Tagged: Ohio

Civil disobedience is a tactic that's starting to be adopted in Ohio by at least some environmentalists protesting the oil and gas drilling method often called fracking.

State prisons director Gary Mohr has approved the first three inmates for a program meant to help ex-cons find work. The program provides information to employers about an inmate's employability. Mohr says it's designed to reduce Ohio's prison population in part by reducing recidivism. 

The director of Ohio State University's Sea Grant program predicts this year's toxic blue-green algae bloom in Lake Erie's Western Basin will be much smaller than last year. A team of researchers collaborated on a seasonal algae prediction, saying this year will be mild compared with worsening blooms over the past few years. The team says there's been less rain than usual, reducing the phosphorus from raw sewage and farm fertilizer runoff that feeds algae growth. The algae produce bacteria that can kill animals and sicken humans.

Ohio officials say only two of the 18 indicted suspects remain at large in a telemarketing scam that allegedly stole millions from people in 41 states over the past five years. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office said Monday that two more members of the ring, including its alleged leader, have been arrested in the past two days - one in Florida and one in Ohio. DeWine says the suspects targeted land owners and led them to believe their property was worth more than it really was.

More than half a million Ohio homes and businesses have had their electric service restored in the wake of last Friday's windstorm, but that leaves about 131,000 still without power this afternoon. That's the word from Ohio's largest electric company, American Electric Power. Ohio Public Radio's Bill Cohen talked with some folks who are now in their seventh day without electricity.

During the school year, thousands of Ohio children from low-income families receive discounted or free lunches in the cafeteria. In the summertime, some of those kids are able to get free lunches at parks and playgrounds. And as Ohio Public Radio's Bill Cohen reports, some children are even getting food to take home.

Much attention has been  focused on the presidential race and other issues on the November ballot. But in 36 of the state's 88 counties, residents will be voting in an earlier election. Statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen explains.

One of five suspects charged with plotting to bomb a highway bridge in Ohio wants to exclude trial evidence that he threatened to bomb his seventh-grade principal. Attorney Anthony Vegh told a federal judge in Akron that information about the threat by Douglas Wright of Indianapolis when he was 12 years old would prejudice the jury. The judge said Thursday he will take up the issue next month. All five men have pleaded not guilty. They allegedly tried to detonate what turned out to be a dud bomb provided by an informant.

Ohio's Attorney General is offering to have his staff mediate disputes between local governments and citizens who are demanding they turn over public records. A.G. Mike DeWine talks about his offer in this interview with statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen.

It was 200 years ago that the War of 1812 broke out and since Ohio was in the thick of the conflict, the state today launched a year long commemoration of the event. Statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen was on-hand for the ceremony in the capital building.