Day: August 16, 2020

Ohio School Reopening Plan Draws Criticism

Ohio Star Staff

Schools in Ohio are planning to employ a mix of in-person, at-home and hybrid options when schools reopen, according to the Ohio Department of Education.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the state has left the decision on how to start the new school year to individual school districts.

Schools in Ohio are planning to employ a mix of in-person, at-home and hybrid options when schools reopen, according to the Ohio Department of Education.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the state has left the decision on how to start the new school year to individual school districts.

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GOP Lawmakers Call on Trump Admin to End Tax Breaks for Abortions

Ohio Star Staff

Over 100 Republican members of Congress sent a letter Wednesday calling on President Donald Trump’s administration to end tax deductions for abortions.

In a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, 23 senators and 80 representatives urged the Department of the Treasury “to take swift action to issue new regulations to protect innocent human life by ending tax breaks for abortion under the guise of medical care.”

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Seattle Mayor Appeals Judge’s Decision That Could Result in Her Removal from Office

Ohio Star Staff

Democratic Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan urged the state supreme court Wednesday to overturn a lower court decision that allows efforts to remove her from office to proceed.

King County Superior Court Judge Mary Roberts has permitted a recall effort that could effectively remove Durkan from office, according to the Seattle Times. A total of five Seattle residents submitted the petition due to the mayor’s handling of the police response to protests and a weeks-long encampment in the city formerly known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), the Times reported.

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NYT Report Suggests One-Third of TikTok Users Might Be Under 14

Ohio Star Staff

Roughly a third of TikTok’s 49 million daily users in the United States are 14 years old or younger, The New York Times reported Friday, citing internal documents.

The Chinese app’s workers noticed videos from children who appear much younger that remained on the video-streaming platform for weeks, a former employee told the Times. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), passed in 1998, requires internet companies to obtain parental permission before gathering data from adolescents under 13.

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Trump: Clinesmith Guilty Plea Is ‘Just the Beginning’ with ‘More to Come’

Ohio Star Staff

President Trump on Friday said that news of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith’s plea deal with Department of Justice prosecutors was “just the beginning,” signaling that U.S. Attorney John Durham is zeroing in on other targets in his investigation.

Clinesmith is expected to plead guilty in connection with his alteration of an exonerating email during the Crossfire Hurricane (CH) investigation, which targeted members of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, including foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

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Biden Raises $48 Million in 48 Hours After Picking Harris as VP

Ohio Star Staff

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign raised $48 million in the 48 hours after he selected California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, campaign officials told Reuters Thursday.

The haul is a sign of Biden’s growing fundraising strength ahead of his party’s convention which begins Monday, Reuters reported. Biden is set to formally accept his party’s nomination Aug. 20.

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Data Shows Long History of Pay-to-Play Among Ohio Republican Party, DeWine, Householder and FirstEnergy

Jason M. Reynolds

Mike DeWine, as former Ohio attorney general, often awarded no-bid contracts to lawyers and collections agencies to do state work. Many of those chosen vendors also happened to be his campaign donors.

The Dayton Daily News in July 2014 reported on the connections between Attorney General DeWine’s awarding of collections contracts to vendors who also just happened to be campaign donors.

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