Ohio News Briefs

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Ohio picks 2 vendors to ramp up medical marijuana system

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A pair of vendors has been selected to develop Ohio’s seed-to-sale, medical marijuana tracking system and its online licensing system.

The Ohio Department of Commerce said Tuesday that it competitively selected Metrc, a Franwell company, to develop and build the program’s digital tracking infrastructure. Metrc received a $1.2 million contract to build an integrated system for tracking medical marijuana through cultivation, processing, testing and sale.

Persistent Systems Inc. won a $574,000 contract to design and build the e-licensing system for tracking the Ohio licenses required of marijuana growers, processors, testing labs and their employees.

Ohio’s law allows people with 21 medical conditions, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy, to buy and use marijuana after getting a doctor’s recommendation.

The law launching in September 2018 doesn’t allow smoking.

Ohio city replaces Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day

OBERLIN, Ohio (AP) — A northern Ohio city will celebrate the second Monday in October as Indigenous People’s Day instead of the federally recognized Columbus Day holiday.

Oberlin, southwest of Cleveland, is the first Ohio city to officially make such a change.

The city council voted unanimously on Monday after hearing public comments about whether to celebrate indigenous people rather than explorer Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas.

Some residents in the city southwest of Cleveland objected to replacing Columbus Day, arguing that it’s more of a celebration of Italian-American heritage than of Columbus as an individual. Some suggested that Indigenous People’s Day could be celebrated on a different date.

Supporters of the change argued that honoring the Native Americans who lived in the area was the right thing to do.

Head knocked off Confederate soldier statue in Ohio cemetery

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Police say a Confederate soldier statue at a cemetery in Ohio has been damaged by vandals who took its head.

Columbus police say vandals appear to have climbed on an arched memorial at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery and toppled the statue atop the monument to the ground.

The soldier’s head and hat were knocked off. Police say the vandals took the head but left the hat.

Police say the vandalism occurred early Tuesday at the cemetery where around 2,000 soldiers are buried.

Confederate statues around the country have been targeted in the weeks following a white-nationalist rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia. A counterprotester was killed.

Police in Ohio had been monitoring the cemetery since the Aug. 12 rally.

Amish woman, baby among 4 hurt when car struck buggy in Ohio

FREDERICKTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say four people were hurt when a car struck a horse-drawn buggy in rural Ohio, including a critically injured Amish woman and a baby.

The State Highway Patrol says the crash occurred Monday night in the village of Fredericktown, about 45 miles northeast of Columbus. WCMH-TV reports that the buggy was hit from behind by the car, and troopers suspect alcohol was a factor in the collision.

The woman in the buggy was flown to a Columbus hospital. A man and a child who were in the buggy were taken to a local hospital, as was the driver of the car. Information about their conditions wasn’t immediately released.

WCMH reports that the child is 2 months old.

Man arrested with explosives before Ohio anti-racist vigil

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Ohio authorities have arrested a man they say had a pipe bomb and another homemade explosive device before a vigil in Akron to honor anti-racist victims of the Charlottesville, Virginia, attack.

WEWS-TV reported Monday that local police and federal authorities are investigating whether there was any link to last week’s vigil. Bomb squads found nothing during a search of the area near the gathering Wednesday, and it proceeded as planned.

The 26-year-old Akron man has been charged with possessing and manufacturing dangerous ordnance. Cleveland.com reports that the suspect told police both devices were fireworks and the bag they were in was owned by a friend.

He was jailed on $100,000 bond after his arrest.

A demonstrator was killed when marchers were hit by a car at the Charlottesville rally.

Sylvester Stallone film seeking extras in Ohio

MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) — A casting agency is seeking extras for a movie starring Sylvester Stallone that will be filmed at the Ohio State Reformatory, the former prison in Mansfield where “The Shawshank Redemption” was filmed.

Mansfield City Council members say the film is the sequel to the yet-to-be-released “Escape Plan 2.” The “Escape Plan” movies featuring Stallone all center on a prison break.

Crew members say filming will start mid-September and end in early October. The film crew is scouting other filming locations in Mansfield, such as office spaces.

This film will be Stallone’s second in Mansfield, roughly 80 miles (129 kilometers) southwest of Cleveland. The first was “Tango and Cash” with actor Kurt Russell in 1989.

Crew members say “Escape Plan 2” will be released in late 2018 or early 2019.

Nudist resort in Cincinnati area sold, will be developed

CINCINNATI (AP) — A nudist resort that has operated for decades in suburban Cincinnati has been sold.

Paradise Gardens Resort was sold Friday for an undisclosed sum to a Cincinnati-based real estate developer. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports owners of the nudist resort in Colerain Township say the developer plans to build five new homes on the 34-acre site.

Ron Coleman is president of Paradise Resort Inc., which operated the resort. He says he doubts the new development will raise the ire of neighbors who occasionally complained about the resort.

Coleman says the resort has been for sale for 10 years, but the company couldn’t make a deal until now.

He says the resort had been active since 1970 and was still profitable, but membership had started to decline.

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