News

Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune is recommending a quarter cent sales tax increase to stabilize the stadium fund. His plan would also preserve the full property tax rebate promised to voters in the mid-90's.

The board is dealing with a $7 million gap. The proposal would increase the sales tax from 6.5% to 6.75%. Here's how Hamilton County's sales tax rate compares with Ohio's other 87 counties.

The Drawbridge Hotel and Convention Center will close Sunday.  A release says the closing of the hotel will allow the new ownership time to clearly focus on future opportunities for the site and weigh the feasibility of remaining in the hospitality industry.　

The closure will not affect McHale’s Events and Catering’s events scheduled in the hotel convention space and the Pizza Pub will remain open.

Relief pitcher Jonathan Broxton and the Cincinnati Reds have signed a three-year deal that will keep the right-hander in a Reds uniform through 2015, with a club option for 2016.

It is likely to mean that Broxton - who came to the Reds in the 2012 season in a trade with Kansas City - will become the team's closer, now that it appears left-hander Aroldis Chapman will be moved to the starting rotation.

Cincinnati city council member Christopher Smitherman was re-elected to a fourth two-year term Tuesday as president of the Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP, fighting off a challenge from a long-time union leader, Bob Richardson.

At Richardson's request, Tuesday's election was supervised by officials of the NAACP's national office, who would not release the final results of the election, except to say that about 1,100 members voted Tuesday at the NAACP's Bond Hill office.

Smitherman's entire executive committee was re-elected as well.

Tourism accounts for one in 10 jobs across Greater Cincinnati and visitors spent $4.1 billion here last year.

Those findings are based on an economic impact study commissioned by the Cincinnati USA Regional Tourism Network. It's the first such report in more than 10 years.

The study also shows for every 10 direct jobs in tourism, four indirect jobs are created elsewhere in the economy.

Tourism Network President Linda Antus says there's another benefit as well.