By Jala Forest / Broadcast version by Mary Schuermann
Reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration

Kendra Byrd was born and raised on Warren's east side. Gun violence hit close to home for her in 2009 when her nephew was shot and killed. His murder has not been solved.

Byrd, who teaches at Warren G. Harding High School, is concerned that gun violence in her Northeast Ohio city has increased over the last several years.

"There are programs that people are trying to set up to curb violence, to give kids other things to do as opposed to hanging out in the streets," Byrd said. "But in the end, it's an individual thing. Parents have to be more responsible for their own children. People have to be responsible for themselves."

Former students of Byrd's have been killed due to gun violence in the city, as well.

"It is so traumatic. That's the part of education they don't teach about. How many kids do I have to watch have shorter lives?"

Gun violence has been recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a public-health issue. More than 1,400 people are killed by gun violence each year in Ohio, based on data from the CDC and FBI presented by the Giffords Law Center. And that number is trending upward.

Black Ohioans are disproportionately impacted by gun violence and the firearm homicide rate among Black males aged 15-34 is 25 times higher than white males of the same age group. Black men make up 7% of Ohio's population, but account for 64% of the state's gun homicide victims.

Community gun-violence is a form of assault that takes place between non-intimately related individuals in cities and neighborhoods, according to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, a nonprofit that researches its effects. Black and brown communities are disproportionately affected by gun violence as the result of income inequality, easy access to guns by individuals living in high-risk areas, underfunded housing and poverty.

"These guns find their way into low-wealth, low-resource neighborhoods in a way that good education and jobs seemingly cannot," said the Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan Jr., the executive director of the Ohio Council of Churches.

The OCC, based in Columbus, is a partnership between a variety of religious organizations throughout Ohio. Gun violence reduction work is the group's priority-it partnered with the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence organization and is approaching the problem by educating the public about the crisis of gun violence and vocalizing its concerns and plans with the state.

"They're working with people to talk about both policies and practices, raise issues with our legislators and our civic leaders to get them to enact what some people say are common sense gun laws," Sullivan said.

In Warren, a city of about 39,000, the median household income is only $27,108, while the federal poverty threshold for families in the United States is about $52,000.

Between 2017 and 2021, there were 47 homicides in Warren-more than 90% were committed with guns according to the city of Warren's annual report. Over the last two years, the police department's Street Crimes Unit conducted house raids, made traffic stops and used confidential informants as a strategy to target those suspected of possessing illegal firearms.

"We were able to take a record number of illegal guns off of the streets," said William D. Franklin, the city's mayor. "Over 400, plus illegal weapons, and we had them destroyed."

Franklin and the Warren Police Department established the Police and Community Trust Initiative in the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. The initiative is a coalition between residents and law enforcement officials that focuses on building unity. The group consists of community activists, educators and members of the clergy who were selected by Franklin and Eddie Colbert, who is the director of Public and Safety Service.

"We have set out an initiative to try to increase and promote police and community relationships to build better relationships between the community and law enforcement," Franklin said. "That's an ongoing process."

A spike in gun homicides in 2022 led Warren residents to request formal meetings with city leaders and law enforcement officials to express their concerns about the rise of gun violence in their neighborhoods and the need for better security and protection.

Helen Rucker, the councilwoman at large in Warren, said the city took their concerns into consideration and took action.

"Warren was in a financial position where we could step up," Rucker said. "We have been going through a financial crisis for over 10 years. And now we're able to buy new equipment, new vehicles and cameras and that sort of thing that these residents are asking for. So we've been able to respond better."

In 2020, the homicide rate in Cleveland increased by 42%. Between 2017 and 2019, almost 90% of homicides were committed with firearms. There were 61 homicides in Cleveland through June 2022-52 of those homicides involved a firearm. In early June, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb addressed the issue of gun violence in the city at a press conference, demanding state legislators take action on stricter gun legislation.

"As the mayor of Cleveland, I feel paralyzed and handcuffed by the lack of real comprehensive gun legislation in Congress," Bibb said, "and the fact that we have a state that doesn't give me, as mayor, the tools I need to combat the illegal traffic of guns that plague our city, day in and day out."

The city will use a grant of $1.7 million from the governor's office to pay for programs to keep adolescents out of gangs, to help expand violent crime reduction teams and to buy the National Integrated Ballistics Network, a national database of digital images of spent bullets that are used to match weapons to gun-related crimes.

Like Warren, the city of Cleveland is also attempting to build a bridge among Cleveland law enforcement and its residents. In 2021, Cleveland voters passed cIssue 24, which gave civilians more control of police discipline and policies. The Cleveland Community Police Commission was established in 2015 by a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), following a 2014 investigation of the Cleveland Division of Police. Its purpose is to bring input from residents of Cleveland communities on the process of police reform.

"I think we've got to figure out a way to get good jobs with good benefits [and] good salaries into communities with low resourcing [and] low wealth," Sullivan said, "and help people to have the ability to have sustained lives and communities that are renewable sources of income that keep them going and keep them afloat."

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation

Recent Supreme Court rulings on air pollution are affecting Virginia and the nation.

Climate advocates said the court overstepped its bounds in ruling the Environmental Protection Agency's Good Neighbor Rule was improperly enacted and repealing the so-called "Chevron deference." Without it, judges have to rule on ambiguous regulatory laws with no agency expertise.

Craig Segall, vice president of the advocacy group Evergreen Action, said the court is diminishing the capacity of Virginia's federal climate partners like the EPA.

"By creating room to attack, for instance, carbon standards for power plants federally, that Virginia might want to implement," Segall outlined. "Or by making it harder for U.S. EPA to move us toward electric vehicles that would create jobs in Virginia and that would, you know, clean up the air, especially in Northern Virginia where it's so congested."

He added it creates an opportunity for states to lead on climate action. But partisan opinions on climate change vary across the country. In Virginia, it means mixed efforts from utility companies and lawmakers. Dominion Energy is developing offshore wind, but it is also pressing on with a natural gas plant residents vehemently oppose.

The rulings, coupled with decisions on presidential immunity and what constitutes bribery have eroded the Supreme Court's perception of impartiality. Polls show most Americans across party lines feel the Court puts political ideology first.

Quentin Scott, federal policy director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said it opens the floodgates to government corruption.

"We can't have this blatant, open corruption or it will diminish our effectiveness of government and enforcement of some very important rules related to pollution," Scott asserted.

He stressed climate action will be a top ballot priority along with preserving democracy. Some of his group's top issues for the next presidency will be improving grid interconnection of clean energy projects and approving certain reforms for the Supreme Court.

Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, delivered a powerful message in Indianapolis.

Speaking at a Zeta Phi Beta Sorority event, just days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her candidacy, Harris emphasized her dedication to affordable healthcare, student debt relief, and gun control measures, including universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.

She also hammered home that, if she is elected president, she would restore a woman's right to choose an abortion.

"When I am President of the United States and when Congress passes a law to restore those freedoms, I will sign it into law," Harris said. "We are not playing around."

Harris expressed her belief that the current administration has made progress toward a better future by implementing such initiatives as capping insulin prices for more affordable healthcare, passing the Child Tax Credit, and forgiving student loan debt for millions of Americans.

GOP Vice-Presidential nominee J.D. Vance was also in Indiana Wednesday. He spoke at a private event in Ft. Wayne.

Criticizing Project 2025, a conservative plan drafted by the Heritage Foundation, Harris warned it would take the country backward in the areas of medical freedom and education.

"This represents an outright attack on our children, our family, and our future. These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back. We are not going back," she said.

Harris called for unity in defending freedom and stated there are two different visions for the country. Her vision, she said, looks to the future; the other, she said, looks to the past. Harris urged the community to mobilize and vote, stressing the significance of this moment in shaping the nation's future.


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A sweeping conservative plan to shape a possible second Donald Trump presidency is making headlines, even as the GOP candidate claims to know little about it.

"Project 2025" from the conservative Heritage Foundation includes standard conservative ideas, such as slashing regulations, but also firing thousands of civil servants, dismantling the Department of Education and giving more power to the states.

David Nevins, co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder of the Bridge Alliance, a network of organizations working to promote healthy self-governance, has enlisted experts to share their thoughts on each of Project 2025's 30 sections.

"The cross-partisan approach that we believe in is, in some cases, the federal government can do certain things more effectively - in some cases not as effectively - and that's the discussion we need to have as a nation," Nevins said.

Alarming to New Mexico conservationists, Project 2025 proposes slashing federal money for research and investment in renewable energy, and replacing carbon-reduction goals with efforts to increase energy production and energy security.

Nevins believes many on the far right want to "turn back the clock" and erase societal changes that have occurred in the last 20 to 30 years. He said people can be afraid of change - especially when things are moving fast - but thinks Project 2025 represents a lack of open-mindedness rather than seeking common ground to take democracy to its next level.

"The reality of America is that we are a diverse country, in terms of racial, ethnic, sexual preferences, religion - that is the reality. And if we're going to live into the pluralistic dream of our founding fathers and mothers, we have to learn to make that work," he explained.

While Trump has denied knowing much about Project 2025, nearly two-thirds of the authors behind the plan served in his former administration.


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