Good morning all. Here’s some quick news updates today.
Of course, the big story is that former UCPD officer Ray Tensing’s trial starts today. Tensing is facing murder and manslaughter charges for the shooting death of unarmed motorist Samuel DuBose July 19, 2015 in Mount Auburn. Two-hundred-thirty-four potential jurors must turn in questionnaires by today, and attorneys will spend the rest of the week going over them. Questioning of potential jurors in court will begin Oct. 31. Though no protesters are outside the courthouse today, lines have stretched out the door due to increased security measures.
• Even after Ohio purged thousands of actually eligible voters, the state apparently missed a few ineligible ones. The Hamilton County Board of Elections recently found three cases where deceased individuals were still registered to vote. Hamilton County GOP Chair and BOE member Alex Triantafilou has vowed to investigate those cases. Just 31 cases of successful voter fraud have been documented since 2000. And just because a dead person is registered to vote doesn’t mean someone can commit voter fraud with that registration — that requires a photo ID, something significantly harder to produce.
• Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, will be in Cincinnati tomorrow evening. She’ll speak about her candidate mom’s economic proposals ahead of the Nov. 8 election and try to encourage Cincinnati residents to go out and vote. Her appearance is part of a three-city tour of Ohio that day. She’ll be in Grove City, a suburb of Columbus, at noon and in Cleveland at 3:30 p.m. Details about her Cincinnati stop haven’t been released yet.
• Politics junkies are getting a full slate this week. Former Mexican president Vincente Fox will appear in Cincinnati Thursday at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 20th Anniversary Gala, where he’ll speak about the current relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. Fox was president of our ally to the south from 2000 to 2006. Though he leans conservative politically, he’s been an outspoken critic of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has proposed building a wall between the two countries. Fox has deep ties to Cincinnati — his grandfather Joseph Fox was born and raised in Walnut Hills, and some of the former Mexican president’s family members still live in the region.
• Also coming to Ohio at some point in the near future for an election-related appearance: the man best known as Beyonce’s husband, aka Mr. Carter, G-Hova, rap legend Jay-Z. Now, before you get too excited, Hov’s coming to Cleveland, not Cincy, and the date hasn’t been announced yet. Jay-Z’s rare live appearance is part of get out the vote efforts by the Clinton campaign, which also includes a Cincinnati appearance by The National. Now, come on. Cleveland gets one of the greatest rappers alive (this is arguable and I wish Clinton could have gotten Pusha T or Vince Staples, but whatever) and Cincy gets a band that’s already from here? Not fair.
• A federal judge has denied Northern Kentucky University’s request to seal records relating to a sexual assault case and place gag orders on parties involved. NKU has also been fined after its lawyers improperly told the school’s athletic director not to answer certain questions around the case. U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsman ruled that some names and other identification could be redacted in the court records, but batted away suggestions by the school that entire records around the case must be sealed. A woman identified only as Jane Doe filed the suit in January, alleging that punishment against a male attacker was not enforced by the school, even after school officials were alerted to the lapse in discipline.
