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Money begins to come in for local governments to address lead poisoning
For decades, city leaders in Cleveland have tried to take action to deal with the complex problem of childhood lead poisoning — mostly from lead paint in the housing stock and not as much from water pipes — and have viewed any potential solutions as complex and expensive. Back in 2019, Cleveland Councilman Blaine Griffin […]
Putting 1,000,000 COVID deaths in perspective
Last week, the United States registered the one millionth person dying from the COVID-19 pandemic. Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus research center put passing that historic mark on May 19, 2022 with 1,001,606 official deaths counted. About 83 million confirmed cases have been registered with the American public, with 337 new deaths on that day, and […]
Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College: A case on being adults, not fighting discrimination
On the first day of the civil trial in May of 2019, where a small business was suing Oberlin College for branding it as racist, I was somewhat shocked by the testimony of Ferdinand Protzman, a longtime communications specialist for the liberal arts school. A key part of the trial was to show why the […]
Euclid trail an example of addressing erosion while giving more public access to Lake Erie
For most American cities, a project that lays down a new asphalt walking/biking trail that is less than a mile long and has no one too angry over its being built would be quietly nice, but of little importance overall. Having it near a lake or pond would be a good added feature, but again, […]
Momentum builds in fight against ‘forever chemicals’ in water, environment
It is often difficult for the media and political eyes to figure out where the tipping point is on an issue that is both complicated and moving quickly. Incremental changes are often difficult to separate from the daily news, and doing a step-back to pause and assess what it all means is required. For those […]
Ohio sees 26% increase in fatal drug overdoses
The latest overdose data released last week by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that overdose deaths that had flattened out starting in 2017 are once again on the rise. Ohio went from 4,410 overdoses last year to 5,585 this year according to the CDC numbers, an increase of 26.6%. In his […]
Lake Erie offshore windmill pilot project in jeopardy amid scandal fallout
Despite approval from a multitude of oversight agencies, a pilot offshore windmill project on Lake Erie is facing some strong headwinds the next few months amid the fallout of Ohio’s ongoing energy scandal. In the summer of 2009 — with the backing if the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga and Lorain counties, the Cleveland Foundation and […]
How are Ohio cities spending their American Rescue Plan dollars?
When the American Rescue Plan was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden last March, the U.S. Department of the Treasury wanted the cities who were getting part of the $1.9 trillion national relief package to submit their first project and expenditure reports to them by Oct. 31. Ohio cities got […]
Advocates for Great Lakes hoping for investments to address coastlines, pollution, drinking water
When Joe Biden became president in January of 2020, the Alliance for the Great Lakes made a list of five priorities they felt were needed for environmental investment programs in the Great Lakes. They are: The results of whether these issues will move their way to being fixed is still in the air, with the […]
As lake trout reappear, a renewed bipartisan focus on the health of the Great Lakes also emerges
This past May, biologists from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation found something that looked quite small and inconsequential to those of us who might only fish in the Great Lakes, but something that was huge and quite important to scientists like them that spend their entire lives staring into the into largest freshwater […]
Examining the numbers behind new census option to share multiracial heritage
There is no doubt that the number of racial and ethnic populations in cities and counties and states across the country is a factor in many government grants and programs and long-term planning. It has been for a very long time. Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a report that said “EPA’s […]
What kind of tax revenue can Ohio expect from recreational adult-use marijuana legalization?
When the people of Colorado and Washington voted for the recreational legalization of adult marijuana use in 2012, one of the primary arguments against doing so was that this would cause more young people to use weed and it would be a gateway drug to more serious addictions. That was the main issue on those […]