Ohio
Two rulings against open records. Is Ohio Supreme Court shifting away from transparency?
Body cam footage: Blendon Township releases Ta’Kiya Young police shooting video
Blendon Township has released body camera footage Friday morning from the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Ta’Kiya Young. The footage is from both of the body cameras of the officers who were involved in the shooting, which happened around 6:20 p.m. Aug. 24 in the parking lot of the Kroger.
Blendon Township Police Department, The Columbus Dispatch
In a matter of four months, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled against releasing information in two public records cases, and it is now weighing what to do two other high-profile records fights.
In a 4-3 decision issued in January, the court held that the cost of sending troopers to protect the governor at a Super Bowl game weren’t subject to disclosure. And in a 5-2 ruling in April, the court said that the Ohio Department of Health should redact from a database the names and addresses of Ohioans who had died, even though that death certificate information is released on a one-by-one basis.
Both of those lawsuits were filed by the owners of this newspaper.
Pending before the court now are two cases about whether police officers’ names can be withheld under a new law that is supposed to protect crime victims.
Cleveland area attorney Brian Bardwell, a former journalist who operates Speech Law LLC, said the two recent rulings are evidence of a long-running hostility toward open records from the Ohio Supreme Court.
“When it comes to government accountability, civil rights, public records, the solutions for the courts is always to just close the doors tighter and tighter and keep people out. They just want people to stop filing these cases and go away,” Bardwell said. “What they really need to do is start doling out harsher and harsher punishment to mayors and public police officers and other government officers who want to operate behind closed doors.”
But Columbus attorney Fred Gittes, who has been litigating open government cases for nearly five decades, said it’s difficult to predict how the supreme court will rule on records cases and the two decisions this year don’t make a pattern.
Ohio’s ‘sunshine’ laws
Ohio has “sunshine” laws designed to hold governments accountable and help the public know what their governments are doing.
The open records law lays out what records − budgets, meeting minutes, personnel files, police reports and more − must be disclosed upon request. The open meetings act requires public bodies to hold their meetings in the open.
Both laws have exceptions. For example, public bodies can meet behind closed doors to discuss pending litigation or the purchase of property. The open records law allows withholding records related to trial preparation, juveniles, public employees’ home addresses and other matters.
Should police officers’ names be disclosed?
The Ohio Supreme Court is considering other public records cases that could have sweeping implications for open government. Two cases involve how to interpret Marsy’s Law, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that is supposed to protect and support crime victims.
Police agencies across Ohio have used Marsy’s Law as grounds for not disclosing names of officers involved in fatal shootings and use of force. In cases where officers have been assaulted or injured in those incidents, they’re categorized as crime victims.
Nadine Young asked the Ohio Supreme Court to order the Blendon Twp. Police Department to disclose the names of the two officers involved in fatally shooting her daughter, Ta’Kiya Young, in a Kroger parking lot in August 2023. The police department argued that Young assaulted officers with her car, making them the victims.
The Young family and the Ohio Crime Victims Justice Center sued over the redactions, saying Ta’Kiya Young was the crime victim, not the officers. The Ohio Supreme Court ordered the police department to identify the officers to the court but has yet to rule on the overall case.
The Columbus Dispatch filed a similar lawsuit in October 2023 against Columbus police for failing to disclose names of officers involved in fatal shootings and use of force.
Police and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office declined to release footage or names after four officers and a deputy were involved in a July 2023 shooting that left 45-year-old Antwan Lindsey dead.
After three young boys were shot and killed at their home in Clermont County in June 2023, the sheriff’s office cited Marsy’s Law and redacted documents containing the officers’ narratives of the incident.
Cincinnati police have been withholding the names of homicide victims and redacting their names from incident reports for months, citing Marsy’s Law.
And the Akron Beacon Journal is suing the city of Akron to force disclosure of the identities of officers involved in three separate fatal shootings. That case, filed in 2022, does not involve Marsy’s Law. It is pending before the Ohio Supreme Court.
Gittes said in his opinion, police shouldn’t be allowed to keep their identities secret under Marsy’s Law because officers’ accountability is crucial given their power to arrest and use deadly force.
Without transparency, there is no accountability, he said.
Bardwell isn’t hopeful that the Ohio Supreme Court will rule in favor of transparency in the Marsy’s Law cases and that will give police agencies the go-ahead to hide more records. “If you give the police an inch on secrecy, they’re going to take a mile and I’m betting that’s where we’ll end up here as well.”
Lawmakers probably won’t make changes
State lawmakers could change the state law that describes how Marsy’s Law operates, change the laws that protect health care information from disclosure or make other tweaks to increase transparency.
“I won’t be holding my breath on it,” Bardwell said.
Gittes agreed and said lawmakers are more likely to add more exemptions to the open records law.
“Over the last few decades, the Legislature has been increasingly hostile to open government, records in particular,” he said.
Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
Tick Bite Prevention Guide
Essential steps to prevent tick bites and protect your family and pets while outdoors.
Although they’re silent and among nature’s stealthiest stalkers, ticks now seem to be creating considerable public buzz.
Certain ticks can operate year-round. Nonetheless, interest heightens during spring when intersections increase between reactivated ticks, people and people’s pets.
What happens post-encounter depends on how long a person takes to find and disengage from a tick that has found them. Infection can occur after two-hour attachments. In short, hunters, anglers, hikers, noodlers, birders and anyone else wandering woods and fields, especially during May and June, demand speedy self-inspection and precautionary repellent use.
Lyme disease, a malady that can leave sufferers with chronic malfunctions, draws much attention because of its inexorable and fairly rapid spread from New England into seemingly virgin territory, including Ohio.
THE GREAT OUTDOORS: More about Ohio hunting and fishing
Specific tick species carry different maladies, though some deal out more than one.
Blacklegged ticks, aka deer ticks, are the primary spreaders of Lyme disease. The bite from a lone star tick, another relative newcomer to Ohio, can trigger several illnesses, the most trumpeted being a potential killer known as alpha-gal syndrome that makes the bitten allergic to red meat and dairy.
A few years ago, former Columbus Dispatch nature columnist Jim Fry lay on a hospital bed while paralysis crept up his legs to his arms and neck. Spreading immobility made him unable to lift his head.
“I was terrified,” said Fry, then 79.
Fortunately, a healthcare attendant noticed an engorged tick on Fry’s upper left arm. Removal of the tick veered Fry away from a proximate path to eternity, though full recovery took time.
The would-be assassin turned out to be a dog tick, historically common in Ohio. Also known as a wood tick, the relative of spiders and scorpions can carry in its saliva a neurotoxin that triggers what is known as tick paralysis in susceptible people, dogs and cats. Tick paralysis – rare enough not to ratchet up public awareness, let alone mania – can kill.
Climate change has been popularly depicted as the reason deer ticks and lone star ticks have spread from the South into New England and the Midwest. Climate probably has an influence, but it’s not the primary cause, concluded the Entomological Society of America with findings shared in the publication Entomology Today.
Researchers found it highly probable that tick species currently viewed as newcomers were here spreading their diabolical wares before a wave of settlers mowed down trees for agriculture and virtually wiped out the deer through hunting and habitat destruction.
Deer are not themselves vulnerable to Lyme disease, but they are spreaders of ticks.
It was especially extreme in Ohio around 1900. By that time, the landscape had been transformed from 95% forested to about 5%. Deer went absent. When much marginal farmland reverted to native trees during the next 100-plus years, it stimulated the growth of a teeming deer population.
More deer have allowed more tag-along ticks to reoccupy lost territory, the study hypothesized.
Parting shots
Pro bass fisherman Charlie Hartley, who led the 2008 Bassmaster Classic for a day and who earned a paycheck in 78 of 296 Bassmaster tournaments in which he competed, has been named to the Ohio Bass Fishing Hall of Fame. Hartley resides in Grove City. … Turkey season ends May 24 at sunset in central Ohio and May 31 at sunset in five northeastern counties. Through May 17, the turkey take exceeded the three-year average at a comparable date by about 550.
COLUMBIANA, Ohio (MyValleyTributes) – Glen Wenger, 83, formerly of Columbiana, Ohio, passed away at his home in Dublin, Ohio on May 20, 2026, after suffering from Parkinson’s disease and cardiac amyloidosis for many years. He was born February 9, 1943, the son of David and Letha (Brunk) Wenger.
He attended North Lima Schools up until his senior year, which he completed at Eastern
Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg, Virginia, graduating in 1961.
As a young adult, Glen spent two years in Nigeria with Mennonite Voluntary Service. He worked with a community development program, teaching boys in the village of Illah agricultural skills from which they could earn a living. Upon completion of that term, he returned home to Columbiana, where he was employed by Witmer’s Inc. In 1967, he married Ethel Baird. They would have celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary this August.
From 1980-82, Glen and his family served as Mennonite Mission representatives in Nairobi, Kenya, where he and Ethel were houseparents for boarding students at Rosslyn Academy. The trips Glen’s family took to game parks in Kenya were among his most treasured memories.
Upon returning to the US, Glen continued working at Witmer’s, Inc. until his retirement. During his time there, he worked in the parts and sales departments. For several years thereafter, Glen worked at McMaster Farms in Columbiana, thriving on the energy of the farm and finding great satisfaction in the growth and harvesting of various crops of produce. Glen was a dedicated, hard-working man. He was devoted to his family, church, and community. Always ready to help others, he served the Lord in numerous ways at Midway Mennonite Church, where he was a lifelong member. He was the groundskeeper at Midway for many years, as well as the cemetery sexton. He loved music, and contributed his rich bass in many special music groups, the Midway Church chorus, and in duets with Ethel.
Since moving to Dublin in 2019 to be closer to family, Glen enjoyed attending his granddaughter’s musical performances. Glen is survived by his wife, Ethel, son Mark (Candis) of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and daughter Amy (Jeff) Bixler, of Columbus, Ohio; his beloved grandchildren, Stella Bixler, Mira Bixler, Eve Wenger, Cameron Wenger, and foster granddaughter, Dani Naghshineh. Also surviving him are his siblings, Rachel (Joseph) Martin of Westwood, Massachusetts, Dale (Marian) Wenger of Columbiana, Ohio, and Alan (Marilyn) Wenger of Poland, Ohio, along with many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, son Eric, and sister Jean Wenger.
Glen will be greatly missed by all who knew him, and was dearly loved by his family and
friends.
Glen’s family asks that in lieu of flowers, memorial gifts be given to Midway Mennonite
Church, Columbiana, Ohio or Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, Pennsylvania.
Arrangements have been handled by Shaw-Davis Funeral Home.
A service to honor his memory will be held at a later date at Midway Mennonite Church
A television tribute will air Monday, May 25 at the following approximate times: 6:47 a.m. on WYTV, 9:43 a.m. on WKBN, 10:58 a.m. on FOX and 8:12 p.m. on MyYTV. Video will be posted here the day of airing.
Jackson and Perry townships fight fraud with Sheriff’s Office
Jackson Township police Detective Jeffrey Aynes explains how he traces the movement of a fraud victim’s cryptocurrency through the public ledger.
Months after authorizing crypto as a payment method, Ohio is rolling out more ways to pay certain state fees. The Ohio Treasurer’s Office announced a new digital wallet for residents to pay court fees, the BMV or other state agencies using cryptocurrency and other funds.
The Treasury on May 21 announced the launch of Buckeye Billfold, a digital wallet program that lets residents and businesses pay state agencies using credit cards, bank transfers or crypto, while still keeping cash and checks as options.
State officials say Ohio will be the first state to authorize and promote statewide use of digital asset payments. Digital wallets are apps that store your credit or debit card information, allowing you to pay using your phone or other devices. Any cryptocurrency used is automatically converted into U.S. dollars at the time of the transaction.
Here’s what to know about how Buckeye Billfold works and where you might see it used.
Ohio launches ‘Buckeye Billfold,’ adding crypto and digital wallet options for state payments
Buckeye Billfold expands how Ohioans can pay for certain state services, giving people more flexibility in how they handle government fees.
“Ohio is leading the way by embracing Bitcoin and cryptocurrency innovation,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said in a release, adding that the move is meant to modernize how people interact with state government.
According to the Treasurer’s Office, if you choose to pay with cryptocurrency, it won’t actually stay in crypto. The payment is instantly converted into U.S. dollars, so it processes like a typical transaction.
State leaders say the move could reduce processing costs and save time for both the government and users. The initiative also builds on earlier attempts to bring cryptocurrency payments into state government, this time with full legal approval and a vendor in place to handle transactions.
Which Ohio agencies currently accept digital wallet payments?
Not all state agencies accept digital wallet or cryptocurrency payments yet, and availability can vary by agency and service. Several Ohio state agencies now accept certain digital currencies for certain payments, but it depends on the agency, the service, and whether you are paying online or in person.
Examples of agencies and courts that currently accept some form of digital or electronic payments include:
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