Ups and Downs

Ups to University Hospitals Health Systems, for buying a big PPO and stake in four hospitals from Columbia/HCA. It’s better competition for the Cleveland Clinic, while we wave bye-bye to the Kmart of health care.

Ups to Rep. John Kasich, the spunky GOP from Ohio whose presidential slogan is a timely “K2K”. Most count him out already, but you’ve got to love an underdog with an overbite.

Downs to the Euclid Corridor renewal, an economic development deal disguised as a transit project. The feds want to give $270 million to some city, and it might as well be Cleveland. Still, what’s the real benefit of a median on Euclid?

Downs to energy deregulation. The current statehouse model wants us to pay for old nukes with new taxes. Since consumers ultimately will pay for shuttered plants anyway, Ohio needs to pursue its best interests. That means letting the utilities duke it out — even if their stockholders suffer.

Ups to Potter & Mellen, a single store retailer celebrating 100 years in business. Standard Oil should have fared so well.