According to this column on thesweetscience.com, a boxing web site, one of Youngstown’s most well known natives, boxer Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik, has had a disappointing downturn in his once-promising career.
I know nothing about boxing, but according to this piece, it doesn’t look good.

“How does someone go from being one of boxing’s most celebrated fighters to a forgotten man in less than a year?” the web site asks. “Ask Kelly Pavlik. He should have more than a few pointers for how to run a career into the ground.” Ouch!
For some …

As goes the Rust Belt, so goes the nation?
According to The Washington Post’s The Fix, that may be the case in the 201o midterm elections.
The Post cites four key governor’s races: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania that make our region “the central proving ground for both parties heading into the 2010 midterm elections” as well as Senate contests in Ohio and Illinois.
Five of these six states currently have Democratic governors, according to the paper.
Why are we so important? Four of the six are among the top 20 states unemployment-wise, all …

Time for a regular Rust Wire feature: highlighting some of our other favorite blogs from around the region.
I nominate Tube City Almanac, a great blog about news and history in western Pennsylvania’s “tube city” of McKeesport.
It was receommended to me by several smart and knowledgeable folks who were familiar with McKeesport.
My favorites on the blog include its history of the community, especially the section on the region’s steel heritage, complete with employee memories of U.S. Steel’s National Works and other facilities.
Check it out!
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Rust Wire readers know this blog frequently rants about how Forbes magazine mischaracterizes our cities with its silly and bogus lists – America’s Downsized Cities, Hardest Places to Get By, Dying Cities, and even Best Place for Singles.
(Somehow, Cleveland is ranked as a “dying city,” and a “most miserable city,” yet it is also one of the best places for singles, according to the magazine. Go figure.)
Well, I’m glad to see the folks in Dayton, Ohio, are doing more than just ranting. Upset with their inclusion on the “Dying Cities” …

Buffalo Weekly Art Voice has an interesting piece about the obstacles Anti-Poverty workers face in caring for the poor as their ranks swell.
Author Bruce Fisher points out that experts in the area have determined that the stimulus will have no impact on the region’s long term problems, unless it is tackled through a region approach.
Anti-Poverty workers are already battling uphill, with more and more families falling under federal guidelines for low-income.
Adding to the insult, county legislator Robert Reynolds deferred to public employees rather than casting the vote that would have consolidated …

Our friends at Great Lakes Urban Exchange (aka GLUE) are featured this story in Artvoice, Buffalo’s alternative weekly paper.
GLUE-sters will be in Buffalo this week for their summit, “Great Lakes Metros and the New Opportunity: Remaking Policy and Practice in a Time of Transformation,” on Thursday, June 18 and Friday, June 19 at Buffalo State College.
“The goal of the conference is threefold: to identify ways to filter federal stimulus money into Great Lakes cities; to develop policy that nurtures the region and helps urban areas grow into sustainable units; and …

The Buffalo News’ “The ‘Burbs” blog posed a question yesterday that has been asked by many a municipality: should public employees be required to live where they work?

(Sorry for this lame picture. I couldn’t think of any other way to illustrate this story.)
Their post dealt with the Buffalo suburb of Amherst, but it’s a question that has been asked throughout our region.
Typically, municipal leaders – and oftentimes voters as well – favor such rules, which are often opposed by police and firefighters unions.
This has been a hot topic in Ohio …

This is the second time this week I have heard someone publicly advocate for a single government in Cuyahoga County, the jurisdiction surrounding Cleveland.
In this Plain Dealer editorial, Chris Ronayne, head of a community development nonprofit known as University Circle Inc., advocates for a dramatic overhaul of regional and statewide development and tax policies.
If greater Cleveland doesn’t stop sprawl and its population continues to decline, we could be looking at municipal insolvancy in the central city, he says.
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This is the second time this week I have heard someone publicly advocate for a single government in Cuyahoga County, the jurisdiction surrounding Cleveland.
In this Plain Dealer editorial, Chris Ronayne, head of a community development nonprofit known as University Circle Inc., advocates for a dramatic overhaul of regional and statewide development and tax policies.
If greater Cleveland doesn’t stop sprawl and its population continues to decline, we could be looking at municipal insolvancy in the central city, he says.
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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson used his annual state of the city address yesterday to advance the idea of regionalism for Cleveland-area education providers.
“We cannot continue to go our separate ways and say everyone can fend for themselves,” Jackson told a crowd of several hundred at the downtown Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre hotel.
“Education is a regional concern and should be approached in the same way, with the same vigor as a regional economy. Each student in every district should learn at the same pace and perform at the same high …