UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS - The University of Cincinnati hosted Napoleon Dynamite actors Efren Ramirez ("Pedro") and Aaron Ruell ("Kip Dynamite") on Friday, April 22.  Judging by the attendance, you were there.  If you don't remember being there, then wow, that's very disturbing, because you totally were.  Maybe you should quit drinking until you black out.

To cover this event, the Cincinnati Dealer sent a crack team of Gerard Oh and Edmund Osterman (reporters) and David Akadjian (photographer).  We had official Dealer press passes and notebooks and tape recorders and cameras.  None of it mattered to the UC staff, who refused to let us in early, or grant us private access to Efren and Aaron.

What are you trying to hide, UC?  We'll uncover your dark schemes and illuminate them with the light of truth.  There is no way we will fail.*

Our Dealer staff was forced to wait in the general admission line to get in.  Some of the unwashed members of the public attempted to touch our garments for luck, and we drove them back with sharp blows of the hand.

CINCINNATI - Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist Jim Borgman collapsed yesterday at Tower Place Mall and was rushed to an acupuncturist, his publicist said.

Borgman has been suffering from a severe case of Excessive Self-Criticism and Perfectionism, and has been unable to create new cartoons for nearly a month.

"The well has run dry", said a shaking Borgman. "I tried drawing a George Bush playing Mortal Combat in the oval office and all that came out of my pen was a straight line. I am afraid that they are going to take away my corner office at the Enquirer."

CINCINNATI - Not to be outdone by the library, Cincinnati Public Schools will terminate 116 teachers by the end of the school year due to budget overspending.

CPS superintendent Rosa Blackwell said, "These layoffs are necessary to remain fiscally solvent. Well, they became necessary anyway, after we overspent last year's budget by $22 million, but that's neither here nor there."

"Not all the news is bad, however. Only 115 of the 116 teachers are being laid off for budgetary reasons. We're firing one teacher's ass because of poor performance. And we decided to give his name to the Enquirer, so all his neighbors will know. So at least that's one less bad teacher."

WEST CHESTER TWP. - Morgan Shafer sips coffee from a to-go cup while sitting at a red light in her Volkswagen Toureg. The light turns green on Union-Centre Blvd. She accelerates to 50 mph only to get caught at the next red light.

"Dammit. I hate when that happens. I wish there was a type of neighborhood where everything is in one place. Somewhere I could walk to a restaurant, or a movie, or a shop... something not typical. I want to get away from the traditional neighborhood. Does such a place exist?"

Shafer won't have to wait for long. Scores are lined up for a planned new development, The Village at the Streets, in West Chester (motto: "You don't like going downtown, so we bring downtown to you").

DOWNTOWN - The downtown rental sign business has been on a roll of late due to several high-profile condominium and apartment projects. But now businesses are chipping in to help this booming rental sign industry even further.

Last week, Tower Place Retail LLC announced that it would rather see the retail space from the former Closson's store at 4th and Race sit vacant than put to use by this year's Cincinnati Fringe Fest.

Mall management spokesperson Christi Begley said, "As a supporter of downtown, we felt that we needed to keep that "For Lease" sign on the store up. After all, a revitalized downtown means a strong rental sign industry - those signs don't make themselves."

She denied that the real reason they rejected the Fringe Festival was that they are a bunch of uptight ninnies who couldn't stand to see something different downtown. She went on to defend the mall's theory that by keeping stores vacant, and offering the same retail year after year, downtown will eventually reclaim its former glory.

BOONE COUNTY - The Ku Klux Klan released its annual ranking of most livable counties, and Boone County topped the list for the first time.

"With its rolling hills to the south and meandering river to the north, picturesque Boone County is the perfect community to raise a family," said Thomas Robb, explaining why Boone County was selected as the nation's most livable.

"Fishing, hiking, boating:  they're all just a stone's throw away from any home in Boone County.  Prefer the hustle and bustle of a big city?  Cincinnati is just across the river.  Add all of that up, and you've got our 2005 choice for America's most livable county."

"Plus, they really know how to get rid of black people," added Robb.

NEWTOWN - Meridian Bioscience Inc. accidentally shipped vials of a deadly influenza strain to eighteen countries as part of a testing kit.  The influenza is particularly deadly to young people because it has not been included in flu vaccines since 1968; it was intended to be part of the drive to remove all young people from the Greater Cincinnati area.

"In the 1990s, six percent of Cincinnatians aged 25-34 left the area," said Meridian CEO William Motto.  "This wasn't enough.  The city increased its efforts by shutting down music festivals, letting the entertainment areas of the riverfront and downtown area decay, and using age-based curfews in certain neighborhoods."

Meridian president John Kraeutler stated, "After Article XII was repealed, our company was brought in to deliver a quicker, more final solution to the depraved youth prowling this city.  Get a haircut, you hippies!"