A key portion of a multimillion-dollar racketeering conspiracy hatched by ex-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and others began six years ago in a private plane ride to Washington with executives of FirstEnergy Corp., followed by a meeting at a "fancy" steakhouse, federal prosecutors told a jury Monday.
An Ohio judge on Friday declined to block the city of Columbus from enforcing several new gun laws, reversing course after previously putting in place a temporary restraining order when Attorney General Dave Yost argued that Buckeye State law bars the city from enacting stricter regulations than the ones on the state's books.
The racketeering trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and ex-Republican leader Matt Borges will pit seasoned federal prosecutors against renowned criminal defense lawyers from across the state who have been called upon by public officials, politicians, embattled CEOs and doctors, and even a pair of wrongly convicted murder suspects.
The Ohio Supreme Court will review whether an appellate court made the right decision to unfreeze millions of dollars in assets belonging to a former state regulator implicated but not charged in a $60 million bribery scandal involving utility FirstEnergy Corp.
A labor and employment attorney at Zashin & Rich Co. in Cleveland is no longer with the firm amid outrage over a screenshot of a text message circulating among the legal community that allegedly showed him telling a female associate who planned to leave the firm that she had taken a salary "while sitting on your ass" during her maternity leave.