Calabrese says r. T. A. Is dealing with a 7 million shortfall. He says the only choice is to raise rates. Option. We must pay our bills. We burn through 750,000 a day to run r. T. A. So we must have that money coming in. Laura the rate hike to 2. 50 or 2. 75 wont cut it. They will also need to cut routes to cut costs. They look for routes with the least impact. We have a number of routes that are low in productivity. We have a number of routes where there may be good productivity during the day but not nights and weekends. Some go into culdesacs and major corridors where they dont pick up a lot of people. Laura the cut backs would only impact about 1. 5 of all riders but the rate hike would affect 100 . He said it all goes back to a lack of funding at the state level. Before r. T. A. Officials can even shortfall, they are required to hold one public hearing. Instead, they are holding 14 across the area to try to give more people the opportunity to chime in. Hearing their individual stories, we need to hear their individual stories. I live here and am trying to get there. We are seeing what options may be available. There may not be a good optionor there may be an option they dont know about. Their input is very important. Laura heres the thing here. Dont be surprised when no matter what is said at these meetings that the rate still goes up. At this point the question is really how high it will go and how soon its going to happen. Nevertheless, the first of 14 public hearings is going on downtown. For a full list of all of the cleveland19. Com. Q Cleveland Police are investigating after someone found a bodien the body inside a garage in an abandoned home near east 102. A Cleveland Police officer plead assault charges. Officers say david manns attacked a woman while off duty on friday. The 33yearold is suspended without pay and remains out on bond. Laura stark county officials investigating the electrocution of a timken steel technician. His body was found inside the faircrest plant yesterday afternoon. Officials said ray was checking fire extinguishers. He was a creston Police Officer and e. M. T. Firefighter with union town. A go fund me account set up for a kayaker killed over the weekend. Searchers found luke collins body sunday. He and mother man went missing saturday. Their kayaks capsized. A fisherman rescued the other kayaker. Closed because of the death of a student. When he went up with a slam dunk, the back board came down crashing on his head and neck. Classes will resume tomorrow. Laura a heart breaking photo trending on social media. Two children with their mouths and hands duct taped. We blurred their faces but the oldest child is visably crying. A woman with a screen name totan posted this picture of two Young Children in a vehicle in memphis, tennessee. The caption reads quote, kids for sale, 45 off because they bad. Gosh. This is horrible. Memphis police have opened an investigation. The womans cousin says it was just a joke and that the children are well cared for and loved. Q a weekend fire at wendys on lincoln way in massillon may push up plans to build a new restaurant. The fast food joint caught fire sunday morning and firefighters stayed on the scene overnight to keep an eye on the hot spots in case they sparked back up. Crews will probably be knocking down the rest of the building today. Open a new restaurant this year and close this location. Laura Foreign PolicyTakes Center Stage as nearly all of the president ial candidates address a pro israel Political Action group and its happening today. Q the only candidate not speaking is the only jewish candidate, bernie sanders. Reporter Hillary Clinton took the stage to loud applause from the audience at the American Israel Public AffairsCommittee Conference better known as apac. One of the first things ill do in office is invite the israeli Prime Minister to visit the white house. [applause] reporter clinton, who is already looking ahead to novembers general election, laid out the case that the next president needs to be able to lead the world from day one. We need steady hands. Not a president who says hes neutral on monday, pro israel on tuesday and who knows what on wednesday because everythings reporter Donald Trumps speech is expected to be more substantive and focused on policy plans, a stark contrast to the speeches hes given on the campaign trail. A group of rabbis are planning to boycott trumps speech with a planned walkout but the protests arent expected to turn violent like this incident at a trump rally this weekend. Violence begets violence. I think it takes two to tango but obviously it needs to be denounsed from all sides. Ted cruise and john kasich will also address the conference but bernie sanders, the only jewish candidate running for president s skipping the conference to campaign out west. Laura coming up on cleveland 19 news, a health alert about stress. It could actually be killing you. Q and this mall has egg on its face after the person playing the easter bunny takes off his gloves. Laura plus, a controversial comment made by a major tennis he claims female tennis players, quote, ride on the coat tails of q a health alert about treating appendicitis and a warning for vegans. Researchers warn that vegans may doctors say those who eat a plantbased diet which does in the include meat, dairy, fish and eggs should have b12, iron, calcium and other nutrients closely monitored. Also a team of International Researchers finds antibiotics can reduce the number of appendectomies. It cut surgeries by 92 but also resulted in a higher rate of recurrences. Laura a new treatment for stroke victims may help prevent swelling of the brain and even death. Researchers found that those who took a certain drug were 10 times less likely to die of brain swelling. We know stress is harmful mentally but doctors say its also bad for your heart. It can raise Blood Pressure and heart rate possibly leading to heart attack or heart failure. They also say stress can lead to smoking, drinking and not eating right. To fight stress doctors and getting enough sleep. Even if that means having to unplug from your electronics. Q well, straight ahead, a consumer warning for kindle users. You may be disconnected tomorrow. See what you need to do today to stay connected. Samantha i know all my avid readers will want to stay tuned for that one. Today is a great day to curl up inside with a good book. It is only 37 in cleveland as we look live from high atop our feizel roof camera. A little chilly for this time of the year. Laura amazon is warning you if you bought a kindle before 2012, you need to update them before tomorrow. They will release those made since 2012 from the internet. You will no longer be able to access the kindle store or sync your libraries to the cloud. Those who currently have kindles connected to wifi may not have to worry. They update automatically in sleep mode when they are connected to wifi. In just under an hour, apple will unveil a smaller version of the iphone and a smaller the new iphone will be inches. The Company Invested in a smaller phone after some users complained that bigger isnt always better. And this noon we are also getting a new look at the expected upgrades in store for the rock hall. Now, these are approved renderings for several new additions that will transform the entire plaza there in time for the Republican National convention. We are being told by july the changes will include a longlive rock sign in big bold letters, a larger stage, outdoor cafe, and an art exhibit. Also good news for cedar point fans. A new coaster is just about done. Park Officials Say the track is complete and they are now focusing on landscaping, electric, and computer work. The new coaster val raven, boasts 10 World Records including the tallest, fastest, longest, and most inversions for a dive coaster. The coaster is expected to open in may. Samantha i know somebody riding it. Q. Mccray. Loving all the fun out at cedar point. Today, of course, our big weather story, the temperatures. Not much of a cedar point kind of day. Right . Its been very chilly. We are so excited about the park opening but really excited about this. You may have heard us talking about this this morning. We basically have two comments that are just going to whiz right by us. If you felt a little breeze at like 8 14 this morning, it wasnt from the comet but thats when it went by. We dont want you to worry. Tomorrow, theres another one. So there are two comets. And tomorrows flyby is the third closest fly by of a comet in recorded history. So one today, its already gone by without any trouble. Then one tomorrow. And they are kind of twinning here. They are very similar in orbit. So these two comets that everybodys going to be talking about today and tomorrow t may one may be a chunk of the other one. So, where can you see these comets . Remember, one already whizz, d by and another at 10 30 dropping by your house. It will fly by earth tomorrow at 10 30 in the morning. Unfortunately the naked eye, you cant see it. Just by looking outside. If you had like a high powered, professional telescope, you would be able to see it. But, the point here is that these two like twin comets will be zipping by this week. Its crazy. Not something that we see. This doesnt happen very often. So, we will be watching that closely tomorrow. All of you with, you know, those professional telescopes. But most people wont see it and you definitely will not be feeling the breeze from it. Last three hours, breezy here in cleveland. We got a lot of cloud cover out there. And even a few flurries. But, nothing of significance. No steady snow showers or nothing like that. We talked about it this morning, how we would see a few flurries and, temperatures are in the 30s right now for most of us. Pretty much staying in the upper 30s through the evening commute. And then slowly falling down to about 35 by 10 00 tonight. No major problems in the world of northeast ohio weather. Its been a very quiet day and we have a quiet night, too. Partly to mostly cloudy skies and temperatures tonight fall down to about 32. Tomorrow, significantly warmer. We talked about this all morning, as well. 53 for tomorrow. So, really big warmup here. Partly sunny skies. Windy with a little bit of drizzle possible. Our big story in the week ahead, though, is the middle of the week. This is what we will be closely watching. Wednesday and this ors day, its going wednesday and thursday, its going to be a little bit damp especially thursday. There may be some thunderstorms on thursday that may produce strong winds. So thursday, a great day to have that cleveland 19 first alert weather app handy. Any Severe Weather move into our area. Again, thursday is just a day to watch. Ill be watching it. Jeff will be watching it and of course we will keep you updated. Looks like we dry out just in time for good friday. And then easter weekend, maybe a few showers on sunday. Laura definitely going to be watching that carefully for sunday. Samantha if you are trying to decide do i have my egg hunt on saturday or sunday, i may pick saturday if you can. Q ok. Laura all right. Speaking of easter since we are talking about easter, you got to see this story here. An easter bunny at a new jersey mall was hopping mad over the weekend. Its unclear what caused the easter bunny to start throwing punches just steps away from the bunnys photo studio. The man playing the legendary easter bunny lost his head in the battle. Now the brawl lasted about 30 seconds before security came and pried the group apart. Listen to the sound effects. Clearly, this is an imposter and not the real easter bunny, because the real easter bunny would never do such a thing. So many kids. Laura new jersey. Q yeah, i dont know about the easter bunny over in jersey. That was something else. Laura my goodness. All right. Well the head of a major tennis tournament is under fire after controversial comments he made about women. Q what Serena William also to say about all of this. Reporter tennis superstar Serena Williams wasnt just fighting off victoria in the california desert at indian wells on sunday, she was also defending womens tennis from the tournament director. I want to be someone in the w. T. A. Because, they ride on the coattails of the men. Indian wells c. E. O. Raymond moore didnt stop there. They are lucky. They are very, very lucky. If i was a lady player, i would go down every, every night on my knees and thank god that the because they carried the sport. Obviously no woman should be down on their knees thanking anybody like that. We as women have come a long way. We shouldnt have to drop to our knees at any point. For Serena Williams to come out as soon as she did set the tone from the response of the womens tour verys forfully. Williams is arguably a bigger draw than her male counter parts. Her presence last year led to a sellout of the womens final tournament before the mens in what is believed to be the first time ever. Others joined williams in her outrage. Espn commentator patrick mcinrow says moore should resign. Im absolutely livid when i read those remarks. Billy jean king tweeted he is wrong on so many levels. Moore quickly issued an apology. I made comments that were in extremely poor taste and erroneous. Laura are you kidding me . Q somebody should step down. After saying all of that. Laura roger and raphael are amazing tennis players, but Serena Williams . Hello. Q theres still more to come. Laura including a story thats trending today about amy zoomer. Laura amy schumer left a block buster size tip. Heres the receipt to prove it. A 1,000 tip. Sarah larson split the tip with her coworkers behind the bar. It turns out amy used to bar tend herself before she became an actress and comedian. Wow. Lucky girl right there. Laura yeah. Hey, amy is a cool chick. Moveies look awesome and shes a cool chick. Samantha kudos to her for paying it forward. Sevenday breezy with flurries. Chilly. Take a quick look at the easter weekend forecast. Saturday pick day of the weekend. Could have a few showers around on easter. Q well listen, thanks for joining us. The young and the restless is up next. Laura we will see you tomorrow. There are a few topics guaranteed to stir up emotions in northeast ohio. One of those topics discussed quite a bit by parents, teachers and students is our state s aggressive common core requirements. Common core sets unified and standardized learning goals that each student should know at the end of each grade. The purpose to ensure that all of our students leave high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed after graduation. On paper, it s a great idea that addresses big picture issues. But making it work in the real world classroom is more complicated. Well, the grades are in after common core with strict standardized core requirements combined with new state tests from the partnership for assessment of readiness for college and careers, Ohio School Districts receiving a grades fell from thirtyseven to six. The average grade for ohio students . We ve dropped from a b to a c. It s not a glowing report card especially for the Cleveland School district which had the fifth worst test scores in the state, with multiple f s. But does common core flunk the common sense test . Some parents argue about families living in areas with more financial means and resources have advantages many schools don t have. Solon and beachwood schools scored a s in the local report card. Some administrators ranged from defiant to dismissive when asked about their school s test results. Years and decades to come, when this first generation of common core students enter the real world. Ohio schools may be taking a beating on paper but so far it s really an incomplete. I m dominc mancuso and that s how we see it. We encourage your response to this editorial. Email your response to lily wow. Neil hey, hey. Wow, right . Um, does this sign look crooked to you at all . Lily no, dad, it s perfect, just like tonight will be. I promise. Neil [ sighs deeply ] thanks to you and your staff. Look at you. You re outshining everything in this room tonight, baby girl. Cane isn t she gorgeous . Neil yeah. Something you want to tell me . Lily yes. Cane hmm. Neil what . Lily cane moved back home, and the kids are very excited. Neil yes i love this. You know what . It was the mistletoe. It was the mistletoe back at christmas. Lily oh, yeah. Neil i knew that it would do the trick