Ohio News Briefs

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Ohioans won’t see Libertarians listed on their fall ballots

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Voters in swing state Ohio won’t see candidates labeled as Libertarians on their fall ballots.

A spokesman for the state’s Libertarian Party says the group lacked the money, time and resources needed to collect the roughly 30,600 signatures required to form a minor political party in Ohio.

Tuesday was the deadline to submit paperwork to Ohio’s elections chief to be recognized as a minor political party, and the office said no new groups did so.

A spokesman for the Ohio Libertarians says they are working to get the party’s presidential nominee, Gary Johnson, on Ohio’s ballot as an independent. Spokesman Aaron Keith Harris says they must collect at least 5,000 signatures from registered voters.

The Green Party already has minor-party status after meeting the state’s criteria in the 2014 election.

More than $1B loss projected in Ohio’s next 2-year budget

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio stands to lose more than $1 billion in the next two-year budget as it phases out a sales tax structure that hauled in hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicaid money.

The Columbus Dispatch reports nearly $400 million in additional county and transit authority sales taxes are also projected to be lost.

Since 2009, Ohio has charged a sales tax on services provided through Medicaid managed-care organizations to benefit from federal matching funds.

Counties and transit authorities benefited through additional local sales taxes.

The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services two years ago prohibited taxing only managed-care companies that deal with Medicaid.

State officials say they’ll look at how other states deal with similar challenges.

Ohio county looks to create protection-order database

CLEVELAND (AP) — A northeast Ohio county is seeking to create an electronic database of protection orders against suspected domestic abusers so law enforcement across the county can have access to the same information.

Cleveland.com reports Cuyahoga County’s Board of Control gave the OK on Tuesday to apply for a nearly $400,000 grant to help create the system.

Protection orders can be granted in several courts. But they often use their own computer systems and databases to keep track of the orders, leaving the possibility that officers in one city might not have access to records from another municipality.

The new database would seek to fix that issue.

Cleveland Municipal Court Presiding Judge Ronald Adrine would like to see a similar stateside database.

Prosecutor deciding if charges pursued against hotel clerk

AVON, Ohio (AP) — A prosecutor is reviewing whether to pursue charges against a northeast Ohio hotel clerk whose family called police on an Emirati businessman dressed in traditional clothing and linked him to possible terrorism.

Businessman Ahmed al-Menhali was detained by police at gunpoint last week at an Avon hotel before police determined he wasn’t a threat. Police responded to 911 calls from the clerk’s family expressing fears that al-Menahali could have ties to the Islamic State group, ISIS.

Al-Menhali’s treatment became front-page news in the United Arab Emirates, which has since warned its citizens to avoid wearing traditional garments abroad.

Avon city officials say the investigation was turned over to the prosecutor’s office to decide whether to pursue charges.

Messages left at the prosecutor’s office Wednesday weren’t immediately returned.

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