Ohio

Ohio bill would allow puppy mill bans: The Wake Up for Thursday, April 18, 2024

Published

2 years ago

April 18, 2024

Subscribe to the Wake Up, cleveland.com’s free morning newsletter, delivered to your inbox weekdays at 5:30 a.m.

The U.S. Humane Society has received more than 1,500 complaints about Petland, the only national pet store chain in the U.S. that still sells puppies.

Dozens of Ohioans have sent Ohio Attorney General their grievances, including that they paid thousands of dollars for dogs from Chillicothe, Ohio-based Petland, only for them to quickly turn ill or die.

But cities in Ohio couldn’t pass their own laws to protect the puppies or their would-be families. That’s because in 2016, Ohio lawmakers passed a “preemption” bill.

So Toledo, which in 2013 passed local legislation prohibiting the sale of non-rescue dogs from retailers, could not enforce its own law.

Reporter Jake Zuckerman detailed the problems with Petland and preemption last month.

Now a proposal from Democratic Ohio Rep. Michele Grim, who represents Toledo, and Republican Rep. Sara Carruthers, from Butler County, would reverse the preemption. But the bill faces long odds of passage.

— Laura

Guardians at Boston Red Sox: Guardians offense has no answer for Tanner Houck, Red Sox in 2-0 loss to Boston

Northeast Ohio weather forecast: Sunshine early, more rain late

Puppy laws: Ohio cities could again have the power to prohibit retail puppy sales within their borders under a new bill introduced by a bipartisan pair of state lawmakers, reports Jake Zuckerman. State Rep. Michele Grim, a Toledo Democrat, told the Ohio House Government Oversight Committee this week that retail pet stores are “notorious” for buying dogs from high-volume breeders known as puppy mills, whose animals have been connected to premature death and expensive health complications.

Biden ballot: A top legislative Republican said Wednesday that one way or another, President Joe Biden will appear on the ballot in Ohio despite an obscure state law that threatens to block him over the scheduled date of this year’s Democratic National Convention. Jeremy Pelzer and Andrew Tobias report that Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman said the specifics will depend on whether Democrats propose an administrative fix or a legislative one. But he suggested he thinks even a lawsuit likely would be successful.

Today in Ohio: Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has rejected a Democratic proposal meant to get around a legal technicality that could prevent President Joe Biden from appearing on the ballot here this November. We’re talking about whether the law is constitutional and how it’s denying Ohioans’ right to vote on Today in Ohio, cleveland.com’s daily half-hour news podcast.

State and local officials are considering a plan to use millions in state money to purchase RVs to use as temporary housing for Indian Lake tornado victims.cleveland.com file

RV housing: State officials are looking at purchasing hundreds of recreational vehicles with millions in state money to provide temporary housing for Ohioans who lost their homes to a tornado last month. Jeremy Pelzer reports the idea comes as state officials say they need to step up to help the 250 or so displaced families living near Indian Lake in Logan County, as they expect that any federal disaster aid for them will take months to be approved, if it comes at all.

Housing problems: Ohio has a wide range of housing problems, from skyrocketing property costs and property taxes to a need for more housing in general. Jeremy Pelzer reports a state senate committee on Wednesday unveiled a broad list of recommendations, including speeding up building permit applications and making it harder for local residents to challenge local housing development decisions. The sweeping proposal also suggests expanding financial assistance for poorer Ohioans’ housing costs, including allowing Medicaid recipients to put benefits toward housing.

Spousal rape: The Ohio General Assembly is on the cusp of closing what sponsors call an “archaic” loophole in state law – an exemption to sex crime penalties for those who rape or violate their spouses – but the bill’s fate remains uncertain in the Senate. Jake Zuckerman reports that the legislation makes a simple change: It says husbands, like any other aggressor, can be held criminally accountable for rape, sexual battery, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, gross sexual imposition, and sexual imposition when the victim is their spouse.

Mayorkas impeachment: Hours after swearing in its members for an impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted along party lines to dismiss the charges forwarded by U.S. House of Representatives Republicans who wanted to remove him from office. Sabrina Eaton reports U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, voted to dismiss the charges, while U.S. Sen. JD Vance, a Cincinnati Republican, opposed doing so.

Broadband service: Ohio Congress members on Wednesday urged passage of bipartisan legislation that would extend a soon-to-expire federal program that subsidizes broadband internet service for more than 1 million Ohioans, Sabrina Eaton reports.

EMS billing: Cleveland City Council agreed this week to outsource billing for emergency medical services, reports Courtney Astolfi. The move means city workers will no longer be handling EMS bill collections and they’ll instead be handled by an outside firm which has yet to be hired.

Holden Arboretum wildflowers early spring — At left are rare American globeflower or spreading globeflower; center, blue cohosh; and at right, toadshade or toad trillium.Paris Wolfe

Saving wildflowers: Ohio has historically been home to more than 1,800 native plants. Of those, the future of more than one-third are in danger from overdevelopment, invasive species, climate change and more. Paris Wolfe reports the conservation horticulturists at Holden Arboretum have a quiet mission to preserve all of Ohio’s native wildflower species.

Home sales: The median single-family home prices in Cuyahoga County continue to climb as the real estate market nears its busiest season, reports Megan Sims. March median home prices increased to $163,900, according to an analysis of county data collected by cleveland.com.

Cancer research: A protein found in the liver called LRG1 may be what drives the spread of colorectal, pancreatic and other cancers, say researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. CWRU researchers plan to study just how the LRG1 protein functions, with the intent to leverage it to stop cancers from spreading, Gretchen Cuda Kroen reports.

Office conversions: CBRE said 119 office-conversion projects are either underway or already done in 2024, up from an annual average of 45 between 2016 and 2023, reports Sean McDonnell. Nearly 1.7% of the U.S. office supply, about 70 million square feet, was undergoing some kind of conversion in the first three months of 2024.

Shriver adviser: Journalist, author and activist Maria Shriver will serve as chief visionary and strategic adviser of the Cleveland Clinic’s new Women’s Comprehensive Health and Research Center, reports Julie Washington. The center is an initiative dedicated to helping women navigate their healthcare and receive specialized care, focusing on access, connectivity, education, research and innovation.

13-year-old killed: A 13-year-old boy was fatally shot Tuesday in Cleveland’s Brooklyn Centre neighborhood, reports Olivia Mitchell. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim as Javier Smith Santiago. He was shot at about 5:20 p.m. near a residence on Riverside Avenue, near West 39th Street.

Slow chase: A Cleveland man was arrested and accused of stealing his grandmother’s car and leading officers from several departments on a long, slow chase. Westlake police attempted to pull over Nathaniel Blevins early Wednesday morning on Interstate 90 for a missing tail light before the 26-year-old pulled off the highway and entered Avon, police say. Molly Walsh reports that police say Blevins led officers through West Side suburbs for more than 90 minutes, eventually driving down Lake Road in Bay Village.

Sister’s murder: Jason Iverson was armed with a semi-automatic pistol and an irrational rage over his children choosing to stay with his sister instead of him when he gunned down Mercedes Iverson, who was seven months pregnant, and Trea “Norbert” Carter III at a Labor Day picnic in Maple Heights, reports Cory Shaffer. He was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.

Akron chief: Akron is a step closer to having a new police chief after the city announced that its deputy chief, Brian Harding, is the final candidate for the position, reports Molly Walsh.

Fentanyl deaths: A Cleveland man is accused of selling fentanyl to two men who died from using the drug during a one-week span. Adam Ferrise reports Kendale Ware, 23, was charged Wednesday in federal court in Cleveland with three counts of drug trafficking and two sentencing enhancements for causing the death of two people in November 2022.

Ask Lucas: What can you do if your neighbor is a hippie who won’t cut the lawn? Lucas Daprile writes your “hippie” neighbor is a bug in a human body that is slowly trying to erode your quaint livelihood by upending the most fundamental norms of civilized society. (Also, lawns are bad for the environment.)

CLE Orchestra: The Cleveland Orchestra is headed to eastern and northern Europe this summer on a two-week tour, with performances in Austria, Germany, Finland, Slovakia and Switzerland. Susan Glaser reports the tour, which kicks off Aug. 26 in Berlin and concludes Sept. 7 in Vienna, includes eight performances in six cities.

CLE Ballet: Cleveland Ballet’s Board of Directors has appointed former board member Larry Goodman to the position of president and chief executive officer, reports Paris Wolfe.

Pearl Harbor: Nearly 1.7 million people toured Pearl Harbor last year, making it one of Hawaii’s most-visited destinations. But don’t call it a tourist attraction, said actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who narrates a powerful self-guided audio tour of the site. It’s a national cemetery, reports Susan Glaser. More than 900 U.S. soldiers remain entombed under the water nearly 83 years after the surprise attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

Don’t forget, you can always find the latest Cleveland news by visiting cleveland.com. If you value the hard work of Cleveland journalists, consider becoming a cleveland.com subscriber.

— Curated by Laura Johnston with contributions by Cliff Pinckard

Police look to identify driver involved in fatal hit-skip crash on Cleveland’s West Side Read more

Feds arrest Cleveland man accused of killing fellow passenger in car Read more

Ohio’s 38 tornadoes in 2024 lead the nation, report shows Read more

Berea council votes down ban on recreational cannabis businesses Read more

Orange Schools 5th-graders raising funds through Bracelets 4 Israel project Read more

Kent State to remember May 4, 1970 shooting with candlelight vigil, commemoration Read more

State of the Village: Mayfield mayor cites slight financial improvements Read more

Olmsted Falls City School District looks ahead to next master facilities plan Read more

Brooklyn turns attention to Veterans Memorial Park master plan Read more

Source link

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 […]

Source link

Ohio

‘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

Source link

Ohio

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.

Source link