The images of a black cloud of smoke spreading across the sky over the village of East Palestine are hard to forget. The smoke came from a controlled burn of the chemical, vinyl chloride, which was inside several tanker cars of the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in Columbiana County in February of 2023.
The decision to burn the chemicals, safety responders said at the time, was needed to prevent the potential of a more catastrophic explosion of the tanker cars. The decision to burn off the chemical led to a mass evacuation in East Palestine.
This week, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board told the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that the controlled burn and release was unnecessary. Jennifer Homendy testified before the committee that the rail cars were cooling, not continuing to heat up, and were not in danger of exploding. The people of East Palestine have complained of ongoing health issues that they attribute to the toxic release of the chemicals.
We’ll begin our discussion of the week’s news with a recap of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech. He delivered the speech on Thursday night before a joint-session of Congress.
After two weeks of hearings, Cleveland City Council and Mayor Justin Bibb reached agreement this week on the 2024 budget for the city. The spending plan calls for eliminating 148 unfilled police positions and overhauls the mayor's plan for pooling open positions to give the city maximum flexibility in hiring.
Pro Palestinian protesters who continue to press Cleveland City Council for a Gaza ceasefire resolution staged their own mock council meeting in the Rotunda of City Hall Monday to pass their own resolution. Council asked police to remove them from the building.
Akron says its national search for a new police chief is over. Mayor Shammas Malik announced this week that the city will instead limit its search to internal candidates in the police department.
Arnold Schwarzenegger headlined an event in Ohio last weekend organized by Citizens Not Politicians. That is the group seeking to put an amendment on the November ballot that seeks to end gerrymandering by removing politicians from drawing congressional and statehouse maps.
And the Akron-Summit County Public Library marked the 150th anniversary of its opening this month by eliminating overdue fees. The library system becomes the latest in Ohio to move away from charging patrons money for overdue books and materials.
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Guests:
-Tom Sutton, Ph.D., Interim Provost and Professor of Political Science, Baldwin Wallace University
-Kabir Bhatia, Senior Reporter, Ideastream Public Media
-Abbey Marshall, Reporter, Ideastream Public Media
-Karen Kasler, Statehouse News Bureau Chief, Ohio Public Radio/TV
