Ohio
Ohio can freeze ex-top utility regulator's $8 million in assets, high court says
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The legal dispute over whether it was appropriate to freeze $8 million in personal assets belonging to a former top Ohio utility regulator caught up in a federal bribery investigation has ping-ponged once again.
In a ruling Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed the Tenth District Court of Appeals’ decision and reinstated a lower court’s order, allowing Sam Randazzo’s assets to be frozen once again. The high court determined the appeals court erred on a technicality when it unfroze Randazzo’s property.
It’s just the latest development in the yearslong fight over property belonging to Randazzo, a one-time chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. Federal prosecutors last month charged Randazzo with 11 counts in connection with an admission by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. that it paid him a $4.3 million bribe in exchange for favorable treatment. Randazzo has pleaded not guilty.
Writing for the majority, Justice Pat DeWine said the three-judge panel was wrong when it unfroze Randazzo’s assets in December 2022 — a decision that had been on hold amid the ongoing litigation. The panel reversed a lower court, finding that the state had not proven it would suffer “irreparable injury” if Randazzo were given control of his property.
“The problem is that the irreparable injury showing was not appealable,” DeWine wrote.
Instead, when Randazzo wanted to object to a Franklin County judge’s unilateral decision from August 2021 granting Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s request to freeze his assets, the appropriate remedy would have been a full hearing before the trial court, the high court said. As a result, the court reversed the appellate court’s decision.
Yost made his request out of concern that Randazzo appeared to be scrambling to unload personal assets. He transferred a home worth $500,000 to his son and liquidated other properties worth a combined $4.8 million, sending some $3 million of the proceeds to his lawyers in California and Ohio.
During oral arguments in the case this summer, lawyers disagreed sharply over whether the assets should have been frozen. An attorney for Yost’s office told justices Randazzo was “spending down criminal proceeds” when the attorney general moved in to freeze his assets. Randazzo’s lawyer argued that the state needed more than “unsupported evidence” of a bribe to block Randazzo’s access to his property and cash.
Randazzo resigned as PUCO chair in November 2020 after FBI agents searched his Columbus home, close on the heels of the arrest of then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others.
The bribe that FirstEnergy said it paid Randazzo was part of a scheme that a jury determined was led by Householder to win the speakership, elect allies, pass a $1 billion bailout of two aging FirstEnergy-affiliated nuclear plants and block a referendum to repeal the bailout bill.
Householder, a Republican, and lobbyist Matt Borges, a former chair of the Ohio GOP, were convicted on racketeering charges in March for their roles in the scheme. Householder, considered the ringleader, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Borges to five. Both are pursuing appeals.
MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) — The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Chardon Post is investigating a fatal plane crash that killed three people around 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
According to a press release, about one mile east of the Geauga County Airport, a Piper Comanche 250 crashed into a field.
The plane sustained major damage — killing three Ohioans who were identified as Thomas A. Cunningham, 76, of Rome, John W. Taipale, 71, and Alexander C. Taipale, 40, both from Geneva.
OSHP was assisted by the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, Geauga County Coroner’s Office, Geauga County Emergency Management Agency, Middlefield Fire Department and Community Care Ambulance.
The Western Reserve Port Authority, Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport’s executive director, Anthony Trevena, reached out to our team with a statement regarding the crash.
“We were heartbroken to learn that members of our extended YNG and Youngstown aviation family, were victims in today’s crash in Geagua County. Our deepest condolences go out the Cunningham and Taipale families. We ask that their privacy please be respected during this difficult time. The FAA and NTSB are leading the investigation to determine the cause and will provide any updates as information becomes available.,” Trevena said.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were notified of the crash.
The crash remains under investigation.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — As concerns have grown over the impact of social media on young people, lawmakers are pushing to keep protections in tact to keep children safe online.
This week the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Ohio’s law, the Social Media Parental Notification Act, requiring parental consent for children under the age of 16 to use social media must be restored. Gov. Mike DeWine signed the act into law in July 2023.
Netchoice, the trade group that represents Tik Tok, Snapchat, Meta and other tech companies contested Ohio’s law in 2024, arguing that it was overly broad, vague and represented an unconstitutional impediment to free speech.
“An unconstitutional law protects no one, and we remain focused on ensuring the First Amendment rights of Ohioans are protected,” Paul Taske, NetChoice Litigation Center Director said.
Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit’s panel does not agree with this view point, determined that the law is not unconstitutional and had the block on the law’s enforcement vacated.
“At bottom, the Act imposes a parental consent requirement,” Judge Eric Clay wrote. “That requirement constitutes a marginal burden that precisely targets the multi-faceted problem that Ohio has identified: Children’s unsupervised assent to terms and conditions for use of platforms that take advantage of and harm them.”
The Social Media Parental Notification Act is a way to protect children’s mental health against the “intentionally addictive” nature of social media, according to U.S. senator Jon Husted.
The law requires companies to get parental permission for social media and gaming apps and to provide their privacy guidelines so families know what content would be censored or moderated on their child’s profile.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson says the ruling is “a win for Ohio families.”
“The court agreed that parents –- not social media companies –- should get a say in what kids see online,” he said in a statement. “We have an obligation to keep our children safe, and today, the most dangerous place for our kids is the internet. This decision gives parents the tools to be involved and provide oversight.”
LICKING COUNTY, Ohio (WCMH) — When you think of wild animals in central Ohio, a black bear likely isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. That’s why one Licking County family said they couldn’t believe their eyes.
It was an average afternoon drive home for father and son, Justin and Aaron Rhodes, when something walked into the road in front of them.
“I didn’t even think it was real at first, so that’s why I had to do the double take,” Justin said.
Aaron said he thought it was “just a weird looking dog”.
To their disbelief, it was a bear. The sighting comes just one year after the animal was spotted in Licking County for the first time in more than two decades.
“It’s kind of hard to believe that they’re even around this area,” Justin said. “I’ve lived in this area for about 24 years now, so it’s been quite a while, and I’ve never seen one before.”
These sightings are becoming more common. The Ohio Division of Wildlife said the black bear population is growing in the state, and they expect those trends to continue. Ohio saw a record number of confirmed sightings in 2025.
Lindsey Krusling, a wildlife communications specialist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife, said they are seeing more breeding females establish homes in the state, signaling the species is returning. Experts said the work restoring natural forest land is a big reason why.
“We’re starting to get some black bears coming in from neighboring states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky,” Krusling said. “They’re naturally crossing those state borders and coming back to Ohio because we have more of that habitat available to them, especially those forested areas.”
As the black bear population grows, the Division of Wildlife is expanding its research. They are putting radio collars on some bears they find in the state to help track data, such as if the bears are staying here, how far they’ve traveled and if they’re successfully having cubs.
“We’re trying to get quite a bit of data from these bears, and we’re super excited to see where this takes us,” Krusling said.
The research is in the beginning stages, but they expect population growth to continue, Krusling said.
Sighting reports can be submitted here to help the Division of Wildlife track black bear populations throughout the state.
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