWL XLIII Frantic, fantastic finish gives Pittsburgh record sixth title Deals, discounts await buyers Can low rates lure skittish customers? Ben Roethlisberger (right), the former Miami University standout, threw a 6-yard touchdown oass to wide receiver 1 aamonionoimesin a inSiae the comer of the Batesville end zone with Cincinnati.Com Find oat what houses are selling for in your neighborhood on our DataCenter. Search: data reaching out to buyers at all prices ranges. Crestview Hills-based R-scher Homes is advertising 2.875 percent interest rates on a 30-year fixed mortgage for new condominiums, town-homes or patio homes priced from 890,000 to $300,000. At Potterhill Homes in Mil-ford, the builder is offering 4.5 percent interest rates on its brothers win seconds remain- Bj Lisa Bernard Kuha Wtrnard4mfqtiirrr.com Across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, home builders hit by the deepening recession and the dragging housing market -are offering a host of incentives aimed at luring buyers. With reduced interest rates and creative deals for buyers worried about selling their current homes, builders are 1 super Bowl com- uigiogiveine the Home Builders Association of Northern Kentucky.

There are some builders who will actually purchase your current home if you buy one of theirs," he said. Across the nation, sales of newly built homes dropped 38 percent from 2007 levels; locally, new home construction slowed to a crawl last year, ac cording to data from builder trade groups. In Greater Cincinnati, new housing permits declined 39 percent in 2008, local builders said. In Northern Kentucky, permits slowed by 31 percent last year from 2007 levels. To help stem the losses and unload bloated inventories of market homes, builders are mercial contest nnsDurgn Story, Bl Steelers their recora-DreaK- it ing sixth Super Bowl title with a trying "anything and everything" to reassure weary consumers, says Dan Dressman, executive vice president of ii-a win over the Arizona Car 1 dinals on Sunday.

Sports CI See HOUSING, Page A2 PRIVATE DONATIONS LAGGING Merin SCPA fundraisers need another $5M SINTOMldS StOHO HQS 6 Senate Republicans say bill could be voted down do this the right McConnell said. "I can't believe that CITY PLAN Can we learn to eat less meat? By Jane Prendergast iprendergastenquirer.com Attention lovers of goetta, The Precinct's King Sirloin and Montgomery Inn ribs: Cincinnati would like you to eat less meat Yes, even in this city symbolized by a flying pig and once called Porkopolis, officials worry about residents leaving too big of a carbon footprint So as part of the Green Cincinnati Plan to make the city more environmentally friendly, proponents want you to at least think about choosing fruits and vegetables more, meat less. "Nobody wants Jeff Ruby to have to take out an ad that says, 'Why are you hurting my said Daniel Oerther, chairman of the University of Cincinnati's environmental engineering department who leads the city's food task force. The group, which met for the first time Thursday, drew about 20 people, some of them vegetarians. After more meetings, the task force will make recommendations to City Council about how best to encourage people to re-think their diets.

"Probably a better way to say it is: Think about plant-based diet options," Oerther said. "It's kind of a recognition that a lot of us are meat-and-potatoes and goetta type people." The less-meat suggestion is part of a plan that started in October 2007, when City Council unanimously directed the city manager to develop a climate action plan. Council passed it 6-3, in June 2008. It includes more than 80 recommendations on 1 'sn ernbar- Photos by Jeft SwingerThe Enquirer Plastic will give way soon to glass in the grand entrance to the new School for Creative Performing Arts on Central Parkway, which is scheduled to be open for classes in August 2010. Arts supporters vow to meet goal eventually By Douglass K.

Daniel The Associated Press WASHINGTON -Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Sunday the stimulus bill backed by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats could go down to defeat if it's not stripped of unnecessary spending and focused more on housing issues and tax cuts. The Senate version of the bill, which topped out at nearly $900 billion, is headed to the floor for debate. The House bill totaled about $819 billion and earned no Republican votes, even though it passed the Democratic-controlled House. At some point lawmakers will need to compromise on the versions. McConnell suggested that the bill needed an overhaul because it doesn't pump enough into the private sector through tax cuts, and allows Democrats to go on a spending spree unlikely to jolt the economy.

The Republican leader also complained that Democrats had not been as bipartisan as Obama had said he wanted. "I think it may be time for the president tolcind of get ahold of these Democrats in the Senate and the House, who have rather significant majorities, and shake them a little bit and say, 'Look, let's McConnell 'aax" "ul what has been produced so far." Democrats said they were open to considering changes by Republicans. But they also said the bleak economic news demanded action. "We cannot delay this," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.

"We can't engage in the old political rhetoric of saying, Well, maybe it could be a little bit better here and a little bit better Under Obama's plan, strained state budgets would receive a cash infusion, projects for roads and other infrastructure would be funded, and "green jobs" in the energy sector would be created. In its centerpiece tax cut, single workers would gain $500 and couples $1,000. Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the bill was designed to help people who have been hurt as well as stimulate the economy. "I never saw a tax cut fix a bridge.

I never saw a tax cut give us more public transportation. The fact is, we need a mix," Frank said. Construction worker Bryan Rethman looks at the plans for the sprinkler system inside the Scene Shop as work continues on the new SCPA building in By Ben Fischer bfisckerenquirer.com Private fund-raisers are still about $5 million short of paying for the new School for Creative Performing Arts, seen by real estate developers and the region's arts community as a key to rejuvenating Over-the-Rhine. Taxpayers could be on the hook for any shortfall during construction, even though the Greater Cincinnati Arts Education Center a consortium of arts supporters is legally committed to raising the money, eventually. Under the terms of an expansive public-private partnership, the center agreed to pay $31 million of the $72 million for the K-12 arts school, now being built just south of Washington Park.

State and local taxpayers, mostly L4 Tim a i. pledge," she said. "We plan to. WTe take this commitment to CPS (Cincinnati Public Schools) very seriously." When construction began in September 2007, organizers said they See MEAT, Page A2 through a bond issue approved by voters in 2003, are responsible for the remaining $41 million. Fundraising is not behind schedule, said spokeswoman Jan Leslie.

"We believe as people see this school nearing completion, we're hopeful well be able to complete the WEATHER See SCPA, Page A2 WARTIME SPENDING Watchdogs report contractors wasted billions High 39 low 20 "atlier cloudy' Snow showers tonight COMPLETE FORECAST: A2 INDEX 3 sections, 168th year, No. 299 Advice B8 Obituaries B2 Business A10 Opinions All Comics B7 Sports CI Lotteries A2 TV B8 Movies B9 YourUfe B6 Leeals C9 would be needed for reconstruction, he says. His findings are based on hundreds of interviews and thousands of pages of documents. The U.S. "was neither prepared for nor able to respond quickly to the ever-changing demands" of stabilizing the war-torn country and then rebuilding it he says.

"For the last six years we have been on a steep learning curve." "Today, instead of empty barrels of meat contractors produced inadequate or unusable facilities that required extensive rework," Gimble says. "Like the Continental Forces who encountered fraud, the (Defense Department) also encounters fraud." A report from Bowen, "Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience," reviews the problems in an effort that has cost the U.S. $51 billion. Before the war, the Bush administration projected $2.4 billion in advance of today's first hearing by the Commission on Wartime Contracting. Congress created the bipartisan panel a year ago over the objections of the Bush White House, which complained the Justice Department might be forced to disclose sensitive information about investigations.

Gimble notes that contracting scandals have gone on since the late 1700s when vendors swindled George Washington's army. contractors more than $100 billion for goods and services to support war operations and rebuilding. There are 154 open criminal investigations into allegations of bribery, conflict of interest defective products, bid rigging, and theft stemming from the wars, according to Thomas Gimble, the Pentagon's deputy inspector general. The Associated Press obtained the prepared testimony of Gimble and Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, By Richard Lardner The Associated Press WASHINGTON Poor planning, weak oversight and greed combined to soak U.S. taxpayers and undermine American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, government watchdogs tell a new commission examining waste and corruption in wartime contracts.

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