Today’s News
Lockout looming? NHL is one year away from key labor deadline
Connor McDavid heard teammates talking about another potential lockout when he entered the NHL — in 2015. As he became one of hockey’s best players and signed the richest annual contract in the league, McDavid says he remains optimistic there will not be another work stoppages like those in 2004-05 and 2012-13 — but he protected himself anyway with contract language guaranteeing some early payment, just in case. “Both parties have kind of prepared so [...]
Obama’s return: Good or bad for Democrats as mid-term elections loom
WASHINGTON — Nearly two years out of the White House, former President Barack Obama is facing another political test. To the delight of many Democrats, he’s stepped back into the fray that former presidents often try to avoid, campaigning for Democratic candidates ahead of the midterms and blasting the political culture of the Trump era. This past week he attracted a large, adoring crowd in Ohio and campaigned in Pennsylvania for Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. [...]
Florence likely to expose gaps in flood insurance
NEW YORK — The number of Americans with flood insurance is on the rise, yet Hurricane Florence is likely to make it painfully clear that too many homeowners in the Carolinas and other vulnerable regions remain unprotected. An analysis of federal flood insurance records by The Associated Press found there were roughly 5.1 million active flood insurance policies in the U.S. as of July 31, up from 4.94 million a year earlier. The Carolinas had [...]
Pollution fears: Swollen rivers swamp ash dumps, hog farms
Flooded rivers from Florence’s driving rains have begun to swamp coal ash dumps and low-lying hog farms, raising pollution concerns as the swollen waterways approach their crests. Duke Energy said the weekend collapse of a coal ash landfill at the mothballed L.V. Sutton Power Station near Wilmington, N.C., is an “on-going situation,” with an unknown amount of potentially contaminated storm water flowing into a nearby lake. At a different power plant near Goldsboro, three old [...]
Ex-teacher and OSU grad hopes the sky’s the limit in meteorology
From high school teacher to chief science officer, Ohio State alumnus Kevin Petty now seeks the presidency — of the American Meteorological Society. Petty has been a member of the organization for more than two decades since The Ohio State University’s atmospheric sciences program introduced him to the group. The chief science officer of Boulder, Colo.-based Vaisala, a global provider of environmental and industrial weather measurement products and solutions, says he would bring at least [...]
To avoid overdoses, some users test their heroin before they take it
NEW YORK (AP) — The newest tool in the fight against opioid overdoses is an inexpensive test strip that can help heroin users detect a potentially deadly contaminant in their drugs. Sales of fentanyl test strips have exploded as a growing number of overdose-prevention programs hand them out to people who use illicit drugs. Though they weren’t designed for it, the test strips can signal the presence of fentanyl in illicit drugs. Some health officials [...]
Survey: 2 million teens are vaping marijuana
A school-based survey shows nearly 1 in 11 students have used marijuana in electronic cigarettes, heightening concern about the new popularity of vaping among teens. E-cigarettes typically contain nicotine, but results published Monday mean 2.1 million middle and high school students have used them to get high. The devices are generally considered a less dangerous alternative to regular cigarettes, despite little research on their long-term effects including whether they help smokers quit. The rise in [...]
GOP, White House fret about election prospects
WASHINGTON (AP) — The prognosis for President Donald Trump and his party was grim. In a post-Labor Day briefing at the White House, a top Republican pollster told senior staff that the determining factor in the election wouldn’t be the improving economy or the steady increase in job creation. It would be how voters feel about Trump. And the majority of the electorate, including a sizeable percentage of Republican-leaning voters, doesn’t feel good about the [...]
Leaked docs show Assange bid for Russian visa
LONDON (AP) — Julian Assange had just pulled off one of the biggest scoops in journalistic history, splaying the innards of American diplomacy across the web. But technology firms were cutting ties to his WikiLeaks website, cable news pundits were calling for his head and a Swedish sex crime case was threatening to put him behind bars. Caught in a vise, the silver-haired Australian wrote to the Russian Consulate in London. “I, Julian Assange, hereby [...]
Legal News
Proposal would mandate grading of all new laws on health impact
Every new law, administrative rule, directive or state policy would be graded on its health impact of Ohio citizens if a measure championed by a [...]
Bill goes after reckless drivers flouting school bus-stop law
A pair of central Ohio lawmakers are hopeful their peers will consider a measure ultimately intended to improve the safety of students while boarding and [...]
Oregon will require notification from growers of marijuana harvest
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Before Matthew Miller harvests marijuana this fall from his fields in southern Oregon, he’ll have to notify the state for the [...]
Business News
Columbus ranks 34th as ‘boomtown’
Central Ohio was among the top 50 metropolitan areas considered to be the “biggest boomtowns” in America. Columbus ranked No. 34 out of the 100 [...]
Industrial production strong in August
WASHINGTON (AP) — Industrial production rose by a healthy 0.4 percent in August, boosted by gains in the production of autos, oil and natural gas. [...]
A CBS shaped by Moonves is challenged without him
NEW YORK (AP) — For the past two decades, CBS may just as well have been called the Moonves Broadcasting System. Now it’s time to [...]
Real Estate
Report: Central Ohioans paying spending a little more on their mortgages
The share of income spent on a monthly mortgage payment in central Ohio ticked up in the second quarter of 2018, while the share spent [...]
‘Hidden costs’ of homeownership in Columbus area is on par with national average
Central Ohio homeowners on average pay almost $10,000 per year in hidden costs, according to a recent analysis. In Columbus, where the median home value [...]
Rising home prices in Columbus may be easing
Homebuyers may finally be getting some relief in central Ohio’s housing market. The share of listings with a price cut was at 15.1 percent in [...]
Politics
Primary season sets up a brawl for November votes
The stage is set for a November brawl that could loosen President Donald Trump’s grip on Washington. Elections in New York Thursday marked the end [...]
Upcoming redistricting is a backstory of 2018 midterms
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The task of drawing new boundaries for thousands of federal and state legislative districts is still about three years away, yet [...]
Proposed legislation seeks to recognize Latino contributions to the Buckeye State
Rather than having to introduce and pass a resolution every year to recognize the contributions Latin Americans have made to Ohio, a pair of Latino [...]
