Latest news with #I-TEAM
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Boy killed in parade accident remembered at 2 Friday vigils: ‘He was a light'
NORTH CANTON, Ohio (WJW) – Hundreds of grieving neighbors, family members and friends gathered to remember 13-year-old Matthew Schultz at two vigils Friday night. The first event was a private rosary service held at Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Green because Matthew was an altar server and loved his faith. 'That's the one thing that keeps us smiling through our tears, that Matthew lives forever. When God gives a gift, he gives it forever,' said Fr. David Durkee, becoming choked up. The second memorial and night of remembrance started later around 8 p.m. at Witwer Park in North Canton next to North Canton Middle School. I-TEAM: New development in unsolved Cleveland Metroparks double murder Hundreds came out in force and in costume. Some wore blue clothing, which was his favorite color. Others dressed up like characters from Star Wars, but they all carried lights. 'Light because he was a light,' said organizer Rachel Hoffman Murray. 'We've got the glow sticks and light sabers, flashlights and a chance to kind of shine in that darkness.' Matthew's death on Memorial Day has devastated the area after the teen fell from a trailer during the parade. Also in attendance at the vigil were members of the Ohio Garrison 501st Legion Star Wars Cosplayers who were at the parade that day. They said he was always full of joy, curiosity and laughter. 'Matthew was a huge Star Wars fan. Some of our members even got a chance to speak with him before the incident and he was very excited to see us,' said David Hise, Ohio Garrison 501st Commander. Graduating East Cleveland students fulfill a special pact from middle school The vigil was designed to help everyone honor Matthew's life and cope with the tragic loss. 'To recognize Matthew, recognize his family and just, you know, honor the time that we had with him,' said Hoffman-Murray. The community is also allying behind the family in other ways too, from upcoming restaurant fundraisers to selling specially designed t-shirts. 'My daughter knew Matthew. We couldn't believe it and we just wanted to do something to help,' said Ashley Humphrey. They said they want to be a force of heartfelt solidarity and tangible support for Matthew's family during this difficult time. 'I think that's part of the healing process, everyone coming together supporting one another,' said Hise. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Guardians Opening Day weather history: Is it always this cold?
*Attached video: Weekend weather forecast CLEVELAND (WJW) — Since the middle of March, we've been watching the potential for some pretty serious cold for early April around Opening Day at Progressive Field. There's been a lot of warming in the stratosphere over the north pole (warm colors below), which usually takes a couple of weeks under ideal circumstances to make its way down into the troposphere, where weather directly impacts us. I-TEAM: Police monitor will not be removed after casino incident Warming at the top of the atmosphere, creating cold at the surface seems counterintuitive, but that warming and the stratosphere creates high pressure at the surface in the high latitudes. Here is a primer from NOAA. There are many ingredients that have to be present for this to occur. Some originate in the tropics, which make their way to the pole. Where that change propagates south is typically where the cold sets up. In many instances, the long-range computer models have a difficult time ascertaining this. Below is the European Model, which is used each day from March 26 through April 1, showing temperatures for Tuesday afternoon, April 8, Opening Day in Cleveland. 'Senseless incident': 1 hurt, 1 arrested after altercation leads to gunfire in Akron Notice it didn't pick up on the cold over the Great Lakes/Ohio Valley until March 29. Each day, the cold became stronger and more pervasive across the northern half of the country. On April 4, notice how extensive the cold is for April 8. The normal high is in the mid-50s for the second week of April. This translates to mid-30s! We all remember Opening Day 2007. The game was cancelled and then moved to Milwaukee. If that game were to be played in Cleveland, it would have been 28° Technical weather aside, Meteorologist Scott Sabol did some research looking at all of the Opening Days for not only Cleveland Guardians history but ALL Cleveland professional baseball history going back to 1871 when they were called the Cleveland Forest Citys. Protesters tee off against Trump and Musk in 'Hands Off!' rallies across the U.S. This is when Cleveland professional baseball was in the National League. They were also known as the Cleveland Spiders and the Cleveland Blues. Here is the complete list. It shows the year, date, either the game time temperature or the high temperature for the day, depending on what was available (color coded), the result of the game and whether or not we had precipitation that day. Is anything collectible worth collecting? What experts say A few things to note: There have been only seven games where we had game time temperatures in the 30s: 1905, 1907, 1979, 1996, 2003, 2016 and 2019. The 2016 home opener was the coldest at 34°. 1899 opening day at League Park was the warmest. Game time temperature 84°. The most precipitation ever on opening day was 1981, April 11th at the old stadium. We had 1.44″ of rain. Most recently, the 2006 opening day had 0.61″ of rain. Opening day on April 13, 1962, we had some scattered snow. Members of Kent State's international community had visas revoked by federal authorities The Guardians host the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday at Progressive Field for the sold-out affair. The temperature is forecast to be 39 degrees at first pitch, so it's on track to be one of the coldest home openers on record. Pregame ceremonies start at 3:30 p.m., with the first pitch set for 4:10 p.m. For more information and in-depth weather coverage, check out Meteorologist Scott Sabol's weather blog here. Click here for today's forecast. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
I-TEAM: Social Security reinstates clawbacks taking 100% of people's checks until money repaid
There are new developments in Social Security that will have an immediate effect on recipients. The move overturns a policy that the Social Security Administration implemented in 2024 after News Center 7 reported on billions in Social Security overpayments. News Center 7's I-Team Investigator John Bedell has been following this story for years. He investigated the new change, why it's happening, and how it could impact Ohioans. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] TRENDING STORIES: Upscale Italian steakhouse to open in downtown Dayton Bondi instructs federal prosecutors to seek death penalty for Luigi Mangione Cedarville University student, father in 'good' condition after fiery Pennsylvania plane crash Kara Kendall of Miami Township is an SSA overpayment recipient, and she said, 'I was in full panic.' Kendall is referring to the moment she first got a surprise bill from the federal government for more than $17,000. It was an overpayment tied to her Social Security disability benefits. Bedell asked Kendall if she had ever figured out what caused the overpayment. She said, 'No. Nothing at all. Got no information.' >> RELATED STORY: I-TEAM: Social Security's overpayment fixes help many but remain unfinished Kendall worked out a payment plan with the SSA. For 18 months until this time last year (April 2024), to clawback the overpayment debt. The SSA reduced her monthly checks, her only income, by nearly half. 'Because otherwise, I would have been completely without a check,' Kendall said. But now, a new policy change means all SSA overpayments going forward will be handled by withholding 100 percent of monthly benefits to get back any overpayments. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana brought up concerns in a Senate Confirmation hearing last week. 'Now, it's one thing for somebody who's well off to pay back, and it's another thing for someone who basically lives on cash flow and then you're asked to repay that, which has, you know, been spent.' >> I-TEAM: How Social Security claws back billions of dollars it mistakenly sends to people In a series of News Center 7 I-Team investigations, done in partnership with our Cox Media Group sister stations and KFF Health News, we've heard from more than 400 families who've gotten demand letters from Social Security asking them to pay back thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. Often, the mistakes were not their fault, but the SSA's. After our reporting, the agency changed its policies last year, limiting clawbacks to 10 percent of a monthly check. But now Acting SSA Commissioner Lee Dudek says he's undoing that policy change to 'properly safeguard taxpayer funds.' The SSA says the change could save taxpayers $7 billion over the next decade. But, last week, President Donald Trump's nominee to be the new full-time SSA Commissioner, Frank Bisignano, left open the possibility of further changes when Sen. Cassidy questioned him. 'I know there was one way to do it. We've implemented another. I'm going to make sure that we recover all the money we should recover. But, on the other hand, we have to be humans in the process, too.' The change applies to people with an overpayment after March 27. It does not include Social Security Supplemental Security Income or SSI. Those withholdings will stay at 10 percent. Bedell said it's expected the change will impact about half of the two million Americans each year who our investigations uncovered are dealing with Social Security overpayments. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Yahoo
Angela Frase, Sterling woman who faked hate crime arson, sentenced for insurance fraud scheme
[Watch previous FOX 8 News coverage in the player above.] CLEVELAND (WJW) — A woman who set fire to her Wayne County home and spray-painted hate speech on her garage as part of an insurance fraud scheme has been sentenced to prison. Angela Frase, 60, of Sterling, pleaded guilty to four counts of mail fraud for accepting insurance checks on claims she had falsified, according to a Wednesday news release from Carol Skutnik, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. I-TEAM: Accident damages plane at Hopkins Airport Frase was sentenced Tuesday, Feb. 18, to two years in prison and ordered to pay $327,072 in restitution. She was also recommended for a residential drug treatment program at a West Virginia federal prison. She'll also face three years of supervision upon her release. Frase on July 2, 2019, and July 3, 2019, called in two separate fires at her home along Spruce Street in Sterling. Her insurance company housed her and her husband at an extended-stay hotel, according to prosecutors. The cause of the fire was undetermined, and experts hired by the insurance company later ruled out electrical failure. Firefighters were called to the home again for a reported natural gas leak on Aug. 6, 2019. Home remodelers who entered the home to begin contracted work fled 'due to the strong smell of natural gas,' according to prosecutors. 'The fire marshal later determined that the stove was turned on, filling the residence with explosive-causing levels of natural gas,' reads the release. 'Frase and her husband were the last people in the home prior to the discovery of gas and claimed to have locked the doors. There was no sign of forced entry.' That night, Frase left her hotel and started a fire at her home, according to prosecutors. Location data from her cell phone showed she was at the scene from about 11 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., then she returned to her hotel room. Then, just after 12:30 a.m. the following morning, Sterling firefighters and Wayne County sheriff's deputies responded to an explosion at the home. The fire marshal determined the fire was intentionally set. Frase had spray-painted the N-word and what appeared to be a swastika on her garage and also vandalized her neighbor's vehicle, according to her federal criminal complaint. 'Disbelief that there's still this much hatred in America,' Frase told FOX 8 News following the incident. 'We've been here 23 years, and we've never had a problem and now this. We decided whatever happens, we're not rebuilding here. We're not coming back. We're done.' Frase returned again the morning of Aug. 11, 2019, and again spray-painted hate speech on her garage, according to prosecutors. She later told a responding sheriff's deputy that she saw 'two suspicious individuals' running through the field behind her home. Days later, she told authorities she found a stuffed doll that had been painted black, with a noose around its neck, in her mailbox. More than a week after that, she claimed she received a suspicious envelope with a racial slur written on it and a bag of unknown white powder inside. Police say suspects left important evidence at East Cleveland murder scene: I-Team Frase's insurance company between November 2019 and June 2020 mailed her four checks totaling $327,072 for damages and losses, which she cashed. Frase was charged in federal court in September 2024. Court records show she took a plea deal in November, but that document remains sealed. She's expected to surrender to U.S. Marshals no later than noon on April 30 to begin her sentence, court records show. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Yahoo
I-TEAM: Bus drivers trained to spot, stop threats
ORANGE VILLAGE, Ohio (WJW) – A Fox 8 I-TEAM camera rolled on board a school bus to see what drivers are being trained to do to protect your kids if a student brings a gun on a bus. The I-TEAM watched as Sheila Dikowicz, Orange City School District Transportation Director, showed off her training on how to deal with a gunman, or any active threat, on her bus. Cleveland schools spent nearly $1M on travel before tax hike: I-Team Dikowicz and other bus drivers from her district have gone through the School Transportation Active Threat Response Training program. The S.T.A.R.T program is taught by a team of current and former law enforcement and security experts, crisis intervention specialists, military, and mental health officials. The instructors say they help provide school bus drivers with tools to help protect themselves and their passengers. 'Even knowing it's a drill that you are practicing it takes your breath away for a second,' Dikowicz said 'Anytime you interview a school bus driver they'll call them (the students on the bus) my kids.' I-TEAM investigates what happened to a child on school van During the training, drivers learn how to use the bus as a weapon to fight back by using sudden movements that help throw an attacker, or someone with a gun, off balance. Drivers also learn how to confront a threat directly. For instance, in a training scenario, we watched Sheila Dikowicz stop the bus, yell 'Get off the bus!', then get out of her seat and run to the back of the bus and a suspected gunman. 'We teach them that we can't do nothing,' said Todd Dietzel, a S.T.A.R.T instructor. 'We can't sit idly by and not have a plan. There are things you can do on the bus. Swerving, rapid acceleration, braking, get them off balance so they stop. We're not asking people to be superheroes. We are not asking people to put an 'S' on their chest. It's just situational awareness. Be more aware of your surroundings.' Jim Levine, President of S.T.A.R.T , said bus drivers are first responders. 'We put a lot of emphasis on safety at the schools,' Levine said. 'We need to also focus on how safe are they on the bus?' Lorain school bus hit by car during police chase The FOX 8 I-TEAM obtained school bus video from December in Vermilion when police said a 12-year-old shot a pellet gun at the bus. The bus was carrying elementary school kids. No one was hurt. S.T.A.R.T organizers point to other violence on school buses across the nation. Instructors noted the drivers get trained on how to look for weapons, bombs, or suspicious packages. And also, how to pay attention to pieces of paper left behind, like a threatening note. 'What if a student leaves something behind,' said Doug Nichols, S.T.A.R.T instructor. 'And what is on that note? Do you like me? Check a box yes, or no? Or, in this case, today's the day, and there's a picture of a pipe bomb.' Inside look at plans for new Dawg Pound in Brook Park dome S.T.A.R.T instructor Greg Truhan said bus drivers see the same kids every day, so they need to be able to notice if any student starts acting differently. S.T.A.R.T instructors have given the bus threat training to drivers in school districts in Ohio and around the country. They tell us it's training that they hope bus drivers will never have to use. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
