Cleveland, OHIO

If it stinks, it must be Cleveland.

Lori Frazier, the niece of Cleveland's Mayor, said that she still considered herself to be Anthony Sowell's girlfriend. She moved in with the suspected serial killer shortly after he was released from prison in 2005.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on the relationship. "Frazier said she was a drug addict and used drugs with Sowell. But she had no idea he could have been a serial killer." She, too, noticed the smell. Police have recovered 11 bodies from Anthony Sowell's home.

Mayor Frank Jackson was reelected this week.

Toledo, OHIO

April 9, 2008 - Former city councilwoman Karyn McConnell-Hancock was sentenced to a three-month - suspended - sentence, followed by two years of probation and a $300 fine for filing a false police report claiming she had been kidnapped.

The attorney was reported missing in early December and turned up three days later outside an amusement park near Atlanta. A week earlier a client sued her for money she obtained in a settlement she did not give him. Her family told "Good Morning America" that she may have been kidnapped because her father is a prominent local judge. The judge appeared on the program with McConnell-Hancock's husband, a pastor.

She later recanted the story and since then at least 10 of her former clients have accused her of stealing money from them.

McConnell-Hancock pleaded guilty to filing a false police report. She also sent a resignation letter to the Ohio Supreme Court, effectively forfeiting her law license.

Her lawyer said there is an ongoing criminal investigation into felony theft and forgery allegations made against his client but that charges have not yet been filed. The attorney did say there are 10 victims and that his client has admitted to forging a name to settlement checks in an amount of up to $130,000.

She might have trouble paying.

Ms. McConnell Hancock owes the Internal Revenue Service $97,524 for unpaid income taxes for the years 2001, 2002, and 2003, according to liens on file with the Lucas County recorder.

The records showed she owed $39,789 for 2001, $43,928 for 2002, and $13,807 for 2003.The IRS filed liens for the 2001 and 2002 tax obligations in August, 2005, and followed up on Sept. 21, 2006, with a lien for the year 2003.Lee Banks, chief deputy Lucas County recorder, said the liens have not been released by the IRS, which indicates that they are still in effect.

Cleveland, OHIO

Leaked FBI documents were the basis of a story printed in a Cleveland alternate newspaper. The extent of the crimes isn't surprising for anyone who follows Cleveland politics. It's a city mired in racial politics and poliscum who are promoted and protected by the city's newspapers.

There's almost civic pride in this observation by the Scene:

Earlier this month, a jury deadlocked on a bribes-for-public-contracts case against Gray, Cleveland Councilman Joe Jones, and New Orleans businessman Gilbert Jackson. Like all things Cleveland, it was a trial both strange and mysterious.

The most comical moment came when Jones' lawyer argued that no one would want to bribe his client, since Jones is widely regarded as a City Hall lightweight who isn't taken seriously. Call it the Moron Defense.

And though one juror told The Plain Dealer that the jury voted 11-1 to convict Gray on the most serious of the 41 charges he faced, the lone holdout, Tangie Holloway, just happened to be a childhood friend of Cleveland Councilman Zach Reed, who just happened to be a friend of Gray.

It was justice, Cleveland-style. The case will be retried in August.

So might be Jones' attorney who has admitted handing over one of the sealed FBI memos to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.