Jon Husted: A community bank in the Columbus area has tapped Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to be a paid member of its corporate board, Andrew Tobias reports. Heartland BancCorp, which does business as Heartland Bank, appointed Husted to the company’s board of directors in March 2022. Husted’s office could not provide any immediate historic precedent for a statewide elected official taking a paid corporate board job.
Abortion trends: Ohio’s abortions have been cut by nearly half since 1999, with the sharpest decline among teenagers, Zachary Smith reports. Ohio’s 20,102 abortions in 2019 marked a 30% decrease from 2009 and a 45.7% decrease since 1999. There also has been a swing toward a larger share of the abortions taking place later in life.
METRO
Bill Denihan: Longtime Cuyahoga County public servant and mental health and addiction advocate Bill Denihan died Monday at the age of 85. His wife, Mary, confirmed the news in a post on his Facebook page, saying he suffered “insurmountable health issues” following a heart attack on May 12. Denihan last served as CEO of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board, which he helped create in 2009 and led for 15 years, but his career in public service went back much further, Kaitlin Durbin reports.
Lead pipes: Cities across the country are looking to replace their lead water lines, but the only way to identify many lead water lines is to excavate them and do a visual check. The Cleveland Division of Water is teaming up with other utilities and the nonprofit Cleveland Water Alliance to spur the development of technology that could identify lead lines without breaking ground, reports Peter Krouse.
Interim sheriff: Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish named sheriff’s Capt. Steven Hammett as interim sheriff on Monday. Kaitlin Durbin reports Hammett was once considered on Budish’s short list of candidates to become sheriff in 2021 but did not then have the required degree for the job.
Police flag: The Ohio Department of Transportation will ask a family to remove a controversial flag placed on a sign honoring a Cleveland police officer who died on Interstate 90. Olivia Mitchell reports the issue of the Thin Blue Line flag comes months after the family of David Fahey removed a larger, wooden sign placed at a memorial post honoring Fahey, the Cleveland police officer who was struck and killed on the interstate in 2017.
Downtown parks: Downtown Cleveland’s public spaces are greener, more numerous, better designed, and more enticing than they were a generation ago. But the city has a long way to go before it rivals peer cities that offer coordinated, well-programmed and promoted outdoor events year-round, reports Steven Litt. The Cleveland Foundation has joined with Destination Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Partnership on a survey to figure out how to capitalize on downtown Cleveland’s eight most important parks and plazas.
Poor bridges: The abrupt closure of the Memphis Road bridge in Brooklyn during construction shed light on the state of Cuyahoga County’s infrastructure. A total of 120 bridges in the county are currently rated poor. Zachary Smith lists the bridges.
Internet access: Next month, the City of Cleveland expects to unveil a plan aimed at making America’s least-connected large city competitive in the digital age for decades to come. Mayor Justin Bibb promised an ambitious, two-pronged strategy to fund major infrastructure improvements using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars that will be announced in more detail next month, Lucas Daprile reports.
COVID-19 & HEALTHCARE
Alcohol, drug deaths: Alcohol- and drug-induced deaths shot up close to 30% nationally during the first year of the pandemic, with sizable increases also found in Ohio, according to a report released today by the organizations Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust. Alcohol-induced deaths climbed 27% nationally and 29% in Ohio in 2020 over 2019, while drug-induced deaths were up 30% in the U.S. and 22% in Ohio, Julie Washington reports.
Aspirin: The traditional advice about taking low-dose baby aspirin every day has been tossed out the window. For select individuals, daily aspirin may do more harm than good. New recommendations suggest that while aspirin can lower the chances of heart attack and stroke, it also can increase the risk of serious internal bleeding, reports Julie Washington.
CRIME & COURTS
Speed enforcement: Mayfield Village police have been utilizing traffic camera speed enforcement during morning and afternoon rush hours, collecting more than $300,000 worth of fines from Jan. 1 through April 30. Jeff Piorkowski reports Mayfield Police are working with the firm Gatso USA, which furnishes the camera, and sends citations to speeders officers photographed.
14-year-old killed: A 14-year-old girl was killed in her bed Sunday night after someone fired several shots into her home in the city’s Glenville neighborhood, reports Olivia Mitchell. Police said a vehicle pulled into the driveway of the home and someone from inside of it fired shots into the house.
Five wounded: Five people were wounded Monday after shots were fired during a memorial service in the South Collinwood neighborhood on the East Side, Cliff Pinckard reports. All of the victims, three men and two women ranging in age from 28 to 56, were taken to University Hospitals by either private vehicles or by an ambulance, police say.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Dazzle awards: Playhouse Square honored the best in high school musical theater at the sixth annual Dazzle Awards. Once the curtain was raised, nearly 200 students performed in the show’s opening and closing numbers, reports Joey Morona. Big winners included Rocky River High School, which won Best Musical (budget less than $12,000) for its production of “Young Frankenstein.” Magnificat High School took home the award for Best Musical (budget over $12,000) for its staging of “Mary Poppins.”
