News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area
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Since 2004
Dayton, Ohio – Congratulations to Loveland FLL team 52346 Roaring Robots who competed at the Regional Qualifier at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force today in Dayton. They won the First Place Robot Performance Award and the Champions Award, the top award of the event.
They will advance to the District tournament at Loveland Intermediate School on January 14.
“Thanks to all the volunteers and coaches who make this program and event possible!”
BY: NICK EVANS – Ohio Capital Journal
After a protracted day at the Ohio Statehouse, lawmakers approved sweeping new voting restrictions including photo ID requirements early Thursday morning. That proposal now heads to the governor.
The House gaveled in for session early Wednesday afternoon, and after half an hour of ceremonial proceedings broke for recess. Rep. Tim Ginter, R-Salem, described the break as 30 minutes “more or less.”
It took nearly six and a half hours for lawmakers to get back to work.
Turns out they had a holiday party in the Statehouse atrium.
When House lawmakers returned to their desks, they didn’t jump straight to the controversial measures. They concurred on a bland smattering of measures amended in the Senate. Lawmakers made tweaks to occupational licensure and township authorities. They even made the All-American Soap Box Derby Ohio’s official gravity racing program.
After that they went back to farewell speeches.
Later, the House took up Senate Bill 202. The proposal prohibits disability from being used as a pretext for denying or limiting parenting rights. Representatives tacked on a series of unrelated amendments. Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, proposed a task force to study the state’s bail system to see how many people are being held for lack of money.
“As is so much the case with so many things in Ohio — simple things that you would think we would know — we don’t know!” Seitz said.
Other amendments allow county prosecutors to represent other officials, provide a salary bump for a Fulton County judge instead of replacing a retiring colleague, and allow lawyers to apply out of state experience toward their judicial candidacy.
Lawmakers then took up and passed an unemployment compensation measure. Once they were done, the chamber went back into recess so the GOP could hold a caucus meeting.
All the while, lawmakers whipped votes and opponents made a handful of eleventh-hour appeals.
AARP’s state director Holly Holtzen wrote a letter to the House members arguing older Ohioans are “disproportionately affected” by voter ID requirements.
“While AARP supports fair and effective procedures to detect and prevent voter fraud, we also want to ensure that Ohio’s 50+ population can exercise their voices in elections,” Holtzen wrote. “We understand that state lawmakers have a responsibility to balance these two elements but doing so responsibly and with sufficient debate is crucial.”
The organization made a similar appeal in 2011 for a voter ID measure that didn’t go forward.
Fifteen minutes before midnight, the House returned to take up voter ID legislation.
The Senate added the language to legislation eliminating most August special elections.
In addition to requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls and allowing one drop box per county, the bill makes a series of cuts to the voting timeline. Absentee ballot requests must arrive a week, rather than three days, before Election Day. The final day of early voting will disappear, with its hours redistributed through the previous week. Absentee ballots postmarked the day before the election have to arrive within four days rather than the 10 allowed under current law.
Rep. Seitz explained the changes on the House floor and dismissed Democrats’ complaints about voter ID requirements.
“What we’re doing is we’re saying anyone who does not have a driver’s license in Ohio can get a photo ID at the BMV — free. Free, free free,” Seitz said.
Seitz also insisted he’d earned two concessions from the Senate that would be included in amendments to a separate bill. Under those changes, ballot drop boxes would be available outside regular business hours provided there’s 24-hour video monitoring. The other amendment would give boards more than four days to make their way through provisional ballots.
Then Seitz argue the legislation represents a “missed opportunity” for Democrats. He pointed to the Senate reducing the number of proposed drop boxes from three to one.
“As I predicted on day one with our bill,” Seitz said, “if you do not like this bill, if you are not willing to work with us on this bill, do not be surprised when at the end of the day you will get a bill that is much less to your liking.”
Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Cleveland, pushed back, disputing Seitz’s characterization.
“When you’re working from a basis of removing the right to vote,” she said, “that is not really a place that me and my colleagues on this side of the aisle feel that we are ever going to be in a position of supporting something.”
Sweeney criticized the reduced time for absentee ballots to arrive after the election, and she invoked GOP concerns about voter fraud to do so. If one unlawful vote is one too many, she argued, isn’t disenfranchising one voter too many?
Rep. Richard Brown, D-Canal Winchester, picked up the idea of voter fraud, too, and went in a different direction. He noted Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s reports of how safe and accurate Ohio elections are.
“If our election system is the gold standard, which other states emulate and look to for how they should run their elections, then why are we changing anything at all?” Brown asked. “There’s no need to change anything. There is no problem to solve here. In fact, the changes suggested in this bill and the amendments, solve no problems, but create new ones.”
Rep. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, noted “nothing good happens after midnight,” as he began his testimony early Thursday morning. Nevertheless, House lawmakers voted to concur with the Senate amendments around 12:30 a.m. With a vote of 55 to 32, the House passed the measure and it now heads to the governor.
Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.
Loveland, Ohio – Thursday was a very special day at Loveland Early Childhood Center, as staff and students wished “Happy Retirement” to secretary DeAnn Gilmore after 23 and a half years!
Their message on the Loveland City Schools FaceBook page was, “Thank you for being a friendly, smiling face for generations of our youngest Tigers!”
All photos by Loveland City Schools:
![[Updated maps with Parking] The 2022 Christmas in Loveland!](https://lovelandmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/feature-christmas-map.png)
Loveland, Ohio – Join us this weekend!! We can’t wait to celebrate the holidays in our sweet town.
Loveland Magazine just received these maps and QR Codes directly from Santa’s Instagram page!
Another up-date is that the Chamber says they have had to make the unfortunate decision to charge for carriage rides this year. A $2 per-person charge.
“Unfortunately, due to rising costs, we are asking families to pay for a ride this year. We love having them and are thankful for the sponsorships as well. We take credit cards, cash, and Venmo.”
A few Facts:
Right-Click to open the map in a new tab to view it larger.
Right-Click to open the PARKING MAP in a new tab to view it larger.
Every U.S. household is eligible to order 4 free at-home COVID-19 tests.
Need help placing an order for your at-home tests?
Call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489).
BY: SUSAN TEBBEN – Ohio Capital Journal
The Ohio House did not agree to Senate amendments to a bill banning trans athletes from participating in youth sports based on their gender identity, leaving behind more than a thousand pages of state education overhauls loaded in at the last minute.
House Bill 151, with language from Senate Bill 178 attached to it was voted down in the House by a 46-41 vote after 2 a.m. on Thursday morning following an entire day of hemming and hawing.
The education overhaul is not completely done yet. Even if lawmakers decline to move forward in the current General Assembly, Senate President Matt Huffman previously pledged to bring the bill back in the new year, with a General Assembly that will have an even larger GOP supermajority.
The education overhaul part of the bill, which entered the House as a standalone this week after passing the Senate last week, would have restructured the Ohio Department of Education into the Department of Education and Workforce, and reduced the state Board of Education roles down to superintendent searches, teacher conduct and licensure issues.
“The system is not working, it doesn’t prioritize our students,” said bill sponsor state Rep. Don Jones, R-Freeport.
The department, and most of the roles currently under the state board of ed and state superintendent’s purview would have been put under the governor’s office umbrella, according to the bill.
The State Board of Education put off hiring a search firm for the next superintendent due to concerns about budgetary changes SB 178 might bring and fears the legislative uncertainty might “pollute” the marketplace of candidates.
The bill also received pushback from public school education advocates and some homeschooling groups. The Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation of Teachers both spoke against the bill in committee hearings, not only decrying claims that the ODE was unresponsive and inaccessible, but also criticizing the pace at which the bill came through the General Assembly.
SB 178 sponsor state Sen. Bill Reineke, R-Tiffin, said attempts to redo the state agencies have been years in the making and urgency is needed to help improve student success.
“I’m not looking at growing an organization; I’m looking at making it more efficient and more structurally purposeful,” Reineke said on Tuesday as he defended his bill in House Primary and Secondary Education Committee.
It was up to that committee to pass the standalone bill over to the House for a full vote, something that didn’t happen in a Tuesday night committee that went until about 9 p.m., or a Wednesday morning meeting that recessed before the House’s session began, and didn’t return even after multiple recesses in that body.
When committee chair state Rep. Gayle Manning, R-North Ridgeville, was asked the status of the bill or the committee at about 9 p.m. Wednesday night, she said she was waiting to see what the GOP caucus was thinking on the matter.
Amidst the day-long discussion, the Senate decided to take matters into its own hands, inserting SB 178 into HB 151, originally meant to be a teacher mentorship bill that was made to include a ban on athletes competing on teams based on their gender identity.
The Senate also tried to slide in language from a bill that would have banned COVID-19 vaccine mandates for K-12 students.
After the additions, HB 151 passed on a party-line 23-7 vote in that chamber, moving it back to the House.
The controversial part of HB 151 was added in another late-night move in June, when HB 151 was up for passage in the House before moving on to the Senate. The trans athletes part of the bill no longer includes a requirement for genital inspections of children suspected of being transgender, something Senate President Matt Huffman previously said he wouldn’t support.
Verification of a student’s gender will be done using a birth certificate in the new version of the bill.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Don Jones, R-Freeport, wouldn’t speak on the trans athletes part of the bill when he introduced the bill in the Senate, but on the House floor he stood in support of it.
“This bill only applies to K-12 education, so our daughters in grades kindergarten through 12 will not have to compete with biological males in primary and secondary schools,” Jones said.
The bill would impact very few Ohio students and policies are already in place to keep equality in youth sports, causing LGBTQ advocates, education leaders and the Ohio High School Athletic Association to stand against the bill as unnecessary.
The original language of the bill would make changes to the Ohio Teacher Residency Program and teacher mentorship.
Democrats pushed hard for the House not to support the bill as amended, saying stakeholders needed to be involved and more time was needed to find out the impact of it.
State Rep. Phil Robinson, D-Solon, continued an argument made by critics of the bill that the volume of the bill didn’t get the proper review by legislators or individuals in Ohio education.
“Passing something at 1 o’clock or 2 o’clock in the morning that no one’s read and no one’s seen … is not the way to change education in the state of Ohio,” Robinson said.
State Rep. Jeff Crossman, D-Parma, said the bill was “moving deck chairs on a sinking ship” by addressing issues that don’t solve the true problems in Ohio education.
State Rep. Juanita Brent, D-Cleveland, said the bill would impact economic success in Ohio by making conferences question coming to the state and businesses wonder whether or not to bring employees to the state. She also said passage of the bill in the middle of the night would send a message to current Ohio voters as well.
“We’re telling Ohioans who elected us that they can’t be seen in this process,” Brent said.
This affiliation does not change TriHealth’s status as an independent health system, nor will Cleveland Clinic physicians be providing direct patient care at TriHealth’s locations.
Cincinnati, Ohio – TriHealth today announced it is now an affiliate of Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute – the nation’s top-ranked heart program, according to U.S. News & World Report.
At a press conference on TriHealth’s Bethesda North campus and broadcast live to many of TriHealth’s 140 sites of care, Cleveland Clinic and TriHealth leaders described how this collaboration will further elevate cardiovascular care in and around the Cincinnati region.
“This clinical affiliation builds on significant investments by TriHealth over the past several years to develop the region’s destination heart and vascular program. This endeavor complements other TriHealth enterprise collaborations with a focus on improving healthcare through strategic relationships,” said TriHealth President and Chief Executive Officer Mark C. Clement.
“By affiliating with Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute, which has achieved U.S. News & World Report’s No. 1 ranking for cardiology and heart surgery for the past 28 consecutive years, we are taking another vital step toward providing patients the right care in the right place at the right time.”
Cleveland Clinic will work with TriHealth clinicians and multidisciplinary teams, including those at Good Samaritan Hospital, Bethesda North Hospital, and the TriHealth Heart & Vascular Institute. Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute will share clinical best practices for patient care, giving TriHealth patients access to the expertise of Cleveland Clinic physicians as well as the latest technologies and innovations in heart care.
This affiliation does not change TriHealth’s status as an independent health system, nor will Cleveland Clinic physicians be providing direct patient care at TriHealth’s locations. This relationship makes TriHealth an exclusive Cleveland Clinic Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute affiliate in southern Ohio.
“Management of heart disease is complex, but we can advance the treatment of cardiovascular disease to benefit our communities by working together on programs like this,” said Lars Svensson, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute. “Our affiliation with TriHealth will allow for sharing of best practices, while working together to ensure the highest quality care to TriHealth’s patients.”
This historic affiliation is the next step in TriHealth’s long-term strategy to develop the region’s destination heart and vascular program. The strategy began in 2018 with the consolidation of TriHealth’s heart surgery programs to the Bethesda North campus, which has resulted in greater standardization of care leading to better outcomes for patients.
“Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute’s Affiliate Program started 19 years ago and is continuously offering innovative services,” said Suma Thomas, M.D., Vice Chairman of Strategic Operations, Cleveland Clinic Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute.
“We are happy to welcome TriHealth into this exclusive and growing group. Cleveland Clinic has identified TriHealth as the premier cardiac program in the Cincinnati area, with a long history of excellence in heart care. This affiliation is a collaboration that enables both organizations to optimize cardiac care for all patients.”
Bethesda North recently opened a new cardiac cath lab, giving TriHealth nine cath labs and procedure rooms. TriHealth is also expanding the hospital’s first-floor cardiovascular ICU with anticipated completion in early 2023. The new center housing these services will be named the Harold and Eugenia Thomas Heart and Vascular Center in recognition of their transformational $10 million gift in support of the project.
At the same time, TriHealth is investing in cardiology and vascular services at Good Samaritan Hospital as part of its $250 million investment in that facility. This is in addition to recent investments in cardiac services at TriHealth’s outpatient settings, including the Good Samaritan – Western Ridge Ambulatory Campus in Green Township.
“This affiliation will bolster the cutting-edge work already happening at the TriHealth Heart & Vascular Institute,” said Mark Witte, TriHealth Vice President of Clinical Service Lines. “We’re excited to work with Cleveland Clinic to improve our opportunities to provide comprehensive and innovative care for patients and to see both organizations strengthen all elements of our collective cardiovascular medicine and cardiothoracic surgery programs.”
“This collaboration between TriHealth and Cleveland Clinic will bring new and improved services to the Cincinnati market,” said TriHealth cardiovascular surgeon Kathryn O’Keefe, M.D., who trained at Cleveland Clinic last year. “Our working together enhances the ability to provide multiple surgical and non-surgical options to patients suffering from advanced heart failure with a personalized care path for their specific needs.”
The Cleveland Clinic Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute’s affiliate program was launched in 2003. The affiliate network includes 16 hospitals across the country, with the addition of TriHealth’s Bethesda North and Good Samaritan hospitals. As affiliates, the TriHealth Heart and Vascular Institute and Cleveland Clinic remain independent, with no changes in control of physicians or staff.
To learn more about this affiliation, visit https://www.trihealth.com/heart
For more information on the TriHealth Heart Institute, visit https://www.trihealth.com/institutes-and-services/trihealth-heart-institute.
For more information on Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute, visit www.ClevelandClinic.org/heart.
Loveland, Ohio – Come and Support the Loveland Women’s Hoops teams tonight as they take on the undefeated West Clermont Wolves. Bring your canned goods for the LIFE Pantry.
The Varsity Tigers are 3-3, 5-2. The Wolves are 4-0, 6-0.
JV game is at 5:30 PM and Varsity at 7 PM.
@TigerSpiritClu1 is giving 1 concession coupon if you bring 2 canned goods! (Limit to 2 coupons per person) #OurWay
Loveland, Ohio – Join us this weekend!! We can’t wait to celebrate the holidays in our sweet town.
Loveland Magazine just received this map directly from Santa’s Instagram page!
Another up-date is that the Chamber says they have had to make the unfortunate decision to charge for carriage rides this year. A $2 per-person charge.
“Unfortunately, due to rising costs, we are asking families to pay for a ride this year. We love having them and are thankful for the sponsorships as well. We take credit cards, cash, and Venmo.”
A few Facts:
Right-Click to open the map in a new tab to view it larger.
Right-Click to open the PARKING MAP in a new tab to view it larger.
Loveland, Ohio – Resident Donna Barnes (3rd from right) has been named the 2023 Valentine lady.
In making the announcement 2013 Valentine Lady Janis Fogle said, “Donna is one that flies under the radar, meaning she simply goes along her day with kindness and generosity of her time and asks nothing in return. From volunteering at the Loveland Farmers Market to picking up trash along the Little Miami bike trail, taking pride in her community, Donna is an excellent fit into the sisterhood, known as the Loveland Valentine ladies.”
Barnes will replace the current Valentine Lady Jeannie Shumaker who because of Covid 19 restrictions served since 2020.
The Valentine Program began in 1972 and has grown over the years to include a variety of Valentine community activities, as well as a nationally-known cachet stamping and postmark program.
“Valentine Ladies are women who have distinguished themselves in community, school, or family endeavors. Being nominated for Valentine Lady is quite an honor.”
The Valentine Lady is the ambassador for the Chamber’s Valentine Program, and visits area businesses, nursing homes, and schools, among her duties as Valentine Lady.