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'In time, it could have implications for us': IVF fears persist in Ohio, Kentucky following Alabama ruling

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'In time, it could have implications for us': IVF fears persist in Ohio, Kentucky following Alabama ruling


CINCINNATI — Alabama’s Supreme Court ruling that embryos critical for reproductive care were legally the same as children has had wide-reaching impacts — including more than 500 miles away in the greater Cincinnati area where the Institute for Reproductive Health serves patients in Florence and Norwood.

Medical Director Thomas Burwinkel said the ruling has caused concern among patients in Kentucky and Ohio that their treatments could be delayed or ended amid the uncertain climate created after the federal Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade.

“Our patients are coming in and asking, ‘Does this Supreme Court decision in Alabama have any effect on our embryos at our clinic?’ I said, ‘It doesn’t right now, but who knows?’ In time, it could have implications for us,” Burwinkel said.

Burwinkel said he’s performed in vitro fertilization on patients for 35 years, nearly 20 of them with the Institute for Reproductive Health, and the uncertain atmosphere created by recent rulings has left him asking whether criminal prosecutions could follow the loss of embryos routine to the practice.

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“If somebody in a lab drops a culture dish and embryos are lost, is that going to be considered murder or manslaughter?” he said.

The rhetoric of groups like Ohio Right to Life and Kentucky Right to Life equating embryos to born children exacerbated his fears.

Addia Wuchner, President of Kentucky Right to Life, said her organization wouldn’t push for any law changes in Kentucky, but she agreed with the Alabama ruling.

“They ruled appropriately recognizing that those were lives,” Wuchner said.

Ohio Right to Life’s Mike Gonidakis said the Alabama Supreme Court was correct to place a higher weight on the value of embryos, but, like Wuchner, said Ohio didn’t need stricter laws on IVF.

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Gonidakis said a facility that destroyed embryos through negligence or malpractice would need to face consequences which, he said, was effectively what the Alabama Supreme Court ruled.

“The court said this isn’t just a widget,” he said. “These are embryos. These are living, breathing, future children, boys, girls, what have you. The court said it could be held to a higher standard.”

Burwinkel pushed back on the concept embryos, which are fertilized eggs yet to be implanted in a woman’s uterus, could be weighed on the same level as born children or developed fetuses.

“It does not have fingers, toes, it does not have arms or legs, it doesn’t have a brain. It doesn’t have a heartbeat. It’s just a collection of 120 to 150 cells,” he said.

Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters Thursday he would sign IVF protections if they arrived on his desk.

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“The Alabama Supreme Court ruling is horrendous,” Beshear said. “It’s terrible, and it’s going to keep families that are there in Alabama from welcoming new children into this world.

Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday called the ruling a non-issue in Ohio.

“I don’t think there’s any movement at all in Ohio to try to stop that. In fact, the law would prohibit stopping it,” said DeWine.

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Ohio

Former Ohio State Forward Keita Bates-Diop Traded to New York Knicks

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Former Ohio State Forward Keita Bates-Diop Traded to New York Knicks


Keita Bates-Diop will be in the Big Apple to begin his seventh NBA season.

The former Ohio State forward was dealt from the Brooklyn Nets to the New York Knicks along with star wing Mikal Bridges and a second-round pick. In return, the Nets get Bojan Bogadanovic, Mamadi Diakite, Shake Milton, four unprotected first-round picks, an unprotected pick swap, a top-four protected first-round pick and a second-round pick.

Although the Knicks will be Bates-Diop’s sixth team since he was selected in the second round of the 2018 NBA draft, the 28-year-old has proven to be a solid backup forward throughout his career. Bates-Diop has averaged six points and three rebounds per game while shooting 47.4% from the floor and 33.3% from beyond the arc through six seasons.

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His 2023-24 season came to an abrupt end when he suffered a stress fracture in his shin on March 23, one that required season-ending surgery. While he averaged just 1.6 points in 4.9 minutes per game after getting dealt to the Phoenix Suns midway through last campaign, the 6-foot-8 forward’s best season came in 2022-23, his last with the San Antonio Spurs. Bates-Diop averaged a career-high 9.7 points, accompanied by 3.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. He shot 39.4% from beyond the arc that year.

Bates-Diop recently exercised his $2,654,644 player option for 2024-25 and will become an unrestricted free agent following next season.

He played four seasons at Ohio State, averaging 11.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. His breakout campaign came in 2017-18, when Bates-Diop averaged 19.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game, earning Big Ten Player of the Year and consensus second-team All-American honors.





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Ohio’s $15 minimum wage amendment sputters on deadline day, campaign says

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Ohio’s $15 minimum wage amendment sputters on deadline day, campaign says


The campaign behind a $15 minimum wage amendment in Ohio opted not to submit the hundreds of thousands of signatures it collected before the state’s Wednesday deadline and instead vowed to try for a ballot measure in 2025, according to a statement.

One Fair Wage’s decision means there will be no option to raise the state’s $10.45 minimum wage this November, to the delight of many pro-business groups, including the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce.

“The proponents are calling themselves ‘One Fair Wage?’ I guess my reaction would be, ‘Fair to who?’” said Chris Kershner, president and CEO of the Dayton chamber, in an interview. “It doesn’t sound like mandates on the business community are very fair to the employers in Ohio.”

Under One Fair Wage’s proposal, a $15 minimum wage would be phased in over two years and would be tied to rise at the same rate of inflation.

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“When mandates are put onto businesses, businesses have to make operation decisions that impact their companies, their people, their investments and their growth,” Kershner said. He added that the chamber would still need to run the numbers and he couldn’t provide real estimates of how much a higher wage would affect Dayton-area businesses, or how many layoffs it might bring.

One Fair Wage would have needed to deliver its petitions to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office in Columbus before midnight Wednesday.

In order to get on the ballot, any citizen-initiated constitutional amendment aiming for the ballot this year would need to submit 413,487 signatures of valid Ohio voters, with at least half of Ohio’s counties producing signatures that represent 5% of the voters who partook in the last gubernatorial election in that county.

In a statement first shared by the Statehouse News Bureau and later confirmed by Journal-News, One Fair Wage said it fell short in Ohio’s rural areas and, therefore, did not meet the 44-county requirement.

The organization attributed its shortcomings to “violence and intimidation toward our low-wage worker of color canvassers, who were verbally abused and harassed by those opposing raises for workers” in rural counties. The campaign did not immediately provide details to corroborate these accusations when the Dayton Daily News asked.

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In a Wednesday night statement, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose called out One Fair Wage for placing blame on rural Ohioans. He characterized it as “a duplicitous, disorganized goat rodeo of a campaign that has made every excuse in the book for their lack of compliance with the law.”

“I won’t sit quietly while any group distorts the truth to cover for their own negligence,” LaRose said.

One Fair Wage’s own statement concluded with a vow to continue collecting signatures and to try again next year.

By holding off, One Fair Wage is playing it safe to ensure that it can use the bulk of the signatures it already collected in the future. Here’s how the cost-benefit analysis works in these situations:

• In Ohio, turning in 413,487 signatures is enough to begin the state’s verification process. From there, the state would send each county’s signatures to the respective county board of elections, which would then verify whether those signatures are valid. The counties would then send their findings back to the Ohio Secretary of State, which would determine if, in the end, the campaign had submitted enough valid signatures to meet the state’s lofty ballot requirements.

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• If it’s determined that there weren’t enough valid signatures, the campaign would get a 10-day cure period to try to collect enough valid signatures to get over the line.

• However, if the campaign falls short of the initial 413,487 signature haul, or falls short after the 10-day cure period, the entire process would restart and none of the previously collected signatures could be used in the future.

• Luckily for organizers in positions like One Fair Wage, signatures for citizen-initiated amendments in Ohio are evergreen (so long as the individual’s voter registration remains the same), which gives petitioners the option of simply holding off until they are absolutely certain they’d make the ballot.

This story originally appeared on journal-news.com.





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Body of missing Northeast Ohio woman found; boyfriend in custody

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Body of missing Northeast Ohio woman found; boyfriend in custody


PLAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — The boyfriend of a woman who was reported missing earlier this week is being held in jail on a $1 million bond after the woman’s body was found in a park near Canton.

Sean Goe, 26, of Plain Township, has yet to be charged with the murder of Raychel Sheridan, 24, also of Plain Township. He is being held on active warrants for burglary, grand theft of a firearm, and domestic violence, according to the Stark County Sheriff’s Office. The domestic violence charge involved Sheridan, the sheriff’s office says.

Goe was arrested Wednesday morning by Canton police at a homeless shelter. It ended a nearly multi-hour search for Goe after Sheridan was reported missing just after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday from a residence on the 4100 block of Orchard Dale Drive NW.

While deputies were searching the home and the surrounding area for Sheridan, deputies spotted a maroon Jeep Liberty registered to her driving on Guilford Avenue NW. Deputies pulled the Jeep over and found Goe was driving, but fled on foot.

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The Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force and the State Highway Patrol were called in to help search the area for Goe, who was found in the early-morning hours Wednesday at the homeless shelter.

The sheriff’s office says detectives searched the apartment shared by Sheridan and Goe determined Sheridan was killed in the residence. The sheriff’s office says unspecified evidence was recovered “indicating foul play.”

Canton sanitation workers found what it believed to be Sheridan’s body just before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in a park in a southwest section of Canton, the sheriff’s office says.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of Raychel’s loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Stark County Sheriff George Maier said in a statement.

The sheriff’s office released no other details Wednesday and says the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information can contact the Stark County Sheriff’s Office at 330-430-3800.

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