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10/29/2010
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$1.50/NOVEMBER 1 - 7, 2010
Vol. 31, No. 43
Legislators push for tough tack on China
THE STORY BEHIND ‘I’LL MAKE THEM PAY’
Many manufacturers, though, fear trade war with country By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com
MARC GOLUB
Ubiquitous personal injury attorney Tim Misny made a big bet on pharmaceuticals; it paid off, and now he’s ‘living the dream’
By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com
T
im Misny has made them pay more often than usual lately, especially when it comes to pharmaceutical companies. “In the past three months, I’ve settled 675 mass-tort cases,” he said in an interview last week at his 55-acre “Misnyland” estate — his term — in Waite Hill. The plantiff’s attorney who has made a name and face for himself soliciting cases on television and online says he’s reaping the benefits of a big bet he made three years ago that has brought him cases from across the country and the current rush of business. “I’m living the dream,” Mr. Misny said of his recent success as he tooled around his estate from stream to vista in his Ford F-150 pickup. It See MISNY Page 8
When it comes to China, manufacturers in Northeast Ohio and nationwide agree that the still-rising Asian nation does not play fair when it comes to international trade. But they can’t agree on what, if anything, to do about INSIDE: A peek at local it. companies successfully The question is whether exporting to the Asian the United States should get giant. Page 9 tough with China for closing some of its markets to U.S. companies, subsidizing its domestic industries in ways that violate international agreements and keeping its currency at an artificially low value — all steps U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and other federal legislators contend are illegal and unfair trade actions. See TOUGH Page 9
INSIDE Talking TARP Several Northeast Ohio banks have not paid back funds they’ve received from the U.S. Treasury, but that might not such a bad thing. Read Michelle Park’s story on Page 3.
Downtown officials, business owners fret over potential pro lockouts As work stoppages loom in NFL and NBA, bars, hoteliers ponder impact on city center By JOEL HAMMOND jmhammond@cleveland.com
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For a peek of what the Cleveland Browns mean to downtown, visit Dive Bar, in the city’s Warehouse District, when the Browns play on the road or not at all.
Of course, you won’t get very far: The popular hangout is closed 44 Sundays out of the year. Owner Daniel Deagan chooses to save the little overhead Dive Bar requires, rather than open to an empty room. “You’re talking about not opening versus being the best day of the
INSIDE: A primer on the factors causing labor trouble in the NFL and NBA. (Hint: It’s money.) Page 16 week,” Mr. Deagan said. “A Sunday with a Browns home game equals what a Saturday night used to be in the Warehouse District, in its heyday.” As officials and business owners downtown found in 1996, the first of three seasons without the Browns after Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore, life is less sweet without
the team and the atmosphere that game day brings. The prospect of more of those dour days is something many of those business owners now are confronting, only doubly: Both the NFL and NBA are in collective bargaining negotiations and in serious danger, experts agree, of owner lockouts in 2011, which would take away major revenue streams at a time when it’s not exactly smooth economic sailing.
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“We’re keeping tabs on (the labor issues), definitely,” said Tamera Brown, director of marketing at Positively Cleveland, the region’s convention and visitors bureau. “We like to talk about our diversity of offerings, the plethora of options, but one things sports do that, say, PlayhouseSquare doesn’t, is that nationally televised piece. That goes above and beyond the dollars, and we’d certainly miss it.” See LOCKOUTS Page 16