A recent HealthGrades study names Cleveland as one of the top 10 U.S. cities with the safest hospitals. Toledo also made the list, along with Minneapolis-St. Paul, Boston, and Honolulu.

The study analyzed 40 million Medicare patient records from 2007 to 2009 and used the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's 13 patient safety indicators to identify the top performing hospitals in the nation. The patient safety indicators include incidents such as "foreign objects left in a body following a procedure, excessive bruising or bleeding as a result of surgery, bloodstream infections from catheters, and bed sores."

Hospital-acquired bloodstream infections are one of the most prevalent safety issues hospitals face. "HealthGrades found that patients treated at those hospitals performing in the top 5% in the nation for patient safety were, on average, 30% less likely to contract a hospital acquired bloodstream infection and 39% less likely to suffer from post-surgical sepsis than those treated at poor-performing hospitals. Nearly one in six patients who acquired a bloodstream infection while in the hospital died, the study found."

Due to the high frequency of preventable medical errors in U.S. hospitals, the federal government has proposed linking certain patient safety indicators to incentive-based hospital compensation, starting in 2014.

Read the rest of the prognosis here.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, Chicagoist named Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s Conway's Irish Ale its "Beer of the Week." This is the second time Chicagoist has featured a GLBC beer, the first being the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter a few years ago.

"Conway's is a smooth-drinking 6.5% ABV ale that pours brownish-orange with a quickly dissipating off-white head. It's sweeter than you might expect, and lighter, too - this beer is almost too easy to drink as it warms up, which doesn't strike us as being a problem. Malty and toasty with hints of black tea and just a hint of coriander, the Conway's is far preferable to just about anything else you'll see people drinking at 10a.m. on the 17th."

The post suggests that Chicagoans skip the usual Guinness or cheap green beer and enjoy a few Conway's Irish Ales instead. "It ain't no Jameson's poured into a Shamrock Shake, but we think you'll be happy with it."

Slainte to that!

Drink up the whole pint here.

A new study by Kiplinger, an internationally recognized publisher of business forecasts and personal finance advice, names Cleveland as one of the top 10 cities for commuters. The Ohio Business Development Coalition issued a press release on the study.

"According to Kiplinger.com, cities must have a metro population of at least one million and a low congestion cost (a measurement of wasted time and fuel as calculated by the Texas Transportation Institute). Kiplinger also factored in the average length of commute, local gas prices, yearly delays per commuter and public transit use."

Ohio is the only state with multiple cities in the top 10. Cleveland is number six on the list, while Columbus is second and Cincinnati is seventh.

Ohio's low-stress, low-cost commutes make it a great choice for executives looking to achieve the best balance between work and life.

"Ohio promises a perfect balance that allows business owners, their employees and their families the opportunity to achieve both their professional and personal aspirations without having to sacrifice one for the other. Ohio offers businesses an environment that makes it easy to foster work-life balance. The convenience of travel, with short commutes from work to home, lower stress and give more time to priority family activities."

Digest the rest here.

KeyCorp has announced that KeyBank's renovated office space in the historic Higbee Building on Public Square has earned LEED® Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

"The Green Building Council's LEED certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. By using less energy, LEED-certified buildings save money for families, businesses and taxpayers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to a healthier environment."

The new KeyBank workspace utilizes sustainable technologies and construction practices such as recycled building materials, enhanced natural lighting, personal lighting control systems, CO2 sensors, and outdoor air monitoring systems.

KeyCorp CEO Henry Meyer said, "This renovation represents KeyBank's commitment to strengthen our community's core in the most environmentally responsible ways possible. It enhances one of the most historic buildings in the heart of downtown, it leverages Tower City Center's existing transportation hub and it allows hundreds of our employees to enjoy the growing sense of excitement connected to the area's ongoing economic development."

The KeyBank renovation is one of 62 LEED certified projects in Northeast Ohio. KeyCorp has already received LEED certification for its technology and operations center on Tiedeman Road.

Read the rest of the green news here.

The Greater Cleveland Film Commission has announced that Marvel Studios will shoot parts of the film The Avengers in Cleveland.

"Marvel Studios is bringing The Avengers to Ohio for two reasons: the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit and the efforts of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission. We look forward to collaborating with the Film Commission and working in the great state of Ohio," said Louis D'Esposito, Co-President of Marvel Studios.

The Ohio Film Tax Credit was passed in July 2009 and 12 projects have been approved to receive the tax credit since then. Ten of these films will be produced in Northeast Ohio and will employ more than 1,800 cast and crew as well as thousands of extras.

The Avengers will also be filmed in New Mexico and New York. The all-star cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg and Samuel L. Jackson. It will be written and directed by Joss Whedon.

"The production will be the largest feature film ever made in Ohio, as well as the largest Marvel Studios production to date. The film will employ hundreds of Ohio-based cast and crew, and use local service and supply vendors. Pre-production is already underway with principal photography scheduled to start in April 2011 and running through September 2011."

View the dailies here.

Antenna Magazine visited Cleveland's current crop of food trucks as part of the series "Fast Food: Taste-testing the best of what the nation's roads have to offer." The series has also featured food trucks in New York City, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Portland.

The reporters were pleasantly surprised by what Cleveland had to offer. "Sure, the weather was below freezing, but the people we met and the food we ate made us happy we'd made our way there. Maybe it was because their food was filled with pride and love for their city."

Their first stop was Asian-fusion truck Umami Moto, started by couple Jae Stulock and Sandy Madachik. "While a lot of Cleveland trucks shut down during winter, these two braved the weather with their hot Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and all-around Asian dishes."

Next up was Dim and Den Sum, serving "comfort food with an Asian twist." After working for major restaurants in New York and Arizona, Chris Hodgson returned to his native Cleveland to launch Dim and Den Sum. Hodgson gives back to the community by providing ex-convicts with culinary training and counseling so that they can be placed into jobs upon completion of the program.

The writers also were impressed by the fresh-faced Jibaro truck, which serves Caribbean food. "Fully aware of what we put in our bodies, they use only the leanest meats and whole grains, combining ingredients like seaweed and bison burgers that are shockingly delicious."

Seti's Polish Boys, in business since 2001, was another Antenna favorite. "You could say that Seti's Polish Boys is kind of the original gangsta of food trucks." The sausage sandwiches are topped with French fries, coleslaw and barbeque sauce.

"One bite and dribble down our sleeves, and we knew exactly why Seti is the Cleveland legend he is."

Digest the rest here.

A recent Los Angeles Times article featured Kill the Irishman, a new film that tells the story of legendary Cleveland mobster Danny Greene, who went to war with the Mafia for control of the city's underworld economy in the 1970s.

The film is based on the book "To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia" by Rick Porrello, now chief of police in Lyndhurst, where Greene was killed by a car bomb in 1977.

Cleveland is not a well-known Mafia city, says the reporter. "But there was a time -- back in the 1970s -- when the Ohio city was a raging mobster battleground. And when it came time to take out a rival, locals did more than bring a gun to a knife fight; they came on big and loud with all manner of explosives, earning Cleveland the moniker Bomb City, USA."

Greene's personality makes him an instantly likeable movie character. Jonathan Hensleigh, director and co-writer of Kill the Irishman, is quoted as saying, "As screenwriters, we're constantly asked to take characters who are actually quite despicable in real life and make them attractive. But Danny Greene really was. He actually did put orphans through school and would buy 50 turkeys for the poor at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It doesn't get any better than this as a dramatist."

Kill the Irishman, starring Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer and Vincent D'Onofrio, hits the big screen on March 11.

Read the rest here.

ABC News reported on American Greetings' recent announcement that its headquarters, which employs 2,000 people, will remain in Northeast Ohio.

American Greetings, the largest publicly traded greeting-card maker in the U.S., said last year that it was considering a move to Chicago due to increased city income taxes in its hometown of Brooklyn.

Ohio Governor John Kasich lobbied to keep the company in Ohio by signing legislation to create substantial tax incentives. "The company presented an oversized thank-you card to Kasich, who told employees the deal would help families."

American Greetings also announced that while it will remain in Northeast Ohio, it might move its headquarters to another Cleveland suburb, such as Beachwood, Brecksville, Independence, or Westlake.

Open the card here.

A recent post in the travel section of USA Today mentions Cleveland's recent homage to Superman and his creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The two teenagers created the comic superhero while growing up in Cleveland's Glenville neighborhood in the 1930s.

Cleveland is now paying tribute to the Man of Steel and his creators by placing street signs bearing the Superman insignia and honorary street names such as "Lois Lane" in the neighborhood where Siegel and Shuster once lived.

The new street signs can be found near Siegel's former home at the intersection of E. 105th Street and Kimberley Avenue and Shuster's former home at Parkwood Drive and Amor Avenue.

Read the Daily Planet news here.

CheapFlights included Cleveland on its recent list of the World's "Top 10 Emerging Fashion Destinations."

"With the increase in cheap flights making different countries and cultures more accessible, the world evolves more fully into a globalised society with a lifestyle that takes influence from many different cultures. As such, it makes sense that fashion would influence travel and travel would influence fashion, putting new cultures top of mind and opening doors and minds to new looks and new locations," says Nadine Hallak, Travel Expert for CheapFlights.

The list notes Cleveland's own Fashion Week, established in 2002 by the Cleveland Fashion Institute, which takes place during the first week of May. The event features hot new designers from across the U.S. and includes runway shows as well as parties and lectures.

Sydney, Beirut, Johannesburg, and Toronto also made the CheapFlights fashion list.

Enjoy the entire line here.

Four Cleveland-area hospitals made HealthGrades' "America's 50 Best Hospitals 2011" list: Summa Akron City and St. Thomas Hospitals, Akron General Medical Center, Marymount Hospital, and Hillcrest Hospital.

The rankings were based on an analysis of more than 140 million Medicare patient records over an 11-year time period.

"To be recognized with this elite distinction, hospitals must have had risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates that were in the top 5% in the nation for the most consecutive years. On average, patients treated at America's 50 Best Hospitals had a nearly 30% lower risk of death and 3% lower rate of complications," the article states.

If all hospitals in the U.S. had performed at this level, more than a half-million Medicare deaths could have been prevented in the last decade.

Read the entire diagnosis here.

The Korea Times, the oldest English-language newspaper published in South Korea, featured the Cleveland Museum of Art in a recent article. The museum will hold an exhibition called "The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art" from March 27 to August 28.

Korean and Japanese artists have combined visual art and poetry for centuries, using the themes of classical Chinese poetry as inspiration for calligraphy, painting, and the decorative arts.

The works in this exhibition, like the Chinese poems upon which they are based, explore the theme of "spiritual utopia and liberation from a mundane life." Contemporary objects as well as works from the Muromachi, Momoyama, and Edo periods of Japan (1392-1867) and the Joseon Kingdom of Korea (1392-1910) will be featured.

The exhibition was organized by Sun Seung-hye, associate curator of Japanese and Korean Art for the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Peruse the piece here.

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times examines the debate surrounding Cleveland's economic renewal.

"Cleveland has weathered this recession much better than past slumps, as local industries have retooled and reinvented themselves. Old shops and factories have embraced new technologies. And for the first time in a while, there are grounds for optimism," the article states.

During his recent visit to Cleveland for the Winning the Future Forum on Small Business, President Obama pushed the idea of public investment. "The American economy should update itself Cleveland-style," he believes, "and the federal government should nudge it along with smartly placed investments."

Republicans such as House Speaker John A. Boehner, however, believe that Cleveland's success is due to innovation by business, and that government should help by cutting spending and taxes. Last week, the House proposed cutting $61 billion from the government's budget for 2011, including funds for local economic-development programs. President Obama's budget for 2012, on the other hand, increases investments in infrastructure, technology, and education.

"In Cleveland, the remaining steel mills have come to specialize in higher-end materials. Old plastics and glassware factories now make things such as cellphone heat-shields that compete with the best products coming out of Japan. A Lake Erie wind farm could soon stand just miles away from where the Cleveland Browns play football."

The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals also contribute to the growing biomedical industry.

Obama believes the government should invest in these private businesses as well as medical and scientific research and education programs to create a more technically educated workforce. He also pledges to decreases taxes for many corporations and reform the corporate tax code to promote a more level playing field.

Republicans, however, argue that government spending will only inhibit growth and hinder the creation of new jobs. They support cutting federal spending and encouraging private-sector investment.

Read the rest here.

The Huffington Post recently posted an interview with Albert Albano, executive director of the Cleveland-based Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA), the nation's oldest non-profit regional art conservation center. Founded in 1952 by the directors of six Midwestern museums, the ICA "protects, preserves and enriches the shared heritage of art and material culture through conservation, advocacy and education."

The ICA has one of the largest climate-controlled fine art storage facilities in the Midwest, a resource made available to artists, collectors, and institutions. "Why, because the single most important issue for cultural material [art] is a stable environment -- 24/7 in all seasons," Albano is quoted as saying.

The other main mission of the ICA is education. AMIEN, which stands for art materials information education network, is one of the ICA's premier education programs. The site, which has up to 20,000 users per month, provides artists with information about materials that are used for art.

Albano states that his strongest commitment is to the community. "Fundamentally, every object alters in one way or another over time and that alteration can sometimes substantially change the audiences' ability to understand the artist or fabricator's original intent. It is critical to understand the true intent, and only through the engagement of conservation/preservation expertise can that happen properly and therefore make that story the most comprehensible."

Examine the whole work here.

The James Beard Foundation has just announced its list of Semifinalists for this year's James Beard Awards, to be held in New York on May 9. As usual, Cleveland-area chefs and restaurants fared well. The final list of nominees will be released on March 21.

Michael Symon racked up nominations in the the big-time categories of Outstanding Chef and Outstanding Restaurant (Lola).

Jonathon Sawyer from Greenhouse Tavern is in the running for the much-coveted Rising Star Chef.

Both Zack Bruell (Parallax, L'Albatros) and Eric Williams (Momocho) are in the running for Best Chef: Great Lakes Region.

See the entire list of semifinalists here.

Great Lakes Brewing Company, Ohio's first and most celebrated craft brewer, ranked #22 out of 25 "Top Brewers" in the latest issue of Beer Advocate, a respected monthly magazine dedicated entirely to beer. Beer Advocate reviewed hundreds of thousands of customer beer reviews for their annual "Best of" issue, which is now on shelves.

Beer Advocate also included two Great Lakes Brewing Company beers, Dortmunder Gold Lager and Eliot Ness Amber Lager, on its list of "Top Lighter Lagers." Both lagers also recently received gold medals at the World Beer Championship.

Great Lakes Brewing Company was the first microbrewery in Ohio and remains the state's most award-winning brewer.

Drink up the good news here.

The New York Times opinion pages series "Disunion" recently covered President Lincoln's visit to Cleveland on February 15, 1861, just months before the outbreak of the Civil War.

"Disunion revisits and reconsiders America's most perilous period -- using contemporary accounts, diaries, images and historical assessments to follow the Civil War as it unfolded."

Cleveland was already an important part of the country's emerging economic heartland, and by 1865 it would be one of the top five refining centers in the United States.

30,000 people lined the streets in anticipation of Lincoln's arrival in Cleveland. He gave a speech in the evening from the balcony of his hotel, the Weddell House, to a crowd of about 10,000. He reassured the audience that the nation's growing crisis was "'artificial,' and would disappear if people relaxed."

"It was an unrealistic hope, and mollified neither his supporters on the Republican side, looking for iron, nor those on the side of secession, for whom their separation was rapidly becoming a reality (Jefferson Davis was en route to his inaugural, only three days away)."

Read the account here.

A recent TIME posting mentions President Obama's upcoming visit to Cleveland. President Obama and members of his cabinet, in association with Cleveland State University and Northeast Ohio organizations JumpStart and NorTech, will hold a "Winning the Future Forum on Small Business" on February 22.

The Forum will present an opportunity for small business owners to communicate their ideas for economic growth and creating jobs directly to the President and his economic team.

"In his State of the Union address, President Obama spoke of the need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build our competitors in order to sustain our leadership and secure prosperity for all Americans."

Read the post here.