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Student detained in North Korea is mourned at Ohio hometown funeral

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WYOMING, Ohio: Celebrating the life of an American college student who was detained in North Korea for over a year and died shortly after returning home in a coma, a packed crowd of mourners gathered Thursday as Otto Warmbier’s loved ones shared stories about his affinity for hugs, thrift-store clothes-shopping and little-known rap music.

More mourners lined the street, with some holding signs of support and pressing the tips of their thumbs together to form a “W,” as a hearse carried away the casket after the public service at a school in Warmbier’s hometown of Wyoming, near Cincinnati. A rabbi officiated at the service, which was closed to news media.

“It doesn’t really feel real yet. He’s so young, and he’s been gone for so long,” said Grady Beerck, 22, a former soccer teammate. “The impact he made is always going to last with people.”

So many showed up that officials had to turn about a hundred people away once roughly 2,000 had filled an auditorium, cafeteria and gym for the service. Warmbier’s passport and jacket were on display as mourners signed a memorial book.

The attendees included Ambassador Joseph Yun, the U.S. special envoy who traveled to Pyongyang to bring Warmbier back, and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from the Cincinnati area.

Portman told the throng of reporters outside that North Korea must be held accountable for what happened to the 22-year-old University of Virginia student, who died Monday.

“This college kid never should have been detained in the first place,” said Portman, who previously revealed that he met secretly with North Korean officials in New York last December to press for Warmbier’s release. He said North Korea’s treatment of Warmbier demonstrated “a basic disregard for human rights, for human dignity.”

Warmbier was accused of trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting North Korea in 2015 and was later convicted of subversion. His family said they were told that he had been in a coma since shortly after he was sentenced to prison with hard labor in March 2016.

After he returned to Ohio, doctors determined he had suffered a “severe neurological injury” of unknown cause. Warmbier’s family objected to an autopsy, so the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office conducted only an external examination of his body and is still trying to determine his cause of death.

It was his life that held mourners’ attention Thursday as they fondly remembered a spirited student-athlete who was socially magnetic and had a positive impact on the people around him, whether it was in class, at a swim club or in his travels.

“Didn’t matter what time of day or what he was doing, he’d drop everything to help his friends,” Beerck said. “He was a goofy kid. He always just lived life to the fullest.”

They heard stories about his life, rap music he listened to and his habit of shopping for sweaters at thrift stores. A bagpiper played as the casket was carried to a hearse.

Warmbier’s former soccer coach, Steve Thomas, said the Jewish student came from a religious family and was involved in mission trips and a birthright trip to Israel.

“He had a deep desire to know God in a personal way,” Thomas said. “He wasn’t big on doing things because he was supposed to do it. He did things because he wanted to do them.”

A handout for the funeral featured a photo of Warmbier posing next to his mother and included a quote from his salutatorian speech in 2013: “This is our season finale. This is the end of one great show, but just the beginning to hundreds of new spin-offs.”

Cynthia Meis, his college admissions counselor from high school, said she admires the strength displayed by Warmbier’s parents in the face of such loss and the glare of international media attention.

“The world stage is secondary to the fact that they’ve lost their child,” she said, “and I think we can all certainly appreciate that.”


W. Thomas ‘Tom’ Duke dies at 84; active in local public relations community, Akron SCORE

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W. Thomas “Tom” Duke, long active in the local public relations community and in Akron SCORE, was an avid reader who loved nonfiction.

It couldn’t be anything else.

“He used to say you can’t learn anything from fiction. It’s got to be nonfiction so you can continue gaining knowledge,” said his wife of 28 years, Juanita.

And he loved sharing that knowledge with others, continuing long after he retired from a South Carolina marketing communications firm and returned to the Akron area in 2007.

Duke died Sunday at the age of 84.

The North Hill native was born April 24, 1933, to Bill and Grace Duke.

He graduated from North High School, the son of Akron’s longtime postmaster. Letters and words continued to play a role in his life, as he went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and graduated from the Ohio State University Advanced Management Program.

He remained involved at Kent State, where he was a member of the Professional Advisory Board for the Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication and named Outstanding Alumnus of the KSU JMC School (William Taylor Award). He also lectured there and at the University of Akron, among others.

“Tom Duke was a kind friend, supportive mentor and an excellent role model for so many,” said Eric Mansfield, executive director of university media relations at Kent State. “He was always supportive of me and my family, and he was one of the first people to welcome me into the world of public relations when I left journalism. I never saw him have a bad day, as he was always happy to be in the company of others and to share smiles. I learned a lot from Tom, and for that I will forever be thankful.”

JMC Director Thor Wasbotten said he met Duke within a year after becoming director.

“He shared with me a thorough history and assessment of the public relations program as he saw it,” Wasbotten said. “When you’re trying to build a plan for the future, it’s helpful to know where you’ve been, and to this day, I remain grateful for Tom’s insight.”

Duke held managerial positions at Ohio Edison, Cooper Industries and the B.F. Goodrich Co. and leadership positions at the Urda Co. in Akron and Jackson-Dawson Marketing Communications in Greenville, S.C.

He was a member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) College of Fellows and founding president of the Akron Area Chapter of PRSA in 1968 and 1969, having spun it off the Cleveland chapter. His service includes membership on the board of the Akron YMCA Endowment Foundation and the Communications Committee of the United Way of Summit County.

“He was an absolutely great guy, a great mentor to many and loved his family and grandchildren,” his wife said. “We all looked up to him.”

Duke served as chair of Akron SCORE, a volunteer organization that supplies advice and counsel to small businesses through mentoring and workshops.

“My dad was a great father, a good listener, a wonderful grandfather to all of his grandkids,” said his daughter, Terrill Mervis. “He was a mentor to many and someone who had a very big heart.”

He gave a lot back to the community, Mervis said.

“For as long as I can remember since I was little ... he was involved with the United Way and so many organizations,” she said. “He put time and energy into it because he was passionate about it.”

Duke was also an avid sports fan, Mervis said. The Cavs were a particular favorite. “He never missed a game, even up until while he was extremely sick,” she said. “He saw them play their very last game.”

Duke is survived by his wife, Juanita; children Terrill (Gregg) Mervis, Greg (Carrie) Snyder, Tom Snyder, Ben (Shelia) Duke and Andy (Shauna) Duke; and grandchildren.

Calling hours will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at the Billow Fairlawn Chapel, 85 N. Miller Road, Fairlawn, at which time a memorial service will take place. Private inurnment will follow at Rose Hill Burial Park.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Tom and Juanita Duke Endowed Scholarship in Public Relations, c/o Kent State University Foundation Inc., P.O. Box 5190, Kent, OH 44242-0001.

Monica L. Thomas can be reached at 330-996-3827 or mthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @MLThomasABJ  and www.facebook.com/MLThomasABJ.

Things to Do, June 23: Wine dinner, live jazz recording, King Kong and Rock the Docks

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Dan Wilson recording in Akron

Dan Wilson: Balancing Act Live at BLU Jazz+ Album Recording will be from 7 and 9:30 p.m. =at the BLU Jazz night club in Akron. Tickets are $30.

Wine dinner at Papa Joe’s

Keith Hargrove, one of five people who came together to form Hindsight Wines in Napa Valley, Calif., will be on hand for the 7 p.m. Friday wine dinner at Papa Joe’s restaurant at 1561 Akron-Peninsula Road in Cuyahoga Falls. Five courses, including fried quail, grilled lamb chop with white bean puree and pot roast Napoleon, will be paired with Hindsight wines. Cost is $75. Call 330-923-7999 to reserve.

Catch a double feature

Sit back and enjoy all things King Kong at the West Theater, 1017 Wooster Road W., Barberton. There will be a King Kong Double Feature with the original King Kong (1933) and Son of Kong, 7 and 10 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $5 adults, $3 seniors and children.

Head over to Springfield Lake

The Rock the Docks festival along Springfield Lake kicks off Friday and continues through Sunday. There will be food, rides, games and entertainment along the shore of the Springfield Lake off state Route 224. The festival, which is a cooperative venture with Springfield Township and Lakemore Village, will include fireworks on Saturday night.

Take the kids to Cuyahoga Falls

There will be a Kids Fest from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday in Cuyahoga Falls. The free event is part of Falls Downtown Fridays. There will be music, dance, art, craft-making, storytelling and interactive play along with kid-friendly food options. The event will take place in the downtown Cuyahoga Falls Amphitheater and Pavilion at 2085 Front St.

Browns notebook: New defensive backs coach DeWayne Walker says Joe Haden ‘still has potential’ to reach coming off injuries

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Injuries have prevented Browns cornerback Joe Haden from performing at a Pro Bowl level for the past two seasons.

Now new Browns defensive backs coach DeWayne Walker is focused on helping Haden become the elite player the seventh overall draft pick in 2010 believes he can be.

And Walker thinks Haden has yet to maximize his talent.

“He has ability, but my thing is every day we watch the tape, and there’s good and there’s bad on the tape,” Walker said last week as mandatory minicamp wrapped up. “So [I] just to try to get him to be as consistent as he can be and try to help him reach his full potential because he still has potential.”

Haden made the Pro Bowl in back-to-back seasons (2013-14) before injuries interfered.

He missed 11 games in 2015 because of two concussions and other setbacks, one of which led to offseason ankle surgery last year. He missed three games this past season and fought through two injured groin muscles for nearly the rest of the year. He had surgery on both groin muscles in January.

Asked if Haden has bounced back from groin surgery, Walker said, “We still have time. My thing with these guys is just continuing to try to help improve them. We don’t play until Sept. [10], so we are just going to continue to try to progress to where we need to be by the time we play Pittsburgh.”

As for Haden, he has repeatedly insisted he can return to Pro Bowl form.

“Of course, I think I can be the best corner in the game still,” Haden said in April. “This is my eighth season. I just turned 28. I’m ready to get after it. Without the injuries — it’s been a lot, it’s been tough, trying to fight through it — but I feel like when I’m out there healthy, can’t nobody mess with me.”

Veteran leader missed

When the Browns granted wide receiver Andrew Hawkins his release in February after he had requested it, they lost a valuable leader in a young, inexperienced position group.

And they already miss Hawkins, who graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree in sports management and signed with the New England Patriots last month.

They were recently reminded of the void created by his departure when he sent some of his former teammates gifts.

“Do we miss Hawk? Absolutely,” said Al Saunders, senior offensive assistant and receivers coach. “I probably talk to him once every week. In fact, this is what kind of kid he is and what a special guy he is. The other day we come in the receiver meeting room and there’s sandals for everybody. He got a picture of every single coach, [assistant receivers coach] Bob Saunders, myself and every player. It had the picture, had their name embossed on it, had their numbers and just sent a thank you and good luck to our football team.

“So is that kind of presence missed, that maturity missed? I mean this guy has a master’s degree from Columbia. Not any of us could probably get into Columbia, and he has a master’s degree from Columbia. You miss the quality and character and value that a guy like that brings. You’d always like to have veteran leadership, but those young guys, the way they’re improving ... the arrow is up for every one of those guys, and now we’ve just got to keep going and climb to the level that we’d like to be when the season starts.”

Turned off by instability

Like Hawkins, veteran cornerback Tramon Williams was released by the Browns in February in the aftermath of the franchise’s 1-15 debacle.

“At the end of the day, those guys were just going in a different direction,” Williams said last week on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “From the start of training camp to the beginning of the season, they were going in a different direction. And it came a point during the season to where I wanted to be released. That’s why we got released because it wasn’t a stable spot. It’s not a stable spot.

“You don’t know who’s going to be the coaches from year to year, and I didn’t know that. So I didn’t want to be one of those veterans who is stuck in a spot and at the end of the day, I’m not going to be able to get a job because I was on a bad team. That’s why I wanted to get out of there.”

Williams is still a free agent but said he’s hopeful he’ll sign with a team “that is stable and wants to win” before the upcoming season.

“I thank Cleveland for giving me the opportunity to get out of there and test the market and get to a team that could potentially win,” Williams said, “and go out the way that I want to go out.”

Men in the middle

Linebackers coach Blake Williams said the Browns are comfortable with Tank Carder starting at middle linebacker after the team traded Demario Davis on June 1 to the New York Jets for safety Calvin Pryor. Carder, a special-teams captain in 2016, has started just twice in five NFL seasons.

But Williams added nothing is written in stone, and there are other candidates competing for the job — Joe Schobert and Dominique Alexander.

Schobert, a fourth-round pick last year, started four games this past season as a 3-4 outside linebacker but never earned consistent playing time there. He appeared in all 16 games and led the Browns with 14 special-teams tackles.

“He is not really a 3-4 outside linebacker,” Williams said. “He can do that and do that well, and he has that athleticism, but body type, he is more of a 4-3, off-the-ball linebacker — Mike, Will or Sam.

“He is an extremely bright, extremely bright guy and [has] the ability to process what everybody is doing and all of the sudden see something and turn around and tell a safety what they are supposed to be doing. ... He possesses some of those coach-like qualities that has allowed him to step in there as the spring has progressed and get a chance to do that.”

Alexander signed with the Browns last year as an undrafted free agent, appeared in 14 games and finished second with nine special-teams tackles.

“I can’t wait to see Dominique in pads,” Williams said. “... Just out here without pads on, I tell him he looks like a little bowling ball. He just looks stout and also on top of that, he’s done a good job this offseason of just being instinctual.

“He either feels what play is being ran and he jumps it, beats the offense to the spot and makes this play, and we’re supposed to be keeping people up, but he gets there so fast that the guy runs into him and just falls down. But you never see him falling down. That’s what I mean by he’s got this little bit of brick house, sawed off bowling ball to him.”

Extra points

• Left tackle Joe Thomas will appear on a Celebrity Family Feud episode pitting active NFL players against members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame at 8 p.m. July 9 on ABC. The episode was filmed in February, and Thomas recently revealed the airtime to his Twitter followers.

• The NFL announced reporting dates for all training camps. Browns rookies are scheduled to report to camp on July 23, followed by veterans on July 26. Camp opens on July 27.

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.

Kent State athletics director is highest paid in MAC

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Beacon Journal staff report

KENT: Kent State University Director of Athletics Joel Nielsen is the highest paid athletic director in the Mid-American Conference with a base salary of $428,000, the Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier reports.

For comparison, University of Akron Director of Athletics Larry Williams is paid $285,000 a year.

Read the full Record-Courier report here.

Luigi’s in Akron is alive and well; social media spreads fake news of restaurant closing

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It’s fake news, Luigi’s lovers.

Facebook posts about Akron’s iconic pizza and spaghetti restaurant closing created a panic Wednesday.

“NOOO! This cannot be!” one area person commented in a share of a post about Luigi’s closing.

“My heart is breaking,” another area person commented on a post.

Turns out that area Luigi’s fans were confused, and were sharing a post about the closing of a Luigi’s restaurant thousands of miles away — in Fife, Scotland.

Hearts be still, fans. You’ll still be able to get your salads piled high with mozzarella cheese and Luigi’s salad dressing.

“We regret to inform you that Luigi’s Restaurant era is coming to an end,” the Scotland eatery posted this week on its Facebook page.

Jen Mock, the Akron Luigi’s office assistant, said Thursday morning that the restaurant’s manager, Deb Riley, called her Wednesday night to report that Luigi’s was receiving a flurry of phone calls from concerned customers.

“I about died when I found the original post and found out it was Scotland,” Mock said. “I thought, ‘Well there’s social media for you.’ ”

Mock posted a note on her Facebook page, assuring folks that Luigi’s in Akron is alive and well. She was considering posting something to the restaurant’s Facebook page Thursday.

She did find some comfort in all the hubbub: “It’s nice to know every­body was upset when they thought we were closing.”

The Akron Luigi’s — on North Main Street in what is now called downtown Akron’s Northside District — dates to 1949, when Nick and Rose Ciriello turned an old steakhouse into a family-friendly Italian place.

Co-owner Tony Ciriello is the third-generation operator of the business.

For the record, fans of the Luigi’s in Scotland expressed sadness that the Luigi’s there was closing.

Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.

Indians 6, Orioles 3: Austin Jackson has three hits, three RBI to carry Indians past Orioles

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BALTIMORE: Austin Jackson had three hits and three RBI, Erik Gonzalez homered and the Indians put on another offensive show at the expense of the Baltimore Orioles in a 6-3 victory Thursday night.

The Indians won three of four from the Orioles to complete a 7-1 road trip that began with a four-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins. The Indians have scored at least five runs and reached double figures in hits over nine consecutive games, and homered in 11 in a row.

The Orioles’ beleaguered pitching staff was overmatched against that kind of firepower. The Orioles were outscored 28-10 in the series and now have given up at least five runs in 19 consecutive games, one short of the major league record set by the 1924 Philadelphia Phillies.

Indians starter Mike Clevinger (3-3) walked four and hit two batters in five innings, but he only gave up two runs to earn his first win in five starts since May 20.

The victory lifted the Indians a season-high seven games over .500 (39-32) and lengthened their lead over the second-place Twins in the AL Central to 2½ games.

Seth Smith homered for the Orioles, who have lost 11 of 15.

The Orioles played without manager Buck Showalter, who left the team to attend the birth of his first grandchild. Bench coach John Russell took over as manager.

After Smith put the Orioles ahead with his fourth leadoff homer of the season, Jackson hit an RBI triple off Wade Miley (3-5) and scored on a single by Yan Gomes in the second inning.

The Orioles pulled even in the bottom half when Clevinger hit two batters and walked Jonathan Schoop with the bases loaded.

In the third, Jackson followed a pair of walks with a two-out, two-run single.

Gonzalez hit a solo shot off Richard Bleier in the sixth to make it 5-2 and extend the Orioles’ dubious streak.

Jose Ramirez stopped

The Indians’ Jose Ramirez went 1-for-4, ending his run of successive multihit games at nine — the team’s longest streak since 1936.

Ramirez hasn’t had a day off since May 21, so Indians manager Terry Francona asked him if he wanted to take a break.

“He’s like, ‘Not now,’ ” Francona said. “I get it, man. I’ll just stay out of his way.”

Trainer’s room

Indians: Left fielder Michael Brantley (sprained ankle) took batting practice Thursday and is expected to do running drills Friday. Francona said Brantley, who is eligible to return Monday, shouldn’t need a rehab assignment.

Orioles: Right-hander Darren O’Day (shoulder) is expected to come off the 10-day disabled list Friday. ... Center fielder Adam Jones was given the night off. It was a preventive measure, because Jones missed time recently with a sore hip and Baltimore’s next six games are on artificial turf.

Roster move

Clevinger was recalled from Triple-A Columbus before the game, and closer Cody Allen was placed on the paternity list.

Draft night a quiet one for Cavaliers with no picks, no trades, no word from Chauncey Billups

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Going into Thursday night’s NBA Draft without a general manager did not prevent the Cavaliers from pursuing trades and trying to bolster their roster to better compete with the Golden State Warriors.

But they had few assets, surrendered in building the team that captured the 2016 championship and celebrated in a massive parade exactly a year ago. The Cavs entered the night with no draft picks, no tradeable first-rounders until 2021 and no money to buy a draft pick.

Discussions included talks about the San Antonio Spurs’ Danny Green, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, but the asking price was high.

And hanging over the franchise was its interest in Chauncey Billups, a five-time All-Star guard now an ESPN analyst, to become president of basketball operations.

Cavs Assistant General Manager Koby Altman served as second in command behind owner Dan Gilbert after GM David Griffin and Gilbert parted ways on Monday.

The Athletic reported late Wednesday night that Billups had been offered a five-year contract, with ESPN initially reporting a multiyear offer. According to Windhorst, Billups would be able to hire an experienced general manager to assist him, but was “conflicted” over whether to accept the job.

Meanwhile, two people familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press on Thursday that Gilbert had not yet given Billups a contract proposal.

Multiple websites reported that Billups met with Gilbert on Tuesday and Wednesday, the second day including a visit to Quicken Loans Arena to be introduced to executives who would work under him.

Billups, 40, played in the NBA for 17 seasons and was the 2004 NBA Finals MVP with the Detroit Pistons. He has no front office experience, but has long dreamt of working in that capacity. He is close friends with Cavs coach Tyronn Lue. He reportedly is not scared off by the fact that Cavs star LeBron James can become a free agent after next season.

Windhorst said family issues were holding Billups back, with his daughter going into her senior year in high school. Billups lives in Denver and commutes to Los Angeles for his work at ESPN.

Of greater concern is the fact that Gilbert has already had four general managers in 12 years and none of them has received a contract extension.

The latest was Griffin, who departed Monday along with senior vice president Trent Redden. Both of their contracts expire on June 30. But Griffin left behind parameters for trades, with the Pacers’ Paul George the top target.

Shortly after the No. 1 pick was announced Thursday, news broke that one of the Cavs’ other targets, the Chicago Bulls’ Jimmy Butler, was bound for the Minnesota Timber­wolves in a trade.

Green, 30, was drafted by the Cavs in the second round in 2009 and released in October 2010. He’s spent the past six seasons with the Spurs and last season averaged 7.3 points and shot 38 percent from 3-point range. The two-way wing player would be an upgrade for a Cavs bench that struggled in the Finals.

According to Windhorst, the Cavs’ pursuit of George and Butler in multiteam deals stalled because the Cavs could not get the value they believed they were due for four-time All-Star Kevin Love.

The Philadelphia 76ers had barely announced Markelle Fultz the No. 1 pick when word broke that the Timberwolves were dealing for Butler. The Timberwolves were to give up Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the No. 7 pick, with the T-Wolves also receiving the Bulls’ No. 16 pick. Butler will join Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, making the Timberwolves a team on the rise in the Western Conference.

Love, 28, had his best statistical season in his three with the Cavs, averaging 19 points and 11.1 rebounds. In the playoffs, those numbers were 18.9 points and 11.9 rebounds. He hit 20 points and 10 rebounds in four of 18 playoff games and recorded a double-double in eight of 18.

But he is considered a defensive liability, diminishing his worth in what would have had to be a three-team trade because of the Cavs’ lack of assets.

“We came into tonight’s NBA Draft with an opportunistic mindset should a situation develop for us to acquire any pick we felt would help improve our roster,” Cavaliers Assistant General Manager Koby Altman said in a statement Friday. “While we had discussions specifically focused on acquiring picks tonight, we did not feel any of the draft-related options available to us created an opportunity to improve our team or tie into larger deals at this point. As we do year-round, our group will continue to creatively and aggressively evaluate and consider potential trades and free agent signings that would help us reach our singular goal of winning another NBA championship.”

The Cavs will turn to free agency to try to strengthen their roster. Teams can begin negotiating and making verbal agreements on July 1, with the formal free agency and trade period beginning on July 6.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs.


Support high as mayor details spending for proposed income tax

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Mayor Dan Horrigan went public Thursday with a request that Akron’s residents and visitors give a little more of their paychecks.

Upping the city’s income tax from 2.25 to 2.5 percent would raise $16 million more, all for safety forces and the annual paving of 43 more miles of Akron’s “terrible” city streets, Horrigan said, standing behind a foldout lectern in front of a row of uniformed police officers and firefighters.

Horrigan spoke into a mobile microphone system inside Fire Station No. 2, a 1944 brick building on East Exchange Street made to hold much smaller firetrucks than today’s. Outside, cars weaved around potholes and cut through a supermarket parking lot to avoid road construction.

Fire Chief Clarence Tucker spoke next of concrete chunks falling from the ceiling downstairs as his first responders have answered 5,000 more calls this past year — an 11 percent increase — to cope with drug overdoses. The only bucket truck in the fleet has surpassed a 15-year recommended life. Missing from some firehouses are washing machines that remove carcinogens from gear worn by firefighters, who Tucker said are three times more at risk of getting cancer.

Police Chief James Nice echoed the need, citing how cruisers should be taken out of service at 60,000 miles but most of his have clocked 100,000 miles or more. Then there’s the $300,000 he needs each year to store footage from new body-worn police cameras.

In response, the business community is supportive, but cautiously awaits details. County and neighboring leaders wish Akron the best as it struggles to pave roads, buy police cars, rebuild fire stations and purchase firetrucks.

The tax measure has more than enough votes on the council to be placed on the November ballot, according to a Beacon Journal survey of the elected body.

For the median Akron worker’s wage of $35,000, the tax hike would take an additional $1.68 a week, or $87 annually.

Pay here, live there

Outside the city, suburban mayors took note.

Two-thirds of income taxes collected in Akron are paid by workers who can’t vote in the city because they live somewhere else.

“I do have concerns for our residents who find themselves in a position where they may pay more income taxes,” said Stow Mayor Sara Kline, who found conciliation in Horrigan’s promise of “100 percent reciprocity,” a tax credit that prevents traveling workers from paying the full income tax where they work in addition to where they live. Stow’s income tax rate is 2 percent.

Kline and others don’t fault Horrigan for needing the extra cash. They blame the state’s tax reform.

“Given the drastic finding cuts that have come down from the state, pressure has been put on local governments to deal with the funding gap that has been created,” said Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Walters. The Falls, which has a 2 percent income tax rate, has seen income tax collections increase as business and housing development continue. Akron, on the other hand, took an $80 million hit when wages tumbled from 2008 to 2010.

“There’s been a lot of belt tightening” in Cuyahoga Falls, Walters said, noting that nowhere in his budget is a mandated project with the magnitude of Akron’s $1.4 billion sewer overhaul. “Obviously we want Akron to do well, because a lot of our residents do work there.”

Businesses wait

The city’s largest employers are hopeful that targeted infrastructure investment from the tax increase would protect their businesses from fire and crime, and aid in the transport of workers and goods.

“We are very supportive of the mayor and the great work being done to advance the Akron community,” said Mike Bernstein, spokesman for Summa Health, the city’s largest employer. “We currently are in the process of reviewing the details of the proposed tax increase to better understand what it means for our organization.”

“While no one wants to pay more taxes, including the more than 2,400 FirstEnergy employees that work in Akron, we know there are financial challenges cities face in providing essential services,” said FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin. “… As a company, FirstEnergy has a productive relationship with Mayor Horrigan and his administration and knows that they have worked hard to control costs and be judicious with spending. Any decisions about raising taxes were not made lightly, and ultimately will continue to make Akron a great place to live and do business.”

Other companies reached Thursday are in a holding pattern until the legislation that will accompany the tax plan is available publicly, likely on Monday when the mayor’s staff sits down with council.

Propping up payroll

After his remarks, Horrigan led a handful of reporters and a gaggle of city workers to the basement of the firehouse to see a concrete floor propped up by bracing.

Staying behind were the three union bosses for Akron’s firefighters, police officers and city workers.

Each came to the same conclusion. Sure, new cruisers, firetrucks and buildings are good. But shouldn’t the tax increase prop up the men and women walking on this firehouse floor, not just the floor?

“It’s my understanding that the [tax increase] legislation will have language to address manpower and staffing levels,” said police union President Frank Williams, somewhat contradicting administrators’ claims that the money would not be a “boon for hiring.”

Asked if there are enough city workers to pave 43 more miles of roads, Ralph Milano with AFSCME Local 1360 said: “No. We could not. And that’s another reason we’re behind” on paving roads.

The proposed “capital increase” could be used to ward off staffing reductions if state and federal funding is cut.

“The mayor wants to have the funding needed to replace necessary equipment and facilities, and maintain current public safety staffing levels,” city spokesperson Ellen Lander-Nischt explained. “But, the flexibility is there to spend … between operating and capital as urgent needs dictate.”

“Police and fire would be the very last places the mayor would make staffing reductions,” she added.

Williams, Milano and Russ Brode — the firefighters’ union president — applaud Horrigan’s “very responsible” budgeting, especially since lawmakers in Columbus decided a decade ago to slash state income taxes and, to avoid their own deficit after the Great Recession, withheld about $1 billion that otherwise would have gone to local governments, according to a report this year by Policy Matters Ohio.

The result is $15 million a year less in state aid for Akron. A federal grant that helped the city hire 32 firefighters last year expires this year. It may not be renewed. Federal lawmakers and the White House have threatened to abolish block grants and entire departments that have subsidized local road and community projects since the 1970s.

Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug .

Councilman asks if Ohio city can stop responding to overdoses

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MIDDLETOWN, OHIO: A city councilman in southwest Ohio has asked if it’s possible for city emergency crews to stop responding to drug overdose calls as costs for those calls mount.

The Hamilton-Middletown Journal News reports Middletown City Council member Dan Picard has asked if there is a law requiring the city to respond to overdose calls.

Picard says arresting people who overdose increases the burden on taxpayers and strains the court system. He suggests issuing a court summons to individuals who overdose and ordering them to do community service.

City Manager Doug Adkins declined to comment on Picard’s suggestions until he gets an opinion from the city’s law department.

Adkins has said Middletown is on pace to spend $100,000 on the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone, while it budgeted $10,000 for the year.

Akron legal community rallies around attorney injured in motorcycle crash; benefit planned for Thursday

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The Akron legal community is rallying around one of its own.

Well-known defense attorney Ed Bonetti recently was injured when his motorcycle was struck by a semi-tractor trailer. He is expected to be released from St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital this week, but his recovery likely will take longer.

Several attorney friends have taken over Bonetti’s cases and are hosting a benefit on Thursday to raise money to help with his medical expenses and lost wages.

“Being a sole practitioner, you don’t work, you don’t make any money,” said attorney Mike Callahan, who is helping organize the benefit for Bonetti, an attorney for 30 years. “He’s a good guy who is liked by damn-near everybody.”

Callahan qualified that “everybody” may exclude “a couple of ex-wives.”

This is the type of humor Bonetti is well known for, along with his signature long, gray hair and love of outlaw country music and motorcycle riding.

Bonetti was driving his motorcycle on Interstate 80 on June 8 after visiting family in Pennsylvania and had just crossed over the Ohio line into Hubbard when a semi came into his lane and hit him, pushing him into a concrete barrier. The semi didn’t stop. A tour bus ran over Bonetti’s bike and concerned motorists stopped and came to his aid.

The crash is being investigated by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Bonetti, who doesn’t wear a helmet, suffered head injuries — including a couple of brain bleeds — broken ribs and soft tissue damage to the wrist, knee and shoulder on the left side of his body. He was in the Intensive Care Unit for several days before being moved to a regular room and then to a rehabilitation unit, Callahan said.

Bonetti couldn’t be reached for comment for this story.

In the weeks since his accident, numerous concerned friends and colleagues have left messages for Bonetti on Facebook. “Take care of yourself, Ed! You’re one awesome dude!” one person wrote. “Best wishes and know that many of us … Have your back, Ed!!” another said.

Summit County Common Pleas Judge Christine Croce, who knows Bonetti well, said she was pleased to hear that he is progressing with his recovery and soon will be able to return home.

“We all understand he will not be 100 percent,” Croce said. “It will take time for him to get back to his old self. Anything we can do in the legal community to help him, we will do.”

Croce, who plans to attend Bonetti’s benefit, joked that she was glad to hear Bonetti didn’t have to cut his hair.

Callahan admitted that Bonetti is not thrilled about the benefit, though the guest of honor may stop by.

“We’re hopeful,” Callahan said. “We’ll shed some tears of joy and ship him off after that — and have a party!”

Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @swarsmithabj  and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/swarsmith.

Why Browns expect second-year tight end Seth DeValve to become breakout playmaker this year

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Seth DeValve would maneuver his large frame into a textbook position and complete an eye-opening catch with a defender draped on his back.

The scene repeatedly unfolded during spring practices and each time served as a reminder that DeValve is bigger, faster and stronger than he was when the Browns drafted him last year in the fourth round out of Princeton University.

The clinics DeValve would put on suddenly made him look like a go-to target for whichever Browns quarterback wins the starting job, and it’s not farfetched to believe the young tight end could be the team’s most improved player.

“Most of his development in the offseason was that he put on a little weight, he is noticeably stronger, he is faster and he is healthier,” tight ends coach Greg Seamon said June 15 as mandatory minicamp wrapped up. “He continues to work hard technically.

“His ability to run routes, catch the ball, leave his feet, catch the ball away from his body and he has a big catch radius, I think those things are showing up out here. I’m pleased with what he has done developing as a blocker from a technical and footwork standpoint. The proof will be obviously when we put the pads on, but he is ahead of where he was a year ago. I see Seth as a guy who is important to us.”

The Browns envision DeValve and rookie tight end David Njoku, a first-round pick (No. 29 overall), filling vital roles in coach Hue Jackson’s offense. The franchise’s projections of those players led it to surprisingly cut veteran tight end Gary Barnidge the day after Njoku was selected. Barnidge added a Pro Bowl to his resume with his breakout 2015 season and had two years left on his contract.

“Gary was a great player and a good friend as well who really united the team in a lot of ways on and particularly off the field,” DeValve said a couple of weeks ago. “Losing him was unexpected. I don’t think anybody wanted to part ways with Gary, myself included.

“His absence left a big void and a big opportunity for somebody like me. You get multiple emotions in a sense because you’re sad to see him go, but then you’re excited about the opportunity to be able to do more.”

DeValve, 24, must prove he can do more when the real games begin, and defying his history of medical issues will be essential.

After undergoing corrective surgery in college on both of his feet because of a congenital condition, DeValve missed the first 10 days of training camp last summer with a nagging hamstring injury. Then he suffered an injured left knee during practice in late September and missed four games.

Seamon said the hamstring issues DeValve endured during his first NFL training camp “slowed his development a little bit.”

And that’s probably an understatement.

“It set me back a lot,” DeValve said. “Getting good at football is accomplished by taking a lot of reps, and so when you miss reps, you try and stay mentally involved, but your muscle memory gets out of twitch a little bit. It wasn’t ideal. It wasn’t what I wanted. It’s not what anybody wanted, but you bounce back. You recover, you get back and you show what you can do.”

DeValve didn’t waste the limited opportunities he received as a rookie to demonstrate his ability, catching 10 of 12 targets for 127 yards and two touchdowns. It took him until the Browns’ eighth game to earn his first reception in part because he missed time with the knee injury. Then he had at least one catch in each of the final seven games.

“Once you start playing, getting a little routine down, you kind of stick with it,” DeValve said. “I think a lot of your rookie year, you’re trying to find that kind of successful routine. The difference this year is being able to carry that over and start that from Day One, and things go more smoothly that way.”

The difference is palpable.

“Seth has done a good job,” Jackson said a few weeks ago. “Seth is an emerging player. It’s his second year. This is not the same Seth as a year ago. He came out and was banged up and learning his way in the National Football League. I’m sure he’d probably tell you he felt a little overmatched. But I think he’s worked extremely hard, and I think it shows in what he’s done this offseason to give himself a chance to compete, and I think he’s done a good job.”

Seamon sees a more confident player and a more impressive physical specimen.

DeValve, a 6-foot-3 wide receiver-tight end hybrid in the Ivy League, gained 10 pounds this offseason and weighs about 255.

“I’m heavier and stronger, a little bit faster as well,” said DeValve, who married his wife, Erica, this past weekend. “Having three, four months to work on technique is something that you really don’t have in college, so getting that for the first time is great.

“I go work out. I train. I identify weaknesses and attack them each day.”

Browns defenders felt the consequences throughout the spring.

“He’s 200 and, on a given day, 54 or 56 pounds and can run fast and has that background as a wide receiver and a slot guy,” Seamon said. “So he really understands how to position himself against defensive backs. He’s a matchup problem because at that weight and with his height, that’s difficult for the corners.

“His speed and his ability to change directions, his ability to leave his feet, control his body and catch the ball makes it more difficult if bigger guys are covering him. So our hope is that he will be a very effective guy, particularly in the scoring zone.”

The Browns’ receiving corps has done little to inspire confidence this offseason, so DeValve and Njoku could become focal points of the offense. It’s too early to know if they’re truly ready to deliver, and more will be revealed after training camp opens July 27. Still, all signs have been promising thus far.

It’s why DeValve is one of the best stories of this offseason for the Browns.

“He’s a beast,” Njoku said a couple of weeks ago. “He’s fast, strong, big, very flexible, very elusive. So I’m really excited to see how he does this year.”

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.

Hot Spot: At Painting With a Twist, novice artists enjoy creating masterpieces sipping and socializing

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Everyone isn’t good at everything.

Though our culture seems to want to give everyone an award just for trying, the simple fact is some folks stink at things they enjoy doing.

Many aren’t very good at things they love doing particularly when it comes to being creative or artistic.

At Painting With a Twist, 2890 Sand Run Parkway, Fairlawn, if you can follow instructions and recognize colors, you can spend two hours at least pretending to be creative and go home with your own artistic rendering of someone else’s art.

Add some finger foods, an adult beverage of choice — thus the “twist” of the name — and some over-18-year-old friends and/or lovers and you’ve got two hours of fun, plenty of jokes and perhaps you’ll even surprise yourself with your latent artistic abilities.

Now I did not surprise myself with any latent artistic abilities.

But even in the small group of seven that I shared those two hours haphazardly assaulting an innocent canvas with my version of Blue Moon Beach while sipping on a couple of beers, I had fun.

Painting With A Twist is part of a national chain with three more locations near here in Green, Hudson and Avon. The concept is pretty simple.

All you have to do is visit www.paintingwithatwist.com, pick a class (later classes are 18 or older only) and a day with a painting you’d like to render. Each day’s painting is different. Gather some folks together willing to pay $35 per seat, purchase food and beverages — no hard alcohol, please — and show up on time.

Everything else from the apron, easel, paint and supplies will be provided.

The brightly lit studio is covered wall to wall and chunks of the floor in various paintings (they say they have nearly 10,000 in their collection). The canvases are set up on long tables so your group can sit next to and face each other while painting.

Once we began, our perky, mic’d up instructor Raia Presto patiently, step by carefully explained step, took us from an empty canvas to something resembling a Blue Moon Beach.

All the while, the instructor offered a few painting techniques.

With a play list of classic rock, some contemporary pop and a dash of soul, Presto used her dozen years of experience as a teacher and as the mother of two young daughters to encourage and guide us while occasionally stepping in to make suggestions or save our paintings from ourselves.

My alleged Blue Moon (yeah, it’s just painting a circle) looked more like a giant “Dali-esque egg” but with a few strokes and a verbal pat on the head, Presto fixed my moon and my waning confidence.

Meanwhile, my neighbor Beth Burd of Tiffin — who was painting with her friend Denise Soldano of Medina — was also having a bit of a struggle. Throughout the class, we laughed at our own artistic foibles while occasionally buoying each other with variations of “that’s not so bad.”

The other group were couples; mom and dad Kathy and Ben Toler, their daughter Kaitlin Caesar and her boyfriend, Joel Orellana, all of Akron, and a big old bottle of sangria that didn’t make it to the end of class. The Tolers were enjoying their second class after Kathy discovered P.W.A.T.

“It was date night, we have a date night once a month, and we decided to come here and try it out and we loved it and so we returned,” Kathy said.

Ben admitted he wasn’t sure how that initial class would go but, “It was fun. I wasn’t sure. But I had a very good time the first time and an awesome time the second time.”

The Tolers decided to share the good times with the young couple, both of whom said they had no specific expectations beyond the good reviews.

“I know [her mother] has gone and my sister has gone and they both liked it. I had a blast,” Caesar said.

Besides sharing the sangria, the foursome enjoyed the process of filling an empty canvas with recognizable images, and the social nature of the class.

“The interacting with other people. And I’m not an artist, I can’t draw worth a darn, and doing it step by step, I think it helps you to actually make something look like a picture what it’s supposed to look like ... at least, kinda,” Kathy said.

While food is allowed, the pace of the class is fairly brisk, so don’t think you’ll have extra time to caramelize your cherries jubilee or anything complicated.

There are a couple of breaks, one of which involved going outside and playing Flip Flop. It’s a game where people see who can fling their shoe the farthest directly off their foot. That may sound a bit silly, but it was a fun, lighthearted diversion, and as I won the shoe-chucking division while Caesar won the sandal-flinging division, earning us a spin on the miniature prize wheel, it was an extremely vital part of the P.W.A.T. experience.

As the paintings takes shape, you’ll likely find yourself checking out other folks’ work, adding some communal commiseration and perhaps even a little friendly envy.

If you want to bring the kids, there are session for ages 7 or older and special sessions for tweens and teens.

At the end of the two-hour class after quite a few touch-ups from Presto, my Blue Moon Beach looked like it had been painted by a howler monkey on magic mushrooms. (Disclaimer: neither the Akron Beacon Journal nor Black Press condone giving hallucinogens to primates).

Painting With A Twist is a fun experience and now I have a 16- by 20-inch conversation piece that I can proudly and prominently display on the wall in the back room of my basement.

Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758. Follow him on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/1lNgxml or on Twitter @malcolmabramABJ .

Art review: New artist-run space is a welcome addition in Kent

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An exciting new space for contemporary art opened recently in Kent. Troppus Projects is the brainchild of Kelly Dietrick and features work by local artists as well as artist-led workshops, creative collaborations and community engagement. Thought of as an exhibition/project space, Troppus (“support” spelled backward) Projects also features a store where patrons can purchase artworks and gift items.

The inaugural show 44240 (The Kent Show), featuring Caitlin Clary, Ben Daigneau, Rachel Jernigan, Pete Kenworthy, Lauren Mangeri, Mike Nold, Lesley Sickle, Emily Sullivan Smith, Jason Turnidge and JC Marbling.

It shows a wide range of styles and talents and highlights many artists who call this thriving northeast Ohio community home.

Lauren Mangeri’s Commodities I is a sculptural weaving that features different materials including recycled magazines. The piece features dark thread with the magazine parts woven vertically throughout the composition. The work has depth and color and a sense of something that has grown or is potentially growing.

Shadow Play Series 1, 2, 3 and 4 by Lesley Sickle are watercolor-based screenprints on Mylar, bright, colorful expressive vignette-like works. They look all together like formal abstract studies of form. However, they retain a sense of immediacy and playfulness that displays the artist’s hand.

Mike Nold’s large photorealistic weaving, Foundation, has clearly been rendered using an image of a large building under construction. While the work is realistic, it retains a level of abstraction created by translating the imagery to the loom.

In weaving, unlike many other media, the artist has to understand the colors behind the thread on top to visualize how the final product will look. In the case of this piece, that translation of color creates unusual interplays of colors and light that can only take place in the weaving process.

Rachel Jernigan’s untitled acrylic paintings on masonite, like so many of the works in this show, are formalistic studies of shape and color. These three equal-sized square works are displayed in a row. The central piece features a green field with an ivory triangle coming in from the left side, its base the height of the painting. A gray triangle shape that is much thinner comes in from the right, and the two elements overlap.

Coming up from the bottom is a semi­translucent gold glitter triangle that is the thinnest of the three featured, and it overlaps both of the other triangles. It’s not a complicated work, but it is still extremely painterly and expressive, with visually interesting elements that make it special.

Emily Sullivan Smith’s digital photographs of found elements are presented on square white fields with the subjects floating in the center. The images include pieces of shell, nests, coral and an insect wing. The presentation is clean and the works, six in total, are spaced equidistant in threes on two stacked shelves. While the works don’t overlap, they still give a sense of something akin to collage or construction as the images are detailed and fun to get up close to and stare at.

Pete Kenworthy’s digital photographs are two super-clean images featuring one image of Kent and another of a local lake. Both were taken during the winter and are presented in black and white. The decision of not using color, in this case, makes the works look more painterly and haunting.

This type of gallery is how artists all over the country are able to survive and add to the unique flavor and texture of whatever community they call home. Troppus Projects’ exhibition space is sharp and professional looking. It could be a feather in the cap of any community and it’s extremely exciting to find it right in the city of Kent.

Contact Anderson Turner at haturner3@gmail.com.

Multi-state investigation alleges Akron-area charter school founder bilked millions from parents, students, taxpayers

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The founder of an Akron-area charter school company is accused of using thousands of dollars parents paid for student lunches and uniforms and millions more from Ohio and Florida taxpayers to fund home mortgages, plastic surgery, extensive world travel, credit card debt and more.

Criminal charges filed last week in Florida against Marcus May also allege he improperly used private and public funds earmarked for students’ education to expand his charter school empire in Columbus, Akron, Cleveland and Dayton.

Florida State Attorney William “Bill” Eddins brought the charges of racketeering and organized fraud against May, the founder of Newpoint Education Partners and Cambridge Education, a Fairlawn company that manages about 20 charter schools in Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Akron, Youngstown, Canton and Cleveland.

In a prepared statement provided to the Beacon Journal on Friday, Cambridge Executive Director John Stack said: “My co-owners and I asked for and today accepted Mr. May’s resignation as managing member of Cambridge. We are now in discussions to remove him completely from ownership in the company because we feel it’s in the best interest of our schools.

“Despite this distraction, my colleagues at Cambridge and I will continue to focus on our core mission and the students we serve as we have always done.”

Cincinnati businessman Steven Kunkemoeller also was charged in the First Judiciary Circuit, a regional court in Florida. Kunkemoeller is a longtime business partner of May, according to a Beacon Journal/Ohio.com report from December and a multi-state investigation that included help from the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office.

Kunkemoeller was arrested Wednesday in Florida. May’s attorney has reportedly talked with authorities there. Neither man could be reached for comment.

The Florida prosecutor alleges that the men fabricated invoices, embellished enrollment, misappropriated public funds and created an elaborate network of limited liability companies in order to bilk the federal and state governments, as well as parents and students.

In Akron, where Cambridge manages Towpath Trail High School, Middlebury Academy and Colonial Prep Academy, school board members are taking caution but not jumping to conclusions.

“We are keeping a close eye on it and discussing alternatives if they are needed,” said Ron McDaniel, president of Towpath Trail High School. “But we need to be responsible and not make snap decisions. Our schools are running well and run responsibly. We verify things better than the Florida schools did from what I understand.”

The mark up

School and business records obtained by the Beacon Journal and detailed by a forensic accountant working on the case show that May and Kunkemoeller marked up the price of services and supplies provided to the charter schools they managed in Ohio and Florida, sometimes more than doubling the cost of school uniforms, desks, computers, chairs and website design.

Florida investigators questioned the vendors who sold the goods and could find “no apparent business reason” for the mark ups. May and Stack, Cambridge’s executive director, have said that the schools pay more upfront for more flexible financing terms.

Fabricated invoices

Items listed on invoices, from iPads to furniture, could not be found when Florida investigators swept schools for evidence of how public dollar were spent.

May’s company had walked away from some of the Florida schools in the middle of the last school year, leaving the boards that hired his company to piece together incomplete ledgers, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Enrollment records that set state funding and boost management fees also appear to have been artificially inflated, according to Florida prosecutors. The court filing alleges that these “false and fraudulent” reports netted an estimated $3.7 million in federal grants from the Charter School Program, monies that in a separate matter Ohio had to return after a state education employee, who was later forced to resign, altered grades and fibbed on a federal grant application.

The investigation also alleges “kickbacks” and “rebates” for “above market” services and goods. Money for these transactions came from state dollars deposited into Ohio and Florida accounts that board members allegedly had no control over. The money was extracted by May and his associates before the schools could use it. The forensic accountant in Florida traced the public cash from private bank accounts to personal and business accounts at PNC Bank and FirstMerit (now Huntington).

Alleged misuse

Between 2010 and 2015, $350,000 was collected from students and parents for uniforms, and another $11,000 for school lunches, the Florida investigation found. Beyond Newpoint’s 18 percent management fee, millions more have been collected from inflated or allegedly fictitious invoices, according to court filings.

All told, the Florida Department of Education paid May’s schools $57 million from 2007 to 2016. The Ohio Department of Education pulls about $30 million annually from local school districts and sends it directly to May’s 20 charter schools.

What some of the money — the $1 million that can be accounted for — allegedly has been used for falls well outside the scope of public education.

Property and bank records reviewed by investigators showed May and his wife, Mary May, purchased a Florida home soon after “rebate” payments began. In 2014, two payments of $175,000 were applied to Kunkemoeller’s mortgage and the May’s home equity line of credit. Investigators traced the money to a laundry list of other non-public expenses, including $381,631 for credit cards, $207,415 for Marcus May and his family, $52,388 for a homeowner’s association fees (including swimming pool services), $4,735 taken as cash, personal loans to other people, a $10,000 jet ski from Barney’s Motorcycle Sales in St. Petersburg, $5,000 to the Fairlawn Country Club, $11,000 for plastic surgery and additional money for trips to Amsterdam, the British Virgin Islands, Brussels, Cancun, China, France, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Japan, Los Cabos, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Italy.

Back in Ohio

State Auditor Dave Yost, who is running for Attorney General in 2018, is aware of the charges but wouldn’t say if there’s an investigation in Ohio.

“Our office is aware of the situation in Florida and it’s been on our radar for six months,” said Dominic Binkley, Yost’s public information officer. “I can say we are monitoring it but I can’t comment that we are taking any actions on it.”

Attorney General Mike Dewine, a 2018 gubernatorial candidate, said it’s Yost’s staff that must sound the alarm. Dewine spokesman Dan Tierney said the Attorney General can only investigate Medicaid and election fraud or organized crime, which he defined as “cross-jurisdictional matters.”

“We’re not aware of anything particulars to these allegations,” said Tierney, adding that local prosecutors who would bring charges against charter schools. His office simply collects mismanaged money discovered by the state auditor.

But James Pollack with Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh’s office said a rico case like the one filed this week in Florida is within the arena of the Ohio Attorney General, especially since Cambridge is affiliated with companies in three states and has operations all over Ohio, not just in Summit County.

Pollack agreed with Tierney, though, that the appropriate place to begin is at the Auditor of State’s office.

When Binkley checked the Auditor’s records, he found no documented mismanagement of public money at Cambridge schools, which have been in operation in Ohio since about 2010, when charter schools in Cleveland and Akron fired White Hat Management and hired Cambridge.

Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug .


Massillon man killed, two others seriously hurt in Wayne County crash

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A driver trying to pass another vehicle Friday afternoon crossed the double yellow line and struck a vehicle head-on, killing the oncoming driver, the Wooster Post of the Ohio State Highway reported.

William P. Nagel, 77, of Massillon was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife, Shirley, 72, was seriously injured and transported to Cleveland Clinic Akron General. Both were wearing safety belts.

Their minivan was struck around 3:25 p.m. as they traveled west on Back Massillon Road (County Road 29) in Baughman Township.

A 30-year-old North Lawrence man who was driving a pickup truck in the opposite direction attempted to drive around a car that had slowed to make a right turn onto Black Diamond Road.

The driver, who was not wearing a safety belt, was taken to Summa Akron City Hospital with serious injuries. The Wayne County Coroner’s Office, Dalton Fire & EMS, eastern Wayne Fire & EMS and the Ohio State Highway Patrol responded to the crash.

Islamic center vigil gathers interfaith crowd to mourn for slain Virginia girl

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CUYAHOGA FALLS: When Ramadan began at the end of May, Amanda Lamadanie was visiting the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque in Virginia, where she’d studied years earlier and felt at home in the strong Muslim community.

On Sunday, just a week before Ramadan’s end, a man kidnapped and murdered Nabra Hassanen, who was heading back to the exact mosque where Lamadanie visited.

“We hear about loss all the time, but there are certain moments where we become more aware of what’s happening,” Lamadanie said. “I was literally praying where this girl was praying.”

The proximity added to the chill of a violent murder for Lamadanie and prompted her to take action.

She and Ivana Zajkovska, co-founders of a community Islam group called the Madinah Project, organized and held an interfaith prayer vigil for Hassanen at the Islamic Society of Akron and Kent (ISAK) on Friday night, attracting religious leaders and members of the public from all backgrounds to converge and heal.

Hassanen, a 17-year-old Virginia girl, was beaten and kidnapped early Sunday while walking back to her mosque from having Suhoor, the morning Ramadan meal, with a group of friends. Police said 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, chased down the group of Muslim teenagers in what appeared to be a case of road rage and caught up with Hassanen. Police found her body in a pond near Torres’ apartment building later that day.

Muslims and others around the country, including Hassanen’s parents, are urging police to investigate the incident as a hate crime.

Organizers of the vigil Friday didn’t want to focus on hate, though, or even on the murder itself.

They instead strove to focus on spreading love and showing that all humans are connected in some way.

“I think any crime that involves murder is a hate crime,” Zajkovska said. “You must have hate in your heart to do something like that.”

The vigil attracted more than 150 people from across Northeast Ohio who represented dozens of religions, from Christianity and Judaism to Sikhism and beyond.

For an hour and a half, speakers prayed for Hassenen and for healing and peace. Speakers agreed it wasn’t just the Muslim community affected by Hassenen’s death — her loss impacted the entire network of humanity.

“Too often, it is women’s bodies that are the ground upon which the tensions, the bigotry, the prejudice, the hatred and the violence of a society is acted out,” said the Rev. Nanette Pitt of the First Congregational Church of Akron and a member of the new Akron Civil Rights Commission. “I know we have said multiple times that we did not know Nabra … and yet for each and every one of us, in some small way, we are Nabra. Because what happens to one of us happens to all of us.”

The vigil to honor Hassenen was one of many held across the country this week, extending from Boston to San Francisco. To many, Hassenen represents a young woman in their lives — a daughter, a little sister, or even themselves.

“It could happen to anyone, and that’s the scariest part. It could happen to me,” said Aalia Hague, who handles public relations for the Islamic Society of Akron and Kent. “It just puts everything in perspective that anyone’s day can start normally and end tragically.”

Near the end, Ahmad Deeb, the administrative director of ISAK, encouraged attendees to take their feelings of frustration, sadness and fear and pour them into helping others and showing kindness instead. Deeb explained that being kind and introducing others to Muslims is the first and only step to creating understanding and preventing violence against them.

Zajkovska also encouraged attendees to “think globally, act locally” by taking local action on issues that affect all of humanity, like volunteering at the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank to help alleviate hunger.

At the end of the vigil, people of varying faiths and ethnicity who packed into ISAK’s pavilion joined hands to sing Heal the World together on one of the final days of Ramadan — a Muslim’s holiest month of the year.

Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @Theresa_Cottom .

Akron wealth management firm merges with Cleveland group

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Akron-based Reghetti Moore Wealth Advisors and Aurum Wealth Management Group of Cleveland have agreed to combine, the companies announced Thursday in a news release.

The merged firms will operate under the Aurum name. Aurum is affiliated with accounting firm Skoda Minotti, which has offices in Akron, Cleveland and Tampa, Fla.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“This is an incredibly positive, synergistic fit that benefits both organizations—and most importantly, each organization’s clients,” said Eric N. Wulff, a partner at Aurum. “Reghetti Moore enjoys a strong presence in the Akron market; they round out our operations staff with talented and dedicated team members.

“Each organization shares the same strong commitment to planning and process,” said Christopher D. Bart, also a partner at Aurum.”

“We look forward to working with Eric, Christopher and the entire Aurum team to build and enhance the success of our clients and staff,” said Perry Reghetti, founder and independent wealth adviser at Reghetti Moore.

Sears closes another 20 stores, including two in Northeast Ohio

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NEW YORK: Sears is closing another 20 stores as the ailing retailer tries to turn around its business.

The turnaround strategy, however, is leaving Ohio with fewer and fewer Sears and Kmart locations — once seen as mainstays in the shopping sector.

Real estate investment trust Seritage, which owns the 20 real estate properties, confirmed the closings— 18 Sears stores and two Kmart stores — in a government filing Friday.

The closings include locations at Great Lakes Shopping Center in Mentor, Southland Shopping Center in Middleburg Heights and Westgate Village Shopping Center in Toledo.

In 2015, Sears Holdings Corp. sold 235 Sears and Kmart store locations to Seritage as part of an agreement in which Sears leases the stores back from the real estate company. Under the agreement it has with Seritage, if a store is unprofitable, Sears Holdings has the option to exit the lease by making a payment equal to one year’s rent.

“We have been strategically and aggressively evaluating our store space and productivity, and have accelerated the closing of unprofitable stores as previously announced,” said Howard Riefs, in a statement emailed to the Associated Press.

Riefs said the stores will close in mid-September; liquidation sales will begin by the end of June.

These closures come in addition to the closing of 226 stores — 164 Kmart stores and 62 Sears stores— already announced this year, according to research firm Fung Global & Retail Technology, which tracks retailers’ closings.

The previously announced closings included Sears operations at Chapel Hill Mall in Akron — already stung a year ago by the closing of another of the mall’s three anchor stores, Macy’s.

Kmart stores in Streetsboro and Wooster as well as four other Sears stores across the state were among closings announced earlier this month,

On Thursday, Sears announced the opening of its first Sears Appliances & Mattresses concept store, located in Pharr, Texas. The company said the store builds on the success of the Sears Appliances store that opened in Fort Collins, Colorado, last year.

Akron man accused of impersonating police officer for Scared Straight effort faces additional charges

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An Akron man charged with impersonating a police officer as part of a Scared Straight program has been indicted on numerous other counts.

The supplemental indictment, filed Friday afternoon against Christopher Hendon, is 23 pages long and contains a long list of new charges, including assault, kidnapping, abduction and endangering children.

Hendon, 26, now faces 60 charges, a combination of felonies and misdemeanors. He will be arraigned on the new charges at 8:30 a.m. July 11 by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Christine Croce.

“When this all started, we had a limited number of victims,” said Lt. Bill Holland, a spokesman for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office. “More came forward.”

Don Malarcik, Hendon’s attorney, said Friday that his client’s “heart was always in the right place.”

“He never took a dime from anybody,” Malarcik said in an email from Wyoming, where he is teaching at the Trial Lawyers College. “He was genuinely trying to help kids.”

Malarcik said he has spoken to several parents who were grateful for Hendon’s assistance.

A Summit County grand jury originally indicted Hendon on 13 charges that included impersonating a peace officer, illegal conveyance of a deadly weapon into a courthouse and criminal trespass. The supplemental indictment contained 47 more charges and added gun specifications to several of the previous counts.

Prosecutors said the original charges stemmed from Hendon entering the Summit County Juvenile Detention Center while dressed in tactical police attire and carrying a firearm. They say the new charges related to Hendon entering two schools by posing as an Akron officer and placing multiple children in handcuffs between March 29 and April 6, according to the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office.

Hendon is not a certified peace officer in Ohio, but has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He attended the Kent State University Police Academy at the school’s Trumbull campus, but didn’t graduate. He also participated from 2008 to 2011 in the Akron Police Explorers program, offered to young people who aspire to be police officers.

Hendon was arrested April 6 after he attempted to enter the Summit County Juvenile Detention Center on Dan Street in North Akron with a firearm and a child in handcuffs. He claimed to be a resource officer working as part of a Scared Straight program. He had a security badge with the word “security” covered with a band, investigators said.

The sheriff’s office and Akron police determined Hendon had tried to get into the juvenile detention center and the Summit County Jail four times while dressed in tactical gear and with handcuffed children. Each time, he left with the children after being denied access, investigators said.

Holland said the two schools that Hendon entered while posing as an officer were Leggett Community Learning Center and Middlebury Academy, a charter school in Akron. He said the assault charges stemmed from his actions toward the children. He said the children only had minor injuries.

“They did not have to seek medical attention,” he said. “Scrapes, marks on the wrists or things of that nature.”

The sheriff’s office and the Akron police searched Hendon’s home April 24 and seized a handgun, a simulated firearm, handcuffs, law enforcement equipment, a tactical vest, and items with police insignias.

After Hendon’s arrest, Akron Public Schools sent an alert to parents, reminding them of the policy that students cannot leave with anyone unless they are authorized by a child’s parent or parents and reiterated to employees that they must check the IDs of each school visitor. The district also got a no-trespass order forbidding Hendon from entering any of its 55 schools, said Mark Williamson, a district spokesman.

Investigators have identified more than a dozen victims so far, and are wondering if there might be more, Holland said.

“We’re just still trying to determine the scope of this,” he said. “If we get more victims, he could face more charges.”

Investigators are asking that anyone who participated in Hendon’s Scared Straight program or who knows children who did call the Summit County Sheriff’s Detective Bureau at 330-643-2131.

Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705, swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com and on Twitter: @swarsmithabj .

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