Ohio

No. 9 Maryland women’s lacrosse vs. Ohio State preview

Published

11 months ago

April 12, 2025

No. 9 Maryland women’s lacrosse vs. Ohio State preview

Just three games stand between No. 9 Maryland women’s lacrosse (9-4) and the start of postseason play. The Terps have a short period of time to shore up their recent issues, all of which were evident in their last game.

Maryland’s second-quarter struggles loomed large throughout its four-game road trip, and that continued against No. 11 Virginia. The Terps conceded three five-goal second quarter performances, exceeding its total from the first nine contests.

Despite taking the lead early in the second quarter, Maryland surrendered five of the next six goals, handing the Cavaliers an advantage they wouldn’t relinquish. While the Terps’ offense mustered up just nine goals, Lauren LaPointe notched her third hat trick of the season.

Now, Maryland returns to College Park for a Big Ten clash with Ohio State on Sunday. The game starts at 1 p.m. and can be streamed on Big Ten Plus.

Ohio State Buckeyes (8-5, 1-5 Big Ten)

Head coach Amanda Moore inherited an Ohio State program trending in the wrong direction. The Buckeyes — who have made four NCAA Tournament appearances in their 29 years of existence — have gone nearly a decade without a national tournament berth. However, Moore comes with plenty of coaching experience, including two seasons as an assistant at Ohio State prior.

In her first season at the helm, Moore led the Buckeyes to a three-win improvement, finishing with an 8-9 record. Ohio State cruised through nonconference play, its lone loss coming to Denver — a tournament team. But the Buckeyes crumbled in Big Ten play, securing just one victory and finishing tied for last in the conference.

Ohio State matched its win total from last year just eight games into the season, marking the best start in program history. After climbing to No. 19 in the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association poll and earning a win in their Big Ten opener, the Buckeyes embarked on a five-game losing streak. Ohio State sits one game out of last place in the conference, ahead of winless Oregon.

Players to know

Brynn Ammerman, senior attacker, No. 10 — Last season’s team leader with 28 assists has taken her game to another level in her final year. Ammerman has solidified her role as the top facilitator, and is one of the best in the country at that. She has totaled the 12th-most assists per game (2.9), while also posting 15 ground balls and 12 goals.

Jocelyn Torres, junior goalkeeper, No. 36 — The Virginia Tech transfer has endured a stellar first season at Ohio State in a conference filled with plenty of talented keepers. Torres has thrived in the spotlight, grasping the starting nod instantly and leaving no doubt about it. Her 50.7% save rate is the eighth-best mark in the nation.

Lilli Sherman, senior defender, No. 41 — After appearing in just five games during her first two seasons, Sherman is now one of the key contributors on the Buckeyes’ defensive unit. The 5-foot-7 Michigan native has registered a team-high 21 caused turnovers — the sixth-highest total in the Big Ten — and corralled 17 ground balls.

Strength

Scoring defense. Ohio State’s shot blocking is much improved from last season when it allowed the most goals in the conference, and Torres is a big reason why. The Buckeyes have conceded the eighth-fewest goals per game in the nation at 8.8.

Weakness

Free-position conversion. While the Buckeyes’ offense has struggled at times this season, they don’t take advantage of their easy looks. Ohio State — who only scores 12.1 goals per game — has turned its 83 free-position shots into 31 goals, one of the lowest percentages in the nation.

Three things to watch

1. Senior day. Sunday’s game will give Maryland fans a chance to honor its six seniors: Sophie Halus, Celia Pell, Hailey Russo, Caroline Smith, Kate Sites and Chrissy Thomas. The Terps’ 2025 senior class has made a lasting impact on the program and will be looking to gain some steam for an extended postseason run.

2. Which goalie makes the biggest contribution? Head coach Cathy Reese has bounced around in net between starter JJ Suriano and freshman Julia Ward. In three of Maryland’s last four contests, Ward has seen extended action as Reese looks for a midgame spark. Suriano has reentered the game twice during this stretch.

2. Big Ten implications. After wrapping up its nonconference slate on Wednesday, the Terps turn their attention back toward Big Ten play. Maryland’s 3-1 record currently sits tied for second in the conference with No. 5 Johns Hopkins, only trailing No. 3 Northwestern — its lone loss during Big Ten competition.

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Ohio

Ohio woman sentenced in $775,000 Medicaid scheme

Published

4 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

COLUMBUS — A Lake County woman was sentenced this morning to jail time and ordered to pay $775,000 in restitution for fraudulently billing Medicaid, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced. “She inflated her earnings through brazen fraud, but her scheme burst wide open when our investigators got the case,” Yost said. “Cheating taxpayers comes with […]

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‘Catastrophic’ Ohio farm fire kills 6,000 hogs and pigs, officials say

Published

16 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

‘Catastrophic’ Ohio farm fire kills 6,000 hogs and pigs, officials say

A wind-swept blaze at an Ohio hog farm complex caused “catastrophic” damage and left thousands of pigs dead, fire officials said, marking another devastating barn inferno contributing to the deaths of millions of animals in recent years.

The massive fire occurred on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at Fine Oak Farms in Union Township, Madison County, located west of Ohio’s capital of Columbus, according to the Central Townships Joint Fire District. Fire crews received a report of a barn fire shortly before 12 p.m. local time.

The incident was later upgraded to a commercial structure fire after Chief Brian Bennington observed a “large column of smoke visible from a distance” and requested additional resources. Multiple local fire departments, along with several other emergency agencies, were called to the scene.

“What our crews encountered upon arrival was a very difficult and heartbreaking incident,” Bennington said in a statement on Feb. 26.

The fire chief described the facility as a large farm complex used for hog production consisting of five large agricultural buildings, including four that housed about 7,500 hogs. When crews arrived at the scene, they found two of the barns engulfed in flames, Bennington said.

Crews were challenged by windy conditions that significantly impacted fire suppression efforts, according to Bennington. Three barns were destroyed in the fire, and about 6,000 hogs and pigs were killed.

Firefighters saved one barn and about 1,500 hogs, the fire chief added. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Bennington highlighted the assistance of the farming community throughout Madison and Clark counties, as multiple farmers responded with water trucks to help with water supply efforts. “Rural Ohio’s agricultural community is tight-knit, and they truly step up when one of their own is in need,” he said.

The incident remains under investigation, and the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office will determine the fire’s cause and origin. Bennington said there is no suspicion of arson and no ongoing threat to the public at this time.

‘Rapidly changing fire behavior conditions’

Heavy smoke from the fire could be seen for miles, and Bennington said first-arriving units were met with fire conditions coming from the opposite side of the hog farm complex.

The fire chief noted that the incident required extensive water-shuttle operations due to rural water-supply limitations in the area. Crews attempted to cut the fire off by deploying multiple handlines and using an aerial device, but “faced extremely challenging conditions throughout the incident,” according to Bennington.

Sustained winds of about 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph accelerated the fire’s spread, Bennington said. The high winds made it “extremely difficult” to contain forward fire progression and created “rapidly changing fire behavior conditions” across the agricultural complex, he added.

After about four to five hours, the fire was contained by fire personnel from four different counties, according to the fire chief.

“Unfortunately, the fire resulted in catastrophic damage to the business,” Bennington said in an earlier statement on Feb. 25. “A significant portion of the agricultural structures were destroyed.”

Latest major fire to impact an Ohio hog farm

The incident at Fine Oak Farms is the latest major fire to cause significant damage to an Ohio hog farm in recent years.

In August 2024, about 1,100 pigs were killed in Versailles, a village about 50 miles northwest of Dayton, Ohio, according to data from the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute. In March 2022, about 2,000 hogs died in a barn fire at Kenneth Scholl Hog Farm in Brown Township, just west of Columbus.

Before the fire at Fine Oak Farms, the Animal Welfare Institute reported that other barn fires in Ohio this year killed 162 sheep, horses, cows, chickens, and other animals.

Hundreds of thousands of animals killed in barn fires each year

Data from the Animal Welfare Institute shows that hundreds of thousands of animals are killed in barn fires across the country each year. Since 2013, over 9 million farm animals have been killed in barn fires, according to the organization.

As of Feb. 26, the Animal Welfare Institute reported that 118,738 farm animals have died in U.S. barn fires this year, including the incident at Fine Oak Farms. The majority of farm animals killed were chickens in separate incidents in North Carolina and Georgia in January, and another incident in Missouri earlier this month.

“Most fatal barn fires occurred in colder states, particularly the Upper Midwest and the Northeast. New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois had the highest number of barn fires, respectively,” according to the organization. “The amount of cold weather a state experienced appeared to be a greater factor in the prevalence of barn fires than the intensity of a state’s animal agriculture production.”

In an updated report on farm animal deaths due to barn fires in 2025, the Animal Welfare Institute said more than 2.53 million farm animals were killed in barn fires from 2022 to 2024. The organization noted that the high death toll was “driven primarily” by fires at large operations that housed several thousand to over 1 million farm animals.

The majority of deaths in these incidents during that period, over 98%, were farmed birds, such as chickens and turkeys, according to the Animal Welfare Institute. But in 2023, a massive fire at a west Texas dairy farm became the single deadliest event involving livestock in the state’s history and the deadliest cattle fire in America in at least a decade.

18,000 head of cattle perished in the fire at the South Fork Dairy farm near Dimmitt, Texas. At the time, Roger Malone, who is the former mayor of Dimmitt, called the incident “mind-boggling.”

“I don’t think it’s ever happened before around here. It’s a real tragedy,” Malone said.

Contributing: Rick Jervis, USA TODAY; Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch

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Ohio’s LaRose pushes back on voter fraud critics, Democrats

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Ohio’s LaRose pushes back on voter fraud critics, Democrats

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose discussed voter fraud and Ohio’s efforts to prevent it during a recent radio appearance.

LaRose appeared on “The Bill Cunningham” radio show, where he defended the state’s efforts to minimize voter fraud. A clip posted on X shows audio of LaRose arguing that policies aimed at preventing voter fraud are necessary even though cases are rare.

Here’s what to know.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose says voter fraud in Ohio is rare, compares prevention efforts to TSA security

In the clip, LaRose says that Democrats claim voter fraud is rare, and should be ignored.

“The left claims that voter fraud is rare, so we should just ignore it,” he said. “Well, airplane hijackings are also rare — we don’t abolish the TSA. The reason why we keep voter fraud rare in states like Ohio because we do these very things that they’re trying to take away from me.”

LaRose announced the inaugural meeting of the new Ohio Election Integrity Commission, which replaces what he called the flawed Ohio Elections Commission, in January 2026. The new committee, he says, will be used in “enforcing Ohio’s election laws, reviewing alleged violations, and ensuring accountability in matters relating to voting.”

In October 2025, LaRose said that he forwarded more than 1,000 cases of voter fraud to the U.S. Department of Justice. The cases involved 1,084 noncitizen individuals who appear to have registered to vote unlawfully in Ohio, and 167 noncitizens who appear to have also cast a ballot in a federal election since 2018.

In February 2026, President Donald Trump said Republicans should “nationalize” elections. He also accused Democrats of bringing migrants into the United States to illegally vote, a claim that is not backed by evidence, USA TODAY reports.

Voter fraud in the U.S. is considered rare nationwide, according to NPR, but there are still debates from both political sides on how frequently it occurs.

What is voter fraud?

Electoral fraud is defined as illegally interfering with the process of an election, according to Ballotpedia. This includes in-person voter fraud, absentee or mail ballots and illegal voter suppression.

Criminal penalties can include fines or imprisonment for up to five years, according to U.S. code. In Ohio, election interference can carry a felony of the fourth degree, according to Ohio Code.

Voter fraud is often a topic of debate among Democrats and Republicans, where organizations such as the conservative Heritage Foundation maintains a database claiming to show nearly 1,500 cases of election fraud since the year 2000.

Meanwhile, research by law professor Justin Leavitt published in 2014 found 31 cases of in-person voter fraud among billions of ballots cast from 2000–2014, according to Ballotpedia.

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