Ohio
Ohio lawmakers refuse to protect girls from nightmarish marriages | Opinion
Men in Ohio can legally import 17-year-old child brides from any country around the world, a legal form of sex trafficking.
Step inside Epstein exhibit with printed DOJ files
A New York exhibition shows around 3.5 million partially redacted Jeffrey Epstein files with a timeline and a memorial to victims.
Chagrin Falls resident Stephanie Lowry was 16 years old and 16 weeks pregnant when she was forced to marry a 19-year-old man in Summit County in 2001.
Fraidy Reiss is founder and executive director of Unchained At Last.
Ohio legislators are refusing to vote on Senate Bill 341, bipartisan legislation that would ban child marriage and stop encouraging adult men to prey on teenage girls.
Somewhere, Jeffrey Epstein is applauding.
Dozens of survivors of child marriage, experts and advocates – authors of this column included – have testified in strong support of the bill, to make the marriage age 18, no exceptions. Not a single member of the public has testified in opposition.
Not even the pedophile lobby.
But legislators are shrugging their shoulders and turning their backs.
So the marriage age in Ohio remains 17, even while states across the United States – including Pennsylvania and every state east and north of it, going all the way to Maine – have banned all marriage before age 18.
Girls are the ones who are suffering the heartbreaking consequences of Ohio legislators’ intransigence.
Some 5,063 teens were entered into marriage in Ohio between 2000 and 2024, according to marriage certificate data from the state health department analyzed by Unchained At Last, a nonprofit that leads a national movement to end forced and child marriage.
About 90 percent were girls wed to adult men.
a legal way to sex traffic girls
The term “suffering” is not hyperbole.
Current marriage-age laws legalize and incentivize the trafficking of teens under the guise of marriage.
A 17-year-old girl from Ohio can be taken overseas and forced to marry a lucky man who gets not only a teen bride but also a spousal visa and path to citizenship.
Additionally, men in Ohio can legally import 17-year-old child brides from any country around the world, a legal form of sex trafficking.
Further, marriage before age 18, even for the most mature 17-year-old, creates a nightmarish legal trap, simply because minors have limited legal rights until the day they turn 18.
Girls trapped
If they leave home to escape from parents who are planning an unwanted wedding for them, they can be taken into police custody and dragged back home or into court.
Where would they go anyway? Domestic violence shelters routinely turn away unaccompanied minors, in Unchained At Last’s experience.
Minors also are generally not allowed to bring a legal action independently, which creates additional obstacles. They also cannot easily retain an attorney to help them navigate this terrifying legal trap, because most contracts with minors, including retainer agreements, are voidable.
This is why all marriage before age 18 is recognized globally as forced marriage, which, in turn, is recognized as modern slavery.
The U.S. State Department also calls marriage before age 18 a human rights abuse, due to the devastating, lifelong repercussions it produces for girls. It undermines nearly every aspect of girls’ lives, from their health to their education and economic opportunities to their physical safety.
SB341, sponsored by Republican Sen. Louis Blessing and Democratic Sen. Bill DeMora, would solve all these problems, yet it would cost nothing. It has a $0 price tag. And it would harm no one, except creepy men who prey on teenage girls.
Ohio legislators must stop cruelly ignoring girls’ suffering and making Jeffrey Epstein proud. Pass SB341 today and ban child marriage.
Chagrin Falls resident Stephanie Lowry was 16 years old and 16 weeks pregnant when she was forced to marry a 19-year-old man in Summit County in 2001. She endured years of physical, sexual and financial abuse before she escaped, rebuilt her life and became an advocate.
Fraidy Reiss is a forced marriage survivor turned activist. She is founder and executive director of Unchained At Last, a nonprofit working to end forced and child marriage across the U.S.
LISBON, Ohio (WKBN)- We could find out as soon as Wednesday whether or not funding will be coming to help repair the Lisbon pool.
Mayor Pete Wilson says he spoke with State Representative Monica Robb Blasdel.
He says their $150,000 request was added into the state capital expenditures bill, which is expected to be voted on Wednesday. The Mayor says he was told the vote is a formality and that the funding will be approved.
He says with this funding, they hope to have the pool open next year.
WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) — Trumbull County Commissioners at Tuesday’s weekly workshop meeting discussed the possibility of enacting an additional 2.5% reduction in property taxes for people occupying homes.
Although no decision was made, all the commissioners agreed it was a good idea.
The owner occupancy deduction was one option enacted last year by the Ohio Legislature to lower property taxes.
The other option was the homestead deduction for homeowners 65 or older or permanently disabled. The owner occupancy deduction is the smaller of the two.
The commissioners indicated they hope to vote before July 1.
The deduction would save homeowners $25 for every $1,000 in property taxes but will mean less money for the townships, school and Trumbull County.
Ohio
Mass shooting at Ohio festival that wounded 12 stemmed from dispute between rival groups, police say
A mass shooting that left 12 people wounded on Saturday afternoon at a summer festival in Ohio stemmed from “a dispute involving two rival groups,” according to police.
Gunfire rang out just after 5:30 p.m. near the Old West End Festival in Toledo from two gunmen, one from each group, police said. A dozen people were hurt, with the oldest victim being 61 and the youngest 14, police Lt. Dan Gerken said Saturday, noting most were in their early 20s.
Toledo Police Chief Michael Troendle said Tuesday that a dispute between rival groups led to “a foot chase,” a physical altercation and one person producing a firearm and shooting before someone from the rival group did the same and returned fire.
“While investigators believe some of the victims are intentionally targeted, the majority of those injured appear to have been innocent bystanders caught up in this senseless act of violence,” Troendle said during a news briefing.
Police estimate that three of the victims were involved in the incident, while nine were caught in the crossfire. All of the victims are expected to survive, with nine already having been released from the hospital, Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said at the Tuesday briefing.
Toledo Fire & Rescue Chief Allison Armstrong said bystanders helped in the aftermath of the shooting by administering tourniquets to the injuries of the victims and providing them with comfort.
“While that act showed us the worst of humanity, what followed in the moments after showed us the very best,” Armstrong said.
Detectives have continued conducting interviews since the incident and “identified several persons of interest,” Troendle said. The gunmen police believe to be responsible are between the ages of 18 and 24, and still at large, he said.
Before the shooting, a deputy sheriff at the festival was about to check a bag when someone grabbed it and ran off with it, Troendle said, adding that police are “still trying to piece all that together.” It is not clear who the bag belonged to, or if the firearm was used in the shooting.
Since the shooting, Troendle said that investigators have recovered and are examining two firearms that are believed to be connected to the shooting.
“While there’s still work to be done, I can tell you that investigators continue to make progress,” Troendle said.
Kapszukiewicz said moving forward, young people need to be held accountable for their actions.
“The reality is they did something that deserves punishment and accountability, and when our police find them and arrest them, they will be held accountable,” he said about the gunmen.
Kapszukiewicz also said he thinks the city should finish hosting the Old West End Festival, which was halted a day early after Saturday’s shooting. He said late summer or early September would be a good time to “put a bow on that weekend.”
Changes, including strengthened curfews and more opportunities to check bags, are being discussed for events like the Old West End Festival, Kapszukiewicz said.
“Our heart is broken, and it will take time to work through what happened, and to seek to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
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