Glenn Forbes

Boosters for the Youngstown-area economy have ever more frequently dubbed the Mahoning Valley as “Voltage Valley,” hoping technology will give far Northeast Ohio a needed jolt. A big piece of this transformation is the new life supporters are trying to breathe into a shuttered GM plant in Lordstown. An electric truck company named Lordstown Motors could be a tent pole for this future tech strategy. ideastream’s Glenn Forbes joined Tony Ganzer on All Things Considered to talk about Lordstown Motors.

Ohio's Republican U.S.  Senator Rob Portman released a statement Friday saying while he believes Trump's actions toward Ukraine were wrong and inappropriate, processing additional witnesses will take weeks if not months and it's time for Congress to get back to addressing the issues the American people are most concerned about. 

Summit County Council has approved spending $104 million in opioid settlement funds, but a committee that will determine how to use the money won't be fully formed until the spring. So it sits, unspent.

Greta Johnson, assistant chief of staff to County Executive Ilene Shapiro, said federal Judge Dan Polster has made it clear this should be spent more responsibly than tobacco settlement money from the 1990s.

The Cleveland Browns reached an agreement with Andrew Berry to become their new general manager and executive vice president, according to the Associated Press, bringing him back to the club where he served as vice president of player personnel from 2016 to 2018. 

At 32, Berry becomes the youngest GM in the National Football League and will have control over the team's 53-man roster. Berry is also the second, current African-American GM in the NFL, joining Miami’s Chris Grier. 

A few dozen janitors and supporters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) demonstrated outside of Sherwin-Williams headquarters in Cleveland Thursday after they were notified the paint company is switching to a non-union contractor.

“Cleaning Sherwin-Williams is my main source of income that helps me provide for my 12-year-old daughter and my mother,” said employee Tiffany Gallego. “Janitors like me feel highly disappointed that after a combined decades of work cleaning, we are being let go.”

There’s a lot up in the air for the new joint venture to build a $2.3 billion electric battery production plant in Lordstown. But companies at least have nailed down a location.

General Motors plans to hold public hearings with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in March on their proposed battery plant with LG Chem in Lordstown, breaking ground by the spring if permits are secured.

Updated: 6:07 p.m., Tuesday, Jan 14, 2020

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has taken 14-year-old Harley Dilly off the missing and endangered child list after a body was recovered in an abandoned house near Dilly’s home in Port Clinton.

Tuesday evening, the Ottawa County Coroner's Office released a preliminary autopsy report, having determined Dilly died from compressive asphyxia after being trapped in the chimney.

Police believe Dilly’s death was an accident and no foul play is suspected.

The Cleveland Browns have picked Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski as the new head coach, the 18th full-time head coach in franchise history.

Stefanski, 37, was reportedly the favorite of Browns Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta in last year's search for a head coach. After the Browns fired General Manager John Dorsey two days after Kitchens was dismissed, DePodesta was put in charge of this year's search.

The United Methodist Church General Conference in May will vote on a plan to split into more than one denomination after years of debate over whether to allow same sex marriage in the church. 

Reverend Andy Call, lead pastor at Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights, had high praise for mediator Kenneth Feinberg and the negotiating team that led to the proposed split. 

"At this point, initial reaction is that it looks pretty even-handed," Call said. "It looks kind of like what most of us who have been involved in General Conference have expected to happen."

Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam says the team will hire a new head coach first, then allow the coach to have a say in who is hired as general manager after the firings of coach Freddie Kitchens and GM John Dorsey earlier this week. 

The Cleveland Browns have fired head coach Freddie Kitchens after one season.

“We are disappointed in our results and feel a change is necessary,” said Browns General Manager John Dorsey in a statement.

Cleveland entered the season with high expectations after trading for receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

Instead, the Browns’ 33-23 loss to 2-14 Cincinnati Sunday dropped their record to 6-10.

Cuyahoga County Council officially passed a grace period for the ban on plastic bags at a special meeting Thursday morning.

Only violations that occur on or after July 1 will be subject to penalty, which is a $100 fine after a warning and a $500 fine for a second infraction.

A report from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University says Akron has the highest eviction rate in the state and the 24th highest nationally, with nearly seven renters evicted every day.

It's not news to the Fair Housing Contact Service, a nonprofit housing support group in Akron. Lauren Green-Hull, the group's associate director, said they've been aware of that data for years, and they've organized a task force to combat the problem.