Jess Mador

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says he’s not ruling out a statewide mandatory facemask order to slow the spread of COVID-19. In his Thursday briefing with reporters, DeWine called the state’s coronavirus outbreak “a crisis,” citing exponential community spread in many counties.

“This should be a wakeup call to all of us that we're in the fight of our lives and we're literally fighting for lives. We're fighting for our future,” he says. “We're fighting for our ability to be able to expand our economy and grow our economy.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a member of the Ohio National Guard after federal officials, Gov. Mike DeWine says, revealed information they say indicates the guard member expressed white supremacist ideology online before being deployed to assist with protest security in Washington, D.C.

In his regular coronavirus briefing Friday, DeWine told reporters the unidentified guard member is suspended from all missions as the investigation continues.

As WYSO remembers the 2019 Memorial Day tornado disaster and its impacts, we return to one of last year's hardest-hit Miami Valley communities: tight-knit Northridge. Beth Wentz and Timothy Walker raised their two children in the area as longtime homeowners in their first house together. On the night of the storm, Wentz and the kids clung together in the basement as a massive EF4 twister destroyed the house all around them. Walker had just started on third shift at a Clayton warehouse when his sister-in-law called. She told him the house was severely damaged, but his family had survived.

The Ohio National Guard will deploy across the state beginning this week to help expand COVID-19 testing at Ohio’s 960 nursing homes. Gov. Mike DeWine announced the effort during his regular coronavirus briefing.

More coronavirus testing and more protective masks will soon be available statewide as Ohio officials work to continue flattening Ohio’s COVID-19 curve. 

At his daily briefing Wednesday, Gov. Mike DeWine also announced further steps towards easing the essential businesses order.

Dozens of confirmed COVID-19 deaths have been recorded across the state in just the last few days, with confirmed cases now reported in 87 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley is calling for more federal aid to help the nation's smaller cities weather the coronavirus crisis.  Whaley is among a group of United States mayors who represent cities with fewer than half a million residents, who say the financial impacts of the pandemic could lead to widespread service reductions down the road.

State Attorney General Dave Yost is calling for the release of the Oregon District mass shooter’s Bellbrook-Sugarcreek student records. 

Yost filed a so-called “friend-of-the-court” brief in the Ohio Supreme Court asking it to overturn an earlier lower-court decision to keep the records private.

Yost’s brief supports a coalition of news outlets that includes Cox Media Group, Scripps, WDTN, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Associated Press, The New York Times, CNN and ABC News that is suing to make the records public. 

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley testified on Capitol Hill Wednesday in support of stricter gun controls.

Speaking before a House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Assault Weapons, Whaley called on lawmakers to take assault weapons off the streets to stop shootings similar to the one in the city’s Oregon District that left nine people dead and nearly three dozen others injured.

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley joined a group of Congressional Democrats in Washington Monday to lobby for tighter gun regulations. The group that included Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is calling for passage of a bill to expand background checks for gun purchases.

The bipartisan proposal known as H.R.8 would expand background checks to cover private firearm sales.

Mayor Whaley urged the Senate to bring the House bill to a vote.

Thousands of people were in downtown Dayton Sunday for comedian Dave Chappelle's Gem City Shine benefit show. 

Dave Chappelle has announced a free benefit show in response to the recent Oregon District mass shooting that left nine people dead and more than 30 others injured.

The Gem City Shine show is intended to help neighborhood businesses recover after the attack, and raise money for The Dayton Foundation’s Oregon District Tragedy Fund, says the Downtown Dayton Partnership’s Sandy Gudorf.

She says the idea for the show was born after the entertainer contacted the city offering to help.

President Donald Trump’s visit to Dayton Wednesday sparked protests across the city. After landing at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, the president and first lady Melania Trump traveled to Miami Valley Hospital, where they met with survivors of last weekend’s Oregon District massacre that left nine people dead and more than two dozen others injured.   

They also met with hospital staff, first responders and some Ohio lawmakers and public officials. Throughout the president’s visit, a large crowd of people stood across the street chanting in protest.

Law enforcement authorities say the shooter in the Oregon District attack had a history of obsession with violence and had expressed a previous desire to commit a mass shooting.

Dayton Police announced Tuesday the Federal Bureau of Investigation is taking over the investigation into the 24-year-old killer’s motives in the attack that left nine people dead and more than two dozen others injured.

At a press conference, an FBI special agent from the Cincinnati Field Office told reporters there’s still a lot of evidence to go through. 

President Donald Trump is expected to visit Dayton Wednesday to meet with city officials and first responders, shooting survivors and victims’ families.

Few details about the visit have been released. But news of the president’s trip has already sparked protest in the city where a mass shooting over the weekend left nine people dead and more than two dozen others injured.

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley has told reporters she anticipates protest, calling President Trump’s rhetoric “painful” for some here.

Authorities are continuing to investigate this weekend’s mass shooting on East Fifth Street in Dayton's Oregon District. Police have identified the killer as 24-year-old Connor Betts from Bellbrook.

The shooting left nine people dead, including the gunman’s own sister. More than two dozen other people were wounded. One remained in critical condition Sunday night.

Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl told reporters the killer wore body armor and a face mask when he opened fire using an AR-15-like assault rifle.

This is a developing story that will be updated.

UPDATE 5:02 PM

Police are continuing to investigate a mass shooting in Dayton’s Oregon district overnight. 9 people were killed and 27 others were injured when a 24-year-old Bellbrook man opened fire outside Ned Peppers bar.

Police say the gunman drove downtown with his sister, who was later killed in the shooting. He wore body armour, ear protection, and a mask. He carried out the attack with an assault rifle that was purchased online.

The 10 Ohio counties impacted by the Memorial Day tornado outbreak are now eligible for federal disaster recovery aid. Dayton-area officials say the FEMA and other funding could play a crucial role in the Miami Valley’s ongoing recovery.

President Donald Trump issued a federal disaster declaration Tuesday, one week after Gov. Mike DeWine formally requested it.

The declaration means affected Ohioans are now eligible for aid through FEMA’s individual assistance, hazard mitigation, and disaster legal services programs.

Special teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrive in Ohio Tuesday to begin assessing the damage from last week’s tornado outbreak.

The storm damaged thousands of homes and businesses across the Miami Valley and FEMA’s visit is a critical step toward securing federal disaster assistance, but officials say it could take weeks before any potential disaster aid comes to Ohio.

Cleanup continues again today after Monday’s massive tornado outbreak across Indiana and Ohio. The storms killed at least one person and injured dozens more across the Miami Valley. Gov. Mike DeWine has declared a state of emergency for three counties: Montgomery, Greene and Mercer.

Celina, in Mercer County, was particularly hard hit. Jakob Wenning lives there. He says he saw the roof of his apartment lift during the tornado.

A rally by an Indiana Ku Klux Klan group in Dayton’s Courthouse Square resulted in no major problems or violence Saturday. The event drew hundreds of police officers from across the Miami Valley and the state of Ohio, and crowds of counterdemonstrators, who flooded downtown Dayton to protest the KKK.

The protestors vastly outnumbered the nine Klan members who had traveled more than 100 miles from Indiana to rally inside a fenced-off plaza in Dayton’s Courthouse Square.

A wrongful death lawsuit related to the fatal shooting of 22-year-old John Crawford III inside a Beavercreek Walmart store more than four years ago took a step forward Tuesday.

A federal judge ruled the case can proceed to a jury trial.

Crawford’s relatives filed the suit against the Beavercreek Police Department and Walmart after a federal investigation into the shooting closed without charges two years ago, citing insufficient evidence.

The facts of Crawford’s shooting have been widely reported: