Toledo
Lake Erie still at significant risk for harmful algae blooms, experts warn
In early August of 2014 — almost seven years ago — a harmful algae bloom (HAB) in Lake Erie caused the water to be shut off for almost a week in the Toledo area. That caused that city’s voters to overwhelmingly pass the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) in 2019, which gave the city […]
Pence, Biden visit Ohio in late battleground push
Flanked by dump trucks and construction equipment, some adorned with flags and campaign signs, Vice President Mike Pence told hundreds of supporters about the need to “Make America Great Again, again.” Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden also made his case to Buckeye State voters Monday in back-to-back events in Toledo and Cincinnati. The two […]
Why aren’t Ohio’s city budgets collapsing under COVID-19?
In March of this year, the Brookings Institution had a blog post that pegged four Ohio cities — Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Cleveland — in the top five “cities with the most immediate fiscal impacts from COVID-19” in the entire country. Yet this gloom and doom about Ohio fiscal prospects did not materialize. Columbus cut […]
History Thursday: When the 1912 presidential election ran through one Ohio town
The travelers came into town on horse-drawn wagons, each person elegantly dressed for a stately presidential campaign stop. Then the barrels of hard cider were brought out, and the whole town got drunk. Indeed, nobody threw a party like the campaign of William Henry Harrison. The year was 1840, and hundreds of Bellevue residents reveled […]
Panel of retired judges to consider suspension of Toledo City Council members charged in federal probe
The Ohio Supreme Court’s chief justice will bring in three retired judges to oversee the case of four Toledo elected officials charged in a federal bribery probe. The case involves Tyrone Riley, Yvonne Harper, Larry Sykes and Gary Johnson, all of whom are Toledo City Council members. They were arrested after allegedly being paid for […]
Unionized fast-food, janitorial, nursing home workers picket for Black Lives Matter in Toledo, Cleveland
Unionized fast-food, nursing home and janitorial workers in Toledo and Cleveland picketed Monday in solidarity with the Strike for Black Lives, a national day of action confronting systemic racism. SEIU District 1199 — a union that represents workers in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio — was one of more than 50 major national labor organizations that […]
Ohio cities desperate for federal funding to save jobs, local economies
City officials from across the state say federal funding is the only way their previously thriving municipalities can survive the pandemic and its accompanying recession. City mayors and city council members are trying to push U.S. Sen. Rob Portman to support funding through the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HEROES Act), saying […]
Ohio Supreme Court: City of Toledo can’t hold hearings on red-light camera violations
The city of Toledo lacks jurisdiction to hold hearings on violations cited via red-light camera, according to a ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday. All seven Supreme Court Justices agreed with the argument of a Woodville woman who said holding “administrative” proceedings in Toledo on her potentially $120 speeding fine would be overriding […]
Mayors pledge police reform, racial inequity efforts
Mayors from across Ohio said they are already implementing plans to address racial bias and increase police relations in their cities. The Ohio Mayors Alliance said a Police Reform Support Network will be formed to take recommendations on changes to police and community efforts, and “focus on turning these ideas into action by supporting policy […]
Four of top five cities with budgets most vulnerable to pandemic located in Ohio
An analysis from the national think tank Brookings shows four out of five cities in the U.S. with the most immediate fiscal impacts from COVID-19 are located in Ohio, including Columbus and Cincinnati and Nos. 1 and 2, and Toledo and Cleveland at Nos. 4 and 5. “To understand when cities can anticipate the brunt […]