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Product: ENQUIRER PubDate: 02-19-2006 Zone: Final Edition: 1 Page Name: A1.0
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CINCINNATI.COM
THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2006
FINAL NEWS/SPORTS FNMMO $1.50
LEISURE FARE TO SEATTLE
Fare on Oct. 27: $414
LEISURE FARE TO ATLANTA
Fare on Oct. 27: $362 McEwen
has edge
Fare on Feb. 16: $470 Fare on Feb. 16: $879
The fare
increased: 13.5% The fare
increased: 142.82%
in GOP
POWERBALL
NUMBERS
DELTA FARES SOAR; straw poll
TRAVELERS TAKE FLIGHT
Blackwell fares well,
Schmidt not so well
15 17 By Howard Wilkinson
Enquirer staff writer
Over pancakes and bacon Saturday
43 44 morning, more than 200 Republicans from
Hamilton County’s northeast communities
heard from the two candidates battling for
the 2nd Congressional District GOP nom-
ination, and a slight majority ended up
choosing Bob McEwen over the incum-
48 29 bent, Jean Schmidt.
And, in the same straw poll, the north-
east Hamilton County Republicans
chose the hometown candidate for gov-
Up Front
ernor, J. Kenneth Blackwell, over Ohio
Attorney General Jim Petro by a ratio of
2-to-1.
Nearly 220 Republicans battled snow-
Must reads inside covered roads to get to the Sharonville
today’s Enquirer Convention Center for the Northeast Re-
publican Club’s pancake breakfast and
Reds Opening Day straw poll held each year around the birth-
day of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republi-
sells out in a flash can president.
Only members of the club, though, cast
The Reds won’t say how ballots, and 53 percent of them went for for-
long, but it’s clear that the mer congressman McEwen over Schmidt,
remaining Opening Day who won the seat in a special congressional
tickets sold in minutes, not election last summer.
hours Saturday. It was the first such straw poll among Re-
LOCAL B1 publicans, who will go to the polls on May 2
to choose between Schmidt and McEwen,
VOA museum The Enquirer/Gary Landers
but it was confined to Republicans from a
corner of Hamilton County in a seven-coun-
efforts go forward Harry Jones of Columbia, S.C., gets his boarding pass at a Delta Air Lines kiosk at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Interna-
tional Airport on Friday. Delta fares for leisure and business travelers have increased.
ty district that stretches more than 100
miles from southern Warren County to
A push to repair the Voice
SimpliFares sliding under bankruptcy
Portsmouth.
of America Building and
convert it into a national
museum is advancing. See STRAW POLL, Page A12
LOCAL B1
Straw-poll results
Also . . .
By James Pilcher
Enquirer staff writer THE EFFECTS ON ... Only members of the Northeast Hamilton
Y
County Republican Club voted in Saturday’s
Nigerian militants attack our cost of traveling from
oil facilities, seizing nine TRAVELERS: You’ll still find that straw poll. The results:
foreign workers. A14 Cincinnati/Northern Ken- Delta and Comair fares to some
tucky International Airport to destinations are lower than before
eight key markets has risen the introduction to SimpliFares.
much faster than at two other re- But be ready to pay more for
flights to popular destinations.
2006 WINTER gional airports popular with local
DELTA/COMAIR: Delta and Comair
OLYMPIC UPDATE travelers, an Enquirer analysis of
airfares shows.
are in bankruptcy and coping with
high fuel prices. The airlines in De- McEwen Blackwell
•GOLD:
U.S. MEDAL •SILVER:7 4 The widening gap in fares comes as air-
lines are raising prices nationally to cope with
cember cut 26 percent of local 2nd cong. Ohio
flights. So as long as travelers are district governor
COUNT: 13 •BRONZE: 2 high fuel costs.
But for Delta Air Lines, which dominates
The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran
Masami Ota (left), 34, and Tomoyuki Ota,
willing to pay higher fares, the car- m Bob McEwen: m Kenneth Black-
daily flights from Cincinnati – its second larg- rier’s financial position improves. 86 (53%) well: 103 (64%)
in today IN SPORTS est hub – the disparity in fares indicates pos-
35, of Hamilton, collect their luggage
Saturday at CVG. Travelers are turning THE AIRPORT: Delta and Comair m Jean Schmidt: m Jim Petro:
American short-track sible erosion in its SimpliFares pricing struc- to nearby airports for cheaper fares. are the big-dog tenants with al- 76 (47%) 57 (36%)
speedskater Apolo Anton ture. Delta first rolled out SimpliFares in most 93 percent of daily flights.
Ohno settles for bronze. C11 Cincinnati in August 2004 as the first test of percent higher for travel booked Thursday. The airport has coped for years
the program, partly in response to complaints Fares to those same markets increased
with travelers driving to Dayton, AK Steel
ON TV TODAY about high fares from the local airport. (It less than 10 percent at Dayton and dropped
Louisville or Indianapolis to get
NBC: 10:30 a.m.-1:30
went national in January 2005.)
Yet the analysis shows leisure fares (tickets
booked at least two weeks in advance and in-
by about 17 percent in Louisville over the
same time period ending Friday. Both air-
ports are popular with local travelers seeking
lower fares.
THE COMPETITION: Delta and
Middletown workers
p.m., 7-11 p.m.
CNBC: 6 a.m.-12:30
p.m., 2-5:30 p.m.
cluding a three-night stay) from Cincinnati to
the eight markets were more than 23 percent
lower fares, and both are served by low-fare
carriers, while Cincinnati is not.
Comair have the local market
locked up with the hub opera-
united in vote for strike
higher on average on Friday when compared tion, and low-fare carriers such The union representing 2,600 hourly
USA: 8-11 a.m.
with late October and were as much as 43 See DELTA, Page A12 workers at AK Steel’s Middletown Works
MSNBC: 4-7 p.m. as Southwest and AirTran aren’t plant has authorized a strike, less than
willing to challenge a major air-
AT CINCINNATI.COM Find out more about Delta airfares vs. fares at two nearby airports, the effects line at its hub. That’s because
two weeks before their contract expires
March 1. AK Steel has cut about 400 jobs
Dustin Dow blogs about INSIDE of higher costs on travelers and what local fliers think. Stories, Page A12 Delta and Comair could cut fares at the plant in the last two years.
his experiences from Turin to match the competition and The union said 2,424 of its 2,645 mem-
with audio and video posts. To view the government’s latest Domestic Airline Fares Consumer Report, go win the battle with more flights to bers voted Friday and Saturday. Only 56
Keyword: Olympics ONLINE online to Cincinnati.Com. Keyword: airfares more destinations. voted against a strike authorization.
STORY, B1
WEATHER
High 28°
Low 15°
Quite
Fans brave chill for hot seat at hoops showdown
cold By Michael D. Clark Oak Hill wins, 88-74 the game. No. 2 North
College Hill’s
Enquirer staff writer Clifton Snow drove in from Middle-
COMPLETE FORECAST: B6 No. 1 Warriors pull away early from Trojans town and said the atmosphere reminded O.J. Mayo
On the coldest night so far this winter, to stay unbeaten. More in Sports, C1 him of the frenzy that NBA Hall-of-Famer talks with
INDEX Cincinnati was the white-hot center of
the prep basketball universe. Online: Go to Cincinnati.Com for a photo
Jerry Lucas’ Middletown High School
teams used to generate in the late 1950s
coach Jamie
Mahaffey
12 sections, 165th year, No. 316
A&E ............... D1 Movies ........ D2-4 More than 16,500 hoop fans traveled gallery from Saturday’s game. when they traveled to Cincinnati to play during a
Business ......... J1 Obituaries ...... B4 through bitter cold Saturday evening, Keyword: photo games that drew thousands of fans. timeout as
Forum ............ E1 Sports ............ C1 packing into sold-out U.S. Bank Arena “But this is a historical event because the team
Kids’ Corner .... B6 Travel .. F1, F8-13 for the biggest prep basketball game in it is bigger and involves the top two faced No. 1-
Lotteries ......... B2 TV ......... Weekend the city’s history. The game featured a when” by watching the nation’s top-rated teams in the country,” said Snow. ranked Oak
Classified .............. G1-8, H16-26, I1-12 clash of America’s two top-rated high junior, O.J. Mayo of North College Hill, Mark Deckard joined his pal Jim Bove Hill Acade-
First Run Classified .......................... E6 school teams: the undefeated and No. 2- and a constellation of other prep hoops in driving from Lebanon for a game that my at U.S.
Copyright, 2006, The Cincinnati Enquirer
ranked North College Hill High squad stars. they described as “the event” of Ameri- Bank Arena
and unbeaten, top-rated Oak Hill Acade- “This is the biggest high school bas- can prep basketball. Saturday.
Portions of
today’s Enquirer my of Virginia. The visitors won, 88-74. ketball game ever,” said Hugo Bietz, who “We didn’t want to miss a chance to NCH lost,
were printed on
recycled paper Fans from Greater Cincinnati and sur- drove down from Fort Wayne, Ind. see O.J.’s team take on the big guns from 88-74.
rounding states traveled to the Queen “I’ve been waiting a long time for this Oak Hill,” said Deckard.
City to be a part of history and to earn the game and it’s a big event with plenty of The Enquirer/
Cara Owsley
right to someday say they “saw them up-and-coming stars,” said Bietz before E-mail mclark@enquirer.com