July 7, 2023

Railroad industry sues to block limit on crew sizes that Ohio imposed after E. Palestine derailment

AP News, July 6, 2023

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The railroad industry has sued to block a new minimum crew-size requirement that Ohio imposed after a fiery train derailment in East Palestine in February.

The new rule was part of a $13.5 billion state transportation budget that Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed in March. It mandated a two-person crew for freight trains and required that the wayside detectors used to help spot problems be installed in shorter intervals of 10 to 15 miles (16 to 24 kilometers) apart, with oversight from the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, among other provisions.

The railroad industry said one-person crews “have been used safely for decades,” as well as that Ohio lacks the authority to impose a two-person minimum. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on June 29, a day before the rule was set to take effect, the Association of American Railroads argued that federal law broadly gives federal agencies exclusive jurisdiction to regulate rail transportation.

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Payroll Project: State employee overtime up $30M in 2022; top earners paid over $400K

Source, date

Every year, the Dayton Daily News, Journal-News and Springfield News-Sun obtain public employee pay data for state employees and local government employees in our region and analyze them as part of our Payroll Project.

This includes a searchable database of public employees who made at least $50,000 in 2022. Search the data here.

Here are some key data points about state employees in the Payroll Project data:

- The 18 highest paid state employees last year all worked for the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Most were psychiatrists. Their pay ranged from $335,909 to $478,217.

- The highest paid state employee last year was psychiatrist Florence V. Kimbo with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. He earned $478,217, of which $192,635.24 was for overtime.

- Overtime jumped $30 million last year for state employees. Overtime totaled $193,249,045 in 2022, compared to $163,329,493 in 2021. There were 268 state employees paid at least $50,000 in overtime compensation.

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Cities that made fireworks illegal issued very few citations for July 4 barrage

Dayton Daily News, July 6, 2023

Dayton and several surrounding cities last year reaffirmed their bans on residents setting off private fireworks. But that didn’t stop people from lighting up the skies this week, and those cities generally are not arresting or citing people for violations.

Ohio’s state legislature passed House Bill 172 in 2021, allowing the discharge of consumer-grade fireworks on private property on certain dates, except in communities choosing to opt out, according to the state.

Dayton, Beavercreek, Kettering, Oakwood, Fairborn, Trotwood and Vandalia all passed ordinances making those fireworks illegal. Several of those cities received complaints regarding illegal displays this week, but it only resulted in two citations, one in Kettering and one in Dayton.

Fairborn officials responded to eight fireworks-related calls, but City Manager Rob Anderson said they use verbal warnings before issuing citationsor arresting those involved.

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Cities have ways to curb gun violence; feds are giving them more money

Ohio Capital Journal, July 7, 2023

When shots ring out on the South and West sides of Chicago, Sam Castro and his team at the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago race to the scene of the shooting and to the hospital where emergency responders are treating the gunshot victim.

Knowing most of the city’s gun violence is caused by a small cluster of people who are usually gang-affiliated, the group wants to prevent the often-expected retaliation shooting by intervening in victims’ lives to stop the cycle of violence and the revolving doors of the hospital.

Castro, the organization’s director of community violence intervention, and his colleagues meet gunshot victims at their hospital beds and walk the streets of the Austin, Back of the Yards, Brighton Park and West Garfield Park neighborhoods, talking with those who are at a high risk of committing or being the victim of gun violence. They offer individualized “wraparound” support services, whether being a caseworker, delivering food or helping residents find and keep jobs.

Like many of the people who run these programs nationally, Castro has personal experience with gun violence. He’s been shot three times, the first when he was 3.

He became part of the gun violence cycle as a gang leader, spending 12 years in state and federal prison. He wanted something better for his children and community through “relentless engagement.” It’s his calling, he said.

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Lake Erie's 2023 algal bloom is here now, second earliest arrival on record

Toledo Blade, July 6, 2023

Western Lake Erie’s 2023 algal bloom is here, the second earliest arrival since record-keeping began in 2002.

Rick Stumpf, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer in Maryland who oversees yearly bloom forecasts and developments, called the initial size of this summer’s bloom “disconcerting” on Thursday, given modeling that predicts this year’s outbreak will only be a mild-to-moderate bloom...

“Unfortunately, this early of a bloom means that Maumee Bay might see a bloom for a long time,” he said.

Maumee Bay is one of the lake’s most algae-prone areas because of its shallowness, which results in warmer water. It’s also one of the most heavily impacted parts of the lake for algae-forming nutrients that flow off area farmland into the Maumee River.

Smaller-than-average bloom predicted for western Lake Erie this summer

Tom Bridgeman, University of Toledo Lake Erie Center director, confirmed a “light scum of microcystis on the surface of Maumee Bay yesterday along the shore in front of the Lake Erie Center.”

“It is bright green, which is characteristic of the early stages of a bloom,” he said, adding that no toxin data is available yet.

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Record ocean temperatures lift Atlantic hurricane outlook

Reuters, July 6, 2023

July 6 (Reuters) - Forecasters at Colorado State University for a second time raised their estimate for tropical storms during this year's Atlantic hurricane season, citing record warm sea surface temperatures.

The group had last month raised its outlook to a near-normal season and number of storms. On Thursday, it boosted its forecast to 18 named storms, producing nine hurricanes, four of which could become major storms with winds of at least 111 miles per hour (179 kph).

"Most of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic now has record warm sea surface temperatures," Colorado State's Tropical Meteorology and Climate Research group said in its latest update. Those temperatures are "the primary reason for the increase in our forecast numbers," CSU said.

The effect of El Nino, a weather phenomenon that suppresses Atlantic hurricane activity, this year has been offset by very hot ocean waters.

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