STATEHOUSE & POLITICS
Feces mail: Federal agents on Friday arrested a 77-year-old former Portage County Common Pleas Court mediator and accused him of sending more than three dozen feces-laden letters to Republican politicians in Ohio, including U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, and those in other states. Adam Ferrise reports that according to court records, Richard John Steinle sent the letters from August 2021 through July 29, when undercover postal service inspectors conducted surveillance.
HB6 defendant: A federal judge has admonished a former lobbyist accused in the Ohio House Bill 6 corruption case for using his website to publish the personal information of a key witness in the case, including unredacted copies of his driver’s license and Social-Security card. Andrew Tobias reports that U.S. District Judge Timothy Black said he found it “entirely incredible” that Matt Borges didn’t mean to post witness Tyler Fehrman’s information to his legal-defense website.
METRO
Buckeye plan: Cleveland’s City Planning Commission voted unanimously on Friday to approve a new neighborhood plan for Buckeye, a long-struggling East Side community poised for an upswing after decades of population loss, disinvestment, and fallout from political corruption. Steven Litt reports the plan calls for “anti-gentrification’' strategies including the encouragement of local ownership of rental properties and reviving the Buckeye Road commercial district south of Shaker Square.
College comeback: Eight colleges, including Cleveland State University and Cuyahoga Community College, will help former college students throughout Northeast Ohio make progress toward their degrees with a new initiative, the Ohio College Comeback Compact. Students have a chance to qualify for up to $5,000 in debt forgiveness and use stranded credits, academic credits students have earned but cannot access because of unpaid balances at a school, reports Alexis Oatman.
Massage therapists: The American Massage Therapy Association booked its 2022 national convention in Cleveland, back in 2019. Little did organizers know back then of the hornet’s nest their members would be walking into, while the city awaits the fate of Deshaun Watson, the NFL quarterback who faced 24 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct during appointments with massage therapists.
Home sales: The cleveland.com database of home sales and other property transfer details has been updated with transactions for July 2022.
COVID-19 & HEALTHCARE
Monkeypox: A case of monkeypox has been identified in Lorain County, reports Gretchen Cuda Kroen. There have been 7,102 confirmed cases of monkeypox this year in the U.S., including 38 in Ohio.
Contagious: At this point, if you haven’t gotten COVID-19 at least once, you’re in the minority. But what if you get COVID-19 now? How long are you considered contagious? When is it safe to circulate? Gretchen Cuda Kroen explains when you can safely emerge from COVID isolation.
CDC map: The latest CDC map shows Lake and Summit counties joining Cuyahoga, Lorain, and Portage counties, along with more than 75% of Ohio’s 88 counties as now being classified as having high COVID-19 transmission. Zachary Smith reports Ohio has been over 10,000 new COVID cases per week, every week, since the beginning of May.
New vaccines: Both Pfizer and Moderna are working on booster vaccines designed to address the wave of Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. Gretchen Cuda Kroen reports that if the shots meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards, they will be available as early as September.
BUSINESS
Shaker Square: Shaker Square has taken a key step toward potential recovery with the closing of an $11 million purchase of the property as part of a plan to save the historic retail center on Cleveland’s East Side. Megan Sims reports New Village Corp., a subsidiary of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, and Burten Bell Carr Development have completed the city-aided purchase.
PearlBrook: Plans are underway to demolish the PearlBrook shopping center on the border of Cleveland and Parma to make way for a Sheetz gas station. Sean McDonnell reports the new station would sit on the northwest corner of Brookpark and Pearl roads — just south of Interstate 480.
CRIME
Homicide detectives: As slayings in Cleveland mount, the number of detectives investigating the deaths is a fraction of what authorities say it should be. Olivia Mitchell reports there have been 83 homicides in the city through July 23. The city has 18 detectives, compared to the U.S. Justice Department standard of 38.
City lawsuit: A Bail Project employee who accused Cleveland police of arresting him without probable cause twice in one day in the aftermath of the May 30, 2020, riots settled his lawsuit with the city for $30,000. Anthony Body, a former member of the city’s Community Police Commission, accepted the city’s offer on Tuesday, reports Adam Ferrise.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
House of the week: Barrington Estates is lined with million-dollar homes and a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course and a country club. A 1997 brick colonial offers 6 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms in 9,243 square feet of living space for $1,995,000. Joey Morona reports the home includes outdoor entertaining area, outdoor pool with whirlpool spa, home theater, an indoor pool and fitness center.
Arte Povera: The spirit of Arte Povera lives on again in the Akron Art Museum’s current main special exhibition, organized as part of the FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. Steven Litt reports the Akron installation features the work of 18 artists, many of whom use humble materials typical of Arte Povera to create revelatory objects and images through techniques of accretion, assemblage, and collage.
