The iOpener: Brown Won't Run in 2020; Couple Convicted in Death of 4-Year-Old; New Kennel Opens

Good morning, iOpeners. It's Friday, March 8, 2019. Remember to set your clocks ahead one hour this Sunday for Daylight Saving Time.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown says he will not run for president in 2020, ending months of speculation that the liberal Democrat would jump into the race to challenge President Donald Trump.  Brown, who won re-election last November, said he thinks he can be more effective by remaining in the Senate.  He recently finished a tour of early primary states.  CNN reports his decision took many in Brown’s circle by surprise; advisors had mapped out a fundraising and travel plan for a presidential candidacy starting in April. 

Gov. Mike DeWine has delayed the executions of three more inmates on Ohio’s death row, as corrections officials continue searching for a new lethal drug cocktail that will survive constitutional challenges.  The Republican governor has now delayed four executions since he ordered the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in January to create a new lethal injection system.

Jurors convicted a Euclid mother and her boyfriend on aggravated murder charges in the death of 4-year-old Aniya Day-Garrett. They deliberated for about five hours over two days.  Sierra Day and Deonte Lewis each face life in prison without parole. 

Strongsville has reached a $1 million settlement with the family of a Lorain man who was shot and killed by a Strongsville police officer following a car chase in 2017 on I-71. Officer Jason Miller shot Roy Evans Jr. while Evans was sitting in the driver’s seat of a van. Officer Miller told investigators he thought he saw Evans reaching for a weapon and had feared for his life.  Evans was unarmed and there were no weapons in the vehicle.  A grand jury in 2017 cleared Miller of any criminal wrongdoing.

Cleveland’s mayor, Frank Jackson, helped with the ribbon-cutting for the city’s new $7.3 million kennel for dogs awaiting adoption. The new kennel in the West Eighties neighborhood on the West Side was years in the making.  It’s larger than its predecessor in Tremont and houses dogs in pods with glass doors rather than in metal cages. The kennel will be open for public tours this weekend.

Services are scheduled for Sunday in Cleveland Heights for Sam Miller, the philanthropist and long-time co-chairman of Forest City Enterprises. Miller died Thursday at the age of 97. 

Longtime Kent State golf coach Herb Page will retire at the end of this season.  Page has coached the Golden Flashes since 1977.  Under Page, Kent State has won 22 Mid-American Conference titles, and has appeared in 17 NCAA championships.  Page has coached 28 All-Americans, including Ben Curtis, the 2003 British Open champion.

The Pittsburgh Penguins shut out the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-0.

Weather forecast: Partly sunny, high 36.  Tonight, a mostly clear sky, low 24. Your weekend will start off cloudy Saturday, with rain after 4 p.m.  High 46.  Sunday, some showers in the morning, then partly sunny, high 48.