The University of Akron is closing a budget gap with spending cuts and a tuition increase. The UA board of trustees approved a 2% tuition hike today, part of a… 
A Stark County Jail inmate was found dead in his cell early this morning, in an apparent suicide. 39-year old Nicholas Christmas of Canton was discovered by jail staff delivering… 
Akron Police are investigating a robbery that occurred at a barbershop Tuesday morning. The owner of the All City Barbershop on Pioneer Street reported that after he opened the shop,… 
Michael DeHoog/Sports Imagery / Getty Images(BOSTON) -- New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who is caught in the middle of a homicide investigation of an "associate," is also being sued by a former friend who claims Hernandez shot his eye out after the two left a Miami strip club.
The suit states that Hernandez "possessed a gun which...
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(ASHLAND, Ohio) -- The lawyer for an Ohio suspect accused of keeping a mentally disabled woman and her daughter as slaves and threatening them with deadly snakes, says his client is innocent and the alleged victim was free to come and go as she pleased.
The alleged victim, a 29-year-old woman, claims she was kept against her...
Hudson-LaPore Family Photo(CHICAGO) -- A body found in Lake Michigan has been identified as missing Chicago student Austin LaPore, investigators said.
"The family of Austin Hudson LaPore positively identified his body earlier today," an official with the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office told ABC News.
Authorities pulled the body of LaPore,...
Mike Ward has been a radio news reporter and anchor for over 20 years, for a variety of stations in Ohio, Virginia, and California. For seven years, he was a news reporter and anchor for Sacramento's top-rated news/talk station, KFBK, and was also news director for WFIR in Roanoke, Virginia. He's also been heard on Cleveland stations. Mike has a special interest in technology, and was a regular on the nationally syndicated radio show "On Computers with Gina Smith". Despite his out-of-area experience, Mike is an Akron native. He was born at Akron City Hospital, and grew up in Cuyahoga Falls. He's been with AkronNewsNow since 2009. You can reach Mike through the newsroom at 330-864-6397, or by email mward@rcrg.net.
North Canton police are looking for a man suspected of the attempted robbery at the K-Mart on North Main Street on Saturday night, that resulted in minor injuries to a store employee.
Police say the K-Mart worker was collecting shopping carts when the suspect demanded money.
He was armed with a box cutter, and the victim was slashed by the would-be robber while reaching for his wallet.
Police say that victim had minor cuts to his arm and chest and was treated by North Canton EMS, then released.
Officers, including a K-9 unit, tried to locate the suspect tracked behind businesses a few blocks away, but were unable to find him.
North Canton police describe the suspect as a dark-skinned black male in his late 20's or early 30's, average build with short hair. They say he was wearing blue jeans, black boots and a black jacket with fleece material.
A Canton man faces charges linked to the death of a toddler.
NewsChannel 5 reports that medics responding to a report of a child not breathing on Friday found 18 month-old Serenity Jordan. She was transported from Mercy Medical Center to Akron Children's Hospital, and died there.
Canton police say 24 year-old Burt Kelly faces child endangering charges, and more charges against him could be filed soon.
There was another child found at the Canton home, who was placed with relatives.
---
On the Web: WEWS NewsChannel 5, www.newsnet5.com
As the Akron Public Schools avoided a "fiscal cliff" of their own with the passage of a 7.9 mill operating levy in this month's election, the Akron district and other school boards are worried about the effects of that "fiscal cliff" in Washington.
At Monday night's school board meeting, the levy passage was front and center, with board members and superintendent David James thanking the volunteer effort that they said helped Issue 61 pass.
Treasurer Jack Pierson's latest five year forecast includes the positive effect of the levy. But it carries a small cash balance at the end of the current fiscal year.
"(The) ending cash balance is next to nothing," Pierson told reporters after Monday's meeting. "It's two percent our budget. It's six million dollars. It's nothing."
Pierson says the district will have to start looking to the future cuts needed, and soon, with deficits looming in the future even with the new levy money.
And the board passed a resolution urging lawmakers in Washington to protect education as the "fiscal cliff" approaches.
Haas says any federal education cuts would affect local school districts like Akron, which receive federal funding through the state...
"We'll have to look at about eight percent less aid to the state, and then that filters down into the local districts," Haas tells AkronNewsNow.com. "So, our portion of that would be greater than eight percent in terms of our budget."
He says losing the federally-funded Impact Aid Program would take an immediate hit, and other programs that rely on federal funding would be affected next year.
Haas says that's on top of the upcoming state budget process and the effect any cuts could have on school districts and localities
Another championship for the University of Akron Zips men's soccer team will not happen this year.
The St. Vincent-St. Mary Fighting Irish rushed their way to the state Division III title game.
St. Vincent-St. Mary rolled over Dover on Saturday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in Massillon, beating the Tornadoes 48-13.
Parris Campbell Jr. broke off a key 94 yard touchdown run in the first quarter, and then added three more touchdown runs, to help power the Fighting Irish to victory.
The win sets up the Division III championship game on Saturday at Fawcett Stadium in Canton. St. Vincent-St. Mary will play Bellevue at 11 AM to decide the Division III title.
Bellevue edged Dayton Thurgood Marshall at Ohio Wesleyan University on Saturday, 34-33.
Cuyahoga Falls police are looking into an attempted robbery of a State Road pizza shop.
Police say at just before midnight Friday night, two employees of the State Road Pizza Hut were behind the restaurant taking a smoke break when one worker was grabbed around the neck and told to get down.
The restaurant's manager was able to get in the building and secure the rear door behind her.
The two suspects fled on foot after being told by the remaining employees that they couldn't open the door.
No Pizza Hut employees were injured, and police say nothing was stolen from the shop.
The suspects are described as black males in their late teens to early twenties wearing bandanas over their faces, and one was holding a silver handgun.
Anyone with information is being asked to call the Cuyahoga Falls police detective bureau at (330) 971-8334.
It was the perfect weather to welcome Santa Claus to downtown Akron.
Just two days after high temperatures reached the 60s, a cold late Saturday morning with snow flurries kept hundreds of children and their parents bundled up along South Main Street for the annual "Welcome Santa" parade.
The parade had over 100 units...everything from marching bands, dance teams, fire trucks, local digitaries, and festival queens from all over the area, to dogs in Santa gear.
But for all the kids under 10, especially, they were there for one man...Jolly St. Nick himself. Santa Claus was at the end of parade, his sleigh getting a little assist from a city of Akron truck.
The kids were kept entertained and fed along the way, as a number of parade units passed out candy while marching or riding by.
Some of the youngsters who talked to AkronNewsNow.com already had their gift list ready for Santa. High-tech was very popular among the young people we asked, including more than one wish for an X-Box 360.
But one girl wanted anything...with princesses on them.
Hosts of this year's "Welcome Santa" parade once again were Tim Daugherty and Christi Nichols, morning hosts at 97.5 WONE.
WONE and this website, AkronNewsNow.com, are members of the locally-owned Rubber City Radio Group.
The Mogadore Wildcats' perfect season and playoff run ended Friday night in New Philadelphia, but one other area team is still in the playoff chase.
Long-time playoff rival Newark Catholic beat Mogadore in a Division 6 semifinal playoff game at New Philadelphia's Quaker Stadium by a score of 38-21.
Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish of Akron's St. Vincent-St. Mary battle Dover Saturday night in a Division 3 semi-final game.
The game was moved, but is still in Massillon. The teams will play at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium at 7 PM.
"Black Friday" is a busy day not just at the malls, but for area plumbers.
That's because kitchen drains often get clogged on Thanksgiving Day.
"Normally we've had everyone that has cooked at their home or done things even at businesses, that they put down the drains that they normally don't do," says Jeffrey Thompson, who owns Akron's "Jeff the Plumber", "and it just ends up plugging their drains up and they've got people off.".
He says his employees are busy all over town all day getting Thanksgiving food messes out of drains at homes and businesses.
Thompson says business is up about 30 percent Friday compared to a normal Friday.
And his employees started very early Friday.
"People that have obviously gotten up either extremely early to start cleaning their messes up," Thompson tells AkronNewsNow.com, "and we've had men running since 4 AM unplugging drains and doing miscellaneous plumbing repairs."
The biggest problem clogging drains?
Thompson says it's potato peels in the garbage disposal - put in without enough water to down the disposal to wash the ground up peels away.
Summit County agencies are again lining up with their budget requests, as the county readies a 2013 budget.
At the next council meeting, county executive Russ Pry will present a budget plan that will call for $471 million in overall spending...down 4.6 percent from 2012's budget.
County director of finance and budget Brian Nelsen says that it would be the fifth consecutive year that Summit County's budget has been reduced.
But Nelsen says it's the reality they've had to live with the past few years.
"A lot of things have changed since 2008, in terms of available resources to the county from local, federal and state funding sources," Nelsen tells AkronNewsNow.com. "And here at the local level, we have to live within our means."
Nelsen says the budget assumes no additional cuts in funding out of Columbus.
"This is an assumption at this point in time that the state funding that we receive, particularly local government funding," Nelsen says, "will not be reduced further as the state undertakes their budgetary process in the first half of this coming year."
He says the Board of Elections hasn't yet submitted a budget request...and they're still looking at what the board's full 2013 budget might look like.
Nelsen says he expects a post-presidential election budget similar to what the elections board got in 2009, with accounting for staff cuts made since then.
He expects tight budgets in the future, even if the economy improves.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
72°F
Akron, OH
Copyright © 2013 AkronNewsNow & Rubber City Radio Group |All Rights Reserved | 1795 West Market Street | Akron, OH 44313 | 330.869.9800
