Feed aggregator

KILEVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) - A railroad crossing in Madison County is beginning to crumble only a month after repairs.

The crossing on OH-161 between Dublin and Plain City sees thousands of vehicles per day. According to the Ohio Railway Commission, almost 10,000 vehicles cross that stretch of tracks daily. However, the last count at that location took place in 2004.

Superman movie filming in Ohio to cast locals as extras

Roger Spring began making calls to CSX Railroads in 2023 as the crossing condition began to deteriorate. He saw chunks of concrete the size of bowling balls lying in the road at times.

NBC4 spoke to Spring and several other people who travel that route on OH-161 every day in late February. Two weeks later, on March 7, the crossing was closed. Repairs were made that day, but Spring and several others quickly noticed it wasn't holding up.

"It's really bad,” he said. “You still have to slow down. Not quite as bad as it was before, but you still need to slow down a good bit. Well, it probably only took about three weeks. Concrete reinforced with rebar between the rails and on each side of the rails, on the road, sides of the rail and about three weeks after the repairs were made. That's roughly speaking, the one of the concrete sections started to break out.”

The crossing presents several dangers. One person said their tire that was popped after driving over the crossing with loose concrete and steel. Other stories of rear-end accidents and near collisions have been told as well. One major issue is the difference in the speed at which drivers approach the crossing. Some drivers slow down to approach. Others maintain a speed around the speed limit of 55 miles per hour.

"They're going to slow down, but the problem is, when they slow down, the guy behind them may not necessarily," Spring said.

Local pizza and pub to open new location in Grandview Heights this summer

This can cause a situation where one car slows down significantly to cross the track, and then begins to accelerate on the other side. Their brake lights are no longer engaged while they accelerate but are still traveling much slower than the 55-mph speed limit. Another driver who travels over the crossing at full speed can find themselves far closer to the car in front of them than anticipated as they cross the track.

Spring was skeptical when he saw how much time the crew spent on the repairs that day, which was about six hours.

"When I saw that they didn't make any repair to the rails in terms of reinforcing the underside of that, I did not think this would hold up well, of which has proven to be the case,” he said. “The concrete that broke out had already broken down to the rebar. So they put asphalt on top of that.”

Fixing the approach and crossing for a railroad is the responsibility of the railroad company, according to Ohio law. During the March 21, 2024, meeting of the Ohio Rail Development Commission, Executive Director Matt Dietrich addressed the public concern with the deterioration and condition of railroad crossings in the state. He said:

"The surface conditions of rail grade crossings continue to be an issue for communities. Standalone grade crossing surface projects are difficult to address in Ohio. By Ohio law, which dates to the early 1950s, grade crossing surfaces are the responsibility of the railroad. However, deteriorating conditions can result in safety concerns for vehicular traffic. Federal safety funds can only be used when there is an identified safety concern. As a result, the Rail Commission must wait for PUCO inspectors to identify the crossing as a concern before we can engage the railroad about doing a project. Additionally, by policy we do not want the public to pay 100% of the costs for a project that is, by state law, the railroad’s responsibility. Therefore, we negotiate with the railroad to balance the railroad responsibility under state law with the safety concerns of the traveling public. It is a less than ideal situation because PUCO has no enforcement authority even if they find issues at the crossing. Because concerns about surfaces is an issue that is getting more attention from the public, I wanted to provide background of the situation and the Commission’s role in addressing those issues."

Now, a month after temporary repairs, many in the Plain City area are talking about plans for a permanent fix this summer. In a community Facebook group, one person posted that they were told CSX was going to shut down the road at the crossing in Kileville for seven to ten days for reconstruction during the summer. Just the thought of a permanent fix has other residents like Spring hopeful.

Friends plead for answers as hit-and-run victim is taken off life support

"It's nice that we will have finally, hopefully a permanent fix," he said.

NBC4 reached out to CSX Railroads, Ohio Rail Development Commission, and Plain City officials to try to confirm whether or not construction was planned for the reconstruction of the railroad crossing. That information has not yet been confirmed as of Monday night.

In the past two years, I’ve been involved with generative AI projects using large language models (LLMs) more than traditional systems. I’ve become nostalgic for serverless cloud computing. Their applications range from enhancing conversational AI to providing complex analytical solutions across industries and many functions beyond that. Many enterprises deploy these models on cloud platforms because there is a ready-made ecosystem of public cloud providers and it’s the path of least resistance. However, it’s not cheap.

To read this article in full, please click here

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A Columbus woman is in Israel and was in the heart of Tel Aviv’s Democracy Square Saturday night when the warning went out – that Iranian missiles were on the way.

Marcy Fleisher, the owner of a Columbus PR firm, was part of a rally in support of the hostages in a crowd of about 10,000 people.

Biden meeting with his national security team as US pledges ‘support’ for Israel against Iran

She traveled to Tel Aviv to take part in a week-long volunteer mission. The Saturday rally was also a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who many Israelis believe is a roadblock to peace.

“It was a remarkably powerful event,” Fleisher said. “It was peaceful, it was united. At one point, someone shouted the names of each of the 130-plus hostages and the crowd together chanted, ‘Bring bring them home now.’  It was really it was something.

“But at about 10:30 or so, the mood quickly shifted and I was standing next to a man who was translating most of the Hebrew and he said to me that the Ministry of Defense has gone on the air in Tel Aviv and they are telling everyone to go home immediately, that they believe the threat from Iran is imminent and we need to take shelter,” Fleisher added. “That was probably the first time I was afraid.”

Fleisher says she made her way back to her 11th-floor hotel room, then helped a young family seek shelter in the concrete stairwell.

Superman movie filming in Ohio to cast locals as extras

“In our hotel are a number of Israeli families from the north and next door to me is a family with two little kids,” she said. “When I went into the hallway going to the stairwell, they were there too, so I helped them go down 11 floors with a baby and a stroller and a suitcase filled with formula, and I think that’s when I was most nervous. (I) realized this is how the people of Israel live, and frankly that’s how the people in Gaza live. It’s how the people in Ukraine live. This is the most heartbreaking reality I have ever experienced.”

Fleisher was in Israel as part of a mission with the Jewish National Fund to do things like pick fruit and prepare kosher meals for Israeli soldiers. The official mission was canceled, but she said half of the 150 participants stayed on, determined to help out this week in any way they can.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Faith leaders and law enforcement in Bexley are putting meaning to the phrase “better together.”

They have formed a group to discuss safety at places of worship. This group includes faith leaders of all denominations.

Former Delaware daycare operator faces a judge on 17 child abuse charges

The group formation comes as tensions are rising in the middle east once again after Iran launched a major drone attack on Israel Saturday. 

Bexley Police Chief Gary Lewis said the goal of these meetings is to make sure each place of worship has a plan in place for any kind of emergency.

“It really was just a matter of bringing all faith based clergy, their leadership together and talking about best practices, what systems they may or may not have in place,” Lewis said.

Chief Lewis said their first meeting was a few weeks ago. He said we live in a world where this safety at places of worship is a serious concern. He said they are using FEMA's guidelines to create the plans. They are talking about active threats and even natural disasters. He said he didn't realize how vulnerable we really are until having these open conversations.

Chief Lewis said since Bexley has a very dominant Jewish population, much of this idea stemmed from anti- semitic incidents in the area following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.

”We have three synagogues and nearly a two-and-a-half square mile with two adjacent to us. So that is a very high priority to us as well as the other places of worship here and making sure we partner and work together,” Lewis said.

Julie Tilson Stanley is the President and CEO of JewishColumbus. They are one of the organizations involved in the meetings.

“Unfortunately, when there is a tragedy in a community or around the world, it gives you a moment to pause and reflect and understand what are the opportunities to learn more,” Tilson Stanley said.

She said they are thankful for their relationship with local law enforcement.

“We walked out with a sense of possibility on what partnership can look like and how stronger communication and working together makes everyone safer,” Tilson Stanley said.

Tilson Stanley said they spend more than a million dollars on security each year. She said with the Jewish community celebrating Passover next week they are on high alert, but there are no known threats at this time.

“We feel very strongly that it is important, especially as the Passover holiday is coming, that you also are able to experience that joy,” Tilson Stanley said.

Chief Lewis said it’s about creating a safe space for all the leaders to openly speak. He said they are in the discussion phases now but hope to implement real world exercises in the future.

He said these meetings are also helping his department have a better understanding of where they are needed.

“I think when you can partner, no matter the faith denomination of the place of worship, when you're looking at that and have those leaders in one room and speaking the same love language, to me that is a critical key and why we've been so successful,” Lewis said.

Chief Lewis said he hopes to have quarterly meetings with the faith leaders. The Bexley Police Department has designated a liaison to make communicating easier.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The friends of a hit-and-run victim are preparing to say goodbye for the last time.

On March 2, John Decker was struck by a car while riding his bicycle just after 11 p.m. on Sinclair Road near Morse Road. His friends said that on Monday, he’s being taken off life support.

"He was always on his bike or the bus, he loves to ride bikes. That was his thing. He didn't like cars," Angela Granata, Decker's friend, said. 

Ohio Supreme Court asks for name of officer who killed Ta’Kiya Young

Columbus police, which declined an interview about Decker's case, have no updates and said the video footage they have is too blurry to get a description of the car. That's not uncommon, according to hit-skip incident data NBC4 obtained through a public records request.

In fact, most hit-and-runs that happened in Columbus in the first six months of 2023 went unsolved. In incidents where someone was killed, no cases were solved. Cases in which someone suffered a serious injury were twice as likely to not be solved. and when someone suffered a serious injury, those cases were twice as likely not to be solved.

But the low solve rate is not stopping Decker’s friend from searching for answers.

"We're all in shock because again, this is not what we thought John, what anyone, would die from and our point to the community is, you gotta help us find who did this," Granata said. "It’s sad to see someone so full of life just lay there."

Animal advocates call for change to Ohio law after viral video

Granata said she has known Decker for more than 20 years.

"He was such a sweetheart. Highly intelligent, and he knew the value of life and the value of friendship," she said. 

Now, Granata said Decker is being taken off life support. As his friends gather to say goodbye, they are pleading for answers and justice.

"When you see someone on a bicycle or a motorcycle, slow down, let them have the right of way," Granata said. "It may slow you down a couple seconds, but a life is not worth taking because you're in a hurry."

Decker’s friends are offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person who hit their friend. Columbus police ask anyone with information
to call 614-645-4767 or submit an anonymous tip to Central Ohio Crime Stoppers by calling 614-461-8477. 

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Gender transition surgery for minors will now be illegal in Ohio indefinitely unless further action is taken.

At the start of the year, Gov. Mike DeWine signed an emergency executive order to ban those surgeries for Ohioans under 18; that order would have expired at the start of May had no action been taken.

On Monday, the state's Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) adopted two rules into the administrative code to ban those surgeries for minors.

The rules do have exceptions for certain cases, like for someone who was born with a “medically verifiable disorder of sex development” or someone who “needs treatment for any infection, injury, disease, or disorder that has been caused or exacerbated by the performance of gender transition services, whether or not the services were performed in accordance with state or federal law.”

A spokesperson for DeWine said there was a “pretty clear consensus” that allowing minors to have gender-transition surgery should not be permissible in the state. He points to testimony and statements from the state’s children’s hospitals that said these surgeries are never performed either way.

State Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus), who is on JCARR, issued a statement after the vote that said, “These rules have no legal basis, are not helpful, and just further show the depths that Ohio Republicans will go to make Ohio as inhospitable as possible to the most persecuted groups.”

The rules fall under the Ohio Department of Health's purview and will be up to it to enforce.

It will take at least 10 days before the rules take effect.

House Bill 68 is set to go into effect in less than a week; it’s the state’s new law to ban these surgeries and other forms of gender-affirming care for minors. It is being challenged in court, but even if it ultimately tied up in a legal battle, the new rules will still stand.

NEW YORK (WCMH) -- Former Buckeyes Jacy Sheldon and Celeste Taylor are among the players waiting to hear their names called in tonight's WNBA draft. And while their futures have yet to be determined, Caitlin Clark's is all but certain.

The Iowa guard who elevated the game of women's college basketball is expected to be the first off the board, with the Indiana Fever set to have the first pick when the festivities get underway at 7:30 p.m. at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Former Kentucky center Aaron Bradshaw transfers to Ohio State

Sheldon, a Dublin native, completed her five-year career at Ohio State as one of the best in program history. Her 2,024 career points ranks sixth in Buckeyes history and is one of three Ohio State players to have more than 1,900 points, 400 rebounds, 350 assists, 200 steals and 150 made three-pointers.

"It's the hardest professional roster to make with just a couple of roster spots and a couple of teams. But I think for me, just staying confident and going in and being ready to learn and listen," Sheldon said. "I'm a rookie going in with a bunch of veterans and they know that, too. So I think just taking in what they have to say, but, you know, taking my game with me, I think for me."

Taylor played only one season with the Buckeyes after stints with Duke and Texas, but she made a big impact in her lone year at Ohio State. The Long Island, New York, native was named the Big Ten defensive player of the year after leading the league in steals during the regular season.

"Honestly, it's going to be to come in and learn. You know, they always say, you know, the easy part is getting drafted," Taylor said. "The hardest part is staying. I think I bring a whole different outlook and experience. I mean, obviously, they know through all the programs and the coaching styles that I've been a part of. But, you know, just, you know, very, very adaptive."

The Buckeyes duo helped Ohio State win a Big Ten regular season title, its first since 2010. Both are among the 15 invited to tonight's event in Brooklyn and look to follow Taylor Mikesell, who was the first Buckeye chosen in the WNBA draft in five years last season.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Several Republican lawmakers have proposed changes to Ohio’s primary election laws, introducing at least four separate bills.

“Our belief is this will help deter those who intend to manipulate the results of our primaries,” Rep. Beth Lear (R-Galena).

Animal advocates call for change to Ohio law after viral video

Lear, along with Rep. Brian Lorenz (R-Powell), is sponsoring the latest effort to close Ohio’s primaries with House Bill 437.

Currently, no matter what party you are registered to vote in, you can show up to the polls on primary election day and vote on whichever party’s ballot you want. HB 437 would change that by requiring you to declare a party affiliation 90 days before primary election day.

“They just would need to make that clear 90 days before the primary, not wait until the last minute and decide maybe I like or dislike person A, B, or C,” Lear said.

 “I am concerned about disenfranchising the truly independent voter because they are the largest number of people in the voting electorate these days,” Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) said.

Of the state’s 8 million voters, about 5.5 million are unaffiliated, meaning if the primaries close, those voters would have to establish which political party they want to vote in ahead of time, in some cases before it is clear who will be on which ballot and which races will be competitive.

ODOT stresses attentive driving as work zone-related crashes rise

“I’m opposed to any effort that would at all restrict voter access to the ballot,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said. “I look at closed primaries as just one more effort to restrict voters.”

House Bill 210 would require registration by the end of the year before the primary.

House Bill 208 and Senate Bill 147 would allow party registration up to 30 days before the election.

“The shorter the time period, the more shenanigans can happen,” Lear said.

House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) said while he will have to see how the hearings play out, in his county the Republican voter roll has “swelled” and he thinks election laws are partly to thank.

“It has made a big difference,” he said. “I think a lot of the reason for that is because it is really easy to decide which party you want to vote in the primary.”

Former Delaware daycare operator faces a judge on 17 child abuse charges

As for as the top election official in the state goes, in a statement, Ben Kindel, spokesperson for Secretary of State Frank LaRose, said “The Secretary has long supported the idea of allowing voters to more accurately declare their party affiliation. He appreciates the legislature’s willingness to advance this conversation and looks forward to offering his perspective as the state’s chief of election officer.”

“Maybe one or two somebodies that have made gamesmanship,” Stephens said. “But I think at the end of the day, people will identify with whatever party or whatever party, or they may just identify they don’t want to vote in either one of the primaries.”

Each of the bills has had at least one hearing. Three of them have not had a hearing since last year.

ECMAScript 2024, a planned update to ECMA’s standard for JavaScript, is set to include seven new features ranging from array grouping to Unicode strings. The 2024 specification, from ECMA’s Technical Committee 39, is expected to be approved in June.

Among the list of finished features cited for publication this year is a proposal for array grouping. Motivating this proposal is the notion that array grouping is a common operation best exemplified by SQL’s GROUP BY clause and mapreduce programming. The ability to combine like data into groups lets developers compute higher order data sets.

To read this article in full, please click here

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – As part of National Work Zone Awareness Week, departments of transportation are reminding drivers to pay attention to crews working out on the roads.

It's a reminder the Ohio Department of Transport shares all year round, but it's sending it out again as the weather gets nicer. With warmer weather comes more road projects.

Ohio Supreme Court asks for name of officer who killed Ta’Kiya Young

“These are preventable crashes, there’s no reason for them to happen," said Matt Bruning, ODOT press secretary, about work zone-related crashes.

Nearly 1,000 projects will be happening around the state this construction season, according to ODOT. Each of those projects involves a crew.

“Slow down in those work zones, pay attention to what’s going on around you, pay attention to those workers, because we have way too many crashes in work zones -- and with deadly consequences," Bruning said.

There were more than 4,000 work zone-related crashes in 2023, per state statistics. More than 1.400 people were hurt and nine were killed, including one contractor. Bruning said in the vast majority of incidents, it's the driver or their passenger who end up worse off.

Animal advocates call for change to Ohio law after viral video

“The message about being safe in work zones is as much for our people and our contractors that are out there working as it is for you as a driver," Bruning said.

While many crashes include snow plows, the number of crews hit this year is on pace to exceed last year's total. There were 56 crashes in 2023; Bruning said there's been 43 in 2024.

"It's ridiculous that we’re already at 43, and we haven’t even gotten into the summer," Bruning said.

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

DELAWARE, Ohio (WCMH) – A Delaware County woman facing 17 felony charges related to the abuse of children faced a judge Monday morning.

According to the Delaware Court of Common Pleas, Rhonda Coomes, of Randor, was indicted on 14 counts of endangering children, a third-degree felony, and three counts of kidnapping, a first-degree felony.

State Route 161 closed after fatal crash in northeast Columbus

Coomes is accused of torturing, abusing, restraining and physically harming children in her care between January 2021 and September 2023, when she owned and operated her own daycare center in Delaware County.

Coomes was originally issued a $500,000 bond for one kidnaping charge in February and on Monday a Delaware County Court of Common Pleas judge ordered the bond to remain the same on all charges.

A pretrial date was set for May 28, with a trial date scheduled for June 14. An attorney representing Coomes said it's likely they will request a continuance.

According to court documents, in September, Coomes allegedly injured a 10-month-old girl by hitting her multiple times in the face with the palm of her hand and six times with a “hard plastic diaper wipe container.” The child suffered a black eye, court records state.

That same day, Coomes allegedly abused a 3-year-old for not eating fast enough. She is now accused of abusing six additional children.

Superman movie filming in Ohio to cast locals as extras

She was arrested Jan. 26 and initially charged with one count of kidnaping. At the time, the sheriff’s office said the charge was a “placeholder” and that Coomes, who owned and operated her own in-home daycare, would likely “be charged with felonies related to her physical abuse of more than a half-dozen different kids.”

If you believe child abuse and neglect is happening, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has launched 855-OH-Child (855-642-4453), an automated telephone directory that will link callers to a child welfare of law enforcement office in their county.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Blendon Township police have been ordered by the Ohio Supreme Court to reveal the names of two officers involved in the shooting death of Ta’Kiya Young and her unborn child – but only to the justices themselves.

In a partial win for Young’s family, the high court on April 10 ordered the department to identify, under court seal, the officers who responded to the Blendon Township Kroger in August 2023, including the officer who fatally shot 21-year-old Young as she slowly drove her car toward him. Except for the justices, no one will be able to see the records – but a public records law expert and the Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center both see the order as a sign the justices are seriously considering whether recently enacted victims’ rights legislation applies to officers who use deadly force.

One of two responding officers shot Young through the front windshield of a car, after Kroger employees told them Young and several others had stolen alcohol. Young, who was pregnant, died several hours later.

Superman movie filming in Ohio to cast locals as extras

The police department has declined to identify the two officers who approached Young’s car that evening, citing victims’ rights legislation called Marsy’s Law that allows victims of violent crime to request anonymity in documents otherwise considered public record. The department considered both officers victims because Young hit the shooting officer with her car and the other had his hand in her window when she began driving.

A spokesperson for Blendon Township police did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the Montgomery County prosecutor, who was assigned to determine whether to bring criminal charges against the officer who shot Young.

In December, the Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center filed a complaint on behalf of Young’s family, asking the Ohio Supreme Court to compel the department to reveal the officers’ identities and release unredacted body camera footage. The center argued that Young was the victim, not the officers, because the state constitution excludes from the definition of “victim” any person who the court would find didn’t act in the best interest of the deceased.

The officers violated Blendon Township’s policy regarding suspects in moving vehicles, the center’s complaint argued, considering they should not have used deadly force to stop Young’s vehicle unless she directed another means of deadly force toward them or others.

Animal advocates call for change to Ohio law after viral video

In 2017, voters passed a constitutional amendment establishing certain rights of crime victims, known as Marsy’s Law. Last April, lawmakers passed a law codifying the constitutional rights and automatically opting victims of violent crime into certain rights until they speak to a prosecutor. Those rights include notifications of court dates but also the ability to redact their name, address and other identifying information from public records related to the case.

Law enforcement agencies across the state have since cited Marsy’s Law as a reason to withhold the names of officers who use deadly force. But Elizabeth Well, legal director of the Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center, said that interpretation flies in the face of what voters intended.

“People were not imagining that it would be used in the way that Blendon Township is using it,” Well said. “In fact, we’re confident that when voters passed that constitutional amendment, they would have thought of someone like Ta’Kiya Young the victim, and the officers who were involved in her death as the accused or potential defendants.”

Well said she expected the court’s ruling, which now means both parties will submit full briefs and present oral arguments to the court. But it’s encouraging to her that the court didn’t throw out the case entirely.

Susan Gilles, professor emeritus at Capital University Law School and expert in media law and public records law, said while it’s too early to tell how the Ohio Supreme Court may rule, their order to view the records – accompanied with a rather fast briefing schedule – suggests they’re at least “uncomfortable” with the idea of withholding the officers’ names from Young’s family.

High school loses power, closed after ‘substantial outage’ in west Columbus

Gilles also harkened to the original intent of Marsy’s Law, which has been passed in multiple states. The law is named for Marsy Nicholas, who was killed by her ex-boyfriend in 1983. Her family ran into the ex-boyfriend at the grocery store, having not been notified by prosecutors that he was released on bail.

The law gives crime victims the right to notification about case updates, input into plea agreements and otherwise gives them agency in their criminal cases. It was meant to give citizens rights to enforce against the government, Gilles said.

“The statute was meant to protect private individuals’ access to what the government was doing in prosecuting the case,” Gilles said. “There’s just not a need there for the police officers – they’re in the government.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A new trial date has been set for a former deputy accused of murdering Casey Goodson Jr. in 2020.

It will be the second time that a jury attempts to reach a verdict for Jason Meade. Jurors were deadlocked in a February trial for the former Franklin County Sheriff's deputy, resulting in the judge declaring a mistrial.

Mark Collins, Meade's defense attorney, confirmed to NBC4 that the new trial date has been set for Nov. 4, with jury selection beginning Oct. 31. Special prosecutors in the case previously confirmed on Feb. 22 that they planned to retry Meade on the same charges: two counts of murder and one count of reckless homicide.

Ohio Uber driver killed in shooting after being sent to pick up scammer’s package

A timeline of events leading up to Jason Meade's first murder trial is below. Click the links inside to view previous coverage of the case in chronological order.

While Meade has not disputed killing Goodson, he asserted throughout the first trial that he feared for his life on Dec. 4, 2020. The ex-deputy said Goodson pointed a gun at him from the doorway of his grandmother's home when Meade shot him. Meade was coming off of an assignment with the U.S. Marshals Service and pursued Goodson there, after he claimed to see Goodson waving a gun while driving.

Prosecutors have argued that the shooting was unjustified, disputing whether Goodson pointed or waved his gun, and the fact that Goodson was wearing AirPods at the time of the shooting. An autopsy report showed Goodson was shot six times, five of them in the back.

GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio (WCMH) - A local pizza shop in Columbus is expanding.

JT's Pizza and Pub is opening a new pizzeria at 845 Goodale Blvd. this summer. According to its social media post, the restaurant is partnering with Elford Development to open the location at the Southern Station apartment complex.

Animal advocates call for change to Ohio law after viral video

The pizza shop posted on social media in December announcing the location, saying the expansion is "only possible due to our fantastic customers and amazing staff."

(Courtesy: JT's Pizza & Pub)

The shop, known for its pizza, wings, calzones and more, has its Columbus location at 2390 W. Dublin Granville Rd.

The menu has a variety of options for customers to choose from including an option to design your own pizza, where customers can choose their sauce, crust flavor and toppings. The pub event allows customers to buy a jar of its house-made dressing. Along with food, customers can also enjoy daily drink specials and more.

Popeyes moves in at abandoned Wendy’s and Tim Hortons site in Lewis Center

• (Courtesy: JT's Pizza & Pub)
• (Courtesy: JT's Pizza & Pub)

The pizzeria told NBC4 it does not have a set date on its opening but will continue providing updates on its social media pages.

Until the new location opens in Grandview Heights, customers can visit its Columbus pub Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to midnight and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m.

The U.S. government is warning that “smart locks” securing entry to an estimated 50,000 dwellings nationwide contain hard-coded credentials that can be used to remotely open any of the locks. The lock’s maker Chirp Systems remains unresponsive, even though it was first notified about the critical weakness in March 2021. Meanwhile, Chirp’s parent company, RealPage, Inc., is being sued by multiple U.S. states for allegedly colluding with landlords to illegally raise rents.

On March 7, 2024, the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned about a remotely exploitable vulnerability with “low attack complexity” in Chirp Systems smart locks.

“Chirp Access improperly stores credentials within its source code, potentially exposing sensitive information to unauthorized access,” CISA’s alert warned, assigning the bug a CVSS (badness) rating of 9.1 (out of a possible 10). “Chirp Systems has not responded to requests to work with CISA to mitigate this vulnerability.”

Matt Brown, the researcher CISA credits with reporting the flaw, is a senior systems development engineer at Amazon Web Services. Brown said he discovered the weakness and reported it to Chirp in March 2021, after the company that manages his apartment building started using Chirp smart locks and told everyone to install Chirp’s app to get in and out of their apartments.

“I use Android, which has a pretty simple workflow for downloading and decompiling the APK apps,” Brown told KrebsOnSecurity. “Given that I am pretty picky about what I trust on my devices, I downloaded Chirp and after decompiling, found that they were storing passwords and private key strings in a file.”

Using those hard-coded credentials, Brown found an attacker could then connect to an application programming interface (API) that Chirp uses which is managed by smart lock vendor August.com, and use that enumerate and remotely lock or unlock any door in any building that uses the technology.

Brown said when he complained to his leasing office, they sold him a small $50 key fob that uses Near-Field Communications (NFC) to toggle the lock when he brings the fob close to his front door. But he said the fob doesn’t eliminate the ability for anyone to remotely unlock his front door using the exposed credentials and the Chirp mobile app.

A smart lock enabled with Chirp. Image: Camdenliving.com

Also, the fobs pass the credentials to his front door over the air in plain text, meaning someone could clone the fob just by bumping against him with a smartphone app made to read and write NFC tags.

Neither August nor Chirp Systems responded to requests for comment. It’s unclear exactly how many apartments and other residences are using the vulnerable Chirp locks, but multiple articles about the company from 2020 state that approximately 50,000 units use Chirp smart locks with August’s API.

Roughly a year before Brown reported the flaw to Chirp Systems, the company was bought by RealPage, a firm founded in 1998 as a developer of multifamily property management and data analytics software. In 2021, RealPage was acquired by the private equity giant Thoma Bravo.

Brown said the exposure he found in Chirp’s products is “an obvious flaw that is super easy to fix.”

“It’s just a matter of them being motivated to do it,” he said. “But they’re part of a private equity company now, so they’re not answerable to anybody. It’s too bad, because it’s not like residents of [the affected] properties have another choice. It’s either agree to use the app or move.”

In October 2022, an investigation by ProPublica examined RealPage’s dominance in the rent-setting software market, and that it found “uses a mysterious algorithm to help landlords push the highest possible rents on tenants.”

“For tenants, the system upends the practice of negotiating with apartment building staff,” ProPublica found. “RealPage discourages bargaining with renters and has even recommended that landlords in some cases accept a lower occupancy rate in order to raise rents and make more money. One of the algorithm’s developers told ProPublica that leasing agents had ‘too much empathy’ compared to computer generated pricing.”

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice threw its weight behind a massive lawsuit filed by dozens of tenants who are accusing the $9 billion apartment software company of helping landlords collude to inflate rents.

In February 2024, attorneys general for Arizona and the District of Columbia sued RealPage, alleging RealPage’s software helped create a rental monopoly.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A family-owned grocery store with two Cleveland locations has announced the opening date for its second Columbus market.

Lucky's Market is set to open its doors on May 17 at 747 Neil Ave. in Victorian Village, the latest addition to the redevelopment of Thurber Village at the corner of Collins and Neil avenues. The 21,000-square-foot store will be operated by the Saltzman family, who have been in the grocery business since 1930 and acquired Lucky's Clintonville location at 2770 N. High St. in 2020.

Getting alcoholic drinks to go may soon be coming to Downtown, Franklinton

"My family is in our fifth generation of ownership, we all live in Ohio and are made up of Buckeye alumni and former Columbus residents," Aaron Saltzman, vice president of Lucky's, said when construction on the new location broke ground. "This store will be the latest addition to our growing family of locally owned and operated grocery stores in Ohio."

• Lucky's Market is set to open its doors on May 17 at 747 Neil Avenue in Victorian Village. (NBC4 Photo/David Rees)

Ahead of the May opening, the market is hiring team member positions storewide and is hosting open interviews from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and April 23 to 25.

The Victorian Village store will be home to farmers market-style produce, a bakery, hot made-to-order sandwiches, Boar's Head products and Lucky’s famous bacon and ground-in-house sausage. The new location will feature an extensive amount of beer, wine, seltzer, and ready-to-drink can cocktail selections, emphasizing Ohio and Midwest favorites.

Work on the Thurber Village redevelopment began in October 2022, including constructing a 13,000-square-foot CVS and an apartment building with 225 units. Development firm Casto demolished a former Giant Eagle to make way for the new additions.

Popeyes moves in at abandoned Wendy’s and Tim Hortons site in Lewis Center

Casto has owned the site since 2005 after purchasing the property for $6.2 million, according to the Franklin County auditor's office. The development firm said it collaborated for several years, including input from the Harrison West Society and surrounding communities, to create the site's redevelopment plan.

The Saltzman family is the long-time owner of Dave's Markets, a grocery store chain in northeast Ohio. Three generations are active in its business today. Lucky's Market originated in 2003 in Boulder, Colorado, with the brand's Ohio stores acquired by the Saltzman family in April 2020.

COLUMBUS (WCMH) – After a sharp incline in gas prices the previous week, the cost of fuel dropped by over a dime in the Columbus area.

According to GasBuddy’s survey of 500 stations, the cost for a gallon of gas fell by 12.1 cents to $3.42 per gallon. It marks a six-week period in which prices fell after an increase. The current price is 9.6 cents per gallon higher than one month ago but remains 23.5 cents lower than this time one year ago.

Columbus Gas Prices Tracker

The cheapest gas station in the Columbus area was priced at $3.11 a gallon, while the most expensive was $3.75, a difference of 64 cents per gallon. In Ohio, the average price of gas also fell by the same amount, 12.1 cents, from one week ago, averaging out at $3.39, while nationally, gas prices rose slightly (3.1 cents) to $3.60 per gallon.

According to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, the country avoided a jump in prices after a drone strike on Israel by Iran deescalated quickly, with minimal reported damage. But if the conflict continues, it could create a disturbance in oil prices.

“With the attacks largely thwarted and mostly unsuccessful, and with Iran signaling that their attack will be the end of their response, the risk to crude oil has diminished,” De Haan said. "If Israel, which has promised to respond with further attacks, indeed does press on, it could certainly still push oil prices higher.”

COLUMBUS (WCMH) – A “substantial outage” has caused the closing of a west Columbus high school after a pole was hit Monday morning.

According to the Columbus Division of Power, primary wires were torn down for the Columbus DOP and American Electric Power after a pole was struck Monday morning in west Columbus.

State Route 161 closed after fatal crash in northeast Columbus A power outage has forced a Columbus high school to close, April 14, 2024. (Courtesy/Columbus Division of Power)

The Columbus City School District announced West High School on South Powell Avenue is closed for the day and a large portion of the Hilltop and west Columbus neighborhoods are without power. Crews are on the scene, but do not have an estimated time of restoration.

It is not yet known how the pole was damaged or how long power will be out in the affected areas.