TODAY IN OHIO

The Ohio House passed a bill Thursday afternoon that would prohibit K-12 schools, colleges and employers from requiring COVID-19 vaccines that haven’t been fully approved by the federal government. Meanwhile, new coronavirus cases are climbing. We’re talking about the state’s fifth wave as we enter the holiday season on Today in Ohio, cleveland.com’s daily half-hour news podcast.

STATEHOUSE & POLITICS

FirstEnergy Stadium: FirstEnergy Corp. did not wrongly use ratepayer money to pay for naming rights to the Cleveland Browns’ home field, Jeremy Pelzer reports. A state audit was ordered by state utility regulators at the request of Democratic state lawmakers, who have called on the city of Cleveland to revert the name of FirstEnergy Stadium back to Cleveland Browns Stadium because of the utility’s involvement in the House Bill 6 bribery scandal.

Build back: The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted largely along party lines to pass a sweeping $2 trillion social spending package that’s packed with Democratic party priorities, including a universal pre-kindergarten program and subsidized child-care costs for low- and middle-income families. Sabrina Eaton reports “Build Back Better” would also establish four weeks of government-subsidized paid leave for illness or caregiving, reduce the prices of some prescription drugs, lower healthcare costs under the Affordable Care Act, and set up climate initiatives that subsidize electric vehicles, renewable energy and clean-energy manufacturing.

Inflation: U.S. Sen. Rob Portman argues that the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Joe Biden signed at the White House on Monday will help curb inflation as it funnels billions of dollars to states like Ohio. Sabrina Eaton reports that Portman argues the bill will provide “long-term spending for capital assets,” which will reduce inflation “because you’re adding to the supply side.”

Lordstown: The Ohio House passed a bipartisan bill that would give Lordstown Motors a four-year sales-tax exemption on engines, transmissions, batteries, breaks and other components that are unique to the production of electric vehicles. Laura Hancock reports House Bill 292 would offer the tax exemption to all companies involved in production.

Election investigation: Lake County Auditor Christopher Galloway’s phone began going wild in August, when screen shots of information taken from Lake County’s computer system ended up on display at a cyber-symposium that My Pillow founder Mike Lindell said would demonstrate election fraud. Sabrina Eaton reports Galloway immediately began working with the Lake County Board of Elections and the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office to figure out what happened.

METRO

Refugee Thanksgiving: More than 200 Afghan refugees will be treated to a halal Thanksgiving as a way to welcome them to Cleveland. Navy veteran Ken Harbaugh, who was a Democratic congressional candidate in 2018, is working with fellow veterans to acquire donations to put together meals for a Thanksgiving Day feast, reports Cameron Fields.

Lake park: The Cleveland Metroparks has been awarded a $985,000 grant to help design 79 acres of park area along the Lake Erie shoreline. Peter Krouse reports the project, otherwise known as the Cleveland Harbor Eastern Embayment Resilience Design and Engineering (CHEERS) plan, includes using dredged material from the Cuyahoga River to help construct parkland.

ErieHack: RNA was critical to the discovery of a coronavirus vaccine, and now the genetic messenger may be used to protect Lake Erie from harmful algal blooms. A team developing a way to preserve and analyze RNA to aid in the detection of toxins in algae won the $30,000 top prize at the 2021 Erie Hack competition, which is designed to promote innovative solutions to pressing water-related issues, reports Peter Krouse.

BUSINESS

Unemployment rate: Ohio’s unemployment rate has slightly improved since September but is still above pre-pandemic levels, reports Sean McDonnell. October’s unemployment rate was 5.1%, down from a revised 5.3% in September. This month 20,000 jobs were added to the economy.

Orlando Baking: A new cold-storage facility is slated for Opportunity Corridor. The Cleveland City Planning Commission approved the city’s plan to sell land to Orlando Baking and give the company financial incentives to build the 150,000-square-foot facility, reports Sean McDonnell. Orlando Baking would use about 50,000 square feet and rent the rest of the pallet space to local grocers and others in the food industry.

COVID-19

Safe Thanksgiving: The majority of Northeast Ohio health experts who took part in an informal poll said they would not attend an indoor holiday concert or wedding without mandatory masking and would avoid a holiday meal with unvaccinated people. Julie Washington reports that for the second Thanksgiving in a row, Americans are weighing their desire to gather with family versus the need to keep vulnerable guests and unvaccinated children safe.

Booster shots: Ohioans ages 18 and older can schedule a coronavirus booster shot after the federal government approved them Friday for all fully vaccinated adults. Ohio adults can get the booster two months after they received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, or six months after the second Moderna or Pfizer shot, reports Laura Hancock.

COVID deaths: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday another 250 Ohio residents died with the coronavirus, bringing the total deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to 26,063, Laura Hancock reports.

Vaccine mandate: The White House temporarily suspended enforcement of a regulation requiring businesses with 100 or more employees to either mandate COVID-19 vaccination or test unvaccinated workers for COVID-19 at least once a week, reports Julie Washington.

Timeline: The Guardian reports Russia’s coronavirus cases hit another one-day record as the country struggles to contain a month-long wave of infections and deaths. Marc Bona recaps the biggest coronavirus news of the past week.

Hospitalizations: Coronavirus hospitalizations are back above 3,000, steadily rising to their highest number in about one month. The 3,014 COVID-19 patients in Ohio hospitals Saturday is a rise of more than 500 since last Saturday and more than 800 since the prior week, Jane Morice reports.

CRIME

Judicial misconduct: State disciplinary attorneys recommended that Cleveland Municipal Judge Pinkey Carr serve a two-year suspension after an investigation accused the judge of committing an “unprecedented” amount of misconduct. Adam Ferrise reports Carr is accused of issuing arrest warrants to people who didn’t show up to her court despite the court being closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, among a myriad of other issues.

CMSD settlement: Cleveland school officials have agreed to pay $3.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by eight former students who accused former dance instructor Terence Greene of sexually abusing them. John Caniglia reports the students also alleged the school district’s Board of Education failed to protect them from Greene, who faces felony charges that accuse him of sexually abusing students.

3-month-old: A 51-year-old woman is accused of causing a 3-month-old girl to suffer traumatic head injuries, including severe bleeding on the girl’s brain, reports Adam Ferrise. The woman is a relative and was babysitting, records say.

East Cleveland charges: Four people accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing a woman in East Cleveland have been indicted on aggravated murder charges. A grand jury on Wednesday charged Portria Williams, 30; Nathaniel Poke, 22; Anthony Bryant, 18; and Brittany Smith, 32. Each faces two counts of aggravated murder and one count of kidnapping in the shooting death of 22-year-old Alishah Porter, reports Cory Shaffer.

Wrongful conviction: The State of Ohio is set to pay a $1.8 million wrongful conviction settlement to a Cleveland man who was acquitted of murder charges in 2014 after spending 18 years in prison. Andrew Tobias reports the payment to Anthony Lemons, scheduled to be approved by a state spending panel today, is possible in part due to a 2018 law change that expanded who is eligible to receive money from the state’s wrongful conviction fund.

House fire: A woman died Friday in a house fire in the city’s Union-Miles neighborhood. Mercia Cherry, 58, of Cleveland, died after a fire broke out about 8:30 p.m. at a two-story home on Aetna Drive near East 103rd Street, reports Adam Ferrise.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Airline expansion: Spirit Airlines is prepping for a major expansion at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, although details are scarce. Susan Glaser reports the carrier recently signed an agreement with the airport that more than doubles its gate and office space at Hopkins.

Holiday travel: AAA predicts 53.4 million Americans will travel this week for Thanksgiving -- just 5% fewer than the number who traveled for the holiday in 2019, and up 13% from a year ago. At Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, officials are predicting that more holiday travelers will pass through the airport in 2021 than in 2019 – a remarkable feat, given how few of us were boarding airplanes earlier this year, reports Susan Glaser.

Wild lights: You can’t help but be dazzled by the hundreds of lit displays at this year’s Wild Winter Lights at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Dave Petkiewicz has a photo gallery of the display, which includes 1 million lights, illuminating the zoo through Jan. 2.

Barrio: Barrio has built a reputation on its build-your-own tacos, craft beers, drinks and – of course – Day of the Dead artwork. And it looks to open its Strongsville location in December about three miles west of Interstate 71 and just north of Ohio 82, reports Marc Bona.

Wildflowers: The Rock & Rock Roll Hall of Fame unveiled its “You Don’t Know How It Feels – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Wildflowers” showcase Friday inside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's “Right Here Right Now” exhibit. Troy Smith reports that the collection celebrates Petty’s 1994 album “Wildflowers,” which has seen recent reissues through Warner Bros. Records. On display are Petty’s custom Blonde Toru Nittono electric guitar, and handwritten lyrics to songs like “Crawling Back to You” and “You Don’t Know How It Feels.”

Taste Testers: Ashley Graham visits cleveland.com’s sister site Bon Appétit for Taste Testers, where Brad Leone is paired with special guests for a rollicking taste test focused on one kind of food. Today Brad and Ashley sample 11 kinds of doughnuts from around the world.

House of the Week: If you’re looking to get away from the bustle of the city but not far enough to make your commute a chore, this house in Sharon Township in Medina County ticks all the boxes. Located on three acres between I-71 and I-77, the custom-built ranch offers four bedrooms and five bathrooms, 3,982 square feet of living space plus an additional 2,672 square feet in the finished basement. Joey Morona reports the home is $1,299,800.