July 28, 2023 

Dave Yost, who would sue a ham sandwich to get a headline, won’t go after Kia and Hyundai? Why? Today in Ohio

Cleveland.com, July 28, 2023

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Teenagers are terrorizing Ohio cities, hijacking easy-to-steal Kias and Hyundais, but Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost says the problem is best left to local prosecutors.

We’re talking about why Yost won’t do anything on Today in Ohio.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.

Here’s what we’re asking about today: Dave Yost, who wants to be your next Ohio governor, has sued everybody under the sun for damages done to this state. Big pharma. Small businesses. You name it. But when it comes to the crisis-level damage being done in the state’s cities because of Kia and Hyundai car thefts, Yost says that’s not his problem. What gives?

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'This is real.' Cincinnati's new Ohio River bridge takes a big step

Cincinnati.com, July 27, 2023

COVINGTON, Ky. – The $3.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project will be built by a contracting team with experience working all over the Midwest, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday.

The Walsh Kokosing design-build team is two companies that have also teamed up to work on Cincinnati's $398 million Western Hills Viaduct replacement.

The Brent Spence Bridge is one of the most vital in the country carrying $2 billion in freight a day from Florida to Canada. But it has been functionally obsolete for decades because it's narrow lanes carry more traffic than it's designed for and has no emergency lane.

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Ohio Highway Patrol cracking down on speeding, distracted driving

Cincinnati.com, July 27, 2023

Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Bill Duerson sat parked in his cruiser along I-270 outside Columbus, pointing his hand-held speed radar out the window at an endless stream of passing cars.

Duerson kept the window down so his radar could accurately track speeders. Hot wind blasted into the cruiser, carried in from the cars that whizzed past on the highway. Though the speed limit on most of I-270 is 65 miles per hour, nearly every car Duerson tracked was going 10 miles per hour or more over the limit.

"Yes, speed is dangerous," he said. "But what's really dangerous is when you get one car going significantly faster or significantly slower than everybody else in a pack."

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Ohio train derailment costs double to $803 million, Norfolk Southern says

CBS News, July 27, 2023

The costs associated with Norfolk Southern's fiery February derailment in Ohio have more than doubled to $803 million as the railroad works to clean up the mess and moves forward with all the related lawsuits.

Norfolk Southern recorded another $416 million charge related to the East Palestine derailment on Thursday as part of its second-quarter earnings after previously announcing a $387 million charge earlier this year. Most of the costs are related to the cleanup of the hazardous chemicals that were released, but $222 million is a combination of legal fees and the $63 million of assistance it has offered to the community. The company faces a number of class-action lawsuits as well as a suit filed by Ohio authorities and a federal civil suit brought by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. 

The derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border prompted a national conversation about railroad safety after thousands of people had to evacuate when officials decided to blow open several tank cars filled with vinyl chloride, a gas used to make plastic, because they believed they might explode. The resulting fire sent a towering plume of black smoke over the town three days after the derailment spilled several other hazardous chemicals, including butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene. The company said in February that the derailment contaminated at least 15,000 pounds of soil and 1.1 million gallons of water.

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Car insurance rates up 17% for the first half of 2023

Insurance Business, July 27, 2023

Car insurance rates have soared by 17% in the first half of 2023, according to a new report from Insurify.

The average annual cost of a car insurance policy was found to have surged $240 to $1,668 during this period, compared to $1,428 in 2022.

Furthermore, the Insurify report has predicted another 4% rise in prices before the end of the year.

The increase in car insurance rates was attributed to insurers experiencing high losses due to the escalating costs of auto repairs, as well as the impact of climate change on weather risks.

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As e-bikes proliferate, so do deadly fires blamed on exploding lithium-ion batteries

AP News, July 27, 2023

NEW YORK (AP) — The explosion early on a June morning ignited a blaze that engulfed a New York City shop filled with motorized bicycles and their volatile lithium-ion batteries. Billowing smoke quickly killed four people asleep in apartments above the burning store.

As the ubiquity of e-bikes has grown, so has the frequency of fires and deaths blamed on the batteries that power them, prompting a campaign to establish regulations on how the batteries are manufactured, sold, reconditioned, charged and stored.

Consumer advocates and fire departments, particularly in New York City, are urging the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to establish mandatory safety standards and confiscate noncompliant imports when they arrive at the border or shipping ports, so that unsafe e-bikes and poorly manufactured batteries don’t reach streets and endanger homes.

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Previously-flooded homeowners discover FEMA insurance loophole can be disqualifying

WCAX 3, July 26, 2023

BARRE, Vt. (WCAX) - Even as FEMA is working to dole out millions of dollars in grants to Vermonters hit by flooding in eight designated counties, some who received money following previous flooding -- but did not comply with subsequent insurance requirements -- are now learning they are not eligible.

“In some ways, it seems like that’s being held over our heads now because we save our home and because we saved it. It’s almost like a punishment now,” said

Sara Morris, who lost almost everything in her Barre home this month. Now, her home is sinking into the ground and she says she feels the same. “It’s just where... where is the help?”

After receiving FEMA assistance back in 2011 after Tropical Storm Irene, Morris says she was sure the agency would be able to help her again. But she says she instead received a denial. “That glimmer of hope was everything, and to have it ripped away is… the uncertainty now with everything. Because I don’t know what to do next, I don’t know where to turn. Everything seems to not be working out,” she said.

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