Portage County, Ohio

Cuyahoga County's Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board has won praise from social service providers even after cutting funding to some of them, a marked contrast to the resistance County Executive Chris Ronayne has faced over demands for across-the-board departmental cuts. Providers say the ADAMHS Board took a thoughtful, targeted approach, evaluating which programs work together and prioritizing outcomes rather than simply preserving every existing agency, with some organizations gaining funding while others lost it. The opening of the Glick Recovery Campus, for example, absorbed services previously funded elsewhere.

By contrast, Ronayne's request for a flat 3.3% cut across all departments has drawn open pushback, with officials including the county prosecutor and clerk of courts declining to comply, arguing the executive's own office has expanded staff and spending. County departments have also outlined worst-case scenarios—including losing universal pre-K and funding for child advocacy and college-support programs—if voters reject a health and human services levy. The episode highlights how budget process and perceived fairness shape public and institutional trust during periods of shrinking government resources.

The Ohio Parole Board has recommended commuting the death sentence of Tyrone Noling, 54, to life in prison with parole eligibility beginning January 1, 2029. Of the eight-member board, five voted for commutation, one recommended a full pardon, and two voted against any relief. Governor Mike DeWine will make the final decision and could accept the recommendation, grant a full pardon, alter the sentence, or leave it unchanged.

Noling was convicted in 1996 for the 1990 murders of Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig, an elderly couple in Portage County, and has spent 37 years incarcerated. He has long maintained his innocence, saying the case relied on coerced testimony from teenage co-defendants who later recanted, with no physical evidence linking him to the crime. His attorneys point to an alternative suspect, Dan Wilson, who was executed in 2009 for a separate murder. Prosecutors and the attorney general's office oppose clemency, calling Noling a manipulator with a violent history. The board cited concerns over the conviction's reliability but denied a full pardon, requiring Noling to complete additional programming before any release.

The Ohio Parole Board voted 5-2 to recommend that Gov. Mike DeWine commute death row inmate Tyrone Noling's sentence to life with parole eligibility starting Jan. 1, 2029; one board member recommended a full pardon. Noling, 54, has spent roughly 37 years in prison and has long denied involvement in the 1990 killings of Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig in Portage County, though he admitted to separate armed robberies of elderly victims in Alliance around the same time.

The board's report stopped short of endorsing Noling's innocence claim but cited concerns over witness recantations and whether alternative suspects were adequately investigated, while concluding there was insufficient basis to overturn the conviction or justify a pardon. Noling's attorneys argue no physical evidence ties him to the murders and that all three co-defendants have recanted. Portage County prosecutors opposed clemency, saying the verdict remains supported by trial evidence. DeWine, who has final authority over clemency, is reviewing the recommendation with no set timeline for a decision.

Tyrone Noling, 54, has spent 30 years on Ohio's death row for the 1990 killings of Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig, an elderly Portage County couple, a crime he maintains he did not commit. He received a rare clemency hearing before the Ohio Parole Board, the first for an Ohio death row inmate since 2020, made possible even though he has no scheduled execution date. With backing from the Ohio Innocence Project, Noling presented recanted witness testimony, reversed positions from the trial sheriff and a juror, and evidence pointing to Dan Wilson, an already-executed killer, as a possible alternate suspect. No physical evidence or murder weapon ever tied Noling to the crime.

The case has drawn attention from true-crime media and celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Hilarie Burton, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Noling seeks outright release and has said he would reject a commutation to life without parole. The parole board will send its recommendation within six business days to Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who has called for abolishing the death penalty, and who holds final authority over the decision.