08/31/10 Headline News …
Former congressman James Traficant has enough valid signatures to run as an independent. The Mahoning County board of elections has approved more than 30 disputed signatures to allow Traficant to make the November ballot in the 17th district. Traficant represented the Youngstown area as a Democrat for nearly two decades before his 2002 conviction for corruption. Hundreds of signatures from four counties were disqualified in July. The secretary of state ordered a review by the board last week.
A telecommunications company is getting set to break ground on a data center in Akron. Involta plans to add about 50 high-tech jobs in South Akron. The center is scheduled to open late next year. The building will store data for a variety of companies and institutions.
The backlog of Cuyahoga County tax cases more than doubled Monday. That’s because a new legal opinion says the county boards of revision had no right to decide 16,000 tax cases in closed-door sessions. Ohio law allows property owners to challenge county auditors’ assessments of their properties. Those assessments determine how much someone will pay in property taxes, and the collapse of the housing market has escalated challenges around the state.
Such challenges are supposed to be heard in formal hearings by county boards of revision. But in about a third of the cases in Cuyahoga County, the values were changed with no hearings – and often with no more than one member of the three-member boards making the decision.
The new legal opinion says those 16,000 people will have to be offered new hearings.
Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones says the county will do whatever it needs to do to expedite hearings. The county already has five board of revision handling a backlog of 13,000 cases. It’s likely to set up two more.
Hundreds of Chrysler dealers are deciding whether to start selling Fiat and Alfa brands. About 400 dealers, including Chuck Eddy of Austintown, met in Detroit Monday. Fiat became the dominant partner of Chrysler when the automaker went into bankruptcy last year.
The Drug Policy Alliance of Ohio is pushing Ohio lawmakers to expand the availability of a common drug overdose antidote. The alliance also wants immunity for people who call 911 when they’ve witnessed an overdose. Ed Orlett is spokesman for the alliance. Orlett says the sagging economy has increased the number of accidental drug overdoses because people are selling their medications on the black market to make extra money.
A federal judge has ordered mental health treatment for the owner of a bear that fatally mauled its caretaker in Lorain County. One of Sam Mazzola's bears killed the caretaker about two weeks ago. Mazzola keeps bears, wolves, tigers and a lion at a compound in Columbia Station. Mazzola got probation after pleading guilty last year to transporting a black bear without a license.
The parents of a Cleveland boy have pleaded guilty to hog-tying and duct-taping him to a coffee table on a nightly basis for months. Thirty-seven-year-old Andreia Huffman and 32-year-old Jason Dunikowski of Cleveland pleaded guilty Monday to a nearly 200-count indictment. Along with the nightly confinement, the couple admitted punishing the 8-year-old boy for six months by forcing him to stand all day facing a wall and smacking the back of his head until his nose broke.
FirstEnergy wants a 20-year license extension to operate its Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Toledo. The Akron company has sent an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that would keep it in control of the plant until 20-37. The extension request comes just 10 days before an NRC special inspection team is to present its preliminary findings in a public meeting about what caused the latest cracking in parts of Davis-Besse's reactor lid.
The city of Akron has reached a tentative deal with another of its five unions. The City Service Personnel Association will be voting on the package Wednesday that includes furloughs and a wage freeze. It represents about 350 clerical and administrative workers. And it is only one of the city’s unions that agreed to concessions this year and last year.
Lockheed Martin is getting set to launch a military blimp program. At an event Monday, the company showed off a prototype of a high-tech unnamed blimp at the Akron Airdock next to its facility. City and state officials touted Lockheed Martin's Akron work force for building in record time 17 tethered blimps called aerostats to provide military surveillance in Afghanistan.
A performance audit of the Ohio Lottery Commission finds it’s overall well-run. The agency had nearly 2.5 billion dollars in sales in the year ending in June and is in sound financial shape. But Republicans have questioned how the lottery is running, and State auditor Mary Taylor launched the review over objections of the agency. The audit endorses the lottery’s switch to a new vender and its process to evaluate vender. Taylor does say it could save money by cutting 30 staff positions and closing two regional offices.
One of Akron’s five unions that represents about 350 clerical and administrative workers has agreed to concessions. The City Service Personnel Association will be voting on the package Wednesday that includes furloughs and a wage freeze. It is only one of the city’s unions that agreed to concessions this year and last year, yet the union is still facing layoffs when its contract expires next month. The two sides have been negotiating since December. Akron has already reached deals – including concessions – with its firefighters and service workers unions. It’s gone to fact finding with police and nurses.
A federal judge has told a Wisconsin company to take down a website at the center of a trademark dispute with Ohio State University. Ohio State had accused GDS Marketing Inc. of trying to produce electronic versions of game day programs, along with printed versions for distribution in Columbus. A judge granted a temporary restraining order Monday.
A trial delay has been granted for a Cleveland man facing a possible death penalty in the 2005 fire deaths of nine people, including eight children at a birthday sleepover. 26-year-old Antun Lewis will stand trial l Jan. 5. It had been scheduled to begin Wednesday. The defense wants more time to explore whether Lewis is mentally competent to face the death penalty.
Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown has informed Browns president Mike Holmgren that he will not attend the September 19th ceremony when the team unveils its new ring of honor. Brown says he believes an agreement he had with owner Randy Lerner was violated.
A company is beginning a test with sand to see if it can clear up toxic blue-green algae on Ohio's largest inland lake. Sand will be placed in a portion of Grand Lake St. Marys on the theory that it could promote the growth of nontoxic algae and crowd out the more harmful kind. Marysville-based Algaeventure Systems test is being funded by $25,000 from the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
The toxic algae has led state officials to warn people to avoid direct contact with the water in the 13,500-acre lake, which sits between Toledo and Dayton in western Ohio.
Former Cleveland Indians star Manny Ramirez is expected to be in the lineup tonight – but this time wearing a White Sox uniform. The Dodgers have traded Ramirez to Chicago to finish out the final 32 games of the season. The White Sox are hoping he’ll boost the team’s fading hopes of clinching the American League Central Division. Ramirez debuted with the Indians in 1993 and stayed with the team for seven years, where he set the Indians' single-season record for RBIs at 164. Tribe lost in 11 last night, 10-6. | 
Headline News for Monday, May 23, 2011
