PUCO

The Cleveland Browns have been playing in FirstEnergy Stadium since 2013, through a $102 million, 17-year contract. Some state lawmakers want to know if the utility used ratepayer money to pay for the deal.

The report looks into whether FirstEnergy followed corporate separation safeguards.

The civil suit, which was initially filed in September 2020, includes former House Speaker Larry Householder and FirstEnergy.

The PUCO discovered $24.5 million was collected from ratepayers and other entities, and used for payments that were deemed "improperly classified, misallocated, or lacked documentation."

There are signs the federal investigation into the passage of House Bill 6 is getting closer to the heart of the DeWine administration.

Three of Akron-based FirstEnergy’s electric companies will refund customers amounts collected from a fee included in a tainted energy bill; the new superintendent of Akron Public Schools received unanimous support from the school board for her first proposal; the Ohio Attorney General’s Office says a grand jury has cleared a police officer who shot a Black man outside a public housing complex in Cleveland; and more stories.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is naming a former Franklin County judge to be the next chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. French replaces Sam Randazzo, who resigned last year after the FBI searched his home, looking into a $4 million-dollar payment from First Energy.

A listener wondered if Ohio's power grid might be vulnerable to an outage as severe as Texans experienced in February. The state's public utilities commission says there are a number of provisions in place to guard against that.

The utility's report says the transactions date as far back as 10 years ago.

The $61 million bribery scandal involving Ohio's nuclear plant bailout law and a utility widely believed to be FirstEnergy has brought new attention to to the commission that regulates utilities.