The Ohio Supreme Court says the Ohio Redistricting Commission needs to go back to work on maps for the Ohio House and Senate districts. The court in a 4-3 decision on Wednesday threw out the maps approved by the commission saying they were illegally gerrymandered and violated reforms approved by voters in 2015. The swing vote came from Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor who sided with the court’s Democrats to form the majority opinion. The maps tossed by the court would have awarded a veto-proof majority in both chambers for Republicans. The commission now has 10 days to come up with new maps.
Air Force medical personnel will be sent to Cleveland by the Biden Administration to help the Cleveland Clinic weather this surge of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The Ohio Department of Health announced the federal help at a news conference yesterday. Ohio has been seeing case numbers above the 18,000 mark nearly every day since December 29. Yesterday’s numbers were more than 19,200. The deployment is the latest aimed at helping states hard-hit by omicron. Previously, Governor Mike DeWine mobilized thousands of Ohio National Guard troops to help across the state.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb named key people to his administration this week. Key among the appointments---Karrie Howard as Bibb’s Chief Public Safety Officer. Howard served as safety director under former Mayor Frank Jackson.
A big infusion of money this week for the Cleveland Lead Safe Coalition to remediate the city’s housing stock to remove lead paint and pipes. Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland City Council announced a combined contribution of $67 million to make Cleveland homes lead-safe.
The result of a survey on health care in Ohio found that Black women were most likely to report facing discrimination. More than 800 Ohioans responded to the survey, the results of which were unveiled yesterday by the Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, UHCAN Ohio, the Ohio Unity Coalition, and the Multiethnic Advocates for Cultural Competency. Advocates say health care discrimination leads to disparities in treatment and inequitable service. They say health care discrimination can be a matter of life and death. According to the survey, filing a complaint was the least likely response to discrimination, according to the survey results. Only 15% of people said they would file a complaint. The most common reaction was “did not return for future appointments," (24%), followed by “accepted it as a fact of life” (22%).
- Nick Castele, Senior Reporter, Ideastream Public Media
- Anna Huntsman, Health Reporter, Ideastream Publc Media
- Karen Kasler, Statehouse News Bureau Chief, Ohio Public Radio/TV
Andy Chow, Correspondent, Statehouse News Bureau
