Prominent environmentalist Erin Brockovich hosted a packed town hall meeting in East Palestine, Ohio, to give information to local residents affected by a Norfolk Southern train derailment which released toxic chemicals into the town earlier this month, the Daily Caller News Foundation observed.
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While a small Ohio town works to recover after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed earlier this month and polluted the air and water, local shop owners are worried about the financial impact that the disaster will have on their businesses as customers appear to shy away from the market district.
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Even though public schools in Ohio cannot close for all religious holidays, a Republican state senator says that students don’t deserve penalization for observing them and that schools should treat them as legitimate absences.
Senate Bill (SB) 49 known as the “Religious Expression Days” Act sponsored by State Senator Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester) aims to require local boards of education to draft “non-exhaustive” lists of religious holidays and excuse students for up to three days each academic year.
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Ohio residents filed a class action lawsuit on Thursday against the railroad company Norfolk Southern after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in early February and cast a toxic plume of chemicals over the town and polluted the air and water, according to the lawsuit’s text.
Johnson and Johnson, a Youngstown, Ohio, based firm and Hagens Berman represent residents within a 30 mile radius of the East Palestine crash site, according to the lawsuit’s text. Residents reported various health concerns including headaches and rashes and worry about the long-term impact that the derailment could have on the community.
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According to a county official in Texas, toxic wastewater used to put out a fire after a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio was carried to a suburb of Houston for disposal. According to the Ohio Emergency Management Agency, most of the contaminated soil is going to Michigan.
The wastewater is being delivered to Texas Molecular, a company that disposes of hazardous material by injecting it into the ground.
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Billions of dollars are being allocated in Ohio’s transportation budget. As the train derailment in East Palestine is still fresh in people’s minds, lawmakers are considering a few amendments to try and prevent what happened there from happening again.
“We’ve got broad support across party lines to get this done,” state Representative Jay Edwards (R-Nelsonville) said.
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Officials estimate that more than 43,000 aquatic animals were killed after a Norfolk Southern train derailed earlier this month in eastern Ohio, causing toxic chemicals to be released into the air and water, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNTR) announced Thursday.
Residents began reporting incidents of dead fish floating in local creeks after a controlled burn was performed to prevent an explosion from train cars carrying toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride. The total estimate was calculated based on observations on Feb. 6 and 7, DTNR Director Mary Mertz said, according to Fox 8.
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Nearly three weeks after a toxic chemical-spewing train derailment, U.S. Secretary Pete Buttigieg finally toured the devastation left behind in East Palestine, OH.
Ohio resident and newly announced Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at a campaign stop in Iowa criticized President Joe Biden’s transportation chief for “leadership from behind.”
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Ohio House Republican Caucus Chairman State Representative Derek Merrin (R-Monclova) and his allied House Republicans released his team’s priority list for House legislation on Wednesday.
This comes a mere week after Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill), along with his Republican supporters, announced their legislative priorities following several weeks without any measures being formally submitted with bill numbers at all.
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Ohio Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted has started laying the framework for a future run for statewide office.
Husted’s office announced on Wednesday that the Ohio Secretary of State’s office had received a “Designation of Treasurer” from the lieutenant governor which establishes who will oversee the purse strings of a campaign committee.
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Pete Buttigieg, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, visited East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced the preliminary findings of its investigation into the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train transporting hazardous materials.
The February 3rd derailment has caused significant health and environmental concerns for the locals, who have expressed dissatisfaction at how slowly the federal government has responded to the emergency.
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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose in collaboration with state Senator Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) introduced legislation on Wednesday to increase transparency in Ohio’s elections.
Senate Bill (SB) 71 known as the Data Analysis Transparency Archive (DATA) Act aims to codify standard definitions of key election data, create within the Secretary of State’s Office an office of data analytics and archives which will serve as a clearing house for retention and review, publish standardized data and results online, and codifies a process for county Board of Elections to transfer election data to the Secretary of State’s Office.
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Two Ohio congressmen are spearheading legislation to boost U.S. fossil-fuel-refining capacity which has declined since 2020.
Representatives Bob Latta (R-OH-5) and Troy Balderson (R-OH-12) are sponsoring the Researching Efficient Federal Improvements for Necessary Energy Refining (REFINER) Act alongside Congressmen Greg Pence (R-IN-6), and Randy Weber (R-TX-29). The measure would commence a federal effort to study factors that have led to lessened refinery capacity and recommend policies to increase fuel refining.
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Norfolk Southern Corp. CEO Alan Shaw failed to answer five key questions posed to him by The Star News Network on Monday about the February 6 controlled burn of vinyl chloride conducted at the East Palestine, Ohio site of his company’s February 3 trail derailment:
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Former President Donald Trump traveled to East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday to the scene of a catastrophic train derailment, where locals and leaders have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the federal government’s reaction to their safety concerns.
The excursion occurs at the same time that Trump, who is running for president in 2024, and other Republicans have intensified their criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the derailment on February 3, which prompted evacuations and raised concerns about the community’s air and water quality after a controlled burning of the toxic chemicals aboard the rail cars.
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Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro traveled to East Palestine, Ohio on Tuesday to participate in a joint news conference with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and EPA Administrator Michael Regan regarding ongoing concerns surrounding the recent derailment of a Norfolk Southern train.
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EPA Administrator Michael Regan tweeted late Monday that he will visit East Palestine, Ohio on Tuesday. The news represents a change of plans for Regan, who was scheduled to leave on Saturday, February 18 for a seven day climate tour of Africa.
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A spokesperson for Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office told The Ohio Star that he is scheduled to visit East Palestine on Tuesday to provide an update on the cleanup following the catastrophic February 3rd train derailment that resulted in the controlled release and burn of noxious gasses creating an ecological disaster in the region.
His office also told The Star that DeWine will also talk about Tuesday’s Ohio Department of Health East Palestine clinic launch, which state authorities have indicated is open to locals with medical queries or concerns.
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A spokesperson with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 told The Ohio Star on Monday that the Fire Chief of the East Palestine Fire Department was the individual who ordered the controlled burn following the catastrophic train derailment on February 3rd.
“EPA did not order the controlled burn. The local fire chief was the incident commander who made the decision in consultation with Norfolk Southern, local law enforcement, and response officials from Ohio,” the EPA spokesperson told The Star.
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State Senator Michael Rulli (R-OH-Salem) this week castigated President Joe Biden for failing to visit East Palestine, Ohio in the aftermath of the train derailment and controlled toxic chemical burn.
Speaking on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton radio show, Rulli described the president’s failure to visit communities surrounding the site where a 53-car train crashed on February 3. Rail company Norfolk Southern subsequently conducted a controlled vent and burn of five of the rail cars containing vinyl chloride. Biden did however visit Ukraine and Poland early this week to express his ongoing support for Ukraine’s military struggle against Russian encroachment — a trip that didn’t escape the state lawmaker’s notice.
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Over the weekend, Ohio Senators JD Vance (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) worked together in sending a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – both at the federal and state level – requesting that the agencies provide their plans to monitor East Palestine and surrounding areas for dioxins following the February 3rd derailment of a Norfolk Southern train.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine responded on Friday to a viral video tweeted by U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) that showed a “chemical rainbow” in a creek near the location of a railway crash two weeks ago that released harmful chemicals into the environment in East Palestine, Ohio.
“I know that there’s been some video played on TV circulating of visible contamination in one of the local waterways. A section of Sulfur Run that is very near the crash site remains severely contaminated. We knew this. We know this. It’s going to take a while to remediate this,” DeWine said at a press conference where he gave an update on local environmental testing and cleanup operations.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed lawsuits against three companies in Columbus, alleging bad business practices.
Yost’s office accused two Columbus contractors of doing subpar driveway resurfacing work, and two used car shops of resetting odometers and selling ruined cars in a statement released on Friday.
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As toxins from the East Palestine railway crash travel downstream, the city of Cincinnati stated on Friday that it will temporarily suspend sourcing water from the Ohio River.
However, according to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, testing has shown the plume of contaminates has “completely dissipated” by now and that the water is once again “safe to drink.”
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Ohio got back on a record track with new business filings in January.
After struggling through the latter half of last year, the state set a record with 17,006 new business filings last month, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said.
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The Ohio Department of Health announced this week the opening of a health clinic in East Palestine to assist with those harmed by the toxic chemicals from the Norfolk Southern train derailment. “Registered nurses and mental health specialists will be on hand. A toxicologist will either be on site or available by phone,” the Ohio Department of Health said in a statement.
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Two Ohio Republican lawmakers introduced a bill this week they claim will make hospital prices more transparent and affordable.
Federal law already requires hospitals to provide information about standard prices online. However, a majority of hospitals today are not in compliance. Ohio Representatives Tim Barhorst (R-Wintersville) and Ron Ferguson (R-Fort Laramie) filed a bill this week that would codify these federal laws into the Ohio Revised Code to allow for greater enforcement.
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Former President Donald Trump will visit East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday after a train derailment caused a toxic chemical plume to pollute the town, a source familiar with the plan told Fox News.
Trump will visit with members of the community who are dealing with the aftermath of a Norfolk Southern train derailment that occurred earlier this month, the source told Fox News. The derailment led to the evacuation of nearly 2,000 residents before a controlled release was performed to prevent an explosion, which subsequently released a hazardous mixture of chemicals into the air and water.
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In an exclusive interview with The Ohio Star on Friday morning, Governor Mike DeWine’s spokesman Dan Tierney said he was unaware that legal authority was required to execute the February 6 controlled burn of vinyl chloride from five carriages of the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3rd. He added that Norfolk Southern executed the controlled burn after consultation with representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and that DeWine agreed with the decision to execute a controlled burn – but was not the person who gave the order to execute the controlled burn.
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The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will send toxicologists to a struggling Ohio town in the wake of a major train derailment and the release of hazardous materials from its railcars.
A Norfolk Southern train earlier this month derailed near the town of East Palestine, forcing authorities to evacuate the town and orchestrate a controlled release of the toxic materials from the train to prevent an explosion.
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Two pro-abortion organizations announced Thursday plans to join forces in their ongoing fight against the constitutional rights of the unborn.
Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights plan to collaboratively file a ballot initiative to insert legalized abortion in the Ohio Constitution.
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A group of black elementary school students in Ohio reportedly assaulted several white students on the playground last week when the kids refused to say, “Black Lives Matter.”
The alleged assaults happened at Kenwood Elementary School last Friday, although Springfield Police weren’t notified about the incident until Monday morning, according to the incident report.
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Residents of East Palestine, Ohio, are requesting more details about the railway crash that released toxic chemicals into the area.
More than a week after the train derailed, representatives from local, state, and federal agencies met Wednesday night for an open house-style gathering to field questions.
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Congressman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH-2) this week commenced a House of Representatives investigation concerning the genesis of the novel coronavirus that hit U.S. shores in winter 2020.
As the new chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, the southern-Ohio legislator formally requested an on-the-record conversation with former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci and other senior federal health administrators as well as security officials. Wenstrup’s subcommittee is working on the matter alongside House Committee on Oversight and Accountability which is chaired by James Comer (R-KY-1) who last month made initial requests for federal documents pertaining to COVID-19’s origins.
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On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute filed a lawsuit against the city of Columbus to protect the rights of Ohioans to keep and bear arms.
The filing follows the adoption of Ordinance 3176-2022 by the Columbus City Council, which forbade the use of certain firearm magazines in violation of Ohio law and the U.S. and Ohio constitutions.
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Following several weeks without any measures being formally submitted with bill numbers, the Ohio House Speaker and his leadership team have announced their legislative priorities, which range from adjustments to property taxes, to adoption, to protecting the integrity of girls’ sports.
Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) was joined by his allied House Republicans as he listed 12 of the more than 50 bills that were assigned numbers and sent to committees as priorities. These bills ranged from changes to property and income taxes to an affordable housing tax credit, the “Backpack Bill” universal voucher program, and making certain that biological males cannot compete in female-only athletics.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed public affairs specialist Clint Brewer in studio to comment on the failed handling of the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment.
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Black Rock owns more than 6 percent of Norfolk Southern Railway, the huge railway company whose train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3, causing what many are describing as an ecological and health disaster for residents of Ohio and nearby Pennsylvania.
Fintel.io reports that as of February 16, 2023, Black Rock owns 6.8 percent of Norfolk Southern Railway.
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Twelve days following the catastrophic train derailment on February 3rd and the controlled release and burn of noxious gasses in East Palestine, Ohio questions still linger about the decisions that were made and who authorized the controlled burn.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spokesperson did not directly comment early Monday to The Ohio Star if an On-Scene Coordinator (OSC) was at the East Palestine derailment, or if such an officer may have recommended or authorized the controlled burn.
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Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is blasting Norfolk Southern Corp. for its handling of a Feb. 3 train derailment that spewed Hazardous chemicals in in East Palestine, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania state line.
In a letter to Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw, Shapiro excoriates the railway for acting unilaterally, failing to establish a Unified Command, and creating confusion that resulted in a general lack of awareness for first responders and emergency management of Norfolk Southern’s response.
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Ohio Senator JD Vance (R-OH) and Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday amid the ongoing situation surrounding the recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
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Host Stephen K. Bannon welcomed The Star News Network’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Ohio Star, Michael Patrick Leahy, on Wednesday evening’s War Room: Battleground to talk about the confusion over who is in control of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
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A total of 145 fugitives have been apprehended in northeast Ohio as part of a U.S. Marshals effort to reduce violent crime.
The U.S. Marshals Service said the arrests were part of the second phase of Operation North Star, which focused on the apprehension of the country’s most violent offenders. It brought a total of 830 total arrests nationally. They also seized 181 firearms and hundreds of pounds of drugs.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced on Wednesday that his office is dropping the charges against a NewsNation reporter, who law enforcement arrested, while covering the railway crash in East Palestine.
Evan Lambert, a Washington DC-based correspondent with NewsNation, was thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and arrested for trespassing last week while covering Governor Mike DeWine‘s public press conference regarding the derailing of a train transporting hazardous materials. Local prosecutors filed misdemeanor criminal trespassing and resisting arrest charges against Lambert, but they requested that Yost’s office take over the case from there due to the complex nature of the parties involved.
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Wednesday morning on WarRoom: Battleground, Stephen K. Bannon welcomed The Star News Network’s CEO and Editor and Chief, Michael Patrick Leahy to the show to explain the non-response they received from the EPA regarding the authorization of the controlled burn in East Palestine, Ohio.
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Tuesday afternoon on WarRoom: Battleground, Stephen K. Bannon welcomed The Star News Network’s CEO and Editor and Chief, Michael Patrick Leahy to the show to discuss Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s contradictory statements after a train derailment released contaminated air into the East Palestine region.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office will handle the case involving a TV journalist who the East Palestine Police Department arrested while he was documenting a railway wreck in East Palestine.
Columbiana County Prosecutor Vito Abruzzino confirmed on February 10th that Yost will be in charge of the investigation surrounding Evan Lambert’s arrest.
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Ohio Conservative Groups are voicing their support for the possible presidential bid of Butler County, native Vivek Ramaswamy.
Monday, Ramaswamy confirmed with The Ohio Star that he is considering a run for president in 2024.
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A former Athens city official is accused of stealing more than $1.5 million from the city and using it for personal expenditures.
Ohio Auditor Keith Faber said in a press release that law enforcement arrested Jodi Rickard, who was the executive director of the Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA) at the time of the alleged embezzlement, on Monday.
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Republicans in the Ohio Legislature are working to pass a law codifying the election-integrity office whose creation Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) announced last year.
LaRose declared last October he would set up the Public Integrity Division in his office to improve the security, accuracy and accessibility of elections in the Buckeye State. The new department consolidates heretofore separate divisions dealing with campaign-finance administration, voter registration, election investigations and cybersecurity.
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