Here are your morning headlines for Friday, November 12:
- COVID transmission rate rises
- Officer target of chief's KKK note files complaint
- Ohio House will vote on bill to lower training for armed teachers, school staff
- Missionary group continues to pray nearly 1 month since kidnappings
- Auto parts producer Tenneco to close 700-worker Ohio plant
- US Army Corps backs soil remediation at former Cleveland uranium production site
- Richardson named Gund Foundation president
COVID transmission rate rises
(WKSU) -- New coronavirus cases in Ohio are surging heading into the holiday season. Nearly 5,000 new cases were reported Thursday after Wednesday’s spike of more than 5,500, the highest number seen since early October. The transmission rate has jumped after seven weeks of decline to 410 cases per 100,000 people. One out of every 200 people has COVID in more than 40% of Ohio counties.
Officer target of chief's KKK note files complaint
(AP) -- A Black police officer has filed a discrimination charge against a Lorain County department whose chief was seen in a surveillance video this summer putting a note saying “Ku Klux Klan” on the officer’s jacket. Attorneys for Officer Keith Pool said Thursday that this wasn’t the first time the police chief had mocked the race, gender, and religion of his employees. Sheffield Lake Police Chief Anthony Campo resigned in June just days after the video came out. Pool joined the department a year ago and was the first Black officer in its history. He said what happened was offensive and humiliating.
Ohio House will vote on bill to lower training for armed teachers, school staff
(Statehouse News Bureau) -- The full Ohio House will vote on a Republican-backed bill that would allow teachers and staff to carry guns in school with training they receive with their concealed carry permit and some additional work, and not more thorough training as currently required by law. The bill was approved by a House committee Wednesday on a party-line vote. Current law requires employees who aren't school resource officers to complete 729 hours of peace officer training to be armed in schools or to have 20 years of law enforcement experience. Under House Bill 99, armed teachers and school staff would have to have a concealed carry permit, which requires eight hours of training, plus take 18 hours of "general training" and two hours of handgun training. The bill does allow school districts to require more training than the standard set in the law.
Missionary group continues to pray nearly 1 month since kidnappings
(WKSU) -- It’s been nearly one month since 17 missionaries were taken hostage by a violent gang in Haiti. In a message on its website Thursday, Holmes County-based Christian Aid Ministries said "God is working out a plan that is bigger than we can comprehend." U.S. and Haitian authorities say they’re still trying to secure the release of 12 adults and 5 children kidnapped on October 16th. The U.S. government, meanwhile, is urging U.S. citizens to leave Haiti because of the country’s deepening insecurity and a severe lack of fuel.
Auto parts producer Tenneco to close 700-worker Ohio plant
(AP) — Automotive parts producer Tenneco Inc. has announced plans to close a plant in southwest Ohio before the end of 2023. The facility in Kettering, a suburb of Dayton, employs 648 people. That includes some 450 unionized IUE-CWA workers. A Tenneco spokesperson said higher steel prices and market oversaturation were among the economic factors driving the decision. Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said the state was reaching out to Tenneco executives. The Lake Forest, Illinois-based manufacturer purchased the Kettering facility from the bankrupt Delphi Corp. in 2008.
U.S. Army Corps backs soil remediation at former Cleveland uranium production site
(WKSU) -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to clean-up a site in Cleveland's Industrial Valley which was used for uranium production during World War II. The former Harshaw Chemical campus has been dormant since the 1990s. Nearby residents have been concerned about disturbing contaminated soil at the site, since the Cuyahoga River runs through the area. After two years of public comment, Project Manager Jeff Rowley says they've decided to remediate the soil. About a half-dozen landowners currently control the site, and any future development will be up to them. Rowley is hoping to award a contract next year and begin the cleanup process in 2023. For the past decade, officials with the Towpath Trail have been planning to complete a section through the Harshaw site.
Richardson named Gund Foundation president
(Ideastream Public Media) -- Anthony Richardson, executive director of the Nord Family Foundation in Amherst, has been named the next president of the George Gund Foundation. Richardson succeeds Dave Abbott, who is retiring after nearly two decades at the helm. In a conversation with Ideastream Public Media, Abbott called Richardson a “visionary and an imaginative young man" who will focus on issues like climate change and racial injustice. The 38-year-old Lorain native will be the foundation's first Black president when he steps into the role in January.
