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MIFFLIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WCMH) -- The future of the Mifflin Township Police Department is now uncertain after voters struck down a police levy for the second time this year.

"We felt confident putting it on yesterday and I'm just shocked," Mifflin Township Trustee Chair Kevin Cavener said. 

Full results: Central Ohio general election for November 2025

The levy failed by a vote of 55% to 45%. According to Mifflin Township leaders, the impact could be devastating. The department relies entirely on levy funding and without it, leadership said they might not be able to keep officers on the streets. 

"I'm afraid to think what's going to happen," Cavener said.

The levy would have generated $400,000 a year. That money would have funded two full-time and two part-time officers, doubling the department's current working staff of four. 

"I was shocked and sad at the same time because in May, when the levy failed, we had neighbors come to the sub and say how sorry they were that they didn't vote for it and that they really want a police department," Cavener said. 

Cavener said the department was already struggling after two officers were shot and injured in May. The department continued paying their salaries while they recovered. The Franklin County Sheriff's Office helped with patrols but will now only respond to emergencies, which could mean longer response times.

Levy passage will help Franklin County residents in recovery

"With this levy failing, Mifflin Township police will not be there as fast as they used to be," Cavener said. "And the sheriff's department definitely won't be there as fast. All priority one calls, it will take the sheriff probably 20 to 30 minutes to get there."

Longtime resident Cherry Manns had passed out flyers in support of the levy. She said she's disappointed and worried about what comes next. 

"It was very shocking to see that individuals didn't step up, come out and support Mifflin Township in their time of need," Manns said. "And they are out here on a daily basis making sure that they support us and take care of the neighborhood."

In a statement to NBC4, Mifflin Township Police Chief David Briggs said: 

"The voters have spoken, while it is disappointing, I understand, they feel taxed out. The future of the police department is being discussed, the trustees and township legal counsel are going over the options."

"Look at all the levies that went on yesterday," Cavener said. "There are just levies everywhere. And so, I understand what the people said and we're listening to them."

Illegal after-hours club boarded up in case against Hilltop landlords

Township officials said the department may be forced to shut down and they worry crime will increase.

"If they aren't able to get money that they need, all I can say is that we just have to band together as a community and look out for each other a little bit better than we have in the past," Manns said. 

Mifflin Township's fiscal officer and trustees plan to meet Nov. 18 to look at their options and discuss next steps.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- It was announced Wednesday that an illegal after-hours club will be boarded up following a lawsuit against two Hilltop landlords.

Located in the 1800 block of Sullivant Ave., the club operated without a liquor license, and often "sees large crowds, fights, alleged drug use, numerous noise complaints from neighbors, threatened gun violence, and a sexual assault," according to a release from City Attorney Zach Klein.

Vacant Franklinton home to transform into Japanese restaurant with black, red design

Klein filed a lawsuit last week seeking to declare landlords Vikas Dadlani and Sadhna Hingorani as nuisance landlords. He said the living conditions their tenants are subject to are unacceptable.

"We will continue to pursue these slumlords to hold them accountable for the crime and deplorable living conditions that they let fester for too long," Klein said.

The property also failed fire code inspections and lacked the proper zoning clearance to operate as a club.

For the past week, domains associated with the massive Aisuru botnet have repeatedly usurped Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft in Cloudflare’s public ranking of the most frequently requested websites. Cloudflare responded by redacting Aisuru domain names from their top websites list. The chief executive at Cloudflare says Aisuru’s overlords are using the botnet to boost their malicious domain rankings, while simultaneously attacking the company’s domain name system (DNS) service.

The #1 and #3 positions in this chart are Aisuru botnet controllers with their full domain names redacted. Source: radar.cloudflare.com.

Aisuru is a rapidly growing botnet comprising hundreds of thousands of hacked Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as poorly secured Internet routers and security cameras. The botnet has increased in size and firepower significantly since its debut in 2024, demonstrating the ability to launch record distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks nearing 30 terabits of data per second.

Until recently, Aisuru’s malicious code instructed all infected systems to use DNS servers from Google — specifically, the servers at 8.8.8.8. But in early October, Aisuru switched to invoking Cloudflare’s main DNS server — 1.1.1.1 — and over the past week domains used by Aisuru to control infected systems started populating Cloudflare’s top domain rankings.

As screenshots of Aisuru domains claiming two of the Top 10 positions ping-ponged across social media, many feared this was yet another sign that an already untamable botnet was running completely amok. One Aisuru botnet domain that sat prominently for days at #1 on the list was someone’s street address in Massachusetts followed by “.com”. Other Aisuru domains mimicked those belonging to major cloud providers.

Cloudflare tried to address these security, brand confusion and privacy concerns by partially redacting the malicious domains, and adding a warning at the top of its rankings:

“Note that the top 100 domains and trending domains lists include domains with organic activity as well as domains with emerging malicious behavior.”

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince told KrebsOnSecurity the company’s domain ranking system is fairly simplistic, and that it merely measures the volume of DNS queries to 1.1.1.1.

“The attacker is just generating a ton of requests, maybe to influence the ranking but also to attack our DNS service,” Prince said, adding that Cloudflare has heard reports of other large public DNS services seeing similar uptick in attacks. “We’re fixing the ranking to make it smarter. And, in the meantime, redacting any sites we classify as malware.”

Renee Burton, vice president of threat intel at the DNS security firm Infoblox, said many people erroneously assumed that the skewed Cloudflare domain rankings meant there were more bot-infected devices than there were regular devices querying sites like Google and Apple and Microsoft.

“Cloudflare’s documentation is clear — they know that when it comes to ranking domains you have to make choices on how to normalize things,” Burton wrote on LinkedIn. “There are many aspects that are simply out of your control. Why is it hard? Because reasons. TTL values, caching, prefetching, architecture, load balancing. Things that have shared control between the domain owner and everything in between.”

Alex Greenland is CEO of the anti-phishing and security firm Epi. Greenland said he understands the technical reason why Aisuru botnet domains are showing up in Cloudflare’s rankings (those rankings are based on DNS query volume, not actual web visits). But he said they’re still not meant to be there.

“It’s a failure on Cloudflare’s part, and reveals a compromise of the trust and integrity of their rankings,” he said.

Greenland said Cloudflare planned for its Domain Rankings to list the most popular domains as used by human users, and it was never meant to be a raw calculation of query frequency or traffic volume going through their 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver.

“They spelled out how their popularity algorithm is designed to reflect real human use and exclude automated traffic (they said they’re good at this),” Greenland wrote on LinkedIn. “So something has evidently gone wrong internally. We should have two rankings: one representing trust and real human use, and another derived from raw DNS volume.”

Why might it be a good idea to wholly separate malicious domains from the list? Greenland notes that Cloudflare Domain Rankings see widespread use for trust and safety determination, by browsers, DNS resolvers, safe browsing APIs and things like TRANCO.

“TRANCO is a respected open source list of the top million domains, and Cloudflare Radar is one of their five data providers,” he continued. “So there can be serious knock-on effects when a malicious domain features in Cloudflare’s top 10/100/1000/million. To many people and systems, the top 10 and 100 are naively considered safe and trusted, even though algorithmically-defined top-N lists will always be somewhat crude.”

Over this past week, Cloudflare started redacting portions of the malicious Aisuru domains from its Top Domains list, leaving only their domain suffix visible. Sometime in the past 24 hours, Cloudflare appears to have begun hiding the malicious Aisuru domains entirely from the web version of that list. However, downloading a spreadsheet of the current Top 200 domains from Cloudflare Radar shows an Aisuru domain still at the very top.

According to Cloudflare’s website, the majority of DNS queries to the top Aisuru domains — nearly 52 percent — originated from the United States. This tracks with my reporting from early October, which found Aisuru was drawing most of its firepower from IoT devices hosted on U.S. Internet providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon.

Experts tracking Aisuru say the botnet relies on well more than a hundred control servers, and that for the moment at least most of those domains are registered in the .su top-level domain (TLD). Dot-su is the TLD assigned to the former Soviet Union (.su’s Wikipedia page says the TLD was created just 15 months before the fall of the Berlin wall).

A Cloudflare blog post from October 27 found that .su had the highest “DNS magnitude” of any TLD, referring to a metric estimating the popularity of a TLD based on the number of unique networks querying Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 resolver. The report concluded that the top .su hostnames were associated with a popular online world-building game, and that more than half of the queries for that TLD came from the United States, Brazil and Germany [it’s worth noting that servers for the world-building game Minecraft were some of Aisuru’s most frequent targets].

A simple and crude way to detect Aisuru bot activity on a network may be to set an alert on any systems attempting to contact domains ending in .su. This TLD is frequently abused for cybercrime and by cybercrime forums and services, and blocking access to it entirely is unlikely to raise any legitimate complaints.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health Board of Franklin County, also known as ADAMH, is thanking voters after the passage of Issue One in Tuesday’s election.

Issue One is a ten-year levy for ADAMH, with the current levy expiring next year, which is when the new one will kick in.

Passed by a vote of 66 to 34, the levy will cost property owner approximately $74 for every $100,000 of their home valuation.

Earlier this year, ADAMH opened part of its new Franklin County Crisis Care Center. ADAMH CEO Erika Clark Jones said the funds will help the organization open the rest of it.

"The need for mental health in Franklin County is growing, and so is our county, so as more residents come, the demand on our services, we know, will be greater,” Clark Jones said. “This funding secures the safety net we have and allows us to bring the Franklin County crisis center on 100%."

Right now, there are 40 observation units open at the crisis care center. According to Clark Jones, 20 more will open in the coming months. She said the behavioral health urgent care will open next year, and the inpatient care unit will open in 2027.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A new mobile lung cancer screening unit from Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - The James aims to meet patients where they are, bringing critical screenings to communities across Ohio.

According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer remains one of the deadliest forms of cancer, yet many people who qualify for screenings never get them. Experts said that limited access and the cost of care are two of the biggest barriers keeping people from getting tested; now, the James team hopes the new mobile unit will change that and ultimately save lives.

Study: Ohio among states most affected by lottery and sweepstakes scams

For Lourdes Castillo, a former smoker, the clinic provided peace of mind. She started smoking at 13 years old and continued for nearly four decades before quitting seven years ago. After losing a close friend to lung cancer, she decided to get screened through the mobile unit after learning about it in a work newsletter.

“Being free, I figured I better take advantage of it,” Castillo said. “But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it ever since she was diagnosed.”

Dr. Jasleen Pannu, medical director of lung cancer early detection at The James, said that because lung cancer often doesn’t show symptoms until it has advanced, early detection is key.

“Cancer does not have any symptoms,” Pannu said. “If you wait for the cancer to progress, patients will have further progressed disease, and the survival is quite low.”

According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer screenings are recommended for adults ages 50 to 80 who currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years and who have a history of smoking at least one pack a day for 20 years.

Ramaswamy offers GOP advice after getting ‘a—- handed to us’ on Election Day

Pannu said the mobile clinic offers the same level of care and accuracy as screenings performed in a hospital or doctor’s office. The mobility of the unit allows the team to bring services directly to communities that lack access, including rural regions.

“They can be timed and scheduled visits out in these communities,” Pannu said. “Everyone interested can get scheduled.”

The program’s first clinic offered free screenings, with additional low-cost events planned for the future. The goal, organizers said, is to make potentially life-saving care available to more Ohioans no matter where they live.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- With the 2026 midterms a year away, legislation is moving through the Ohio Statehouse that could change how Ohioans register to vote and cast their ballots.

One such measure under consideration is Senate Bill 293, passed by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday afternoon. 

S.B. 293 would require mail-in absentee ballots to be returned to county boards of elections on or before Election Day—eliminating the four-day period after Election Day when mail-in ballots can still be counted under current law.

Experts: Columbus ‘at large’ voting helped Ross win council seat

The bill’s sponsor, Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green), said this is not unusual in other states. 

“Two-thirds of the country require their ballots to be due on or before Election Day, and this puts Ohio in line with those,” said Gavarone. “We have 28 days of early voting, and we've been really encouraging people to get out and vote early. We want to make sure everyone is aware and certainly encourage people, if they're going to use the Postal Service, to get their ballots in as early as possible.”

Jen Miller, executive director for the League of Women Voters of Ohio, said the bill would prevent some Ohioans from having their ballots counted—particularly older voters, rural voters, and voters with disabilities.

“Early voting and absentee voting become more and more popular over the years and it’s especially needed for senior citizens, people with disabilities, active duty military, folks who work during the day who can’t get to the board of elections office during business hours,” said Miller. “A wide range of Ohioans are using these methods of voting.”

S.B. 293 is just one of many election integrity bills sponsored by Gavarone. She has also put forward S.B. 4, which would create an election integrity unit in the Secretary of State’s office, and S.B. 153, which would require verification of U.S. citizenship whenever someone registers, or reregisters, to vote in Ohio. 

Ramaswamy offers GOP advice after getting ‘a—- handed to us’ on Election Day

“When it comes to non-citizens registering to vote, we want to make sure that we're catching that on the front end,” said Gavarone. “What would happen is when you register to vote, it would be checked. When you update your registration, if you get married or for whatever other reason, change your name, everything would be verified then. But on top of that, everyone's citizenship is verified on a monthly basis.” 

Gavarone said most of the time, this verification would be done by cross-referencing voter registrations with government databases like those used by the BMV or Social Security. 

Election officials agree that voter fraud in Ohio is exceedingly rare. Miller argued that the legislature’s focus on election integrity is therefore unnecessary, and called the push against voter fraud “fear-mongering.” 

“The idea of fraud fear-mongering is that we need to do things differently to elections because fraud is a major problem. In fact, we know it's not,” said Miller. “So many of our leaders, Republican and Democrat, continue to tout the security and trustworthiness of our elections. And so this idea that we need to change elections because of fraud is nothing but fear-mongering.”

Miller also said the legislature’s rhetoric regarding voter fraud might contribute to public distrust, as well as a contentious climate around elections. 

Study: Ohio among states most affected by lottery and sweepstakes scams

“Poll workers, election officials, voters, campaigners, candidates, we should be doing everything we can to protect them, and that actually starts by changing our rhetoric,” said Miller. “The more we talk about this nonexistent fraud, and the less we demystify all the ways that our elections are secure and run by public servants, we are raising the likelihood of threats or violence.” 

Gavarone acknowledged the increasing challenges faced by poll workers. She and Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) have co-sponsored a bill to clarify that poll workers are not public officials and therefore not subject to public records laws that might expose personal information. 

“We’ve certainly seen cases across the country of escalated violence in the political world,” said Gavarone. “I mean, these people are administering our elections, and we need to make sure we're doing what we can so that they can do their job without fear of violence. If we can do something like this, maybe shield their address from the public, make them a little safer, I think it's it's going to be a win all around.”

Gavarone argued, however, that election integrity bills like the ones she has sponsored serve to increase public trust in the electoral system. 

“Even one case of voter fraud is too many,” said Gavarone. “We've had a number of elections, one right in my hometown, Wood County, where a race came down to the exact same number of votes…So one case of voter fraud could have changed the outcome of that election. So we need to make sure that we're vigilant in always checking things out.” 

Having passed the Senate, S.B. 293 will now go to the House of Representatives for consideration. The Senate passed S.B. 4 over the summer, and S.B. 153 remains in the House General Government Committee. 

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Rural communities across Ohio are facing a growing crisis, with the Ohio State Bar Association warning of a shortage of attorneys.

Not only does this make their jobs harder, but it also keeps the justice system further out of reach for many Ohioans.

“That means that people have to wait to talk to an attorney,” Ohio State Bar Association CEO Mary Amos Augsburger said. “They may not even be able to see one that is close in their community so they’ll have to travel.”

Study: Ohio among states most affected by lottery and sweepstakes scams

According to the Ohio Bar, in 82 of Ohio’s 88 counties, there is fewer than one private practice attorney to serve every 700 residents. In 57 counties, there is less than one for every 1,500 residents.

“Our hope is a lot of those students will consider a rural practice when they graduate,” she said.

Augsburger said they’ve been trying to solve the shortage by doing outreach at Ohio’s law schools, including Ohio State.

“We have got to meet the people where they are,” Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy said. “People should have representation.”

She and two rural attorneys spoke with students about the opportunities provided when practicing outside of metropolitan areas.

“My biggest takeaway was the myths they addressed and sort of dispelled, like, that the work is boring or that there’s not enough work or there’s not enough money to be made practicing in rural Ohio,” Ohio State Moritz College of Law student Sophie Mitchell said.

Mitchell has lived in Columbus her entire life but said she now sees the potential of working in a rural area. Meanwhile, law student Isabelle Rammel is from a rural county and hopes to also be a part of solving this shortage.

“I know that agriculture is a big business, but hearing about how complex those legal problems can actually be in representation for rural community was really exciting to hear,” Rammel said.

While the shortage is concerning for students, it’s also reassuring to know their job is in such high demand.

“It’s really exciting because there is so many opportunities and it feels like there will be no shortage of ways that I can serve,” Rammel said.

The Ohio Bar also has a Rural Practice Incentive Program. It provides loan repayment assistance to attorneys who practice in underserved areas.

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LEWIS CENTER, Ohio (WCMH) -- After passing a bond issue on Election Day, Olentangy Local Schools will soon build two new schools.

The district said these are needed to keep up with increasing enrollment.

Some parents said they are relieved the bond issue passed because their children are already experiencing overcrowding in Olentangy schools.

Which central Ohio school levies, bond issues were approved in November 2025 election

“This is just in time,” parent Joe Meisner said.

Olentangy’s fifth high school will be built on 139 acres of land the district already owns off of Bunty Station Road and the 18th elementary school will be built nearby Bean Oller Road in Delaware.

The bond issue won’t raise taxes, and it gives the district $235 million to construct the buildings, which will break ground in 2026.

Meisner already has two students in high school at Olentangy Berlin and a third who will start ninth grade right as the new buildings open.

“The school’s built for 1,800; there’s over 2,000 kids there,” Meisner said. “I think when they walk through the hall, I think it's like just a madhouse.”

Ramaswamy offers GOP advice after getting ‘a—- handed to us’ on Election Day

Parent Lindsay Lee moved to the district a few years ago, mostly because of the schools. She said her young children will benefit from the extra space.

“You can see both in the parking lots or school activities, there's just more children here,” Lee said. “We can definitely see the overcrowding in the schools now, so we could easily forecast that happening in the future. It definitely caused concern for us.”

Olentangy’s enrollment is growing by about 400 students each year. Lee said classroom size has a direct impact on students.

“There are multiple studies out there that show a manageable class size helps influence the quality of education and the attention that the kids get,” Lee said.

Meisner’s children currently attending high school don’t have lockers because of overcrowding.

Study: Ohio among states most affected by lottery and sweepstakes scams

“There’s only so many classrooms, so many teachers,” Meisner said. “You can put them in trailers, but who wants to volunteer for their kid to be in a trailer outside the school?”

Construction at both sites will begin in 2026. The district said the elementary school should open around 2027 and the high school should be complete around 2028.

Some people said they voted no on the bond because of worries about a future tax increase, but Olentangy Schools maintains it didn’t matter if the issue passed or failed -- an operating levy is still needed in the next few years.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — As the government shutdown and lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits continue, local food pantries continue to serve more people.

"There’s a lot of uncertainty in our community among the people that shop with us,” Worthington Resource Pantry Executive Director Nick Linkenhoker said. “Our neighbors here at the pantry aren’t quite sure what their SNAP benefits are going to look like this month; they’re not quite sure when those SNAP benefits are going to arrive.”

Uncertainty over federal food aid deepens as the shutdown fight reaches a crisis point

He said the organization is serving the most people it has since the pandemic. One of the people who visited the pantry on Wednesday was Mari D'Andrea. 

“I’m here early, I'd only come at the end of the month if I needed help, but I’m here now because I got no help for myself, I have no SNAP," she said. 

D’Andrea is raising two of her grandchildren and relies on SNAP to feed them. This visit to the pantry occurred just five days into the month because she hadn't received her benefits.

“I wish we’d get them sooner rather than later, but thank God we've got food pantries we can turn to," she said.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) said it's following federal guidance on partial payments for November, but it's still unclear when they will go out.

Ramaswamy offers GOP advice after getting ‘a—- handed to us’ on Election Day

“That level of anxiety is heightening something that's already stressful for folks," Linkenhoker said.

Linkenhoker said the pantry usually serves about 220 families a day but is serving approximately 270 a day right now. He said this has included some federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees who are working without pay as well as families waiting on SNAP.

“Folks in our line generally are pretty, it's a pretty happy experience for folks; the last couple of weeks, there’s been a lot more tears,” Linkenhoker said. “There’s been a lot more folks who are just, they’re just scared and they don’t know what they’re going to do.”

D'Andrea said there's never a good time for a situation like this, but said this is especially challenging given the holidays are around the corner.

“It puts more emphasis on reaching out to other resources, not knowing whether you’ll have money to buy Thanksgiving dinner, it’s stressful," she said.

Full results: Columbus and central Ohio general election for November 2025

Linkenhoker said he's been hearing the words, "I never thought I'd be here," from a lot more clients recently. The pantry has doubled the number of new families they're serving over the last couple weeks, according to Linkenhoker. 

"We had a family that shopped with us over the weekend, who came in, was really emotional, let us know they had donated to us in the past and never imagined they would need to shop at a food pantry," he said. "We’re going to be here, we’re going to be part of that solution and we’re going to continue to operate what we know how to do, which is run a food pantry."

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – There will be a new face representing Columbus City Council District 7.

Tiara Ross, an attorney for the city, beat immigration lawyer Jesse Vogel. Unofficial results show Ross winning by less than 1,600 votes, 54,433 to 52,847.

Voting results show which areas of the city voted for which candidate and how, despite voting for a district councilmember, the whole city gets a say.

Ramaswamy offers GOP advice after getting ‘a—- handed to us’ on Election Day

"Most cities either have at-large elections that are at-large, or they have district elections where people only in the district vote, and so, you know, what we have is kind of a halfway compromise that was designed to create the illusion of districts without having to actually have district elections," OSU Political Science Professor Vladimir Kogan said.

Columbus has a hybrid at-large system. Each city councilmember must live in the district they represent, but every Columbus voter, regardless of where they live, votes for each council member.

"Historically, under certain conditions, district elections tend to produce greater minority representation, so elect candidates of choice of minorities and minorities themselves,” Kogan said. “That doesn't seem to be the case in Columbus because voting in Columbus is not polarized along racial lines.”

Voter data shows Vogel won district seven by about 4,500 votes, but because the whole city had its say, and Ross did better in other districts, she won the seat. The Columbus voter data map shows results by precincts and wards. NBC4 analyzed the ward voting data alongside the city's district map to estimate how much Vogel carried the district.

Study: Ohio among states most affected by lottery and sweepstakes scams

Republican strategist Bob Clegg said the hybrid district system keeps those not backed by current city leaders out.

"They wanted to keep out at that time when they first did it, which was about five years ago, they wanted to keep out Republicans and Independents,” Clegg said. “Well, now it's expanded. They want to keep out Republicans, Independents, and, it looks like, progressive Democrats. So you have now a situation in where a candidate, Jesse Vogel, ends up winning the district that he's from but loses because it went citywide.”

The city said this change in the system, which was approved by voters in 2018, means every part of Columbus receives better representation on issues impacting neighbors. The maps were drawn in 2021.

“Columbus is essentially an at-large system with a veneer of districts that make it look like we have districts, but as a way to essentially, I think, address some of the political demands for districts without actually having to fully move to that system and give up some of the benefits of at-large representation," Kogan said.

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The results show Ross carried the east side of the city, while Vogel won in the center.

The next step is for the Franklin County Board of Elections to certify the votes and declare the results official, which must happen within the next 21 days.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy offered advice to his fellow Republicans after Democrats had sweeping victories in elections nationwide on Tuesday.

Ramaswamy, who has been endorsed by the Ohio Republican Party, said his party needs to focus on affordability after Democrats won gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey and elected self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City. Watch related coverage in the player above.

"We got our a---- handed to us in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City," Ramaswamy said in a social media video, saying Republicans need to focus on two things.

Full results: Columbus and central Ohio general election for November 2025

"Make the American dream affordable," Ramaswamy said. "Bring down costs. Electric costs, grocery costs, health care costs and housing costs, and lay out how we're going to do it."

Ramaswamy also told Republicans to "cut out the identity politics."

"That's the woke left's game, not ours," he said. "We don't care about the color of your skin or your religion. We care about the content of your character. That's who we are."

Amy Acton, who is running as a Democrat to be Ohio's next governor, responded to Ramaswamy's video in a post on X.

"It appears that Vivek has realized that his agenda favoring billionaires, special interests, and lobbyists that makes life more expensive for Ohioans might not be the blueprint he thought it was," she wrote.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio is among the states most affected by lottery and sweepstakes scams, according to a recent study.

Vegas Insider, a sports betting information website, compiled lottery and sweepstakes fraud data from the Federal Trade Commission spanning from January 2020 through June 2025. To determine the worst states for the scams, the platform analyzed the total money lost and the number of scam reports per one million residents in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Ohio ranked as the fourth-most impacted state by lottery and sweepstakes, registering $34.6 million in losses and 2,152 reports per one million residents over the five-year period. 

“The state’s active sweepstakes scene gives scammers easy cover to pose as ‘second-chance drawings,’ charging bogus processing or tax fees,” the report said. “Officials say embarrassment and silence keep the real numbers higher than reported.”

Florida was the state hit hardest by the scams, with victims losing $66.3 million and the state logging 2,070 reports per one million residents, according to the study.

The top 10 states can be found below.

1. Florida
2. North Carolina
3. California
4. Ohio
5. West Virginia
6. Arizona
7. Oregon
8. Tennessee
9. Missouri
10. Alabama

The state least affected by lottery and sweepstakes scams was Maine, the report found. The Pine Tree State saw a total loss of about $2.8 million over the five-year period, and 920 reports per one million residents. 

Maine was followed by Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, Washington, D.C., Vermont, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Connecticut. 

Americans lost more than $660 million to sweepstakes and lottery scams nationwide from January 2020 through June 2025, according to the website. The scams involve criminals deceiving victims into believing they have won a prize in a fake lottery or sweepstakes, with the goal of tricking the victim into sending money for “fees” or revealing personal information. 

Vegas Insider said all prizes should be confirmed through an organization’s official website or customer service channel, rather than a link or phone number provided in a notification message. 

The website noted multiple red flags for lottery and sweepstakes scams, including people being notified they won money in relation to something they did not enter, asked to pay a fee to claim a prize, notified they won through social media, and pressured to act quickly. 

Vegas Insider’s full study is available on its website. 

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A vacant Franklinton home will soon undergo a dramatic transformation to become a Japanese restaurant with a black-and-red aesthetic.

The East Franklinton Review Board approved plans on Oct. 22 for Columbus developer Blake Compton to repurpose a two-story home at 494 W. Walnut St. into a "Japanese-focused, small plates" restaurant and whiskey bar. Renderings show the eatery is utilizing a black, red and white color palette, leaning into "a grungy, street-style Japanese" aesthetic, Compton said.

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"I personally like it being weird and different, I don't want it to necessarily be the same cookie-cutter colors all the way across," Compton told the board. While the Japanese eatery has signed a letter of intent to be the building's tenant, the developer said they're not ready to officially announce the restaurant.

The East Franklinton Review Board approved plans on Oct. 22 for Columbus developer Blake Compton to repurpose a two-story home at 494 W. Walnut St. (Courtesy Photos/Franklin County auditor's office; city of Columbus)

The project, which is part of Compton's larger effort to redevelop single-family homes along Walnut Street, was originally reviewed by the board in 2023 and included plans to paint the house green, with a ground-floor restaurant and a second-floor apartment. However, Compton said the project pivoted after the 2023 version "no longer became economically feasible."

While the review board unanimously approved Compton's Japanese restaurant plan, some members were reluctant to speak in favor of the proposed color palette.

"Within the context of the neighborhood, black and red sticks out like a sore thumb," said board member Maggie Schmidt. "I also hear you that, that's the aesthetic of the intended use, so it gives me a little bit of pause when I see that compared to the rest of the houses along Walnut Street and the other commercial buildings along there."

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Compton emphasized that the coloring was the request of the incoming tenant but said he would repaint the building if another business eventually moved in. The developer also said that the building is also likely to receive a mural in the future.

"[We're] willing to work with tenants to allow their aesthetic to speak onto the building, I think that's something that the partners that we have here, the tenants that we're working with, really appreciate being involved on the front end and making the thing theirs," he said.

Board member Kim Way spoke in approval of the building's aesthetic, arguing the project aligns with the guidelines of the Franklinton Arts District.

"The intent of the Franklinton Creative Arts District is that it's funky," Way said. "If it all looked alike, if people kept coming with grey buildings, I'd scream. So, this is actually fresh. And I get the Japanese part to it, that's a color palette that I would associate to it."

Court has taken a recess and will resume around 1:15 p.m.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Attorneys gave their opening statements on Wednesday in the murder trial for Blendon Township Police Officer Connor Grubb, who fatally shot Ta'Kiya Young outside of a Kroger in August 2023.

Grubb, 31, is charged with four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of involuntary manslaughter in relation to the deaths of Young, 21, and her unborn daughter. NBC4 will livestream court proceedings in the video player above, with viewer discretion advised. Written live updates can be found below.

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Twelve jurors and four alternates will hear the case, with jurors consisting of four men and eight women, including one person of color. The four alternates are all women, including one person of color. Jury selection took place on Monday through Wednesday morning, when a jury was seated.

If convicted of murder, Grubb could face a maximum sentence of life in prison. The trial is expected to last about two to three weeks. 

Attorneys Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens are defending Grubb, while Montgomery County prosecutors Erin Claypoole, Daniel Brandt and Richard Glennon are tasked with convincing the jury Grubb’s use of force was unreasonable. Judge David Young, who is not related to Ta’Kiya Young, is presiding over the case.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Zora's House, a Columbus nonprofit group dedicated to furthering community resources for women of color, announced Tuesday it's closing its cafe and reducing staff amid shifting funding priorities and a changing political climate.

Purple Door Cafe, located at the organization's headquarters at 1393 N. Fourth St. in Weinland Park, will welcome customers for the last time on Friday, Zora's House shared on social media. The post said the closure decision, which came "after deep financial reflection and a lot of heart work," is coupled with the nonprofit's first staff reduction in its history. Watch a previous NBC4 report on Zora's House in the video player above.

"Like so many nonprofits, we're feeling the squeeze -- rising costs, shrinking dollars, and shifting funding priorities. For organizations like ours, led by women of color doing unapologetic equity work, that squeeze comes with even greater pressure," the post said. "The political climate has changed. In a short time, commitments to racial equity have moved from being celebrated as signs of community progress to being viewed by some funders and partners as a risky investment."

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"But let us be clear: this is not a retreat. This is a recalibration," the post continued. "When we opened our new home, we imagined a building filled with connection -- and a team growing and thriving within it. That vision hasn't changed. We're simply shifting our shape to protect the work we love."

The organization, boasted as "a space and movement where women of color can gather, dream, and lead," opened the current Purple Door Cafe in 2023, when the nonprofit relocated from a 2,000-square-foot base on Summit Street to the 10,000-square-foot headquarters it built on North Fourth Street. In addition to the cafe, the building is home to co-working spaces, offices, conference rooms, a library and bedroom suites for overnight stays.

LC Johnson, CEO of Zora's House, founded the organization in 2018 after she moved to Columbus and struggled to find a community of other Black women in central Ohio. Previously working at a co-working space in North Carolina inspired her to bring the concept to Columbus. The nonprofit was named after Zora Neale Hurston, an author, activist, and Howard University graduate whose work centered on the complexity of Black culture. 

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"It's always been really important to me to have other Black women and women of color in my life," Johnson told NBC4 in 2023. "I was really looking for a space where I could get an opportunity to connect with other women of color who would understand certain aspects of my journey and identity." 

Until Friday's closure, the Purple Door Cafe is open 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily. In the social media post, Zora's House urged its "community to stand with us by: renewing our deepening your financial support; using your influence to advocate for equity-centered work; speaking confidence and encouragement into our leadership."

"Zora's House is part of a long lineage of women of color who bend, adapt, and reimagine the work to meet the moment," the post said. "The form may shift, but the mission never stops."

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — One of central Ohio's best-known brands is locked in the middle of three federal lawsuits over its social media posts.

According to court records, the legal issues began in May for Ohio-based DSW and its parent company, Designer Brands Inc., when Warner Music Group filed a complaint against the footwear retailer. The document accused DSW and its affiliated social media influencers of using popular WMG songs in TikTok and Instagram videos to sell products without proper licenses.

People who use TikTok and other social media platforms might notice that they can share certain songs in their posts. This is possible because of special agreements between the platforms and music labels. However, WMG asserts that DSW needed special permission and should have paid licensing fees for using the tunes for alleged commercial purposes.

“Even though DSW is a sophisticated party that has extensive experience with music licensing, DSW and its influencer partners have failed to seek permission or pay for the use of the sound recordings and musical compositions that are featured in the DSW Videos,” the complaint states.

WMG cited the songs “Up” by Cardi B, “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac, “About Damn Time” by Lizzo, “Hung Up” by Madonna and “Work it” by Missy Elliott, along with a list of more than 200 songs DSW allegedly used on TikTok and Instagram without permission. The label is seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work infringed, which could amount to more than $30 million.

Then in July, DSW filed its own lawsuit against Sony, Universal, and BMG, arguing it had not infringed copyright law. The company asked an Ohio judge to clarify what rules apply to social media marketing, contending the case is about what it calls the “greed” of the music owners.

“The Labels, however, now seek to pull the rug out from under DSW’s business operations,” the complaint argues. “In an about-face, the Labels have recently claimed that the very conduct that they previously encouraged and supported — i.e., incorporating samples of music into social media posts — constitutes copyright infringement when done by DSW.”

The latest lawsuit arrived in August, with Sony filing against DSW in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Although the separate WMG and DSW cases are both being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Sony has accused DSW of forum shopping, claiming that DSW is using the Buckeye State's jurisdiction to gain a legal advantage.

Sony is requesting dismissal of the DSW case. Like WMG, Sony points to the terms of use of social media platforms as proof that DSW is restricted from using music in its posts.

The WMG lawsuit quoted both the Instagram policy that states “Use of music for commercial or non-personal purposes in particular is prohibited unless you have obtained appropriate licenses,” and the TikTok terms of service, which issue, “No rights are licensed with respect to sound recordings and the musical works embodied therein that are made available from or through the service.”

The litigation is ongoing in all three cases.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- If you're not sure what to do with your yard signs, Franklin County Board of Elections has a solution for you.

Franklin County Board of Elections is partnering with the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio for its yard sign recycling program.

Paper or plastic yard signs, as well as the accompanying metal stands, can be recycled.

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Beginning Wednesday, there will be a yard sign recycling container on the southeast corner of the Board of Elections parking lot at 1700 Morse Road. The container is available to the general public and campaign organizations through the end of the month.

"It's a small but meaningful step in keeping our community clean after election season," said Antone White, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections.

According to SWACO's website, yard signs can also be dropped off at the Recycling Convenience Center at 2566 Jackson Pike in Columbus between 10:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, or 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.