Former Buckeyes football coach lands major political nomination in Ohio



Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has nominated former football coach and president of Youngstown State University Jim Tressel to be Ohio's lieutenant governor.

Tressel brought Ohio State University a national championship in 2002, just a year after being brought on as head coach, then led the team until 2010. The coach amassed a 229-79-2 record in college football before becoming the president at Youngstown State University in 2014. He also coached at Youngstown State from 1986 until 2000.

Gov. DeWine nominated Tressel, saying not only does he represent Ohio's values but that he "is" Ohio values.

"He’s a hard worker and shares that vision (I have) for the future of Ohio," DeWine said during a press conference, according to 10 WNBS. "He has the ability to pull people together. He has the ability to lead. He will enable me to be assured that if something happens to me, he can walk in and be governor that day and that would be seamless."

DeWine also said that Tressel's judgment can be trusted and referred to him as a "born leader."

'My first job is to go to school on that and see if I can evolve.'

Tressel would replace Jon Husted, who recently left the role to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Vice President JD Vance.

For his own part, Tressel said that while he believes in DeWine's vision for the state, he knows he has work to do in terms of learning how to properly fulfill his new role.

"My first job is to go to school on that and see if I can evolve and make a difference in a state that has been so special to us," Tressel said.

The nominee said that his experience representing every single student, faculty member, and staff member at Youngstown State would help him in his job as lieutenant governor and that he knows he will have to make everyone in the state feel "important."

He added, "The only way we’ll have a great society is if I understand that I’m insignificant without every other person in this society, and that’s what I’ll pledge to do."

Jim Tressel coaches Ohio State against the Miami at Ohio Stadium on September 11, 2010. Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

Tressel received support from a former player at Ohio State, Terrelle Pryor, who played under the coach as quarterback from 2008 to 2010.

As reported by Fox News, both were caught up in a scandal surrounding improper benefits, which of course came long before name, image, and likeness deals were authorized by the NCAA in 2021.

Following an investigation with the FBI and Justice Department, the NCAA determined Pryor, Tressel, and other Ohio State players violated school policy over impermissible benefits by receiving tattoos or cash in exchange for autographs.

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Vance returns to site of catastrophic East Palestine derailment, vows to complete cleanup



Vice President JD Vance visited East Palestine, Ohio, on the second anniversary of the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern train derailment, which blackened the sky over the village with hazardous chemicals, threatened the health of nearby residents, and poisoned the surrounding environment.

Vance stressed that the people of East Palestine have not been forgotten, signaling a desire to ensure a proper cleanup of the area in his home state.

The derailment

A Norfolk Southern freight train with 141 packed cars, nine empty cars, and three locomotives derailed in East Palestine on Feb. 3, 2023. Thirty-eight cars, 11 containing hazardous materials — including vinyl chloride, benzene residue, hydrogen chloride, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, and isobutylene — ultimately went off the tracks as the result of a failed wheel bearing.

Fearing that the initial fires engulfing the wreckage might cause a "catastrophic tanker failure," emergency crews for the railroad — which spent over $1.5 million lobbying in Washington, D.C., just last year and hundreds of millions more going back to 1990 — conducted a vent and burn of five tanks of vinyl chloride, darkening the sky with what the National Transportation Safety Board called a toxic "mushroom cloud."

'This community will not be forgotten.'

Blaze News previously reported that burning vinyl chloride, as the accident-prone railroad did with some of the over 877,000 pounds contained in its derailed cars, produced hydrogen chloride and phosgene gas, the latter of which was used to massacre troops in World War I.

The NTSB revealed last June that the decision to execute the controlled burn, which forced 2,000 residents to flee their homes, killed thousands of local creatures, heavily contaminated nearby waters, and sent possibly cancer-causing airborne toxins into the air across multiple states well beyond the accident week, "was based on incomplete and misleading information provided by Norfolk Southern officials and contractors. The vent and burn was not necessary to prevent a tank car failure."

Vance on the ground

Two years after highlighting the environmental damage in East Palestine and demanding that its residents cannot be forgotten, Vance returned, underscoring that the village was not and would not be forgotten.

"I talked to the president about this visit a couple days ago. The president loves this community. Of course, he visited it personally," Vance told a crowd in the village's firehouse. "President Trump just wanted to deliver a message that this community will not be forgotten, will not be left behind, and we are in it for the long haul in East Palestine."

Vance indicated that the "environmental cleanup has to get done," calling it a "tragedy and a shame" that the Biden administration dropped the ball.

The vice president also signaled an interest in helping rejuvenate the local economy, stating, "We are committed not just to finishing the environmental side of the cleanup but hopefully seeing East Palestine built back better and stronger and more prosperous than it was before the disaster happened in the first place."

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin indicated that Vance's office told him immediately after his confirmation that his first order of business was East Palestine and that the cleanup effort is now the EPA's highest priority.

Litigation

In the meantime, locals are looking for accountability by way of litigation.

A new lawsuit involving 744 current and former residents of East Palestine that was recently filed against Norfolk Southern and agencies at all levels of government alleges that seven people including a 1-week-old baby died in the aftermath of the railroad wreck, reported KDKA-TV.

The lawsuit reportedly also claims that Norfolk Southern — already on the hook for a $600 million class-action settlement approved in September, an over $310 million settlement with the federal government, and a settlement with East Palestine that was announced on Jan. 27 — fumbled the cleanup efforts, while government agencies failed to properly warn residents about health risks.

The Associated Press indicated that at least another nine lawsuits have been filed in recent days by individuals and businesses, claiming that Norfolk Southern's greed was responsible for the derailment and suggesting that the $600 million settlement is insufficient to compensate the victims or to prompt the railroad to change its behavior.

While a railroad spokeswoman Heather Garcia declined to comment on the lawsuits, she told the Associated Press, "We've made significant progress, and we aren't done."

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Police footage shows Joe Burrow's alleged home invaders wearing his merch during traffic stop



Four illegal immigrants suspected of robbing the home of NFL quarterback Joe Burrow were pulled over with football merchandise in their car, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol. One suspect even appeared to be wearing some of the stolen merchandise.

Burrow's home was burglarized in December 2024 while he was playing a football game for the Cincinnati Bengals. Olivia Ponton, a 23-year-old Sports Illustrated model, was at Burrow's house in Ohio at the time and alerted police to the home invasion.

It was later reported by Blaze News that four illegal immigrants were suspected of conducting the break-in and were spotted by a special agent with the Ohio State Highway Patrol putting suspicious luggage into a vehicle outside a hotel in Fairborn, Ohio.

Bodycam footage from the Ohio State Highway Patrol has since been released and subsequently aired by ABC's "Good Morning America."

Recorded on January 10, the video showed an officer had pulled over a black SUV with four men, the alleged suspects, inside the vehicle.

As the patrolman approached the car, a male in the passenger seat was immediately shown wearing a Cincinnati Bengals beanie.

'Orlando? Wrong way.'

The police officer then asked the men for identification and learned all four were Chilean nationals. Three of the men allegedly handed the officer fake identification. As previously reported by Blaze News, all the men were identified in court records to be in the United States illegally at the time of the traffic stop.

The stop continued with the patrolman asking the men where they were going, with one man allegedly responding with "Orlando."

"Orlando? Wrong way," the Ohio officer replied. "Florida's that way," the officer continued, pointing to his left as the car was pointed to his right.

The officer later brought the driver to his squad car and told him the car smelled of marijuana and eventually was authorized by the driver to search the suspects' vehicle.

While searching the trunk, the officer found a Louis Vuitton bag and an LSU shirt, where Burrow played college. These items were noted as missing in the police report from the incident at Burrow's home.

The search also revealed "two Husky automatic center punch [tools] wrapped in a cloth towel behind the glove box," which the officer noted as items used to break glass.

The suspects were later identified in court records as Alexander Chavez, Bastian Morales, Jordan Sanchez, and Sergio Cabello. Morales had allegedly been seen carrying a designer bag and had previously been identified as a "male possibly involved in a burglary offense" on the same day as the robbery at Burrow's house.

After being taken to the Clark County Sheriff's Office for questioning, a detective called one of the cell phone numbers that pinged a cell phone tower in Burrow's neighborhood at the time of the burglary. Documents said that Morales' phone started ringing.

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4 illegal immigrants arrested for burglary of Joe Burrow's home — suspects said they were only in Ohio to see the snow



Four Chilean nationals in the United States illegally were arrested in connection to the robbery of NFL player Joe Burrow's home.

The Cincinnati Bengals quarterback was robbed on December 9, 2024, while 23-year-old Sports Illustrated model Olivia Ponton was at his home. The young woman called police and also called her mother, who similarly called police.

The illegal immigrants were spotted by a special agent with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, who saw them putting suspicious luggage into a vehicle outside a hotel in Fairborn, Ohio, ABC News reported.

The agent later pulled the car over and smelled marijuana before it was confirmed that the four men were in the country illegally.

The suspects' names are Alexander Chavez, Bastian Morales, Jordan Sanchez, and Sergio Cabello, according to court records from Clark County, Ohio, obtained by multiple outlets.

Police searched the car and found "two Husky automatic center punch [tools] wrapped in a cloth towel behind the glove box."

Investigators reportedly said those tools are used by South American criminals to break glass before entering a home.

'... specifically targeting multimillion-dollar residences.'

Police also said the vehicle contained an "old LSU shirt and Bengals hat, believed to be stolen from the December 9, 2024, burglary in Hamilton County, Ohio."

A police report acquired by Fox News stated the men were also behind of a string of burglaries from a series of multimillion-dollar homes.

The illegal immigrants also reportedly told police they were only in Ohio to see the snow.

When the men were brought to the Clark County Sheriff's Office for questioning, a detective called one of the cellphone numbers that pinged a cell phone tower in the quarterback's neighborhood at the time of the burglary. Police said that the phone of Morales, one of the suspects, started ringing.

Morales was allegedly seen carrying a designer bag and had previously been identified as a "male possibly involved in a burglary offense" on the same day as the robbery at Burrow's house.

"This is an ongoing investigating involving multiple burglaries across the United States of America," the criminal complaint said.

It added that the burglaries are "specifically targeting multimillion-dollar residences," with members of at least six different South American gangs arrested, five of which were from Chile.

The NFL issued a security alert in November to teams about the possibility of a transnational crew targeting the homes of players for robberies.

Robberies of athletes' homes have skyrocketed lately, including robberies of Kansas City Chiefs players Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes and NHL player Evgeni Malkin, in addition to Burrow.

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