CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The 88-acre urban wildlife habitat on the Lake Erie shoreline formerly known as Dike 14 will officially open this afternoon as the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve.

Hours are dawn until dusk. No box office. Parking available. No advanced notice necessary. Just show up to the preserve, adjacent to Gordon Park, walk the 1.3-mile looped trail, enjoy the variety of plants, birds and views, particularly from the "beak" that points toward the Cleveland skyline.

Today's ribbon-cutting is the result of decades of work, beginning with the first Cuyahoga River dredgings deposited there in 1976 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The dredge site was filled up in 1999. Then nature took over.

In the past decade, advocates of a nature preserve worked to maintain the open space for the public. The Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee and the Environmental Education Collaborative pushed for creation of a preserve rather than some other use, such as ball diamonds. The problem: Find a government agency with the means to manage it.

Harvey Webster, Cleveland Museum of Natural History's director of wildlife resources and a member of the Collaborative, said the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority came to the rescue.

"Mother Nature had done her part in terms of reclaiming this space of created land. We thought this should be a no-brainer. It's not like building an aquarium or the Rock Hall or a new stadium. Take care of gate issues and trail maintenance and some signage, bingo, you're in business," Webster said. "Although it was so apparent to us, it wasn't apparent to the administration of the port at the time. It really took Will Friedman coming on as CEO [of the Port Authority]. He really embraced the idea."

"Imagine a place along Cleveland's lakefront, dominated by nature but accessible to Cleveland residents, teachers, students and visitors; a place for passive recreation and enjoyment of one of the Great Lakes; a learning landscape where students can enjoy the rhythms of nature and seasonal phenomena like the extraordinary biannual migration of birds; a place that draws eco-tourists from across the region, people who come to see birds and then support neighboring restaurants, hotels and merchants.

"Sound like a pipe dream?

"No. This place actually exists."

And now it's officially a public park. The entrance is at Lake Shore Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Tough on crime: U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur had a cold, unsettling ride back to Lucas County after joining her two Democratic primary opponents in the 9th Congressional District for a meeting with The Plain Dealer's editorial board last week.

It wasn't anything said inside the newspaper's offices. It was what greeted the longtime Toledo congresswoman when she and her driver returned to their car on East 18th Street.

Someone had smashed a rear passenger window and taken Kaptur's travel bag, a combination of a briefcase and suitcase. "Nothing classified" -- no documents from Kaptur's work on a defense subcommittee -- was in the bag, said spokesman Steve Fought.

But plenty of papers detailing Kaptur's personal information and finances were among the missing. Kaptur filed a police report. Meanwhile, said Fought, Graham Veysey, a Cleveland entrepreneur and, along with U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an opponent of Kaptur's in the March 6 primary, scavenged through nearby Dumpsters. Perhaps the thief ditched the bag, he thought, when he saw it did not contain a computer.

Veysey came up empty. But the bag resurfaced later in the week, thanks to a "good Samaritan" whom Fought said found it discarded in a trash bin Veysey hadn't searched. Nothing was missing.

Kaptur thanked the man, Joseph Corbett, with a $300 reward.

And she can put some more paperwork in the bag, perhaps a copy of Sunday's Plain Dealer. She won the editorial board's endorsement.

Kucinich loves Fox News?: Fox News is a favorite enemy of the left, whose members consider the network's claims of "fair and balanced" a crock.

"They've always been fair to me," U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich told politico's Mike Allen, the site's chief White House correspondent. "There's a misconception that the only people who watch Fox are right-wing Republicans. They have a large audience, and it's important to reach. How can we ever change people's thinking if we don't try to talk to them?"

We're not sure if this revelation will hurt or help Kucinich in the 9th District primary, but with Fox dwarfing CNN and MSNBC, maybe it will help should he ever decide to run for president again.

Water rescue: Employees of the Cleveland Division of Water got some much-deserved praise Friday from Cleveland Fire Chief Paul Stubbs for their quick action to assure the safety of children who had escaped a fire on the city's West side.

The water crew was pulling up to the 3555 W. 65th where they were scheduled to do repair work when they saw flames coming from next door.

The crew of foreman Rey Cotton and pipe repairmen Neil Block and Gamalier Cirilo helped neighbors evacuate the burning house and the house next door and provided kids who had fled the burning house with water and warm sweaters until emergency crews arrived.

Stubbs praised the crew during a media event Friday at the Cleveland Fire Training Academy aimed at increasing fire safety and awareness.

Sound of ideas: Last week featured a very civil discussion about a highly emotional issue infused with politics and religion: The definition of a person. Those who want Ohioans to vote on a "personhood" amendment say a human egg, once it is fertilized, should have the same rights given to any person. Opponents say it's extreme. The discussion is worth listening and is archived here.

This week has lots of political flavor with a visit today from former Clevelander Larry Elder, a controversial conservative talk show host who says blacks would be better off if they voted Republican. Elder will speak tonight at the Town Hall Lecture Series at the Ohio Theatre in PlayhouseSquare. Wednesday, you can have your say on Gov. John Kasich's State of the State address, The Sound of Ideas, hosted by Tipoff's Mike McIntyre, airs weekdays at 9 a.m. on WCPN 90.3 FM.

Henry Gomez and Mark Naymik contributed.