Here are your morning headlines for Friday, February 4:
- Counties announce snow emergencies
- Moreno drops out of Senate race
- Metro Parks ends swimming at two parks
- Port of Cleveland sees spike in shipping
- Scientists race to gather winter data on warming Great Lakes
- Ohio House Republicans push bill targeting tech censorship
- Cavs first coach Bill Fitch dies
Counties announce snow emergencies
(WKSU) -- The snow is tapering off, but it’s going to take crews and plows some time to clear roads and parking lots. Ashland and Holmes counties are under a Level 3 Snow Emergency, meaning all roads are closed except for essential vehicles. Summit, Portage, Wayne, and Medina counties all announced Level 2 Snow Emergencies, meaning only those who feel it completely necessary should be on the road. Most flights out of Cleveland Hopkins are canceled this morning, but so far are on schedule for this afternoon. Most schools are closed for a second day, along with Kent State and University of Akron campuses. A complete list of closings is at wksu.org.
Moreno drops out of Senate race
(Statehouse News Bureau) -- One of the nine Republicans who filed paperwork to seek the party’s nomination for U.S. Senate on Wednesday has announced he’s out of the race. Cleveland tech entrepreneur and high-end car dealer Bernie Moreno is the first candidate to drop out. Moreno said in a statement that he met with former President Trump and that they both “agreed this race has too many Trump candidates and could cost the MAGA movement a conservative seat.” He said he will support the candidate that wins Trump’s endorsement. Moreno jumped into the race last April, the third Republican to publicly announce he wanted the seat after Rob Portman's retirement. He hired former President Trump's senior counselor Kellyanne Conway to guide his campaign.
Metro Parks ends swimming at two parks
(WKSU) -- While few people are thinking about outdoor swimming right now, come summer they’ll have fewer choices in Summit County. Summit Metro Parks this week announced that it is permanently closing the swim areas at Munroe Falls and Silver Creek Metro Parks. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the park district said the pandemic has made it more difficult to find lifeguards for the swimming lakes, and it’s just not feasible to keep the swimming areas open.
Port of Cleveland sees a spike in shipping
(Cleveland.com) -- Supply chain problems in other parts of the country have increased traffic on the North Coast. Cleveland.com reports that the Port of Cleveland saw a 69% jump in the tonnage of goods loaded and unloaded at its docks. The increase included shipments of iron ore headed to the Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill. Ore and limestone shipments jumped 71% last year. The Port said shipping container volume also doubled. The Cleveland port is the only one on the Great Lakes with container shipping facilities.
Scientists race to gather winter data on warming Great Lakes
(AP) — Winter is changing across the Great Lakes region, and scientists want to know what that will mean. Teams from more than a dozen U.S. and Canadian universities and government agencies will venture onto the frozen surfaces of all five lakes this month. They'll take water samples from beneath the ice and measure characteristics such as light and nutrient levels. Researchers acknowledge most of their work on the lakes happens during warmer seasons and they don't know much about what goes on in winter. They say it's important to learn more now, as global warming brings milder temperatures and may eventually make ice cover a rarity.
Ohio House Republicans push bill targeting tech censorship
(AP) — Ohio House Republicans are pushing a bill to target what they say is censorship of conservative viewpoints by social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook. GOP Reps. Scott Wiggam of Wooster and Rep. Al Cutrona of suburban Youngstown are sponsoring the legislation. They say it will prevent big tech companies from engaging in viewpoint discrimination without violating the First Amendment right to free expression. The measure is drawing criticism from both conservatives and free speech advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union. Federal judges have struck down similar laws in Florida and Texas.
Bill Fitch, first coach of the Cavs, dies at 89
(AP) — The first coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers has died. Bill Fitch was 89. Fitch coached for 25 seasons in the NBA, starting with the expansion Cavs in 1970. He was Larry Bird's first pro coach with Boston, later won a title with the Celtics in 1981 and spent time with three other teams before retiring in 1998. He was elected to the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019."
