Chef Alejandro Najar, Barberton native, was a contestant on the 21st Season of Hell's Kitchen, finishing in 3rd place. Alejandro joined Ray to talk about the experience.
The Student Athlete of the Week segment is powered by NECA-IBEW and Akron Children’s Hospital.
This week's athletes are from Manchester High School.
Jaydyn McKinney is a junior wrestler with a 3.678 GPA. She has a 15-0 record going into states (14 pins 1 technical fall). Jaydyn finished in 1st place in the Columbia Station Girls Tournament, the Carrollton Lady Warrior Tournament, and the Northeast Regional. She won the state title last year and is looking to get another one this weekend. Jaydyn was also a key contributor on the girl's soccer team, who made the Final Four this past season.
Evan Kusmits is a sophomore wrestler with a 3.975 GPA. He has a 30-7 record and is going into the state tournament this weekend. Evan has finished in 1st place in the Waterloo D3 Classic, the PAC-7 league Tournament, and the North East Sectional Tournament. Evan excels in football, wrestling, and track. He has a twin brother, Trevor, and they are both coached in wrestling by their father, Andy Kusmits.
The spate of car dealership thefts in Northeast Ohio continued over the weekend, this time at a BMW dealership in Middleburg heights.
3News reports that 3 luxury vehicles with a combined value of over $185,000 were stolen early Saturday morning from the dealership on Pearl Road.
This is at least the 7th car dealership theft since December 2022 but police have not yet said if the thefts are related.
Akron City Council President Margo Sommerville says she believes that despite being unable to reach an agreement for the past two weeks about who should be on the City's new Citizens Police Oversight Board; they'll be able to get it done on Wednesday at a special City Council meeting.
That's because, she says, they're going to remove the key sticking point from the mix; Akron attorney, Imokhai Okolo, from the list of candidates. Okolo has been strongly supported by some City Council members, and opposed by others, causing a deadlock at the past two regular City Council meetings.
Listen now, to find out more, as she talks about it with our Morning Show Host, Ray Horner.
A 55-year-old Akron man was arrested in Springfield Township on Sunday, but he didn’t come easy.
Springfield police tell the Akron Beacon Journal that the suspect, Vincent Mann, has a history of violating protection orders and that this was the 11th time in the past 12 months they’ve been called to deal with him.
On Sunday authorities say a woman called them saying that Mann, who is her ex-boyfriend, came to her house on Salmon Drive, violating a protection order. He then proceeded to barricade himself inside her home.
After Mann fired off one shot at the police, authorities brought in a SWAT team, used tear gas, and eventually made their way inside the home to arrest him.
Mann was taken to the hospital for a mental health evaluation and is facing several charges including inducing panic and improper discharge of a firearm.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown says Ohioans "should not be forced to live in fear of another disaster".
This, in response to the Norfolk-Southern train derailment near Springfield, Ohio on Saturday, which, Brown notes, is the fourth one in Ohio, in the past five months. The others occurred in Steubenville, Sandusky, and in East Palestine, which remains the site of an ongoing major toxic disaster.
The derailment near Springfield on Saturday night did not involve a toxic chemical spill, and no one was hurt, though, as you will hear from Senator Brown in the ABC News video clip below; Brown is not entirely convinced there wasn't at least some chemical residue left behind, and he'd like to see that investigated.
Find out more, as Brown talks about derailments and the need for new rail regulations, on "This Week" with ABC News host, George Stephanopoulos:
In other developments related to the East Palestine derailment, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine released an update on Saturday.
Some highlights include that despite what appeared to be greater flow of potentially contaminated water from near the crash site; a dam there did not fail. In addition, Norfolk-Southern Railways employees began dismantling tracks in preparation for removing contaminated soil, but didn't get very far because the ground was too wet from recent rain.
Also, East Palestine officials held an open house for the public at their water treatment plant on Saturday, again telling residents they have not seen any evidence of contamination in municipal water wells.
Click here to read the full update on the Ohio Emergency Management Agency website.
Tim Elliott, Executive VP of Northeast Ohio's Auto Dealers Association joined Ray. They talked about inventory, computer chips, and hopes for 2023.
The U.S. Senate is set to hold hearings on the East Palestine train derailment where Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw will face questioning.
News 5 reports that the hearing scheduled for next Thursday March 9th will also include questioning of the senators from the area including Sherrod Brown and JD Vance, as well as the Ohio EPA director, among others.
The hearing comes as the federal government moves to address rail safety, with Vance and Brown introducing a new rail safety bill on Wednesday. With Brown saying, “It shouldn’t take a massive railroad disaster for elected officials to put partisanship aside and work together for the people we serve” adding that this legislation “will finally hold big railroad companies accountable.”
Film Study Professor, Joe Fortunato, joins Ray every Friday for Film School. This week Ray and Joe discussed Rebel Without a CauseFilm Study Professor, Joe Fortunato, joins Ray every Friday for Film School. This week Ray and Joe discussed Rebel Without a Cause, the 1955 Drama/Romance.
*Updated: 3-6-23
This week, we're taking a deep dive into clean water technology.
We decided to look into it, in response to the big train derailment and toxic chemical release in East Palestine, Ohio, which is about 76 miles Southeast of Akron.
Is anything going on with their water going to affect us? Could the kind of thing that happened there, happen here?
These are the kinds of questions that guided our conversations, but along the way, we encountered some surprises.
For example: Did you know that breathing in the steam from your bathroom shower is actually (at least somewhat) hazardous to your health, because of the chemicals they put in the water to make it safe to drink? No? Well, we didn't either.
So, listen now to find out more, and get the whole back story on where we get our water, what is being done to protect it, and how there is always some give and take when it comes to reducing risk; including when you turn on the tap at home.
Our featured guests today, are City of Akron Water Supply Bureau Manager, Jeff Bronowski, and Chris Miller, who the founder and CEO of Fontus Blue, a technology company that provides drinking water quality management software and services for communities in a number of different communities nationwide, including Akron.
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*Please note, this story was updated to correct technical issues, on 3-6-23
Jeff Bronowski, Manager, City of Akron Water Supply Bureau
Chris Miller, CEO, Fontus Blue
The City of Akron is celebrating the award of a $960,000 dollar federal transportation grant, which they plan to use to help redevelop the land left vacant by the recent demolition of the old Akron Innerbelt.
It's a project really custom-made for the funding, which is designed to reconnect communities cut off from opportunity because of past transportation infrastructure decisions--which is exactly what happened when the Innerbelt was built, back in the 1960's.
Click here, to read the City's announcement about the award, and click below, to hear a clip from the Ray Horner Morning Show featuring Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan talking about why he's so excited about the possibilities the grant opens up for the city.
To learn more about the Innerbelt, check out the the City of Akron's new Innerbelt History Collection, which includes a compilation of audio and video recordings, photographs, and maps, and tells the story of the neighborhoods that were displaced by the old roadway.
The public corruption trial of former Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder, continued in Columbus yesterday, with Householder taking the stand in his own defense.
Householder is accused of taking a $61 million dollar bribe in exchange for passing legislation that gave a $1 billion dollar bailout to FirstEnergy.
During his testimony, Householder continually spoke about how much money he needed to raise to run his political campaign. And legal experts believe Householder's defense is trying to emphasize the narrative that he accepted money only for political reasons, and not as a bribe.
While some were surprised that Householder chose to take the stand, Case Western Reserve University criminal law professor Michael Benza tells News 5 that he believes Householder needed to take the stand saying "If he doesn't testify, the jury is left with the very logical road map that the government has set out showing the money and showing its impact — equaling this was corruption.”