It’s not enough to have a seat at the old ball game. Fans today want to congregate, grab a craft beer and mingle throughout the nine innings. So from the 400 level to behind home plate, the Cleveland Guardians are creating more shared sectors and open sightlines in their two-year, $435 million renovation. (That’s $150 million from the Guardians, $30 million from the state and $255 million from the city and Cuyahoga County.) A new-look upper deck will feature a beer garden, the formal Terrace Club will be reimagined as an open-air hub, and the Dugout Club will create a swanky lounge. There’s even a new building planned for East Fourth Street. Maybe all the improvements will persuade more Clevelanders to go to games. The Wake Up is off for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Talk to you Tuesday morning. - Laura |
Overnight Scores and Weather |
Cavs at Portland Trail Blazers: Cavaliers come up clutch late, show toughness in 119-113 comeback win over Portland Northeast Ohio weekend weather forecast: A snowy start to this weekend |
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The Guardians on Thursday unveiled designs for improvements to Progressive Field for 2024 and 2025. (Image courtesy of the Cleveland Guardians) |
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Baseball renovations: Massive renovation plans will transform Progressive Field by the 2025 season, with projects including the Terrace Club, upper-deck seating areas, the Dugout Club, home and visiting clubhouses and service level, and team administrative offices. Marc Bona has the details. Homemade moonshine: Ohioans could legally produce as much as 200 gallons of homemade moonshine a year without a government permit – as long as they don’t sell it – if a new bill proposed by an eastern Ohio lawmaker were to become law. Andrew Tobias reports that the proposed law is sharply at odds with federal law, under which home production of liquor is strictly forbidden. Today in Ohio: State Rep. Derek Merrin is asserting that he is the leader of the House GOP, even though he lost the House speaker’s race to fellow Republican Jason Stephens last week. We’re talking about sour grapes on Today in Ohio, cleveland.com’s daily half-hour news podcast. |
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Abortion amendment: Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, one of two campaigns planning to put proposals before voters enshrining abortion rights in the state’s Constitution, announced Thursday morning that it has hired a firm involved in defeating anti-abortion measures in two states last year to oversee campaign strategy. Laura Hancock reports Mission Control Inc. was most recently involved with successful campaigns against anti-abortion ballot issues in Kansas and Kentucky last year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving reproductive rights questions up to each state. Marijuana commission: A newly introduced Ohio Senate bill would create a 13-member medicinal cannabis oversight commission, as well as a new state agency, in hopes of being more responsive to the state’s medical marijuana industry and expand the diagnoses for which it could be prescribed. Laura Hancock reports Senate Bill 9 is similar to Senate Bill 261 from last legislative session in that they both try to update the state’s 6-year-old law that legalized medical marijuana in Ohio. However, the oversight board is new in SB9. Santos reaction: Rep. Max Miller, a Republican from Rocky River, is joining a group of New York congressional representatives in calling for Rep. George Santos to resign from Congress, Andrew Tobias reports. Santos, a Republican who was elected in November to a congressional seat representing parts of New York City, has been under fire since the New York Times reported that he apparently had fabricated or embellished significant portions of his life story. |
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Cleveland Foundation: Ronn Richard, president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation since 2003, is ready to join the growing list of longtime Northeast Ohio leaders who have stepped down to make way for a new generation. Steven Litt reports that with assets of $3.2 billion, the foundation distributes roughly $120 million in grants annually. RTA: The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is seeking applicants for its new seven-member oversight committee charged with reviewing complaints against transit police officers. Kaitlin Durbin reports the committee will investigate complaints related to harassment, bias, discrimination, profiling, excessive force, illegal search, insufficient service, misconduct and other allegations, and can recommend discipline or policy changes. Beachwood lawsuit: The city of Beachwood is spending $25,000 on a lawsuit on behalf of its police chief, Katherine McLaughlin, aiming to unmask the identity of an anonymous online critic. Cory Shaffer reports the city says that “John Doe” is behind a series of accounts that left comments on the Beachwood Police Department Facebook page and sent an email in September to members of City Council that accused the chief of, among other things, having “improper relationships” with subordinates and mistreating officers. Emily Moreno Miller: Cuyahoga County Republican Party leaders have picked a former Trump campaign operative with deepening family ties to local GOP politics for a top leadership position. Emily Moreno Miller will be the Cuyahoga County GOP’s new executive chairman, the party’s second-ranking position, Andrew Tobias reports. Violence prevention: The City of Akron announced how it will spend $1.5 million in COVID-19 stimulus dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act on grants aimed at preventing violence. Lucas Daprile reports that though Akron broadly earmarked all of its American Rescue Plan Act dollars in 2021, the city is still deciding on vendors and grant recipients for some projects. Pinkey Carr: The Ohio Supreme Court has held former Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Pinkey Carr in contempt for missing a deadline to submit a court filing, Cory Shaffer reports. The high court’s justices in October indefinitely suspended Carr without pay for committing an “unprecedented” level of misconduct spanning two years. She had until Nov. 17 to submit an affidavit that said she was abiding by the suspension. Then-Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor on Dec. 8 ordered Carr to file a response to convince her not to hold Carr in contempt after Carr did not file the affidavit. Bed bugs: Cleveland-Akron metro area has cracked the top five on a national list that really bites, reports Megan Sims. Earlier this week, the pest control company Orkin released its annual list of bed bug cities and the Cleveland-Akron metro area ranked fourth worst, up four spots from a year ago. |
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COVID-19 numbers: The number of new COVID-19 cases in Ohio fell sharply from 13,895 last week to 10,188 this week, putting the state close to the 10,000-new-case mark rarely reached since spring of 2022, reports Julie Washington. Flats East Bank: The signature building of the Flats East Bank entertainment area is under new ownership now that a lender has taken control of the property, reports Sean McDonnell. The Flats at East Bank building, which has restaurants on its ground floor and 240 apartments on its upper floors, had been on the market since October. Turkeyfoot golf: A New Franklin native is on course to make his community a place more people can enjoy after buying the Turkeyfoot Lake Golf Links, a 27-hole course that has been around since 1925. Megan Sims reports the course was under threat of becoming a 450- to 500-house development by a national developer after the family decided to sell the property that has been in the family for more than a century. Food waste: Despite Sean McDonnell’s personal vendetta against wasting money, he lets food waste happen often. He spoke to a registered dietitian and an educator at the Ohio State University’s extension office in Franklin County for resources so we can all throw less money in the trash. Summa: Summa chose to support and acknowledge the importance of mental health by building the $84 million Juve Family Behavioral Health Pavilion, opening this month and designed exclusively for behavioral health patients with healing and safety in mind. Julie Washington reports the new seven-story pavilion allows mental health services to be located near medical care on Summa’s main campus in Akron. Phoenix flights: A year ago, Cleveland snowbirds who were looking to fly nonstop to the Arizona desert had four airlines from which to choose. Today, two carriers – United and American – have exited the market, leaving Frontier and Southwest as the sole nonstop options, reports Susan Glaser. Hall of Fame: The Hall of Fame Village resort is no longer under threat of being removed from the Nasdaq stock exchange after combining shares to get its stock price over $1. Sean McDonnell reports the stock exchange warned the resort’s parent company in May that if the stock price didn’t improve, the company could be delisted, which would have made it harder for investors to buy and sell shares in the Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment company. |
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Check fraud: The owner of a payroll-processing business admitted to orchestrating a yearslong check fraud scheme that caused several businesses, including Cleveland-based KeyBank, to lose some $150 million. Adam Ferrise reports that Najeeb Khan, owner of Interlogic Outsourcing Inc., pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Cleveland to bank fraud and attempted tax evasion. Officers charged: Two Cleveland police gang unit officers face misdemeanor charges that accuse them of assaulting people in handcuffs during arrests. Adam Ferrise reports that the charges came more than a year after Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb asked the FBI to review cases of potential excessive uses of force by the city’s gang unit. Teen arrested: Parma police arrested a teenage boy Thursday and accused him of firing shots while trying to purchase Apple AirPods. Molly Walsh reports that police say the teenager was in the backseat of a vehicle during the planned transaction when he pulled out a gun. The driver tried to flee while the teenager exited the vehicle and fired one shot. John Muir Elementary School was put on lockdown because the suspect fled nearby on foot. |
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New art: Docents and visitors alike at the Cleveland Museum of Art should be delighted by the rich storytelling possibilities presented by four important new acquisitions announced Thursday, reports Steven Litt. 'Beetlejuice': “Beetlejuice,” the critic-proof musical about the dead that its dedicated legion of TikTokking fans refuses to let die, is inventive, funny and entertaining. It’s also exhausting, writes Joey Morona. Spring training: It’s been four years since Major League Baseball has had a full season of spring training, those five glorious weeks in February and March filled with promise and prospects, foul balls and fan interactions. This year, writes Susan Glaser, will be different. Kelsea Ballerini: Award-winning singer-songwriter, producer and author Kelsea Ballerini will bring her intimate HEARTFIRST tour to the Agora in Cleveland on March 15, reports Malcolm X Abram. Things to do: MLK Jr. Day is the only federal holiday designated as a National Day of Service and encourages Americans to take action to improve their communities. Paris Wolfe reports Northeast Ohio is full of free cultural activities, with museums waiving admission in honor of the great civil rights activist. |
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Lorain man who trafficked fentanyl connected to overdose death gets 15 years in prison Read more Columbus police search for couple accused of murdering 8-month-old boy Read more Three Cleveland men charged with rape in two-day span Read more Brook Park anticipates productive economic development year Read more Kurland replaces Duber as Orange council president; Duber won’t seek re-election Read more Medina County District Library adopts new strategic plan Read more Berea City Schools seeks to fill classified positions at Jan. 24 job fair Read more University of Akron, Kent State University to host Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration events Read more Berea, Brook Park, Middleburg Heights to pay portion of new dispatch software upgrade Read more Berea Board of Education elects new president Cori Farris Read more |
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