Criminal Justice & Policing
Police hiring database measure gets hearing
More than a year after its introduction, a measure establishing a statewide database for police officer hiring got its first committee hearing. Still, the proposal may be a longshot in the GOP-controlled House. For years, reformers have called for such a database. They invoke officers like Timothy Loehmann, who shot and killed Tamir Rice in […]
Most HBCU bomb threats may be coming from one juvenile, FBI official tells Congress
WASHINGTON — A top FBI official told members of a U.S. House panel on Thursday that the agency believes a single juvenile is behind most of the bomb threats made to more than 30 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Ryan Young, executive assistant director of the Intelligence Branch at the FBI, said that the bomb […]
Hundreds rally at Ohio Statehouse for more crime victim protections
The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. More than 100 crime survivors and families of killed loved ones […]
DeWine reappoints utility commissioner who didn’t do much to protect FirstEnergy customers
Regulatory reform? DeWine reappoints utility commissioner who didn't do much to protect FirstEnergy customers.
Ohio gets closer to abolishing death penalty
The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. Ohio hasn’t executed a prisoner in about four years, but capital […]
Ohio domestic violence survivor fights for more legal protections
The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. The majority of domestic violence survivors in the state reported feeling satisfied […]
Three men plead guilty to plotting a white supremacist attack on power grid
Three men, one from Ohio, pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges after admitting their plans to attack the power grid “in furtherance of white supremacist ideology,” according to documents unsealed Wednesday. Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio; Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, of West Lafayette, Indiana, and of Katy, Texas; and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, […]
Ohio House passes bills to stiffen ‘riot’ penalties; stop police from limiting guns on scene
The Ohio House passed two bills Wednesday that together would create new penalties and stiffen preexisting ones for people engaged in what the law considers to be “riots,” and another revoking a current police power to limit the transfer of guns and weapons during a “riot.” House Bill 109 creates new felony offenses of “riot […]
Group highlights the parallels between lynching and the modern death penalty
An anti-death penalty group in Ohio is arguing that lynchings in the 19th and early 20th centuries had a lot in common with the way the modern death penalty is applied. On Thursday it will highlight Ohio lynchings to make that case. The argument delves deeply into a complex and often painful past that some […]
RNC calls Capitol violence “legitimate.” Do Ohio statewides agree?
The top elected Republican tried this week to give his colleagues cover to disagree with a party claim that the violent attack on Congress on Jan. 1. 2021 was "legitimate political discourse." Most Ohio's statewide elected officials have been less definite.
HBCU leaders decry waves of bomb threats as federal investigators probe origin
WASHINGTON — Hours before the Southern Poverty Law Center held a virtual panel Tuesday about recent bomb threats made to dozens of historically Black colleges, yet another bomb threat was reported — this one to Spelman College, a historically Black institution in Georgia. “This was a racist attack that aims to not only disrupt the start of Black History Month, […]
FBI probes bomb threats against HBCUs; campuses reopen after no explosives are found
More than 20 FBI field offices around the nation are investigating a series of bomb threats characterized as “hate crimes” against Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and unidentified “houses of worship” but have found no explosives at the sites, the agency announced Wednesday. The statement did not say whether the threatened houses of worship, […]