How far would you go to save your job? Would you lie under oath in a court deposition?

Former Fox News Producer, Abby Grossberg did, but then she thought better of it, recanted her story, and sued her employer for both allegedly coercing her to lie, and for sexual harassment. Then they fired her, and claimed she was both lying, and bad at her job.

On its own, that set of facts is pretty sensational, but when considered in context with the underlying case involved; the $1.6 billion dollar defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News for promoting the "big lie" on the air after the 2020 election that Donald Trump lost because the company's machines somehow actually changed votes for Trump into votes for Joe Biden.

Quite the story, and now the basis for the lawsuit claiming that Fox destroyed Dominion's reputation to the point that they not only lost contracts they already had, but also pending deals that would allow them to continue to operate their business successfully.

But Fox is claiming that they were just reporting the news as it came to them from the former president and surrogates speaking on his behalf. And besides–and here's the rub for Grossberg–they contend that her lack of fact checking led network luminaries Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, and Sean Hannity to repeat those lies on the air. Grossberg contends they're trying to scapegoat her, and though she admits she actually did lie about it originally; she only did so because she was being pressured by Fox lawyers.

The problem is; internal communications including text messages, tell a whole different story about what was really going on inside Fox News, and the judge hearing the case recently ruled it not only has to go to trial, but that it is “CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true".

The judge made this ruling based on pretrial court documents that reportedly show the network stars and even Fox network owner, Rupert Murdoch, actually knew that the alleged Dominion voting machine story was false, but repeated it anyway, because they were afraid they'd lose viewers, ratings, and money if they told the truth. Now, all of them are going to have to go to court to testify in the Dominion case.

Of course all that is going on far away from Ohio, but it does actually have a local connection.

In 2021, the Stark County Board of Commissioners decided not to buy 14 hundred new voting machines from Dominion, which had been recommended by the Stark County Board of Elections, and they did so, based on the false allegations about the machines. Stark County, of course, is far from the only local jurisdiction that has done the same thing; hence the big lawsuit against Fox.

But even leaving the whole Fox-Dominion dispute aside; there are lawsuits every day, where employees are called on to either back up, or refute allegations of misdeeds on the part of their employers. Then, those employees, like Abby Grossberg, have a choice to make; tell the truth and maybe lose their jobs, or tell a lie and possibly get blamed for something they didn't do, or even face charges of perjury.

Rock, meet hard place.

So, that's why I decided to talk about it with Akron Attorney, and University of Akron Law Professor Emeritus, J. Dean Carro. Listen now.

J. Dean Carro, Attorney

City of Akron Planning and Urban Development Director, Jason Segedy, has accepted a new position with the University of Akron, and will start there on May 3.

Segedy, who has been with the City since 2016, will be the new project manager for the reimagining of the Polsky Building, which will be known as Knight Creative.

According to a release from the University, officials say that in this new role, Segedy will coordinate all aspects of the Knight Creative project – including working closely with planning and facilities staff; reviewing project specifications and change orders; coordinating all elements of the project with the UA administration and community partners around programming of space and integration of the project with campus, the city and the county; providing space planning input into architectural programs for new construction projects; and acting as a bridge between the president’s office and those responsible for the execution of the capital project, among other duties.

Segedy, who earned his bachelor’s degree in geography from UA in 1994 and his master’s degree in geography/transportation planning from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1997, brings an impressive urban planning and design background which will help him integrate the Polsky work with the downtown Akron landscape and civic commons.

Prior to his work with the City of Akron, Segedy spent 17 years with the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study, including seven years as the executive director, where he was responsible for managing the budget and staff; developing the regional transportation plan for the greater Akron area; overseeing expenditure of federal transportation funds in the region; and working with federal, state and local officials to foster regional cooperation.

Following up on our March 3 episode about clean water technology; today, we're talking about proposed new federal EPA regulations that would require testing for exceptionally dangerous chemicals that cannot be filtered out by the common methods used to make drinking water safe nationwide right now.

We'll find out exactly what those "forever chemicals" are, how they're detected, and what would be necessary to remove them from our drinking water supply.

Listen now, as I interview City of Akron Water Supply Bureau Manager, Jeff Bronowski.

A school shooting plan in West Geauga High School was foiled after a student discovered a bullet in a men’s restroom. 3News reports that the discovery of the 9 mm bullet led school officials to review surveillance video, and interview nearly 20 students. 

Further investigation led school officials to the suspected student, 18-year-old Brandon Morrisette. It’s reported that Vice Principal Victor Puskas searched Morresette’s backpack and allegedly found a Smith and Wesson 9 mm handgun and three fully loaded magazines of ammunition. Officials say he also had a lock blade-style knife on his person.

Court documents obtained by 3News reveal that Morrisette allegedly had plans to shoot multiple students at West Geauga High School. Chester Township Police Chief Craig Young says that Morrisette “admitted to using prior calculation and design in developing a plan to cause harm to students at West Geauga High School on April 3.”

Morrisette now faces multiple charges including attempted aggravated murder, inducing panic, and illegal possession of a weapon in a school safety zone. However officials note that those charges are subject to change.