STATEHOUSE & POLITICS School shootings: In the wake of the Texas mass shooting, Gov. Mike DeWine outlined a long list of steps his administration will take to improve school security and reduce gun violence. Jeremy Pelzer reports DeWine called on state lawmakers to pass bills to spend money “hardening” Ohio schools, cracking down on repeat gun offenders, and easing training requirements for school employees to be armed on school grounds. Burn pits: The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee this month announced a bipartisan agreement on comprehensive legislation that it says would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide disability benefits and care for all generations of toxic-exposed veterans, reports Sabrina Eaton. That includes an estimated 3.5 million post-9/11 combat veterans who were poisoned during their military service, including by burn pits. Lebanon sanctuary: Officials in the Cincinnati suburb of Lebanon agreed Thursday to amend or not enforce a controversial ordinance banning abortion, reports Laura Hancock. Lebanon’s “sanctuary for the unborn” ordinance was similar to ones introduced in five suburban or rural Ohio cities, modeled after anti-abortion city laws that originated in Texas. METRO Jail plans: When it first leaked that Cuyahoga County was eyeing a job-ready site in Slavic Village as part of its plans for a new jail, community leaders, organizations and citizens came out in force against it. But Kaitlin Durbin reports city and county council members hosted a community meeting to discuss moving a container storage facility to the Cuyahoga Valley Industrial Center in order to potentially free up property on Transport Road to build a new jail. More than 100 people attended and “responded favorably” to news that the county is not building a jail there, but could use it for a container facility. ATVs: Cleveland police are cracking down on riders of dirt bikes, ATVs and other non-street-legal vehicles, but their new tactics have already been tested in other big U.S. cities. Courtney Astolfi reports those tactics have yielded middling results -- not eliminating the issue completely, but tamping it down. Stimulus hiring: Many Ohio cities have sought to use COVID-19 stimulus money to hire more police officers to plug staffing shortages or fight rising crime rates. Lorain is hoping to hire at least 10 police officers with $6 million in ARPA funding. But Lucas Daprile asks what happens when that one-time federal money -- the last cent of which must be spent by the end of 2026 -- dries up? Memorial Day: Lake View Cemetery was decorated Friday with about 9,000 flags in preparation of its annual Memorial Day observance. Hundreds of volunteers worked through Saturday afternoon to make sure the cemetery was well-decorated for Monday’s event. David Petkiewicz has photos. Downtown survey: Downtown Cleveland Alliance, the center city’s nonprofit service and business development organization, wants to create a clearer picture of where it and downtown could head. Steven Litt reports that while developing a new strategic plan, the alliance is conducting an online survey through June 20. CVNP wells: Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park will clean up three abandoned oil and gas wells with its share of a $33 million Interior Department investment to plug, remediate and reclaim orphaned oil and gas wells, reports Sabrina Eaton. The money would come from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Zoo food: The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo spends around $630,000 a year on a range of food for its herbivores, carnivores, and everything in between. This comes out to around $315 a year per animal, reports Zachary Smith. COVID-19 & HEALTHCARE COVID red: Cuyahoga County is one of five Ohio counties now designated red for high COVID-19 transmission levels, according to the latest U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ashtabula and Lorain counties in Northeast Ohio, as well as Lucas and Wood counties in Northwest Ohio, also are red, reports Julie Washington. BUSINESS Job gains: Job postings on the state’s OhioMeansJobs.com website were up 8% from March to April and 22% than they were last year, evidence that the demand for workers remains high, according to the latest report from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. According to the latest report, 331,615 job openings were posted on the site from mid-March to mid-April, an increase of 24,279 ads, Sean McDonnell reports. Jesse Jackson: Longtime civil rights icon Jesse Jackson has been invited to Cleveland to help Black leaders settle differences over diversity goals related to the construction of Sherwin-Williams’ new downtown Cleveland headquarters and Brecksville research and development center. Peter Krouse reports the timetable has not yet been set for a visit, but Jackson expects to come soon. CRIME & COURTS Police shooting: A male was fatally shot in Cleveland on Monday morning during an incident that involved Maple Heights police, Cleveland police said. No police officers were injured. Cleveland’s use of force unit is investigating, Sean McDonnell reports. Gun show arrest: A Cleveland man, convicted in 2008 for his role in a deadly shooting, has been arrested and accused of walking around a Berea gun show with a handgun and talking about selling an assault rifle, reports Adam Ferrise. David Carroll, 41, is charged with possessing a weapon as a felon, the second time he has been charged with the crime in federal court since his reckless homicide conviction. A year later: A woman died a year after she was shot in the back by a man on the city’s East Side, reports Olivia Mitchell. Marisa Leonard, 26, of Cleveland, died on May 7, exactly a year from the date she was struck by a bullet that had been fired from the gun of Donta Dixon, 37, of Cleveland. Memorial service shooting: Police found 122 shell casings after a shooting spree earlier this week that targeted mourners at a memorial service in the city’s South Collinwood neighborhood. Five people were injured, reports Olivia Mitchell. East Cleveland dump: An appeals court panel has upheld a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge’s ruling ordering an East Cleveland business to pay more than $30 million for flouting the state’s environmental regulations and sparking a fire that cost taxpayers millions of dollars to clean up. Cory Shaffer reports the judgment against George Michael Riley and his company that ran the ARCO Recycling Facility on East Cleveland’s Noble Road is the largest civil penalty in an environmental case in state history. Diamond fraud: A Canadian man is accused of helping to defraud investors out of nearly $750,000 in a telemarketing scheme designed to push people to buy colored diamonds, reports Adam Ferrise. Brecksville councilman: An appeals court will not take up the case of former Brecksville City Councilman Jack Petsche, whom a judge found not guilty of corruption charges. Cory Shaffer reports Cuyahoga County prosecutors and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office asked the 8th District Court of Appeals to issue an advisory opinion, saying that Common Pleas Court Judge John J. Russo misinterpreted the state’s unlawful interest in a public contract law when Russo acquitted Petsche at his March trial. Jif lawsuit: A Michigan man on Thursday sued Orrville-based J.M. Smucker Co. over the salmonella outbreak in Jif-brand peanut butter, reports Adam Ferrise. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Akron, seeks class-action status. Sixteen people so far have fallen ill after eating the peanut butter, or products that contained it, including one in Ohio. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Kelleys wonders: Peter Krouse takes a hike on Kelleys Island accompanied by two naturalists, one with an extensive knowledge of the native habitat and the other toting binoculars and a bird identification app on his smartphone. It left him brimming with newfound insights into the quirky characteristics of a unique ecosystem and a thirst to learn even more. Parades: Thousands of people lined streets in communities around Northeast Ohio as Memorial Day parades kicked off Monday morning, some for the first time in three years. David Petkiewicz has photos from the events. House of the week: Designed and built by architect Joseph Miller in 1919-20, 2611 Fairmount Blvd. in Cleveland Heights has been restored to its original grandeur, reports Joey Morona. The house boasts a renovated kitchen, marble bathrooms, refinished floors, central air, custom windows, pool and a fence. | 