Cleveland, OH
Ohio Issue 1 anti-gerrymandering amendment appears heading for defeat
COLUMBUS – Ohioans on Tuesday appeared to reject an amendment that would have created a new citizen-led commission in charge of drawing legislative districts, opting instead to keep the old politics-dominated system.
With nearly 80% of the vote tallied, Issue 1 was trailing with 45.5% of the vote, unofficial tallies from the Ohio secretary of state showed. The issue was opposed by 54.5%.
The issue trailed by more than 400,000 votes.
Decision Desk, a race calling service used by media companies, called the issue as going down to defeat. The Associated Press, which cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer use, had not announced its call in the race as of 10:50 p.m.
Opponents of Issue 1 roared at an Ohio Works election gathering in Columbus as Ohio Republican Party Chair Alex Triantafilou declare the issue was going down to defeat.
Triantafilou led the crowd in an “O-H” “I-O” cheer as the crowd cheered.
Ohio Senate President Matt Hoffman, a contender for Ohio House speaker in the next General Assembly, praised Gov. Mike DeWine’s efforts for stopping the amendment. DeWine, in July, said the plan in Issue 1 was the wrong approach.
“We were dead in the water in July, and Gov. Mike DeWine turned this thing around,” Huffman said.
Issue 1’s backers had sought to strip politicians of power that Republicans wielded to draw themselves historic supermajorities in the state legislature and a two-to-one advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.
The independent commission made up equally of Democrats, Republicans and political independents would have drawn new maps next year for the 2026 elections, and then every decade.
But Republicans, who dominated the political map drawing process, opposed the issue. They argued it would set up a process that would empower a panel that voters could never hold accountable. That commission, they argued, would be unchecked on spending power.
And the amendment itself, with a goal of making maps with representation proportional to Ohio’s voting trends, they claimed, would require gerrymandering – the very problem that Issue 1 aimed to change.
Backers of the amendment were far better funded than its opponents, raising about $40 million at last count. But Republican opponents erected a major hurdle for the reform campaign in the language voters saw on their ballots.
Backers of the amendment had argued that Republicans stacked the deck against the amendment with ballot language, written by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office, that claimed the amendment would require gerrymandering, the very thing backers said they wanted to eliminate. The GOP-led Ohio Ballot Board approved the language, which Issue 1 proponents said was purposely meant to confuse voters.
But the Republican-led Ohio Supreme Court sided 4-3 with the Ballot Board, leaving intact most of a Republican-authored ballot summary that paints the proposal in an unfavorable light.
Among other things, the court’s Republican majority let stand wording stating that a proposed new redistricting commission is “not elected by or subject to removal by the voters of the state” and would be “required to gerrymander” congressional and legislative districts.
Issue 1 was backed by a bipartisan coalition led by former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, and arose out of frustration that despite amendments approved overwhelmingly in 2015 and 2018 to stop excessive political gerrymandering, the practice continued. Support for each of those issues eclipsed 70%.
But when the new system set up by the amendments was put to the test, Republicans who dominated the redistricting ignored the rules in the constitution.
And when the Ohio Supreme Court served as a check on the commission, rejecting maps as unconstitutional, the GOP mapmakers used them anyway. The seven-member Ohio Redistricting commission includes five Republicans and two Democrats.
With Tuesday’s vote, that system for redistricting remains in place.
The last time the Buffalo Bills played in Cleveland, they were still raw and hungry, which is way different than the grizzled, yet youth-driven bunch that’ll be heading there for the first time in six years on Sunday.
The Bills were in excellent shape at 6-2 in Week 10 of the 2019 NFL season and rolled into town to face a Browns team that had all the hype before the season, but had lost four straight and were at 2-6.
What happened last time Bills played Browns in Cleveland?
Baker Mayfield and the Browns drove down the field in six plays for a touchdown on the opening drive, with the rival from Josh Allen’s draft class finding Jarvis Landry for the game’s first points. Austin Seibert missed an extra point, and that turned to be critical late in the game.
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Sandwiched around a run-heavy Bills touchdown drive, capped off by an Allen 10-yard scamper that gave them a 7-6 lead in the second quarter, was a very satisfying sequence for Bills fans.
On two of the Browns’ next three possessions following their opening drive, they had the ball inside the Bills’ 3-yard line for 11 plays. Cleveland had eight plays on the first possession, and even though there were a couple of penalties on the Bills, Buffalo had a goal-line stand.
The Bills stopped the Browns on three straight goal-to-go plays on the second such possession, and Cleveland lined up to go for it on 4th-and-goal. However, a false start penalty prompted them to kick a field goal and make it a 9-7 game.
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Buffalo wasn’t as fortunate on the next drive, as Stephen Hauschka shanked a 34-yard field goal wide left with time winding down, leaving the Browns with their lead into halftime.
Out of the locker room, the Bills got an immediate spark. Corey Bojorquez downed a punt at the 7-yard line, then Tremaine Edmunds sacked Mayfield in the end zone for a safety on the next play to tie the game.
The Browns tacked on a field goal on their next drive to take the lead while the Bills’ offense was stuck in quicksand, with three punts and a turnover on downs on their first four second-half possessions.
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Allen got his act together and led a seven-play, 48-yard drive and ran in a score from a yard out to give Buffalo the lead back with 5:26 left. He finished the day 22-of-41 for 266 yards passing and scored twice on the ground, but was off that day.
Mayfield responded in kind, finding Rashard Higgins in the end zone to reclaim the lead after a long drive of his own. The Bills had one more shot, but Hauschka whiffed from 53, handing the Bills a 19-16 loss.
The Bills’ and Browns’ dynamics are much more different than they were in 2019, but there can be that lingering reminder of that game for Allen as the AFC playoff race nears its end.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Road safety across Ohio begins 1,800 feet below Lake Erie at Cleveland’s Cargill salt mine near Whiskey Island.
19 News made the journey under ground to Cleveland’s Cargill salt time.
Superintendent of production Andrew Staker describes the operation as a “mini-city” where about 250 employees produce the salt that clears our roads and sidewalks.
“We provide over half the salt used here in the state of Ohio. Our salt also goes all over the Great Lakes Region even Virginia,” said Staker.
Thousands of tons of salt pass through this belt, and 500-700 trucks are loaded with salt each day.
Staker said his team works nonstop.
“It’s a big misconception that the mine is only busy during the wintertime,” said Staker. “We prepare in the springtime, so it is full giddy up. We are making salt all year round.”
Just like everyone else, Staker and his time are feeling the effects of winter’s early arrival.
“We take a lot of it snowfall by snowfall, so as demand ramps up, our teams here will put in extra overtime days to be able to meet customer demand,” said Staker.
Copyright 2025 WOIO. All rights reserved.
Cleveland, OH
Semi-truck rips down power lines in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood for 4th time since July
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The city of Cleveland is looking into why wires are dangling from West 25th Street in Ohio City.
Sam McNulty, owner of Nano Brew, says trucks are ripping through wires at the intersection of 25th Street and Bridge Avenue.
“4 times that cable has gone down,” McNulty said. “We’re shocked that whoever is in charge of that cable hasn’t figured out a way to elevate it a little bit more.”
In July, Ring doorbell footage caught a semi hitting the wires. You could see the wires falling to the ground.
Luckily, McNulty said, it’s a communication wire, but that doesn’t make the problem go away.
“This is a very active street tons of pedestrians, bicyclists, families, people are here almost 24 hours a day,” said McNulty.
The most recent incident was Thursday morning. McNulty says a crew wrapped ropes around the fallen wire.
“I am definitely not a line engineer but when I see random rope tied with pretty sketchy looking knots holding the cable up I think that’s probably not Osha approved,” said McNulty.
19 News reached out to the city of Cleveland, which said it is looking into the issue.
Copyright 2025 WOIO. All rights reserved.
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