Archive for the ‘Local’ Category
Correction to Lantern Calendar
The Lantern had an error Monday in its calendar of events.
On March 28, 2009, the Columbus Crew will play Toronto-FC at Crew Stadium at 4 p.m. EST.
BREAKING NEWS: Police Shoot Armed Man
From the Lantern Newsroom:
A near East Side man was taken to Grant Medical Center in stable condition after being shot by Columbus Police early Saturday morning.
Police were called to the back of a Franklin Avenue residence at approximately 5:03 a.m. after a witness saw a man with a gun. Officers received a description of the suspect, who was later identified as Bernard L. Wright.
Officers found Wright in front of 1860 Oak St., on the near East Side close to East Broad Street. When police tried to take him into custody, Wright began to fight with the officers. During the fight, Wright pulled out a gun. Officers disengaged from fighting, drew their weapons and fired at Wright, striking him in the torso. A handgun was recovered at the scene.
Wright was transported to Grant Medical Center in stable condition. One officer was treated and released for minor injuries to her hand as a result of the fight. Wright has been charged with assault on a police officer, carrying a concealed weapon, using a weapon while intoxicated and aggravated menacing.
This was the second police involved shooting in the last week. Officers from the Columbus Division of Police shot 29-year-old James L. Harris Tuesday night after he fled the scene of a 12th Avenue home invasion, stole a car at the Ohio State Fairgrounds and led officers on a car chase through the Northeast Side. After Harris crashed the car near Oakland Park Avenue and Westerville Road, he made a gesture as if he was reaching for a weapon. Police shot Harris twice, and he died from the injuries Wednesday night. The home invasion is still under investigation.
Student Not Expelled For Firing Nerf Gun
A Northland High student avoided expulsion for firing a Nerf toy gun in his school today.
The district says that the student violated their zero-tolerance policies for weapons, which also includes fake weapons. Apparently, there is a great fear of fluorescent plastic weapons with bright yellow foam darts. These weapons have been mistaken with a glock’s metal and plastic in our schools. The rules stipulate that bringing even a play or toy gun to school should demand a one-year expulsion.
The administrators looked at the evidence, and saw it wasn’t as serious as they were making it out to be. It showed a rare triumph of common sense for these adminstrators over following the rules to the exact word. To be honest, one wonders why just taking the toy away and assigning detention wouldn’t be sufficient. However, it isn’t like doing that would encourage other students to bring a gun to school.
Park planned to replace City Center
Columbus City Center Mall is approaching it’s 20th birthday. For it’s birthday the city plans to get it a date with the wrecking ball.
The City of Columbus today announced plans to replace the empty mall with a new park. The new park, named Columbus Commons, will be surrounded with businesses and residences and included eight new buildings.
In November 2007 the City of Columbus took control of the mall after fierce competition from suburban malls had driven more and more business away from City Center. After Federated removed it’s department store in 2003, it became clear to many people that City Center had a grim future.
Mayor Coleman is seeking $15-16 million in funds from the federal stimulus money for the demolition. The residences around park would help spur economic growth. NBC reported, “to make it retail, the city and developers needed people who would live Downtown. “
Economic Drop: Homeless Boom Resulting
The economy continues to drag without much hope for a turnaround by the end of 2009. There is less and less money to go around, causing all sorts of businesses to go under. The housing market has already taken a dive, and the pain is flowing across the board. Nonprofits are finding hard to pay their bills too. The last source of hope for people who have bottomed out—homeless shelters—are in just as much trouble as the rest of us.
Across the country, homeless shelters are making cuts, and many are closing up. As they close, others are burdened with picking up the slack. This puts more people on the street—not just people already homeless, but also first timers. Remember now the housing crisis mentioned above—families with children are one of the largest groups of the new homeless.
In Columbus there are several homeless shelters, all of which are open to volunteer assistance.
Strickland’s Education Reform
Governor Ted Strickland delivered his third State of the State address Wednesday. Along with updating listeners of Ohio’s efforts to stay above water over the past couple years, the Governor also outlined his plan for an ambitious overhaul of our state’s educational system.
He began his address with an anecdote of how Ohio, and Ohio State in particular, took initiative when “just after World War I came to an end there was a painful combination of high inflation and high unemployment that produced economic misery in Ohio and across the nation.”
To try to help ease the pain, a bold plan was proposed to build Ohio Stadium. At the time, when Ohio State football was played 18th and High, even an Ohio State Trustee rebuked the idea for a 50,000 seat stadium saying, “It will not be claimed that there is ever a remote possibility of an actual demand for such capacity,”according to Strickland.
The point he was getting at is that when Ohio’s economy got hit then, Ohioans looked far into the future and built their state to accomodate what would be rather that what was. This is the same reasoning behind his planned education reform.