Loading...
| What you need to know Friday, August 6, 2021 WEATHER
As late summer pushes on, Clevelanders can expect mostly hot and sunny weather over the weekend. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms is in the forecast Saturday, but other than that, folks should have ample sunshine to enjoy. Highs on Saturday and Sunday are expected to be in the upper 80s. Read more.
Local scores: Toronto Blue Jays 3, Indians 0 OVERNIGHT
Indians deal: The Cleveland Indians have struck a proposed $435 million deal with the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and the state of Ohio to renovate Progressive Field and extend the team’s lease in Cleveland for at least 15 years. Courtney Astolfi reports local and state taxpayers would be footing roughly two-thirds of the cost, with the soon-to-be-named Cleveland Guardians contributing the rest. The money will pay for overhauls of the upper deck, and the lower deck along left field, giving fans more open views of the city and baseball diamond as they make their way around the stadium.
HB6: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Thursday asked a Franklin County court to order ex-Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chair Sam Randazzo to return a $4.3 million FirstEnergy Corp. payment the company admitted was a bribe, as well as his public salary while chair. Jeremy Pelzer reports Yost also added former FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Chuck Jones and Mike Dowling, the company’s former senior vice president of external affairs, to his civil lawsuit against FirstEnergy, former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and others in the HouseBill 6 scandal. The amended lawsuit accuses Randazzo and the former FirstEnergy executives of engaging in extortion, money laundering, coercion, intimidation and an attempted coverup.
Yellow-zoning: Cuyahoga County Sheriff Christopher Viland ordered jail staff to stop using a new method of locking down inmates that the officers’ union said is unsafe and prohibited by a 2014 arbitration decision. Adam Ferrise reports the new policy, called “yellow-zoning,” stopped early Thursday, one day after the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association filed a grievance over the process. The jail had been using the new form of lockdown for about a month.
Masks or not: As students prepare to head back to the classroom for the third pandemic-affected school year, Northeast Ohio school boards have varying decisions on whether to require masks for students and staff. Hannah Drown lists school districts that will require masks for all, or none, or just younger children. This Week in the CLE: The Cuyahoga County Board of Health recommends all students and staff wear masks when they start school this month. We’re talking about whether they will, and why some parents are pushing back, on This Week in the CLE, cleveland.com’s daily half-hour news podcast.
Unemployment: A legislative committee recommends Ohio’s beleaguered unemployment benefits system should look into allowing applicants to track their claim status in real time and publicly display call wait times, reports Jeremy Pelzer. A report issued by the Ohio Unemployment Modernization and Improvement Council also called on state unemployment officials to, among other things, set standards for call and claim support, improve data-sharing with other state agencies, and evaluate setting up more automated features while improving person-to-person communication.
Fair workplace: Two Northeast Ohio Democratic lawmakers are introducing a bill that would allow companies to receive a state designation saying that they pay men and women fairly, if they show average earnings between men and women are within 5 percentage points. Laura Hancock reports the “Fair Paycheck Workplace” designation from the Ohio Department of Commerce aims to attract good employees.
Marijuana proposal: A campaign pushing to legalize marijuana in Ohio will have to collect a new batch of petition signatures as Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has rejected the first batch the group submitted, reports Andrew Tobias. Yost said in a Thursday letter to the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol that the group’s six pages of summary language failed to meet the legal threshold that requires it to be a “fair and truthful statement” of what the 45-page law change would do.
K-12 guidance: The Ohio Department of Health released guidelines late Thursday afternoon, in the form of a flow chart, to show schools what to do if a student or staff member has been exposed to COVID-19. Laura Hancock reports that newest guidelines show no quarantining is necessary if schools have a mask mandate - regardless of vaccine status - strategies to maximize social distancing as well as documented COVID-19 prevention policies and procedures.
Mask mandate: The University of Akron is requiring all students, faculty, staff and visitors to wear masks in public indoor areas regardless of vaccination status starting Aug. 9, Megan Becka reports. The university is also mandating students, faculty and staff to report their vaccination status by Aug. 20 so the university can make “informed decisions about COVID-19 and to further facilitate contact tracing.”
Indians perspective: How does the Indians deal compare to other Major League Baseball stadiums and renovations? Cameron Fields looks at recent costs. Fields also has a timeline of building Jacobs Field.
Q Arena project: Remember the Q transformation? The $185 million project to remake Quicken Loans Arena was fraught with controversy, including a Supreme Court fight over whether to accept petitions for a referendum. Alexis Oatman has a timeline. Oatman also asks critics if the Progressive Field project will face a similar fight.
Moving threat?: Cleveland City and Cuyahoga County councils will likely approve the new lease deal with the Indians. There tends to be little political backlash from agreeing to such arrangements. But Peter Krouse reports the deal has the possibility of getting political.
Electric vehicles: In an effort to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and establish the United States as a lead producer of electric vehicles, President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an executive order that sets a goal of making half of all vehicles sold in the United States zero emissions by 2030, reports Sabrina Eaton.
Summa vaccination: All Summa Health employees must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 31, and those who refuse could be disciplined or fired, Julie Washington reports. Exceptions will be made for anyone with a medical or religious exemption, the health system said. Currently 70% of Summa Health’s 8,000 workers are vaccinated; unvaccinated employees will be asked to wear masks.
Gas explosion: A gas leak caused the accidental explosion that destroyed a home Tuesday in the Slavic Village Neighborhood, Olivia Mitchell reports. Cleveland fire investigators and workers from Dominion East Ohio Gas investigated the explosion that happened about 1:15 p.m. at the home on East 57th Street and Fleet Avenue.
Scammers: Witnesses told a Senate panel Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic has been a boom time for scammers, many of whom ply their trade through insecure peer-to-peer payment platforms that have a three to four times higher fraud rate than traditional payment methods such as debit and credit cards. Sabrina Eaton reports fraudsters have run advance fee scams to target stimulus checks, have committed identity fraud linked to the online sharing of coronavirus vaccination cards, and even taken advantage of grieving families by targeting the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Program.
Spirit Airlines: Travelers flying Spirit Airlines are facing another day of chaos, with flights in and out of Northeast Ohio among the mass cancellations caused by staffing and technology problems. Susan Glaser reports the carrier Wednesday issued an apology to customers for the problems, saying the number of cancellations would “progressively drop in the days to come.”
Mrs. Maisel: Fashion historian Raissa Bretaña fact checks the historical accuracy of the costumes from Miriam 'Midge' Maisel's wardrobe including daywear, evening wear and resort wear in this video from cleveland.com’s sister site, Glamour.
Things to do: Anne Nickoloff has 14 things to do this weekend, including author showcases, arts festivals, concerts, outdoor markets and more.
Cleveland woman who killed man who tried to break into her home released from custody, police say Read more
Hall of Fame Fun Fest: 10 things to know at Pro Football Hall of Fame Read more
‘Free Guy’ is a sweet romantic comedy disguised as an action-hero movie Read more
Painesville man pleads not guilty to shooting at Lake County bar Read more
Olmsted Falls High School graduate wins gold medal for US in Olympics pole vault competition Read more
Community | Politics | Videos | Photos To ensure receipt of our emails, please add newsletters@update.cleveland.com to your address book or safe sender list. You received this email because you opted-in to the newsletter. Was it forwarded to you? Sign up now! | ||||||||||||||||||
Loading...
Loading...
