Council OKs loan

Council OKs loan

COLUMBIANA

The Local Government Innovation Council has awarded a $100,000 loan to the Columbiana County Recorder’s Office for the digitizing, redacting and local/remote access of land records.

The new program provides financial assistance, which encourages collaboration, shared service and efficiency at the local level, and the loans and grants are contingent upon State Controlling Board approval.

The Local Government Innovation Council approved more than $3.4 million in grants and $2.9 million in loans to Ohio communities this month.

The Columbiana County Recorder’s Office has been inundated with land and title researchers employed by the shale industry.

Interim bank CEO

warren

First Place Bank announced Monday it has appointed an interim CEO. Louis J. Dunham will replace Steven R. Lewis, who had the position for more than a decade before being terminated by the bank’s board in April for unspecified reasons.

Dunham will operate on an interim basis until the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, the bank’s primary regulator, approves the move.

The bank’s board had been seeking a replacement for Lewis. Last November, the company found itself off the Nasdaq Capital Market because of a failure to file multiple financial statements over a four-year period.

Dunham has 38 years of banking experience, according to a bank press release. Before First Bank, he served as CEO of other financial institutions, including American Home Bank of Chicago and Mutual Bank in Illinois.

First Place Bank is a subsidiary of Warren-based First Place Financial Corp., a $3.1 billion financial- services holding company.

Netflix lawsuit

LOS ANGELES

A federal judge in Massachusetts has denied Netflix Inc.’s request to throw out a lawsuit brought by the National Association for the Deaf, which alleges that the service discriminates against the deaf and hard of hearing by failing to provide closed captioning on all of the movies and TV shows available through its Internet streaming service.

The case, filed last year by the civil-rights group, alleges Netflix’s popular “Watch Instantly” service failed to offer closed captioning on “the vast majority” of its ever-growing library of movies and TV shows that can be watched via the Internet on demand.

As a result, millions of people who are deaf or hard of hearing could not take advantage of the Internet subscription service, in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act, the suit alleges.

Netflix argued that its Web-based offering should not be subject to the requirements of the 1990 act, which is intended to eliminate discrimination against individuals with disabilities. Among the arguments it put forth is that its on-demand service couldn’t be considered a public accommodation — like a video-rental store — because the movies and TV shows are screened in people’s homes.

Vindicator staff/wire reports