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Weather

Warm conditions are expected today, with highs in the mid-80s and partly sunny skies. It will be cloudy overnight with a 30 percent chance of showers. Read more.

NFL: Browns 31, Houston Texans 21

Indians 11, New York Yankees 1

The headlines

Redistricting: Ohioans in 2018 overwhelmingly voted for redistricting rules to reduce gerrymandering in their state legislative districts. But Republicans last week delivered new Ohio House and Senate maps that score as slightly less competitive and slightly less politically proportionate than the ones they will replace, Andrew Tobias reports.

Redistricting timeline: Opponents of Ohio’s new Republican-drawn legislative redistricting plan preparing to challenge the new maps in the Ohio Supreme Court must file quickly if they want a ruling before Feb. 2, 2022 – the filing deadline for midterm election primary candidates. Jeremy Pelzer reports that as the state’s last redistricting fight 10 years ago shows, the Supreme Court has leeway to set temporary election rules if litigation runs past administrative deadlines or even elections themselves.

Matt Dolan: Republican Ohio Sen. Matt Dolan has changed his campaign materials from saying he’s exploring running for the U.S. Senate to actually doing it, Andrew Tobias reports. On Sunday, Dolan had updated his official website, DolanForOhio.com, and his social media pages to drop references to his “exploratory committee” and replacing them with new graphics. His social media bios now describe him as a “U.S. Senate candidate.”

Mayor’s grandson shot: Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s grandson was shot and killed late Sunday in the city’s Kinsman neighborhood, according to five law-enforcement sources. Frank Q. Jackson, 24, died in the shooting, Adam Ferrise reports. Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams and Safety Director Karrie Howard were all at the scene. Williams and Howard declined to comment.

Mills trial: The three-week trial of former Cuyahoga County jail director Ken Mills did not just paint a damning picture of his criminal mismanagement of the jail. Cory Shaffer reports witnesses and documents during nine days of testimony exposed a massive fault line in Cuyahoga County’s government: its lack of an elected sheriff. Its executive-council form of government places enormous power in the hands of one person who picks the sheriff, the sheriff’s boss, the jail administrator who works under the sheriff, and the budget director who controls the sheriff’s purse strings.

Plane crash: A pilot died after his plane crashed into a runway at Wadsworth Municipal Airport Saturday evening, Kaylee Remington reports. Robert D. Taylor, 64, of Medina died in the incident that happened about 6:45 p.m. at the airport near Rittman Road, according to the State Highway Patrol.

Gonzalez departure: Does Rep. Anthony Gonzalez’s withdrawal after two terms signal the party’s incontrovertible shift toward its Trump wing? Republicans disagree. While some say the party has become distracted from its former focus on fiscal conservativism and instead become fixated on nursing Donald Trump’s grievances, others said Gonzalez would have to answer for the unpopularity among loyalists for voting to impeach Trump, Sabrina Eaton reports.

Indomitable Polensek: City Councilman Mike Polensek on Tuesday won a three-way primary race for Ward 8 with a staggering 77% of the vote. He’s a self-described straight shooter, who is not afraid, as he says, to “tell it like it is,” often with colorful language. That is a big part of why Polensek, the longest-serving City Council member in Cleveland’s history, still dominates at the polls 43 years after his first election win, reports Bob Higgs.

This Week in the CLE: Facing what he called “toxic dynamics” in the Republican Party, U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez announced Thursday that he won’t seek re-election. We’re talking about what that means for the party and for divisive U.S. politics on This Week in the CLE, cleveland.com’s daily half-hour news podcast.

FirstEnergy Stadium: Two Cleveland-area lawmakers have asked the Cleveland Browns and Mayor Frank Jackson to revert the name of FirstEnergy Stadium to Cleveland Browns Stadium because of the utility’s involvement in the House Bill 6 bribery scandal. Jeremy Pelzer reports Democratic state Reps. Jeff Crossman of Parma and Kent Smith of Euclid said it’s “unfathomable why such a community treasure like the Cleveland Browns would continue to promote a company like FirstEnergy.”

Murder-suicide: A former Cuyahoga County Jail officer on Thursday fatally shot his girlfriend, a current corrections officer, then took his own life during an eight-hour SWAT standoff, Adam Ferrise reports.

Downtown CLE: The number of downtown Cleveland residents has surpassed 20,000, and the head of an agency tasked with evangelizing the city’s central business district said he thinks that number can increase comfortably in the coming years, reports Eric Heisig. Downtown Cleveland Alliance CEO and President Michael Deemer told an in-person crowd Friday at the City Club of Cleveland that he thinks “we’re just scratching the surface” in how dense the neighborhood can be.

Irishtown Bend: A potentially spectacular new urban park overlooking the Cuyahoga River and the downtown skyline at Irishtown Bend on the city’s West Side is poised to shift from vision to reality within several years, following decades of planning by numerous public and nonprofit agencies. Steven Litt has details on the latest plans.

Hudson writing prompts: The Hudson Police Department and the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office released a joint statement Friday shutting down Mayor Craig Shubert’s threat of legal action over controversial writing prompts in a book used for a college-level class at Hudson High School, reports Robin Goist.

London Clinic: The first phase of the Cleveland Clinic’s expansion into London, Cleveland Clinic Portland Place Outpatient Centre, is now ready for patients, reports Julie Washington. The Clinic’s outpatient center and a planned hospital in London will make up the health system’s third location in a foreign country and another step in the health system’s international expansion strategy.

COVID: The CDC added 206 deaths to Ohio’s COVID totals Friday, adding up to 21,471, Laura Hancock reports. Meanwhile, hospitalizations remain high, with 984 COVID patients in Ohio ICUs as of Saturday morning, Jane Morice reports.

Mask mandates: The delta variant, combined with respiratory ailments such as RSV, is spreading fast in children. Last week, 159 children under age 18 were in Ohio hospitals with the coronavirus, up from 108 the week before and 33 four weeks ago. Gov. Mike DeWine’s hands are tied, he said on Wednesday, thanks to the Ohio General Assembly. And experts say lawmakers are causing harm and unnecessary suffering of children in the state, Laura Hancock reports.

COVID timeline: A panel of independent expert advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will take up the debate over whether Americans should receive a booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine, Marc Bona reports in his latest COVID timeline.

Smallest cities: Linndale is Cuyahoga County’s smallest community based on total area, with Woodmere and Chagrin Falls Township ranking second and third, Cameron Fields reports.

Mild in Cleveland: Say what you want about Cleveland winters; Cleveland summers can be pretty awesome. This year, the temperature has only hit 90 degrees or higher on seven days, none higher than 92 degrees on June 29, Peter Krouse reports.

Hocking Hills: The new Hocking Hills State Park Lodge is starting to take shape in Southeast Ohio, with an anticipated opening date of October 2022. Susan Glaser reports the 74,000-square-foot, $40 million structure will feature 81 overnight rooms, a restaurant, two swimming pools, conference facilities and more.

Chips and guac: Cleveland.com’s sister site, Epicurious, challenged chefs of three different skill levels to whip up a fresh batch of tortilla chips and guacamole.

Chicken tenders: Need chicken tenders for weekend tailgates or weeknight kid dinners? Yadi Rodriguez and Brenda Cain found 10 options on a recent shopping trip, from the traditional to even a coconut-coated tender, and tasted them all to determine which were a worthy addition to your game-time buffet.

Other headlines

Teen woman shot, killed at gathering was University of Akron student, school confirms Read more

Motorcyclist dies after hitting car in traffic on Interstate 480, state troopers say Read more

Man shot dead at bus shelter in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood, police say Read more

Man shot dead while helping other man push his overheated car, Cleveland police say Read more

Woman drowns at Edgewater Park in Cleveland, Coast Guard says Read more

Berea school board gets spring state standardized test results Read more