READ THE SCRIPT:
[Pat] Well, the first month of 2020 went fast. Hi, I'm Pat Miller, and welcome to January's Buckeye Beat. Let's round up the biggest news from last month.
January began with a pretty important event in Ohio, a visit from the president of the United States himself. President Donald Trump held his first campaign rally of the year in Toledo on January 9th. It was the first 2020 stop in his Keep America Great tour. The tour is a chance for him to rally support from voters in the reelection campaign.
But not everyone was happy that the president was in town. Protestors lined the streets outside of the event center. President Trump spoke about a number of issues, including progress in reducing opioid deaths in the state and his plan to bring back factory jobs. Vice President Mike Pence also spoke.
It's no surprise that the president would wanna start off the year in our state. Ohio is a swing state, which means it has about an even amount of Republican and Democratic voters. We're a key state for a candidate to win in the 2020 presidential election.
President Trump wasn't the only celebrity getting attention in our state last month. Fiona the famous hippo celebrated her third birthday on January 24th! Fiona was born at the Cincinnati Zoo three years ago. She was born six weeks premature and extremely underweight. Premature means done before the proper or usual time.
Fiona wasn't expected to survive, but she overcame the odds and became a social media star. And now she weighs over 1,000 pounds! Fiona received birthday wishes from folks in her fanbase from all over the country. She even got to chow down on a huge cake at the zoo.
From all of us here at NewsDepth, happy belated birthday, Fiona.
Okay, strike one, strike two, three strikes you're out! That's how it's supposed to work with baseball, right? Well, no strikes needed. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is considering kicking several Minor League teams across the country outta the league. He's considering eliminating 42 Minor League teams across the country, including the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in Niles, Ohio.
But Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is pleading with Manfred to rethink that proposal. Manfred said this would improve facilities and conditions for the remaining teams. But Governor DeWine is trying to save the Scrappers. He wrote a letter opposing this idea, calling it a horrible business decision. He said, instead, the organization should introduce cost-effective ways to get more fans to attend Minor League games.
Ohio has several Minor League teams, including the Columbus Clippers, Akron RubberDucks, and the Dayton Dragons. The Mahoning Valley Scrappers are the only Ohio team on the chopping block. Governor DeWine isn't the only politician who thinks this proposal is way outta left field. Several members of the US House of Representatives passed a resolution asking Minor League Baseball officials to drop the plan.
If the proposal goes through, it wouldn't take effect until after the 2020 season, so fans would still have one last summer to cheer on their teams.
A few weeks ago, our NewsDepth A+ went to some students who brought attention to racist burial practices in their city's past. Many African-American burial grounds across the country are unmarked or unknown because African-Americans weren't allowed to bury their family members in the same cemeteries as white folks.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, along with Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, proposed the African-American Burial Grounds Act on January 27th. The bill would create a database of black burial grounds in the United States and provide federal funding to help maintain and preserve them.
The senators say the act would help communities honor their African-American history, so important.
All right, that's a wrap for January's Buckeye Beat. I'm Pat Miller. See you next month with more Ohio happenings.
