Nick Castele

Updated: 5:18 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021

Federal prosecutors accused a former Cleveland public schools employee of breaching the Senate chamber during last week’s pro-Trump storming of the U.S. Capitol building.

Christine Priola is charged with unlawful entry, disorderly conduct and unlawful activities on Capitol grounds, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court Thursday.

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to spend $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years to fight climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions nationwide.

Advocates of renewable energy in Ohio say the incoming administration has a chance to shape the future of a state where fossil fuels remain major sources of electricity. Ohio’s energy picture has been changing over the last 15 years. Coal is on a downward slide and natural gas has been ascendant.

Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) broke with his party Wednesday, voting to impeach President Donald Trump over last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol Building.

Gonzalez, who just began his second term in the House, accused Trump of inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol Jan. 6 to disrupt the counting of electoral votes.

Sen. Rob Portman said Tuesday that President Donald Trump bears “some responsibility” for the riot at the U.S. Capitol last week, calling on the president to discourage violence in the days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

“Both in his words before the attack on the Capitol and in his actions afterward, President Trump bears some responsibility for what happened on January 6,” Portman said in a statement released by his office Tuesday.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has joined the list of Democratic lawmakers calling on the Cabinet and Vice President Mike Pence to attempt to remove President Donald Trump from office after Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Brown blamed the president for the vandalism undertaken by pro-Trump extremists, which he termed “domestic terrorism.”

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) called for Cabinet members to remove President Donald Trump from office after pro-Trump extremists stormed and vandalized the U.S. Capitol Wednesday in a failed bid to stop Congress from formalizing Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

Democrats and Republicans should have “serious conversations about implementing the 25^th Amendment,” whereby the president could be declared “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” Ryan said.

Post-election audits found vanishingly few errors in November’s vote counts across Ohio, according to data released by Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Tuesday.

Since November, county election staff have recounted ballots by hand in a selection of precincts, focusing on three races: the presidential race, one Ohio Supreme Court race and a countywide race.

In the presidential contest, the audits matched official results by 99.98 percent on average.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman will oppose an effort by some of his Republican colleagues to throw out President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral votes when Congress formalizes the presidential election results this week.

Portman announced his decision in a statement Monday, saying he “cannot support allowing Congress to thwart the will of the voters” by overturning Biden’s win.

Nina Turner, the former state senator who became a high-profile supporter of Bernie Sanders’ presidential bids, is making a run to represent Cleveland and Akron in Congress.

Turner announced her plans in an online call with local reporters Tuesday. Last week, she formed a committee to raise money for the campaign.

Updated: 5:50 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020

Cleveland-area Democrats are leaping to fill the void in Congress that will be left by Rep. Marcia Fudge’s nomination to the Biden cabinet.

Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chair Shontel Brown and Nina Turner, a top supporter of Bernie Sanders’ presidential run, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to create campaign committees on Wednesday. Jeff Johnson, a former state lawmaker and city councilman, told ideastream he also is running for the seat.

The Cleveland Hostel is opening its doors as a seasonal homeless shelter this winter, as advocates look for socially distant ways to house people during the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

Homeless service providers told Cleveland City Council on Monday they needed more space close to downtown that could handle a sudden influx of people seeking shelter. The hostel, on West 25th Street in the Ohio City neighborhood, fit the bill.

The “Dennis!” yard signs aren’t back out quite yet, but former Rep. Dennis Kucinich has taken a step toward a Cleveland mayoral bid.

Kucinich filed paperwork with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections this past week to form the “Reelect Mayor Kucinich” campaign fundraising committee, according to Joe Tegreene, an attorney acting as treasurer for the committee. 

That’s reelection to the job he held 41 years ago.

Joe Biden is the president-elect, and Donald Trump’s campaign has presented no serious evidence that would lead a judge to throw out enough votes to reverse the outcome of the election.