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“The cloud has tremendous business value!” That’s the battle cry chanted by cloud providers and their allies at every cloud computing conference.

You will never hear me say that “the cloud” is always the right solution or, for that matter, the wrong solution. In my 20-plus years as a cloud expert, I’ve never blindly followed the lead of cloud computing pioneers or adopters. Like any other technology trend and category, cloud computing should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

This balanced approach may have cost me some friends and perhaps some jobs, but I believe this will remain the right way to think about cloud deployments in 2024.

To read this article in full, please click here

A high-quality application must be stable, performant, scalable, and reliable. The reliability of an application depends on many factors, but one of the most important is resiliency, or the ability to withstand failures or faults during run time. In this article, we’ll see how we can bring resiliency to database connections in ASP.NET Core using Entity Framework Core.

EF Core has a feature called connection resiliency that automatically retries failed database commands to maintain connectivity during transient errors or network instability. By encapsulating the logic for identifying failures and retrying commands, this feature allows us to devise execution plans for different database failure situations.

To read this article in full, please click here

• Today: Rain showers, windy, high 53
• Tonight: Decreasing clouds, windy, low 42
• Saturday: Sunshine, breezy, high 63
• Sunday: Partly sunny, isolated showers, high 74
• Monday: Partly cloudy, high 76
• Tuesday: Isolated showers, breezy, high 77

Happy Friday!

Rain will be much lighter today, but it will still linger. Expect showers to roll back in by about mid-morning, and last for much of the afternoon. In addition to the showers, we will be very windy, with gusts 40-50 MPH. Highs fall back to the lower 50s.

Rain tapers this evening, then clouds break overnight. We'll see more sunshine Saturday, with highs warming to the low to mid 60s. We will be less windy, but still breezy. A nice spring day for the Ohio State spring game!

On Sunday, we're looking at just a few isolated shower chances, but far from a washout. Still a bit breezy, with highs warming into the middle 70s and partly sunny skies.

By Monday, temperatures continue to warm, into the mid to upper 70s. We'll see mainly sunny to partly cloudy skies, with a mainly dry start to the workweek.

Going into Tuesday and lasting through the middle of the workweek, we'll see a few isolated, spotty shower chances at times, but lots of dry time in there, too. Temperatures warm into the upper 70s for a stretch.

-McKenna

NEWARK, Ohio (WCMH) - A group in Newark is battling with Cedar Hill Cemetery management over grave site decorations.

The group plans to take legal action against the cemetery and the City of Newark who owns and operates it.

"I have family here. I have a brother buried back there. Nephew. Grandmother. I spend a lot of time here," Karen Hunt-Mitchell said.

She's been a frequent visitor to the cemetery for a long time, but has cut back on her visits in the last year.

"This is a cemetery. This is where you come to grieve, you know, leave us alone. We just want to be left alone. We just want a little peace," Hunt-Mitchell said.

"At first it was every day, just a walk," Hunt-Mitchell said. "And I walk all through here. Sometimes I'll come and walk a couple of times a day. I was told I needed to go walk. So, this is a safe place to come along. Now I come every now and then. Not like I used to. It's not the same.

About one year ago this April is when the current superintendent of the cemetery, Chance Patznick, put up signs warning of removal of decorations that did not align with the cemetery standards. All across the cemetery you could see flowers, bird feeders, mementos, night lights for the headstones and all sorts of keepsakes. Those were all to be removed.

At one point, several frequent visitors of the cemetery said they found a trash can full of people's decorations.

"The wind blew them away," Hunt-Mitchell said. "Didn't you know that they. Yeah. The wind blown away. Now, in the summertime, when they were taken, I found them, and I came and got them. But when we came back out for Christmas, I. I leave my stuff out until after the epiphany. So, I came out and they were gone. And that's when they said it was a windstorm."

Some people removed decorations, others did not. Last month, grave sites in 'violation' of the rules received a letter from the superintendent in a zip lock bag pinned into the ground near the grave. It was a warning that decorations would be removed by staff if they weren't taken down by April 1st. Many complaints went out to cemetery staff and city staffers including Mayor Jeff Hall. 

"My brother passed away in 2015, and when my dad bought these plots, he bought it, obviously, under the impression that you could decorate," Bridget Fouty, who visits her brother and father who lay at rest beside one another in Cedar Hill, said. "And that was his whole life. I mean, we came up here, weed, eat and mow. We take care of it. And this is where he found peace. So, then when my dad passed away, I obviously have carried on that tradition."

Fouty has seen many people mourn their loved ones in Cedar Hill Cemetery. She understands the desire for staff to keep the cemetery clean and attractive for visitors.

"I want things to look nice here. But I think to say that you can't have a Winnie the Pooh bear on a baby's grave or a nightlight at someone's child's grave is just awful," Fouty said.

"A little wooden cross in front of a grave. What? A wooden cross. Now that's got to go. You know, enough's enough. We've all had enough," Hunt-Mitchell said.

There is a section of the cemetery devoted to newborns and babies that died. This area sits on a circle of grass, almost in the middle of everything else. Fouty got emotional when talking about the parents who come to mourn their child. Some of them can't afford a head stone.

"You have babies that are not even marked," Fouty said. "Their mom and dad are going to come up here and see a patch of grass. And where does their child lay? Where did you know? That's where that last part, the last place they saw their baby. And now they'll never know where that is. You know, you have parents fighting for a nightlight. You know, my dad had a nightlight up here for years and that was important to him. You don't want to leave your child out in the dark."

When NBC4 spoke with Patznick about the initial policy enforcement in April 2023, she said the decorations were creating a maintenance issue.

Fouty, who is helping spearhead legal action against the city and the cemetery, said she doesn't understand the "safety" issue as a reason for removing decorations.

"To weed around. [She said] it was, it was dangerous," Fouty said. "But we pulled the incident reports and there were actually none. There's never been an incident report for weed eating or mowing. I don't have an answer. And that's what people always ask. Why I have no idea. I can't imagine that. Why it's senseless."

Fouty and Hunt-Mitchell and a group of other concerned citizens just want to continue to mourn their loved ones the way they have for the last several decades.

"I think I would just a resolution of compromise, you know, trying to just work with people and not just go out and scatter white flags with Ziploc bags on everybody's grave," Fouty said

Hunt-Mitchell said she wants to be able to mourn, walk the grounds, feed the birds and squirrels, and find peace.

"Have some compassion," Hunt-Mitchell said. "If you have nothing, have compassion. I don't see that there's no compassion. I know they say let them dead, bury the dead. But some of us, we feel at peace here. We just want to have peace."

NBC4 reached out to Mayor Jeff Hall and Public Safety Director David Rhodes but did not hear back. Cedar Hill Cemetery Superintendent Chance Patznick responded Thursday evening and declined to comment.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is calling for a new law to ban cellphones in schools.

“A number of Ohio schools have made the decision to eliminate smartphone use during the school day and I believe clearly that is the right decision,” DeWine said.

House Bill 485 was introduced by Representatives Tom Young (R-Washington Twp.) and Phil Plummer (R-Dayton) to do that, but is already receiving pushback.

“I think it is a sledgehammer approach for the state to just come down with a mandate,” President of the Ohio Education Association Scott DiMauro said.

HB 485 would ban phones in schools, except for an emergency, medical situation, or instructional purposes.

“These phones are clearly detrimental to learning, they’re detrimental to our children’s mental health, and they clearly do need to be removed from or classrooms in Ohio,” DeWine said.

DiMauro said he hears complaints from his members about cellphones in classrooms often.

“There are serious frustrations about use of cell phones in schools. We know that cell phone use in classrooms can be very disruptive,” DiMauro said. “Even outside of classrooms cell phones can be distracting.”

But he said a one-size fits all approach to ban them may not be the best method. He suggested the state setting guidelines.

“In terms of best practices, in terms of some protections, in terms of liability,” DiMauro said.

Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said the proposal for a statewide ban a “great idea.”

“I suppose at some point there’s an academic basis for the use of a smart phone, but I can’t think of one,” Huffman said. “All of us here, I think, learned to read without the use of smartphones when we were in third grade.”

Columbus City Schools is the largest district in the state, they, for example, have policy requiring that phones be stowed during the school day, unless students are specifically prompted to get them out for class.

Leadership on both sides of the aisle in the House said without much discussion of the proposal yet, they think leaving it up to schools may ultimately be what is best.

“The school districts, the teachers, the principles, they have the ability to do that and if they think that’s the best policy, I think that’s their decision to make,” Speaker of the Ohio House Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) said.

“My inclination, and I would guess probably our caucuses inclination, is to talk with our local school officials and leaders,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said.

Russo said she is also worried about safety concerns if students do not have their cellphones, but DiMauro argued students can still get in touch with their parents either way.

“I have never been to a school that doesn’t have regular telephones and doesn’t have the ability to call down to a classroom and notify the student that the parent has a message for them,” DiMauro said. “I think those kinds of concerns tend to be a little bit overblown. If anything, I think there’s a lot of evidence that cell phones introduce more problems when it comes to safety.”

HB 485 also includes guidelines for internet safety in schools. Because the bill was just introduced on Wednesday, it awaits a committee assignment and its first hearing.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- As the city works to ensure that every resident in Columbus has an affordable place to call home, the Central Ohio Community Land Trust (COCLT) reached a milestone. 

COCLT unveiled its first multi-family housing development, which is also the organization's 100th affordable home.

The COCLT, a subsidiary of COCIC: The Franklin County Land Bank, has completed the multi-family housing development, located on N. 5th St., it includes four duplex units. 

Years ago, N. 5th St. in Weinland Park looked much different than it does today. What is now four duplex units used to be vacant homes, boarded up and demolished. 

In November 2019, the Franklin County Land Bank acquired the four land parcels. They were all demolished by 2020, creating an opportunity to add new affordable housing units. The COCLT began working with Simmons Corporation in 2023 to develop these four duplexes. 

“This is a land trust project that is open to first time home buyers, homeowners, giving them an opportunity to be able to have affordable and stable housing for the first time in their lives maybe,” said Tanya Long, president of Weinland Park Community Civic Association. 

Weinland Park began its revitalization project around 2011 or 2012. The newly-built duplexes are continuing their goal to house people and families that want to purchase homes that are beautiful and affordable. 

“There's always room for one more and as this city, this community continues to grow into the future,” Mayor Andrew Ginther said. “That's how we need to think about it.”

City leaders said everybody who works in this region should be able to afford to live here. They said we need housing at every level to make sure that people are not overpaying whether they rent or buy. 

“It's critically important because the demand for housing is high. People need housing, period, but they need housing that they can afford,” said Curtiss Williams, president of the Franklin County Land Trust. 

Long said one of the biggest issues she sees is landlords asking that you have three times the rent in order to get housing. She said there aren’t a lot of people who can afford that. 

“A lot of people become homeless. They double up with family, they couch surf or they're in the streets or in homeless camps. It's heartbreaking and it's frustrating,” Long said. 

Columbus is growing much faster than its been building, leaders said a lot needs to change if we want to keep up with that growth. 

“It's the cost of materials that have to change," Williams said. "There has to be an opportunity to build a higher density. There has to be mortgages available for folks who need mortgages. And there needs to be builders who can build and build affordably."

This is COCLT’s 100th new affordable home. Of these homes, 90% have been purchased by first-time homebuyers, 83% are minority heads of household and more than half are owned by individuals at 80% of Area Median Income or below. If you’d like to learn more about these homes and how to apply, click here.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A Columbus women killed in a hit and run late Wednesday night is being remembered as a "neighborhood mom."

The crash happened around 11:20 Wednesday night, according to the Columbus Division of Police (CPD). Investigators said 67-year-old Mildren Ann Kelly was hit by a vehicle as she tried to cross East Livingston Ave. in the area of Berkeley Road and Lilley Ave.

“She looked over her children but when I came out here she always pulled me aside like Pam what you need," Pamela Moseley-Smith said.

Moseley-Smith said Kelley was a good friend of hers. She and a relative of Kelley's who on Thursday stopped by the location of the incident said everyone knew Kelley as "Miss Ann." They said she was like a mother to many in the neighborhood.

“She would bless the neighborhood," Mosely-Smith said. "If it was something you wanted to eat, she would take you there. Even if it was a snack, even if it was a drink, whatever it was, she was there for you."

At this point, investigators do not have a description of the vehicle involved. Anyone with information is asked to call CPD at 614-645-4767 or Central Ohio Crimestoppers at 614-461-8477. Moseley-Smith said she hopes the driver turns themselves in.

"I believe you should stop and let the police know what happened, that it was you," Mosely-Smith said. "This family needs closure, they definitely do.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Columbus police and Ohio State officers set up crime scene tape Thursday evening at a hospital on the university's campus.

The pair of agencies are investigating a car with visible bullet holes, along with a victim with a gunshot wound, which both came around 5:41 p.m. to Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center. Police connected the victim to an earlier reported shooting in South Linden.

Neither agency provided details such as the severity of the victim's injuries or information about a possible suspect as of 6:30 p.m. However, they did clarify that the 5:17 p.m. shooting did not happen on Ohio State's campus, but rather in the 1100 block of East 21st Ave.

Photos taken at the scene showed both Ohio State University police and Columbus officers' cars parked at the hospital. The agencies had crime scene tape set up near guideposts for the campus. Another photo showed a car within the crime scene tape had its back window broken out, and visible bullet holes on the rear car door.

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The victim that appeared at Wexner Medical Center is the second with gunshot wounds that police tied to the incident in South Linden. Another victim was taken separately to Grant Medical Center in stable condition, Columbus police said.

Microsoft has announced the MSTest SDK. Built on the MSBuild Project SDK system and based on the MSTest runner, the MSTest SDK is designed to give developers a better experience for testing with MSTest, Microsoft’s framework for unit testing.

The MSTest SDK, announced April 11, makes project configuration easier via sensible defaults and flexible options, Microsoft said. To use the MSTest SDK, developers must create an MSTest project, or update an existing MSTest project, and replace the content of the .csproj file.

To read this article in full, please click here

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The City of Columbus is coming off several of the most violent years in the city’s history.

Columbus police data shows a surge in youth crime. Also, 2021 is known to be the deadliest year on record. But so far this year, police data shows a turn for the better with the city’s homicide rate dropping by nearly 40%.

Andrew Clayborn knows exactly what violence can do to a family.

“It forces you to deal with mental anguish and pain that you didn't know existed,” Clayborn said. 

His brother Andre was killed in October 2020. That year was the start of four of the most violent years in Columbus’ history. 

“I believe that we weren't attentive enough, you know, we weren't intentional enough about making sure that we get the relationships," Clayborn said.

He said he has worked hard since then to be a part of the change. Clayborn said he is finally starting to see the shift in mentality.

So far in 2024, there have been 19 homicides. This time last year there were at least 50, and in 2021, at least 58.

“To see the numbers decrease the way that they have is showing that because of intentionality, because we are serious about it,” Clayborn said.

Columbus Police Commander Mark Denner looks at these statistics every day. He said they are always looking at new measures to impact these numbers and try to change what they can control.

“We also just recognize that a lot of it is individual decision making. We try to have a role in that,” Denner said. “Last year we talked about domestic violence incidents. We talked about after hours clubs and we worked on ways to, you know, have an impact and address those.”

He said they are focusing on being proactive and reactive. Proactive by building relationships with the community, prosecutors and judges. Reactive by analyzing data and putting their attention to areas they are seeing violent spikes. 

Denner said what has really made the change is genuine partnerships.

“Relationships are key in life and I think when you have those positive relationships and you're building those foundations,” Denner said.

After his brother died, Clayborn founded The Son Son Foundation. It’s focused on mental health. He said one of the things they do is go into prisons to help parents become better role models to their children when they’re released.

“We, the people, have the power and we're seeing that now as we collaborate and we do things collectively. This isn't an individual problem. It's a community problem in the community. And the community now is coming together,” Clayborn said.

Commander Denner said it is important to recognize the number 19 is still 19 real people who lost lives.

Violence does tend to pick up in the summer. Denner said the Columbus Division of Police has plans to increase patrol through things like Operation Moonlight. They also have programs to engage with the youth.

Clayborn said he has plans for the summer too. A lot of that is keeping young people engaged and busy with sports and arts programs so they stay out of trouble.

JetBrains has introduced JetBrains IDE Services, a product suite intended to simplify the management of the company’s IntelliJ-based IDEs, remote development environments, and AI-powered coding assistant. The suite also includes a collaborative programming solution.

Unveiled April 9, JetBrains IDE Services is designed to alleviate the challenges of deploying and overseeing IDEs and other developer tools for large organizations, the company said. JetBrains, which is perhaps best known for its IntelliJ IDEA IDE for Java and Kotlin, has positioned the package as “a central hub for all things IDE.”

To read this article in full, please click here

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today it is investigating a breach at business intelligence company Sisense, whose products are designed to allow companies to view the status of multiple third-party online services in a single dashboard. CISA urged all Sisense customers to reset any credentials and secrets that may have been shared with the company, which is the same advice Sisense gave to its customers Wednesday evening.

New York City based Sisense has more than 1,000 customers across a range of industry verticals, including financial services, telecommunications, healthcare and higher education. On April 10, Sisense Chief Information Security Officer Sangram Dash told customers the company had been made aware of reports that “certain Sisense company information may have been made available on what we have been advised is a restricted access server (not generally available on the internet.)”

“We are taking this matter seriously and promptly commenced an investigation,” Dash continued. “We engaged industry-leading experts to assist us with the investigation. This matter has not resulted in an interruption to our business operations. Out of an abundance of caution, and while we continue to investigate, we urge you to promptly rotate any credentials that you use within your Sisense application.”

In its alert, CISA said it was working with private industry partners to respond to a recent compromise discovered by independent security researchers involving Sisense.

“CISA is taking an active role in collaborating with private industry partners to respond to this incident, especially as it relates to impacted critical infrastructure sector organizations,” the sparse alert reads. “We will provide updates as more information becomes available.”

Sisense declined to comment when asked about the veracity of information shared by two trusted sources with close knowledge of the breach investigation. Those sources said the breach appears to have started when the attackers somehow gained access to the company’s code repository at Gitlab, and that in that repository was a token or credential that gave the bad guys access to Sisense’s Amazon S3 buckets in the cloud.

Both sources said the attackers used the S3 access to copy and exfiltrate several terabytes worth of Sisent customer data, which apparently included millions of access tokens, email account passwords, and even SSL certificates.

The incident raises questions about whether Sisense was doing enough to protect sensitive data entrusted to it by customers, such as whether the massive volume of stolen customer data was ever encrypted while at rest in these Amazon cloud servers.

It is clear, however, that unknown attackers now have all of the credentials that Sisense customers used in their dashboards.

The breach also makes clear that Sisense is somewhat limited in the clean-up actions that it can take on behalf of customers, because access tokens are essentially text files on your computer that allow you to stay logged in for extended periods of time — sometimes indefinitely. And depending on which service we’re talking about, it may be possible for attackers to re-use those access tokens to authenticate as the victim without ever having to present valid credentials.

Beyond that, it is largely up to Sisense customers to decide if and when they change passwords to the various third-party services that they’ve previously entrusted to Sisense.

Earlier today, a public relations firm working with Sisense reached out to learn if KrebsOnSecurity planned to publish any further updates on their breach (KrebsOnSecurity posted a screenshot of the CISO’s customer email to both LinkedIn and Mastodon on Wednesday evening). The PR rep said Sisense wanted to make sure they had an opportunity to comment before the story ran.

But when confronted with the details shared by my sources, Sisense apparently changed its mind.

“After consulting with Sisense, they have told me that they don’t wish to respond,” the PR rep said in an emailed reply.

Nicholas Weaver, a researcher at University of California, Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) and lecturer at UC Davis, said a company entrusted with so many sensitive logins should absolutely be encrypting that information.

“If they are hosting customer data on a third-party system like Amazon, it better damn well be encrypted,” Weaver said. “If they are telling people to rest credentials, that means it was not encrypted. So mistake number one is leaving Amazon credentials in your Git archive. Mistake number two is using S3 without using encryption on top of it. The former is bad but forgivable, but the latter given their business is unforgivable.”

View a previous report on the sezuire of 40 dogs from a Delaware County home in the video player above.

SUNBURY, Ohio (WCMH) -- A man whose Delaware County home went viral and led to the seizure of 40 dogs by the local dog warden has received multiple charges.

The Sunbury resident had a warrant put out for his arrest Thursday and was charged in Delaware County Municipal Court with 30 misdemeanor counts of prohibitions concerning companion animals. The Delaware County Dog Warden previously removed the dogs on Sunday from a property in the 7000 block of Kilbourne Road in the northeastern part of the county.

The 40 dogs were mostly believed to be pit bulls and pit bull mixes, and were removed from the suspect's property after a video on TikTok showing their living conditions went viral over the weekend. They are now being cared for by the Delaware County dog shelter and the county's humane society.

Despite rumors online, Delaware County Dog Warden Mitchell Garrett said Monday that there was "no evidence of dog fighting" at the property. He could not go into details due to the ongoing investigation, but said the outside of the property mirrored photos and videos posted to social media.

The suspect -- who online court records show was charged with animal cruelty in North Carolina in 2012 -- has a warrant out for his arrest with a $2,500 bond.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A portion of Interstate 71 southbound briefly closed on Thursday afternoon due to flooding, but the roadway is still partially affected.

All lanes closed on I-71 South at State Route 161 and Dublin Granville Road due to flooding on the roadway, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation. As of 2:40 p.m., however, only the left lane of I-71 south remained closed.

ODOT cameras do not show a clear image of the flooding, but cameras showed the closure caused a traffic backup on the interstate.

The department is also advising drivers to expect lane closures on on Interstate 70 West at Kelton Avenue and Miller Avenue due to flooding.

The closure comes as multiple central Ohio counties are under a flood watch through the night.

GROVEPORT, Ohio (WCMH) – The Groveport Madison school board has been accused of holding secret committee meetings, inadequately recording meeting minutes and unlawfully entering into executive session – by members of its own board.

The school board – save for board members Kathleen Walsh and John Kershner – voted Wednesday night to appoint counsel in a lawsuit against the board for violations of Ohio’s Open Meetings Act. Walsh and Kershner filed the lawsuit in late March, claiming the board has violated laws about public bodies multiple times over the past year.

The board voted to appoint counsel without comment, then immediately entered an executive session to discuss the complaint with attorneys. Walsh and Kershner were not invited to the executive session. The board declined to comment to NBC4.

Walsh and Kershner’s complaint points to multiple instances dating back to July 2023 in which, they claim, the board’s actions flout state requirements for meetings of public bodies. Many center around proper record-keeping of board meetings.

At a July 19 meeting, the board entered into executive session without providing a reason to do so, in apparent violation of the Open Meetings Act. A board meeting in August confirmed the board knew what it had done was wrong, the complaint argued, as the board approved a motion to amend the July 19 agenda to add a reason to enter executive session.

“It’s a technical point, but in the interest of fidelity and transparency, Mr. Bower would like to correct it,” the August meeting agenda reads, referring to the board’s vice president, Seth Bower. “Legal Council informed the board this would clear the procedural defect from the July 19th board meeting.”

At the time the lawsuit was filed, according to exhibits attached to the complaint, July 19 meeting minutes on the board’s school district webpage reflected this change. The meeting minutes available via BoardDocs – which many districts use to post agendas and minutes – did not. The BoardDocs agenda has been updated with the amendment as of Thursday.

The complaint argues the meeting minute amendment amounts to two violations of the Open Meetings Act – failing to state a reason to enter executive session, and then amending the minutes to make them “intentionally inaccurate.” But it’s not the only time the board improperly entered executive session, the complaint alleges; the board did so in October without calling a vote.

The lawsuit points to broader issues with how minutes reflect what happened in the meetings. At a July 7 meeting, for instance, Walsh came with a prepared statement objecting to a contract for the district’s treasurer. She requested her written complaint be attached to the minutes, the lawsuit claims, but it wasn’t. 

The board meeting minutes only say that she read a statement “regarding the proposed contract.” 

“This is the board’s practice of not always including all of Walsh’s dissenting statements in the Board’s record,” the complaint reads.

Walsh voiced her concerns about the board's recordkeeping practices at the July 19 meeting. According to meeting minutes, Walsh raised concerns about minutes prepared for the three previous board meetings, saying they lacked specific details about board deliberations.

Board President LaToya Dowdell-Burger replied that the board meetings were video-recorded.

Walsh and Kershner also claim that the board’s policy committee met secretly in 2023, then in July of that year, the board moved to reclassify the committee as a “superintendent’s committee” that isn’t held to the same public meeting requirements. The complaint contends the board did so “to willfully evade the OMA and transparency.”

On BoardDocs, there are no policy committee meeting agendas available – nor any evidence of the meetings – in 2023, or in any year dating back to 2010. The first policy committee meeting posted to the district BoardDocs happened on Tuesday.

More recently, the lawsuit argues the board failed to give proper notice of a Feb. 16 meeting. The meeting, which typically occurs on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month, happened that Friday. The lawsuit claims the date on the website was not corrected until a resident told the board during public comment that he came to the meeting venue that Wednesday and found an empty building.

At that Feb. 16 meeting, which the lawsuit claims should have been rescheduled due to the lack of a proper 24-hour notice, the board voted on the renewal of the superintendent’s contract. But several terms of the contract had changed since the last public discussion, the lawsuit argues.

When Kershner asked about the changes, the lawsuit claims that Dowdell-Burger said that she had surveyed several board members beforehand. That amounts to private deliberation on the contract, the lawsuit argues, deliberation that should have occurred in public.

The school board has retained Columbus firm Organ Law. According to Organ Law’s letter to the district, which was included in meeting materials, the representation will include defense in the lawsuit and “the prosecution of potential claims” against Walsh and Kershner.

The five attorneys of the firm will charge the district hourly rates between $295 and $495, according to meeting materials.

For an earlier report on this story, view the video player above.

COLUMBUS (WCMH) – A suspect charged in a fatal shooting from March was originally arrested and accused of an unrelated robbery.

Columbus police arrested Darrelle Howell Tuesday afternoon after officers responded to the 1700 block of East Livingston Avenue, where a man was banging on an apartment door. The victim called police and identified the man as Howell, who the victim accused of robbing him on April 6.

According to an incident report, the victim told police Howell was in the foyer of the East Livingston Avenue apartment building, where he asked the victim for money. The victim told Howell he did not have any before Howell allegedly displayed a gun.

The victim reportedly handed over $40 before Howell left the building. Three days later, Howell returned and the victim called police.

Howell, 33, is also believed to be involved in the murder of 56-year-old John Lang, who was found dead in an alley near the intersection of Meek Avenue and Jones Avenue in Franklinton. Howell was arraigned for Lang’s murder and issued a $2 million bond, as was a second suspect, Derrick Brown.

Brown, 55, was arrested Monday for his role in the murder, in which police say the two suspects robbed Lang while in a 2010 Mercury Mariner near an apartment at West Broad Street and Hawkes Avenue. The report states that Howell left the car and whispered something to Brown, who got in the car with Lang.

Brown then allegedly robbed and shot Lang before police said Howell drove the vehicle near the 100 block of North Jones Ave. and dumped Lang’s body in the alley.

Howell is facing charges of aggravated robbery in addition to murder and abuse of a corpse. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on April 19 while Brown will appear in court on April 18.