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Columbus and Central Ohio Weather QUICK WEATHER FORECAST:

• Today: Increasing clouds, high 74
• Tonight: Sct'd rain, breezy, low 59
• Saturday: Sct'd AM rain, gusty, high 77
• Sunday: Iso. shower, breezy, high 83
• Monday: PM rain/storms, high 83
• Tuesday: Sct'd showers, high 75

FORECAST DISCUSSION:

Happy Friday!

We start the day off with a little bit of sunshine, but clouds will gradually build in throughout the day. Despite the cloud coverage, we will be much warmer, with highs into the middle 70s and a slight breeze. We'll then see scattered showers arriving after sunset and going into the overnight.

Expect that scattered rain to gradually taper by about mid-morning Saturday. We'll then see just an isolated shower chance into the afternoon. We will, however, be fairly breezy, even a little gusty at times. Highs warm into the upper 70s.

Then by Sunday, expect highs to warm into the lower 80s. We'll still be breezy, but not as gusty as Saturday. We'll be mainly dry with some sunshine Sunday, just looking at a very isolated shower chance during the afternoon.

For Monday, we stick in the lower 80s, and we start the day on a dry note. Showers and thunderstorms then arrive along a cold front late in the day and overnight into Tuesday.

-McKenna

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)-- Thousands of runners will take to the streets of Columbus Saturday morning for the Capital City Half & Quarter Marathon.

Road closures for race setup begin Friday evening downtown. The following closures will be in place from 5 p.m. Friday to around 2 p.. Saturday:

• High St – Broad St to Main St
• Rich St – 3rd St to Wall St
• Town St – Front St to 3rd St

The race start/finish line is at High and Town Streets where rolling road closures will begin Saturday morning along the course route (pictured below).

CLICK HERE for more race information.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – After protesters calling for Ohio State University to divest from Israel took over the South Oval on campus, police interfered and detained multiple people. 

Students and protesters at OSU rallied Thursday evening for the third time this week. Two students were arrested Tuesday on campus and three more were detained Thursday morning during an encampment demonstration. 

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On Thursday night, protesters took over the South Oval, and were surrounded by police officers as of 11 p.m. They were told to leave several times, but around 10 p.m. police moved in and began detaining protesters. Police continued to ask people to leave or they are under arrest for criminal trespassing. 

The protesters were in a circle locking arms, trying to keep police from penetrating their formation. Dozens of protesters have been dragged out one by one and placed on buses waiting. 

Hundreds of students and other protesters were at the demonstration wearing both Palestinian and Israeli flags. A major point of concern from both sides is safety. NBC4 spoke to a Jewish student who showed up to say he is not afraid and that he and other Jewish students aren't going anywhere. 

"Obviously, with everything going around, lots of students, a lot of Jewish students have been harassed, especially at Columbia,” said Adam Kling. “It's a little disappointing to see the reaction some of the administrations have had."

NBC4 also spoke to a Palestinian American alum of Ohio State who said this uprising of support for Palestine is not a threat to safety, and they feel the university is trying to silence them. 

"I don't believe there's been any threat towards anyone,” said Mazen Resoul. “The organizers of those protests in Ohio State and across the country, include a lot of Jewish forces for peace, and non-Zionist jews who are against what's happening in Palestine."

A university spopkesperson sent the following statement:

“Well established university rules prohibit camping and overnight events. Demonstrators exercised their first amendment rights for several hours and were then instructed to disperse. Individuals who refused to leave after multiple warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass.”

Police continued to clear tents from the lawn as of 11 p.m.

Canonical has released Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, aka “Noble Numbat,” a new Long Term Support release of the popular Linux distribution that brings performance enhancements and toolchain updates for developers.

Announced April 25 and downloadable from ubuntu.com, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS offers Linux 6.8 kernel capabilities with improved syscall performance, nested KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) support on ppc64el (IBM PowerPC), and access to the new beachefs file system. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS has merged low-latency kernel features into the default kernel, reducing kernel task scheduling delays, Canonical said. The release also enables frame pointers by default on 64-bit architectures, giving performance engineers access to accurate flame graphs when systems are profiled for troubleshooting and optimization. Frame pointers offer more complete CPU profiling and off-CPU profiling, according to Intel.

To read this article in full, please click here

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – After a video went viral showing 40 dogs chained up in the backyard of a house in Delaware County, community members were outraged over their living conditions. 

NBC4 has been following this story since the dogs were rescued. Last week, NBC4 met two of the dogs for the first time, after a judge deemed them “abandoned” and the dog warden gained custody. 

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The road to recovery will not be easy or quick, but tonight, there’s a glimmer of hope. Some dogs are now with trainers and foster families. 

“The end result we want is to get her (Delilah) to a point where she can be adopted out to a home that is going to continue to love her and reward her and work with her to be, you know, a success,” said Kathy Sturman. 

This is the Sturman family's first time fostering a dog. They met Delilah for the first time on Saturday and ended up bringing her home that very same day. Their goal is to give her a second chance at life. 

In the five days she’s been with them, Delilah has gotten enough pets and belly rubs to last her a lifetime. 

“At the end of the day, it's an opportunity to give her a chance at life, and that's really what she deserves, that's what all of those dogs deserve. They deserve to be dogs,” she said.

This may be their first time fostering, but they aren’t new to training dogs. Her husband, David, is a retired Delaware County K-9 police officer. When Delilah came running into David’s arms that Saturday at the shelter, they knew she was going to be a great fit.

“When we first brought her home, of course, she was very timid,” said Kathy, “She responds very well to high happies and just yesterday we started to really see the benefit of that. She started to make eye contact with my husband when there was a correction, you know, there was no cowering.”

RICO Pet Recovery, a local non-profit, has been working to find proper homes for the dogs rescued on Kilbourne Road earlier this month. 

“We're trying to move them into an environment with dogs that are, you know, household pets where they can see what it's like to live in a house, see what it's like to, you know, go up and down stairs and run in a yard and to have their belly rubbed and all that stuff that a normal dog would would see,” said Marci Dop, founder of RICO Pet Recovery. 

She said, thanks to the Sturman family, she’s started to see Delilah become a completely different dog. 

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“She could lay down and relax and rest and they got to a point where they can let her loose in the yard now and she runs and has a good time,” said Dop. 

This past week, Dop has been working to place dogs with trainers and foster families, but the work isn’t over yet. 

“We need fosters who are willing to make that sacrifice those first few days to help them, you know, become acclimated in a home environment and to continue to work with them and take them for walks and help them overcome some of their fears,” said Dop. 

Sturman said that if someone is thinking about becoming a foster, they'll need to have a lot of patience and grace. 

“It's like having a puppy all over again in your house. She's never lived in a house. She's never been off of a chain. You know, when we brought her into our back yard last night for the first time off leash. It was so fun to watch her,” she said. 

Because of what these dogs have been through, Dop is being selective in who she chooses to become a foster parent. She’s asking that potential fosters have no young children at home and either passive household pets or no pets at all. 

She wants to be clear that each dog will grow at their own pace but she wants to make sure she’s doing this right. RICO Pet Recovery is prepared to help out whoever does want to foster one of these dogs because she wants to see them grow to their fullest potential, like she’s seen with Delilah so far. 

NBC4 reached out to the Humane Society of Delaware County to ask about the progress the dogs in their care have made. None of the dogs have been placed with fosters yet, as they’re still working with trainers and behavioral specialists. A spokesperson told us that some are still receiving medical care, but each dog is moving at their own pace. 

To learn more about RICO Pet Recovery and find out how to become a foster family, visit their website.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Retail theft has been hitting stores nationwide and the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants (OCRM) estimates it's costing Ohio retailers between $2 and $3 billion a year.

“It is the top issue for our industry. We have seen, unfortunately, since the pandemic an increase in the rates of organized retail crime," said Alex Boehkne, Vice President of OCRM. “We’re not talking about petty shoplifting, we’re talking about large scale sophisticated attacks on retailers  for large dollar amounts.”

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The council represents more than seven thousand retailers statewide. Boehnke said much of what is being stolen is happening through organized retail crime. 

The Franklin County Sheriff's Office (FCSO) recently shared details about a theft ring in central Ohio. Local convenience stores were using people looking for quick cash to steal from larger stores.

“Obviously we would like to be able to stop these crimes as they happen. But being able to compile evidence, have the law enforcement professionals handle these cases and then have the statutes on the books so they can successfully be prosecuted, I think is the most impactful way to address what we’re seeing," Boenhke said.

From stores locking up certain products to having to raise prices because of what's going on, Boehnke said consumers are affected too.

"It's multifaceted and it impacts the retailer, their customers and the community as a whole," he said.

Small businesses are also being hit, according to the Columbus Chamber of Commerce.

“It is top of mind for many of them and it has led some of them to rethink their entire business model," said Don DePerro, President and CEO of the chamber.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – According to a new report released by economists at Nationwide, job creation in Ohio has had a significant boom so far in 2024. It said more than thousands of jobs have been added in the first quarter driving the state's economy.

Ben Ayers, a senior economist at Nationwide, said this is surpassing expectations.

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“It mirrors what we are seeing at a national level. While early in the year we were worried that maybe we would see a recession this year, those fears are fading away,” Ayers said.

Ayers said much of the growth is happening in the service industry and construction industry. However, he said there are some that are struggling.

“Most of the growth has been on the services side. There's some pockets of growth to construction is doing pretty well. Manufacturing is one that has not done as well in Ohio over the past year and half people have shifted away from buying goods and or buying more services," Ayers said.

This news comes days after a central Ohio based company, Express, announced it may lay off 600 employees and close their corporate office.

The company filed for bankruptcy Monday. A spokesperson for the company sent a statement which reads in part: “We are required to provide notification under certain state and federal laws of possible job losses, even as we work to complete a sale of the company through a court-supervised process.”

NBC4 asked Ayers for his thoughts on the situation.

“Many businesses that are having trouble adapting to the new environment might be struggling. I think the good news is there's lots of job openings out there,” Ayers said.

Ayers said right now there are more job openings than unemployed workers. He said this is putting more money in workers pockets because employers are having to pay competitive wages.

“You know, yet again, that's that tight environment that we have right now, that if you want to find a worker, you're going to have to pay more for it. And by and large, we're seeing wage gains that are stronger than normal in most industries, and that will likely continue over this year and maybe even in the next year,” Ayers said.

Ayers said the only concerning thing he sees is some debt building in the low and middle class due to inflation. He said at this point it’s not reaching a truly negative level.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – William Husel, the former physician who was acquitted of murder charges in connection to patients’ overdoses, has filed another lawsuit in federal court against Mount Carmel’s parent company, about one month after a similar lawsuit was dismissed.

Husel on Tuesday sued Trinity Health, the parent company of Mount Carmel, seeking $20 million in damages. The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, accuses the healthcare giant of malicious prosecution, alleging Husel was a scapegoat for the hospital and they actively sought his criminal prosecution.

The lawsuit claims that since Husel’s acquittal, he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder, and has not been able to obtain employment. It also says Husel has developed physical symptoms not related to any other medical condition including a limp and loss of fine motor skills.

William Husel sits during his trial Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. Husel is accused of ordering excessive painkillers for patients in the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System. He was indicted in cases involving at least 500 micrograms of the powerful painkiller fentanyl. (Barbara J. Perenic/The Columbus Dispatch via AP, Pool) Stacy McKay, Dino Tripodis share response after being taken off-air at Sunny 95

Husel previously filed a similar lawsuit in April 2023, which also sought $20 million in damages and alleged malicious prosecution. The lawsuit was dismissed in March after the court found that Husel failed to argue against the presumption that probable cause existed for his prosecution. 

The new lawsuit addresses the dismissal, which indicated the original lawsuit never explicitly stated which Trinity staff member presented false or misleading testimony. The new lawsuit accuses Dr. Daniel Roth, the health system’s chief clinical officer, of presenting knowingly false information to the Franklin County grand jury that indicted Husel.

From 2015 to 2018, critically ill patients in Columbus ICU physician Husel’s care died from a potentially excessive amount of painkillers. In 2019, Husel faced 14 murder charges in relation to his patient’s deaths. A jury ultimately found him not guilty in 2022. Husel surrendered his medical license in the aftermath of his trial.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Ohio lawmakers want to hold hospitals more accountable when it comes to pricing.

The bill passed the Ohio House in June with only five votes against it, and is now being considered by senators.

“It protects consumers from overcharges,” Founder of patientrightsadvocate.org Cynthia Fisher said.

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Federal laws that mandate greater price transparency have been in place for more than a decade, but Representatives Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville) and Tim Barhorst (R-Fort Loramie) said they brought House Bill 49 forward because the enforcement has fallen short.

“Right now, the federal government doesn’t actually levy the penalties on the hospitals they are guilty of, the Ohio government will actually penalize you,” Ferguson said.

“Price transparency is truly transformative,” Fisher said. “It’s commonsense. It’s time to stop fighting commonsense.”

The bill, as originally written, required hospitals to maintain a public list of all standard charges for all hospital items or service. The bill required the state director of health to penalize hospitals that fail to do so.

Eight provisions have been added to the legislation, but 39 have since been removed. That includes modifying a provision to make it so the director of health is only permitted, not required, to hold hospitals accountable for non-compliance posting their price list.

“The current sub bill proposed by the Senate is something that will do nothing to help patients and certainly was created with hospitals in mind, not patients,” Ferguson said.

“It would be egregious to have it rolled back,” Fisher said.

A spokesperson for Senate Republicans offered a statement: "bills are amended all the time between the chambers as part of the normal legislative process. Pressuring one chamber to pass something ‘as is,’ bypasses the reason hearings are held in the first place.”

He compared hospital pricing to going to a mechanic. He said in both scenarios, you can get estimates, but things may change as the work is done, and additional costs may incur.

But Ferguson said price estimates at hospitals vary from patient to patient for the same procedure and said sometimes an estimate can under predict what the bill ends up being.

“That’s an apple to oranges comparison. That’s absolutely ridiculous. A mechanic can tell you the price of any service they do,” Ferguson said. “A mechanic can give you a fully itemized list every single price point and it would be the same for Natalie Fahmy as it is for Ron Ferguson.”

The Ohio Hospital and Ohio Children’s Hospital Association are the only group to submit public testimony against the bill. The organizations said they support price transparency, but said federal enforcement is already effective in motivating compliance.

But Fisher said less than ten percent of hospitals in Ohio are fully compliant with federal price transparency laws.

“A non-accountable estimate harms patients,” she said. “Price transparency enables all of us to be able to benefit from competition and ship up front to lower our costs of healthcare.”

In a statement, OSU Wexner Medical Center said they are committed to providing accessible, affordable care.

“We support price transparency and comply with existing federal requirements,” a spokesperson wrote. “We strive to achieve this without creating duplicative, complex, and costly regulatory structures.”

The Cleveland Clinic did not take a stance on the legislation, but said they are “in line with CMS Requirements."

Ohio Health also did not take a position on the legislation, but wrote a statement that said: “OhioHealth is committed to providing transparent data about potential charges and complies with all applicable laws. We have a robust online price estimator of shoppable services where patients can find individual, negotiated prices for a variety of services and medications and we are adding to this list on an ongoing basis.”

“Nowhere else in the economy do we function on estimate with no accountability,” Fisher said. Prices matter, prices protect, prices save, prices save lives, prices save money.”

Ferguson said as it is written today, he would “absolutely not,” support his own bill.

“And I would encourage everyone to vote no on it,” he said.

Ferguson said he has offered several substitute bills with concessions and compromises that he would be comfortable with.

HB 49 Comparative Synopsis_335276294Download

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Sunny 95's longtime morning radio hosts are leaving the airwaves after a series of personnel changes at Columbus Radio Group.

Stacy McKay and Dino Tripodis will no longer host the morning radio show at Sunny 95. The duo were each on their second stint with the station after originally starting in the 90s. On Thursday morning, the pair's morning show had been removed from Sunny 95's website. In a Facebook post on Wednesday, McKay confirmed her departure but did not share future plans.

"ALL good things must come to an end," McKay said in a post. "It's been the most amazing ride a girl could ask for! Thanks for allowing me to join you on your ride to work/school every morning!"

Tripodis, on the other hand, told NBC4 that he is going straight into producing "Down to the Felt," a movie that he co-wrote and called "the largest indie film ever made in Columbus." Details can be found on a website made for the movie. Tripodis also expressed gratitude for his radio audience members over the years.

"Thank you Columbus for allowing me in your daily lives for 30 years," Tripodis said. "I look forward to the opportunity to continue being in your lives with any future opportunities that may come my way. I may be gone from one place but far from done."

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The duo's departure comes amidst multiple personnel changes at Columbus Radio Group. Longtime cluster News Director Clark Donley and producer Greg Hansberry are also leaving the morning show, according to radioinsight.com.

"Andre Styles" Friedrich, morning host at Mix 107.9 and cluster Events Director, is also leaving the airwaves. On Thursday morning, Friedrich's show had been taken down from Mix 107.9's website. He personally announced in an Instagram post he would be leaving after 14 years with Saga Communications -- the broadcasting company behind Columbus Radio Group.

"To say I’m shocked is an understatement," Friedrich said in a post. "The amount of years, days, hours I put in. A lot of hours not at home. Going in when sick, late at night, early in the morning, during Covid and more. Some said the face, voice and heartbeat of Mix. It sucks! But I met so many great people, artists, bands. The memories are forever."

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In late March, "Miss Lisa" Bryant left afternoons at Sunny 95 and mornings at Rewind 103.5/104.3.

Columbus Radio Group includes four stations: Sunny 95, Mix 107.9, Rewind 103.5/104.3, and 96.3 WLVQ Qfm96. This is the second central Ohio radio group to undergo public changes in 2024, as CD 92.9 previously lost its FM frequency to broadcast with and was replaced with 93X.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A former Ohio State football player is facing a first-degree felony charge after being accused of robbing a Columbus bank. 

Marcus Wiliamson, 25, faces a count of aggravated robbery after court records claim he robbed a bank in the Sharon Heights neighborhood on Wednesday. At about 10:42 a.m., Williamson entered First Merchant’s Bank, located at 5090 North High St., and presented a note to the bank teller demanding money. The note threatened that he was armed with a gun, court records say.

The clerk gave Williamson the cash, then he fled from the bank on foot before getting in a blue Jeep and fleeing the area. Police witnessed Williamson committing the offense and fleeing, according to court records. He was taken into custody without incident and police recovered the stolen cash. 

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Williamson was previously arrested on robbery and kidnapping charges in Memphis, Tennessee in 2022. A woman claimed a suspect, whom she later identified as Williamson, implied he had a weapon and forced her to drive to an ATM and withdraw $500. Court records sharing the outcome of that case were unavailable online as of Thursday.

Williamson, a Westerville native, played for the Buckeyes from 2017 to 2021, making 68 tackles over 47 games as a cornerback. In high school, he played at Westerville South before transferring to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for his senior season. He graduated from Ohio State in 2020 with a degree in history.