Ohio teen earns perfect scores on college entrance exams

Ohio teen earns perfect scores on college entrance exams

CANTON

An Ohio teenager hoping to become a book editor someday has earned perfect scores on both the ACT and SAT college entrance exams.

The Canton Repository reports 18-year-old Dinah Ward, a student at Canton South High School, took the exams previously and worked with a tutor work to achieve perfection.

Only 0.2 percent of the 1.9 million people who took the ACT last year earned a perfect score of 36.

The newspaper reports there weren’t any data available to show how many SAT test takers managed a perfect score of 1,600 in 2018.

Canton South Principal Jeff Moore says Ward is “one of the nicest down-to-earth students” he’s ever met.

Ward wants to study English at Columbia University, an Ivy League school in New York City.

Cleveland school graduates eligible for scholarships

CLEVELAND

A national nonprofit group and local partners say graduates of the Cleveland public school system will be eligible for college scholarships.

School and community leaders and Say Yes to Education founder George Weiss announced the selection of the Cleveland Municipal School District for the program last week.

Cleveland.com reports Say Yes is committing $15 million to the program while local fundraising has gathered $90 million in commitments toward a goal of $125 million for the scholarship fund.

The scholarships will be available at public and private colleges in Ohio and dozens of private schools across the country.

Weiss, a money manager, founded Say Yes nearly 32 years ago when he promised sixth-graders at a Philadelphia school to personally pay for college.

The program will eventually provide support services to students.

Police say boy, 15, stabbed to death by half brother, 13

COLUMBUS

Police say a 15-year-old boy has been stabbed to death by his 13-year-old half brother during a fight in Ohio’s capital city of Columbus.

Columbus police say the stabbing occurred Friday at a condominium complex and the 15-year-old, who hasn’t been identified, was found dead at the scene.

The 13-year-old was arrested without incident and taken into custody.

Police provided no additional details about the death Saturday.

Report: More than 6,000 votes uncounted in Ohio county

TROY

A newspaper is reporting that more than 6,000 votes went uncounted during the November election in a central Ohio county.

The Dayton Daily News reports the Miami County elections board will meet Tuesday to amend official election results. The uncounted votes were discovered last month when the Ohio Secretary of State’s office reviewed results and discovered that the county’s numbers didn’t match the vote history.

County elections board Chairman Dave Fisher says there will be an investigation to discover why the votes, cast by early voters on touch-screen machines at the county courthouse, weren’t counted.

Fisher says the uncounted votes didn’t affect any election results, calling it “the saving grace.”

The elections board has been debating whether to buy a new voting system.

Ohio SNAP recipients get funds early during federal shutdown

COLUMBUS

State officials say Ohio recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program help do not have to use all of their benefits by the end of this month after receiving their February benefits early as the nation grapples with a partial federal government shutdown.

Officials say recipients will next receive their monthly SNAP benefits in March and that they should plan accordingly and stretch the February assistance they received this month as long as possible.

The state Department of Job and Family Services says that while funding for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families has yet to be reauthorized, those benefits will be available in February.

Ohio film commissions seeking bigger production incentives

CLEVELAND

The film commissions of Cleveland and Cincinnati are asking Ohio to increase the annual amount of tax incentives to draw more film productions to the state.

Ivan Schwarz, head of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission, and Kristen Schlotman, leader of Film Cincinnati, said recently they want Ohio to raise the cap on incentives for film productions from $40 million to $100 million annually, according to Cleveland.com.

Schwarz would like to see the credit expanded to Ohio productions of Broadway shows. Ohio currently provides incentives only to film and television productions.

State Sen. Kurt Schuring, a Canton Republican and a champion of the film incentives, says he plans to introduce an amendment to expand the credits to theatrical work. The credit would apply to productions and performances of shows heading to Broadway, coming from Broadway or shows embarking on national tours.

“They love Ohio, because of the demographics,” Schuring said after meeting with Broadway producers.

A Cleveland State University economic impact study showed that every $1 in incentives contributed $2.01 to the state’s economy.

The Greater Cleveland Film Commission has helped bring production work to northeast Ohio for “The Avengers,” “White Boy Rick,” “My Friend Dahmer,” “Native Son” and numerous other films. Filmmakers spent about $90 million in Greater Cleveland last year and employed more than 50,000 people part-time, Schwarz said.

Schuring said he wants to give priority to those productions that most help the state’s economy. Ohio currently accepts the first qualified applicants until the cap runs out, which happened two weeks into the current fiscal year.

There won’t be a proposal to increase the annual incentive cap until Republican Gov. Mike DeWine unveils a budget proposal for 2019, Schuring said.

OSU whistleblower gets probation in harassment case

COLUMBUS

The whistleblower who helped spur an investigation into alleged, decades-old sexual abuse by an Ohio State team doctor has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor telecommunications harassment charge in a tangentially related case.

A municipal court judge on Friday sentenced 50-year-old Mike DiSabato, of Dublin, to two years of probation. A six-month jail sentence is suspended as long as he follows the judge’s instructions, including not contacting the university-affiliated administrator he was accused of harassing via email.

DiSabato argues that the man harassed him through public criticism.

Messages seeking comment were left Friday for DiSabato and his lawyer.

The former Buckeyes wrestler is among the more than 150 men alleging they experienced sexual misconduct by now-deceased Dr. Richard Strauss, mostly in the 1980s and ’90s.

Strauss died in 2005.

Charges dropped for three supervisors in Ohio police shooting

EAST CLEVELAND

A prosecutor has dropped misdemeanor charges against three of the five police supervisors accused of dereliction of duty for failing to control a high-speed chase that ended with two unarmed black people being killed in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire.

Cleveland.com reports East Cleveland Law Director Willa Hemmons announced the dismissals last week but did not provide an explanation. She says she’s preparing to try the other two supervisors’ cases.

Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams were killed in East Cleveland in November 2012 after a mileslong chase. Cleveland subsequently paid their families a total of $3 million to settle a lawsuit.

The supervisors were originally indicted in Cleveland. The case was moved to East Cleveland after the acquittal of a Cleveland police officer who fired 49 shots that night.

Utility-bill help and free tickets offered to idle workers

COLUMBUS

Furloughed federal employees in Ohio are being offered free admission to a zoo and Ohio State sporting events along with help on utility bills in Columbus.

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium said furloughed employees can present their federal ID or badge at the ticket booth and receive free admission for as long as the government shutdown continues.

Furloughed employees can get in free to a men’s basketball game Friday night between Ohio State and Maryland at Value City Arena in Columbus. Two free tickets also are being offered for Ohio State women’s basketball, men’s ice hockey, wrestling, women’s gymnastics and men’s lacrosse.

Columbus says the Department of Utilities will waive penalties for furloughed city residents if they make minimum monthly payments. Those residents should call or visit the utility department.

Bystander fires shots at suspect during traffic stop

PARMA

A dashcam video released by police outside Cleveland shows a bystander blocking a car during a traffic stop and then firing several rounds at the suspect as he fled the scene.

WOIO-TV reports a Parma police officer pulled over a 22-year-old Cleveland man seen driving recklessly in a parking lot where the bystander blocked the man’s car with his vehicle.

The officer got out of his cruiser and ordered the man to turn off the engine. The man instead bumped the bystander’s front fender and began driving off, prompting the bystander to fire several rounds.

A Parma police spokesman says the bystander told officers he thought his and the officer’s lives were in danger.

The suspect, who wasn’t shot, crashed a short time later and was arrested.

Condemned Ohio defendant seeks execution delay

COLUMBUS

Lawyers for a man condemned to death in Ohio are asking the state’s high court to delay the inmate’s execution next month.

The attorneys cite a federal judge’s finding that Ohio’s three-drug injection process “will certainly or very likely cause him severe pain and needless suffering.”

The attorneys filed the request Friday with the Ohio Supreme Court on behalf of death row inmate Warren Keith Henness.

The request came one hour after the Ohio Parole Board rejected Henness’ request for mercy. Henness says he’s innocent in the fatal shooting of a volunteer addiction counselor.

Associated Press