logo
Columbus leaders honing in on mission to lower homicide rate below 100

Columbus leaders honing in on mission to lower homicide rate below 100

Yahoo18-02-2025
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Columbus community and police leaders say they are honing in on their mission to lower the city's homicide rate.
The organization, Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children, and the Columbus Division of Police have spent some time restructuring their mission, Operation Under Triple Digits. It's an initiative aimed at getting the city's homicide rate below 100.
Leaders say this year they will focus on what they are calling the big three: domestic relationships, youth violence and arguments turned violent. 'We're in a pressure cooker right now. It is a very sensitive time,' said Malissa Thomas-St. Clair, the founder of Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children.
Ohio Senate's actions called 'undemocratic' after passing higher ed bill
Leaders say this is a big city and a big job. Columbus Police data shows in 2024, the city's homicide rate dropped by 17 percent. But in 2025 and beyond, city and community leaders say they want to see that rate drop even more.
'We want to ensure that the community continues the good work. We don't want to go backwards,' Thomas-St. Clair said. Columbus Police First Assistant Chief LaShanna Potts said the division will be taking on an even bigger role in the initiative to support community groups in any way they need.
'We are about saving this community when we leave these positions that we hold because we always say we're seat fillers, right? And we want to make sure that the person coming behind us doesn't have to start from scratch,' Potts said.
Thomas-St. Clair said they chose their big three by looking at police data from 2024. She said those were the areas that needed the most attention. 'If you look at the domestic violence homicides that happened, there were 23 out of 123 homicides, domestic violence is the silent killer,' Thomas-St. Clair said.
Lawmaker introduces 'boneless wing bill' after viral Ohio Supreme Court court ruling
Potts said they will also be partnering with other community groups like We Are Linden, Ohio Women Against Domestic Violence, Legacy U and more. All of the groups they are working with specialize and focus on those big three.
'We believe that this is the one year out of a three-year plan and by the third year, we will be under triple digits. That is our goal. That is our vision,' Potts said. They say every move this year will be intentional.
They plan to meet with community groups and stakeholders aimed at tackling those big three monthly to go over data. Thomas-St. Clair said they are starting a new initiative called 'mall walks' to engage people who aren't naturally affected by violence. She said they are also going to places that are.
'So we're going inside of prisons together, she and I, along with some of my team members and hers. That is a unique partnership we just began. So we're excited for the reentry,' Thomas-St. Clair said.
Ohio State club displaying art exhibit for Black History Month
The women say they are going to use the data and what they've learned over the last few years to prevent instead of react. 'They're bridging the gap, we're building the trust and within those big three, all that needs to happen is have the community trust our law enforcement. Law enforcement trusts us and then we work together,' Thomas-St. Clair said.
According to police data, there have been six homicides in the City of Columbus so far this year. If you would like to get involved in Operation Under Triple Digits they have ways to sign up and take their pledge on their website.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

What does the Ohio House property tax override mean?
What does the Ohio House property tax override mean?

Yahoo

time2 days ago

  • Yahoo

What does the Ohio House property tax override mean?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The Ohio House pushed for property tax relief this week, but legislators disagree on whether removing some property tax authority will help Ohioans' pocketbooks. Gov. Mike DeWine signed Ohio's 2026-2027 budget into law on June 30, but vetoed 67 provisions within the several thousand page document. On Monday, the Ohio House held a rare out-of-season session to override one of the budget vetoes in an attempt to provide property tax relief. During the vote, politicians on both sides of the aisle said Ohio's tax system is too complex to be productive, so NBC4 is breaking this issue down. Olentangy coach resigns amid investigation into inappropriate text messages What happened? On Monday, 89 of the House's 99 members met and voted to override DeWine's veto on school district property tax levy restrictions. The move needed 60 votes, and it successfully passed 61-28. The House originally planned to vote on three overrides, but leaders said they did not think they had the votes due to absences. See previous coverage in the video player above. It is now up to the Senate to decide if they will also vote on the override, but they have not yet announced plans to vote. The override is not official unless 20 of Ohio's 33 Senators concur. What could change? If the Senate concurs the veto override, Ohio would change what type of property tax levies schools and other services could place on the ballot. The changes stop schools and political subdivisions, like fire departments or libraries, from introducing replacement and emergency levies. This change also stops school districts from asking for operating levies if it has too much money left over in their general funds. Replacement levies occur when a levy is expiring, and can either keep the same levy in place or, more commonly, replace it with a higher tax rate. Emergency levies are used when funding is crucial to keep operating, and they expire after a set number of years. These are all operating levies, meaning they are used to pay for daily necessities like supplies, utilities and salaries. These funds typically cannot be used for permanent improvement projects, like building a new high school or fire department. House members in favor of the changes said words like 'emergency' and 'replacement' can influence people to vote for property tax increases they may not want. They hope removing these levy options will promote transparency in levy requests. Bobcats, bald eagles and bears, oh my! Species seeing population growth in Ohio What does this mean for schools? This would limit how public school districts are allowed to ask for public money by removing several levy options. Schools would still be allowed to request other property tax levies. The Ohio Education Association (OAE) said these levies are crucial for school districts' long-term financial stability. Replacement levies are frequently used to help districts keep up with inflation, so having to always seek new levies brings a more complicated request to taxpayers. According to the OAE, this change could force Ohio schools to increase class sizes and cut programming. Schools will also no longer be allowed to ask for certain levies if they carry over more than 100% of their expenditures in their general funds from school year to school year. School districts say this is an important protection for long-term financial planning, as they cannot ask for more money even if they say they need more. House Republicans who voted in favor of the override said it will encourage districts to be more fiscally responsible. Proponents of the change say this is not taking money from schools, as voters will still have the opportunity to approve levies. Opponents, like Rep. Ismail Mohamed (D-Columbus), said the veto would limit the choices Ohioans have at the ballot. What does this mean for local services? Although the change affects school districts immensely, it also affects political subdivisions like local governments, fire departments, libraries and parks. All of these services rely on property taxes, and many of them use replacement levies to stay afloat. For instance, Franklin Township had two replacement levies fail in the past year, leading them to have to close one of their two fire stations. Legislators and advocates who disagree with the possible property tax change say examples like this prove Ohioans already have control over whether or not to pass a levy. Like local schools, this could make it more difficult to pass levies, or just complicate how these services are asking for funding. House Democrats say these services will have to choose between more frequent levy requests or making budget cuts. House Republicans largely say this will protect taxpayers from overreach and encourage local services to be better stewards of tax dollars. Three months later, still no updates in OSU investigation of hidden cameras in dorm bathroom What does this mean for my taxes? Even if the Senate concurs this veto override, this change does not guarantee a different property tax rate for Ohioans. The change reduces how many types of levies subdivisions can ask for, but fewer levies may not correlate with fewer levy requests. Proponents say this will help provide transparency at the ballot and prevent tax hikes that voters may not expect. The change would go into effect Jan. 1, 2026, so it would not change tax laws until after the November election. Proponents say this is a proactive change to help future overreach. Opponents say it is unlikely this will provide meaningful property tax relief because it does not address immediate pressures. They said it could even add financial pressure for taxpayers as local governments and schools try to find other revenue sources. Ohio leaders say property tax reform is coming, regardless of whether the override stands. Gov. Mike DeWine has tasked a property tax reform work group with analyzing concerns and generating solutions by Sept. 30. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword

A list of sports organizations that have begun transgender competition bans
A list of sports organizations that have begun transgender competition bans

Fox Sports

time3 days ago

  • Fox Sports

A list of sports organizations that have begun transgender competition bans

Associated Press The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has become the latest governing body in the sports world to enact a policy change around transgender athlete competition. Here's a glance at the most prolific of those that have clarified or altered such rules this year: U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Effectively barring transgender women from competing in women's sports, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced on Monday that it has an 'obligation to comply' with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump. The decree has threatened to rescind funding from organizations that don't obey. The USOPC oversees about 50 national governing bodies, most of which have some influence over youth sports all the way up to the elite levels, raising the possibility rules might need to be changed by local clubs to retain memberships. International Cycling Union The global governing body for cycling announced earlier this month that transgender women who transitioned after male puberty will no longer be able to compete in women's races. The decision followed American rider Austin Killips becoming in May the first openly transgender woman to win an official cycling event. University of Pennsylvania Penn modified three school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in a decision earlier this month to settle a federal civil rights investigation, including an apology to female athletes 'disadvantaged' by her participation on the women's swimming team. Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title when she last competed for the Ivy League school in 2022. The Trump administration's broader attempt to block transgender athletes from female sports included the Penn case. The Philadelphia university agreed to restore all individual records to female athletes who lost to Thomas. World Aquatics The global governing body for swimming, formerly known as FINA, announced in June a new ' gender inclusion policy ' that only permits transgender athletes who transitioned before age 12 to compete in women's events. There are not currently any transgender women competing in elite levels of swimming. World Aquatics also proposed a new 'open competition" category, designating a committee to explore over the rest of the year the most effective guidelines for such events. World Boxing Organization The global governing body for boxing declared in May that all athletes would be subjected to mandatory sex testing in order to compete in sanctioned events. World Boxing's announcement specifically mentioned Olympic champion Imane Khelif, the Algerian who won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics last year amid international scrutiny. The previous governing body for Olympic boxing, the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, disqualified Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, another Paris gold medal winner, from its 2023 world championships after claiming they failed an unspecified eligibility test. Association officials have declined to answer basic questions about the test. Khelif has said she was born a female. British sports Following a U.K. Supreme Court ruling in April, the British governing body for soccer issued a ban that took effect in June on transgender women playing on women's teams in England and Scotland. Previously, the British Football Association allowed such participation if the athletes had reduced testosterone levels. The England and Wales Cricket Board also instituted a ban. World Athletics Council The governing body for track and field banned transgender women from international competition in March, while adopting new regulations that could keep South African star Caster Semenya and other athletes with differences in sex development from competing. The World Athletics Council issued its edict in March, barring athletes who have transitioned from male to female and have gone through male puberty. No such athletes currently compete at the highest elite levels of track. Another set of updates for athletes with differences in sex development raised the potential to impact up to 13 current high-level runners including Semenya, a two-time Olympic champion at 800 meters, who has been barred from that event since 2019. Her discrimination case is still moving through the court system. Semenya and others had been able to compete without restrictions in events outside the range of 400 meters through 1 mile but now must undergo hormone-suppressing treatment for six months before becoming eligible. National Collegiate Athletic Association The NCAA, which oversees the vast majority of U.S. college athletics, announced in February — the day after Trump's order — that competition in women's sports would immediately be limited to athletes assigned female at birth. The NCAA has about 1,100 member schools with more than 500,000 athletes. High school sports Nebraska in June became the latest state to ban transgender students from girls' sports, following similar bans by the high school associations for at least 24 other states. The Trump administration has clashed with multiple states over the allowance of such participation. ___ AP sports: recommended Item 1 of 3

Thomas Anthony Durkin, renowned Chicago defense attorney, dies at 78
Thomas Anthony Durkin, renowned Chicago defense attorney, dies at 78

CBS News

time3 days ago

  • CBS News

Thomas Anthony Durkin, renowned Chicago defense attorney, dies at 78

Thomas Anthony Durkin, a Chicago defense attorney who rose to national prominence as he advocated for a roster of notorious clients, died this week. Durkin died Monday after a brief battle with cancer, said a daughter, Alanna Durkin Richer, an Associated Press journalist in Washington. He was 78 years old. Durkin participated in some of Chicago's highest-profile court cases, but his influence spanned beyond the city through his representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees, lectures at law schools across the country and legal essays and news media interviews in which he sounded the alarm about the perils of unchecked government power. His career was driven by a conviction that all defendants, no matter their alleged crime or society's perception of them, were entitled to a rigorous defense and to the protection of their constitutionally afforded civil rights. So committed was he to the defense of the unpopular that the headline of a 2016 Wall Street Journal article described him as a "terror suspect's best hope in court." "I don't do this because I think my clients are wonderful people who should be exonerated," he was quoted in the story as saying. "I do it because I think I have a role in the system." Durkin was born on the South Side of Chicago to a steel mill worker's family. He graduated from Leo High School in Chicago in 1964, and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in 1968. In 1973, Durkin earned a law degree from the University of San Francisco, where he was exposed to criminal defense by serving as a student adviser for the U.S.F. Criminal Law Clinic at the Marin County, California public defender's office, according to his bio on Durkin & Thomas law firm website Back in Chicago, Durkin clerked for U.S. District Judge James B. Parsons in 1973 and 1974. He went into private practice in Chicago specializing in federal criminal cases, and tried jury cases as a panel attorney for the Federal Defender Program. From April 1978 until March 1984, Durkin worked as a federal prosecutor in Chicago under U.S. attorneys Thomas Sullivan and Dan Webb. He much of that time in the Special Prosecutions Division, which was responsible for investigating prosecuting white-collar fraud corruption cases, his bio said. Durkin personally investigated and prosecuted corruption cases in the City of Chicago Electrical Inspection Department and two major Medicaid fraud cases, as well as the first federal criminal civil rights opening housing case in the area — involving a racially motivated bombing in south suburban Burnham, his bio said. Over more than 40 years in private practice since then, Durkin cultivated a reputation as one of the country's foremost advocates of defendants other attorneys would pass on representing. "He took on the most challenging, controversial and complex cases that other lawyers would run away from," said Joshua Herman, an attorney who worked on national security matters with Durkin. "Above all, he valued the rule of law the most and raised his strongest objections to what he saw as abuses of power." Durkin's clients included Adel Daoud, who was accused in a plot to bomb a Chicago bar, and Mohammed Hamzah Khan, who as a teenager was arrested on charges of conspiring to provide support to the Islamic State. Durkin won an acquittal on terrorism charges for Jared Chase, one of the so-called NATO 3 defendants accused of plotting to bomb the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago. Durkin also represented Matthew Hale, a white supremacist leader accused of domestic terrorism offenses for soliciting the murder of a federal judge in Chicago. Durkin also was a go-to lawyer for numerous local elected officials who found themselves in legal trouble. In August 2002, on behalf of former Cicero town treasurer Joseph DeChico, Durkin also obtained the only acquittal in the criminal case involving Cicero and its town president, Betty Loren-Maltese. The work, Durkin said, appealed not only to his commitment to civil liberties but stimulated him intellectually and spiritually as well. "I think these are the cases of our day. They point out all the problems that terrorism has spawned, with the reaction on our side, both good and bad. I find them fascinating," he said in a 2014 Chicago Reader piece. "There are some days I find it hard to believe that people are paying me to be involved in what I'm involved in. There's a tremendous amount of history you have to learn, which I enjoy. There's a lot of theology you have to understand, which I enjoy." Beyond Chicago, he did legal work for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including helping represent Ramzi bin al-Shibh, an accused facilitator of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and representing others who have since been returned to their home countries. His experiences there, he said, helped show him the "dark side" of American intelligence. In 2010, Durkin returned to school as a graduate student at large and returning scholar at the University of Chicago, focusing on graduate political science and Divinity Schol courses that focused on his academic interest in religion and nationalism, according to his bio. Since 1984, Durkin had operated a law practice, Durkin & Roberts, with his wife, Janis Roberts. Besides his wife and his daughter Alanna, he is survived by five other children: Erin Pieplow, Krista Mussa, Catherine Durkin Stewart, James Durkin and Matthew Durkin, and 15 grandchildren.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store