May 31, 2019

Trailing candidates angry over new Democratic debate rules

Frustration over how the Democratic National Committee is managing the upcoming presidential debates is bursting into the open as several longshot candidates say the party is stacking the process against them.

Most of the two dozen declared candidates will be able to participate in the first debate of the 2020 campaign next month. But those who are struggling to gain traction are alarmed by new rules the party announced this week for later debates that are sure to cull the field.

It's precisely the dynamic DNC Chairman Tom Perez hoped to avoid when he began crafting the rules governing the nomination process in the aftermath of the 2016 election. He sought to avoid giving any campaign room to argue that the national party unduly influenced the outcome, as Bernie Sanders did in 2016, contributing to a divide in the party that wounded Hillary Clinton going into the general election.

Yet Perez also wants to avoid an unwieldly gaggle of dozens of candidates that could splinter the primary electorate well into next spring while President Donald Trump consolidates Republican support and stockpiles cash.

Read more: https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/national-govt--politics/trailing-candidates-angry-over-new-democratic-debate-rules/1NJsQ4UqhuG9uTmbnwEFRI/

May 31, 2019

Bernie Sanders defends his support for Clinton in 2016

HENDERSON, NEVADA — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Thursday defended his efforts to support his party's presidential nominee in 2016 and said he would do the same in 2020 if he doesn't win the nomination himself.

The Vermont senator was asked by a voter at a campaign event in a Las Vegas suburb about whether he'd support winner of a crowded primary field, which has more than 20 contenders.

Sanders said, "absolutely and positively yes," but took umbrage with a member of the crowd who shouted that he failed to be supportive of Democrat Hillary Clinton three years earlier.

"Oh really? I didn't know that," Sanders said sarcastically. "I thought I ran all over the country, into Nevada and everywhere else, working as hard as I humanly could to see that Hillary Clinton was elected president of the United States."

Read more: https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/national-govt--politics/bernie-sanders-defends-his-support-for-clinton-2016/p5WqSAQAOkb20BBddAvNbM/

May 31, 2019

Ex-Toledo councilman McCloskey may run again despite bribery conviction

A longtime Toledo councilman who spent 20 months in a federal prison camp after he was convicted in 2006 for accepting bribes is considering another run for city council.

East Toledo’s Bob McCloskey, 73, pulled petitions from the Lucas County Board of Elections to begin gathering signatures needed to run for the District 3 seat held by Democrat Peter Ujvagi, 70. Mr. Ujvagi, also of East Toledo, is running for re-election. District 3 encompasses East Toledo and parts of the Old South End.

McCloskey, also a Democrat, said he received numerous phone calls from people “begging me to do it,” although he declined to say who was urging him to run again.

“I know I could win if I really push it,” he said. “Several prominent people told me they would help me raise the money.”

Read more: https://www.toledoblade.com/local/politics/2019/05/29/ex-toledo-councilman-bob-mccloskey-may-run-again-despite-bribery-conviction/stories/20190529129

May 31, 2019

State trooper indicted over death of son who shot himself with unsecured gun

An Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper was indicted Thursday on charges of negligent homicide and endangering children after his toddler fatally shot himself with an unsecured weapon on Mother’s Day.

Trooper Fu Z. Sun's 4-year-old son, Evan, accidentally shot himself in the head May 12 with Mr. Sun's division-issued backup firearm in the 1100 block of Joyce Lane in Toledo. The victim's parents took him to a medical facility in Sylvania before he was rushed to ProMedica Toledo Hospital.

Toledo police investigated the case.

“The biggest thing is that [a weapon was] left in an area where a young child had access and tragically took their own life,” said Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office criminal division chief Jeff Lingo. “Whenever you handle weapons you have a responsibility to secure them and keep them in a safe place.”

The endangering children charge is a third-degree felony; negligent homicide is a misdemeanor.

Read more: https://www.toledoblade.com/local/courts/2019/05/30/state-trooper-indicted-negligent-homicide-toddler-shot-himself-gun/stories/20190530159

May 30, 2019

3 reasons Joe Biden will make Donald Trump sweat in Ohio

Even as the Democratic Party has written off Ohio in 2020, their best presidential candidate is coming here anyway.

Joe Biden's stop in Columbus on Saturday – his first Ohio visit since launching the campaign in late April – is a good move. Trump fears no one more than Biden, and his visit will send a message to the president that Ohio and its 18 electoral college votes aren't being ignored.

"Ohio is in Joe Biden’s math even if it isn’t in the Democratic Party's math," said David Niven, University of Cincinnati political science professor.

Trump's eight-point win here in 2016 will be tough for any Democrat to overcome. But Biden is generally viewed as the only Democrat who has a snowball's chance of winning Ohio. Could the ex-veep be enough of a threat here to force Trump to divert campaign resources away from the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin?

Read more: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/columnists/politics-extra/2019/05/30/donald-trump-can-joe-biden-win-ohio-2020-election/3627665002/

May 30, 2019

Singer R. Kelly charged with 11 new counts of sexual abuse

The Cook County State's Attorney's Office has charged singer R. Kelly with 11 new counts of criminal sexual abuse, The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday, bringing the total number of charges against him in Illinois up to 21.

The new charges, which come months after Kelly was arrested three months ago and charged with 10 counts of aggravated assault, resulted from offenses that allegedly took place in 2010.

Attorney Michael Avenatti told the Associated Press that the new charges pertain to a woman who was one of the three minors in the group of four women alleging abuse in February. Her initials are listed as J.P.

Avenatti represents three Kelly victims, two parents and two whistleblowers, and says he has provided "significant evidence" against Kelly to federal prosecutors in multiple U.S. attorneys' offices.

Read more: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/life/people/2019/05/30/r-kelly-charged-11-new-counts-sex-abuse/1289868001/

May 30, 2019

'I was quite surprised.' Greater Cincinnati Republican deletes controversial Facebook post involving

'I was quite surprised.' Greater Cincinnati Republican deletes controversial Facebook post involving daughter and shotgun.


An Ohio Republican this week deleted a controversial post that showed a sleeping bag and a shotgun separating two bedrooms in his house -- rooms where his daughter and fiance would be sleeping.

“I'm looking forward to my daughter and her fiancé visiting for the weekend. Her room is on the right and the guest room is on the left. You can see where dad will be sleeping. And yes, that is a 12 gauge shotgun propped up in the corner,” State Rep. Becker wrote alongside a photo showing a blue sleeping bag and a gun propped up against a door.

The post drew a number of comments, some supportive but others critical.

Becker told The Enquirer the original post was intended to be satirical.

Read more: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/30/john-becker-deletes-facebook-post-showing-shotgun-sleeping-bag/1290079001/

May 30, 2019

5 years after sentencing, former judge Tracie Hunter could go to jail after federal ruling

Five years after it was imposed, former Hamilton County judge Tracie Hunter's six-month jail sentence can go forward, a federal judge has ruled.

In a decision filed Wednesday in federal court in Cincinnati, U.S. District Judge Timothy Black found that Hunter received a fair trial in 2014.

"Whether a six-month jail sentence is warranted is not for this court to decide," Black said in a 26-page decision. "Only the state court can impose or amend a sentence for a state court conviction."

Hunter's case is before Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker. He took over after Norbert Nadel, who oversaw the trial and initially sentenced her, retired.

Read more: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/crime/crime-and-courts/2019/05/29/federal-ruling-former-judge-tracie-hunters-jail-sentence-can-proceed/1278064001/

May 30, 2019

More Ohio Journalists Slashed as Gatehouse Media Announces Layoffs

In a move that executives at GateHouse Media are spinning as a "restructuring" for the future, more than 100 journalists at GateHouse publications around the country have been laid off.

Among them are editors and reporters at Ohio publications like the Columbus Dispatch, The Akron Beacon-Journal and the Canton Repository.

The current round of GateHouse layoffs follows an earlier purge of about 60 positions in January and February, cuts that Gatehouse execs have described, and continue to describe, as no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Mike Reed, CEO of GateHouse’s parent company New Media Investment Group, characterized the current cuts as "immaterial" to Business Insider, and told Poynter that the layoffs were likely to be misrepresented.

Read more: https://www.citybeat.com/news/blog/21070319/more-ohio-journalists-slashed-as-gatehouse-media-announces-layoffs

May 30, 2019

Raw Sewage Overflows Into Lake Erie Once Again Following Storms

CLEVELAND -- Delay your plans to swim at Edgewater Beach, at least until the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has removed a public advisory to keep out of the water. Turns out Lake Erie was once again contaminated with raw sewage and storm water overflow during yesterday's rainstorms — an extra 142,600 gallons of the combination.

The United States Geological Survey NowCast Status has listed advisories not just for Edgewater Beach, but also Huntington Beach and Villa Angela Beach due to high estimations of E. coli bacterial levels.

The last two incidents of sewage overflow at Edgewater during "recreation season" occurred almost three years apart, in June 2015 and last August, respectively. This is actually a significant decrease in outfall since the mid-1970s, when raw sewage at Edgewater discharged into Lake Erie around 40 to 50 times per year.

Luckily, the sewer district has plans to reduce instances of overflow into Lake Erie and other area waterways. Project Clean Lake, a 25-year, $3 billion capital improvement plan established in 2010, is set to reduce sewage outfall through the construction of large storage tunnels designed to intercept combined sewage.

Read more: https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2019/05/29/raw-sewage-overflows-into-lake-erie-once-again-following-storms