Ohio picks vendors for medical marijuana system
COLUMBUS — A pair of vendors has been selected to develop Ohio’s seed-to-sale, medical marijuana tracking system and its online licensing system.
The Ohio Department of Commerce said Tuesday that it competitively selected Metrc, a Franwell company, to develop and build the program’s digital tracking infrastructure. Metrc received a $1.2 million contract to build an integrated system for tracking medical marijuana through cultivation, processing, testing and sale.
Persistent Systems Inc. won a $574,000 contract to design and build the e-licensing system for tracking the Ohio licenses required of marijuana growers, processors, testing labs and their employees.
Ohio’s law allows people with 21 medical conditions, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy, to buy and use marijuana after getting a doctor’s recommendation.
The law launching in September 2018 doesn’t allow smoking.
Police: Confederate soldier statue in cemetery vandalized
COLUMBUS — Police say a Confederate soldier statue at a cemetery in central Ohio has been damaged by vandals who took the statue’s head.
Columbus police say vandals appear to have climbed on an arched memorial at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery and toppled the statue atop the monument to the ground.
The soldier’s head and hat were knocked off. Police say the vandals took the head, but left the hat.
Police say the vandalism occurred sometime between midnight and 6:30 a.m. Tuesday at the cemetery where around 2,000 soldiers are buried.
Officers found the vandalism while checking the cemetery in Columbus early Tuesday.
Police had been monitoring the cemetery since the violent white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a protester was killed Aug. 12.
Oberlin replaces Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day
OBERLIN — A northern Ohio city will celebrate the second Monday in October as Indigenous People’s Day instead of the federally recognized Columbus Day holiday.
Oberlin, southwest of Cleveland, is the first Ohio city to officially make such a change.
The city council voted unanimously on Monday after hearing public comments about whether to celebrate indigenous people rather than explorer Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas.
Some residents in the city southwest of Cleveland objected to replacing Columbus Day, arguing that it’s more of a celebration of Italian-American heritage than of Columbus as an individual. Some suggested that Indigenous People’s Day could be celebrated on a different date.
Supporters of the change argued that honoring the Native Americans who lived in the area was the right thing to do.
Man arrested with explosives before anti-racist vigil
AKRON — Ohio authorities have arrested a man they say had a pipe bomb and another homemade explosive device before a vigil in Akron to honor anti-racist victims of the Charlottesville, Virginia, attack.
WEWS-TV reported Monday that local police and federal authorities are investigating whether there was any link to last week’s vigil. Bomb squads found nothing during a search of the area near the gathering Wednesday, and it proceeded as planned.
The 26-year-old Akron man has been charged with possessing and manufacturing dangerous ordnance. Cleveland.com reports that the suspect told police both devices were fireworks and the bag they were in was owned by a friend.
He was jailed on $100,000 bond after his arrest.
A demonstrator was killed when marchers were hit by a car at the Charlottesville rally.
Amish woman, baby hurt when car struck buggy
FREDERICKTOWN — Authorities say an Amish woman was critically injured and three other people were hurt when a car struck a horse-drawn buggy in rural Knox County.
The four injured also included a baby.
State Highway Patrol says the crash occurred Monday night in the village of Fredericktown. WCMH-TV reports that the buggy was hit from behind by the car, and troopers suspect alcohol was a factor in the collision.
The woman in the buggy was flown to a Columbus hospital. A man and the baby who were in the buggy and the car driver were also taken to hospitals. Information on their conditions wasn’t immediately released.
WCMH reports that the baby is 2 months old.
Police ID slain woman, suspect who killed self
LORAIN — Police in Lorain County have identified a homicide suspect who killed himself while officers sought his arrest and the woman he is believed to have fatally shot.
Lorain police said Monday that 55-year-old Jeffrey Schindler shot himself Sunday after police arrived at his Amherst Township home with an arrest warrant.
Investigators say Schindler was a suspect in the shooting death of 24-year-old Kristen Malinowski in Lorain on Saturday.
Police say surveillance video shows a confrontation between the pair before Malinowski was shot. It is not clear why they were arguing.
Police say officers went to Schindler’s house and were speaking with his wife when he went to his garage and killed himself.
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